>6 and a half hours later, morning glory and her cargo touched down on the street
>lots of pairs of eyes turned to the white and purple mare
>and the hoodied dead body sprawled in her fruit cart
>morning quickly detached herself and worked her way around
>her marefriend's hooves lurching to life to pull herself upright
>"jeez, dont burn a hole in my head" green muttered as morning started to hook her front hooves under her shoulders
>"got your back leg?"
>green brought her left knee to her chest and plunked her hoof on the left edge of the cart
>"eeyep"
>"alright. one... two...
>...three!" they called out in unison, as green hoisted as green one-legged squatted her rump up onto the lip
>her right leg dragging like an anchor
>morning pulling back so green could fish out her crutches and rotate 180 degrees
>and with a very gingerly left leg to the ground, green was settled and on her way
>morning getting the silent greenlight to start casually strolling down the brick alleyway
>green was just able to keep up on three legs, if it was a workout
>"hey morning..." she finally gasped out to slow the pace
>morning glory came to a dead stop, forcing green to kill all her momentum
>"yes dearie?"
>greens eyebrow twitched, still thinking of the audience she attracted
>she still felt their eyes behind her
>"you didnt have to stop, but"
>green took one more clak to get in morning's ear
>"*why does everypony look at me like they know me?*" she asked quietly, sussed out
>"cuz youre famous, silly!" morning said out loud, booped green's snoot and kept walking
>after a short jaunt, they made it into the wide open central plaza, filled with stalls and ponies along the buildings, conversing and loitering
>green's shoulders were unfazed, even after covering a whole block on uneven pavers
>she took it all in, until all of a sudden
>a flash of grey and blue caught her left peripeheral, spawning out of thin air and careening straight towards the back of her marefriend's head
>the split second to make a decision long passed, and her crippled leg stopped her from doing anything meaningful to protect her marefriend
>she could do nothing but accept her fate as Sodalis swooped down, bearhugged morning from behind, and sank her fangs into her jugular
>"rrrrRAWRRRRrrrr!" she playfully yelled out, resting the tips of her fangs on the back of morning's neck
>morning was laughing along with her, dafuq?

>"huehuehaha, how ya doin Soda? ahhhahaha" morning was all giggles as her bat friend worked her way around the front of her
>"haiiii morning mmmmmm..." the two shared a tight, rocking hug as morning wrapped her wings around the bap
>and once they split
>"this is a new record, two times in a week?"
>"yeah, stocking up before the big flight. normally we fly out on tuesdays so i can't catch ya" soda said in her spunky, raspy voice
>"you want some moonshine?"
>sodalis shook her head, "tornado alley's a flight you gotta be sober for" giving a serious answer to a joking question
>in a lull of silence, soda's eyes caught green's before turning her whole body face to face
>"boop!" she poked green's snoot with her left hoof, waking her up, "what's got you locked in?"
>"oh. uh... just, nothin" green didnt know how to answer
>sodalis was not amused, turning her attention back to morning
>"welllll, im gonna go look at some seeds, see what *Norre Greenmane* brought in~" morning announced daintily, emphasizing the name of the apparent owner
>soda cocked her head and looked up, before having a moment of realization
>if green was paying attention, it wouldve been obvious that they had a codephrase
>"okay! have fun!" soda said in a chipper way,
>"come on greenie, i wanna show you something"
>the black mare started to lurch her way forward, as sodalis spread her wings and fly away
>green stopped and let out a long sigh
>the grey bap circled back once she looked back and realized what happened, landing gracefully and continuing
>"whoops, sorry bout that. guess you move faster with morning glory!"
>"ive made her my personal *showfeur*" green used a fancy inflection
>soda reached over and turned green's backwards ball cap towards herself,
>"what is 'Never Goon'?" she asked curiously
>"oh thats a clothing brand i like. its like, really, local to the Bity" she explained
>"huh." sodalis turned back toward the path, leaving green's hat sideways,
>"you got a long flight, huh?" green was finally conversational
>"about 3 hours, i got the weather schedule though it's supposed to be dumping rain out in the plains"
>"im just curious, whats it like trying to corral that many ponies?"
>sodalis did a melodramatic eyeroll, having finally earned the chance to rant
>"UGGhhhh. its SO STONED. trying to get them to think about anything other than their next Fruit is a pain in my rump!"
>green smiled as she looked on and listened
>"and what most ponies dont understand is bats are SO. HORNY. thats half the reason we still live in a celestia-damned cave it's cuz theyre too busy fucking each other to actually, you know, do stuff!" the bat loudly said
>the crowds had thinned out that not many ponies were around to hear her colorful language
>green was sheepishly looking around, but still ate up all the details as she crutched along
>"and here i am, trying to tell them what to do and the elder bats are like, 'yUuRr LiEk 4 YeArRrS oLd WhY sHoUlD uHy LiStEn ToYuH' and its like *i dont know Stalag, maybe if you did something more useful than running a whorehouse out of your cove i wouldnt have to be the one making sure* ***YOU GET FED EVERY NIGHT!!***" soda reached the climax, getting it all out in the open where nopony of consequence could hear
>green was laughing it up
>"because baps who are DTF are *soOoOoOoOoOo* hard to find, right? but wait. greenie. it gets better."
>green had long stopped, her friend taking flight to do excited circles around her
>"so weve been planning this for like 3 moons right? ive went out and met with the **'___'** colony..."
>a sound definitely left soda's mouth, but the guttural frequency rendered it inelligible to a normal pegasus,
"...and i asked this one stallion to just do this ONE. THING. to make my life easier, you know cuz other Alpha Echo has enough on her plate. so... oooOOOOooh!"
>a crack in the pavers caught the batpone's attention, so she dropped to the ground and crouched, sticking her snoot close to it and tail wagging in the air
>"whats up? whats going on?" green asked

>"check this out, you see that?"
>soda pointed at a small spot of weeds between the bricks
>"the weeds?"
>"come down here"
>green had no way to do that
>"gimme a new knee first"
>"come on, you can stick your neck out"
>green did so, and got only 3% closer
>"you see those purple spindly things under the weeds?"
>soda had practically dug them up, pulling with her hoof so green could see the dirt in between the pavers
>and among them, ultra thin purple fibers
>two or three floating in the air due to their nonexistant weight, so thin they were blurry in green's vision
>"thats baby mycelium, that means some spores floated ALLLLL the way over here from my cave and took root in this dirt."
>"huh."
>"i guarantee if you come back here in 46 hours, youre gonna see 2 or 3 tiny little mushrooms popped up!" sodalis excitely finished her lesson
>"how the hay did you see that from up there?" green genuinely asked
>"cuz i got Tirek eyes..." soda stood up and stared hard into green's eyes
>her red eyes pointing straight through the back of green's head
>before jumpscaring her with a full fang hiss and tongue flick
>green jumped between her crutches, startled
>soda giggled
>"come on loveasus, were almost there" motioning with her head to follow