Rotwhite chapter 4

>You eye the unknown supply vest wearing stallion in the filtration mask as Honey Mug shoots to hide between your legs
“Chief Snow, it is you! I wasn’t sure if you’d make it back”
>The pink moth-stallion turns his gaze towards Honey Mug who’s covering beneath you
“And Honey Mug as well, good to know you’re safe, you gave us all a fright when you ran after him”
>Honey Mug keeps looking at the stallion cautiously
“W-who are you?”
>The stallion pulls his filtration mask off
“Can’t recognize me with the mask?”
>He offers a smile to Honey Mug who just looks away, making the stallion look mildly surprised
>You clear your throat and the stallion snaps his focus back to you
>”Never mind her, she’s not important”
>Honey Mug lets out a little “oh...” from between your legs as you continue
>”You said Chief Snow, I’m your leader or something?”
>The stallion looks surprised
“What...oh no, don’t tell me you got done in by an Amnesia Blossom”
>Now it’s your turn to look surprised and you narrow your eyes as you stare at this unknown pony
>”How’d you know that?”
>The stallion shakes his head
“This is bad”
>Suddenly the stallion looks outside the window and quickly signs for you to stay quiet
“Wh-“
>Honey Mug almost spoke out but you clamped your hoof over her mouth as you also notice the shapes of the creatures from behind the curtain
>They soon shamble somewhere else and the stallion nods to you
“Let’s talk on the way, we need to get to a safe place. Follow me”
>The stallion turns around and starts walking upstairs, and you follow close behind with Honey Mug trying to stay as close to you as possible
“So how much did you loose? Not remembering me, that’s at least 3 weeks worth of memories. That must have been quite a shock to you too Honey, him not recognizing you”
“I lost my memories too...”
>The Stallion pauses for a short while, and then continues walking towards a room
“That’s...sorry to hear that”
>You notice something off in the stallion’s tone of voice as he answers Honey Mug
>”So who are you anyway?”
>The stallion does not turn to look at you as he answers while fiddling with a door to a balcony
“Barnacle, the name’s Barnacle. One of your men, though we all call you Chief just for the fun of i- there we go”
>The door to the balcony clicks open and the three of you walk out to it
“Little safety measures, we don’t know much of these things but they don’t seem to be able to fly or open locks, then again nothing here flies”
>You look as Barnacle points to a few beams of wood that connect the balcony to the roof of the neighboring house
“That’s our road to safety”
>Honey Mug hugs your leg while glancing down towards the ground in worry
>Barnacle is about to step onto the beams when you stop him
>”Wait, how about you answer some of my questions first?”
>Barnacle shrugs
“I could, but I’d like to do it in someplace I know is safe, there’s a house just on the other side of the roof that’s secure, not to mention it has other survivors. We get there and I’ll tell you everything I know”
>You keep looking at this pink stallion
“I’m not lying to you, we’re all on this together”
>You really do not want to, but you need the answers
>”Sure...”
>Barnacle nods happily and is about to cross to the roof when Honey Mug interrupts him
“U-um Mr. Barnacle?”
>Barnacle looks at her
“Yes Honey, what is it?”
“You talk like you know me, are you...a friend of my parents? Are they waiting for me there?”
>Barnacle suddenly gives a very awkward, forced smile to the filly
“Y-yeah, I’ll tell you after I’ve told Snow everything”
>Honey Mug nods and Barnacle crosses over to the roof with ease
>You can’t help but to feel a bit of worry creeping in at this odd behavior, but then you shake your head to clear it
>Why would you worry for someone’s kid?
>You nudge Honey Mug a bit so she’d cross over next but she suddenly takes a few steps back
>”What?”
>Honey Mug looks at you with distress
“It’s so high...”
>You shake your head and fling the filly onto your back and walk over to the roof while she keeps her eyes closed and hugs you for her dear life
>Barnacle gives the two of you a big smile
“For a couple of ponies who lost your memories, you are acting as friendly as always”
>As Barnacle pulls the beams of wood onto the roof, cutting off access to the roof from the balcony you all came from, you can’t help but to feel a bit weirded out
>Friendly? Why would you be friendly to some brat? You seriously hope you have not forgotten about getting shotgun married after a rough night of drinking...
“This is bad...”
>You glance towards the woods surrounding the village where Barnacle is looking as well
>”That looks like quite a heavy fog coming to town”
>Barnacle sighs
“That means we can all forget about going out to look fore more survivors or supplies”
>Barnacle walks over to another set of wooden beams that connect it to the roof of another, much larger house
“It’s right here”
>You cross over with honey Mug on your back while looking down
>this building’s got huge double set doors with a few sales carts pulled in front of the doors and some other junk piled on top of it
>Barnacle once again pulls the beams away so they no longer connect the two buildings, and then walks over to an access hatch and opens it
“After you”
>You climb in and find yourself in some sort of an attic space with a lot of wooden beams lying around
>Barnacle climbs in as well and shuts the hatch
>Suddenly there’s a feminine voice calling out from behind a door leading out of the attic
“Barnacle? Is that you?”
>Barnacle wastes no time answering the voice while he starts undressing hi vest and places the mask by the ladder to the hatch
“Yeah it’s me, and I found Snow and Honey”
>Suddenly the door slams open, revealing a yellow mothpony mare with a green mane
“Honey Mug!”
>She suddenly runs to you and grabs the filly into a big hug
>Honey Mug stares at the mare with surprise
“Miss Soothing, why are you hugging me? Where are my parents?”
>The mare suddenly stops and looks at Honey with shock, but before she can say anything Barnacle cuts in and whispers something into her ear
>The mare looks devastated for a short while before forcing a smile on her face
“How about we fix you some nice warm coco first”
>Honey Mug’s expression suddenly brightens up considerably
“Oooh, warm coco. Can I have some whipped cream on it too?”
>The two keep talking as they disappear trough the door
“How far have you lost your memories?”
>You turn to look at Barnacle who’s now sitting down on some beams that lie on the floor
>”Last thing I remember is being dragged to my village’s elders office with a mean hangover. But I don’t really care about that, what is this place? Why am I here? What’s happening?”
>Barnacle shakes his head
“That must be even before we’ve met... I’ve only known you for 3 weeks and you always told stories how you were like a completely different pony before you got your life back on track...”
>You sit down yourself and stare at the ground
“You all right?”
>”Yeah, just- just tell me what’s going on here”
>You need something to take your mind off the fact that you might have not just lost a few weeks worth of memories
“You, me Hazel Heart and Mosscoat were all send to this village, the village of Axmoth, as 4 rot and wildlife specialists, to help with the weird case of animals and ponies loosing the ability to fly”
>You interrupt Barnacle and get up
>”Yeah, I noticed that when I woke up, my wings did not work”
>You flap them a few times for emphasis
>Barnacle nods
“Same with all of us, I’m afraid it’s one of the effects of white rot”
>”White rot?”
>You know what rot is, but you have never heard of white rot
“Yeah, a new kind of rot, that was what we all found as the cause, it somehow takes away the ability for flight, we were unsure how when the Amnesia Blossoms appeared”
>”Yeah, I’ve seen them. Weren’t they supposed to be ultra rare?”
>Barnacle nods once again
“They are, but for some reason they seem to thrive in white rot. We had our hooves busy with cases of amnesia, so busy that we did not notice the wall soon enough”
>”I saw a white wall near the farmhouse where I woke up and saw it turn a few ponies into statues, what was that?”
>Barnacle sighs
“Yes... the statues, we don’t know when it started but the wall and the white rot was spreading right under our noses when we were too busy dealing with the lack of flight and the Amnesia Blossoms. Once we started to discover the rot-encased ponies it was starting to be too late, we decided to send you to send out a message near the lone farmhouse, the only place where the wall of rot had not yet grown, while we gathered the statues with us into the village hall”
>”Wait gathered? Why did you do that? They become monsters”
>Barnacle nods once again
“Yes, but we did not know it, it happened the night when you left for the farm house. The monsters, they just burst free from their rot cocoons and took us all by surprise. We all panicked and ran away, it was a mess. Me and a few ponies ran here and barricaded ourselves here. It’s just...”
>Barnacle gets up
“It all happened so fast, I have no idea who’s safe and who’s not...”
>Barnacle takes a moment to collect himself
“Anyways the next day I went out to look for supplies and survivors, but moving around is so difficult, those things seem to be everywhere. That’s when I hear you two and now you’re here.”
>That’s a lot to take in, but you need to ask one more thing
>”You said something about a message?”
>Barnacle starts walking towards the door
“Yeah, you were going to message for help, and I really hope you got to do it, I have no idea how to get out of this, now that there’s a wall of rot at the farm it’s safe to say it has completely surrounded the whole village and the nearby area. We really need that rescue we requested”
>You place a hoof on Barnacles shoulder before he can leave the attic
>”There’s a lot more things I want to ask you”
>Barnacle gives you a tired look
“Can it wait for tomorrow? I haven’t really slept and I... I just need a moment to myself, I have not had any rest since we ran here and set up the place...”
>You remove your hoof and Barnacle walks out and just lean against the wall and run your hoof trough your mane
>”Shit...”
>That’s a lot of information to take in, and you are stuck in this situation with memory loss
>Your ears twitch as you notice faint, familiar sobbing
>You walk out of the large attic space and find yourself in a smaller room with a few tools on the walls and stairs leading down
>you climb them down and enter the interior of a large, multi-story house
>As you look around you notice Honey Mug sobbing in the corner against the yellow mothpony mare, and Barnacle lying on a mattress on the opposite side of the upstairs floor
>you ignore her as you notice something downstairs
>Lone elderly earth pony, sitting at a table, pouring a familiar looking liquid into a glass and then downing it, before pouring more for himself
>You walk down the stairs and straight to the table, ignoring a few mothponies glancing at you briefly
>You have a lot of information to process, this will help you do it
>”Any chance you’re willing to share?”
>The old pony murmurs something before suddenly falling limp on the table
>You quickly grab the bottle before it can fall as the old pony starts to snore loudly
>drank until he lost consciousness, not a bad idea...
>As you take a hefty swing of the booze you look around
>You can only see 3 more ponies, one of them is asleep, one of them has back turned to everyone as he sobs and one is just shaking there, her eyes staring at nothing
>You suddenly feel exhausted too as the world starts to look fuzzy
>You drink the bottle empty to the last drop and then just lean back and enjoy the burn in your throat
>and before you know it, you’re out like a light