Maya frowned from her seated position in the booth. "Sorry, dude. We're closing. Got everything out away and turned off already."
Nightshade, taking pity, produced a bottle of cider and slid it over to the newcomer. "You'll have to take it 'to go,' but enjoy. This one's on me."
"I think the nearest major town is Hollow Shades," Nightshade said. "But it might not be a good idea to go into the Everfree alone at night."
"Talk to the barstool over there," Nightshade said, gesturing to Winsor, "He'll get you set up for the night." She turned to Raven. "I'm gonna head out pretty soon. Got a bit of hunting to do."
"Some ponies have gone missing. Pretty sure they ran into a cockatrice. If I'm right, once I deal with it, they'll be un-petrified and should be able to get back home on their own."
Nightshade groaned inwardly. Ordinarily, she would have been glad to have Raven along, but the missing ponies were from Hollow Shades. Judging from her reaction earlier in the day, the Bat didn't seem too keen on revisiting her old home village. "It's actually pretty boring. A whole lot of tracking, and 'trices go down easy."
"Oh dammit," Nightshade thought to herself. "Not the sad droopy ear thing. That's totally cheating." She thought quickly. "Okay... if I take the longer route, and stay away from town, she won't figure out where we are. Probably. Maybe." She smiled. "Well, technically, you're never supposed to hunt a Cockatrice alone. Dad'd be pissed if he found out I was doing one of these solo. And besides, you're good company. I'd love to have you along, if you want to come. Do you know how to use a crossbow?"
Nightshade returned the hug, then grabbed her bag from by the door. "Good. Just one more thing. This should be an easy hunt, but if it goes bad, I need you to promise me that you'll run away as fast as you can."
"I'm hard to kill," she replied. "And I promised Maya and Az I wouldn't let you get hurt." She sighed. "Look, I'm sure nothing's going to happen, but if it does, I need to know you'll be safe. I've seen ponies die in that forest. I don't want you to be one of them."
"That's all I ask." She dug her crossbow out of her bag and tossed to Raven, along with a reflective silver dagger and two quivers of bolts. "The ones with the black feathers are silver tipped. Red feathers are explosive crystal. Keep the dagger clean. That's your mirror."
