The group stares in shock at Rainbow, panting in her fury, the barrel of her gun still steaming in the relative cool of the tunnel. All of the ponies who had their faces on the ground stood slowly up, also in a bit of shock. And then, cheering. A deafening roar of gratitude from the subjugated ponies goes up, ringing through the rest-stop station.

"Why didn't you do anything?" Dash asks, turning to face Bourbon, "I can understand Pinky and Twi' not doin' anything, but you always seem like the type that would run half way across the metro for a good fight if you had to. But noooo, you can't be bothered with the lives and security of these ponies." Her voice is vicious as she accuses Bourbon.

"I don't kno-"

"And don't even TRY to give me any of the 'but I didn't know' bullshit. I'll bet you even understood what they were SAYING, and you didn't do anything. I went off of actions alone, you had actions AND words, didn't you?"

Bourbon's face softens, giving the closest thing to a sorrowful look his hardened soul was capable of. The smallest traces of hurt suddenly give way to anger, his eyebrows knitting, and his nostrils flaring, revealing his canines menacingly.

"If you know a fraction of vhat I do, if you had been srough HALF of vhat I have, you vould know EXACTLY vhy I didn't move. You have the nerve to sink for a SECOND zat you're sought process and my sought process are ze same? You sink zat you know ze smallest bit of scarring zat has happened to me? You don't know a single fucking sing outside of your secluded, pasitic life locked up in your ego-founded mental defenses! You don't have- you can't even BEGIN to comprehend how ze metro works on ponies, how it tears zheir lives apart and turns brozers and sisters and friends against each ozher!" He is panting, his fists clenched by his side, tears of anger and pain that had been long since locked up and stored in his heart flowing down his cheeks.

The three present elements are even further in shock than they were before, and the station had fallen so quiet that one could hear individual breaths being taken in the hate-filled air.

"I-I'm so so-"

"And don't YOU give ME zat 'I'm sorry' bullshit! You're not. You meant every last fucking word from ze bottom of your still in-tact heart," Bourbon cuts off her apology. The air is tense. Tears are finding their way down Dash's face, now. All she can do is stand there and think about Bourbon's words, and start to imagine what could have possibly happened in the colt's past.

"Muzer Russia doesn't take shit like zat," he says, his usual cool, threatening indifference finding its way back into his voice, pointing approximately north, "And neizer does Uncle Bourbon." He points a thumb at his chest as he finishes, and walks off, emitting an almost visible aura of darkness.

The gathered ponies look on, just now getting over their shock. Dash falls to her knees and buries her face in her hooves.

"Hey, come on now, it's alright," Twilight tries to comfort her friend, walking over and placing a caring hand on Dash's shaking shoulder, kneeling down to her eye level.

"No, it's not. Did you hear how he yelled at me? He hates me…" Dash isn't quite sure why that bugged her so much.

"Weelll," Koldan says after a nervous cough, "Ah, I'll gonna go and, ah see if he's okay."

Several moments go by, filled only with the somber sound of silence. Then, after several noises that sounded like enraged yelling, like what one might do into a pillow, Bourbon comes back into the room looking much calmer than he did a minute or two ago, followed by a very smug looking Koldan.

"Vell, vhat are you vaiting for? Let's go, ve still have a long vay to go to Rathaus," Bourbon's voice calls, its cool and collected edge coming back.

"Hey, ah, Bourbon… I just wanted to appologi-"

"Ve vill never speak of zis again," he cuts Dash off, turning and pointing at her with a stern look. "Now let's away! Next stop: Rathaus, crime capital of ze metro!"

They started to walk again, with boinging sounds coming from Pinky as she hopped along with the rest of the group. Bourbon had started to sing again, but is more off key and out of rhythm than he had been earlier. He eventually gives up with an exasperated sigh, letting his head fall backwards. He turns to Twilight and mouths 'what the hay is up with that boinging?' getting a small giggle from the mare.

"So, Koldan, that's a lot of knives you have there! Why do you need so many?" Pinky asks.

"Well, a knife isn't a knife isn't a knife, they have all different purposes, and all different situations where different blades do better than the others. So some are for throwing, some are for getting through armor, some are for this and for that and for the other thing," he replies, starting off pointing to individual knives, and ending with just waving his hand across his entire collection. Pinky's mouth is a small 'o' and her eyes are half-way lidded, indicating to everypony that she didn't understand a single word of it other than maybe 'throw'.

There is a small whistling sound to the side of the group that makes Bourbon stop for a moment.

"Hey, you guys go on ahead, I'll catch up, I just have a bit of business to attend to," Bourbon says, breaking off and going in the direction of the noise.

"Something doesn't feel right about this," Dash begins, "You guys go, I'll stay back to make sure he's not attacked on the way back."

The group moves on, leaving Rainbow in the small light that her draining flashlight provides. For several moments, all is quiet, the dead silence that symbolizes the metro as a whole. But Dash starts at the sound of skuttering down in the direction Bourbon went, followed by two resounding cracks, and a mechanical click. She hears a voice that could only belong to Bourbon's calling obscenities, and then a shout of pain. She takes off running down the tunnel, gasping as she finds Bourbon lying on the ground, a dead mutant at his feet, a Kilashnikov with an empty clip in it, and a mutant with a knife in its neck, thick blood streaming down its back. But it was Bourbon himself that made her gasp, with a deep bite in his chest and an almost equally deep slash in his neck. He coughs a time or two, a fine red mist coming from his lips.

"Hey zere, Rainbow," he says dryly, anger and physical pain contorting his face. He gestures to the dead mutants, "Some ponies call zese sings demons. I call zem bitches." He coughs again, his back arching forward reflexively. His winces heavily, a single manly tear running down his face. And then he relaxes completely, save for holding himself in a sitting position and breathing, a hand covering his neck wound.

"You said zat you know everypony at Outreach?" Dash nods, "Vell, zere is a charcoal black mare zat lives zere, her name is Timber Oak. Find her, and tell her…" he pauses for a few seconds, his voice having been fading since she found him like this, "Tell her zat Mikhial still remembers."

---

Awww, sorry, Bourbon fans (me included), I'm not even sure what happened while writing this, I didn't plan any of it. When I was looking over it before posting, I found myself wondering what the hay happened. I blame the government. Until a happier chapter. /)*(\