A/N: Hello! I promised last chapter that if I got even one review, I would continue, so here it is.

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"Nine-five, do you see anything out there?" the grey and white colt calls from the 40 meter.

"Nothing, but what else is new?" Rainbow answers with a sigh, wishing vaguely that there was even the tiniest amount of personality in the pony one post back. At least enough to refer to her by her name instead of the heartless, impersonal number issued to her by the higher-ups. At least she has Derpy at her post, providing laughs by the hour.

She let her thoughts wonder around her head aimlessly, going everywhere from her old house in Ponyville, to her less than pleasant life in flight school, to the workings of the AK that lie at her side, leaned against the sandbag wall. 'Am I really THAT bored? That I have nothing better to do than think about how my AK works?' she asks herself in amazement. Yes Rainbow, yes you are.

She's getting a bit drowsy, her night last night not exactly being restful, she can feel her eyelids slipping further and further, trying to press her into the void of sleep.

"Nine-five, you can wake up now, shift's over. Report back in an hour and a half," the soulless, boring pony from the 30 meter says dryly, obviously suppressing annoyance at her little breach in protocol.

"Ugh, could you at LEAST call me by my name? Why are you so-" she is cut off by the colt, who adopts a look of frightened confusion, shushing her and holding up a halting hand.

"Do you hear that?"

Rainbow listens for a few seconds, hearing nothing, "No, I don't hear anything. And you could be a bit more pol-" she's cut off again, this time stopping herself, hearing a soft, barely audible crunching of hoof falls on the gravel that makes up the floor of the passage to the strange surface, which is hidden behind two-ton blast doors, a look of fearful realization coming across her face. There's a loud clatter from the tripwires that they had set up to alert the pegasi to any not-yet-visible threats. The colt raises his well maintenanced Kalashnikov, flicking the safety off to semi-automatic at the same time Dash makes a dive for her own weapon, going prone and flicking the setting straight to fully automatic and sounds the stand-by alarm. A blood chilling screech fills the air, the vibrations shaking the cast iron pot of water onto the small fire that Dash had since forgotten is burning. Both ponies winced, a stinging pain in their ears, leaving a high pitched ringing dominating most conscious thought. Then appears the shapes, the haunting silhouettes of six or eight shadowy figures marching steadily towards them in even ranks. Dash hits the main alarm, calling all militia ponies in the tunnel to the forward post, the 40, in this case.

Another noise sounds from the ominous depths of the tunnel. Not a high pitched whine that leaves its unwilling audience deafened, like the last; but a low, thundering monotone with a dissonance-like wave to it that makes Rainbow's blood run cold, her face paling and her hair sticking up on end. The sounds of the hoof falls of their re-enforcements faltered, slowing down and some stopping altogether. Dash hears the sickening splatter of vomit on the ground. The figures are coming into better focus in the darkness of the tunnel; big, lumbering bipedal forms that were easily one and a half times as large as the normal pony. Dash and the colt next to her, two-seven, if his vest indicates correctly, are joined by the two or three ponies that were not deterred by the noise that made Dash's skin crawl.

A single, ringing shot sounds through the tunnel, making Dash jump slightly in her prone position and look to the source of the noise, two-seven's rifle, which has smoke peeling off of its barrel. She looks back to the still approaching figures, aiming at the middle of their formation. She pulls the trigger, letting a small burst escape her weapon, letting a triumphant grin spread across her face as she sees two of their number get chewed up by the bullets, falling to the ground. Her grin is quickly replaced by a look of absolute terror as they stand back up, close enough now to see some of their more obvious wounds. At least three bullet holes have appeared on both of their necks, yet they just stand up like nothing happened and let out another blood-freezing tone.

"Open fire! Get an M.G. down here! Focus on them one or two at a time, concentrate fire!" two-seven yells over the growing noise of gunfire. The sharp cracks of the AK's are quickly joined by the deep thump of the heavy machine gun, cutting the strange things down time and again until they went down and stayed that way.

The deafening noise in the tunnel suddenly stops, leaving a loud, high pitched whine in Rainbow's ears for the second time today, even through the ear protection she was given. Two-seven stood slowly from his crouched position behind the waist high sandbag wall, stepping forwards toward the motionless forms, keeping his weapon trained on them the entire time. When he is right next to them, he probingly kicks the first one, recoiling quickly in case it actually is still alive. He steps over them to check if they had anything with them, realizing with a small bite of fear that they didn't. The mutants did ever have any weapons either, but these were clearly not the common tunnel trash.

"Okay, all clear on this for-" his eyes fly open, widening in pain, "AHHH!" he is cut off when one of the number reaches out and claws his calf, heavily lacerating it. It grabs him by the ankle and pulls him down to the ground, screaming in agony and horror, pulling him away. He grabs for his side-arm by his thigh, pulling it out and emptying a full magazine into the creature's head, scrambling away from the lifeless beast. He painfully reaches the line, climbing over the sandbag wall, leaving a trail of blood from the still body. There is a small hissing sound as he lights the fuse of a grenade, lobbing it into the motionless heap of biomass, where it explodes, scattering black chunks of thing in all directions.

When Dash gets over the shock of the engagement, she turns quickly to see two-seven, supported by one of the ponies from further down the line, limping to the rear where the medical station is set up. So much for break, Dash says to herself staring in disbelief at the scattered pieces of thing and spatters of maroon blood that are spread throughout the tunnel.

Walking gloomily towards her tent, Rainbow reflects upon the events of the shift. A new breed of beast found, another threat to their isolated and glum lives, and a good soldier wounded and slowly dying of blood loss and an inability to make new, healthy blood cells due to the large amount of damage done to his leg.

"Hey Dash!" she hears the voice of her friend, but it does nothing to improve her mood, something the unicorn picks up on. "Is everything okay? I heard that there was a breach today," the concerned mare says.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but one of the ponies is severely injured. He may be dead now," replies the pegasus, her head lowering. The purple unicorn's shoulders slouch, her eyes softening even more.

"What was it? The common?"

"No, these things were like nothing we've ever seen before. They were damn near impossible to kill, just taking bullet after bullet and still getting up. The one that clawed two-seven had half of its side almost blown out," Dash remembers in disgust, the chewed up flesh of the monsters that somehow still managed to injure her comrade. Twilight gasps, covering her mouth, eyes widening in distant horror and fear. "Somepony is sending a description in to the Biological Association of Outreach [BAoO] for classification and naming."

The rest of the day carries on without a hitch. Everypony is nervous, but kept to their work as always. About four hours after the incident at the 40', an emergency meeting is held at the main meeting/ assembly area.

"I'm sure that all of you are familiar with the day's earlier goings-on, with the mysterious creatures at the 40'. Well, the BAoO has confirmed that this is a previously unidentified threat, and has done a complete write-up and classification on it."

It's amazing how much more efficient everything is in times of crisis and panic. Dash thinks, standing next to Twilight, who is obviously more interested in the whole thing than her.

"As quoted in the write-up, 'This previously unidentified creature, quickly becoming known simply as the 'Dark Ones', scientific Equus Mortem, has been sighted by sentries of Outreach Station at the 40 meter south-east post. These creatures seem to have a natural psychological weapon, being able to, through use of very specific frequencies of sound wave, tap into the brains activities, inducing feelings of fear, nausea, and hopelessness. A known biography of the creatures follows:

Average height: appx. 1.5 meters

Natural defenses: psychological, claws, teeth

Habitat: n/a

Food of preference: n/a

Breeding environments: n/a"

Dash and Twilight listen on in fear as the unknowns mount, leaving so much potential danger. Eventually, the meeting comes to an end, and the gathered ponies are dismissed to their tents. Dash and Twilight walk back in nervous conversation, pondering on unknowns until they find themselves at their side-by-side tents.

"I'm just gonna sit out here for a while and, ya' know, enjoy the fire, maybe tell a story or two." Dash tells her good friend, "See ya tomorrow." With that, Twilight waves and disappears into her tent.

"So," Rainbow hears a rough, foreign voice from behind her, making her gasp almost inaudibly, "I hear that you were there at the 40' today when shit went down."

"Yeah, I was. What's it to ya? Who are you anyway? You don't sound like you're from around here." she says, turning to face the other pony, a darkish, off-white pony with a black, close cut mane and a scar through his left eye. He is wearing a vest with many pockets, a tattered and beaten up one at that. The mark of someone who travels.

"My name is not important, but you can call me Hunter. And it's a lot to me, actually. I heard stories around, and remembered an old prophecy that said something about a new breed of terrible. I think that this might be it. I need to go to the surface, find their home grounds, and destroy them. That's going to be the easiest way to get rid of them."

"Okay. That still doesn't have anything to do with me being at the 40'."

"I was getting to that. I heard that you weren't affected by any of it. That true?" He asks, raising a testing eyebrow.

"I got a little scared at the noises and the fact that they just wouldn't die, but I definitely wasn't running scared."

"How about the common tunnel trash? They scare you at all?"

Rainbow lets out a sharp, amused breath, one corner of her mouth twitching up in a half-grin. "Pfft, no way. They aren't worth the cost of the bullets, much less the hesitation of fear." Dash says immediately and dismissively.

"Good, then you would be able to be trusted with my little mission, if you would choose to accept it." Dash's eyebrow perks up, suddenly more interested in this strange man. A mission, but to where? And for what?

"What's the mission about? How can you expect me to accept something that I don't even know anything about?"

"I'm afraid that I can't tell you unless you agree, but if you do, I can make it worth your while." Hunter adopts a little grin as Dash's interest spikes again at this. He reaches into his pocket, pulling out three large coin pouches, chuckling to himself as Rainbow's eyes widen and her jaw slacks at the sight, staring in disbelief.

"This will be enough to get you started, get you the supplies and through the first part of the mission. So, do I have your interest now?"

Rainbow refocuses. "I think you might have yourself a taker on this 'mission' of yours." she states simply.

"Good, now follow me." Hunter says, smiling and obviously very pleased with himself, motioning her over to an unpopulated and quiet corner. "It's very simple actually. I'm going to the surface to deal with these bitches once and for all. The thing is: I might not make it, and if I don't, I'll need somepony to do go to Central and inform them of the situation." Dash listens with focus and interest, her eyebrows both rising almost into her mane at the mention of Central, the location having an almost reverent ring to it in these dark times.

"So you're saying that you're going to the surface, and that if you die, I need to go to central?" Hunter nods, affirming that the information is correct, "How will I know if you're dead or not?"

"If I don't come back in three days, I'm dead, and you need to get to Central, which reminds me," he reaches into a pocket in the front of his vest, pulling out a small sheet of relatively thin metal with some markings on it hanging from a chain, "This may come in handy during the mission, if it comes to it." He hands her the chain. "Do NOT lose that."

Rainbow just sits there for a moment, taking the information in. "Am I allowed to bring my friend?"

"Sure, as long as you both can handle it, the more the merrier, I suppose. But word of this cannot let out." Hunter's face is one of deadly seriousness as he says the last bit.

"Okay," Rainbow angles her head down and slightly to the left, thinking. She nods. "Alright then, three days pass, if you're not back, we go." She extends her arm for shaking, which Hunter takes, up and down once, firmly.

Rainbow and Hunter then go their separate ways. Rainbow goes over to her friend's tent, tapping the solid concrete three times. "Come in." she hears from inside, pulling the fading green material aside.

"Twi', we may be going on a little trip in a few days." She explains the whole thing, about Hunter and his mission.

Twilight sits with a thoughtful look for a few seconds before responding. "Central, hmm? Well, it looks like we have a pretty high chance of taking a few weeks off, I think. We'd better get some sleep now, though. It's another early morning tomorrow, and time for discussion later. G'night" she says, rolling over and closing her eyes.

"'Night."

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Hello again. So we've met Hunter! Yay! I'm gonna be gone for a week or so, but I will try to upload another chapter soon after returning. Maybe I'll even drag Bourbon into things soon. Until then, keep bein' Bronies... I guess. See you in a week /)*(\