As I came to, I had to wonder if being knocked out was a common thing in the wasteland. Before today, I could count the number of times I’d had a head injury on one hoof. I’d been knocked out twice in rapid succession since I’d fled the dwellers.

Well… maybe rapid succession. As the world swam back into being, I had no idea how long I’d been out. All I knew was that I was half submerged in cold, filthy water, and that I was face up. At least I hadn’t drowned.

I began shivering as I dragged myself from the shallow pool I’d ended up in. There was a tiny bit of light in the tunnel from an ancient globe set into the wall, but all it told me was that I was somewhere in the sewers. Somewhere deep, judging from scenery. The higher levels had all been concrete and wartime materials… but down here it was old brick.

I coughed violently as I tried taking a deep breath, my chest feeling like a bomb went off inside it. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I clutched at my ribs, curling into a ball. I gagged on a bitter mouthful of blood.

I hurt all over, inside and out. I could taste blood, and I could feel dozens of cuts all over my body. I was weak, and a sense of hopelessness washed over me.

I’d escaped the dwellers, but now I was going to die cold and alone, so far beneath the surface I felt I could walk for days and not see the clouds ever again.

I lay there until I could take shallow breaths and fill my lungs with air instead of pain. I let go, my limbs aching from the bruises that covered them. Forcing myself to my hooves, I counted my blessings that none of my legs were broken. At least I had them. I could still make an effort to get somewhere safe.

I had no idea where I was headed, but the only direction I really cared about was up. I had to get up, get out. If I could get to the topside, it wouldn’t be too hard to find Hoof again. There were always patrols around it, and they’d recognize me in a second. I’d be welcomed back with relieved faces, and then probably get to take a bath. I really wanted a bath.

It was dark that far down, but the occasional light in the wall still worked. It was a thin, tiny thing. Barely better than the absolute darkness I had been so badly hurt in, but I felt comforted by its presence. It would at least let me see whatever was going to kill me.

No. Gotta stay positive. Topside. Relief. Bath.

The tunnel I was in slowly sloped upwards, which made me smile just a little. I was already making progress. I had lucked out to end up in the pool at the bottom of it, instead of smashed against a grate somewhere underwater or impaled on random debris. Of course, I was wet and freezing, but that beat impaled any day.

As I walked, I did my best to move as much as I could. Extra hops in my step, shaking out my neck, and stretching whenever I had to take a breather. I needed to warm myself up, and the only way I could do that was to stay active. As much as my body just wanted to lay down and sleep, I had to stay active.

Survival 101. Keep moving, avoid conflict, stay warm. Ash had taught me these things after I’d gotten through a hole in the fence as a little filly. He’d grounded me too, but he’d started teaching me what I needed if I ever got lost again. Shade had been against it. She never wanted me to leave Hoof ever, but Ash had talked her down. That’s when I’d started learning from other ponies around town. Lockpicking was something I excelled at. A skill that I was currently unequipped for…

To the side I spied a fenced off staircase. It was going up. The fence was ancient, like everything else down here, and was composed almost entirely of rust. It had dozens of holes that I could fit through easily, and in no time I was headed upwards.

Ever upwards.

The tunnel above wasn’t drainage, but seemed to have been built for storage. I didn’t know why anypony would store something this far underground, but hundreds of crates stretched off into the darkness in either direction.

Curiosity led me to open one of them, which mostly involved finding one rotted enough for me to just pull planks off of it.

Empty.

The next one was empty too. I had somehow managed to find a tunnel completely devoted to box storage. Fantastic. At least storage meant that there would or should be some way to get to the surface faster.

I was really starting to hate how much of this city had been built underground. Ponies weren’t meant for underground. We would have bat parts if we were supposed to live down here.

Then, when I found how boxes were once transported down this far, I wished that I had bat parts. Then I could use my wings to fly up the dark shaft with the crushed elevator at the bottom. I could see light near the top… but it was too high for me to ever hope to get there.

“Shit.” Ash wouldn’t have approved of me cursing. Didn’t really matter now. Nopony was here; I was completely and utterly alone.

“Fuck… fuck this whole day.” I let my back legs give out and I sat with sigh of relief. My legs deserved a break. My whole body deserved a break.

I could only stare upwards at freedom. The stupid elevator must have dropped from a long way up… the cable was next to me, frayed from age. It must have snapped a long time ago, screwing me over before I was even born.

Gotta go up.

My eyes wandered, drifting over the shattered remains of the elevator. The twisted metal skeleton was reaching helplessly towards freedom, just like me. One part of it was even reaching up to the next floor…

There was a ramp.

I let out a laughing cry of victory. I loved this elevator. This stupid fucking elevator.

I could definitely get the hang of cursing. Ash wouldn’t like it, but I was finding that some words were just necessary for what was going through my head. I think I’d hit it harder than I thought, because my thoughts were just a bit more erratic than usual.

The elevator. Right, my path to freedom. Well, possible freedom.

Then I could get back home. Ash, Fluster, Ziel. The Whitecoats… I’d tell them how Nail died protecting me. Shade… well, that would probably be awkward.

The rusty, twisted frame of the elevator protested as I began my perilous ascent. With each delicate placement of a hoof, it creaked and groaned.

“A plump pony wouldn’t be able to do this, thank you very much.” I mumbled under my breath as I focused on the beam and me not falling. It wasn’t that hard. I had good balance.

I hopped up out of the shaft, into the light of the next level. No black goo, no dwellers, no rushing rivers. Immediately, I approved of my new surroundings.

“All right, next stop: surface.” I grinned to myself, the rush of endorphins from my recent feat washing a good bit of the pain away from me. I glanced around the room I was in, and found that there was a tunnel sloping upwards. That was my destination, and I trotted briskly towards it.

Heading upwards yet again, I did my best to ignore the burning that was returning to my legs. More concerning was the burning in my chest, which flared with each breath. My ribs were cracked, if not broken, and breathing was really starting to hurt. With a quick glance I confirmed that my sides were purple and black, and not just because of the black filth that had stained my fur.

I’d definitely be paying a visit to Aunt Xiera when I got back home. Depending on how bad it was, I might have to even go back to Underhoof. That’s where the surgeon lived. I’d seen her earlier, talking to Viola, but I’d never actually met her.

I reached the top of the tunnel, and found that I wasn’t actually in a sewer anymore. These were storage and transport tunnels that weaved around the sewers. That didn’t mean that water wasn’t flowing through them, it just meant that there was less of it. If I wasn’t already so cold I’d try cleaning up a bit. Thinking about it though, I’d spent who knows how long in the water and the filth hadn’t come off, so a little scrubbing probably wasn’t going to help.

Hissss….

I froze mid-step. That didn’t sound like a dweller, which made me both glad and afraid.

A deep bass growl began from my right, in a darkened tunnel that branched off from the main one I was walking through. I turned my head slowly, hoping to catch sight of whatever it was so I knew how fast to run.

A serpentine head, pale and filled with teeth, snaked out of the darkness. Its eyes looked sightless, but its nostrils flared as it smelled me. I was covered in filth, blood, and fear sweat. I must have been quite ripe. I’d never seen anything like the head before, but I instinctively knew that it was something I should run from.

When the next three heads followed it out of the darkness, I ran. Sprinting hard, despite the protest of my body, I got a good head start on the thing. I heard it tear out of the tunnel behind me, the thunder of its footsteps and the roars of four heads filling both me and the tunnel with terror.

As I galloped full out, I felt that I had to turn. Even as fast as I could run, it was going to catch me. I could tell from how close the sound was getting. I didn’t dare turn around.

The tunnel wound away through the underground, making it so that I couldn’t really see what was ahead. I was cutting each corner tight, using my smaller frame to my advantage. As I came into a straight-away, I lost that advantage. Luckily there were branching tunnels ahead.

I scraped against a corner as I turned down a tunnel, feeling the hot blush of blood spring up from my tortured hide. A shaking thud and the sound of cracking masonry came a split second later as one of the heads that was lunging after me didn’t make the turn gracefully.

The tunnel I turned into was littered with debris, and I vaulted over a section of collapsed wall. Deep cracks ran the length of the walls and ceiling, where chunks had fallen into the tunnel. I realized this was a hindrance to me just as much as it was to the hydra, which plowed through the first pile of wreckage with a crash and multiple roars.

The tunnel was more destroyed the farther I went, and I was quickly running out of room. My breathing was ragged and my chest felt like it was filled with fire. As I ran, I started noticing that there were drainage tubes leading away at regular intervals. Most were choked with debris, but I hoped that at least one was open.

I ducked a hanging bundle of wires, hoping it would catch up the increasingly beleaguered hydra. As the hydra hit where I thought the wires would be, my plan backfired. The wires tore out of the wall with a loud electrical pop, and the lights in the entire section of tunnel shorted out as one. My hoof caught on something and I tumbled in the darkness, the rampaging hydra right behind me.

I felt something pierce my side when I hit the ground and the extra pain forced a scream through me, ringing through the tunnel. I didn’t have time to check the wound in the dark, so I started scrambling towards where I felt the nearest drainage tunnel was. It should have been right around a pile of rubble on my right.

Scrambling through broken wall shredded my legs and sides, but the hole between ribs was where all my pain was centered. The hydra must have been having just as hard a time as me, because I hadn’t been snatched up and eaten yet. I knew it could smell me, so that had to be it.

Just a little bit more, and I knew I could find the tunnel.

Please don’t be clogged.

I ran face first into the wall, the sharp scent of blood filling my nostrils as I did. I pushed my hooves against the wall, looking for the drainage tunnel.

It had to be there. It just had to.

One hoof encountered no resistance and my face smacked into the wall again as my support was suddenly gone. I didn’t care, I’d found the drainage pipe, and I’d gotten at least a hoof inside. I dropped, and started scooting my way into the little side tunnel. If it was anything like the ones before, I’d fit easily.

I heard a hungry roar behind me as I pushed myself farther and farther into the pipe, trying to get away. I kept crawling, not having any idea how far I would have to go before I could slow down.

I crawled into something too quickly, and got tangled in a bundle of rags. It bunched up around my neck, and I swatted at it with a front leg trying to get free. I heard the sound of metal on the tunnel wall, and a light sprang to life.

I was face to face with a skull, jaw hanging open in a scream. Rotted skin and muscle still clung to it.

Screaming in surprise, I kicked the skull in the face, my hoof smashing through into the hollow cranium. I frantically tried pushing it off when I heard a loud snap and felt a push of wind.

Turning slightly, afraid of what was behind me, I let out a scared gurgle. One of the hydra’s heads had snapped at me, only a hooflength behind me. It snapped again, pushing even further towards me and I backed up frantically, dragging the pony skeleton with me.

I heard a metallic clatter, and looked around frantically. The skeleton had a long knife in a sheath, banging around as I pushed the two of us further down. I reached out and snatched the blade up in my mouth, unsheathing it in one swift motion. The glint in the light showed me that it was still sharp.

SNAP!

The teeth slammed shut close to me, and I reacted quickly. I slashed out with my head, dragging the blade through scales and meat. It roared in pain, spraying me with foul smelling drool. The blast of breath and pressure sent me tumbling in a pile of bones and cloth.

I gripped the knife in my mouth, determined not to lose another weapon. It would be the death of me if I did. Tangled as I was, I could only kick with my back legs as the hydra kept snapping at me, spraying me with stinking blood from the long gash in its face.

Then I was falling again, tumbling through darkness. The light was still working, and the flashes of wall before I hit a body of water showed that I was back in the sewers. The water was shallow, and when I hit I smacked my head hard. Light flashed through my head, followed by a rush of renewed pain.

Once again, I pulled myself up out of flowing sewer water, coughing and sputtering. Something sharp was jabbing me, and I pulled away from it. It followed, sticking me in the side.

“Ow!” I looked down, seeing what it was. The knife was jabbing me in the side, and would have probably gutted me if it wasn’t wedged between two ribs of the skeleton that was still tangled up with me.

“Phew… thanks for saving me.” The skeleton was missing half of his skull, but I like to think he gave a little nod as I looked at him. Using one of my hooves I pushed the knife away from my battered body. I didn’t want to get gutted as I untangled the two of us.

Once I finally got the last of the tattered cloth off away, I was able to get a good look at the skeleton. It was missing everything below the rib cage. The spine was severed and it had no legs. One rib had a deep cut in it.

“Did the hydra get you too?” I looked down at the skeleton. It gazed up at me in its silent scream, thankfully not answering me.

I untangled the sheath from the skeleton, sliding it on over my filthy, matted fur. The knife, more of a machete now that I actually looked at it, lay half submerged in the water. The light was a bit harder to get free; the strap was wedged between vertebrae. I turned it off before going about my work.

“Sorry about this.” I gripped the light in my teeth, braced a hoof against the neck, and pulled.

The thick strap went taut on the skeleton’s neck, pulling the whole body closer to me. I braced a second hoof to hold down the ribcage, and put what remaining strength I had into it.

The hole in my side reminded me of its presence suddenly and painfully, spraying blood against the cold surface of the sewer. A sharp squeak escaped me and I let go of the strap, collapsing into a ball of pain. I’d run out of adrenaline, and the pain numbing effects that came with it.

I lay there on my friend, grateful for the cloth it had been wearing when it died. The bones were uncomfortable, but the cloth felt nice against my tortured hide. Really, I needed the cloth more than my friend did.

It took a lot of willpower, but I forced myself back onto my hooves. The light I would get later, but right then I needed the cloth. I pulled it from the pile, shaking loose bones and dust. It tore easily into long strips, and I carefully worked them around my midsection. I needed to stop the bleeding, even if just a little. The cloth of a dead pony wasn’t the best option imaginable, but it was all I had.

Bundling wad, I pressed it into my side. Then, in an impressive display of flexibility, I wrapped it tightly around my sides. It hurt so bad. As tightly as I was going to get it. I worked the blade sheath’s strap into it, for extra stability, and then I cinched it tight.

My eyes fluttered open, bringing me face to face with the skeleton pony again. I must have blacked out. My side hurt so badly…

I glanced down at my work. I must have done a passable job, or I’m pretty sure I would have bled out. Waking up meant I’d done a good enough job.

Good enough.

Fuck.

I gritted my teeth in pain, and went back to the last thing I had to do before I could start on my way again. The light.

I couldn’t pull or I’d just hurt myself again. I cut the light free, then tied the ends back together. Knots were tricky, having to use my mouth. Stupid unicorn could have done it in seconds.

When it was done, I hung it around my neck. Clicking it on, I smiled as it shone a light against the tunnel wall. It wasn’t broken, or cracked, or covered in slime, or anything.

Having light helped. I started back on my way. Up. Keep going up.

The sewers looked different. The walls were built differently, and the tunnels looked completely foreign to what was underneath Hoof. At least up was still up.

Walking was an effort. Aside from however long I’d been unconscious, I hadn’t had any rest in a long time. I was exhausted, and my every muscle burned. My skin hurt, and my filthy hair was itching like crazy.

The tunnels in this part of the city were devoid of life. Completely. As I walked, I noticed that I wasn’t even seeing rats. It might have been the proximity to the hydra’s den, and I really hoped that that was it. I wasn’t really wanting to encounter a fresh horror.

I’d had a rough day.

After a few hours of wandering, always heading up, I had to take a break. I was starving and exhausted. I needed to rest.

I found a dry pipe, one that wasn’t likely to gush freezing water on me at random, and curled up into it. I just needed to rest my eyes for a while.

“Ash, tell us how you met Aunt Fluster!” The two of us crowded around the griffin’s paws, eager for one of his stories. He’d been out all day, leaving the two of us with Aunt Xiera, but the zebra had been busy tending to a sick foal. We were bored out of our minds, and one of Ash’s stories was just what we wanted.

“You sure you want that story? How about when I found the lost Sapphire Stone in the jungle primeval?” He ruffled my mane as he sat down in the middle of the room where we continued crowding him. The griffin was still wet, but we pressed into him. He was always so warm, and it was a cold day.

“You never did that! Tell us about Fluster!” Ziel was standing on one of his legs, her two front hooves pressing into the feathers on his neck.

He picked her up with both hands and moved her off of him, laughing as he did so. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.”

The two of us sat right in front of him, our rapt attention on the griffin. He grinned widely, his golden eyes glinting as he delayed just long enough to get us to start fidgeting.

“There we were, Kick and I. We’d just escaped the evil fire witch, by throwing ourselves down a huge water slide.” He gestured wide with his claws, adding emphasis where he needed it.

“We were weary from our mighty battle, and made our way to an underground kingdom.”

“Underhoof?” Ziel asked with a huge smile on her face.

“Yeah, Ziel, it was. No interrupting now, you know the rules.” He pushed her over with a claw, and she scrambled back up into a sitting position. This happened during every story.

“Kick had been wounded in battle, and the kingdom granted us access to their greatest healer. A powerful unicorn, she fixed us up good as new. In return, we agreed to help the kingdom with a local monster. An unkillable creature that dwelled in the tunnels nearby.”

He held up a finger before us, indicating a pause. “Before we set off on our quest, though, we were introduced to a pony. A mysterious pony in a hood and cloak, who knew the tunnels and could help us find our beast.”

“Who was the hooded pony?” Ziel chirped again, interrupting Ash. I was staring intently at him, taking in his every word.

“I’m getting there. Rules, Ziel, remember the rules.” He pushed the energetic zony over again.

“Right… sorry, keep going.”

“That is when we met Fluster, the pony in the cloak. She led us to where we encountered the beast. It was a mighty battle, but between Kick and I, we ended the monster’s reign of terror over the people of the underground kingdom. The creature was as we’d been told, unkillable. We made it sorry it had ever threatened innocent creatures, and swore it to live forever in the tunnels to never hurt anyone ever again.”

He leaned in close, a wicked smile on his face. “To this day, ponies can hear the monster in the tunnels, lamenting the day it ran into the two of us. It kept its promise though, and hasn’t been seen in years.”

“Fluster had led us true, and we returned to the kingdom triumphant. The villagers threw a parade when we returned. We couldn’t stay though, and had to continue on our quest. Fluster decided to join us, and we returned to the surface to continue battling the evil forces of Hate.”

He always told us stories from before we were born. They always focused on himself and a character named Kick. I had a suspicion that Kick was another name for Ripple, because a lot of what I’d heard about the two matched up, though Ash was the only one who ever mentioned Kick.

“Why did Fluster wear robes?” I asked, now that the story was over. That was the rule. I could talk when he was done.

He looked over his shoulder briefly, as though he was checking to make sure that the coast was clear. “Don’t tell anyone I said this, but she used to be real shy about being a pegasus. There aren’t a lot of them, and she was trying to hide. Don’t mention that though, especially not to her. She doesn’t like that I tell you about the past.”

“Why?” Ziel hopped back up, resting her hooves on the griffin.

“There are some parts of the past that belong there.” He spoke with a tone we knew. We weren’t to keep asking about that.

“So the tunnel monster is still alive?” I always asked the best questions after story time.

“We met others like the beast. I’ll tell you about… well, I’ll mention them in another story.” He did that sometimes. Some details he never gave us. He thought we were too young.

“Anyways, they couldn’t be killed. Just stopped. The beast of the tunnels, the beast of the trains, and the beast of the mountain.” He laughed as he said the names. “Spoilers.”

“Ash?” Mom’s voice called out from the front hallway.

“In here with the girls. Xiera had to leave.” He pushed us off of him gently and stood, towering over us. I couldn’t help but gape in awe whenever he stood tall. He was a giant.

My mom came around the corner, looking exhausted as always. She was covered in engine oil, her bag of tools hanging limply at her side. “One of the water pumps in Underhoof broke… took all day to get it up and running…” The bag dropped to the ground with a clatter, and she rubbed at her neck with a hoof.

“You want me to look after the girls tonight? I could take them to Fluster’s.” Ash always seemed a little awkward around mom. Mom looked at him with tired eyes, glancing down at me only once.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I looked up at my mom. It had been recent that she’d started drifting away from me. I wasn’t very old, but I could tell something was wrong. Ever since Ash had stopped going on his trips, she’d done nothing but work. We used to play and laugh together, but that hadn’t happened in months.

“Yeah… Echo should stay at Fluster’s tonight. I’ve got an early morning, and I won’t have time to drop her off.” Her eyes locked back onto me, and I saw her jerk a little, like she was trying to hold something back. She looked sad.

Then she was gone, headed up to her room.

“Okay girls, let’s give Shade some peace and quiet. Let’s go see Fluster and Fern.” He clapped his claws together, and then ushered us towards the door. Ziel bounced happily, always eager to play with the timberwolf. I followed along, my head hung low.

Once we were outside, Ziel shot off down the street towards Fluster’s house. Ash called once for her, but knew it was pointless. He walked along next to me.

“...Ash?”

“What’s up Echo? You seem down.” He was really holding back his stride to keep up with my short legs, and it gave me time to talk.

“Did… did I do something wrong?”

“Why would you… oh. Your mom?”

I sniffled once. “Yeah… I don’t think she loves me anymore.”

He stopped and crouched down in front of me, resting his claws on my shoulders. “Echo. She does love you. She really does… she’s just hurting.”

Looking down the street back towards my house, he sighed. “It’s me. I stopped looking for your dad. She’s heartbroken…”

“When will she get better?”

Using one of his claws, he messed up my mane in an effort to cheer me up. It didn’t work. “The heart’s a hard thing to fix. Ripple… your dad, he was everything to her. He saved her, and she loved him more than I could ever explain.”

Ash never really treated me like a filly. He’d give short explanations to Ziel, but he always seemed to talk to me like he would other adults. “So… why won’t she come near me?” I hadn’t hugged my mom in a long time.

He pulled me into a hug there in the street, practically picking me up. “You’re a lot like your dad. She sees him in you. Just… give it a little time. Things’ll get better, I promise.”

I awoke with a snort, then immediately clutched at my body in pain. I was cold, stiff, and hurting worse than I ever had before, but at least I was still alive.

The dream kept running through my head.

Why did I have that dream? It was a memory, but not one I thought about. That was the start of my giving up on Shade. I was better off for it… but why was that coming back now?

Things’ll get better, I promise.

I really wanted to believe Ash, especially in the situation I was in.

I froze as I heard something in the tunnel. I was safely tucked away, but what if it was the hydra? It could smell me.

Slowly, I peeked out of my hidey hole, scanning for whatever had come to eat me this time.

If I had had any day other than the one I was currently living, I would have been scared. It is amazing what running for your life from unspeakable horrors can do to a pony. There was a gnasher, shriveled and bony. He didn’t see me, so I took a few minutes to watch him as he sniffed at the ground and wandered aimlessly.

I’d seen ghouls. Underhoof had its fair share, and I’d spent my share of time around Viola. Though most of them weren’t terribly fond of me, mostly because Ziel had bothered them and I’d been along for the ride, they all had that gleam in their eyes that normal ponies had. That spark of intelligence. This gnasher didn’t have that.

I could just wait for him to leave, and then get on my way.

As I lay there in the tunnel, I began realizing that waiting wasn’t going to work. He’d probably already been there for hours while I slept, and didn’t look like he was in any hurry to leave.

I’d been cut, scraped, beaten, partially drowned, and knocked unconscious several times. Might as well add my first kill to the day. I drew the machete with my mouth and slipped out of the tunnel slowly.

Luna… my everything hurt.

I bit into the handle harder than I would have normally. It helped the pain a little. Keeping low, I stalked across the sewer towards the distracted gnasher.

I kicked a can, ancient and rusty, sending it clattering off the hard floor to bounce off the ghoul’s hoof.

“Fffck.” Yes, I was growing fond of cursing, even if it was muffled into oblivion by the long blade in my mouth.

The gnasher’s dead eyes locked onto me and it let out a strangled cry before charging me. Its teeth were visibly rotted, but jagged and numerous nonetheless. I braced, ready to meet the gnasher head on with my friend’s knife.

I had to call the skeleton something else.

I worked through what I’d been taught about using a blade. Sharp part pointed away from body. Check. Legs braced but bent to react quickly. Check. Eyes on the target. Check.

The gnasher ran at me with the grace of a train. He was trying to impale me with his horn, which was still whole and pointy. I stepped to the side quickly, letting the gnasher’s momentum run into the blade.

The long blade hit about halfway down the gnashers neck after slicing off a long strip of decaying flesh from under his jaw. Black ichor squirted out as the blade slashed through windpipe and arteries, dragging along his side and bouncing off his ribs. When it passed his ribs, the blade punched through into his stomach and lower digestive tract. I felt every impact in my neck as I gripped the blade, but my head snapped back when the edge hit the gnashers hip and popped out of the body.

The gnasher collapsed but slid, leaving a long streak of what passed for blood before ending up in the stream in the middle of the sewer. I stepped back, now keenly aware of just how covered with gnasher blood I was. It was like I’d just cut into a pressurized can of Sparkle Cola.

“Ugh…” Really, I shouldn’t have cared. I was already caked and filthy with untold amounts of… everything. The gnasher blood was just another topping on my sundae of horror.

I’d expected to feel more, killing it. Gnashers were ponies, living and breathing. It felt like I’d crushed an insect beneath my hoof. It wasn’t what I’d expected at all.

“Huh.” I stared at the pile of dead gnasher, its decrepit organs spilling out of its body and slipping away as the water built up around it.

I wondered if all killing was that easy.

I had no idea how long I’d been in the tunnels. From the way my stomach was growling at me, I knew it had to be at least a day. It might have been more.

I was growing hungrier and hungrier. My stomach was growling non-stop. Water wasn’t an issue, but I needed to eat something.

I’d found some mushrooms, but I remembered a pointer I’d heard about these tunnels in the week running up to this trip. Fluster had told me everything she knew. Mushrooms were at best hallucinogenic, at worst poisonous.

I didn’t want to start seeing things. I couldn’t afford to.

I really didn’t want to die.

I’d been seeing rats scurrying around, but I wasn’t that hungry. I was holding out for something more palatable. Meat always seemed wrong… I didn’t have the teeth or taste for it.

I kept heading up. I had to be getting near the surface. I’d been heading up continuously, with some bits of straight. Only a few downs. Nothing like the drops I’d had earlier.

I still had no idea which direction I was heading in. For all I knew, I was on the other side of Hornsmith. I hoped I wasn’t near the Ruins or Maremack. I’d rather stay in the sewer than end up near either of those places.

I froze as I passed a door. I checked it again, just to make sure I’d seen what I thought I’d seen.

Butterflies.

I’d never been so happy to see Butterflies.

The door opened when I pulled, swinging easily on rust-free hinges.

I slammed the door shut. Black ooze. Coating the walls, dripping from the ceiling, pooling on the floor. A black form, standing low with eyes locked onto mine. Wicked teeth dripping between razor sharp pincers.

I was running, harder than my body wanted to let me. I heard the bang of the door coming back open as the nightmare barreled through it in pursuit.

I tried running harder, leaping the small river in the middle of the tunnel, draining out from the surface somewhere above.

I heard splashing as it crossed through, telling me it wasn’t too far behind me.

The dream came back to me.

Chased through a dark tunnel… splashing water… the monster behind me.

As I ran, I pulled the long blade from its worn sheath. I’d rather have it while I ran, just in case.

Another splash, too close, and it hit me. I felt razor sharp talons rake across my rump, not catching but slicing through my flesh. I screamed in pain, but kept my determination up. I didn’t know where I was going, but I was not stopping.

The swipe must have been part of a dive, because it was farther behind me afterwards. My rump was on fire, and I felt warm blood flowing down my legs.

“Fuuuuck.” I let it out as a long groan of pain.

“Fuck!” That one was disappointment and terror. I was going to die. I was getting so sick of thinking that.

I risked the look over my shoulder, and regretted it. It was bigger than it had looked in that hall. Twice my size, oily black, muscle and murderous intent. Its front legs were like a cats, with too many claws jutting at random angles.

I spent too long looking back, and ran headlong into a solid wall. It felt like my spine accordioned into my neck, and nerves fired all over my body as my whole world flashed bright white.

There was no wall in the dream.

I fought to get back to my hooves, but everything hurt. I couldn’t concentrate, and I couldn’t get my legs to do what I wanted them to. I was seeing quadruple, and the horrific black shadow now stalking up towards me had friends.

I wondered what would happen when it dragged me off. If it wasn’t to eat… I really couldn’t guess at it. I couldn’t guess at much of anything… my head wasn’t right.

There was a loud click, followed by a grating clatter. It must have been the dweller, almost on top of me. I’d only heard hissing from its kind, but they all seemed different. Maybe it was calling for assistance to drag me away.

The Dwellers let out a long, sharp screech. Something bright and orange lanced over me into all four of them. The Dweller reacted violently, glowing orange and thrashing around the tunnel. There wasn’t enough water here, and it dragged itself futilely through a small puddle. Letting out a scream of rage, it ran, leaving me with the orange stuff on the ground.

“Oh Princess! She’s still alive. Quick, get her inside.”

Huh? Orange stuff didn’t talk.

I felt something gentle lift me, and my head finally gave up on trying to stay awake.

“Tell the Princess our guest is awake.” I heard a door close, and slowly opened my eyes.

“Hey there, traveler…” A unicorn mare with big blue eyes was smiling kindly at me, dabbing at my face with a wet cloth.

“Where…” I burst into a coughing fit. My throat was too dry to talk. A bowl levitated to my mouth, and cooling water flowed into my parched throat.

After I swallowed and felt just a little better, I tried again. “Where am I?”

“That’s not important. You just rest, you had a rough trip,” she cooed quietly to me.

I tried sitting up in bed, but the pain from doing so made me stop that foalishness with a squeak.

“Don’t try moving dear, you’re hurt. You need rest.”

No, I had to get back home. Ziel would be worried sick. Ash would be out looking for me. Fluster…

“I gotta get home…”

The mare stroked my face gently. Motherly. That’s the word for how she was acting. I raised a hoof to try and push her away. It stopped short, and I looked down.

Leather straps. I was strapped to the bed.

“What the...?” I forced my swimming head to focus. Straps couldn’t mean anything good.

“We had to dear, you kept fighting. You’ve been in and out of consciousness for two days, and this is the first time you didn’t wake up fighting,” she smiled, but it no longer made me feel warmth. I was getting a seriously creepy vibe from her.

“Well… thanks for the care… but I really need to be going.” I tested all four legs, and found that I was completely strapped down.

“You haven’t met the Princess yet.”

“Let me go!” I struggled against the straps. My body had been feeling the two days down, but I was getting control again.

I froze as I felt the cold steel pressed lovingly against my jugular. She smiled calmly down at me as she held the scalpel to my throat. “Not until you meet the Princess. Those are the rules in Neighwhere.”

Oh no.

“Now just lay back and rest. You’ll want to be your best when you meet the Princess.”

I pushed myself back into the bed, and the blade floated away from my throat. I figured I’d ask the Princess to let me go home. It beat getting my neck slit.

I lay there for an hour as she continued stroking my face and cooing gently. She changed the bandages wrapped around a good portion of my body, but I never took my eyes off of her. I didn’t trust the crazy mare. Not one bit.

The door opened, and the mare stopped stroking my face. I let out a small sigh of relief, even if the unicorn that walked through the door was a mean mass of scar tissue and bad intentions. A rusty blade made from scrap metal rested across his withers.

“Princess wants ta’ see tha’ fish.”

“Hack Job, it isn’t nice to call her names.” The mare tut-tutted, turning to face the grizzled unicorn.

“Fuck off, nutcase. Pony floppin’ in tha water, gaspin’ for breath and bleedin’ all about? That’s a fish ta me.” He roughly undid the straps from my legs, and hauled me off the bed. When my weight hit my legs, they protested greatly. I groaned, but Hack Job growled at me. “Do anything funny, and I’ll gut ya like tha fish ya are.”

I squeaked in agreement as my back left leg cramped up, but I kept up with him. Limping, heavily bandaged, unarmed. I didn’t have much of a choice… plus, it got me away from the creepy mare.

I didn’t recognize where I was. The walls and floors of the tunnels he led me through were unlike any I’d seen. There was fire damage everywhere, blackened walls and a lingering scent of burnt metal.

The mare had said Neighwhere. That meant the I was in the Ruins. One of the towns Ripple had a hoof in destroying. I’d never gotten a straight answer why, but I knew that we didn’t go to Neighwhere. I had no idea that ponies were living there. I’d thought it was just infested with monsters or something.

The ponies that occupied these tunnels were a varied bunch. There were other ponies like Hack Job, all scarred and well-worn. I knew their type. They were raiders. We passed one wearing thick, blackened armor. A welding mask on his face and bulky flamethrower slung along his side gave me a hint as to how I’d been “saved” from the tunnel and the dweller.

Then there were the others. Glassy eyed ponies wandering the halls, a few ponies wearing robes patched together from whatever cloth was available, and most disturbingly were several ponies that looked to have been set on fire. They were still walking, cracked skin and crisped hair filling the halls with an unsettling smell. Most of them were mumbling as they went, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

“Eyes ahead, fish!” He shoved me with his magic, sending me stumbling. I tripped, and went face first into a wall. I smacked my left eye hard when I hit, and pulled back holding a hoof to it.

“Ow… doesn’t your Princess want me intact?”

He glared at me. “You’re already plenty beat up, fish. She won’t notice another bump or two. Or a missin’ leg. Shut tha fuck up.”

I got the hint, and kept walking. We came to a door, and he shoved me roughly towards it. “In there, fish. Play nice, or ya won’t be floppin’ ‘round no more.”

I glared at him briefly before turning to the door. I nudged it open and slipped through.

My jaw dropped open. I’d never seen an alicorn like that. Her wings were made of fire, her orange mane and white hair flickering softly in the light given off by the fire drifting next to her. Her horn was rimmed with a crown made of scrap and bone, with torches built into it. Then I realized that she wasn’t an alicorn at all, but a unicorn. The next thing that caught my attention was the PipBuck on her leg. It was just like the one that Ash had.

She had been lost in thought, but came to the realization that I was in the room. Our eyes met, and the cocky smile she wore dropped straight off her face.

“Two Kick?” Her face was filled with a mix of emotions. Shock, heartbreak, fear, love. All at once.

“Huh?” My voice bounced around the room, much higher than I had planned.

She stared for a few more seconds, a tear dropping from one of her eyes and sizzling when it hit the ground at her hooves. Then her eyes narrowed, and she looked closer at me.

“No… no you’re not.” She took a step forward, staring at me. “You… you look just like him…”

“Uh… who?” I risked a question.

“You do not speak until your Princess allows it!” she screamed in my face, her wings beating at the air in swirls of fire.

I sealed my lips shut as I felt the heat on my face. The Princess was getting too close, and I could really feel the heat radiating around her.

“I’m sorry. This is a friendly meeting.” She was inspecting me, using a hoof to pull at some of the bandages around my side. It hurt, but I wasn’t going to stop her. I’d seen the burnt ponies, and I had a strong suspicion that they hadn’t done that to themselves.

“You look so much like… no, that is the past. He’s gone. You couldn’t be. You’re a mare...” It was like I wasn’t even in the room, even as she stared at me. Took in my every detail. With all the bandages, I couldn’t have been the best looking I’d ever been.

“Ripple…” She ran a hoof down my side as she said it, making my healing wounds flare in pain at the scorching heat.

The name took me by surprise. I looked at her more directly, and she stared straight into my eyes. “You know that name? Answer.”

“I…” She knew I knew the name. She didn’t seem terribly stable, so I didn’t want to say anything to upset her. Lying probably wouldn’t do very well… she was staring me in the eyes.

“He was my father.”

She recoiled from me. Tears sprang to her eyes again, as she looked at me. “Of course… his whore! That cheating, lying son of a bitch!” As she yelled, the temperature in the room began rising. “He tears my world apart! He builds it up again! Then he leaves…”

She went seemingly calm in the middle of her tirade, still staring straight at me. “I’ll teach him to abandon me…”

As she moved towards me, I moved away from her. As I pressed up against the wall, we were practically muzzle to muzzle. “...and I think you will do nicely.”

Her horn fizzled out, and the flaming wings blinked out of existence. The only light in the room was coming from the fires of her crown, which were right in my face. “The things I want to do to Ripple…” She blushed, then immediately went to a snarl. “I can’t do some, but I can do others.”

Her horn flared, and she smiled. “Like this.”

I felt a prickling on my left flank that quickly spread into an intense burning.

“Ah…” Looking down, I saw the fire that had lit on my flank. “Aahhhh!” I screamed, dropping away from the softly giggling unicorn and trying to smother the fire. I rolled, but nothing I did worked. I smelled burnt hair, and the sweeter sickening smell from the hall. Burnt pony.

I kept screaming, frantically trying to put myself out. Rubbing it against the floor did nothing, and flailing my hooves at it was just singing my legs from the heat.

The flames went out in an instant, leaving behind raw, burnt skin. My cutie mark was gone, obliterated by the flames. I was crying. I had been crying during the burn, but now it took over from the screaming and I curled up trying to shield myself from the mare standing over me.

“Did you like that?” She pressed a hoof to the burn, pulling another scream from me. I kicked her hoof away and pushed myself into the corner, hiding the injury. The wound pressed against the metal of the wall, which was cool and soothing.

“I burnt him. He always liked it in our more intimate moments if I turned up the heat.” She smiled dreamily. I could only barely see her through the tears, but I didn’t want to lose sight of her. I needed to know if she was going to touch me again.

I just wanted to go home.

“That isn’t for young ears like yours though.” She stepped forward, her horn glowing subtly. I braced for more fire, flinching bodily as I did so. Her wings flared back to life, and no more fire came my way.

“So… whore daughter, what is your name?”

“Go away…” I managed through grinding teeth, the pain still unbearable.

“I’m Cinder Trails. Princess of Fire.” I glared at her through the tears. Her hoof got close to my face, and a small torch of flame appeared on the end of it, angled at my eye. “You know my name. It’s only fair.”

I shut my eyes under the intensity of the flame, trying to back even farther away from Cinder. I felt the fur around my eye begin to wilt, and gave in.

“Echo… my name’s Echo.”

The heat was gone, and I heard her trot away from me. “See, that wasn’t so hard. It’s fitting… you do look just like him.”

She returned to where she was standing when I’d come in, leaving me on the floor in a singed pile.

“We’ll play more later. Guard!”

The door opened almost immediately. Hack Job had been right outside, probably listening to me scream and cry. Asshole.

“Yes Princess?” The grin on his face was disgusting. As I squinted through what felt like sunburnt eyelids, my loathing for this place and everyone in it increased. The burning on my flank hadn’t decreased in pain, and any movement felt like I was tearing flesh.

“Take young Echo to a cell. Have Cinnamon bandage her, then leave her. She is to receive no other visitors.” When she’d been talking to me, her tone had ranged from playful to hostile, often at random. When she stood there with her fire wings, she sounded regal. She was acting the role of a Princess.

Why didn’t Ripple shoot her? She was exactly the kind of pony I had heard he killed.

“Get up, fish!” His hoof slammed into my bandaged side, painfully reminding my body of my stressed ribs and tortured hide. I cried out, curling up even more.

His leg moved to kick me again. “Wait… wait, I will,” I stammered, trying my best to get up. My legs were sore, my side was killing me, and the burn was still throbbing with an intense pain. Tears flowed freely from my eyes as I managed to weakly get up.

“Now move, fish.” He jabbed at me with the blade that had been at his shoulder. It sunk into the burn, the tip cutting easily into the raw flesh. I screamed again, my throat getting raw. I tasted blood.

I hurried away from him, and out into the hallway. Slamming the door behind us, he turned to me and growled slowly. “Now ya stick near me. Ya run off and I’ll find ya.”

He pressed the flat of the knife against my face, and got nose to nose with me. Wide eyed, I stood frozen. “Won’t be tha knife I put in ya then.”

I wanted to slit his throat. I wanted to tear out his horn and gut him with it. I wanted him to suffer like no pony ever had.

I could only nod.

He started walking down the hall, and I kept pace. I was limping badly, leaving a trail of blood from where it was seeping through cracks in my cooked flesh. I understood the looks I saw on ponies faces in the halls now. The defeated look. The look of constant suffering.

I wanted to go home.

Hack Job kept walking, grunting to any of the ponies like him in greeting. The looks that they gave me, filled with amusement or a hunger that made my skin crawl, forced me to never look directly at them. When we passed some of the defeated ponies, he would make a sudden movement towards them. They would shriek and fall away from him, covering themselves with their hooves. He would laugh, and keep walking.

As we passed a doorway, something caught my eye. Standing there was a pony who looked to be just a little older than me. She wasn’t scarred or burned, and she didn’t have the look of a raider about her. Her eyes, bright green, locked onto mine. I stared right back until I passed out of sight.

I looked back, wondering if she would appear again.

A hoof smacked into my neck, driving my face roughly into the wall. With a cry of pain, I felt the blade press into my neck. “Eyes front, fish. I’ll take one next time ya go sightseeing.”

He let go and let me get slowly to my hooves. Then he started walking again. I followed, keeping my eyes firmly glued on the knife he was again resting on his back.

He turned into a hole roughly cut into a metal wall, and into a stone tunnel past it. Lights had been drilled into holes in the ceiling, cables running haphazardly along the walls. It was a short tunnel, and let out into more tunnels.

These looked more like what I was used to, without the metal construction. Deep cracks ran through the floors and walls, and I could see a few places where holes went up through thick debris to the outside world. It was daytime out, and dull light filtered down into the tunnels.

He stopped at the first door he came to, a thick metal monster with a single crude grate cut into it. Pulling on the heavy latch, he hauled the door open and gestured that I should go in. I took a few steps and stopped.

The room beyond had seen a lot of ponies through the years. The floor and walls were covered with stains. A concrete slab in a corner must have served as a bed, and a filthy can lay on its side against a wall. A single bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a dim yellow light onto the cell.

“In ya go. If ya need anything, go fuck yerself.” I hesitated for a brief second, which brought more pain. A hoof slammed into right where my tail met my rump. I flew forward, biting my tongue as my chin hit the cold floor.

The door slammed, and I was alone.

I crawled my way towards the slab, and curled up on top of it.

I cried until the door swung open, some time later. I didn’t look, but when I heard the soft cooing and felt soothing ointment and bandages being pressed onto my scorched cutie mark, I knew it was the creepy mare. The ointment brought immediate relief, but I knew I would never get my mark back on that leg. The burn had been too deep. The ointment was just to fight off infection, so I wouldn’t die.

So they could keep torturing me.

Turn me into one of the dead eyed ponies walking the tunnels.

The cooing and stroking went on for a while, I didn’t know how long. I was staring at the wall. I couldn’t do much else. I didn’t want to.

I just wanted to go home.

The door slammed.

The light went out.

I cried.

Author's Notes:

Thanks go to Kkat for writing Fallout Equestria.

Thanks to Wire for continuously kicking ass on these, and thanks to Nyerguds for prereading.

Comment and rate, would ya kindly.