Between the light of my pipleg, and Sweet’s light talisman, we could barely see past ten yards. Everything outside of that space, faded into pitch darkness. The old tunnel was a decrepit mess. There had been some attempts to reclaim the big island’s metro system over the last hundred years, but signs of failure were all around us. Among all the islands, the big island was home to some of the most vicious of the mutated beasts. Many of these are known to chase down a pony all the way from one end of the island to the next. Sure, most of them lived on the surface, but it was not uncommon for them to find their way down into the metros.

Part of the problem was that the big island's metro was closer to the surface than each of the other islands. Even if we could keep the monsters back, the plant life insured that we could never keep a stable community here. The tree roots covered the walls, and anywhere there was any artificial light, poisonous plants would sprout out and ruin the air around it. Worse yet, seed pods were all over the metro. The damn plants spit their seeds and any poor pony who haphazardly wandered into it's range. I don’t like to think about what happens if one of the seeds gets into your skin...

Continuing on our way, we passed the ruins of some old fortification built into the tunnel itself. Might have been only ten years ago they'd used it, or a hundred. Either way, it had fallen to the dangers of the metro, and since been reclaimed by the island. Charon's End was the only safe settlement on the big island because of it's depth. Being at the bottom made it easy to defend, as well as the fact that almost nothing ventured down this deep. Almost isn't never, and goddesses forbid the day something big enough to take the city out makes it down this far.

Grave markers were strewn about sporadically, showing where some hunters had died attempting to get back to safety. Others marked where some ponies had tried to expand Charon's end and failed. Living outside the walls was a risk rarely taken, and so far nopony had ever lasted that long.

The tunnel we took proved fairly clear of aggressive critters. Most of what we ran into being small rad roaches that were easily killed with our melee weapons. The dead roaches would soon attract slightly bigger creatures, so the three of us picked up our paces. Every now and then we would come across some rodents of unusual size, and a few other mutated insects there were larger than would be normally possible. Still, they were all just as easily killed by us. Weak as they were, the lower critters were still highly dangerous to those who lived in the tunnels. Mostly in spreading diseases, but if you were injured or defenceless, you might as well have rung the dinner bell. Some old ponies call the critters 'death by a thousand cuts', but I just figured that if you died to them, you shouldn’t have left in the first place.

Silver, predictably, had not been enjoying himself the entire time. His trench coat had already gotten muck on it, which he attempted to remove with a handkerchief. This only smeared the sticky muck around, and ruined his handkerchief. Both Sweet and I held onto our laughter, more concentrated on keeping an eye out for bigger critters.

"How long is it until we get to this ruined city?" Silver asked abruptly. I could hear some impatience in his voice.

Sweet looked at Silver. "On hoof, another two hours or so and we should be there. Just keep your eyes open for anything dangerous."

Silver nodded, keeping up the pace. "You would think there are faster ways to get through this tunnel. The tracks themselves look in good condition."

I shook my head. "There is, but it costs a lot of bits, and you need to set up a deal ahead of time. You aren’t the only pony to suggest it, and there's a waiting list for the service."

The lever carts were treasured among the ponies who owned them. All were fiercely guarded, made so that they can be broken down and packed away to be stored someplace safe. We had at one point been paid to retrieve a cart, the ponies who had rented it had died half way back to Charon's End. They had been shot and killed by another group, who were still dismantling the cart when we had arrived. I didn't like killing other ponies, but when they went for their guns, we had to act.

One advantage of working for Orthrus, they made sure you were trained for such situations. It was amazing how many bullets a pony could take before going down, and how one rushed us in a last ditch effort to take us down. I still had nightmares from that fight. Sweet denies she’s had any bad dreams from that job, but for a month after it, I could see it clearly on her face. Monsters were much easier to kill.

"It also attracts attention,” I continued, “unless you can get a cart in under the radar, it's more likely to attract bandits, or worse."

Silver's head drooped just a bit. "A shame. I don't see why Orthrus doesn’t just get rid of all the savages. They do have the guns and pony power to do it, so what’s the problem?"

Both Sweet and I glanced at each other knowingly. It was a topic that came up now and then in Orthrus. No one liked to talk about how to get rid of the more unwanted ponies of our society. It wasn’t like we had room for a bigger population than we already have. The problem we all knew was that all the islands populations were still growing.

The simple answer to the question was that keeping our population ‘clean’ was impossible. A society, no matter how well off it’s citizens, will always have unwanted ponies. The more problems a society has, the more unwanted ponies existed. It was why Orthrus had such a hooves-off approach to any pony or party not part of their group. They’d taken a back seat to trying to solve the problem of bandit ponies, and only seemed to encourage the ranks of bandits to grow.

Not giving Silver a response was thankfully followed by him not talking anymore. The further we went in, the less we could even excuse talking at all. At times, we’d even started to dim our lights, only having enough so to see where our hooves were stepping.

Sweet Sax chimed in on the telepathy frequency. 'So what are you going to do with your ten thousand bits after we do the job, Vibraphone?'

I thought about it for a moment. It was a lot of bits, but not enough to do all that much. If I used it sparingly, I could use it to eat well, and stay healthy. A better home was always an option, someplace closer to mom and dad would be good. Though I might want to fix the current problems I had, first. If I wanted to, I could get full cyber legs, the ones with digits on the end of their hooves were popular. No need to use levitation, or specify endless commands when you can just pick up things on your own.

'I might just put it in the bank for now, save it for later.’ I replied. ‘You?'

'Have a kid!' Her abrupt and random response made me nearly trip over my own hooves. 'No seriously, you remember Acoustic Guitar right?'

I raised my eyebrow. 'The stallion you have been seeing on and off for six years now?' It was an odd relationship, of which they kept breaking up to only get back together. He was an okay stallion, a pacifist who was trying to make it big playing music. Sadly, I only ever saw him as a homeless bum. 'Seriously, why start a family with him?'

Sweet Sax sighed. 'He's great in bed and sticks around.’ She looked at me with a downcast look. ‘There's what, one stallion for every three mares in most of the metro? Every other stallion I've dated had another mare waiting for him when they dumped me. Acoustic is a one mare stallion, and well, I've regretted it every time I’ve let him go.'

Okay, Sweet had a point there, we did have a low stallion population problem. As it turned out, the toxins that seep in from the surface can affect the development of males. About half the mare friends I had were mentally male, but physically female.

'Alright I'll give you that, but he barely gets enough bits to support himself.’ I mean, he might be loyal to her, but he’s still a bum. ‘How is he going to support a foal?'

Smiling, Sweet Sax gave me a knowing look. 'Because he will get a real job if he knows he has a kid of his own to take care of.'

I wanted to face hoof. 'So then, what’s the ten thousand bits going to be used for?'

'New Gen, naturally. We will have a healthy foal who walks on normal legs.' She was positively beaming.

I shook my head. 'Next you're going to tell me that Shamisen is going to be the kid's godmother.'

Sweet nearly gagged at the thought. 'That’s too far, even for a joke. You know what, let's just cut the chatter and get to the city.'

I nodded, and the telepathic link cut off. We continued on our way in silence, only broken by silver quietly whining about getting dirty. He would adamantly defend himself stating that he was 'not whining, but merely complaining.'. I just called it what it was. Whining.

_____________________________________

The metro under the old city was a different beast altogether. The thick, twisted roots of enormous trees clinging to the ceiling ran around the numerous spikes of lime deposits that hung down across the enormous old station. Old, broken bones of long dead ponies and their pets littered the tunnels all over. Mixed in with them, where the newer bones of dead ponies and monsters from more recent years. Graffiti was everywhere, most marking where to find a safe house, or a hunter’s lodge. Others were faded messages left by ponies long dead. Some desperate plea’s for help, others of ranting madness. One message pointed to a small enclosed room, simply stating 'I raped, murdered, and ate ten ponies here'. Not something I’d be proud of enough to write.

“Welcome to the ass end of Marewaii, everypony.” Sweet Sax commented, keeping her voice to a forced whisper. “Safety is our top priority, so don’t go wandering off with strange ponies into any strange rooms.” Turning her attention to Silver, she gave him a nod. “You’re up boss. Just lead the way and we’ll keep you safe.”

Silver pulled up his sleeve and tapped at his pipbuck. “Right. I’ve got the signal, we just need to go east for now.”

Following a pipbuck tag was not as easy as it sounded, and ended up being just about as accurate as the E.F.S. life detection spell was. We would get the direction of the tags signal, but it was nothing more than a marker on the compass wheel. Rumors had always circulated about how the E.F.S. could tell you if a target is higher or lower than you if you laid on your side, though this was a myth. The compass was always level with the ground, no orientation could change that. So even if we get to the same area as the tag, we still would not know if we needed to go up or down. I prayed it wasn’t up.

Checking my pipleg, I set it’s settings to include Silver as a friendly pony in my identification - friend or foe screen. Of course, being my business partner, Sweet Sax was already on my IFF., appearing as a blue bar in my E.F.S. This helped me to keep track of her and our clients when in dangerous places, or in crowds of ponies.

I focused my magic, tapping into the telepathy talisman and tuned it into Sweet Sax’s frequency. 'Sweet, what talismans are you using?'

'The norm. I did an upgrade on my levitation talismans after the last job.' Sweet Sax answered. 'The magic armor and teleportation talismans are still a potent combination, so I doubt I'll be changing them out any time soon. What about you?'

'Levitation, Muffle, and Amplify Ambiance.' I answered.

'So, we’ll use our normal strategy than?' Sweet Sax nodded, trotting up to Silver. "Stick with me, Silver. Vibraphone will be our short range scout."

Taking the forward position, I activated the muffle talisman in my back leg, and the amplify ambiance talisman in my left foreleg. The spells made all the noise coming from me completely silent, and increased my ability to hear everything else making noise around me.

Along with a mask scent talisman, the three talismans made a great scouting and hunting combination. Used for avoiding the dangers on the big island, and getting the drop on some of the mutant animals that lived here. Invisibility talismans were rare, and highly sought after by hunters.

Sweet Sax's combination was useful for getting around an enemy's defenses and striking them where it hurts. It gave us a tactical advantage if we were ever in a shootout, complementing my own combination well. Sadly, Sax had a tendency to boast, often only using her teleportation to make an entrance. Once she’s done showboating, we’ve lost our chance for a surprise attack.

Pushing onwards, the darkness of the metro persisted, and the sounds of mutated critters scurrying all about. Now and then I caught the sound of something bigger moving about, and it’s low toned, rhythmic growling reverberated in the still air.

My rifle floated at the ready, acting like it was part of me. The combination of the spell matrix programs in my pipleg, and the spell matrix program for my levitation talisman in my right foreleg, allowed me to use the rifle much in the same way a unicorn could. If I wanted to, I could have an auto-targeting talisman installed on the rifle, turning it into a floating turret that could possibly keep going even if I was rendered unconscious. I had seen many mirage ponies over the years do this with mixed results. The only truly successful operators were usually Orthrus engineers who knew the ins and outs of arceno tech.

Laying on the ground ahead of us, was a small pack of mutant hounds. Their mutation had made them nearly as big as a pony. Their mouths were large with many sharp teeth, some even still poking out when their mouths were closed. We called them stalkers, mostly because of how they were known to track ponies, only attacking when the pony was alone, injured, or simply outnumbered by them.

I counted four of them, all ugly with thin sickly black fur. The normal compliment of scars and injuries covered their bodies. 'I got four stalkers Sweet. I can probably.. no, I can definitely kill two of them before they scatter. Be ready for them to run our way.'

'I hear you. Kill what you can, I'll get the rest.'

Getting the biggest stalker in my sights and going for a clear head shot, I fired. My rifle made a soft 'puff' sound, it not being affected at all by the muffling talisman. Down went the stalker, it's skull shattering, and the ball bearing flying further off into the distance. The other three stalkers didn't react to the sound of my rifle, instead turning their attention to where the ball bearing fell, it clanking against the concrete further down the tunnel.

Taking careful aim at one stalker who turned it's attention to it's dead friend, I smirked as it gave me a clear line on it's head. 'puff' the ball bearing found it's target, and once again another stalkers skull was shattered, the ball flew off towards the other one and clacked loudly against concrete.

The two remaining stalkers looked in our direction, and bolted right at us. Slipping into S.A.T.S. I lined up a shot for the head of the next stalker, it giving me a good 85% on the stalker’s head. Taking the shot, S.A.T.S. took over for my motions. With it’s help, I fired on the hound. The ball flew true, striking it square in the head with the same effect as my last two shots. The body tumbled over itself as S.A.T.S. ended, sliding to a dead stop on the floor.

The last stalker had charged in close, and even through the spells, it had seen me. It bared its fangs, and charged faster as it growled. Sweet's rifle rained ball bearings onto the stalker, the beast collapsing as the steel balls pulverized it’s way through. The splattered gore that shot out its other side marked the end of the last of them. The stalker slid to a stop roughly four yards from me, any closer and it would have lunged if it were still living.

"I hate those things." Sweet Sax stated as she stepped toward the stalker. "You think I should recover the balls?"

I shrugged. "Unless they passed all the way through, I wouldn't bother recovering them. We don't have the time to open it up."

Silver stepped over. "Do you normally open up the beasts you kill to recover your ammunition?" The dapper Stallion looked appalled.

Kicking the dead stalker, Sweet continued down the tunnel. "It's always a good idea to recover what ammo you can. You never know, it could save your life." She stopped walking and reached out a hoof ahead of her. "Ah, found two!" Levitating the two ball bearings into her bag, she returned to walking down the tunnel.

Both Silver and I quickly caught up with Sweet Sax, and I returned to the forward position.

_____________________________________

Following the tag, we found ourselves in an underground office. It was not uncommon for the metro areas directly under the cities to have old wartime buildings basements connected to them. From what I knew about the wartime generation, many of them were already working and living underground before the bombs dropped.

As interesting as places like this were, they were often home to feral ghouls. Over the last hundred years, feral ghouls had become less of a problem in the metro. Their numbers whittled down to only a tenth of what it use to be by the monsters that lurked in the dark. However, they were still around, hidden away in closed off rooms, or still lost in forgotten tunnels.

“This place has been looted thoroughly, even scrappers have been here.” Sweet Sax said quietly.

Every drawer here had been either opened, or ripped off and left on the ground. Some of the steel desks were missing outright, the only evidence they were here was the ripped off legs left in piles on floor.

I nodded. “I’ll keep an eye out for traps.”

Silver cleared his throat quietly. “What’s going on, what's a scrapper?”

I kept my focus ahead as Sweet Sax explained. “Scrappers collect scrap metal from wherever they can get it. The problem is that looters already grabbed anything easy to get, so scrappers work on the harder to get stuff.”

“So are they the ones with the traps?” Silver asked.

Looking back for a moment, I saw Sweet Sax nod. “The scrappers big target is copper, so they rip it out of the walls, and cut out pipes to get to it. It all takes time, and can make a lot of noise, which can attract unwanted attention. So scrappers will leave traps all over a place they work on, the only problem is that they often leave those traps behind. It not uncommon to see an innocent pony killed by a scrapper trap.”

“I see, that is tragic to hear.” Silver responded.

It didn’t take long for me to find one, a rusted old boar trap chained to the floor. The metal trap was made to clamp down on a leg and never let go. Even in its degraded condition, it had enough power in it to damage an artificial leg that wasn’t up-armored. It would not be a problem getting my hoof out of one, even though the leg would be hell to repair. Silver on the other hoof, he would be fucked if his normal flesh and bone legs caught in that thing.

Disabling the boar trap, I waved for the others to slowly follow me. It didn’t take long to find a few more traps: a trip wire connected to a small boulder on a rope, and a covered hole with some spikes under it.

Past the traps, and further into the offices, the signs of scrappers died off. The place was still looted, but other than the mess, it didn’t look like anything was cut apart.

Dust and mold took over as the main danger here, with it brushing up after every hoofstep. Worse of all, it was obscuring our vision. We all put on or rebreathers to save our mouth and noses from drying up, and for protections from possible chemical dangers. Though the construction from the wartime was exceedingly good, it turned out that some of the materials used were... quite toxic. Asbestos was a common problem here, used in nearly everything. It made a good flame retardant material, but turned out to be the leading cause of many respiratory illnesses among the islands.

Eventually we came closer to the other side of the offices, the long dark and decayed halls giving way to more concrete and pipes. As I walked, a buzzing sound could be heard from one of the rooms, the door to it hanging open enough for me to look in.

The room was just another office, but Twittermites buzzed all over inside. The blue bugs were a unyielding annoyance in the metro. With how they innately produced electricity, they often shorted out anything with a spell matrix. Worse yet, they were exceedingly deadly in high numbers.

In the middle of the swarm I could see a ghoul, it’s flesh charred, and Twittermites crawling all over it. It’s belly was bloated, and had holes were the bugs would crawl in and out of. Who ever the ghoul had been, they were no longer living alone. The pony was now a walking hive for the wretched glowing bugs.

Carefully closing the door, I waved at the Sweet Sax, and connected to her with the telepathy talasman. ‘There's a twittermite infestation behind this door, so be careful. It’s a hive.’

Sweet Sax nodded. ‘Really, I knew I should have taken a bug bomb with me.’

I shook my head. ‘Be glad you didn’t.’

Rolling her eyes, Sweet Sax sighd. ‘It can never be simple can it.’ She motioned for Silver to be careful here, and followed me. ‘Let’s hope that poor soul doesn't up deciding to follow us.’

‘Don’t jinx us, will you!?’ I quickly retorted, leaving the room behind me.

Further in, found what was the entrance to the offices. It was a simple wooden door with a glass window, surprisingly still intact and in good condition. The words on the door on my side were backwards, but still easy enough to read. ‘Solaris Inc. Metro Management Office.’ Above the words was the image of a white male alicorn, with the phrase ‘Try the Alternative’ next to it.

From what I learned in Orthrus, anything that came from Solaris Inc. was often bad news. Something about them making a vacuum cleaner that accidentally doubled as a sonic weapon. Shaking off the thought, I opened the door and took a peek around. We were at another metro station, possibly still an underground only one. No big monsters here, nor any death bots, which was a good sign in my book. I signaled to the others that it was safe, and we left the office.

_____________________________________

Closer now to the heart of the city, the tunnels twisted and turned in a near sickly fashion. The rusted pipes would rumble periodically, making us uneasy as we passed. The walls were covered in a fine layer of mold, making it look black and rotted even with light on it. Roots sprouted out of every crack, and was home to insects of a much smaller size compared to the rad roches. I didn’t like the look of it, but the objective marker pushed us forward.

If memory served me right, nearby was a supply road that ran underground. It was where much of the toxic world above had entered into the metro here, making it home to some of the larger monsters that lived here. To solidify that danger, the bones of dead ponies could be found, new and old. Some bones came with prosthetics, rusted and bent.

This was the kind of place horror stories were born. It was the graveyard for the foolish, the unprepared, and the simply unlucky. Though there were many places to hide down here, sanctuary from most threats this place had to offer, without any help on the way, death would eventually find a pony. Dehydration was common, followed by death when the desperate turned to drinking the toxic water found here.

Silver Relief had lead us here so our target was in the area. Now we simply had to figure out if his so called ‘brother’ was above or below us. The likely answer to that was that he was in all probability, further below us. Staying above would be suicide without any support coming to help. Checking the map on my pipleg, the direction we were heading was the sewers. Logical choice if you were to flee, seeing as they should connect to a few of the lower tunnels.

“This place only seems to get worse and worse.” Silver quietly commented. “And to think, ponies willingly come out here.”

“As long as there is a demand for what’s out here, there are ponies willing to supply it.” Sweet Sax responded.

“And so the truth of the world is revealed.” Silver said with a slight uplifted tone. “That’s why ponies like myself rarely leave the kingdom.”

I shook my head. His kind had been dropping in number, and becoming more inbred with every passing generation. The Orphic Kingdom still had a lot of old world ponies living there, but with each generation, less and less of them were seen as pure. I didn’t know much about the royal family, but rumorwas that most of them were born sickly. The princess, Harp Melody, seemed to be the telltale sign that things were going badly for the pure breeds. If the queen was accepting treatments that would give her a mirage pony foal, it could mean that even she might not be as ‘pure’ as everypony thinks.

“Were moving to the sewers, so mind your step.” I warned them. The service door opened with a squeak. Nothing too loud, but enough to make me nervous. I was glad that I had the rebreather on, as I could almost feel the rancid humid air hit my skin as I stepped into the sewer tunnel.

The sewers here were only barely considered underground. Much of the ceilings were either in an advanced state of decay, or just gone altogether. Through the holes, beams of unfiltered, natural sunlight shot inside, warming the concrete tube itself. The sun was high above, undeniably making the humidity worse, but providing us with more light than we could ever need. Grass and flowers sprouted wherever they could, and tree roots snaked around the walls to get to the toxic water.

Stepping into the sewers after us, Silver paused for a moment to look around. “Sight’s like this never cease to amaze me.”

Sweet Sax closed the door behind her. “Too bad everything here is out to kill us ponies, even the fucking air.”

“On that point, let’s not stay out here too long, another service door is not far away.” My eyes scanned the area, I didn’t like being out in the open like this. “So let’s move before something sees us.”

The other two nodded, and followed me through the swamp like sewers. Slick moss made it hard to walk, but luckily some other ponies had come this way, and there hoof prints showed us where it was safe to tread. Also whoever was down this way before had cut away at the fungus and vines that once were in the way, giving us a clear view of where we were headed.

Birds were everywhere, somehow taking to this toxic world far better than we had. Mutated versions of what they descended from, most of them were still quite beautiful, and fortunately still friendly.

Nearly to the other service door, I could hear a distinctive engine sound in the air. It was like the trams engines in the tunnels, but something that was unnatural to the surface of the islands. Not wanting to find out what it was, I pushed onward faster, minding my step as I did. The ground in front of the service hatch had signs of being used recently. Mostly, it was the fact that the moss on the floor had been scraped up from when the door had been opened. Reaching out and opening the door, I was greeted once again by the darkness of the metro. The light from the outside only risked going in far enough to reveal the top of the stairwell.

Closing the door, everything was once more wrapped in darkness. Turning on our lamps, we continued down making our way to the lower metro. Each step we took was as soft as possible, but of course we still managed to find the one squeaky metal plate that would give us away. It was always that, or a wayward piece of garbage that banged its way all the way down.

At the bottom, we entered into another service tunnel. This one’s maintenance supplies had been piled in corners long ago to make room for doomed survivors. The messages left behind by slowly dieing ponies had been scribed all over the walls. It’s too bad that they were only to be read so long after they had died.

At the end of the service tunnel was a heavy metal door, which of course, happened to be locked. Pulling out my small screwdriver box, I got to work. I’d never invested in a lockpicking spell matrix. I could still try my hoof at picking without it if I needed to, but not when I usually had a more logical way to open doors. I used the screwdriver to remove the lock panel on the side of the door itself. One screw at a time, I removed the whole thing. Most of the screws were badly corroded, but not stuck enough to never come out. Once the faceplate was all the way off, the door was as good as unlocked. It didn’t take a mechanical genius to do this, or even be really skilled. I just needed to manipulate one or two parts and the door was ready to open.

On the other side of the door was another metro service station. Row upon row of degrading train carts sat idly. If the metro here was a safer place, this would have made an excellent spot for a community, or at least a forward outpost for hunters and scrappers.

I could see parts of the station lit up by small lamps that were spread about all over. The lamps didn’t provide much light, but they did give me enough to see a pony standing in a watch tower. The mirage pony had black leather armor, studded with spikes, and the painted images of skulls. The ponies face was covered with a gas mask, but it’s mane was out in the open, and spiked up in a mohawk. Luckily, the pony was not looking in our direction, so we had gotten in undetected.

Whispering to the others, I crouched down low. “Everypony keep low. We’ve got bandits.” The others followed my lead, heeding my words as they crouched.

Silver looked confused, and whispered back to me. “Why are they all the way out here?”

I had to think about it for a second, but an answer was easy to think up. “Probably to collect materials to sell to smugglers, or out here to capture any pony that would come out here. Maybe both?”

Sweet Sax chimed in. “What does your pipbuck say Silver. Does the tag point down there?”

Silver sighed and nodded. This was not something I’d wanted to do, but it looked like we were going to pass through the bandit camp. Still, we’d been having it easy enough so far. It was only a matter of time before some problem cropped up.

“Okay Silver, just stay with us, and we should be able to get through without huge firefight.” Aiming my rifle, I scanned the area for other bandits. From what I could see, I counted a total of three. There was the mohawk one standing on the makeshift watch tower, and two more under the tower, seemingly more interested in eachother. If it was possible, I’d avoid killing them outright.

I was able to creep in close, with Sweet Sax keeping an eye out for any bandits I might have missed, and Silver not far behind her in the shadows. The two bandits below the tower were both mare's. They has the same over the top spiked mohawk as the first pony had, both relaxing with inhalers between them. The two would giggle now and then, and sometimes a leg would move, but they were definitely out of it. There was no mistake, they both were taking the chem called chill.

Chill was basically just refined punga tree sap aerosolized into a gas, sometimes with a few extra ingredient. It acted both as a relaxant, and a hallucinogenic, making it popular among the more down on their luck ponies. If this stuff was enough to take out a bandit, it might be useful in helping me get pass the other bandits without resorting to killing every pony I see.

Looking at the inhaler, and how the two bandits were knocked out, I had an Idea. Stepping up to the two out cold bandits, I quickly rummaging through their pockets looking for more chill inhalers. I found three more full inhalers of the chem, and put them in a pocket on the side of my saddle bag. I still had one bandit here to take out, so I slowly stepped onto the ramp up, careful not to knock anything over. Switching from my rifle to my combat knife, I made sure that the spell was set to less-lethal, its pommel now being the part for attack. Creeping up to the bandit's level, he hadn’t seen me, the gas mask was probably restricting the ponies senses..

With a careful step, and a sweeping of the knife's pommel to the side of his head, the bandit went down. The pony was stunned, but only momentarily. So, I jumped on him. Knocking his mask off, I placed the chill inhaler in his mouth and forced him to use it. The confused bandit attempted to struggle at first, but the chill quickly took effect and he relaxed. With the bandit now uninterested with what was going on, I looked through his pockets.

Sadly, he only had ten ball bearings to an old air rifle that wasn’t even in sight of me. This pony must have been low on the pecking order, which meant there might be more around here. I also found another chill inhaler and bottle of fresh water, both of which I took. Descending from the tower, I found Sweet Sax rummaging through the other Bandits stuff. Quickly, she put a few assorted items in her saddle bag.

"Find anything useful?" I asked .

She nodded, pulling down her rebreather. "Some ammo, some water, and I found three tin-can grenades. So if all else fails, we got more explosives."

Silver came quietly trotting to us, giving the two bandits a look of disgust. "Why don't you just kill them? They can't bother any pony if their dead."

Sweet Sax answered. "First off, we're not here to root out bandits, that's liable to get us killed without backup. Second, were not murders, and we don't work for murders."

I tapped on Sweet Sax shoulder, getting her attention. "I'll look for a way around, so stay hidden.” I hoofed her one of the chill inhalers. “Also take this. If another bandit comes around, use this to put them to sleep."

Sweet Sax nodded, and I began looking for a safe way through the bandit camp. The direct route through the bandit camp was a no go, looking thru a makeshift door to the bandit camp, I could see over a dozen bandits ether standing around, or working on their guns. There was going to be more I could not see, so even attempting to weave through the camp was too dangerous.

There was maintenance ditch that would take me under the trains, and possibly to the other side. Scouting the ditch to about half way, it turned out it was were they were dumping their trash. Empty bottles and cans were everywhere, making it impossible to pass without making a lot of noise.

There was still one way we could go that would get us past the bandit camp undetected, and that was by going over the top of the camp. An old crane system was still hanging above the trains in the station, three of them in total, making a thin bridge over the camp. Looking around, I found a maintenance ladder that went up to the first crane. It was solid, and in a nice concealed spot, the only problem was that one of the bandits was currently using it to hang her panties.

Returning to the others, Sweet Sax had placed the two bandits in suggestive poses. "What, it's a good plan! If another bandit comes looking for them, they would be too distracted to see me coming." She explained smugly.

I wasn't going to start arguing, not now. "I found a way past them." I pointed up. "We can go over them by walking on the crane. As long as we're careful, and quiet, they won't know we were even here."

"Is that the only way in?" Silver asked nervously. I really hoped that he didn't have vertigo.

I shook my head. "It's the only way that can get us through without a fire fight."

Silver sighed. "Blast, I hate heights. But if I must, I must."

Sweet Sax patted him on the back. "Don't worry, it's not that high up. And besides, it's not that far of a walk anyway."

The two followed me to the ladder. I went up first, followed by Silver, while Sweet Sax took the flank position. The first crane was quite sturdy, with only a minor amount of rust to it. What ever paint had been used on the crane, it must have been strong stuff to have held up this well for over two hundred years. Walking along the supports, It didn't take long to get to the neck of the crane.

Walking along, I’d noticed that much of the bandit camp was obstructed by the train carts. I was glad, because it was helping us stay just a bit more hidden as we moved across. The crane was not entirely unused by the bandits, as I had to step over a rope at two different times, both holding up lanterns. The light thankfully didn't reveal our position, but it gave me a good look down at the bandit's operation. It looked like they were cooking chems here. From the cases and vials, rage, dash, med-x, and chill looked to be the most common of the chems there.

Shortly, we’d reached the end of the crane. Getting to the next one was a simple hop, which was foal's play for me to do with my muffle spell on. The other two were much more careful hopping across, waiting for some noise to pick up so to mask the noise they would make with the hop. The neck of the second crane was in the middle of the station this time. This would leave us exposed, taking us over an empty platform. We would be still in the shadows as we crossed, but any curious or wayward glance from a bandit, and they would see us with even the smallest amount of light.

I was first to cross to the other end. It had been just as easy as before, but I was a lot more weary of the bandits below me as I went. Through empty at the moment, the bandits would regularly cross the platform. Each time felt like a disaster waiting to happen, as all they need to do was look up to see any pony crossing.

The weapons the bandits were using were simple old varant air guns, each modified differently with new or scrap parts. Most of the guns looking like they were taped together haphazardly, others looked sleek much like my own rifle. The guns I was worried about most of all were the fat bulky rifles, I didn’t know what they did outside of shooting ball bearings, but I bet it was something nasty.

Next was Silver. With ginger steps, he slowly walked over toward me. Without cause, Silver just stopped and looked around, right in the middle of the crane.

Sweet Sax contacted me with over the telepathy talisman. 'what is he doing?'

'Don't know.' I responded. 'Go push him along, were dead if he gets spotted.'

She quietly walked up to Silver, and they exchanged whispered words. After a moment, she looked up at me. 'Bad news Vibraphone' Sweet Sax thought at me. 'The pipbuck tag suddenly moved.'

Shit! that meant that the pipbuck was here, or we went too low. 'Just get him across before somepony sees us.'

The two of them quickly crossed to the other side, and regrouped with me. Silver looked back in the direction I could only guess was where the pipbuck tag was pointing. Looking in the same direction, I couldn’t see anything except the train carts.

"So what do we do?" Silver asked.

I looked to Sweet Sax, and she nodded. "We will have to go down and see if your brother is here." She pointed in the direction of the train carts. "If not, we at least know we’re close."

"I'll go down on my own, the rest of you stay hidden." I said. "It will be easier for me then for you too." I was looking for a deep dweller with a pipbuck, not easy to miss.

They didn't argue, and we walked to the end of the crane closest to where the tag pointed. It had a good amount of cover, so the others were safe from being seen for the moment. Carefully descending without a ladder, I had to jump onto the top of a train cart and climb down from there. This section of the station was even darker than the rest, which was good for me.

One bandit came around to where I was, and began taking a piss unaware I was just a few hoof-steps away. My position was bad for a sneak attack unless I wanted to go for a kill, so I waited. The bandit began to choff and wheeze a bit, her breath now sounding sickly flemmy.

The mare bandit began patting herself down. “Where's my damn inhaler.” her voice strained under her wheezing.

The opportunity was too good to pass up. “Here use this.” I said to the bandit, passing her a chill inhaler.

“Thanks.” The bandit took it, and breathed the chem in deep. She looked at me, her eyes dilating, and a slight smile on her face. “This is the wrong kind of inhaler silly.” She wheezed.

Not wanting the poor mare to suffocate, I patted her down and found the inhaler she was looking for. It was on the opposite side from where she was checking. Helping her breath it in, the bandit stopped wheezing. She smiled and found a place to sit before falling asleep.

Further in, It didn't take me long to find were the pipbuck tag was probably pointing at. Among the train carts was one armored cart. It didn’t seem constructed to keep ponies out, but rather to keep them in like some sort of prison cart. Metal bars and plates had been welded to the windows, and a sheet metal access door had been constructed in a way that I could not just pop it open like any other doors normally do. Looking in, I could barely make out two ponies laying down inside.

The door may be welded together, but the lock keeping it closed looked simple enough and would probably be easily broken with a bolt cutter. Sadly my lock picking skills were again not going to help me here, so I returned to the pony I knocked out. she was still fast asleep, a leg would periodically kick out. Looking for a key on her, I quickly found one. When I took it back to the prison cart, I was surprised when it didn't work.

Looking around, there were a few boxes with locks on them, most I could open by unscrewing the locks from the box. There was a metal tool case nearby, I didn’t know what was in it, but it might have tools I could use. Without issue, it opened up using the key, and Inside was a whole collection of stolen prosthetic legs. Some of the legs had the blood of their previous owners still on them.

Pulling out the legs quietly, the haphazard collection of different models making me feel uneasy. Under them I found some of the old tools still inside. A hammer and a box of nails sat next to an instruction book for building a gazebo. Opening it, I found that the box of nails happen to be empty. I found a hacksaw, as useful as it would be, it was too rusted to be used. Unknown why it was in here, I found a harpoon gun, the thing was a bit too big for me to just take, so I put it to the side. A bolt cutter was at the very bottom of the case, a bit rusted, but still in working condition. It was exactly what I needed, so I took it and quietly trotted back to the cage.

Breaking the lock, I opened the door and got a better look at the captive ponies inside. There were two mirage ponies inside. One was a mare who looked at me with tearful eyes, and the other, a stallion who had a look of worry on his face.

"Shhh, I'm here to help." I whispered to them. They didn't have her legs, so all the two could do was nod. I doubted that the stallion was the brother that Silver was looking for, so I contacted Sweet Sax over telepathy. 'I found two captives, neither one of them is this brother, or the princesses. I'm going to help them out, and then rejoin you two.’

'The job can never be easy, can it.' Sweet Sax responded.

Turning my attention to the two ponies in need of help, I left the cart and collected the legs for them. It didn't take long for them to get back on their hooves, which filled their faces with hope, and a fearful eagerness to leave.

The mare looked around before looking back too me, worried. "How are we going to get out? How did you get in?" She whispered softly.

"Just follow me, I have a way out." I advised her. The two nodded. "So how did you two end up here?" I asked.

The stallion answered. "Were scrappers. We got ambushed on our way back. We don't know how long it's been, but I thought we were going to starve in there."

The mare picked up the harpoon gun, and a few of the other legs. Scrappers were going to do what they did best, so I didn’t say anything about it. Also, if they were going to get to Charon’s Stop, they will need that gun.

Taking them to where I had climbed down, I helped the two take off the bandit's armor. The bandit mare didn’t resist, and giggled at our attempt. This gave me a chill down my spine, and I made a mental note to never take the chem. The two scrappers didn't take the armor for themselves, draping it over the bandit. They did take the bandit’s saddle bag, gas mask, and weapon. Helping them up onto the train cart, they returned the favor by helping me up. Sweet Sax was already waiting to pull the ponies up onto the crane.

When we were all safely up, they all made room for me to take the lead position again. Silver looked quite unhappy with our two new companions, but they gave him a smile, and Silver simply looked away. The animosity between the deep dwellers and the mirage ponies was thick, but at least the two scrappers were willing to look past the issues that split the groups. Silver on the other hoof, I wasn’t sure would ever change.

"You do know they are going to slow us down right?" Silver spoke with a forcefull, yet hushed tone.

"Don't worry." Sweet Sax calmly interjected. "Once we're out of here, they will go their own way, and we will go ours." While Sax had a good point, I didn’t like risking it, but it was the right thing to do. Silver of course, just huffed his annoyance.

*Crack*

Everything stopped, and the camp went silent.

*Crack*

The sound came from the ceiling, near the center of the station. Lights beams flickered on, illuminating the ceiling, revealing a large crack above the station. The Bandits began to panic, and calls of a tunnel collapse went out among them.

*Crack*

Parts of the ceiling broke off, crashing down onto the station. Now the bandits were really moving it, grabbing what they could, and running for the exit. With a roar, the ceiling gave way, and the station filled with dust. The two scrappers began sharing the gas mask they took from the bandit, as the rest of us sat dumbfounded.

"GO! GO! GO! THIS IS OUR WAY OUT!" The voice of a mare yelled from the dust cloud, as more of the ceiling began to collapse.

"Let's get the fuck out of here!" Sweet Sax yelled, and the rest didn’t need to be told twice.

No longer worried about stealth, we jumped down, bouncing off a train cart. Quite roughly we landed on the dusty ground. We took off as fast as we could, but had been slowed down by the maze like layout of the camp. I watched as a piece of the ceiling fell down in front of me, catching a fleeing bandit under it as she ran. With a resounding crack, it crushed her back half and killing the mare outright. Unphased by the event, I ran forward and hopped over the debris as best I could. The stallion scrapper stumbled into my flank, nearly knocking me down. Taking a look, I saw that he had taken the dead bandits gas mask for himself, and was struggling to get it on. The risky maneuver forced me to slow down. He gave me an apologetic look through the mask. I couldn’t blame him, without the mask he would be a dead pony walking the second we got back outside this tunnel.

We ran into a panicked bandit, who was shocked and confused to see us. Wisely, she turned the other direction and ran. With the thunderous cracking and smashing of the rocks falling around us, nopony had time for a firefight now. The falling ceiling had also started a roaring chemical fire in the drug cooking area, blocking one of our ways through and filling the area with thick, choking smoke. Having a hard time keeping up with Sweet Sax, who was now too far ahead to properly see, I made sure the two scrappers stuck close to me. They needed my help more than Sweet did.

A loud explosion went off nearby, I could feel the heat of the shockwave, and my ears rang like I was next to a siren. "THIS WAY! FOLLOW ME!" I yelled as loudly as I could. With how bad the visibility had gotten, yelling was the only way I knew they knew where I was. "DON'T FALL BEHIND, AND WE WILL GET OUT OF HERE."

“Right behind you sis!” The stallion responded, the gas mask muffling his voice.

Trotting, I had to make my way through a train cart. "TAKE A LEFT, AND THEN THE FIRST RIGHT." around another dead body. "WATCH YOUR STEP, WE GOT BODIES HERE." I ran into a table, nearly taking the wind out of me, I quickly recovered my bearings and jumped on and over the table. "DON'T STOP HERE, WE’RE GOING OVER." Just in the distance I could see a yellow flashing light, an open emergency exit was ahead of us. "JUST AHEAD NOW, I FOUND AN EXIT."

Getting up to a gallop now, I rushed through the doorway and exited the dust cloud right into two bandits. The three of us didn't waste time, the two bandits pulled out their rifles, and I entered S.A.T.S.

The spell slowed everything to an absolute crawl, allowing me to assess my situation. The tunnel we were in was too tight to use my rifle, so my enforcer was my best choice. Selecting the first bandit, I only had a 50% chance to hit. Sadly, I would need to be a lot closer to get a better chance to hit.

Exiting S.A.T.S. I dodge rolled into them. The two bandits were quick to draw their guns. Thankfully, they weren’t as quick with aiming at me as I rolled at them. The move put me too close for them to compensate. Their shots missed me by a hair as I activated S.A.T.S.

Selecting the first bandit's head, I had a 86% chance to hit, good odds. The second bandit gave me an 80% chance to hit, not as good, but I’ll take it. Letting S.A.T.S. do it’s work, my revolver levitated up to my mouth, and I bit onto the handle all in one motion. With a firm pull of the trigger, I fired.

My shot hit it's mark, sending gray matter flying as the bullet passed through the first bandit’s skull in slow motion. I hated how S.A.T.S. had to show me everything in it's gory detail. Seriously, centuries of time, and nopony coded a way for me to skip it.

The second bandit caught me off guard. She dropped her rifle and quickly deflected my revolver. My second shot went off, just missing the side of her head. The mare took a hoof-to-hoof combat stance, and lunged at me. She clipped me in the jaw with her steel plated hooves. The hit was enough to knock my gun from my mouth, but not to knock me over.

"Minerva, knife now!" My combat knife floated out and slashed at the bandit. She just laughed as the knife cut a line across her chest. Unphased, she jumped straight at me. The hit knocked me over, sending my combat knife flipping out of Minerva's grip.

"I don't know who you are, but after I'm finished shoving a bottle up your ass, I'm going to kick you until you shit blood and glass!" The mare reared up for one more hoof strike, and...

...and simply vaporized.

She suddenly turned red orange, and the look on her face was of shock and confusion. Her body turned to dust and her legs fell off. With a clatter, the prosthetics landed to the side of the dust pile that was once her.

Looking back at the door, I saw two ponies. They were not the two scrappers I had freed, but one was a pegasus stallion in armor I had never seen before, and welding a beam rifle. The other was a dainty looking mirage pony mare with all of her legs intact.

"Uhm... hi?" The stallion said as they looked at me in confusion, then to themselves, and back to me.

The mare gasped, ran to me, and gave me a hug. "You must be an Orthrus pony, oh lucky day! You must help me get home, mother must be worried about me." She was holding me a bit too tight, but I was a bit too confused to resist.

"Miss Harp, you might want to let the poor mare go, she's running out of air." The pegasus bluntly stated. Wait, did he just call her miss Harp?

As she let me go, I took a deep breath and looked at the mare. "Harp, as in Harp Melody, princess Harp Melody?" I asked.

The mare scooted back, and looked away shyly. "Maybe."

I got on my hooves. "Just a moment." I attempted to connect to Sweet Sax through telepathy. 'Sweet come in, I found the princess, I repeat I found the princess!'

'Wh-t!--hat's-gr--e,---t's-me---up-on---r-wa-------t--Ch--on's---op.---so-I---st-Sil--r,-so--ad.' The link was garbled and warped, we were too far apart to properly communicate now. I didn't know if Sweet got my message, but I knew I needed to get the princess back to Charon's Stop. Sweet Sax would be heading that way if she got the message or not, it was our standard procedure if we ever got separated.

Patting some of the dust off me, I looked at my temporary Pegasus companion. "So, what's your name?"

“Names Merit Cross,” He smiled, and took a deep breath, but was interrupted by a sudden burst of loud gunfire. It sounded like a machine gun of a large caliber, something that would attract every monster for miles. He quickly turned around and looked out at the door. “I need to get my comrades out of here, can you help?"

I nodded. "Then follow me.” Another loud explosion rocked the tunnel, and debris fell from the station, blocking the door. “Fuck, this is bad. We need to get out of here now! We can look for your friends later."

The pegasus huffed, and begrudgingly agreed. The three of us ran down the tunnel, my pipleg the only source of light for them to see. I could only hope that we could get this whole mess sorted out once I met up with Sax and Silver back at Charon's Stop.

Footnote:

New Quest - Who Dares, Wins