Clattering was the next thing that met my ears. It was ever so light, like somepony had tossed an object that was not round across a flat surface. More clattering, but louder, and like a rattle. The lighter clattering followed, along with the sound of a hoof tapping on wood. No, not wood, but I couldn’t put my hoof on just what it actually was.

“Blast, I demand a re roll!” A stallion shouted, the voice all too familiar. As much as I wished to forget everything about him, Golden Rule’s voice was unmistakable.

“And why do you wish to win so much?” A chuckling, wispy, and chilling voice caressed my ears. “What reward do you think will come?”

“You know what I’ll win!” Golden spoke with overwhelming frustration in his voice.

Opening my eyes, I saw Golden Rule sitting at a table. Across from him was a dingy black robed pony who was skinny as bones… or upon closer look, actually just bones. Hey, I knew those bones...

“Fine.” Charon sat there, dice on her outstretched hood and her scythe resting on the table like a barrier between the two. “Another round then.”

The two rolled their dice, and Golden’s expression turned from frustration to a smile. “My win.”

Charon tossed a coin onto the table. “Forgetting the rules already, or do you think this is blackjack, and I'm the house?” She lifted up the dice, and rolled them. “Ahh, nineteen. Beats your eighteen.”

Golden grumbled. “Right, you can keep going.”

“Until I run out of bits, or go over twenty-one.” She twisted her hoof, producing several gold bits. “Trust me on this, I have enough bits to play for eternity.” The bits rolled off her hoof, and vanished down her sleeve.

Golden pulled out a bit from a pocket, kissed it, and threw it on the table. Lifting his dice, he meekly rolled them, they stopped and his eyes lit up. “Ha, twenty-one!”

Charon tossed another bit, and tossed the dice, and then repetitive the action two more times.

“Twenty-three, my win.” Golden spoke, his voice a bit sing song.

“Then were done?” Charon asked.

Golden huffed. “Your fucking right we are. Now do it.”

Charon shrugged. “So be it.”

Some pony came up behind Golden, yet I could not make them out. In a second, Golden was yanked from his spot and dragged away, disappearing into a thick fog. “Why, we had a…” His voice snuffed out, replaced by the sounds of waves.

Charon turned to me, and it was only now that I relied that I could not move my head. Actually, I couldn’t move at all, and I began to realize that there was something seriously wrong with me. Her boney hooves scooped under me, and… lifted me up?

“Whomever started the tall tail of winning a game against death, must have been a sadist.” She sighed as her empty sockets beheld me with what I could only catagorize as a ‘sad’ gaze. “So many gets their hopes up, but only find no reward in the end, only the truth.”

“That truth is...?” I asked.

“All that dies, stays as such. Once touched by death, none shall return.” Charon spoke with a hunting whisper. “Even the one who can claim to have returned, return incomplete, broken, never again who they once were.”

Alright, that didn’t really paint my visit here in a very pretty light. So then, now to the big question. “Then, am I dead?”

She placed me on the table, of which now I could now clearly see as being made from polished bones. “A hoof half in the grave at least, but no, you are not dead yet.” Sitting at the table, she began to fiddle with the dice. “You were out, and I needed a little a distance filling the boat to Tartarus.”

The pony from before trotted into view, a headless pony with a peach coat, a blond tail, and gray stripes.

“Wait… is that my body?” I gasped.

I was sure it was, but the mechanical legs were not there. In their place were what looked like black leg armor from an old fantasy book. Yet, seeing the joints, I could tell that the legs where empty, empty of all but a flickering blue light. Well, at the very least it explained why I couldn’t move right now.

“Sometimes it takes extra time to find and drag wicked souls over.” Charon waved my body over. “Some using chaos to hide, others are simply better at resisting my pull. But, you make such a lovely bloodhound for me, I wish I could keep you around longer.”

“But why, and how?” I asked. The longer I looked at… myself, the more unnerved this whole situation made me.

“How? Death magic, to put it plainly.” She lifted my head up again, and placed it onto my body, turning my head until it was on straight. “It's among the strongest magics in all creation, but only meant for the dead, in the land of the dead. Outside the land of the dead, in the hooves of mortals, it rots all that it contacts; body, mind, and soul. As for your question of why, it’s simple. Because I can use you, and I wanted the help.”

The fog began to clear, slowly revealing the rocky beach we were on. Scattered all around us were broken bones and shattered skulls. On the water's edge were two boats, each of them looking sharply different from each other. As stark a contrast as night and day.

The first one was a finely crafted wooden piece of art. The smooth wood had engravings of ponies frolicking in fields, among other happy depictions on it. On the front of the boat, grew a full and healthy looking apple tree, complete with the ripe red delicious looking fruit dangling from its branches.

The second was just as impressive, but in the opposite way. I was burnt ashen black, with carvings of ponies with their faces in anguish, and heavy metal collars around their necks, connected by what looked to be a heavy chain. The most imposing part of the boat was the large cage that took much of the boats deck, of which ponies futility reached and cried out for help. Standing among the trapped ponies, was Golden Rule, who’s eyes were filled with a fear I’d never thought I’d see on him.

“So, what do I do next?” She did say I wasn’t dead, but I was here, so there must be something else I was meant to do.

“You can wake up now.” Charon picked up her scythe, and pointed it at me. “Keep moving forward, but it’s not like you have a choice though. As soon as you turn back, or stop, we are sure to meet again for the last time.” She then touched my nose with her scythe. “Boop.”

Numb.

That was the appropriate way to describe how I felt. Pushing myself up, I was relieved that all my legs worked, but from my neck to my tail it was like my body was not their. That, or it was somehow now made of jelly.

‘How much MED-X was I given?’ Was what I’d tried to say. Unfortunately, my tongue also was numb, so all I said was. “Hoo wuch ed-hex us hi giiin.”

“Echo pony is awake.” Mayall called out. Looking over, I saw that her fins and joints were still very much pink. Strangely the fin on her head was looking longer than it had been, and was now flopping to one side on its own, rather than needing the hat to help it.

Sweet and Merit came around a corner, the both of them looking a little worse for wear, and for some reason splattered in mud. Sweets gas mask had a long crack going through its eyepiece, and her rigging was missing. Merit was sporting a splint on his back left leg, but other than that it didn’t look like their injuries were anything too serious.

“Done with your beauty sleep?” Sweet mocked as she trotted up to me and gave me a hard tap on the shoulder. “Before you ask, you were only out for little more than an hour. So we should still have plenty of time locating Harp.”

Pushing myself up onto all fours, my body suddenly felt filled with pins and needles. I almost fell over, but Merit flew over and helped stabilize me.

“Careful now, you're still working off the Med-X, and that chill stuff.” I gave him a ‘I know’ look, not wanting to open my mouth and sound stupid. “Hay,” he huffed and gave me a concerned look. “We had to do it. You were in the worst shape out of all of us, mainly because Sweet fell on top of you in the crash.”

I looked over to Sweet, and she gave a nervous laugh. “You basically broke my fall after the vertibuck fell to pieces.” I glanced over at Mayall, whom other then her sailor outfit being a bit ripped and dirty, was now totally fine, well aside the pink. “Oh, the lurker. She was like a fucking cannonball. I saw her jump and ball up during the crash. There was literally a hole in the canopy she fell through, it was the craziest move I’ve seen in a while, but she made it through practically unscathed.” Sweet shook her head and bit her lip jealousy. “What I wouldn’t give to have an armor shell like hers in times like that.”

“So…” I was starting to feel my tongue properly, if still tingly. “We’re all accounted for, let's get moving.”

Merit sighed, his mask making it sound deeper then normal. “I would advise we wait a bit more, but our filters were not meant to last forever.”

Rubbing one of the intake filter on my mask, a bit of pollen rubbed off onto my hoof. With the weather dryer right know, the pollen count must be high, making it dangerous to be out without enough backup filters.

“Well,” I sighed and looked at the others. “If we can find some water and rags, we could make some protective cover for our filters. It won’t help much, but it should make them last a little longer out here.”

We all checked what supplies we had left between us, and it wasn’t looking hopeful. All our medical supply a spent, we had two shotgun shells, one clip for a .308, and a magazine for 10mm. For or air rifles, we had twenty-four bolts between Sweet and I. We were prepared for a trek through the forest, but not for a prolonged firefight.

Activating my pipleg, I once again checked the map and the tracking spell. Though Harp did not appear on the local map, her blue dot did appeared on my E.F.S. meaning we at least had a direction to follow.

This jungle was much the same as the other islands. However, with a closer inspection we were likely in what use to be a city, but the plants had completely taken over everything. Large colorful flowers decorated the ruins, and buzzing insect rushed through the air from one to the next. One tree grew out of the rusted remains of a rusted skywagon, and the vines hung from it hung everywhere, tuning this forest into a foreboding labyrinth.

“Been wondering.” Merit spoke up as we traveled. “What do you think made the plants produce toxic pollen?”

I was a little taken aback. Not because it was an odd or offencive question or anything, but it was a question nopony really asked or thought about.

“Mega-Spells I think.” Sweet was first to answer. “If I remember right, it had to do with some old equestrian ordnance that must have failed to launch correctly and detonated over the islands. Something called an Ever-bomb, I think.”

“An Everfree Megaspell Bomb.” I corrected Sweet. “Orthrus is a bit serious about keeping their facts straight. I still have my old survival hoof book issue to all Orthrus members back at home. Basically, from what documents Orthrus had recovered, this type of megaspell was meant to cause rapid and aggressive plant growth. The idea was that the Zebras would get s bogged down in weed whacking that a whole city would be considered destroyed with minimal loss of life. Unsurprisingly it was a ministry of peace mega-spell, and is thought to have original been created from a crop going spell.” Tapping at my chin, I remembered a hoofnote at the bottom of the section. “Though, apparently trying to use magic when farming never turned out well, which is probably why they weaponised it in the first place.”

Merit shrugged. “Here I was guessing that it was the Zebras that did this.”

“That's also correct,” I added, and continued. “Balefire and some other nasty shit was in the air for the first few days. And well, the everfree bomb made sure that it didn't go away, and instead mutated to adapt to it. I'm stretching my memory on the matter, but I think there was a theory as well that most of the more aggressive plants and trees originate from taint dumping grounds.”

“All that created a vibrant and strangely beautiful jungle,” Merit commented. “that is still utterly deadly to ponies.”

Sweet trotted ahead of us, only to suddenly stop. “This way’s no good. We’ve got to go around this open sewer tunnel.”

Quickly, we doubled back and around the ruins. Most of the broken city sewers were perfect natural growing zones that left the jungle too dense with vegetation to cut thru. It wasn’t anything more than a minor nuisance, but it still took up time I hadn’t wanted to waste.

“Hay Merit,” Sweet spoke up as she took the lead again. “we might as well show you the old war museum. It's still got photos from before the war, and of right after. Amazingly enough, all the islands were actually blasted bare. All the original trees were dead, and the ponies who took the photos saw the beginnings of the new jungle.”

The dense jungle continue to prove a hindrance. Where there wasn’t a wall of vines, there was a clumping of seed spitter plants. A small swarm of dog sized mosquitoes feasted on a dead rad-bore, of which we had to fight off when they realized we were there. One even spit blood in Sweets face, which could have been bad, but thank goodness for gas masks.

The giant insects only continued to lightly harass us as we passed by. Most were too weak to pose a real danger, but even then, death by a thousand cuts is still death. But fighting them would slow us down even further and was a risk that didn’t need to be taken.

“Hey look!” Merit called out, flying a bit ahead of us.

Trotting a bit faster, and pushing some of the vines away, the wreckage of Harps vertibuck came into view. The rusty craft was tangle in the vines. One of the propeller engines was just completely gone, and a royal guard hung upside-down, dangling from his taped hoof. There wasn’t any use checking if he was still alive, as nopony lasted this long out here without a mask.

Below the vertibuck was a mess of hoofprints, and bullet casings. Well, a few of them made it out of here alive, and from the lack of her body, it looked like Harp was one of them. There was blood spatter, but most of it had pooled around the hanging pony. Nearby was a small body of murky water, with some more hoof prints next to it. A curiosity of these prints was that once they got close to the water, they turned into deep lines along the jungle floor, like something had dragged them into the water.

A tingle ran down my spine, and I turned to Mayall. “Do you still have some of that chill?” The pink lurker shook her head. It was no loss, really. With or without the chill, I was still not going near the water.

*splat*

Merit had cut the royal guard down, sending mud and blood flying as his body hit the ground. Sweet and I just looked at him in confusion.

“What?” Merit shrugged and started to check over the corpse. “just checking him for anything we can use or may need. It’s not like we have luxury of being picky right now.” I was not going to argue with that, but it would have been nice if he’d warned us first. “Say, you said that with a wet cloth, you can make the filters last longer?”

“Ya,” I answered with a quick nod. “covering your filter with it will catch some of the poling without blocking your filter.”

Merit pulled of the guards armor, and began removing the deceased ponies shirt. It was then Sweet tapped my shoulder and whispered into my ear.

“I think I heard something,” She ran her eyes across the dense foliage around us. “see anything on your E.F.S?”

“Lots of things, too many damn bugs.” I remarked, glancing over the red marks in my upper vision were everywhere. There were so many red lines cluttering my compass that it made it completely useless to use other than the lone blue dot that was leading us to Harp. Still, Sweets instincts tended to most be on the ball. “Merit, finish that up quickly because we might have company.”

Sweet and I ran and jumped behind a bush as Merit tore of the shirt of the guardpony. He quickly flew off, and skimmed the shirt along the murky body of water before joining us.

“Will this work?” He asked as he presented the soaked cloth to me.

I nodded, and pulled out my knife, cutting off the sleeves. The wet rags were then tied around Merit’s, Sweet’s, and Mayall’s filter. When touching Mayall, well her mask, my hud display in my vision glitched out, becoming distorted.

“Odd.” I whispered to myself. Touching her with my pipleg, it's screen distorted again. The moment I pulled my leg back, the fuzziness went away, and it returned to normal.

The loud snap of a twig caught my attention. Out from the dense foliage came a pirate. They were a unicorn mare, decorated with with a few large rusty looking rings through her ears. She had a crude SMG hanging on her back, along with a few dulled axes. Her gas mask was decorated with with a pony’s skull that was missing it's lower jaw, as well as some colorful bird feathers dangling from the eye sockets. A few long bits of plumage formed a mohawk along the skulls head, giving it a flashy and definitely not subtle look for a stroll in the jungle.

“Go check th' crash again, squiffy cur” The pirate mare spoke, spite hanging in her voice. She scanned the area by slowly, swiveling her head until her sight fell on the fallen guard. “Oh good, ye finally decided t' come down, 'n... loot off yer own shirt.” Her SMG floated in the air, held in a yellow aura. A wicked smile split her muzzle as she gazed over the foliage around us. “Come out, come out! I only wants t' hurt ye.”

*Splash*

I looked over towards the pond and saw another pony standing in the open. But part of me looked past their sudden appearance because something was off about them. The pony had a very cracked gas mask obscuring their face, and they were absolutely covered in algae and seaweed. It was draped over their whole body, hiding their mane and tail as well. Silently, they stood at the edge of the water, fetlock deep in the mud of the murky water’s shore.

“Oy, oy, ain't you an odd one, taking a dip at this time.” The pirates sounded upbeat as she clapped her hooves. “would ye happen t' know where th' blokes from this gull ran off too? Ye see, I be wha' ye can say, part o' search 'n rescue, 'n they needs findin'.”

The pond pony motioned with her forehoof for the pirate to come closer. Her leg looked odd, yet vaguely familiar, it not being like wet fur like a normal ponies leg, but also not like a prosthetic limb.

“eye eye,” The pirate groaned, “Ye better got some info fo me, as I know you daff localcs ye 'ave win's but can nah fly, a horn but can nah do magic, 'n most o' ye be too crippled t' do th' earth pony or zebra shit. I be a pushin' ye back in th' water, among other thin's wev’a thrown in.” She trotted over to the pond, here hooves making wet slaps in the muddy ground. “Now spill.”

Again the pond pony motion for the pirate to come closer, and the pirate complied, though now she had her SMG at the ready.

“Are ye locals always so odd t’ strangers?” She got face to face the the other pony, and tapped the pond pony on the head with her SMG. “But that shimmer shine thin' ye can do be nifty, but dun try anythin’ funny. So now, tell me or I might as well get physical.”

An ear splitting snap almost made me jump and cry out. Merit and Sweet also squinted and cringed from the noise. Looking at the pirate, she had fallen over, and was holding her hooves to her ears as a line of blood came from under her hooves, as nose, with her gun now harmlessly stuck in the mud.

The pond pony slowly trotted around the pirate, and bit onto her tail. In doing so the seaweed and moss slipped off to reveal what it truly was. The pony underneath was not a pony at all, rather a type of Lurker. However, it wasn’t a lurker like Mayall or any of the others I’d seen before.

It chitin armor was a dull mud brown, and the fins as murky green as the seaweed that had obscured it. I could now see that the seaweed that had been covering it was actually a cloak, made from what looked like a fishnet with the organic parts sown in. The Lurker slowly began to drag the pirate into the water, the pirate’s hooves gouging identical lines to what I’d seen earlier. First the lurker went under, sinking into the murky pool before the twitching pirate dipped in, and disappeared from sight as well .

A few bubbles came up, but seen the pond quickly became as still as a grave. The only evidences that any pony had even been there, was SMG sticking out of the mud, the hoofprints, and the marks of a pony being dragged.

“You know what Viby,” Sweet whispered as she leaned closer to me. “I’m kind of starting to understand why you hate the water so much.” She put her hoof on my shoulder, and shook me a little, forcing me to look away from the pond and instead at her. “Let's go. Staying around here is not good for anypony.”

I slowly nodded, turning to the direction of Harps pipbuck signal. My E.F.S scrambled a bit when I passed Mayall, making it something I needed to talk with her about. That, and I needed her to explain just what in Tartarus that other lurker even was.

The pirates were getting more aggressive here. The sound of the jungle bugs and animals were quickly silenced by the vertibucks flying overhead. We had the occasional flying pirate poking through the canopy, causing us to keep our progress slow enough that we could get under cover when they appeared. Luckily the pirates were far from quiet, giving us ample time to find places to avoid them at.

Our trek through the thick jungle persisted, the bayonet given to me by Cornett proving useful enough to hack through some of the vines as I swung my rifle. A few times we caught a beast unaware, our sound dampening talismans doing their job. It was mainly the odd rad-boar scattered by the pirates activity, though a few were more groups of oversized insects.

Sweet and I took turns eliminating the beasts. The steel bolts both killed quickly and quietly, as well maintained their shape so we could reuse them. I didn't see any practical military use for the bolt rifle, but I could see them as a good replacement for hunters to use.

The crumbling ruins started to give way to just the jungle, the hollowed out buildings becoming more spread out and smaller. We had to pass through one of the two story building that were now more common than before. The old structure was far better preserved than it should be, though still horribly decayed. As we passed through, on open room caught my eye. Inside was a hazmat suit. The foggy vizor on the helmet was broken, and looked like an object had punched through it long ago. there was a sizable hole through the back of the helmet and through the wall behind it as well left by what was probably a weapon far too long ago to matter what it was now. There was no sign of a pony inside, just cobwebs and spiders, but the seen gave me a profound feeling of hopelessness.

The scenery didn't improve past the building, the walls giving way to more jungle, and what building we saw were now individual homes, only shells of once wase there. We jumped into a trench that was the remains of another, somewhat smaller sewer line. Of course, more death greeted us the moment we were in it. This time however, it was two dead scavengers. Their bags stuffed full of rotting punga fruit marked the grizzly scene as only a few days old. Both corpses were boiled and burnt, leaving most of their supplies useless.

Sweet looted one surviving filter, and a bottle of punga fruit moonshine off the two corpses. “My guess from their burns? Twitter-mites. They must have accidentally trotted into a swarm.”

“Twitter what-now?” Merit asked.

“Electric wasps, basically.” Sweet answered as she passed the filter to him. “They utterly wreck the wiring in the metro wherever they crop up, and are ten times worse when it comes to ponies. Their sting is among the worst kind of pain, but whole a swarm can create a mini thunder cloud that’ll cook you from the inside out. Not something you want to get caught up in as you can see.”

“Okay...” Merit shuttered. “Noted.”

We continued pushing forward, though now worried about finding the missing swarm of Twitter-mites. What concerned me the most was that the bugs were nowhere to be seen at all. While that meant that the hive had likely moved recently, seeing as Twitter-mites didn’t venture far from it, it could mean that their absence meant there was a walking hive in the area. It all reminded me of the infested ghoul I passed by on the big island, and I could only hope we get as lucky as before.

Pushing onward, my E.F.S continued to mostly be useless. With nearly all the large insects hostile in one way or another, it was still impossible to pick anything out of the display. If it wasn’t for Harps pipbuck tag, we would certainly find ourselves completely lost. Which brought another, more concerning thought to mind. I sure hoped that while we weren’t lost following her tag, there’s nothing to say that Harp couldn’t be lost and leading us so far from salvation that we never get back before our filters died.

“If ya not going to spill, by the light of the goddesses, I'll cut your tongue out!” The yelling that bled through the foliage ahead came from a familiar sounding mare.

Peeking through the vines, we saw Graceful standing over a royal guard. The guard was pinned to a tree by a thin sword, and was suffering from what looked like a broken wing that had been bent in a painful direction. Merit winced and stifled a small whine as he caught sight of the wrecked wing.

“You think you can scare me, savage?” The guard laughed, which quickly turned to coughing. “What Captain Stratus would do to me if I sold out any member of the royal family is far more frightening than dying out here. So by all means, do your worst.”

I aimed down the sight of my rifle. With a pull of the trigger, and a blast of air, the bolt flew. My aim was a bit low, piercing Graceful in the neck. The bolt passed through her flesh easily and lodged itself into the tree next to the pinned pegasus. Graceful held a hoof to her neck, giving a gurgling gasp of surprise. Before she could turn and look to see who’d killed her, she crumpled to the ground. It was a far more merciful death than she deserved.

Rushing over to the royal guard, we carefully removed him from the tree. In doing so, and due to our lack of medical supplies, we were forced to keep the sword in his shoulder. He wasn’t bleeding too badly from the wound, but out in the jungle, a wound like that could still be quite fatal.

“Are you good enough to move?” I asked as I helped Sweet to help keep him on his hooves.

“I… I think so.” The guard coughed coughed a few times. “While I’m thankful for the assist, who are you?”

“Friends of Harp Melody.” I answered, “She might still have a healing potion, so just stay with us and we will get you to her.”

“How?” the guard asked before going into a coughing fit.

“I have her pipbuck tag on here,” I lifted my pipleg. “once we find her, were heading straight to stable 50.”

The guard nodded. “I don’t think the captain will like knowing you have a tracker on the princess.”

“No, but I think it’s just what I need!” Graceful spoke up in a raspy voice. With movement that caught us all by surprise, she pulled the sword from the guard. Flying up, Graceful licked the blood from the blade, and smiled. Opening her eyes, they were more bloodshot than any druggie I’d ever seen in Charon’s stop.

No, they weren’t bloodshot... her eyes were bleeding.

“Now” She spoke up as she hovered in the air above us. “give me that leg, or don’t. It could be more fun if I have to rip it from you still kicking and screaming.”

“How the fuck are you alive!?” Sweet yelled out.

“By the good graces of the Goddesses, I've been saved.” Graceful laughed, pointing at her neck. A scar had already sealed up where a bloody hole should’ve been. “Once more their mercy blesses me. Once more the call to purify the world wells up and overflows inside of me.” She then pointed down at me with the sword. “You may live, but the others will die.”

She dashed upward. Merit flew up and tackled Graceful, sending the two into a spiraling fall. Merit cried out in pain, letting go of Graceful. She flew up higher, as he slammed into a tree, and fell fell into the muddy ground. Merit, trying to get up, stumbled, his hooves having trouble finding balance. Graceful stopped just below the jungle canopy, and spat out again few bronze colored feathers.

Sweet and I took aim, but a flash and a bang left me momentarily blind and deaf. After a few seconds I recovered, but only to see Graceful standing over the guard with her sword plunged into his neck. Moving the sword like like a lever, she broke the guard's neck with a sickening crack.

Looking into her blood colored eyes, a overwhelming feeling of dread began to smother me. Graceful splintered apart into many birds, all swarming around me, pecking at me. I did my best to swat them away, but to no avail. What the hell was going on?

Almost as quickly as I was assaulted, the birds turned to ashes and blew away.

Sweet had rammed into Graceful, sending the pegasus rolling. Graceful took the hit well, and quickly got back to all fours. She stared down Sweet, shaking her head with a shit eating grin across her muzzle. Sweet paused for a moment before she aimed her rifle and fired. Graceful took a bolt to the chest, and fell over.

“That's it, I'm calling it right now,” Sweet yelled. “these ponies have got some evil shit going on with them!”

Graceful tossed a hissing mettle can at Sweet, it landing not far from her. My eyes whent whide at the crude explosive, but before it exploded, Mayall jumped in the way, sending her flying into Sweet. My ears ringing from the small blast, I ran up to the two, Mayall was out cold, her shell peppered with deep grooves, but fine as far as I could tell. Sweet was dazed, her cyber eyes looking in two different directions. I looked around for Merit, finding him propping himself up on a tree near him, shaking his head, and motioned at Graceful as he slowly backed up, of wight I could only guess was for me to distract her.

“You can't beat me. You can't kill me.” Graceful laughed, “By the grace of the goddesses, I’ve ascended to superiority, far beyond your understanding.”

I aimed my rifle and fired as she charged. Graceful managed to dodge, slamming into me, and standing on me as I slid along the ground. Pulling out my revolver, she bit onto it as I fired, blowing a hole in her cheek, along with sending a few teeth flying. She wrenched the revolver from my telekinetic spell and tossed it to the side. Blood dripped from both her eyes and the gaping wound in her mouth as she smiled. With a much closer look at her teeth than I ever wanted, I saw that they were pointed, if only a little.

“If we didn’t need you, it would be just so easy...” Her eyes had a hunger to them, like a ravenous beast looking at its prey. The blood in her mouth mixed with drool, slowly seeping out, and staining her lips. It all just felt so wrong, so unnatural, and… well, Sweet put it best. Pure evil.

Not seeing the shadow of a pegusus above her, Graceful licked her lips, only smearing more blood onto her face. “You know, at first it was so odd, wrong you could say. But now?” She looked over at Sweet. “I've grown fond of the faces that ponies make as I rip them apart. Seeing their shock as they’re devoured, hearing their impotent pleas for mercy. It’s divine.”

I spat her own blood back at her. “Crazy bitch!”

“You just might be right,” Her eyes turned back to me. “but I'm beyond caring anymore.” She placed the tip of her sword on my shoulder. “Now I just need you to stay still for a moment, the hunger calls.”

In a split moment she vanished from my sight, her sword hanging in the air for a fraction of a second before falling.The form of Merits outstretched hoof, having collided with Gracefuls face, sending her sliding into the mud. I had rather he had shot her, but giving her a broken jaw was good enough for me.

“Falling so low,” Merit shouted. “as expected of a dashite!”

“Oh, so proud,” Graceful got back up as she spat out another tooth. “so loyal and blind.” She mocked him as she laughed and hacked up blood. “Grunts like you should just shut up, cover your eyes, let your superior officer rape your ass raw. And when they’re done fucking you over, don’t forget to thank them for the opportunity.”

Merit fired at Graceful with his SMG, but she quickly flew ahead of the gunfire. The SMG ate through it’s rounds as she dodged ever shot until the magazine was empty. Merit pulled it up and used it to block a swift kick from Graceful as she came around at him. Parts of the scrap built gun went flying from Graceful’s blow, and the hit forced Merit to jump back. She closed in for another hit, but Merit used what was left of the SMG, and clocked her jaw with the broken butt of the gun, sending her flipping into the air. Graceful flared her wings out and stopped in the air, blood still oozing from her mouth as she floated onto the ground.

“So, I’m curious as to what it was? Did you speak out against the enclave, sleep with the wrong politician?” Merit threw the remains of the SMG to the ground. “How did you become the vile traitor you are? And don’t worry, I’m gonna let you say your peace before granting you the death you so rightly deserve.”

She laughed, it was a long maniacal, painful laugh. “You would like that wouldn't you, you enclave fuck. Take everything from me, abuse me, sell me to some mud ponies. And now, your kind wants to take the high road.” She spat onto the ground, a line of the blood mixed slaves hanged from her fractured jaw. “I’ll enjoy gutting you, cooking you, like I did to that freek. You think boiled crab pony would taste bad, something beneath me, but I enjoyed it. More than the freak deserved, not even worthy for the dogs to shit on, but when hungry, even a worthless bottom feeder will do.”

Graceful pulled out a knife, pointing it at Merits as she raedyed herself for a charge. I tried to gallop over to stop her, but I found it hard to move, like somepony was holding me down. “As they say, another one bites the…” Graceful was cut off as a massive slam sent her flying. She crashed into a tree, blood spouting from her mouth as her body let out a thick snap.

“You don’t dare!” Mayall spoke with a growl, spitting out a cunning of blue hair. “You don't dare to speak of him like that.” she trotted over to Graceful, as the winded pirate struggled to get back up. “He had already been through too much because of me! Only for you to do that, to kill, to eat!”

Mayall’s came snout to snout with the pirate, but Graceful quickly stabbed at her, the blade only scratching her thick chitin shell. Placing her hoof on Graceful’s chest, Mayall fins seemed to glow brighter.

“I’ll not grant you a quick or dignified death.” Mayall’s voice had gone cold, all hint of her normal upbeat cheerfulness had gone. “No, not some poison in the ear, or a dagger for you kill yourself. Slow, and painful is what you get. Won't my sister be so proud.”

“Daft monster, let me go!” Graceful yelled, right before more blood spouted from her mouth. Her wild eyes turned to fear as she started to frantically stab at Mayall. More blood seeped from Graceful’s mouth as she started to gurgle her words.

Mayall placed a second hoof on Graceful’s chest, her back hooves now dug into the ground, pressing on a root.

*Crack!*

Graceful gargled out a scream that sent blood dribbling down across Mayall’s lurker hooves.

*Snap*

This time Graceful did not scream, but let out a deep and long moan. Her breathing grew sharply shallower, and now held a sick gurgling sound to it.

*Crunch*

Graceful didn't respond this time, her body had fallen limp in Mayall’s hold. Her head drooped, and her blood now looked like a black icor that seeped out with the consistency of molasses. Mayall held the pirate in place before letting her go, letting Graceful’s body fall over with a wet splat. Everything was still. There were no sounds of birds, bugs, and even the sound of the vertibuck that was far away became muted.

I found myself holding my breath, expecting Graceful to shoot right back up and mock us. I could see her lifeless eyes staring back at me, still filling me with dread.

*Smash*

Mayall brought both hooves down on Graceful’s head, crushing it like a coconut filled with red die and gelatin.

“Pony going to come back?” Mayall growled as she ripped her hoove back and kicked half of Graceful’s skull off into the jungle underbrush. “Didn’t think so.”

All the feeling of dread dissipated, replaced by the more natural tense paranoia. Sweet trotted up to me, pushing an eye back in place.

“Props to the Lurker,” She wore a look of relief as she gave me a firm pat on the side. “but we should get moving before we have a paradise dragon breathing down our necks.”

I nodded, checking my pipleg for the direction of where Harp was. I could only hope, she had fared better than we had.

_____________________________

Music. I could hear it playing, stirring me from my sleep. Old world classical, mother's favorite. It was a mix of string, wind, and percussion in a mellow, yet uplifting tune.

“Lady Harp Melody,” Stratus Dancer called to me. “it's time to wake up.”

“Don't want to.” I huffed weekly.

“I’m afraid it’s not your choice, lady Harp Melody.” Status said in a gentile, yes soft tone. “You have math and ponies lessons with your tutor in an hour. After that, song and instrument lessons with mister and miss Band. When your done with all that, you may join me on the range. I suppose it's far past the time I show you how to properly use a javelin launcher.”

“I don't want to.” I rolled away from her. “They all hate me.”

“Now now, you know that's simply not true.” Stratus said in that playful tone she always did when trying to cheer me up. “But most importantly, if you don't get up now, there won't be enough time for breakfast. I saw that the chef was making bagels, extra fluffy.”

“Fine,” I groaned. “but I want extra jam.”

The comforter and sheet lifted off of me, one of the unicorn maids folded them and placed them neatly at the hoof oh my bed. A second unicorn maid lifted me up and gently placed me onto the floor, removing my night gown at the same time.

“Now I think we should have you wear the blue dress today, don’t you?” Stratus pondered, the purple pegasus towering over me. She had her dress uniform on, with some of the her armor over it, giving her a stylish yet uncompromising look to her.

“Ugh.” I glared at her. “I don’t want Rare Pearls hoof me downs.”

“Lady Harp,” She sighed. “may I remind you that most of the cloths here are hoof me downs? Things like silk are not exactly common in our day and age.” She brightened up with a thought, “Oh! let's add a bow, perhaps the big blue one?”

Stratus clapped as the unicorns maids redressed me. I still didn’t understand why the second in command of the royal guard was looking after me, but I was sure it was to keep me from embarrassing mother.

A few soft knocks rapped at my door.

“Come in.” Stratus spoke up.

The door opened with a hiss, and Rare Pearl stepped in. Golden Rule was behind her, but he thankfully stayed outside.

“Oh good, I had hoped you were here, Stratus. Old Bulwark is at it again, I need you to talk with him, get him to calm down.” Rare Pearl had an azure colored coat with a vibrant silver mane that held strands of gold in it. She was naturally a bit taller then everypony, but that was only part of why she was considered among many to be the most beautiful pony in stable 50.

“I don’t think I can talk any more sense into the captain then you can princess,” Stratus sighed. “Even the queen has given up controlling him. By the way, what's he doing now?”

Rare Pearl took a deep breath and placed her hoof on her chest. She exhaled as she extended her leg. I’d been taught that as a technique to calm myself, but it was far too dramatic for my tastes.

“He is demanding that all VI assistances robots go through a full arcano tech defragging.” She spoke calmly, but it was easy to tell that she was more upset than usual with whatever was going on. “He said that too many of them are showing signs of program degeneration. The help in charge of them told me it would take all day for the robots to be ready for surface, and I have a tea party in little more than four hours. Without Franz, who will serve cake and tea, or set the table?”

Looking back at the two maids, Stratus smirked, the maids giving her a shrug. “Oh so tragic. Truely a disaster beyond all things.” Stratus said in a dramatic tone. “Whatever will you do?”

“I know, which is why I’m pleading with you now.” Rare Pearl responded as she either missed or completely ignored the sarcasm dripping from Stratus’s words. “We simply cannot have the royal family come up short! Can you imagine? It would just be unbecoming in trying times such as these.”

“How about this,” Stratus sighed. “If you let Harp in on the tea party, I’ll prepare the cakes, and tea. I’ll even set the table.”

“Oh, that'd just…” Rare covered her mouth, hiding a little gasp. “That is simply too much. You must be a busy mare, and I won’t have you distracted from your appointed duties.”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all.” Stratus responded. “The queen has personally asked me to look after your youngest sister. If she is to be at the party, then I will be there as well.”

A slight chuckle came from Golden, but he quickly stopped when Rare glared at him. “I understand your duty, but Don’t you think it be best for Harp to be with fillies her own age? A tea party with my friends may prove to be a bit boring for her?”

“Nonsense.” Waving her hoof dismissively, Stratus continued. “I’m sure Harp would love to spend time with her sister. And with me there, you will get to supervise.”

Rare looked away, seemingly frustrated with Stratus. “Fine then, but would you at least talk with your grandfather, we can't have him just making decision on his own.”

“I understand and will talk with the old fool princess, but can you answer me this one thing?” Stratus nodded. “Where are your glasses, princess?”

“Golden is holding onto them,” My sister frowned, not pleased by the question. “and before you say anything, things are a bit fuzzy, but I assure you that I can get around just fine without them.”

“That's not what the other guards say.” Stratus said with a lighthearted chuckle. “I don’t mean to poke fun, princess, but you trotted into the guards changing room last time your glasses went missing. I know you don’t like to wear them, but you're going to get yourself hurt if you do use them.” Rare just huffed, and walked out of my room, Golden Rule following her out of sight.

I couldn't help but giggle a little. “Big sis Rare is blind.” I snorted.

“Not completely, but she might as well be is she doesn’t learn to keep her glasses on.” Stratus sighed. “Now, let's go. Breakfast awaits, miss Harp.” One of the maids placed the big blue ribbon in my mane and pushed me out of the door.

Everything had gone dark. It all had gone quiet, except for the sound of a pony wheezing.

“Oh cute little Harp, healthy as ever.” I turned around to see Silver Majesty standing face to face with me. Her white coat and mane contrasted with her black wheel-harness and the air tank she had strapped to it. Pulling her mask to her face, she wheezed as she breathed in. “You want to play a game with me?”

“Oh no, I’m fine, big sister.” I answered, slowly backing up.

“That’s fine then,” She smirked under her mask, her red eyes glaring at me. “I know how hard it is for you, being our poor mothers shame made flesh. But I’ll be here for you, even when no pony else here wants you.”

“Harp!” Stratus shouted. “Harp, wake up now!”

I was confused, I had already woken up? Looking back over at Silver Majesty, she was gone, and so was everything else. I was in a black void, a light in the distance slowly got brighter. It was a warm light, and loud too. Ponies yelling, along with a roar that made me want to go back.

A sharp pain hit across my cheek, forcing my eyes open. Only to see the mouth of a large beast break through what was a door, and crush a royal guard. The horrifying sight caught me off guard, and I watched as the beast dragged the body off.

“Damnit!” Stratus shouted, her voice muffled by her gas mask. “How much longer?”

“I’m breaking through now Captain.” the stallion shouted as he bucked a metal door. With a slam, it fell off its hinges.

Stratus scooped me up, and dashed through the doorway, into darkness. A large Paradise Dragon burst into the room we’d just been in and attempted to follow us. Thankfully, it couldn’t force it’s way through, only stick its snarling head in through the concrete doorway. Stratus pointed a Javelin Launcher at it, but the monster quickly retreated before she could fire.

“Wha… what’s going on?” I asked, only remembering getting onto the vertibuck before… I can’t quite recall, actually...

Placing me on the ground, Stratus checked me over in the light of the doorway. “How's your vision? Any pains? Or odd tastes in your mouth?”

“I’m fine, I think.” I pushed her hooved off of me and readjusted m mask. “Now tell me, what happened?”

Stratus sighed. “Those barbarians planted an explosive on the vertibuck you were on. I flew over as soon as I could, and got you out of the wreck before it burned up. Unfortunately, the crash attracted that monster, and we’re trying to find a way to get back underground.”

I looked around at where we were now. Much of the room was hidden in shadows to me. One of the surviving guards sat nearby, his armor a complete and total mess. Looking at myself, I was not in much better condition, but my red dress and R&D jacket were still in one piece. The revolver was still on me, and my pipbuck was working. One thing was missing,

“Where's Order?” I asked, frowning as the perky little bot never did stray very far from me normally.

“Somewhere nearby.” The guard spoke up. “The Orthrus drone followed us out, but it had trouble keeping up with us through the jungle.”

I tapped on my pipbuck, and turn a dial, looking up the drone options. I selected the “return” and my pipbuck beeped. With a slight buzzing like humming, the drone floated in through the door the dragon had been through.

“Hello ma’am, good to see you doing well!” His jubilant voice filled me with a small sense of hope that things would be alright.

“Good to see you too Order.” I responded. “Do you have a way to light up this dreadfully dark room?”

“Yes ma’am,” Order paused for a moment, and then bounced in the air. “Along with a basic telekinetic talasman, I also come with a light and a spark talismans. At current power levels, I will need a charge to run the programs at peak efficiency.”

“Come here, Order, and turn on you lights.” The drone complied with my request, and a little ball of light appeared behind it. Placing my hoof on it, I proceeded to charge the magic within myself. My short horn glowed as I focused, and I pushed my magical charge into Order.

The light the little bot gave off was just enough to see where we were. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like it was an old maintenance room of some sort. Though, pretty much anything we could have used in here had long rusted away, leaving just a door ahead that I presumed lead further into the dark.

Stratus tapped on Orders metal shell. “Princess, are you sure you want this thing around when it could be used to spy on us?”

“I'm not going to get rid of it. It was a gift.” I knew she was looking out for me, but if she was going to start nitpicking every choice I make, I might as well take my chances with the pirates.

“As you have said before, but Orthrus is known for their less than honest ways.” She went on.

“As you have said many times before as well.” I didn't want to talk about it, not in New Canterlot, not here and now. “We should get moving. Maybe there will be a way through on the other side of this door.” I pointed at the shut door further in the room.

The guard got up, and trotted to the door. attempting to open it. He gave a quick pull, but his hoof slipped from the rusted handle. With a renewed effort, he grabbed and tugged at it again, still to no effect.

“Won’t open, Princess.” He grunted, giving the door a little kick. “It looks like it’s completely rusted shut.”

The light above Order flickered and got brighter. “Fully powered ma’am.” Order informed me as his light brightened a bit, letting us see a bit more than before.

“That was fast.” I remarked,as I took a better look at the room. The door did look in bad shape, unlikely to ever open again. Roots hung from the ceiling, and the walls were filled with spidering cracks. Where the floor met the walls, mounds of dirt and powdered concrete where everywhere. It was more than could have just be attributed to age and the cracks in the walls. “What could have created those mounds?”

“Anything from out here,” Stratus trotted over to the mounds, and kicked some of the dirt. “And knowing that, it's never anything good.”

Trotting over to one of the mound, I looked behind it, finding a small hole about hoof size. “I wonder.” scanning along the walls, I saw not far from the door, a dirt pile much larger than the others. Investigating it, this one also had bits of metal in it. Behind the pile was a small hole that looked just large enough that a pony could fit though.

“By Celestia, you are not to even think about crawling in there, Princess!” Stratus spoke up right behind me, startling me a little. Looking back at her, giving my best ‘haveyou got a better idea’ look. She huffed. “Who knows what's in there. It’s too risky.”

“Well, I know what’s back out there.” I retorted as I pointed outside. “Not to mention, none of this would’ve been a problem in the first place if you hadn’t separated me from my friends.”

“Princess, dear, one of those friends turned out to be one of those ocean barbarians in a dress.” Stratus took a deep breath. “But fine. With the paradise dragon out there, I’ll concede that this might be our best option at the moment. But first, it needs to be scouted out.”

We both looked at the royal guard, and he visibly gulped.

Still, although his nervousness about the task was quite visible, he complied. He was slightly bigger than the two of us, but he still managed to squeeze into the hole. Quickly, he disappeared into the darkness beyond the range of Order’s light. We could only hear the scraping of his hooves echo down the dark tunnel until it was all quiet. A tense moment passed, where I looked to Stratus with a frown.

“All Clear!” came from the hole.

With a heavy sigh of relief from us both, Stratus and I soon followed, and Order followed closely behind. The small tunnel was pitch black, even with Order’s light shining from behind. I’d momentarily thought about turning on my pipbuck light, but the sound and feeling of dozens of little things around me made me glad that I could not see.

At the end was more darkness, but the confines of the tunnel gave way to a larger space. After pulling Order out of the tunnel, I had the drone turn his light around to illuminate where we were now. We were definitely in some sort of cavern, though something had made a countless amount of holes in the walls, ceiling, and even some in the floor. Still, Stratus nudged me forward.

“Let's go.” She whispered.

With only the light from Order, the end of the cave was nowhere in sight, only a black void that seemed to run on forever. The unnerving tunnel played tricks on my eyes. Now and then, I was certain there was something moving inside some of the holes. I wanted it to just be in my head, but i knew better.

“You know, this place reminds me of an old cookbook.” Stratus’ voice was a little louder than the whisper she’d used before. She must‘ve been nervous herself, because she always got chatty when she was nervous about something. “Well, more of a kind of food I had seen in one. It was called swiss cheese I think. It has all these holes in it, kind of like what we’re seeing here.”

I was about to tell her that was a neat but odd fact, but I nearly tripped into one of the holes in the floor. I let out an eep, scrambling not to lose my balance and slip into the darkness. Thankfully, Stratus caught me before I fell in, and helped me to step around it.

“Careful, can't have you hurting yourself.” She said, a continued. “By the way, what exactly did you mean by us not being in this situation if your so called friends were here?”

“You already know,” I sighed as we got back to walking further into the cave. “There’s no way you don’t know. Vibraphone told you why she was sent here, yet none of you would listen.”

“Yes, you're right.” she confirmed my assumption. “Miss Vibraphone Echo, also known as the dragon slayer, was indeed telling the truth. As regrettable as it was that we didn’t listen, I'm still not going to let an Orthrus agent stay around you. Yes, she brought you back home safely, but anypony from Orthrus is still too untrustworthy in my book.”

“Really?” This again? I had already gotten an ear full up in New Canterlot. “What makes them so untrustworthy?” I asked, already knowing what her answer would be.

“Greed, that's what.” She repeated what nearly every pony said back at home about Orthrus. And though I hated to admit it, I once believed that too. “They’re only out for the bits. They have no sense of charity, or honor. I bet if they could, their leaders would sell out their own if the price was right.”

“Oh, and that's so much worse than trying to have your own sister assassinated,” I retorted with about as much snark as I could muster. “or killing off a station's population just to make room. Or treating some of it’s own as second class citizens just because of how they were born.”

“Princess, I really don't think it's the best time to argue about this .” Stratus said in a low tone.

“Then when?” I growled, “Maybe when elder sis Silver is having one of her lackies tighten their hooves around my neck? Or perhaps the time is after I'm locked away out of sight again?”

Stratus sighed. “Like I said, none of that is going to happen, Princess. Just trust me.”

“Trust?” I said with a little laugh. “I'm having a hard time believing that when everypony lies to me and doesn’t even give my suggestions or ideas a single bit of attention.”

“Now princess, that's just not true.” She trotted up next to me, and in the bot’s dim light, I could see the frown she wore. “Where’s all this coming from? What's bringing this all up?”

“Perhaps I’m just tired of being lied to.” I sighed. “The fact that no pony told me that I'm a bastard, that my late father is not my father. How could you all hide that from me?”

Stratus's worried face dropped, becoming a bit more serious. “So you found out?”

“Of fucking course I did!” I shouted, my voice echoing into the dark. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself down a little. “I actually met him, you know. At first, I thought he was just being a kind old stallion to me, but eventually, the truth got out. And the more I think about it, the more I begin to realize that everypony back home had been lying to me. Though with how things are, I shouldn't have been surprised.”

“Harp.” Stratus voice softened.

“No, you will hear me out.” I continued. “It's not just what’s gone on here, but I don't know if mother will even see me, I mean, I must be her biggest shame.”

“Harp, stop.” Stratus said quietly, sharpening her words a bit.

“Oh Celestia, I should have stayed with Phorminx in Orthrus.” I sighed and tried not to kick myself for getting caught up in everything going back here. “What if I'm making everything worse by coming back!? I mean...” a hoof covered my mouth and forced me to be quiet. I looked back to see Stratus glare into my eyes with a serious stair.

“Don’t move. Don't talk. Trust me.” Stratus then began to lightly whistle.

Something started to Tap on my mask… a monster came into my view over the protective lenses that covered my eyes. I shivered as I realized it was a bug with with more legs than I could count. It crawled over my mask, walking down onto Stratus's leg. It's body kept on going and going. So many legs, walking in undulating movements that didn't stop until it reached all the way up Stratus's leg. As soon as it was off of me, she used her wing to knock it off of her, and to the ground. She gave a quick step, stomping on it a few times until it stopped twitching.

“I hate centipedes.” She said with a huff.

Another centipede crawled out from one of the holes in the wall, this one a bit bigger than the first. “Stratus, there's another one.” I pointed out.

“Not just one.” She said, and I looked up to see more coming crawling out of the holes in the walls. They appeared in every hole, there must have been thousands of them! “Harp, run!”

I didn't need to be told twice, and burst into a gallop. The royal guard ahead of me bolted forward as well, keeping at the edge of the light. More and more centipedes crawled out of the hole as we ran, their many legs audible clicking on the walls and filling the dark tunnel with the sound of a monstrously out of control geiger counter.

“I see something!” the guard yelled, running further ahead into the dark. Focusing with my eyes, a light from ahead into view. It was distant, but it filled me with hope.

In a full gallop my lungs began to burn, and the inside of my mask started to fog up. The light got closer, but resolved into more of a beaming vertical shaft than an opening we could run through. I saw the guard slide into the light, stopping and looking up into it.

Getting to him, I slowed to a stop with Stratus right behind me. Even from here, I could see the blue the skies through the gaping hole in the ceiling. A few exposed roots hugged the hole to the jungle outside, but not anything sturdy enough we could use to get out. The tapping of the centipedes slowly got louder, got closer.

“Order?” I asked as I pointed up at the hole. “Can you go up there and find something to help us climb out of here?”

“Yes, ma’am!” The drone flew up and out of the hole, leaving us with only a small patch of light to stand in.

The clattering was closer now, almost loud enough to drown out the sound of my pounding heart.

Two hooves wrapped around me, and I began to lift off the ground. “I got you princess” Stratus breathed heavily as her wings beat hard and pulled us up through the hole.

“But what about him!?” I pointed at the guard as I wheezed in a near panic.

“No time, and your life matters more,” She said, not being as out of breath as I was. “He knew what he signed on for, but I will not lose you, Princess.”

“Don’t worry about me!” The guard shouted as he was desperately trying to climb up. There wasn’t anything to grasp onto, so it was all wasted effort, yet he tried. “Just go! Get the princess to safety!”

“Move!” a stallion yelled from above.

A bronze blur shot down through the air passed us. In a split second, I saw Merit grab the guard, and pluck him right off the ground. The moment they took off, a mass of red centipedes spilled into the light provided by the hole, and covered the floor of the tunnel like a flowing wave of blood.

We landed on the jungle floor, the muddy dirt making squishing under my boots. The bright sunlight above peaked through the trees, making me feel a bit at ease. Order flew over to me, a flimsy piece of a vine clamp in its little claws on its under belly. Patting the drone on its head, I turned my attention to Merit, whom was looking a bit scuffed up.

“Thanks for the assistance,” I spoke, watching as he set down the guard next to me before landing with a few panting breaths. “What are you doing out here? Are Vibraphone and the others out here too?”

“Well…” Merit started before getting a big kiss on the cheek from the guard.

“Thank you!” The guard whimpered as he tightly hugged Merit. It was only momentary though, as he went wide eyed as I let out a small giggle. Pulling himself off the pegasus, he turned to me and saluted to Stratus and I. “Sorry, ma’am. Just wanted to thank him for saving my life.”

“Your welcome…?” He laughed, patting the shaken guard on the back before turning to me. “And glad to have gotten here in time, Princess. Though at this point, do you even have to ask about Viby? You know she’s never that far behind when you’re in trouble.” He flashed a smirk that I shared with a nod. “Don’t worry, they should all be here soon.”

*Snap!*

I looked passed Merit to see some… big blood red thing climbing up a tree. It was as wide as a pony, with an armored body longer than I’d ever seen anything have. The mass of undulating legs that carried it upwards were something straight out of a nightmare. A nightmare I’d thought we’d left underground in that dark tunnel.

It was a massive centipede. It's body weaved through the branches of the surrounding trees, circling almost all the way around us. It's head had two massive feelers, a nightmarish mouth, and white markings on top of its head looked a lot like the skull of a pony. The monster salivated as it looked at us, slowly closing in through the only gap in the trees that looked open enough to run through. It cut off any escape as it’s chittering legs brought the monstrosity to a stop.

I looked too Stratus, and she nodded. She grabbed me again before trying to fly up, only we didn’t make it far. She quickly ducked and dropped back to the ground as the monster screetched and spat at the air above us. The thick mucus it projected just missed Stratus and I, hitting a tree that grew at the edge of the hole we’d come out of. The tree hissed and steamed where it's mucus had landed, melting away until it was just a foul smelling pool of acid. Stratus pulled out her javelin launcher and pointed it at the monster's head.

“Looks like we will just have to kill it!” She shouted as the javelin shot from her launcher.

The monster attempted to dodge, and almost managed it. The javelin only glanced off the side of it’s moving head, but snapped off one of its feelers. The monster screeched in pain, it's acidic saliva dripping from its maw and sending a putrid stench our way. I think she only made it more angry...

The guard stepped ahead of us, throwing off his helmet. “I'll distract it, you three get out of here.” I reached out my hoof, but Stratus stopped me, shaking her head. The stallion took a deep breath, and cried out as he charged the monster. His battlecry filled the air with the force of a roar from a paradise dragon…

No, that was the roar of a paradise dragon!

The beast jumped out of the brush, and onto the massive centipede, digging its claws into it. The centipede screeched once more, and began to thrash about, intaglio itself from the woods. The dragon continued it's assault, ripping off a leg, the acidic saliva of the centipede hitting the dragon a few times, but it didn't seem to affect it at all.

Stratus stiffened herself, trying to figure out which of the two to fire at now. I lifted my hoof and pushed her launchers from the two. She looked at me as if I were crazy, but I simply shook my head.

“Let them fight.” I spoke up as sternly as I could. Ponies back home may not take me seriously, but right now as she looked at me, I could see that Stratus knew I was right. Turning back, we simply watched as the two massive beasts duked it out.

There were few things tougher out in jungles than a paradise dragon, but this centipede was giving it a run for its money. The dragon’s claws couldn’t pierce the armored carapace of the oversized bug, but that didn’t stop it from trying. With a whip like snap, the centipede shot forward and bit down on the neck of the dragon. Another deafening roar filled the air as the dragon turned its head and bit down on the overextended centipede. Burning acid leaked from the dragons muzzle as the undulating bug released it’s grip from the trees and tried to pull itself away.

The acid looked like it had started to burn through the mouth of the dragon as it continued to snap it’s jaws around the body of the centipede. Blood dripped from the jaw of the Paradise dragon, and the writhing bug slipped free. The wounded centipede screeched as it retreated past us back down its hole, and with a roar, the paradise dragon followed.

We all backed up, but basically stood dumbfounded as the paradise dragon forced itself underground and out of sight. It was now that I could see that the beasts of the jungle were just as much out to kill each other, as they were out to kill us ponies. To be honest, it left me a bit unnerved, and being anywhere safe inside the confines of the metros started to feel like a good idea right now.

“You know,” Stratus trotted over to the lone guard as he stood in shock. With a smile, she patted him on the back. “I think I’ve got a few metals for you once we get back to stable 50. Trust me, you’ve earned them.”

We moved a bit away from the hole in the ground, not wanting to see what might come out next. With the short break we had from things trying to violently murder us, Merit had explained how he had found us. As it turned out, Vibraphone had my pipbuck tag on her pip leg. Knowing he could search much faster from the air, she transferred the tag to Merit so that he could go on ahead and find me. Stratus became visibly annoyed at this information, and demanded that the tag be removed as soon as we met up with the others.

We’d only been waiting for a few minutes when Stratus tapped on my side.

“We’ve got company.” She whipsered as she pointed to a rustling bush not to far from us in the jungle. She put herself between it and me, lining up her Javilin launchers on whomever was about to show up.

Without a sound, like as though she was a ghost, Vibraphone came through the underbrush. Just behind her, Sweet and Mayall appeared behind her. I gasped, stepping around Stratus at the sight of them. I watched as her mouth moved but all I could hear was faint whisper I couldn’t make out. She then paused and tapped on her pipbuck.

“Sorry,” She sighed as she looked back up at me. “Forgot to turn off the sound dampening talasman. It’s good to see that you're still alive.”

“I can say the same to you, except…” I waved my forehoof, pointing out the odd garb she was clad in. “why exactly are you dressed up as a maid?” She’d obviously had on one of the custom uniforms brother Golden had his attendant where, but had a combat vest over it. It gave her a dignified but dangerous look to her.

“Only thing they had on hoof at the time.” Vibraphone sighed. “And it’s been better than being out here naked.”

“You know, I think it looks good on you, it's very fetching.” I said, feeling a bit sad that the dirt and muck had ruined part of the dress. At least my own dress was made to deal with a bit of grime.

“You do know that you call stallions fetching, not other mares.” Vibraphone dead panned as she kicked off a bit of mud from her back hoof. “But on that note, I just feel bad for these shoes. If I’d known I'd be trekking through the jungle, i would have stored them in my bag before they got dirty.”

This made me glad I had my boots on. Sure they were cute boots, but unlike the once shiny dress shoes she wore, mine had been made to get some mud on them. With a smile, I tried to be a bit reasuring to her.

“I'm sure we can find somepony to get them clean at stable 50.” I offered, hoping that stable 50 was still somewhere we could make it fairly quickly. I’d enjoyed my time away from the metros, but I’d had just about enough of the jungle for today.

“Forget the shoes!” Sweet chuckled. “You should check out her…”

*Clang*

Vibraphone used her cyberhoof to punch Sweet on the shoulder to shut her up. Past the two was the lurker who’d traveled with them before. Only now, she looked… different than when I’d last seen her.

She seemed a bit taller now than before. Where before she was roughly eye to eye with me, now she seemed as tall as the average pony. Her shell was also different, still a dark purple, but the soft glow that came out from under it was now mostly pink. It wasn’t just the jungle sunlight either, rather it was more that her normal red glow had changed to a vibrant pink. It was subtle, but was most apparent on her fins, which were still red at the base, but became more pink toward the tips. Oddly, her fins also seemed to have grown longer, and the floppy fin on the top of her head now seemed more natural than it had been before.

“Is she okay?” I asked the other two as they glared at each other.

“Who knows,” Sweet shrugged her shoulders, breaking off the glare with Vibraphone. “I just hope it's not contagious.” She trotted past me, not looking back.

“I really hope Mayall will be alright.” Vibraphone on the other hoof, sighed. “We haven't had time to figure anything out, but I plan to test a few things when we stop for a rest.”

I nodded, but also grew concerned. “We're not stopping out here, right?”

She shook her head and lifted her pipbuck, showing me a map. “Orthrus has a bunch of safe houses for their specters spread across all the islands. There's one not far from here where we can stop before heading to Stable 50.”

Though I wanted out of this jungle as soon as possible, a quick stop in a safe place would do. Somewhere to get clean and take a short rest should never be overlooked. Especially with all the nasty things that could be creeping around out here...

“Alright, let's go.” Vibraphone nodded, and waved for the others to join us.

Pressing my hoof against the revolver under my jacket, it gave me some comfort. Even though I had that and Stratus here, I still didn't feel safe. But what I did feel was more hopeful that things were going to still work out once we got back to Stable 50. Maybe not in the way we’d wanted it to, but as long as we didn't give up, things will get better.

Footnote:

Skill up (Vibrapone Echo) Survival

Skill up (Harp Melody) Survival