“Vibraphone, are you alright?” Harp spoke softly as she helped me up.

Stabilizing myself, I felt a little embarrassed, having fallen face first onto the metal floor. “Ya, I think.” I told her, and though my head did hurt, it didn’t feel like any damage had been done.

Harp breathed a sigh of relief. “By Celestia thank goodness. I don’t know what I would do if you hurt yourself like that.”

“Healing potion, and med-X.” I told her. “That aside, we need to move. We only have a few minutes until Berenices is at our flanks again.”

A sharp whistle drew my attention to Black Spot, who was on a platform above us. The two of us were in a gap, the oversized stable door resting on tracks next to us.

“This way.” Blackspot said loudly as he pointed at a nearby ladder.

Not wasting anymore time, Harp and I climbed up as the drone Order provided us with the light. Light far above us dimly sparked to life, slowly revealing the large room to us. On the floor where I stood was a wide open space where large metal boxes had been left in a row, gathering rust. Next to me was a platform that looked like it should extended out through the doorway, but the panel next to it was smashed and its cables had been ripped out and cut.

Above me was a walkway hugging the walls, both sides having what looked like a security booth overlooking the stable door. Likely one had the door control in it, and the other was probably for use as a standard security overlook. Much further above was yet another walkway, this time with plenty of scaffolding that made me guess that it was used for maintenance. Oddly, my eyes fell onto a spot on the railing that was dented outward, like something big and powerful had hit or pushed on it.

The two levels above us had two doors each, one of them open, but too high to reach. On the level we stood on, there was just one large door with bunch of smaller boxes piled in front of it. With the way they’d been hastily stacked, it was almost as though it wasn’t random, and it was telling us to go no further. A glowing red light on a large panel to the side of the door drew my attention, along with the pirates who were standing at said door. Shamrock pulled a lever on the panel and it buzzed the sound of failure.

“Fuck this shit! Why does everything have to be locked?” she hit the panel and it gave another buzz. Giving me a glare, she pointed at the panel. “Tunnel treader, open this fucking door already, ya useless cunt!”

I just needed some alone time with her, enough to make it slow and painful. Trotting to the control panel, as soon as I placed my hoof on it, the red light switched to green. Pulling the lever down, the doors slowly parted. From inside, the smell of burned gunpowder hit my nose hard. The doors opened to reveal a large lift with a floor absolutely covered in small caliber bullet shells. The saturation in it was so total and complete that it looked like a carpet made entirely out of brass.

Everypony trotted inside, kicking the brass shells with each step. Harp clung close to me as Order hovered above, acting as our mobile lamp. Blackspot scooped up a bunch of the shells in his magic, taking a closer look at them.

“It's like the leftovers of a ship raid, but without the blood.” He looked back at me and motion at a control panel on our side. “And whatever they were shooting at, didn't shoot back.”

Pulling on the inside lever, the lift began slowly descending in a diagonal manner, the bullet shells rattle as the lift moved. Some of the shells rolled over the edge, pinging loudly as the clattered down. Stopping at the next floor, we had arrived at two more doors, and another locked control panel. ‘Warehouse Floor’ sat in faded paint above the doors, one of the letters slightly obscured by what looked like a burn mark.

Opening the door, before us a vast darkness was broken up by more lights sparking to life, just enough to see what we were about to trot into. The warehouse floor was vast, likely as big as one of the hangers that housed an Orthrus airship, though much of it was shrouded in darkness. Isle upon isle of large shelves sat on either side of us. They stretched off into a dark void outside the meager lighting that flickered above us, and at the darkness’ edge, was what looked like an auto-wagen.

I trotted out ahead of the others slowly, scanning the warehouse. While it was hard to see if anything lurked in the darkness, everything in here giving me a bad feeling. The others seemed to share that same feeling as they trotted out with their guns ready. The doors hissed closed behind us, leaving us in the expansive quiet and dark stillness.

Our hooves echoing with each step, we made our way to the auto wagon. I looked left and right as we moved, trying to find anything that looked out of place or perhaps useful for Harp and I. Unfortunately, the surrounding shelves were filled with what looked to be random parts and objects. Nothing very important altogether, such as pipes, rolls of copper wiring, and toilets. Though, if used as raw materials, they could still make a pony moderately rich.

The flamer pirate was first to make it to the auto wagon, slowly and carefully checked the inside the driver's cabin. “Check this out.” He said, waving to us.

Trotting over, inside the driver's cabin was the corpes of a dead pony with an R&D patch on his stable-tec jacket. Holstered on the dead pony was a classic energy pistol, and a security helmet on the seat next to him. The poor pony was like a mummy, all dried out, yet still had his fur and mane. His face, it was locked in a scream of pure horror, and the mouth was grotesquely and almost unnaturally wide open.

“I've seen Victoria do something like this before.” Blackspot spoke up. “Her stare can give a pony a heart attack. Though, the real question is how did this tunnel treader get mummified?”

“Harp, take this.” opening the door, I passed her the helmet, and unbuckled the holster.

Harp turned my red cap around before putting the helmet on, but needed me to help her put the gun holster on. As I helped adjust the harness, Harp looked at the pistol. “M.E.E.P. Magically, enhanced energy pistol.” she said to herself as she placed the pistol back in its holster next to her saddlebag.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the mummified corpse slump forward, falling onto the steering wheel. The horn blared for a moment before what little life the two century old battery had ran out, fading down into a low crackling growl. I pushed the corpse back, and all the others removed their hooves from their ears and glared at me, with Couteau’s being probably the most hate filled as she pushed herself to a trot past us.

“Really now.” Couteau said loudly. The pirates had moved ahead of us, likely distracted by the warehouse enough to forget about us. “We don't have time to fuck around, tunnel treader.”

“Miss Thorn Roseland, was it.” A voice echoed like a whisper from the stale air itself. “Did you just shove this at a judge to sign?”

Between Harp and I, and the pirates was a group of shadows, standing as though they were actual ponies there. The shadow ponies blocked our way, but didn’t advance or seem hostile. Instead, they just stood there, like Harp and I were the ones that didn’t exist.

Harp was now tightly holding onto me, and I couldn’t say I blamed her. In the back of the shadow pony group, was a less shadowy pony, whom vaguely reminded me of Slowtrot. In a split moment, the shadow Slowtrot ran of with another shadow pony right as a gunshot went off, and the rest of the shadow ponies faded away.

I looked over at the pirates, and found Blackspot’s gaze looking where the shadow ponies had been. He gave me a nod, as if to say that he had seen what I had just seen, which at least meant that Harp and I weren’t going insane. Shaking the odd encounter off, Harp and I began to rejoin with the pirates.

Still, seeing shadowy ponies block our progress didn’t make me feel as afraid as it should have. It made me feel like I was getting far too use to this weird shit in my life, and that was not alright in the slightest. Harp tugged on my dress, and pointed at one of the shelves where I saw a pony come out from behind it. Not another shadow, It was a thin old mare with thick glasses, a pipbuck, and a white lab coat, but otherwise she looked normal.

We weren’t the only ones to notice her however, as the pirates looked to where Harp pointed and aimed their guns at the old mare. The flamer pony was the one to take a step closer to her that the others, turning on the burner of his gun to get the attention of the lab pony.

“So there's fucking ponies living down here. Why don’t you just stay right where you are...” The flamer pony muttered before mouthing around the trigger-bit.

The mare started opening and closing her mouth, like she was talking, but not saying any words. She turned to the flamer pirate, and moved in his direction, unfazed by the flamethrower. Her movement was jerky, her head would twitch, like that of a robot in need of serious maintenance. It all felt wrong, and it unnerved me.

“Oh, fuck this!” Flamer pirate yelled, as he fired his flamer, setting the lab pirate on fire. But the lab pony continued to walk to the pirate, unfazed and of course, now on fire. The other pirate's traded fearful glances before join in. Harp and I covered our ears as they opened up with their junk guns, flinging bursts of lead at the lab pony until she crumpled to the ground in a burning, hole filled heap.

“The fuck was that?” Blackspot asked out loud.

“Could have been a ghoul” Ummese, suggested. “Though never seen a ghoul that we'll preserved, or flame resistant.”

“Well not anymore!” the flamer pirate boosted as he trotted to the smoldering corpse, and kicked it. He then let out a sharp yelp, hopping backwards. “The fucking shit, mother fucker!” He held his hoof up, it now gray, and cracked.

The smoldering lab pony slowly got up on all four hooves, her moth still opening and closing as if she were speaking. The flamer pirate stumbled back, shock on his face as he tripping over his own hooves, and falling onto his flamer with a slam. His flamer barrel had dislodged from its battle saddle, flopping onto the floor, making it spray its fire harmlessly away from the ghoul as he tried to stop the ghoul from descending upon him. His voice distorted as he bellowed in pain, the look of terror in his eyes as his skin cracked, fire bursting where ever the skin split. Within seconds the flamer pirate was reduced to a shriveled chare corpse.

I watched as the ghoul healed it’s gunshot wounds, and the rounds themselves spun backwards out of the holes they’d pierced into her skin. The burns across it’s body shrank back to nothingness as though time was turning backwards. The moment the bullets pushed themselves back through the holes in her coat, the old fabric itself knitted itself back together, and the bits of mane that had been clipped off by stray bullets actually floated back up and regrew into her mane.

It wasn’t just like time was turning back on the ghoul, it actually was being reversed somehow. In the same time it took for the flamer pony to die, the ghoul was back to normal. A very unnerving normal.

“I guess that answers to what was being shot at on the lift.” Blackspot said loudly, forcing the ghoul to turn to him. “But seriously, what fucking heresy were ponies performing down here to make a monster such as this?”

The ghoul began moving toward the other pirate's, walking with the same slow twitchy motion as it had with the flamer pony. Blackspot responded by rolling what looked to be an improvised grenade over to her. The small explosion thankfully didn’t send out shrapnell, but still was forceful enough to send the ghoul onto her back.

The sheer force of the sharp blast toreing off one of the mare’s legs, and the limb skittered off into the darkness. No blood or any kind of fluid came out of the ghoul’s gaping wound as it just got right back up. Only having only three legs now, and being of feral ghoul level intellect, of course it fell over as soon as it tried to walk.

“First mate, we’ve got more of the fuckers incoming.” Couteau said loudly, pointing further into the warehouse. Five more of the twitchy ghouls blocked our path, walking in our direction. I had a bad feeling that there were even more of them out in the darkness. I just hoped it was not a whole stables worth, or there wouldn’t be enough improvised grenades on all the islands to keep them back.

“Shit, aim for the legs!” Blackspot commanded. “And don't let them touch you!”

Couteau, and Shamrock aimed their guns low before firing. Their shots weren’t as powerful as the improvised explosive, but they were still enough to make the ghouls stumble. Their combined shots knocked one down, but it didn’t stop the rest from advancing.

Harp gave me a frightened nudge, and I turned to see two more ghouls creeping up behind us. They were coming out from one of the isles, crawling into the open from between some of the various supplies. They too were also opening and closing there moths as they twitched their heads unnaturally.

We quickly regrouped with the pirates, the six of us now forming a circle. Two more ghouls walked out from one of the isles, doing their unnatural movement. Blackspot looked around, and pointed down one of the aisle.

“If they won’t die, we’ll just go around. Follow me!” He galloped off, and left with no other real options, we all followed.

Passing the lab ghoul that Blackspot blew the leg off, she slowly scooted on the floor towards us. Her glasses had been blown off, giving me a look at the ghouls eyes, or lack of eyes. What I saw was more like two dark voids that made me feel disturbed to my core.

Continuing on, the towering shelves in combination with the lights made hard shadows all around us. I tried to not pay attention to the shadows, not wanting to be distracted by the ponies looking back at me from within them.

A clattering sound caught my attention, and I slid to a stop just as a bunch of pips fell in front of me. Looking up, the silhouette of a pony looked back at me from above. I only had a moment to dodge as the lurker crashed down at me.

It was one of the dull brown Lurker that were with Berenices. Less armored then the sparkle-lurkers, these ones were seemingly fond of suicide charges. Pushing itself back up onto its hooves, it shuttered for a moment before focusing on me. Snapping its snout claws at me, I got ready for a fight.

It lungged, and I activated S.A.T.S., using it to dodge the attack as I pulled out my revolvers. Unloading into the brown lurker’s face, blue blood went flying as it crumpled to the ground. Reloading, I looked up to see where the monster came from. Sadly the lights left the higher shelves above in shadows.

“Harp, I need some light up there.” I pointed up.

Harp directed Order, and the drone illuminated the shelves above us, including a walkway, similar to that in the stable door room. A lurker ducked out of the way of the light, only confirming where they had come from. I could only hope that it was just a trickle of Berenice’s forces that was already getting in.

The sound of hoof steps behind us warned us of the approaching ghouls. Not wanting to fight them, Harp and I ran off to regroup with the pirates. Though this would’ve been a good opportunity to split away from them, between the ghouls and the lurkers, we needed the extra firepower.

We didn't get far before another lurker tried to jump us from above, this one was a sparkle-lurker smart enough to have climbed down most of the way before jumping. Lucky for me, it knocked a wrench to the floor from one of the shelves, tipping me off so I could shove Harp and myself out of its path. The armored lurker that lunged from the shadows was armed with a mirelurk chitin pickaxe, it using its snout claw to hold the weapon.

Backing up, I drew my rifle this time, charging it up for a single power shot. As the lurker got ready to attack, a ghoul stumbled out in between us, it looked at me with its missing eyes. The lurker didn’t waste time, and struck the ghoul in the head with its pickaxe, making a sick crack sound. Though with the pickaxe in its head, the ghoul managed to turn to look at the lurker, making even the armored monster take a step back for a moment.

Only momentarily surprised, the lurker lunged itself at the ghoul, grabbing it with its pincers in an attempt to throw the ghoul. I watched as the glow from the lurker faded, and blue blood poured out from under its helmet. Almost as soon as the attack started, the lurker collapsed, its helm fell to reveal a dull and cracked chitin.

The ghoul got up and off the lurker with the pickaxe still firmly stuck in its head. Slowly, and still twitching, the ghoul turned its head until it was completely backwards. And looking directly at us.

I put my rifle away, seeing that the ghoul was practically unkillable. Luckily they were still slow, and we just needed to get around them. Sadly, more of the ghouls were making their way through the shelves, with the path behind us blocked. From out of the shadows, Ummese charged in, stabbing the ghoul in front of us with her knives. She used her blades to quickly throw the ghoul into another ghoul, clearing the way for us.

“Move you fools, or time you’ll lose.” She stopped, looking a bit confused. We didn't have time to ponder her random rhyming as the ghouls got back up. We burst into a gallop, Ummese leading the way. Something seemed strange about her, the Zony looking smaller than just a few minutes ago. At least, her clothes seemed looser on her as she moved and gave me that impression. Before I could ponder it any longer, she tripped on her own sleeve, forcing Harp and I to stop.

Helping her up, I was taken aback by what I saw, the hardened, green eyed adult zony was now a young, blue eyed teenage zony. She looked up at me, confusion on her face. What the fuck was going on with her?

“When did she become so cute?” Harp commented, and in return received a death stare from Ummese.

I sighed in frustration. “Whatever, we don't have time for this right now.”

Pushing on, Ummese had to roll up her sleeves to not trip over herself. It was getting harder to get around the ghouls, as it seemed they all knew exactly where we were. Our only saving grace was that Berenices’ lurkers were now keeping their distance, likely due to their fear of the ghouls.

We had to take a detour through the shelves, as another group of ghouls trotted into our path. To our surprise, the next isle had a stable door lay flat on the ground right in the middle of the isle. The fallen giant metal gear of a door had the numbers 512 printed on it, which seemed odd, as I don’t think that ever Stable-tec built more than 200 stables. I had a feeling this door had to be some sort of a joke, and with the rust brown stain that stretched out from under it, it must have made a killing.

Our situation continued to worsen as the ghouls followed us. Even though it was at an extremely slow pace, they were still closing in on us. There were more and more coming through the darkness ahead of us, and it was becoming worrying to me. They were starting to block our way out without us having to take extreme measures to dodge their twitchy bodies. Ahead of us was the door, which already had a whole group of these fuckers standing between us and it. To get passed them, we would have to risk getting touched, and one false step would mark the end of our escape.

A rustling from a shelf next to me caught my attention. Instinctively, I whipped out my rifle, unsure how effective it will be. To my surprise, a hidden door opened up, and purple pony in an R&D jacket stepped out.

“Oh, hi there.” Slowtrot greeted me, a stupid grin on his face. “You probably should get inside.”

Wait, was this somehow all in my head? Was I hallucinating? Whatever it was, I was not going to look this gift pony in the mouth, and quickly trotted in, with the other two following my lead. We entered what looked like a hidden room inside the shelf, including an old sofa, a table, chairs, and a few coolers. Everything here was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs that sent my mind reeling back to the bunker with the little ghoul filly.

“I have so many questions.” I spoke up at Slowtrot as I felt a bit bewildered by this room.

“Don't bother, I doubt I have many answers.” He responded as he opened up one of the coolers, and passed me a can of peaches. “Well unless you're wondering about this place. Underbrush showed me this once… I think.”

That name perked my ears, but it was the end of his statement that made me confused. “You think?”

He looked away for a moment, as though in deep thought. “My memory's seems to be… fragmented. I remember things, but it's like parts are missing. You know those jigsaw puzzle’s you use to put together as a foal? It’s like my mind is the puzzle, but that it’s missing pieces.” He then passed another can of old assorted fruit bits to Harp.

Harp took the can, and gave me a confused look. I realized how weird the all must look to her. But hey, at least I could say I wasn’t hallucinating him this time around.

“Sorry.” I said before taking a deep breath. “Harp, this is Slowtrot. He's a… ghost from the great war.”

“A what!?” Harp shouted as Ummese hid behind her.

“Hey…” Slowtrot cocked an eyebrow as he opened up another cooler. “That’s not very polite to say. I don't feel dead… I think...”

“Well, you're from over two hundred years ago, and you have a grave outside.” I informed my living-challenged friend. “I don’t know what it’s like where you come from, but in this day and age, that normally means your dead.”

“Fine, fine. I’m a ghost.” He shrugged. “But then what does that make you?”

“Not a ghost” I snapped back at Slowtrot. “That aside, we aren’t dead yet, and we can't stay here forever. Those ghouls are eventually going to find us.”

“Ghouls?” Slowtrot said as he stuck his hoof through other random things. “Oh, you must mean the zomponies. Don't worry, they can't find us here.”

Harp took a step forward, looking inquisitive. “Are you sure?”

“E’yep” Slowtrot lifted up his oversized pipbuck. “If you check your E.F.S. you can see that it's not working right.” glancing at the little bar in my hud display, the compass was slowly turning, and the blue dots were fading in and out. “It’s all a mystery to me, but because the zomponies track us by using their E.F.S., and since it doesn’t work in here, we're invisible to them here.”

It now made sense how the ghouls were following us without eyes. As well as why they all seemed to close in on us from everywhere. Just like any adept pipbuck user, they were all going after the red dot.

It was nice to have sanctuary from all this madness, and a bit of time to actually catch my breath, despite how dusty it all was. The only problem was that I still had to finish the deal I made with Red. And in order to do that, as unappealing a thought as it was, we needed to regroup with Blackspot.

“Still, we can't just stay here.” I persisted.

“And go where?” Harp asked me sharply.

“Harp… look, you can stay here, but I still have something I need to do.” I told her. “But even then, again, you can’t stay in here forever. So the problem is how can we all get out of here.”

“What's the problem?” Slowtrot asked. “Why not just leave the way you came in?”

“The exit is block by highly aggressive crustaceans.” I told him.

Slowtrot gave me a confused look before taking up a thinking pose. “If I recall… I think there's a teleportation experiment in lab C that still works. Maybe that can be your way out?”

Harp looked at me with a bit of hope in her eyes. I didn’t want to get my own hopes up, as there was no guarantee that this lab was even still there, or if it worked. Even if it was, and did, outside of short range teleportation, such magic was highly unreliable. But Harp looked at me, pleading with her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at Slowtrot. “Can you guide us to this lab?”

Slowtrot returned to his thinking position for a moment, and looked at his pipbuck. “I should have a map of the stable on my pipbuck, including labs C. All we need to do is get down there, and passed the zomponies. luckily there's a way over the zomponies we can take.”

This helped put some of my worries at ease, as at least we had a plan.

Ummese cleared her throat, and all eyes were on the now younger mare. “Can somepony please explain what's going on, and why?”

“Your following Blackspot to free Luna.” I told her.

The zony cocked an eyebrow. “What's this heresy.” She then violently shook her head for a few seconds. “Wait, what… the nightmares.”

“I know this is a dumb question, but... are you okay?” I asked.

She glared at me. “You right bitch, that is a dumb question.” After a short moment, tears formed in Ummese’s eyes. “Fuck, why is everything just so fucked up. Ever since we came to this cursed island. Dealing with Blackspot was bad enough, then the nightmares started. And even after that, it's a blur.” she looked at her fore leg, pulling back her sleeve. “They’re gone?”

Again I asked. “What is?”

Ummese showed me the dozens of scars on her fetlock and sighe before wiping a tear from her face. “It was my last attempt a being free. After I lost to Blackspot, and he had his way with me, I resolved to see the goddesses. But my body refused to die after what he did to me, a curse he left me to suffer with. I would cut into myself, but it would heal, time and time again, leaving scars and the hunger. I learned to accept my new place in the corpse brigade, or was it that I just forget who I was? It’s hard to remember, even now with that cursed fog momentarily cleared from my mind.”

“You poor thing.” Harp said as she gave Ummese a hug, which the pirate weakly resisted.

Something in me felt that I might be able to trust Ummese. Not much farther than I can throw her mind you, but she was no longer the hardened zony trying to intimidate me.

“Ummese, I'm planning to fuck over Blackspot.” I scrunched up my muzzle as I said that. “Figuratively, I mean. Then, I'm going to kill Carving Doll. Would you be willing to help me?”

Ummese paused for a moment, giving me a serious look. “That's a dangerous game to play.”

I nodded. “Very, but if I can get out of here, and I have proof of Blackspot being a heretic, Red Steel can call for the purge of the Corps Brigade.”

A smile crept across Ummese’s face. “So that's what she's after.” She took another look at her foreleg before pulling her sleeve down. “I don't know what has happened to me, but the fog in my mind is gone, and so has the hunger deep within me. I feel... clean, though not as strong as before.” She stretched, popping a few bones, and sitting up in a more confident pose. “Alright, Blackspot has been needing a good backstabbing for a long time now, so ya, I’m in.”

“I still need to get dirt on Blackspot, enough that Carving Doll can be dragged down with him.” I didn't need to shoot Ummese, and that would have to be good enough. Which is great, as a plan was already forming in my head. “So the rest of you need to run on ahead, and find that teleportation lab.”

“You can't!” Harp spoke up. “I’ve seen how Blackspot looks at you, he won’t let you go. And the two cunts, they’re no better. No way I'm letting you deal with those three psychopaths alone.”

I sighed, knowing that this was going to be difficult. “I understand, but if I take you with me, they will find a way to hurt you.” Trotting up to her, I put my pipleg on her shoulder. “Just trust me, Harp.”

Harp pulled closer to me. “I can't, I just can't.” Looking me in the eyes, I could see tears starting to form. “Every time we part ways, less of you comes back. Colder, harder, staring at things that aren’t there.”

“Harp, it's fine.” I tried to calm her, gently placing my right power hoof over her belly.

“No it's not, it's like you're fading…” Harp collapsed into my hooves falling unconscious. I had activated S.A.T.S. and used the power hoof leg to hit Harp enough to knock her out.

“Slowtrot, take her to that teleportation lab.” I passed her over to Slowtrot, who carefully put her on his back.

He looked at me, a mix of confused and concerned. “Are you sure this is a good idea? There's a lot of locked doors down there.”

“Shouldn't be a problem, she's got higher clearance then I do. One of her ancestors was an overstalion. If the doors opened for me, then they should open for her.” I explained.

Slowtrot nodded, and pointed at an unopened cooler. “Take what's in there and follow me.” making sure Harp was secured, he trotted onto a ramp going up to another door.

Opening the cooler, I found six Sparkle-Cola’s, and a holotape. I put the drinks in my saddlebag and put the holotape in my pipleg. The tape only had one recording on it.

Following him up, Ummese and I came out on what looked like a balcony, high enough that the ghouls could not reach us. Not far from us was what looked like a less than stable bridge to the next shelf.

I gave Slowtrot a concerned look. “Are you sure about this?”

Slowtrot nodded, “It just looks unstable, but it's solid. The last ponies here probably built the bridges to study the ghouls. There was a holotape that they left behind, but I forgot where I put it.”

I lifted my pipleg. “I think I found it.” Looking at my leg, if this was left by the last researcher of the R&D stable, it would make it a valuable collectors item, worth tons of bits. “Minerva, play message.”

For a moment white noise came out from my leg before quieting down, and a voice spoke up. ‘This is Hydrangea of the special tactics and reconnaissance agency, tasked with ensuring the safety of the research team in the R&D Stable. The mission here has been deemed too risky, so the only other surviving researcher and I are to abandon the site. Cave Echo has voiced his protest to this order, but also understands it. I'm going to leave a short record of the events that transpired to the full abandonment of the R&D stable. May it aid whoever finds this holotape.’

There was a short pause of white noise before Hydrangea continued. ‘In the first few years after the bombs, the stable functioned normally. I do remember the tension in the air, every pony waiting for Stable-Tec’s main office to contact us. But the incidents started before we could make contact. The first Twitcher appeared in lab C, when we started letting ponies into the stable. From what I can piece together, they had taken a ghoul down to lab C for testing, and it mutated. The ghoul was contained, but the damage had been done, and lab C was placed under lockdown. Among the victims was Doctor Lifebeat, who managed to sealed the ghoul inside with him, saving many lives through his own sacrifice. In the years after, the rest of the stable began transferring what we had out of it in preparation to move research and development operations. Something we all agree on now that should have been done with more urgency.’

Hydrangea continued. ‘Things became an organized panic in the stable at the worst possible time, something mom still refuses to talk about this day. It was during the transition from Stable-Tec, into Orthrus, right when public confidence was everything. It was during this move when a new twitcher appeared in labs B. The subject in question had been a pony who’d only died of a brain aneurysm the day before. The death count from this second incident was thirteen, and among the dead, two more twitchers appeared. Security eventually contained the threat, and Candy Pop found that the twitchy-ghoulification was likely related to a specific radiation poisoning only found within the R&D stable. From what Cave told me, the overestallion had ordered to find any pony with this radiation in them, and confine them in lab C. Also from what he told me, when a Twitcher eventually appeared among the ponies, lab B had to be immediately abandoned, along with lab A as a precaution. This also was around the time the council was formed, and the overstallion disappeared from public view.’

Another pause came from my pipleg, though faintly I could here two ponies chattering away before Hydrangea’s voice returned. ‘I should explain what a Twitcher is. In short, they are a Temporal Flux Ghoul, at least, that’s what Cave Echo’s team called them. They are ponies saturated with concentrated magic that turned them into zombies, and when saturated with the residual space-time magic from some of the labs, they become dislodge from our reality. From what was explained to me, the ghouls are not actually here, not fully at least. When you to touch them, you complete a magical circuit with them and you’re body is pulled somewhere else. Rapid aging, or the reverse seem to be the common results, both resulting in death if contact is more then a few seconds. But I've seen a lab rat turn to ash, only to then get back up and scurry away.’

After a moment of paper being rustled, Hydrangea continued. ‘Returning to the reason why the Stable was abandoned, after the loss of all the labs, the new council thought it was best to evacuate the stable. They agreed to leave a small work crew to use the storage level, and a security team to watch over them. It was nearly a year after when the twitchers broke free and cough the work crew by surprise. After that, everything was locked down. And that's when the researchers and I became the sole inhabitant of the stable.’

White noise filled the recording before a stallion spoke up. ‘I should probably explain the rest. I am Professor Cave Echo, geological researcher fore stable-tec. As of now, only miss Hydrangea has not had an incident with the temporal flux ghouls, or ‘twichers’, as miss Hydrangea calls them. I’m the only one lucky enough to live through the experience so far, and though it's nice to be in my late twenties again, the loss of my friends has been heavy on me.’

Cave Echo took a moment to breath in deeply, slowly exhaling before continuing. ‘Though any official records will list my friends deaths as accidents, let the truth be told here. Head Researcher Spicy Love Fruit murdered them. I owe Hydrangea my life when Spicy turned on us all. Sadly I was not surprised that Fruit finally snapped, Lab D ponies always were on the edge of madness due to the nature of their work. From the notes she left behind, Fruit was using us as experiments into how the ghoulification worked, inspired by Mister Wizard’s cheating of death. I also learned that energy weapons were indeed effective at keeping the temporal ghouls at bay by completely disintegrating them. Unfortunately they don't die permanently, they just return to wherever their other body is, and later reappeare in a random part of the stable.’

The white noise return for a moment, Hydrangea’s voice taking over. ‘One last thing, there's a way around the twitchers. It’s stupidly simple too. Don't be hostile around them, and they won't start following you. Same for making loud noises, try to be as quiet as possible. Though I would suggest not going to the ground floor, but I have a feeling that if your here, you’re likely already on your way. So good luck, and don’t let the twitchers touch you. Iron Buck, end recording.’ the holotape stopped, leaving us in silence.

We had traveled to the far end of the wherehouse by using the walkway above the shelves. Below us stood a Twitcher, unmoving, outside of the twitching of course. The door out of the werehouse was clear, and the twitchers in the area were spread out far enough that getting around them would not be too much of a problem.

Slowtrot found an extendable ladder down to the ground floor, and resecured Harp before slowly extending the ladder down. “I have a bad feeling that getting to labs C might not be as easy as taking the elevator, so see if you can find a way buy us time, but try not to put yourself in any danger alright.”

Giving him a nod, Slowtrot slid down the ladder with Harp on his back, Ummese right behind him. I watched as the three quietly made their way deeper into the stable. The twitchers actually didn’t pay them any attention, and instead, just seemed to shamble about at random.

Pulling up the ladder, I turned my attention to finding the asshole trio, something I was not looking forward to doing. If I didn’t have the deal with Red, it be too easy to leave them here to die.

*Bang*

The gunshot was not too far off, giving me a good idea to where the pirates were. With a sigh, I trotted along the path on the shelf towards the pirates, hoping I did in have to cross too many bridges. While Slowtrot said they’d hold up, all it would take is one that was just a little too corroded to ruin my day. And to be honest, my day was already bad enough as is.

The few ghouls below me didn't pay me much attention. What they did do was make a good indicator that I was heading in the right direction, as they were all shambling in the same direction as I was. I also kept an eye above, as the lurkers may have been keeping out of sight, but I knew they were still watching me.

Blackspot, Shamrock, and Couteau had perched themselves on a auto-wagen, giving them enough height and room to stay out of the ghouls reach. There were six twitchers trying to get at them, but lacked the motor skills to climb up onto the old world vehicle. One of the twitchers were missing a back leg, and would periodically get up, only to fall over again.

I flashed my piplegs lamp to get their attention. After a few bursts, the three caught on and turned their heads to me. Their green eyes seemed to have a slight glow to them, making me feel more uneasy than before.

“If I have to guess, their starting to soak up the dark magic.” Theremin said, the albino mare spoke up as she laid down on a box next to me. She was missing half of her backside, and cables and tubes sat hanging out of her as she leaked a white fluid. “I helped the republic with testing the theory. As it turns out, a ponies eyes glow green when they use or are around dark magic. They often go quite mad too.”

I looked away, not wanting to deal with the Echo of a reaver.

“Oy, what's ya damage you git!” Shamrock stood in front of me, nearly giving me a heart attack. “Ah, so there's a pathway up here.” She eyed me, giving me a good look at the slight glow it gave off. “Lucky us.”

“Very.” I responded. “It goes all the way to the door further into the stable.”

“Good, good, now where's our knifey friend?” Shamrock immediately asked.

“Last I saw of her, she was with my friend.” I told her. “They got cut off by the ghouls and I lost them when I ran.”

Shamrock glared at me for a moment before lighting up her horn. Looking over, Couteau was doing the same, and in an instant, Blackspot appeared next to Shamrock. Couteau teleported over as well a moment later, with her magic looking more like a zap then a pop. That is to say, it was different from the teleportation magic Orthrus uses.

“Ummese is MIA, along with the princess, but we have a clear path further into the stable.” Shamrock informed the others.

“Luna protect.” Blackspot sighed. “We don't have time to look for them, so they will just have to find us. But at the very least, the goddess has opened a way for us.” He looked at me, one of his eyes turning gold. “Will that be a problem?”

Theremin giggled, sounding more like a broken recording.

“I would be just as worried for her if she was around you. Actually, I hope she's found a nice hiding spot, far from you.” I waved my pipleg. “Not like I can't locate her at any time.”

For a short moment, Blackspot gave me a blank look, like he was looking through me. A small smile formed on his face, and he trotted passed me. “Then we will just have to pick her up later. No way she can get out of here, not with those monsters blocking the way out.”

We trotted through the shelves, quickly making it to the doors out of here. The twitcher ghouls tried to followed us, but the path through the shelves left them stuck behind walls of junk. Finally reaching the ladder, our path was set before us, and the few ghouls were far enough away to not be a problem as of yet.

I received a bump from Couteau, and I spun around to find that she was giving me a less than friendly glare.

“You know, this mess would have all been avoided if we just focused on getting here in the first place.” Couteau spoke up.

“I agree, and might I add, it's clear our little heathen is only going to slow us down.” Shamrock gave me the same glare.

It was a feeling all too familiar to me, reminding me when I was a teen, and almost getting my jaw broken. The two were likely getting jealous, and plotting to get rid of me. Honestly, I had to hold back my amusement. I’m a metro mare, fights over a stallion was not just how things were down here, it was the culture.

“You say that, but I haven't seen you two do anything important at all, other then run your mouths.” I was planning to kill them anyways, so I was not worried about pissing them off.

Blackspot hushed the three of us, keeping his focus on the doorway. “If you three bitches keep barking, i'm going to use my dick to shut you up.”

“Really?” Couteau said, sounding excited. Shamrock hit her on the side of the head.

Blackspot didn't even acknowledge Couteau’s response. “Let's get passed these damned abominations before more show up.”

One of the twitchers had shuffled its way to us, and Shamrock shot one of its legs off with a battle rifle. “Aya, Aya first mate, ready to go on you orders.”

“Right.” Blackspot said, raising a hoof. “Go!”

The pirates quickly slid down the ladder, and ran to the exit. I followed close behind, making a mental note on how the twitching ghouls kept their attention on the pirates, ignoring me. It was something I wanted to keep up.

Getting to the other side of the door, the light on the security system turned green, and I hit it. With a hiss, the doors shut, and cut the ghouls off from us. I had a distinct feeling that this wouldn’t stop them, rather it would only slow the ghouls down. This was their territory, and the moment we forgot it, we’d be dead.

I sure hope Slowtrot was right about that exit, otherwise we were all fucked.

Footnote:

… Warning, head crippled, user unconscious.