The old tunnel was so caked in calcium that it was hard to tell if we were in a pony made structure or a natural cave that was repurposed by ponies. The culprit was leaking water coming from cracks in the ceiling, depositing the minerals all over the walls and the floor. This made it hard to walk without slipping, something that would be amusing if our situation wasn't so dangerous.

My two new companions were chatty at first, full of questions, some demands, but they were quickly silenced. I simply told them 'Be quiet until we get to a safe room' and the roar of a large monster punctuated my point. Fortunately, both ponies were surprisingly good at keeping quiet, and far better at watching their step than Silver was.

It didn't take me too long to find a sign pointing to a safe room. Made from an old stop sign, it had a detailed map painted on it, directing us to a shelter. Minerva was able to analyze the map, and update my own with the shelter's location. A blue beam of light extended out from Minerva’s screen, and shot out down the path I needed to take. Shaking my head, I turned off the heavy hoofed guide setting, and switched it to an arrow in my compass.

"Alright everypony," I whispered to the others, "I have the location of a safe house, so just stay quiet, and follow me." The other two nodded, and we were on our way.

Following the arrow on my compass, the other two stuck real close, staying in the small amount of light that came from my pipleg. This prevented me from scouting ahead, forcing us to move much slower so to not just walk into a large monster. Rad-roaches were a different problem, as I would periodically step on one without knowing they were there until I heard the crunch from under my leg. My rifle helped finish off any other roach that crawled near us, but the rest scurried away into the darkness. The little beasts were probably following us, in hopes to get a meal when one of us gets separated, or dies.

Every now and then we could hear the sounds of something bigger lurking around. I didn't know how far away it was, but it was close enough to hear it roar. The roar was followed by the sounds of gunfire, and some yelling. After a few seconds, the monster roared once more, its voice alone in the tunnel.

Soon we arrived at the safe room, its outer door made from two desks welded together with an eye slit. Luckily for us the door was unlocked allowing us to quickly jump inside and lock it. The other side of the door was an actual metal door, with three sliding bars as the main locking mechanism to keep the door closed.

Locking the door and flipping a light switch, I saw that it was an old maintenance room, which fared far better than the tunnel outside. Though not clean by any standard, being caked with dust and grime, it made for an excellent place to stop and rest.

The place had cots on one side and boxes on the other. On the wall in-between the boxes and cots was a small water purification machine. This place was made to help keep a pony alive long enough for anything on the other side of the door to leave, be it a day or weeks. Other shelters were not like this, some being a lot smaller. I had the bad luck of having to use what was simply an armored closet, forcing Sweet and I to be very close for nearly a whole day. She had forgotten to take a shower the day before, so it was not a fun time.

Harp Melody quickly familiarized herself with a cot, taking a seat on it in a particular way. Her back hooves dangled off the side of the cot, as she rested on her flank, and her front legs were free to move in the air. Her clothes looked a lot like what Silver had, but embroidered with gold flowers along the trim, and a little skirt covering her flank. The rest of her was as dainty as I would expect, thin from a lack of exercise and not from a lack of food. Her blue mane and pink coat, though dirty from being out here, still looked far better kept then anypony’s I had seen, other than Shamisen Tuning. Overall the mare was quite cute looking.

The pegasus stallion, Merit Cross, checked out one of the boxes and pulled out an empty bottle of sparkle cola before putting it back in. He had a bronze colored coat with a black mane and tail that had a red and white streak going through it. The barding that he had on was strange, nothing like I had ever seen a deep dweller use before. Black and brown in color, only being lightly armored. Stranger yet his clothes sported the symbol of a cloud and a star on it with an 'E' in front of it. The pony himself was quite attractive, looking strong and a bit rugged, nothing like the prim and groomed Silver.

"Is there something wrong...? Miss?" Merit asked, forcing my eyes away from his flank and to his bronze colored eyes.

"No, nothing...” Other than being separated from my partner, and the high probability of every big monster in the area now on the hunt for ponies. ".. Well a few things are wrong. Name’s Vibraphone Echo." I took a deep breath and turned Minerva's map function on. "Right, first things first, we will need to plan our trip back to Charon's Stop. If we can get to a main tunnel we should be fine, the problem is finding a way around any monsters that have been attracted here by that tunnel collapse."

Merit closed the box and trotted up to me. "Woah, hold it there miss, but I'm not going anywhere without my comrades." He stomped on the ground to punctuate what he said.

I sighed. "I understand and all, but unless you know exactly where they are, it's going to be a lot easier to wait back at Charon's Stop than to look for them." I tapped Minerva. "So tell me, does one of them have a pipbuck, and do you have its tag"

"Miss Vibraphone was it." Merit took a deep breath before slowly exhaling. "You’re going to need to trust me when I say this. I, and my comrades are not from here. We only arrived here recently, and without a guide my comrades are going to be completely lost down here."

I walked over to one of the cots, and sat on it. "Okay, please explain to me what you’re going on about."

Merit sat on a cot next to mine, but before he could say a word Harp interrupted. "He came from the sky. I saw it myself." We both turned our attention to the princesses. "You see my guide turned out to be... less than friendly. He got it in his head that I shouldn't return home, wanted me to stay here on the big island with him. When I said no, he pulled his gun and threatened to kill me. That’s when a big metal... craft came roaring down, and killed my guide. I was so shocked and scared when it happened that I ran and hid. After that he, and his friends found me."

"From the sky?" I asked, and the Pegasus nodded. "From where in the sky?" I asked him.

He looked uncomfortable for a moment as he shifted on his cot. "I'm breaking a whole lot of rules by telling you this... but I'm betting that it's not going to matter. I'm from New Cloudsdale, a cloud city. Possibly one of the only remaining cloud cities that hasn't fallen to ruin. We came here to see if Marewaii could be inhabited, but we were shot down soon after getting here."

I crossed my front hooves, and pondered what he was saying. "So you’re saying that you’re not from Marewaii?" He nodded. "And from this cloud city, New Cloudsdale?" he nodded again. "And you expect me to believe this?"

Merit groaned and put his hooves in his face. "No, I'm not expecting anything. I just want you to help my friends. They're still out there, and I need to get to them." He looked up with his bronze eyes, and sighed. "I already lost two friends, I don't want to lose any more."

Shit. Now I'm feeling like the bad pony here. Everypony knew that there was no mercy out there, just survival. We try to help ponies when we can, but wandering back into a hot zone to look for ponies who may not be even in the same area, or even alive, was suicidal at best. "Damn it... here, we can swing around the area. With luck they are hold up in another safe room like us. But when I say we need to go, we need to go. This place is going to be flooded with monsters, and I don't feel like being food today."

Exhaling, Merit relaxed. "Thanks."

I nodded, and got off the cot. "Right. You two look for anything useful here, I'll check my map." I stepped over to the door and tapped on my pipleg. "Minerva, show me the route we took to get here."

The map projected into my vision, giving me a good look at where we were, and where we had come from. We hadn't traveled too far, so going back the way we came was a valid option. Not far from where we left the station was a maintenance hatch. It should take us to another tunnel, and from there we could look for the others. Another option was to go further out and change tunnels at a station. It’d take more time, but was probably the safest route. Last option was to go up and over. There was a ladder up to the surface nearby, and it would make the fastest way there. The only problem was that it was also the most dangerous route to take.

Looking back at the others, Harp had taken one of the empty bottles and poured herself some purified water. Merit had dug through all the boxes, finding mostly junk. Surprisingly he found a few full sparkle-cola bottles and a package of apple pie bites. Both were probably tainted with radiation, and the pies were most likely made more of preservatives than apples.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The heavy knocking on the door drew all of our attention. Opening the slit, I saw a scared bandit pulling at the door. Our eyes made contact, and I could see the pleading on her face. "Let me in, let me in dammit!"

It was only one bandit, so there was no need to be cruel. "Just step back." Reaching out, I pulled open one of the locks. The bandit gave a sigh of relief and scooted back.

*BLAM*

The bandit’s neck ripped open and her blood splattered all over the ground, quickly draining like a popped water balloon. I stood there stunned, trying to get a look at who had killed the mare.

Holding a lantern above them, two ponies came into view. One was a large earth pony, and the other was the one holding the lantern. The other one was a... zebra! He had a battle rifle rigged onto a battle saddle. Both had the same outfit on, which looked like old tattered uniforms, red with green trim, and had different symbols sown on the fabric. I shut the slit, and enhanced my hearing.

"Good shot, you got that freak real good." The earth pony said.

"It was easy, t' fool though they could hide in t' shadows." The zebra spoke with a boasting tone. "Now it is dead, and my brother gets a new leg."

The earth pony snorted as their voices got closer. "That's why we chased after t' moppet, so that your dumb ass brother can have a new leg. Eatin' more fruits was all he needed t' do, but no, had t' go get scurvy didn't he."

"What do you expect, mother dropped him on his head as a little foal." The zebra said, and the two laughed.

I could hear the two walk closer, one having to step over the bandits corps, and right up to the door.

*Tap Tap Tap*

"Open up, we know you’re in thar." The earth pony demanded. "If you don't, we have other ways t’ open doors."

"Why even ask mate." The Zebra spoke up. "Just blow t' door open, not like we got t' time t' fool around. Fuckin' Black Spot's bein' a real tight ass over this mission."

Opening the eye slit, the two looked right at me. Up close, I could see scars and tattoos crudely decorating their faces. Both were adorn with gold rings piercing on their ears, lips, and the Zebra had one through his eyebrow. They looked like pirates from the old movies from before the war. "Just wait a moment, can we negotiate?"

The two pirates sneered, and then laughed. The earth pony raised a hoof and spoke. "You know what, I think we can. How about you open that door, come out, and let us fuck ya. If ya real good at it, we will let you go."

'They can't be serious.' The two stallions held onto their grin, showing off their rotten teeth. 'They were serious about it!' I turned away from the slit and gagged. Merit and Harp were standing behind me, concern on their faces. "Not going to happen." I whispered to them. Looking back through the slit, I shook my head. "Anything else I could give you? You can have two bottles of sparkle-cola."

The two pirates chuckled, and this time the Zebra spoke up. "Remember what t' captain said, when in doubt, take it all." The Zebra pulled out a box, and I had a gut feeling that it was full of explosives.

"You better stand back girly." The earth pony called out. "I’d rather not fuck another mangled corpse." Now my gut feeling was really telling me that they were going to use explosives.

I looked back. There was nothing in here for us to hid behind, the boxes maybe, but i doubted they would do much to shield us. Looking back through the slit, the two pirates had backed up, and behind them something caught my eye. Two eyes behind the pirates reflected the light from the lamp. I didn't know to laugh or cringe, as I knew what was about to happen.

With monstrous speed, the Zebra was bit in the back legs, lifted up, and smashed against the wall. Blood smeared along the wall, and quickly drained from the Zebras mangled face. The earth pony barely had time to react before the monster was on him. A great claw held the pony to the ground, and it clamped down on his head, separating it from the pony's body.

With the pirates dead, the monster lumbered to the door, and I quickly pushed the one open lock back in place. It was a Paradise Dragon, tall with razor sharp claws and dagger like teeth. The monster was covered in green feathers of different shades from nose to tail, giving it a deceptively beautiful look. Though it walked on all four legs, the beast had the ability to stand and run on its two back legs when attacking. Another thing was that its skin was like armor, and we would need some big guns to hope to even hurt it enough to drive the monster away.

It lumbered over to the bandits’ corpses, and looked right at me. Shutting the eye slit, I stumbled back as the monster thrashed against the door. It held firm against the paradise dragon’s assault, but it knew we were here. It knew that more food was just inside.

With the pirates gone I didn’t have to worry about the doors being blown open, but we had only exchanged one big problem for another. I could only hope that the paradise dragon would take the bodies and go away. Something I knew didn’t happen often.

“What’s going on? What just happened?” Merit asked, staying near the cot with his boxy looking rifle at the ready.

If what he said earlier was true, and he was really not from the islands, then I had an idea to prove it. “Merit, come here and take a look.” It wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but everyone on the islands knew about paradise dragons, so I just had to see his reaction. “Just don’t put your face close to the door, trust me.”

Merit trotted over, looking unsure, but confidant. I opened the eye slit, and moved out the way as he stepped up to the door. “What am I looking at?” he asked as he looked through the slit, keeping some distance like I suggested.

Suddenly a razor sharp claw jammed through the slit, nearly nicking Merit as he fell back onto his flank. “THE FUCK IS THAT!?” he shouted.

Harp had walked up next to me, looking a little frightened. “It’s a paradise dragon isn’t it?” she asked me, and I nodded.

“Okay, so that’s a paradise dragon.” Merit huffed in annoyance. “ what the fuck is a paradise dragon?” The look of shock and confusion on his face was authentic. Along with how much he didn’t look the part of a deep dweller, I was starting to believe that he was not from around here.

The monster’s claw retracted from the slit. “Take another look, and I’ll explain.” Merit got back onto his hooves, and looked out the slit again. His head a little further back. “It’s the apex predator here on the Marewaii Islands. Fast, strong, smart, and so viciously aggressive that only a few ponies have tangled with one and lived to tell the tale.”

Merit closed the eye slit, and looked at me with an eyebrow raised. “That. That is no dragon. I’ve seen dragons before. Horns, covered in scales, breathing fire. That is a feather covered lizard.” He elaborated his statement by moving his hooves around, drawing shapes in the air.

“You’ve seen real dragons before, like in the old stories?” Harp asked, looking a little curious now.

Merit nodded. “Every now and then a dragon would threaten the peace, flying up over the cloud layer and attacking the citizens. I never fought one myself, but I saw one as a colt, and later as a recruit with the Enclave.” He looked proud as he talked, reminding me of my dad a little. “So what is that thing?” he pointed at the door.

“Probably a wartime weapon that got out, and started breeding.” I said casually. “There’s a lot of theories, but that’s the most common. We do know that it is a kind of lizard, probably an iguana.”

“Do I need to ask what an iguana is?” Merit asked with an eyebrow raised.

I waved a hoof. “An aquatic lizard. They all died out over two hundred years ago. But that’s not important.”

Merit slumped his shoulders. “So I take it that that thing is not going away?” I nodded, answering his question. “That’s fucking fantastic.”

I looked at the map again, and mentally crossed out the two tunnel routes. Even if we could get past the monster, we were not going to be fast enough to outrun it. So the only valid option was the ladder up, and that was assuming that the ladder was still there in the first place.

Looking in my bag, I still had the flashbang for emergencies. This would be considered an emergency. “I have a plan.” I called out, and the other two looked in my direction. Pulling out the flashbang I took a deep breath. “We've got one shot at this, so you’re going to need to follow my instructions to the letter.”

The plan was simple. Stun the paradise dragon and run for it. Merit was in charge of keeping Harp from falling behind, and I was to follow. I had a frag grenade ready if the monster recovered faster than I expected. The big problem, other than the monster, was making sure that the others knew where to go. Dark tunnels were hard to navigate, even when you have a map.

“So there’s a maintenance hatch to the right, which should take us to a surface station.” Merit commented, as he used his hoof to trace along the map on my pipleg screen. “From there if we head west, we can get back to where we were separated, and track down the others.” He had gotten in real close to me to properly look at the map, sitting beside me as my pipleg was stretched out to him. His larger wing rubbing against my smaller wing, and his head a bit closer then I was comfortable with.

It was a bad time to think about being so close to a stallion, so I shoved any dirty thoughts to the back of my mind, and focused on the task at hoof. We were about to run to the surface, and I didn’t need the distraction.

Pulling my leg away from him, I got up and walked to one of the cots. “Now that you've got all the information you need, just make sure that Miss Harp makes it up the ladder safely. I’ll be right behind you.”

Looking over to my side, Harp Melody was sorting through the boxes for more useful stuff, but having no better luck then when Merit did. I had shared my own supplies with them to help keep our energy up, two days’ worth of rations now reduced to a snack between the three us. We still had water, so dehydration was not a worry right now, but we did recap a few cola bottles with the purified water just to be safe.

Merit and I were set. He had his magical energy rifle, an effective weapon, if a bit flashy. I had my air rifle and revolver. Harp was given my combat knife. With her combat skills being next to nonexistent, I figured it would at least help her stay calm if she had something.

The energy rifle that Merit was using, I had seen a few before as collector’s items. The old rifles were not the most durable guns of the Old World, so most ponies who owned them kept them behind glass. The Ponies Republic of the Valley did make their own energy rifles, calling them energy muskets. They worked in the same way as the modern air and railguns, needing to be charged before use. Their magical fusion breeder was able to hold a charge for a good one or two shots, with higher end models able to fire four, or even six shots.

“Miss Vibraphone?” Merit caught me looking at his rifle. “Something the matter?”

“Just thinking.” I responded. “So, are you ready?”

Merit, looked unsure for a moment. “As ready as we will ever be.”

“Good. Just take your position, and on the count of three, we start.” It was easy enough for me to say, it always was. My biggest worry was that the Paradise dragon will go straight for the door as soon as it opens, or that the flash bang is a dud. There was a hundred other ways this could fail, I did my best to keep them to the back of my mind, but they just kept coming back.

Merit and Harp had taken position, with Merit ready to carry the mare in the air to the ladder. Harp had been doing her best to not look worried as we were planning this out, but the chew marks on her hoof betrayed her nervousness. Merit on the other hoof, though looking a bit worried, was focused and ready to go.

“One...” I had the flash bang held under my wing, ready for me to arm and throw out.

“Two...” I unlocked the door as quietly as I could, hoping that the monster would not make its move too soon.

“Three!” I opened the door just enough to fit the flash bang through. Biting onto the trigger mechanism, I tossed it outside before shutting the door.

A second went by and I heard a thump from the other side. A bead of sweat fell off my brow as I held my breath.

*POP*

The beast screeched, and I threw open the door, jumping out. Merit and Harp zoomed passed me as I pulled out my frag grenade.

Holding its massive claws over its ears, the monster’s eyes were looking around, blinded by the flash.

Tossing my frag grenade at it, I couldn’t help but make a quip. “Here, have an apple!” It landed near its face, and I ran as fast as I could.

*BANG*

It screeched once more, but this time it was far louder than before. I was not going to check if I had killed it or not, it was safer to assume that it was alive, and real pissed off.

Arriving at the maintenance hatch, Merit and Harp were already there. They were struggling to get the hatch open. “What’s the hold up?” I asked as I slid to a stop.

Merit raised an eyebrow. “Cut us some slack here, we’re running in the dark, and I almost slammed right into the wall.” Okay, he had a point.

Using my piplegs lamp, I illuminated the hatch. The fucking thing was chained shut. “Who fucking chains up a maintenance hatch!?” Pulling out the bolt cutters from before, I snapped the lock on the chain, freeing the hatch. “That settles it, the bolt cutters stay in my bug out bag.” Merit gave me a look, eyebrow raised, mouth slightly open. “Ask later, we need to go now.”

Almost as though right on cue, the monster roared. So my assumption was correct, it was still alive, and pissed. Opening the hatch I shoved the two in, Merit going first, followed by Harp. The sound of trash being thrown around echoed through the tunnel, as a rhythmic like-thumping got closer and louder. Jumping into the hatch, I quickly pushed myself up the ladder, bumping into Harps Flank.

Harp stopped to look down at me. “Is everything ok Miss Vib…”

*Crash*

The maintenance hatch door folded inward, just barely missing my prosthetic back legs. I could see the Paradise Dragon’s monstrous snout poking through the now broken hatch door. Its face was like shredded meat, bleeding all over the hatch, and some bone was visible. Its rapid breathing sounded forced, angry, and directed at me.

Looking up, my vision was obscured by a few yellow drops of water as Harp was now moving twice as fast as she was before. Looking back down, the monster wasn’t making much progress in getting into the ladder tunnel. It was too small for the monster to fit, so I started climbing, sure that it could not follow. The Paradise Dragon snarled and roared for over a minute, but it eventually gave up, leaving us in silence.

The old station had long ago lost its roof, and the jungle took over. Most of the old world relic had crumbled away, replaced by trees, vines, and moss. Some parts of the station stood strong, as though the stubbornness of our ancestors had been imprinted into the stone and mortar.

With the sun starting to get low, the light came in at an angle, giving the overgrown station an almost mystical feel to it. Dew drops from fresh rain sparkled in the light, and water pooled on the ground, bouncing the light on to the walls and trees.

Harp was standing at one of the small pools of water, looking at her reflection. Dipping my pipleg into the water, the reflection rippled, and Minerva started clicking. “Thought so. Best to avoid any water here, the radiation is strong in it.” Harp looked up at me and nodded in confirmation.

Looking around I noticed the lack of our pegasus companion. “Where’s Merit?”

Brushing her tangled mane away from her face, Harp took a more dignified pose. “Sir Merit is scouting the surroundings. He said it will only be a few minutes.” Her voice had that dignified tone to it, but felt more forced. Trying to get a better look at the girl, her eyes would dart around, avoiding eye contact with me.

I sighed. If she was hiding something, this was not the time for it. “Okay, spit it out. What’s wrong?” I calmly asked, hoping that was all I needed to do.

Her face flushed red, and she looked away. “No… nothing’s wrong.”

She couldn’t be any more obvious that something was wrong. “We’re not in any position to be messing about, so tell me and we can move on.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” she responded quickly. Looking at her, her hips were shaking, and she was rubbing one of her back legs against the other. I got the picture now.

It was a little too good to simply let go. “Is this about how you pissed yourself, and onto m…”

Two hooves attached to the princess held my mouth shut, her face now next to mine was beet red. She opened her mouth, but no words came out, just a whimper.

A moment passed with her holding my mouth shut, no words spoken. Glaring at her, she let me go, and backed away a few scoots. “S…sorry.”

I took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. “It’s fine. The situation was something you were not use too.” Harp seemed to relax, but was still squirming a bit. “If you need to go pee, just do it…“ I quickly looked around. If there was a toilet around here, it was probably now a flower pot. “Do it anywhere.”

“But... But it’s undignified just to relieve myself on the floor.” Harp meekly responded.

I didn’t have time to get into a debate about what is dignified or not. “It’s undignified to give yourself a urinary tract infection.” Walking up to the mare, I pushed her over to some bushes. “Just get it over with, and we can stop talking about it.” I glared at her until she meekly nodded, and I gave her some space.

The sound of clothes shuffled for a minute, followed by that of a small stream of water hitting cement. I did my best to ignore it, but with the birds being distant, her urinating was the loudest sound in the station.

Thankfully it ended shortly after she started, the embarrassed looking princess walking up next to me, not saying a word. Taking a quick look at the young mare, her skirt had been removed, revealing her cutie mark. Her cutie mark was of a silver harp with golden musical notes forming a crown around the harp. I was a little jealous, I never had a cutie mark because of my flank being made of metal.

“So, umm.” Harp broke the awkward silence. “Do you have an, well, ahh. I could use an extra pair of panties.” Her face flushed a little, and I could see that her tail was tightly pushing between her legs.

Yet another thing I should start keeping in my bug out bag. “Sorry, I only have survival gear.”

She groaned. “Is there anything i can use? I can’t be left exposed like this.”

“Can’t you just use the ones you already have?” I asked, and she shook her head. “Fine, but you better not complain.”

I unhooked the barding at my flank, and pulled off my panties. My rear was going to chafe a little, but at least neither of us were going to be flashing anypony. Harp took the tangled cloth and quickly put it on, breathing a sigh of relief. I re-hooked my barding, and the princess slipped her skirt back on. “Can we, well like, never speak of this, ever?” Harp asked, sounding a little embarrassed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I responded.

Harp looked to her left and right with suspicion, before relaxing. “Neither do I.”

We spent a few minutes in silence. Using that time, I made sure that the air pressure on my rifle was up. Simply adding some of the magic stored in me to the rifles air pressure talisman, and watched as the pressure gage went up. My revolver was still in good shape, but had a scuff on it from when it fell on the ground.

Catching a glimpse of something moving from the roof, I quickly had my rifle aimed at whatever it was. Merit was looking down at us, with a small tree branch hanging over him as makeshift camouflage. Lowering my rifle, the pegasus flew down, and quietly landed in front of us.

“I got good news, and bad news.” He said as he removed the branch from his back.

“Did you find your friends? I wonder if Light is okay.” Harp said with some worry in her voice.

Merit smiled, which had to be a yes. “That’s the good news. I was able to get a signal on my radio, it was weak, but I did get in contact with Wild Winds. She said they're going to hold up at a place called Future Park.”

“The ancient theme park,” I remarked. The other two looked at me, with Harp looking a little excited. “Interesting place from what I was told. Orthrus cleaned out the place of anything valuable around a hundred years ago, so it’s mostly a hollowed out shell now.”

“So you can take us there?” Merit asked.

“Yes, but can’t you just fly over there?” I asked back.

Merit shifted a little, giving me a bad feeling. “Right, the bad news. The group that shot my team down, well there’s more of them, and they are patrolling the sky. I’ve spotted two pegasi, a griffin, and three vertabucks. Whoever they are, they are as well-equipped as the Enclave.”

Just great. The local wildlife is bad enough, but now we had some sort of foreign military moving in. At the very least this meant that the monsters will have other targets than just us.

“Did you say a griffin?” Harp asked as she got closer to Merit.

He looked a little uncomfortable as the young mare got into his personal space. “Yes, I saw one out there.”

Harp did a little excitable gasp. “Oh I hope I get to see one. I’ve never seen a griffin before.”

Merit scooted back a little as I interjected. “Right now, I don’t think you want to. I have a strong feeling that it will shoot on sight.” Harp’s ears drooped. “Well, at least it will be easy to avoid any air patrols, unless they have a way to see us through the ruins and trees.”

With a destination set, we were off. Merit with the advantage of flight, took the forward position, conducting aerial recon from under the jungle layer. I took up the guardian position, keeping Harp close to me. My Muffle, and Amplify Ambiance Talisman were ineffective in this situation, forcing me to be hyper vigilant until we got somewhere safer.

The sun was now setting, and only the faintest hint of light was coming through the trees and buildings. We had made good time thanks to Merit, being able to lure most of the local predators out of our path. Most of them didn’t know what to do with a pegasus, simply chasing after him until he flew up and into a hiding spot. Later he would safely return to us without being followed.

The few dangerous critters that he missed, or didn’t fall for his ploy, met their end by my rifle. Mostly being roaches and rodents, I made quick work of the pests. It was a simple tactic, and as long as we didn’t run into anything real nasty, we should get to our destination in an hour.

Harp had been taking our travel better than I expected, but still far worse than Merit and I. It was probably because she was walking through the forest with real legs, and could feel every squishy step. For me it felt more like a little nudge whenever I stepped, or when something touched my pipleg. The rest of my legs had no sensors for me to feel. Harp had also silently freaked out when a large spider was on my leg. It did scare me a little, but spiders can’t poison a synthetic leg.

Her dainty steps avoided every little pool of mud, and thorny plant. It was slowing us down a little, but not enough to be a real problem. I did try to avoid any muddy water, not wanting to splash any of the radioactive muck onto me. Harp was at least thankful for that, with her being next to me.

Merit flew down to us, now looking more like a flying plant with large leaves attached to his uniform, mane, and tail. He had been doing quite well, but the signs of exhaustion were becoming strikingly visible. Everyone in the group was getting tired, but he looked the worst of all.

“I swear I might start eating bacon just out of spite.” Merit took a seat on a half crumbled cement bench, taking a quick breather. “Why are there so many hogs on this island?”

It was a mystery to why they lived on this island. We knew that they were not native, so we could only guess. The common belief was that some idiot thought it was a bright idea to bring their pets over, and let them run wild. As for the bores, that was an even more perplexing question. Most blame the Zebras out of convenience.

“Just be glad we’re not further south, the rad-bores are even worse.” My response seemed to be enough to give Merit a chill.

The pegasus slumped where he sat, trying to keep his eyes open.I rummaged through my saddlebag, and pulled out my spare bottle of lurker blue. It was no longer ice cold, but it still had its blue glow to it. “Drink this, It should wake you up.” I hoofed over the bottle to him.

Looking over the bottle in his hooves, he raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, this stuff is irradiated.”

I almost laughed. “No, not at all. The glow is magical, made to show how fresh the drink is. Now the drink is liable to give you a heart attack if you drink a shit ton of it, but one bottle is completely safe.”

Merit sighed. “If my piss starts glowing, I know who to blame.” Gulping the cola down, the stuff vanished down his throat in one go. “Yuck, what the hell is in this stuff? It tastes like, like, something I should never be drinking again!”

I smiled. “Yeah, that drink has a distinctive chemical taste to it. But it works, so everypony drinks it.”

He lifted the bottle up, and shook his head. “And here I thought a population of zonies was strange enough. But this stuff might go to the top of what’s wrong with you zonies.”

“It’s Mirage Pony.” I corrected.

Merit looked up at me. “Mirage what now?”

I sighed. “We’re called mirage ponies. We’re not zonies, close, but were not some simple crossbreed.”

“Right, I’ll remember that.” Merit put the now empty bottle on the ground. He himself now looking a lot more awake than before. “So why mirage pony, if it’s okay to ask?”

“It’s fine, but once we get moving, I’ll show you.” He nodded and I proceeded to gather magic into myself. “It’s a simple little thing we can do, but it’s allowed us to survive for this long.” The sensation of warm liquid began to fill me up, from my head to my tail. All over I felt warm, like a blanket was now wrapping itself over me. “We can gather, and store magic in ourselves. When we hit our limit, we..”

“Shimmer” Merit interrupted. His eyes were wide open, mouth slightly agape, and was leaning forward a little.

“Uhhh, yes, we can shimmer. But at a distance we tend to look like a mirage, thus the name mirage ponies.”

Merit straightened himself up, regaining his poster. “Right, so you can store magical energy in yourselves.” He tilted his head a little. “What can you do with it?”

“I know this one.” Harp interjected. “We can use our ability to charge spark batteries!” Merit didn’t look all that impressed, but Harp was not done. “Oh, and we can use the ability to make and charge spell talismans. Also weapons, I think.”

I stepped in, waving a hoof in front of Harp. “What she means is, if there is something that runs on magical energy, we can naturally charge it.” I levitated my rifle out. “This rifle here uses a levitation talisman, and an air pressure talisman. A unicorn could use this rifle, but unless they specialize in charging magic, and transferring it onto spark batteries, it simply becomes a club.” Putting the rifle away, I tapped on my shoulder. “Many of us have cybernetic implants due to birth defects. We use this to its full advantage, and install spell talismans into said cybernetics. Because of this, I can use levitation, and any other spell that can be made.”

Merit seemed more interested now.Scratching his chin, the Pegasus smirked a little. “So, and this is just a hypothesis, but let’s say there’s an old airship that ran on an arcano tech engine, but it ran out of power long ago. If it still had its old power cells, could it be recharged by a mirage pony?”

That was a really specific question. “By one pony, unlikely. If their was a team of them, over time they could get it running again. But unless you were able to access a more consistent source of power, the engine would only run for a short period of time.” I didn’t know where he was going with that question, but I hoped I defused any thought of using my people as batteries. “Our power works best on smaller, more personal things...”

“Right, well it was an interesting thought.” Merit stretched out his wings, and trotted in place. The Lurker Blue cola must have been more effective then I thought. “If we hurry up, we should get to the park by the time the sun's gone. Let’s go.” The pegasus was practically shaking, the energy cola was way too effective.

Merit froze in mid jump, landing right back on his hooves. “Oh, almost forgot. There's a bunch of strange plants in the way. When I got near them, they started spitting at me. You know what they are, right?”

“Fucking seed pods.” I said under my breath. “Their called seed pods. They spread their seeds by shooting it at other critters. You don’t want to know what happens to a pony that gets hit by one.”

“What did you ponies do to this island to make even the plants want to reach out and kill you.” Merit retorted with a mocking tone. I responded by lifting a hoof, and stretching it out as to present the ruined city. “Point taken.”

It didn’t take us long to get to where the seed pods were. Passed them we could see Future Park, marked with a large banner of a younger ministry mare of the Ministry of Morale in a pink space suit. Her grin promised much science fiction fun.

We were still too far away from the seed pods for them to start attacking us, so we kept our distance. We counted thirteen seedpods all clustered together, and one dead rad hog with two small seed pods growing out of it. Going around them was an option, but we were quickly losing daylight, and this was a threat I could deal with.

The two small seed pods were not yet a threat, not yet able to spit at us, so I was not going to waste ammo on them.

“I got radio contact.” Merit held a hoof to his ear, blocking the sound of the jungle away from his earboom. “Good to hear you Wub Wub, how’s Little Sis doing?” He sighed, looking relieved. “Good, good. Were just a few clicks away, we just need to clear some weeds and we can meet up.” Merit nodded at me, and I pulled out my rifle.

Killing the seed pods was a simple matter. As long as you were out of their range, or simply in a position where they could not get to you, a pony could take their time in dealing with them. From our position I could make every shot count, aiming at the plants’ weak points.

I was able to snap the stem on two of the pods, the heavy top parts hitting the ground lifelessly. One seed pod I shot right in its oversize sack, causing it to explode with a pop. Three I didn’t get as lucky with, having to take two shots to kill them.

Merit continued his radio chatter, talking quietly to his comrade on the other end. I focused on shooting the seven remaining seed pods, trying my best to not waste any more ammo. With a puff I sent a ball bearing right into the stem of another seed pod, rendering it harmless. Six to go.

“Vibraphone, do you know a Sweet Sax?” Merit asked.

That snapped me out of my concentration, turning my attention to Merit, and leaving my rifle hovering in the air. “Sweet Sax is my partner, we got separated when the tunnel caved in.” If she was with Merit’s comrades, she must have had a similar problem as I did, and was forced topside. “Is she with your friends?”

Merit nodded. “Yeah, but they seemed to have a disagreement between your partner, and our captain. Their fine, but it seems that she knocked out our captain, and is now being held at gunpoint.”

I face hoofed, which hurt a little due to a metal hoof. “Can you tell your comrade to not shoot my partner until we get there? I have six more seed pods to shoot, and we can be on our way.” I returned to the task at hand, with the situation getting worse by the moment, I needed to get to Sweet Sax soon, and get the princess back to Charon's Stop.

Ignoring the radio chatter, I focused on the seed pods. With another puff, I sent a ball bearing at one of the plants, and it missed.

I had to stop and take a deep breath. My eyes were getting heavy now, and Sweet Sax was now running through my head. “Fuck” I breathed. Going for more easy shots, I took two shots per plant. Using twelve shots, the way was now clear, and I was down twenty one ball bearings. Counting what I had left, I had six of the shiny little balls. I could only hope Sweet had some to spare.

Putting my rifle away, I motioned to the others “All clear, let’s get moving.” As I got up, Merit motioned for me to stay put.

“Bad news.” Merit said. “Let’s just hope it’s only passing by.”

I was about to ask what he was talking about, but my ears catching an unusual sound answered my question before I even got to ask. The chopping sound of an engine slowly grew louder from above, as an aircraft passed over us, flying to the theme park. Spot lights shot out of the craft, as it slowly hovered in front of the entrance, lighting up the area.

Pulling out my rifle once more, I looked through the scope to get a better look at the craft. The craft looked like an old vertabuck that was used in the great war, but painted red with green trim. Painted on the side was a green circle of thorns with a red teardrop in the middle. To my surprise, and disgust, two mutilated ponies had been tied to the vertabuck, held up by their tattered wings to swing around.

The vertabuck circled around for a minute before moving on, flying off deeper into the theme park. We could still hear it echo in the distance, but it was no longer in our way.

With the way now clear once more, I put away my rifle again, and looked to the others. Merit was ready to go, still on the energy high of the cola I gave him. Harp yawned, seemingly having a difficult battle keeping her eyes open. “Merit,” I called to the Pegasus, gaining his attention, “if you could, can you help miss harp to the theme park. I’ll lead the way from here.”

The sun was now gone, leaving a slowly dimming silhouette of the park. As quickly as we could, we ran to the opening to the park, hoping to find our friends before something else found them first. The echoing sound of the vertabuck in the distance was an ever present reminder that we had more than the wildlife to worry about.

Footnote:

New Quest - Are you having fun yet?

Author's Notes:

I want to thank C8002 for editing this chapter for me, the friend has more important things to do, so hat's off for the help.

Also thanks to McDronePone for pre-reading the story. There is a lot that get's missed even after editing, so much thanks for that.