DAY 2 – 8:30PM

It has been a long while since things have quieted down in the caves after Alyx and Raden took things into their own hands. A lot of the Mercs and Slaves have been resuming their work since Alyx shot so many ponies in the caves.

The hardest working pony in the caves wasn't a Merc or a Formal Merc denounced into a slave, A Orange Filly who's been working very hard under these harsh conditions has already filled up a bunch of carts with Diamonds and Gems. Despite the impressive strength, she's being whipped every minute by Alyx, being told to work faster who's wearing a jacket covering his wings to prevent the spread of the feather flu to any other pegasus in the caves.
“Mind stop whipping me, you're only making me bleed more in this..”

Alyx whips her again.

“Silence Scoots! No pain no motivation to work!”

An elevator has arrived with a youngish looking colt wearing heavy body armor and packing a Laser Pistol as the only line of defense. A crazy Merc tried to attack the little guy but jokes on the attacker as his hooves got a taste of laser piercing through which hurt really badly. The merc cries in pain as his hoofnail is bleeding from the shot.

As Rumble walks past the Merc who was in pain, he can see the serious damage he caused to the pony, Rumble almost felt sorry about shooting the merc despite him attempting to attack him. Rumble was wondering around the cave until finally, he stumbled upon Scootaloo.

To distract Alyx from Scootaoo, he slung a rock at Alyx's head. Alyx started running directly at the direction the rock came from while shouting, “Who threw this rock at me!”. Rumble got out of the way and ran over to Scootaloo.

“Psst, hey Scoots” The orange filly's attention has been acquired but unfortunately she didn't recognize Rumble in that uniform what so ever thanks to the Gasmask covering most of his face.

“Huh, how did you know my name”

“I've come to get you out of here” “I don't know you and I'm busy” Soon enough, Rumble revealed his face to Scootaloo which then caused her to jump right at him.

“I'm really glad to see you Scootaloo, but you're really crushing my chest”

“How did you managed to escape!” Rumble had to answer quickly as Alyx was approaching back.

“It's a long story, but thanks to a formal merc, we got a ticket out of here” Rumble turned around after Scootaloo got off of Rumble and noticed that Alyx isn't anywhere anymore. “Scootaloo, knock on that tile near the rock, bringing a secret elevator to where Apple Bloom is at. You gotta get out of here now! But 1st let me undo this” Rumble pulls out Raden's tool and attached it to an opening in the bonds keeping Scootaloo from using her wings. Twisting the device around, he was able to remove the suppression devices from one wing at a time before eventually, Scootaloo is finally able to use her wings again.

Scootaloo starts running while attempting a flying start before crashing as of course Scootaloo still hasn't learned to fly, while Rumble is about to go get his mask back.

Suddenly, a huge laser fired from somewhere destroying Rumble's mask. Everyone in the caves started to panic as it seemed like someone hijacked one of the walker mechs again. Rumble started running for the same elevator that the others were running towards but suddenly a walker mech fired a missile at a ceiling that caused that part of the cave to collapse. This effectively sealed Rumble from being able to use the regular elevator and a laser was also fired at the doors to the secret elevator which already came back down after Scootaloo arrived safely in Raden's office. This caused the doors in the secret elevator to be fused stuck thus preventing Rumble from making any escape! Suddenly Rumble can see an approaching Walker Mech stepping towards where Rumble at as a familiar voice is heard!

“So Rumble, you escaped the prison cell, well you may be able to get your friend out of here, but there's no way in hell your leaving this cave alive! Now prepare to Die!”

Rumble was in shock, he was on the run, using his flight skills, he was able to dodge multiple laser shots from Alyx while firing his Laser Pistol at parts of the mech though while causing very little damage.

The mech then fired some heat sinking missiles at Rumble. Thanks to Rumble's good flying skills, he managed to get the missiles to hit the ceiling on top of the mech instead which caused a few heavy rocks to fall on Alyx's mech causing some damage in the process.

“You wanna play dirty eh, well suck on this!” Alyx fired every single missile that was in the mech depleting all missile ammo and unfortunately, Rumble wasn't able to use the same tactic to cause damage to the mech again since there were too many missiles, Rumble flew at the spot where the regular elevator was caved in at and once Rumble got out of the way, a huge blasted hole was made which had revealed the spot where the elevator was at again but also destroyed the whole support for the elevator to even come down. In other words, if one went down in that elevator, the elevator would fall down from the support rails and can no longer go up, so the only way up is through climbing the vents.

As Rumble continued to dodge Alyx's lasers, Rumble noticed a few pipe bombs on the ground. Rumble flew to the pipe bombs and grabbed each and every one of them. Lighting the 1st one, he threw it behind him as Alyx was chasing him around the area of the cave.

The 1st Pipe Bomb blew up around the left foot of the Mech which while not destroying it completely did destroy the support brackets for stable fast moment, thus Alyx could no longer have the mech running at cheetah speeds and must move slowly now to avoid causing more damage to the leg.

Rumble flew back at the Mech again and threw another Pipe Bomb, this time on the head of the Mech. Alyx was wise to have ducked down to avoid as much damage from the blast as possible, so as soon the bomb went off, Alyx ducked so that the only damage he will receive is glass cuts and maybe a 1st-degree burn.

The happy young pegasus was laughing at his success as he pretty much screwed up Alyx's mech good. But that victory was short-lived. Alyx saw a barrel of toxic gas's that was sealed near an area and has opened fire at the barrels. The barrels exploded and once then, Alyx put his Gas Mask on. Rumble can already start feeling the effects of the toxic gas as he was getting dizzy. Eventually Alyx had a clear shot and sure enough, fired a laser at Rumble's rear, causing him to crash down next to where there's a hole pit at.

Rumble managed to get up despite bleeding a bit from the attack and noticed that Alyx Is on the other side of a huge hole who appeared to be charging up a huge laser blast that he's about to fire at Rumble to finish the job.

“This is it, Rumble, you had your fun, now its time to die!”

Just as it had seemed hopeless for Rumble, he noticed that there was a glowing red circle down the huge hole that he was near. Not only that, but Alyx was standing near some more toxic gas canisters that are just waiting to burst open. Rumble pulled out his Laser Pistol one more time and fired a straight shot directly at the barrels. A huge green explosion happened and the entire right leg of Alyx's mech has been blown off and of course, the mech started falling down though not before Alyx ejected himself out of the mech flinging him to the top of the ceiling which allowed him to hide in a hanging part of the cave to be as away from the toxic gases as possible. Alyx is unable to get down, and the only way he'll be able to get back to the ground safely is for someone to get into a hover mech in the storage facility. Too bad the only person who can reach the mechs is also the colt who put him up the rock in the 1st place and Alyx's phone seemed to be broken in half.

Having successfully placed Alyx in an inescapable situation and sending his mech down the deep lava pit, Rumble gets himself up and proceeds to walk all the way to where the destroyed elevator is at. Seeing the airshaft, Rumble started climbing his long way up while also taking really long breaks since he's in so much pain.

It was 10:00PM, just an hour after fighting Alyx and just then did he finally reached Floor 4. Crawling through the vents, he poked himself out of one of the shafts and made an emergency drop to the floor, passing out from breathing in too much toxic air from the caves and the slightly unpure but still toxic air in Rooms 2 and 3. It would be a while before Rumble would be able to wake up

DAY 3 – 1:00AM

The young pegasi immediately started hearing voices in his head of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo calling out his name in tears. It felt like five minutes ago when he passed out yet after five minutes of passing out, he was unable to remember the blacknesses or sounds of two hours ago, feeling like the times he went to sleep and it feels like an hour of sleep but in reality he sleeped for nine hours. The voices of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo crying for him to wake up continued to echo through his head till finally, he opened his eyes. He was suddenly treated by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, both of which were on top of him and with Scootaloo's hoof in his mouth. Rumble immediately got up and wondered if he was accidentally sucking on Scootaloo's hoof, considering that Scootaloo didn't really like having her hooves in anyone else's mouth. Rumble did drool over Scootaloo's hoof a bit while he was still recovering and Rumble put out a smile at Scootaloo.

“Uh, you didn't see that Scoots”

Scootaloo placed her hoof back in Rumble's mouth and Rumble slowly sucked on and tasted her hoofsy. “You know I kinda find this cute Rumbly” Rumble giggled when he realized that Scootaloo didn't mind Rumble sucking on her hoof at all and she smiled back at him. Scootaloo removed her hoofsy from Rumble and proceeded to help Rumble up, after which, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo pulled Rumble in for a very tight hug.

“Is everything fine with Rum......Oh, my sweet Celestia, you're bleeding!” Rez yelled in shock as she seen the new red spot made on Rumble. While it wasn't bleeding as much before, Rez knew that she will have to apply healing cream over Rumble's wound, otherwise he'll start to get an infection.

Bringing Rumble back to Raden's office, Raden immediately applied a healing solution over Rumble's rear where the laser wound was at. Rumble let out a painful ouch before eventually getting over it. A medical bandage was placed on Rumble's rear which should keep Rumble feeling well for a while.
“Rumble, get some rest for about another two hours. After which you may go after Sweetie Belle next” the formal merc replied.
“But what if Dox is already doing horrible things to..”
“I doubt it, you got about two and a half to four hours before Dox wakes up from his sleep. Trust me, I've babysitted that little shit before”

Rumble decides to lay down on Raden's couch for another two hours while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sat down with him keeping him company. Rumble played a few card games with the rescued Crusaders along with Rez and Raden while they all waited for Rumble's wounds to heal.

DAY 3 – 2:55AM

The telephone started ringing once again in Raden's office which just alerted the ponies in the room who with Rumble, Scootaloo, and Raden where playing a game of Battleship while Apple Bloom and Rez were playing the same card game that the others were playing an hour ago. Rumble decides to answer the phone seeing that it's not his turn yet.

“Uh hello, this is Rumble speaking...”

“Oh hi Rumble my little squirt, did you rescue my loyal fan, Rumble? “

“Scootaloo got so excited when she heard Rainbow Dash's voice that she ran to Rumble and took the phone. “Hi Rainbow Dash, it's great to see you again”

“Nice to talk to you again too Scootaloo, listen, we just got done arranging a huge army of Pegasi flyers to storm through Trench's property, and we're gonna be heading your way soon to meet up with you”

“Actually Rainbow Dash, we're gonna be heading straight to Trench Bloodhoofs castle soon, Sweetie Belle is still trapped there and I'm going with Rumble and the other crusaders”

“Alright Scootaloo, we'll storm the remains of the Merc facility, then after we round up all of the merc's and meet up with Rez and Raden, then we'll head to the castle, and remember Scootaloo, be safe, and stay strong”

The phone signal ends and sure enough, it was 3:01PM, Rumble's wounds had fully healed as Raden peels off the bandages from his rear. Raden hands Scootaloo an outfit similar to the one Apple Bloom and Rumble are wearing and gives her an UZI. Just before Rumble, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo makes the leave, Raden hands them all Gas Masks and gives them all Gas Grenades similar to the ones that he also used to control the rioting mercs and to capture the CMC in the 1st place.

“Listen up foals, Trench Bloodhoofs castle is on the straight dirt path road up the mountains. Once your about 10 miles close, you will be passing through security turrets, however they're not programmed to hit my vehicle, so if they point at you, do not open fire, get to the castle, approach it from the front, get inside the castle, one of you go into the basement inside to the controls, that is where you can shut off the turrets from at. The huge door at the entrance of the hallway is Trench Bloodhoofs bedroom. Leave him to the Pegasi when they get here. The east wing leads to the prison tower, that is where Sweetie Belle might be at”

“And the west wing is Dox's bedroom” Scootaloo responded.
“Yes it is, now go foals, while it's still early.
“But wait, won't the Biosensors...” Rumble gets interrupted by Raden yet again. “Not with this” Raden pulls out a wireless remote and gives it to Rumble. "Flip this switch when you're in the bay before you leave"

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Rumble took the Elevator to Floor 9 where Raden's Hovercraft is parked at. When they arrive, Rumble is immediately greeted by the Mare officer who Rumble has seen before when he entered the base through room 10. Scootaloo remembers her dragging her into the caves in the 1st place. The officer was really angry and seems eager to jump at one of the fillies as she's standing up so she's a lot taller to them.

“What are you 3 little shorties doing here, you know foals aren't allowed to be here without...” Rumble makes a quick move and kicks the Mare Officer directly into her stomach, she falls down and started crying. “He e e ellllp, I've fallen, and I can't get up!”

“Oh get over it!” Rumble yelled at the Mare. As Apple Bloom giggled at the Mare's misfortune, Rumble inserts the key to Raden's personal Hovercraft in the front seat door which opens to reveal a very nice console controlled setup. There were six seats with the 1st three seats consisting of the driver's seat and two passenger seats. The other two seats were for optional laser turrets though they can also manually be operated by the driver and passengers.

Shutting the door, it was suddenly pitch black save for the front driver window that showed the parking facility, that is till Rumble turned the keys again on the ignition which powered on all of the lights inside of the hovercraft and the lights on the control panel. Moving the joystick a little bit, Rumble was starting to get used to how the Hovercraft moved. Despite having no driver license whatsoever and no driving experience aside from a few arcade games, Rumble managed to figure out the controls and finally started driving out of the base, passing through the automated doors and out into the jungle where Rumble instantly spotted the road path.

A loud series of beeps emitted from the console which displayed a phone number indicating that someone's calling through Raden's Hovercraft.

Rumble pushed the answer call button which put Rumble on Speakerphone.

“Hello”

“Oh good heavens Rumble, is that you?” It was suddenly clear that it was Rarity speaking to Rumble in the hovercraft.

“Yep, I'm on my way to get your sister back now”

“Please hurry Rumble, Sweetie Belle needs you, and I heard all about this Dox fellow. Can't believe that kid would have his parents support such a thing like that” Rarity faints as the thought of what Dox's intentions are appeared to have hit her head very hard. “Wait, you're operating a Hovercraft!”

“Yep, I'm borrowing this from a friend, and I'm starting to get used to it”

“Well that's nice Rumble, but you know those Machines aren't indestructible, so try to avoid any crashes as possible”

“Will do Rarity” The phone hangs up and Rumble notices that they were about to crash into another hovercraft. Thankfully Rumble moved out of the way and managed to avoid a collision.

“That was a close call Rumble” Scootaloo replied as they make their way to the castle.

Back in the caves, Alyx who was still sitting on the hanging ceiling rock sticking out had just repaired his phone. Destined to get out of here, Alyx makes a phone call to his boss.

Back at the castle, Trench Bloodhoof was dreaming about all of the money the Crusaders will be making him. His dream came to a sudden halt by the sound of his own phone. He made a loud grunt and answered the phone.

“This better be important!”

“Trench, I need an escort, I'm stuck on top of a cliff rock in the caves and there's no way to drop down!”

“Oh it's you Alyx, wait a sec, how?”

“One of the intruders escaped, I tried finishing one of them off in a huge mech and well...”

“Say no more Alyx, I'll be heading my way to the base immediately”

“Good, but you better have a way out of here too, the railing on the Elevator got destroyed no thanks to that intruder having me aim....”

“You idiot! That intruder was trying to seal you in! When I arrive, I am not gonna be happy!”

The phone is hanged up, Trench continued stomping across the hallway as Dox approached him after being woken up by Trench's rant.

“Uh daddy, what's going on”

“Oh nothing son, I just have to deal with a newly employed idiot, don't let anyone in the house OK” Trench Bloodhoof made his way outside and got on his own personal car on wheels. Trench Bloodhoof started driving his way down the path, but immediately seeing some white lights in the distance, he turned to an alternate path where's there a alternate entrance to the cave which is what the Merc's used to use prior to Trench Bloodhoof acquiring them.

Dox having already wakened up approached the dungeon and gave it a loud knock. Sweetie Belle started to wake up and she was suddenly greeted with one voice.

“Wakey Wakey Sweetie Belle, It's time to play”