The metro was in even more of a parlous a state than Northwest Seneca. Piles of shattered concrete and brick lay were it had fallen from the ceiling, leaving exposed rebar in it’s wake. At least it wasn’t as dark as Sunset had expected. The electric lighting was somehow still functioning, filling the tunnel interior with a warm glow. Sadly the smell was nowhere near as inviting, a cloying reek of damp and mold, with the faint scent of something rotting underlying it all.

“Here we go again.” Applejack muttered.

“If we find any more landmines in here, I’m out.” Rainbow said flatly.

“Just keep your butt covered and you’ll be fine,” Sunset quipped, eyeing up the tunnel’s side doors, “I’m more concerned about getting lost at the moment, do we at least have a map of this place?”

Twilight shook her head, “There wasn’t a route map outside, but according to Gob there’s only really one way to go until you reach the tracks.”

“Good. In that case, let’s get moving.”

Sunset’s hopes that they could move from the station straight into the less claustrophobic subway tunnels were dashed the moment they turned the corner. Just like the last metro they’d entered, the tunnel had collapsed beyond the ticket barrier, leaving the side corridors as the only way through.

“Is anyone else getting a sense of déjà vu, or is it just me?” Twilight asked.

“Eh, the developers probably didn’t want the first couple of metros the newbies would encounter to be too confusing,” Pinkie piped up. Twilight simply stared at her in bewilderment, but before she could express her confusion Pinkie pointed through one of the side doors, “Hey, what’s that?”

The others turned to see what she had spotted, only to be greeted by the sight of a mole rat lying in the middle of a little office space. If the scorch marks and bullet-hole weren’t enough of a giveaway as to it’s current, deceased, state, the pool of congealed blood spread out underneath it certainly was.

“Oh, the poor little dear!” Fluttershy cried, hurrying over and dropping to her knees next to the unfortunate creature.

“Hey!” Applejack yelped as she darted after her, shotgun raised as she checked the room for threats. A moment later she sighed and turned to glare at the young nurse, “Darn it, Fluttershy, don’t go rushing off like that when we don’t know if it’s safe!”

“Oh, um, I’m sorry.” Flutters replied quietly.

“It’s okay, just be careful.” Sunset said soothingly as she stepped past, the others falling into line behind her.

Two more mole rats lay dead next to a door further in the room that opened into another office space. Beyond that was yet another door that lead to what looked like a maintenance corridor. Bloody footprints led from the rats all around the room and into the corridor, as if whoever had left them had been intent on thoroughly ransacking the place.

“Ah guess it’s this way,” Applejack muttered.

“Looks like it,” Careful to avoid the grisly markers, Sunset crept through the second office space and peeked through the door, keeping a loose grip on her pistol. The maintenance corridor extended for a short distance past two small alcoves, until it reached a small staircase. The footprints grew faint as the floor transitioned from dusty concrete to grimy metal, but Sunset could still make out a trail heading down the steps.

“Um, do you think this is going to lead to another mirelurk cave?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“Oh, I certainly hope not, I’m not sure I could stand that awful stench again,” Rarity replied, “It smells bad enough down here as it is.”

“Yeah you said it,” Applejack agreed. “Kinda reminds me of the outhouse on burrito night.”

Rarity slowly turned to face Applejack with an expression of absolute disgust, “That is quite possibly the most revolting thing I have ever heard.”

Rainbow smirked and raised an eyebrow at her, “Even worse than when Butch asked if he could ‘trim your clam’?”

Rarity clapped a hand over her mouth as she retched, “Ugh, why you would remind me about that!”

“That’s awful!” Fluttershy gasped, her own cheeks taking on a greenish tinge, “I’m glad Adam is nothing like that.”

“Huh, I guess you’d know better than I would. I never really had a chance to talk to him.” Sunset admitted as she led the way slowly through the corridor and down the stairs. “Most of the boys I spoke to back in the vault were jerks.” She frowned as she reached the bottom of the stairs, “What’s a lawnmower doing down here?”

“Probably not much unless it’s switched on.” Pinkie quipped, earning a flat glare from Sunset.

“A lawnmower? Awesome!” Rainbow cried, darting over to it and flipping it upside down, “Yes! Hey, Applejack, hand me a wrench or something so I can get this blade off.”

“Uh, why?”

Twilight sighed, “It’s one of the components in those schematics that Vance gave us, for the shishkebab.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Applejack asked incredulously.

“Nope!” Rainbow grinned, “Come on, hurry up and give me a hand here!”

“Alright, alright, hold your horses,” Applejack huffed, pulling a ratchet wrench out of her tool belt, “Shift over so ah can take a look.”

Sunset rubbed her neck as she watched AJ get to work unscrewing the blade, “I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”

Rainbow blinked and glanced back at her, “Why not?”

Rarity arched an eyebrow, “Really Rainbow Dash, can you honestly say you’re surprised that we’re a little skeptical about letting you near a flaming sword?”

“Oh come on! It’ll be so, freaking, awesome!” Rainbow cried.

“If you say so,” Applejack tugged the lawnmower blade free and handed it to Rainbow, “Here you go. You want it, you can carry it.”

“Sweet!” Rainbow tried to shove the blade between the straps of her pack, but couldn’t find a place where it wouldn’t slice through either her or the pack. In the end Applejack rolled her eyes and grabbed the blade, tying it to her own pack with a length of metal cable fished from its depths, eliciting an embarrassed chuckle from Rainbow. “Thanks AJ.”

“Don’t mention it,” Applejack muttered as she turned to Sunset, “So you’ve never actually spoken to Adam?”

Sunset shrugged and turned to continue along the corridor, “Not really, I’ve said hi to him once or twice in passing but that’s about it. I spent most of my time either fixing stuff, working in Systems with Floyd or trying to figure out a way home with James and Twilight in the Reactor section, so our paths didn’t really cross that often.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. He’s a really nice person,” Fluttershy piped up eagerly.

Pinkie nodded vigorously, “Yep! Nothing like those mean Tunnel Snakes were!”

“He did seem like a decent fella,” Applejack agreed, “I only ever really saw him when he used to sneak down to the maintenance area to practice with his BB gun, apart from that time him and Butch had a bust-up in the cafeteria.”

“I remember that day, Butch had to stay in the clinic overnight. I think that was the only time he didn’t say anything mean to me.” Fluttershy blushed slightly and folded her arms over her chest protectively, “He did keep staring at my, um… chest though.”

“The whole lot of them were nothing but pervy losers,” Rainbow grumbled. Suddenly she snorted, glancing sidelong at Sunset, “I gotta admit though, it was kinda funny when Freddie asked if he could ride you like a pony.”

“Weird, they never said anything creepy to me.” Pinkie noted curiously as Sunset glared daggers at Rainbow.

“That’s because you terrified them darling,” Rarity said flatly, “I’m afraid the rest of us were forced to endure their unwanted attentions on more than one occasion.”

“Yeah, like that time Wally tried to pester me into trying a ‘bedroom rodeo’ with him,” Applejack glowered. “Ah made him regret that one,” she added darkly.

“Wasn’t that the time you and Sunset got into trouble for stuffing him into a locker?” Twilight asked.

Applejack shook her head, her lips slowly curving into a grin at the memory, “Nah, that was when we caught him trying to spy on us in the showers.”

Sunset couldn’t suppress a smirk as she remembered the look on his face when he got caught, though the grilling they’d gotten from the Overseer afterwards did somewhat sour the recollection, “I still don’t get why the Tunnel Snakes were stupid enough to keep pestering us after… what the…?”

The others crowded around as Sunset lurched to a halt. Peering past her, there were gasps of shock and disgust as they spotted what had grabbed her attention. The corridor had opened out into some sort of generator station, with a metal staircase winding its way up the walls. Laying crumpled and broken in the middle of the room, right at the base of the steps, was a rotting, skeletal corpse.

The body might have been human once, but a heavy impact had left the limbs and even it’s spine twisted at awkward and unnatural angles. The poor soul was clad in little more than rags and, given it’s state of decomposition, was practically unidentifiable.

“That’s… that’s awful.” Rarity moaned.

Sunset stepped slowly into the room and looked up. Just above was a walkway at the top of the room that connected to the stairs. One set of railings was buckled and bent out of shape, directly above the broken corpse.

“You reckon he fell?” Applejack asked, gazing upwards as well.

Sunset nodded, “It looks like it, but if that’s the case then what happened to his clothes?”

Twilight shivered, “Maybe… someone looted them? Or… I don’t know… maybe the mole rats ate them?”

“And left the body alone?”

“Um… girls?” Fluttershy called shakily.

The girls turned to see her crouched by the corpse, examining it with her Pip-Boy light.

“What’s wrong Flutters?” Rainbow asked.

“You mean aside from the month old corpse we just found?” Twilight deadpanned.

Fluttershy shook her head slowly, “This body hasn’t been here that long.”

The others shared uncomfortable looks.

“What, uh… what do you mean Fluttershy?” Applejack asked quietly.

“The blood… it’s still a little wet,” Fluttershy looked up at the girls, her face pale as a sheet, “Whoever this is, I don’t think they died more than a day or so ago.”

Rarity covered her mouth as she stared down at the body, revulsion lining her features, “How is that even possible? I mean, he’s so…”

“Gooey?” Pinkie supplied.

Rarity’s gut heaved and she turned away quickly, barely managing to stumble to a corner before she vomited. Applejack hurried over to her, holding her hair out of the way and rubbing her back while whispering soft comforts.

“Nice, Pinkie.” Rainbow grumbled.

Pinkie hunched her shoulders as she shot Rarity a sheepish look. “Sorry.”

Twilight peeked over Fluttershy’s shoulder, adjusting her glasses to get a better look at the body. “Huh, you’re right. I guess he or she must have been a ghoul.”

Sunset felt a surge of pity as she looked down at the body. The fact that they had endured the transformation into a ghoul only to suffer a horrible death in such a dank and dismal place, was heartbreaking to her.

Shoving away those dark thoughts, Sunset stepped over to Fluttershy and laid a hand on her shoulder, “Come on, Fluttershy, there’s nothing more we can do for them. We should get out of here.”

Flutters nodded and stood, wiping her eyes, “Okay.”

Sunset glanced in Rarity’s direction as she stuffed a water bottle back into her pack. Catching her look, Applejack gave a quick nod and flashed a thumbs up. Nodding back, Sunset turned and gingerly stepped over the body onto the steps.

The stench grew worse as the girls reached the upstairs walkway. An open door lay to their left, containing another office space and little more. To their right the walkway led across to another generator area of some kind. Just past the generators was another walkway leading to a door, with another staircase splitting off and heading downstairs.

Unlike the bigger generators downstairs the two up here were completely destroyed, the whole area blackened and scorched as if swept through by fire. The reek of burnt metal and singed flesh mixed with the cloying stench of rotten meat. Walking closer, the girls quickly discovered the reason.

Three more ghouls lay scattered around the area.

Two of the corpses were horrifically charred and mangled, while the third was strangely intact and untouched, sprawled face-down in a pool of blood.

“What the heck happened here?” Rainbow breathed.

Applejack switched on her Pip-Boy light and strode over to check on the generator. After giving it a quick once-over she called over her shoulder to the others, “Yep, just what ah thought. The emergency shut-off has been tripped on the gas line.” She sighed and straightened up, “Ah guess there must have been a leak in the relay, then something made a spark and… well… you can see what happened next.”

“That… doesn’t really make any sense.” Twilight said slowly.

The others turned to look at her curiously.

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight indicated the two charred bodies, “Well, if it was an explosion that killed these ghouls, then why isn’t the third one burnt?”

“Maybe he was killed later?” Sunset suggested.

“That’s certainly a possibility, but something just feels off…” Twilight folded her arms, her brow furrowed, “Hey, Applejack? Is there any way we can find out when the explosion occurred?”

“Yesterday morning, about the same time the sheriff tried to blow us up in Arefu,” Applejack said briskly. In response to the surprised looks from the others she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder, “The emergency shut-off has a stop-clock on it, to let the technicians know how long the gas has been off for.”

“But the blood here is in the same state as that downstairs which, as Fluttershy pointed out, indicates that both ghouls were killed either around the time of the explosion or before.” Twilight rattled off, her voice taking on the quality of a born lecturer.

Sunset looked from Twilight to the bodies, “You don’t think this was an accident.”

Twilight shook her head sharply, “I don’t. I could confirm my theory but…” She cringed as she pointed a hand at the intact body, “I’m really really sorry about this.”

A purple glow surrounded the body and lifted, gently turning it over and laying it on it’s back. Even in the wan light, the girls could clearly make out the bullet holes that riddled the ghoul’s chest.

“Sweet Celestia…” Sunset breathed, unable to hold back a shiver at the sight.

“There was a gunfight down here, that must have been what set off the gas explosion,” Twilight said quietly.

“That’s horrible, who would do something like this?” Rarity asked.

“Probably raiders,” Applejack sighed and swept off her hat to hold it over her heart.

Sunset shook her head, frowning at the corpse, “I don’t think it was raiders, not this time.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her, “Why not?”

“Think about it. This is supposed to be the safest way into the D.C ruins, and we know someone who only entered the ruins either yesterday or the day before.”

Twilight frowned, then turned to face Sunset, her eyes wide, “Wait a second, you mean Adam did this?”

Fluttershy whipped around at that, her face twisted with anger, “There’s no way! Adam would never hurt defenseless ghouls!”

Sunset blinked, stunned by the shy girl’s sudden outburst. Before she could muster a response an animal snarl echoed through the area.

“What the heck was that?” Rainbow asked quietly.

“No idea.” Applejack replied, clutching her shotgun nervously.

A horrified gasp snapped the girls’ attention round. Fluttershy stood with her hands clamped over her mouth. Her eyes darted fearfully from the corpses to the far walkway, pupils small as pinpricks.

“What is it Fluttershy?” Sunset gripped her pistol tightly as more snarls reached their ears, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps on metal.

“They’re not ordinary ghouls,” Fluttershy whispered shakily, “They’re feral.”

“What do you mean?” Applejack hissed.

“Some ghouls… they lose their higher brain functions and reasoning and revert to their basest instincts.” Fluttershy wrapped her arms around herself and took several steps back, trembling like a leaf as a half-rotted creature slowly came into view, stumbling up the far staircase.

Rainbow’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, “No way… you’re telling me those things are… basically…”

The girls all backed away as the creature stepped onto the walkway. Torn rags and moldy old armor covered it’s skeletal form, it’s blotchy skin peeling and sagging off it’s bones. Worse was the creature’s face. A ragged hole was all that remained of it’s nose and it’s lips had half rotted away, bloody chunks of flesh dangling freely from it’s mouth. The feral ghoul stopped and tilted it’s head as it spotted them.

“Zombies,” Fluttershy whimpered.

A gurgling scream ripped its way out of the ghoul’s throat as it launched itself into a sprint, hurtling towards the girls.

Another day another chapter!

Posting this one a little early this time, figured it makes a nice change.

Comments and criticisms are much appreciated and, as always, thanks for reading.