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Reciprocity: A Metro 2033 and MLP Crossover

by MrSing

Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Dirge of the Dead

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Dirge of the Dead

With a groan I turned over. Nausea ebbed and flowed through me in a rhythm with the waves of dull pain that shot through my head.

At first I was quick to blame a hangover, like from that time Sasha had shared a bottle of mushroom vodka with me. He kept boasting about how he had haggled the price down to ten bullets, up until the first sip of that awful brew. An evening of quiet suffering followed as we could not waste the bottle, followed by a worse morning.

The headache started to clear up unexpectedly soon however. In a few seconds it was reduced to a mere throbbing, dissolving into nothing but a bad memory another moment later. I opened my eyes to the dark. Confusion set in for a minute before everything came rushing back.

I was still here.

Climbing to my feet I frantically looked around. Nothingness greeted me back. I cursed as I grabbed my flashlight. Those lurkers, or worse, could be around me right now and I’d never know. With the flick of a switch a light started to weakly push away the dark. The beam grew stronger with every squeeze I gave the universal charger.

The light swirled left and right over rocks, holes, and corpses, but nothing moved. With a gasp I nearly dropped it as it shone over a shape standing next to me. Resting my head in my hand I calmed down. Blue eyes stared at me.

Of course Dozor would not leave my side. It was getting hard to remember a time she wasn’t near me.

She looked twice ran over though. Her ears drooped and one of them seemed to be ripped down the middle. Her wings hung so low they touched the ground, while dim eyes stood out above the shawl the rest of her face hid in. Not to mention the scratches on her sides that burned an angry red. The only part of her that didn’t look worn down was how she held the dusty old book with one leg tight to her side.

For a long awkward moment she didn’t say anything, but merely stared right through me.

“Dozor, are you okay? Why are you standing in the dark?” A knife of guilt stabbed my heart as her empty eyes looked away. Of course she wasn’t okay. She had just lost her brother.

She quickly looked back at me as her eyes widened. Her ears perked up and she stepped forward. She touched my leg with her hoof, as if to check if it were real. ’I can hear you.‘

“Of course,” I smiled at her. “Is that strange?” The changeling jumped back and her horn lighted up, but she gave no answer.

“Where’s Pizdabol?” I shone the light around, but only the corpses of nightmares were revealed. It was hard to think back. After Uchenick had died, everything seemed to be covered in a viscous dark fluid. Memories came slow and disorted, but something came bubbling to the surface eventually.

“She and I,” my hands went to the side of my helmet as I tried to focus. “There was a fight.” Dozor watched the tunnel. “She did something to me inside my head? I think she did it once before, too.” It was quiet for a moment. “You helped me.”

’She’s gone. We need to go,‘ Dozor ordered quick and gruff as she studied the inside of one of the holes.

I wanted to ask more, but Dozor was right. It was too dangerous to stand here for long. Still, there was something that needed to be done. “One thing, it will be quick.” Dozor nodded.

I opened my backpack. It was no problem to find the cylinder with how light the pack had gotten. Unscrewing it, I saw the bottle. Even in the darkness of this place it was still a beautiful spectacle of white and green lights swirling around. I was glad I hadn’t succeeded in breaking it so long ago.

Pulling out the stop I carefully poured a bit of the priceless liquid on the stones below. Dozor had creeped up next to me and stared at the wet rocks. ’What are you doing?‘

“It’s for Uchenik,” I said as the bottle went back in the cylinder. “Some people pour one out when a friend-” the words got caught in my throat. “Well, you know.”

’He is dead. He doesn’t need to drink anymore.‘ That was Dozor alright, but it wasn’t my place to tell her how to grief.

“Well, then it’s for us.” I kneeled down and rested a hand on Dozor’s mane. “Because we miss him and there is nothing else we can do but throw drinks on the floor.”

’It’s a waste,‘ Dozor looked like she wanted to say more, but she held back and gave me a tiny smile. ’Still, I appreciate it.‘ She turned around and escaped my hand. ’We need to go.‘

“Lead on,” I said as I followed.

It was a nerve wracking walk. Sounds and shadows seemed to be coming from every hole in the tunnels and we moved as quickly as our caution allowed. We had to squeeze past giant boulders that had fallen into our path and through crevices in parts of the walls that had collapsed. Dried husks of rodents, lurkers, and a few creatures with too many legs, wings, and eyes littered the halls. I didn’t even recognize what the poor things had been before the radiation and poison had mangled them.

Dozor called it good fortune. The maze was littered with traps and the invasive fauna had set most of them off. I silently looked at just what we shared these tunnels with and tried to put it out of my mind.

’Through here,‘ Dozor said as she ducked through a hole. It was easy for a small thing like her to say that. I took a deep breath and got onto my stomach. While crawling behind the changeling I was thankful for the braces on my knees and elbows.

Suddenly I felt myself colliding with a mess of black legs. “Hey!” I shouted out as I stared up and a black tail tickled my face. The changeling stepped to the side and I entered the chamber she had blocked.

It was a graveyard. Bones rose up to greet me in piles as high as my waist. There must have been hundreds of corpses in the chamber, picked clean of any meat and discarded. Skulls of dogs, those cow things, and even a few horses grinned at us like they shared a macabre joke.

’What is this?‘ Dozor gaped at her surroundings in disbelief before she shook herself out of it.

“I’ve heard of it,” I spoke as I walked; making my way between the skeletons I shone my light, searching for any creatures that might lie in ambush. “In the metro there are rumors about a station that has been turned into a place like this. They say the lurkers and nosalis have a common feeding ground where they dump everything they catch. They drag people from every branch of the metro to it over incredible distances. I’d hoped I’d never see it.”

It was a small mercy I could find no human skulls or a small white changeling anywhere.

Something soft being squeezed under my boots made me stop in my tracks. Shining my light down two button eyes looked back up at me. It was a doll. One of those flying horses. Kneeling down I took a closer look.

It was lying next to a skeleton. A very tiny skeleton of a horse, with one hoof outstretched towards the doll as if it was trying to grasp it. ’Coincidence,’ I thought as darkness crept into my vision. ’Only coincidence.’ The remains of a larger pony lay next to it. A few pieces of a blue mane and a yellow coat still clung to the bones.

My breaths came in violent short bursts, but the air in the chamber was bad. There wasn’t enough air. My gloved hand shot before my mouth as I stared at the accusing eyes of the doll. ’No! No! No!’ it echoed in my mind over and over.

A hoof landed on my shoulder as the insect-like head of the changeling slided next to mine. ’Did you find anything?‘ I slapped the hoof away and sprang up, nearly toppeling the alien over.

“You threw them out!” I shouted, not caring where we were or if it made sense. Blood was pounding in my ears as my hands curled into fists. “You said there were villages they could go to!”

Dozor stared at me with open and confused eyes, before she saw the doll and the corpses. I saw a growing understanding in her face before she closed her eyes and a sigh escaped from deep within her.

’So, they didn’t make it.‘ She righted herself and stared at Steam Trail’s remains. Steam Trail, who had been alive a few days before and who had saved us along with her daughter Silver Spring. ’That’s the destination of fools who don’t listen to reason.‘

“They are dead! Because of us!” I stumbled backwards and collided with the bones behind me. They fell and clattered on the ground near my feet. They poked in my back like accusing fingers. “Don’t you feel anything at all?”

Dozor turned away. ’Right now it doesn’t matter what I feel. All that matters is that my people and your people need us. So I suggest you pull yourself together and keep marching. We’ll have plenty of time later for feelings.‘

“Your people!” I laughed, but there was nothing funny about it. “Only your people matter and the rest of the world can just die, right? Humans could just die too for all you care if we couldn’t help you, right? It doesn’t matter to you, after all.”

’Well, you weren’t quick to go after them either!‘ she hissed at me with a rage that had been bubbling under her defeated exterior. ’All I needed to do was mention your people and you left them out in the cold. To die! And you begrudge me for doing the same! They were idiots and deserved their fate! Why don’t you pour out another drink for them, eh? Just dump that whole bottle in this graveyard for every fool! Or don’t they matter to you?‘

I stared her in the face and felt sick at the sight. “If that’s how it is then why don’t you just go back home with your sister?”

It was like the flame inside her had been doused. Her face twisted from rage to calm to something else. ’Wait, wait. Yuri, I’m sorry.‘ Her voice sounded strained as if she were barely holding other words back. ’I didn’t mean it.‘

“I know you, Dozor. You’re a good liar, but you can’t lie to me anymore. You meant every word.” My light trailed across the ceiling and I could see hatefull eyes staring from holes that littered the cave. They quickly dove away for the moment, but soon they would find their courage again. “I remember now what happened with your sister. What she said, what she did. She called me ‘prey’ and talked about ‘not letting things slip’.” I shone into Dozor’s face and she held up her mangled looking leg to hide from the light. “This was never about helping me, was it?”

’You don’t understand,‘ she said as she now turned away. ’I don’t understand anymore.‘ She shook her head and stomped the ground. ’Nevermind, you won’t listen anyway.‘

Biting back any other words I took a deep breath. “What tunnel do we need to take?” I demanded.

’That one,‘ she answered to my surprise. ’What for?‘ she asked unsure.

“I’m going to walk ahead and you’re going to follow behind me. Don’t make a sound or make me look at you.”

’That’s dangerous! I’m the Scout, I should go ahead. Don’t be an idiot!‘

Without a word I pushed past her. Storming off into the tunnel, Dozor’s agitated buzzing grew more silent, but her voice sounded like she was still next to me. ’Don’t run off,‘ she pleaded. ’I’ll- I’ll explain it all. Please just listen.’

I walked on without looking back, letting her words bounce off me. She got the hint and followed me in silence.

The truth cut deep and anger burned like an ember inside my stomach. A maelstrom of confused and painful thoughts raged through me. How could I have been so blind again? I had just trusted them without any reason. It was no wonder they had betrayed me.

And the mother and the child, I had abandoned them because I had believed Dozor, because I had wanted to believe her and that they would have been safe. But maybe I had known that they were in terrible danger out there and I had just ignored it for my own convenience.

And Pizdabol and Uchenik, I wanted to hate them, loath them for their betrayel. But seeing that small, shy changeling that calmly accepted his place in the world with dignity being torn apart before he could fullfil his life’s purpose still hurt. And Pizdabol’s jokes and boundless cheer. How she played cards with me and taught me how to cheat. It had all just been an act, but I missed it.

I got angrier at those feelings than anything else.

Dozor was right. I was an idiot that wished an obvious façade was real. Like the lie we told ourselves about taking back the surface, about how we would never wage a war like that ever again. We said those things as our filters ran out and we slit each other’s throats. In a giant bunker we hid away from the world we hollowly said we would claim again. It seemed very clear to me now that being a human was nothing more than building lies upon lies. Grimly making a palace of deception until the truth came along and toppled it over in a single strike.

Yet, I did not stop marching. I was stubbornly walking towards another obvious lie. A wish granter, it was almost funny. Like a child I’d just accepted that something like that was even possible. There was nothing left for me anyway. I’d travel on even knowing that it was a lie and let the truth cut me again. It was in my nature as a human, after all. I was just as hopeless to stop myself as the changelings were.

The tunnel’s ground slowly flattened out as the Lurker’s holes disappeared. Finally we were exiting the nest to the relative safety outside of it. The ceiling and walls became more rounded and bore the marks of hands shaping them. We were definitely entering an artificial part of the cave now. The thought eased my nerves somewhat. Surely it meant we were close to the end, whatever that might be.

With a curse I nearly toppled over as my boot got caught on something. Shining the light down I was surprised to find something metallic reflecting in the dark. My heart jumped in my throat as I, unbelieving, touched what had tripped me.

It was a railroad, going all the way ahead of me into a metro tunnel. “Dozor, look here!” I shouted excitedly, forgetting my anger for a moment.

No response came.

“Dozor?” I turned around. A collapsed tunnel was not ten steps behind me. Blinking rapidly I stumbled backwards. My mind worked slow as I steadied myself. It felt like the ground had suddenly shifted underneath me, leaving me in a strange place.

“Hello?” I cried out. No response came. There was nothing else to it, but to press on. Dimming my light I shuffled forwards, closely to the wall and ducking into every alcove that I could find. I crept trough the tunnel for what felt like hours, encountering nothing but cobwebs and rats.

Finally in the distance I saw the bright glow of a fire, a sign of civilization and hopefully people. My heart beat faster as I thought about seeing other humans again. It couldn’t have been longer than a few weeks, but I would have given anything to hear someone speak Russian again.

As I dashed behind a dilapidated electricity box a sense of unease flared up. There was an outpost ahead, but no guards. I waited for a moment, trying to hear if anyone was talking, but nothing came except for the sounds of a campfire.

I leaned out from behind the box and unease turned into worry. The guard station was wrecked. The barbwire had been broken and remains of cloth stained red hang on the cruel wire. The walls were riddled with bullets and the spotlight had been broken, littering the ground with glass. A body rested against the wall.

“Hey,” I whispered. “Are you alright?” No response came. Waiting for a moment I weighed my options. Something had happened. Something that had overcome the at least three armed men that were standard procedure for a guard post. Something that could still be out there. On the other hand, the person lying against the wall could be hurt and be in need of help.

Taking out the shotgun I kept low to the ground and made my way to the body. Halfway to the man I stopped. He was lying in a pool of blood. So much blood that there was no doubt about wether he was still alive.

Something walked past me. I screamed as I dashed back. Tripping over my own feet I fell painfully on my back. The tunnel exploded in light and sound as my gun went off and lead impacted with whatever had surprised me.

The tunnel went cold, colder than it had ever been on the surface. A shadow was standing in front of me, unhurt by the shot that had gone straight through it. I was dazed, static and ringing noises filled my ears as all the hairs on my neck stood up. The shadow ignored me and stumbled towards the body of the man on the ground.

Wordlessly I looked on as the shadow suddenly trashed like my shot had connected to it after a delay. The form fell down and crawled towards the body until it lay perfectly inside it.

Not daring to move I stared at the body. A minute later the shadow walked by again and the scene played out in the exact same way. The third time I saw the shadow walking towards the body again I ran. Carelessly I rushed over the cross-ties and jumped the broken barrier. Not looking back I ran and I ran. I would have kept running through those tunnels until my legs gave out under me, if it was not for what I saw next.

At the end of the tunnel was my station and it lay in ruins. The marketplace was overturned with mushrooms, jackets and firewood spilled out on the ground. The tents that were our homes were on fire or ripped open and the air was filled with a noxious smell that reeked of smoke and rot. There were bodies on the floor. I recognized most of them.

I was too late! Maybe it had been the Northerners who had attacked us out of desperation or perhaps the mutants that had slipped in through the opened door had overrun the station. It didn’t really matter what had happened, I hadn’t been there to help or to at least die with them.

I was all alone in the world now, all because I had just been too late.

“Hello?” I cried out. No reply came. “Hello!” I screamed at the ruins, but still no one answered. Sobs shook my body as I buried my head in my hands. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. I sank down to the ground as the tears came. I tried to choke them down but they came anyway. I didn’t deserve to feel sorry, it had all been my fault, but this was stronger than me. Like water from a river through a collapsed tunnel, I could do nothing but wait until the flood was over.

I don’t know how long it took, but finally I got a handle on myself again. To my shame I felt refreshed. Wiping the tears and the snot from my face I dusted myself off and stood up again. Shadows surrounded me.

“S-stay away!” I grabbed my revolver. I looked around me like a trapped animal, but everywhere those faceless shadows stood. There was no escape. “Leave me alone! I will shoot!” One of them moved towards me. I snapped the gun toward it with a speed I didn’t know I had. “No!”

The shadow reached out its hand towards me. Shaking like a leaf I stared at the thing in confusion. With a growing dread I realized something about it was familiar. The revolver fell to the ground. “Sergei?” Slowly I reached for the hand; I hesitated as I looked at the shadows again. Maybe that one was Sasha, and the other Alex. I grabbed the hand.

A scream escaped me as cold agony spread out from where I touched the shadow. I wanted to let go, but my hand was holding on with a death grip. More of the shadow walked towards me and lay their hands on me, every single touch feeling like a branding iron. Faintness overcame me as I fell towards the ground once again, my vision turning grey and blurry. They were dragging me down and in horror I felt the floor give out under me, like it was only wet cement. They dragged me down deeper and deeper until the floor closed up above me, leaving me in complete darkness. With another scream I felt something dark and cold slip into my lungs and stomach, spreading out like molten metal. The last thing I felt before unconsciousness claimed me was still more hands holding onto me.

Air rushed into my lungs with a violent gasp. I trashed around trying to break free from those awful cold hands, but nothing held me. Scrambling for my flashlight I only calmed down when a beam struck out against the dark. I was still in the cave.

I held a hand against my face as I started to giggle. It was only a vision, an illusion. Some trick of the mind caused by this sick place. It had to be that. I laughed harder, before I punched myself in the leg until the feeling subsided. I wasn’t going to lose control again. Do people feel it when they are going mad? Or maybe it just sneaks up on them with tiny ignorable symptoms until it’s too late to do anything about it, like a cancer. I pressed on as I couldn’t quite shake those thoughts.

“Dozor?” I called out, but she was nowhere to be found. Maybe she had gotten ahead of me. It wasn’t too strange to think she would have missed me in this darkness. “Dozor!”

A faint purple light was coming around the edge of the tunnel. I shut off the flashlight and edged around the corner. There were several dozen horses standing in a purple bubble of some kind. Swords and spears were held in their mouths or floating in the grasp of their strange powers. Clad in golden armor they stood guard in rows. Their rulers stood behind them, Luna, Celestia and a smaller purple one along with a few other who didn’t seem to fit in.

They all glanced around nervously at the walls and the holes from where the Lurkers could come at any moment. Their focus was not just on the tunnels however, but also on the small dark changeling one of them was barking questions against. Dozor was being held in some kind of magical glow and gave soft replies with downcast eyes.

I cursed to myself. This was what the changelings had warned against. The ponies had set up a trap right in the lion’s den. Did they hate us so much they would risk their very lives to stop us? There was some hope, however. If they were here, that had to mean we were extremely close to the wish granter and that they believed it to be real; real enough at least to come here to stop us. I just had to get past them, somehow.

Sighing quietly I closed my eyes and prepared myself. I stood up and walked straight to them. “I am here.” I declared, making no attempt to hide. All eyes turned towards me.

Celestia looked at me coolly and put a hoof on her sister’s back. ’So you are.‘ With a golden clad hoof she gestured towards the bubble they were standing in. ’Step forward. We can talk freely inside here, where it is safe.‘

I did so, clenching my teeth as a tingling feeling passed over me while I crossed the barrier. ’That is better now, is it not?‘ I just stared at her. Her expression grew harder as she spoke. ’I’m very disappointed in you, Yuri. You abused my sister’s trust and-‘

“Trust” I took a step forward. “You lied to me! You didn’t want humans here because you are scared of us. You think we are all evil and insane, but you’re perfectly fine sacrificing some innocents for your own safety, right? How does that make you better than us?” The ponies raised their weapons nervously in my direction, but with a gesture Celestia calmed them.

’And you harmed some of my guards who were only doing their duty when you broke out this changeling,‘ she nodded towards Dozor, who was trying to avoid my eyes.

“I’m- I’m sorry about the guards,” I crossed my arms as I looked of to the side.

’That is a good start, Yuri. They may even forgive you when you will apologise to them in person back in Canterlot.‘ She still looked sternly, like she was talking to a child who had been caught stealing food.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I took another step closer. “You lied to me. I’m going to take us out of the metro. We’re not going to waste away and die in the dark, no matter what you think about it.”

’She lied to protect you!‘ Luna stared at me with sad eyes as she stomped the ground. ’I did too. The truth is just too awful, but I believe you deserve to know. Seeing as you went this far for your people.‘

I scoffed. “Oh! So now I get the truth. I don’t think there’s a single thing anyone has said to me since I arrived that hasn’t been a lie.” Dozor cringed under those words as I glared at her. I took another step forward. A pony pressed a spear against my abdomen, but there was no force behind it. I swatted it out of the way to the surprise of the guard. “Let me through.” The guards started to advance to block my way, more spears and swords were raised towards me, but I could see it was for show. They didn’t need to fight me, there was no way I could force my way past them, but I had to. My hand went towards my revolver. Could I really do it? Kill someone just because they were in my way? My throat went dry and my hands turned cold. I had to get past them.

’Excuse me, mister Yuri. Can you understand me?‘ The voice did not sound regal at all, like those of the other two rulers. It was more like the voice a young woman might have. The smaller one with wings and a horn had an intense look on her face as she stared at me. As I nodded she broke out in a warm smile and clapped her hoofs together. ’Oh! It worked, how wonderful!‘ One of the horses that wasn’t wearing armor, an orange one with a blonde mane, said something in their strange language. The one that had talked to me blushed as she fidgeted her hoofs together. ’Oh, right. Hello! I’m Twilight and you are Yuri, but you knew that last part already, of course.‘ She grinned sheepishly at me before coughing in her hoof. She took a deep breath and her expression became sober. ’Princess Luna told you that our two worlds are connected, right?‘ I nodded. ’She also spoke with you about how in the last twenty years this connection somehow deepened. We are not sure why, but it must have involved a massive amount of energy to do so. We have been experiencing a very hard to control winter, probably from your planet, and am I right if I assume that you have also been experiencing strange magical manifestations?‘

“We call them anomalies. They are strange things, mostly violent. One of them brought me here.”

’Did you ever wonder why?‘

I blinked. “Does it need a reason? They are just random things that happen. Like floods or disease.”

’Magic is different from those. It is attracted to emotions and sapience, both things that humans have. You are always filled with magic, as the changelings abused.‘ I stared at my hands. I didn’t feel any different than I had before I had come to this place. ’But to use magic you need to have a desire, or an intent to do something and you need a way to channel it. Humans don’t have a way to channel magic, making you more like magical sponges.‘

“Is this going somewhere?”

Celestia spoke up. ’Do you know what happens when something dies in this world?‘ I grabbed my revolver tighter, not liking where this was going. ’The magic that every creature here uses for living slowly runs out as the body’s strength fades. As the creature dies their magic dissipates back into the world again. This does not happen with humans.‘ She somehow commanded her soldiers to stand aside and slowly walked towards me. ’Twilight said that humans can not channel magic, but this is not the whole story. When a human’s desire is strong enough or when enough humans desire the same thing, magic will shape itself.‘

The one called Twilight chimed in. ’Something like that has never been observed in our world. But the spells that are formed aren’t guided. They are ugly, inefficient and twisted. They are horrible things with strange and unpredictable results.‘

Luna continued. ’These anomalies are those spells. Your people’s desire to escape, to find a better place to live, is likely what caused the anomaly that transported you here to form. You are lucky the trip didn’t kill you. It has done so to many of your kind.‘

“Is- Is that why you don’t want us here?” I held my head in my hands. “Couldn’t you just control that? Dispell them or whatever?”

’Humans do not die in the same way as we do,‘ Celestia gave me a sad smile. ’Dying is terrifying. Every cell in the body calls out for more time, just a little more time. The desire to survive is very strong. So strong that it can keep a human’s essence locked to the world. When a human dies they become a magical black hole. The fear and pain they feel in that last moment of their life repeats itself over and over and the strength of those emotions sucks the magic out of everything around them. They become ghosts, forced to exist in agony forever. If a creature from this world would encounter one of them, they would surely die. Can you now understand us, Yuri? Why we did not want to tell this? Why we can’t allow your people into our world? Can you see?‘ She held out her hoof. ’Please just come with us, Yuri. We can’t let you pass. Just come with us and I promise you’ll be cared for and when the time comes, we will do our best to help you.‘

My whole body was shaking as I held my head between my hands. That couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t be. But what had Uchenik encountered in that cave that had cost her an eye? What of those shadows in my station? No! That was only an illusion. It was an illusion! I took out my revolver and aimed right between those sympathetic eyes. “How stupid do you think I am?” I screamed at her. “Get out of my way!”

’I know that weapon,’ she said without any fear. Fire one shot and we will subdue you immediately. Besides, you are not a murderer. You don’t have the eyes of one. Just let it go.‘

“Let go? Do you think I can afford to let go?” My voice sounded strange to my own ears, like that of a wild animal. “Do you have any idea of what happens if I fail? We are dying. Do you know how vast our future was? We went to space, we stopped diseases, we made miracles happen. And now in a few decades it will be like we had never existed. Now please let me through.”

I lowered the gun, seeking for leeway in some of the horses before me, but they formed an impenetrable font. “And you,” I turned to Luna. “Why did you even bother with all this? I thought you wanted to help me?”

She stared at the ground. ’I was hoping that you’d become friends with the ponies I’d send with you. And they would ease you into all of this. It would have been less painful for you.‘

And I would be easier to manipulate, of course. Yet another lie. There was no way past them. I couldn’t convince them, plea with them or force my way past. My eyes fell on Dozor and her eyes finally met mine. Lie and the world will be handed to you on a silver platter, she had said.

“You must have a lot of magic, right?” Celestia looked confused. I turned the gun towards my throat and her face turned ashen. “If a human were to die here in pain, you would all be left without magic.” I looked at the purple shield around us. Lurkers were staring with hunger in their eyes from their burrows. “Did you know those creatures out there eat humans? The smell of gunpowder and the sound of shots attract them. It’s how they hunt us.”

’You can not do this!‘ Luna said. ’We will all die. No one will win. This is mad!‘

I forced a laugh. “Humans blew up their own planet. To you we were already insane.” I stepped forward and Celestia took a step back. “Do you all feel it? Can you feel your future slipping away, because someone else is making a choice for you? Can you feel all your hopes and plans teetering on the edge? That’s how it is for us, every day.” All other horses looked too shocked to say anything. “Now let me through.” Slowly I walked through their ranks as they stepped aside, pressing themselves to the edges of the bubble. “And let Dozor go.”

The small changeling ran to my side as they released her from whatever magic they had used to hold her. ’Thank you,‘ she quietly said.

“Just show me where to go.” With a quick nod she grabbed my free arm and slowly guided me backwards. The horses followed our every move with a quiet dread. As we passed the barrier I knew we had to move fast. The moment was ours, but soon they would think off some way to stop us, so we had to be away before that happened. “Is it far?” I asked Dozor.

’Just a few meters.‘

My heart beat faster. Despite everything I felt excitement bubbling up in my stomach. Whatever my journey had been leading up to, this would be it. “We need to make a run for it.” Dozor jumped up and flew into the air as I turned and dashed. Behind me I could hear shouting as dozens of hoofs stamped on the ground. Screeches came from everywhere and I could see Lurkers jumping down from the edges of my vision. Everything exploded into chaos behind us as the metro and this world clashed together with metal, teeth, magic and claws.

Dozor flew into a tunnel through an archway. Strange inscriptions were engraved into it in a language I didn’t recognize. She landed and gestured for me to hurry. I could almost feel the lurkers behind me breathing down my neck. Running faster than I ever had I passed under the arch. Dozor’s horn lit up and as I looked behind me I could see the creatures ramming into some kind of invisible field.

’We can take it easy now,‘ Dozor said as she looked at the mutants. ’That there is the single most powerful barrier in the entire world. It will take them weeks to get past this.‘

“Why didn’t they just wait behind this thing then?”

’Because at this moment anyone who is of any importance knows the two of us have breached the chamber to the Wish Granter.‘ She pointed at the archway. ’If they had done this it would have been seen as an act of war for everyone. But nobody but the ponies know Changelings or Humans exist, so let them chew on that one for a while.‘

With a flash of light the Lurkers were thrown to the side. The horses rushed toward the archway and set up a defensive position. I saw the rulers rushing up to the field. They stared at us with wide eyes as their mouths moved like they were yelling at us, but the shield blocked all sounds. Their horns started to glow as lightbeams shot from the tips and bounced harmlessly off the field.

I turned from them and walked deeper into the tunnel. A few moments later Dozor followed.

Next Chapter: Chapter 16: Dozor Estimated time remaining: 31 Minutes
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