“Alright, whiteboy, help carry your friend. Let’s get moving!” Vinyl shouted the command with an air of authority to make a drill instructor proud, making even Broker twitch in his stretcher.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.” Sketch said with all the apathy of a high school senior. Walking over to the stretcher, Fluttershy used her wings to help put the front of it on Sketch’s back, hooked up to his RIG bags. The yellow mare hitched herself up to the back of it, the caked blood from her eyes and nose flaking as she and Sketch begin carrying the unicorn.

“So where are we going? I just really don’t want to be anywhere obvious.” CD said, still worried that the scientists will find him somehow.

“M-maybe that one place? Where... you know, th-the video said t- to go? It’s n- not too far from here...”

“Where? Hold on, I’ve got the recording, but Sketch and Broker won’t hear it so they’ll have to follow.” CD pointed out. “Alright, let’s play that hologram again.”

“Uhm... okay...”

The group of ponies began trotting off towards the presumed location of goodies.

“So what exactly happened to our resident bookworm?” Sketch asked, looking vaguely towards Vinyl.

“He took an attack for Flutters. End of story, white meat.”

“Of course I’m white meat, birds are the ones with white and dark, also good on him to be useful.”

“Shut it, dicklegs.”

“Okay she-devil-with-the-moist-cave.”

CD closed one eye, and stared with the other, unsure if he wanted to see the result or not. The clack of the plasma cutter being reloaded and opened echoed in the silent hall.

“You can dish it out, you can take it, let’s just keep going, and don’t waste ammo.”

“You’re right, you would be a waste of ammo.”

“You would be too, anything that isn’t one of them is a waste of ammo, now-” a resounding smack was heard, as the edge of the cutter slammed into the side of Sketch’s face.

“I said shut it. Or did you not hear me, swinging cock? Maybe I can rectify the lack of blood flow to your brain, cut off its other possible destination?”

“That hurt a little, just stop abusing everyone, this isn’t productive in the slightest, and threats don’t really bother me.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’m just up for a little rioting. After all, this is an emergency situation, so it’d be potentially excusable. Madness of the moment and all. Pretty sure there’d be nopony to say otherwise, whiteboy.”

“Just don’t expect me to stick my neck out for you, and come up with something creative besides dick jokes and ‘whiteboy’, it’s getting old.”

“And maybe you need to stop attracting attention by running your damn mouth off every time you can. Now shut up, and get moving, or I’ll see how well screams keep them off the rest of us.”

CD kept one eye open. and just headed towards their next destination, mumbling something about people who don’t shut up, get stuff done, and waste time. And something about keeping one eye closed makes everything look funny.

“How about we both shut it until we are safe? Sound good?”

“Yes!” CD yelled over his shoulder.

“Fine. Just don’t expect any handouts.”

The group walks in sullen silence for a while, eventually finding the place the recording was happening, blood and gore splattered across the walls that wasn’t there in the video. A strange, pulsing carpet of something slimy and pungently aromatic grew from a wall vent and across a floor, a large, pulsing zit-like growth sticking off of it.

“I vote Sketch inspects it, if it’s dangerous, he’d be best at getting away.”

“I vote for the ponies who have weapons, not to mention I’m carrying the injured.”

“I vote I shoot it and see what it does.” Vinyl proceeds to do just that, the mechanical muscles at the ends of her suit squeezing off a shot at the cystic growth. It squealed, loudly, and a bright yellowy thing spat from it, arcing across the small hallway and smashing into a wall with a soft bang, tiny pieces of bone-like shrapnel flying out.

“There, arguement over. Let’s keep going, that supposed safe-zone is nearby.”

CD followed Vinyl, but still looked at the weird thing in the room. “So, we just ignore the huge, incredibly disgusting, pus-launching blister? Fine with me.”

“Yeah, for once I agree with her, just keep moving, and lets avoid those wall hemorrhoids from now on.”

The group continues on, the shifting, living mat of veins and fleshy growth slowly pulsing. The material makes sickly squishing noises, and the occasional squeal of escaping gas- or so they keep telling themselves -as they step on it, some of the patches growing fully from one wall to another.

Each of the steps through the muck stuck to the bottoms of their boots, pulling away from main mass to stick to their hooves. The thick morass slows their progress, and it’s tiring for them to continue, until at last they come across the door they were told to find.

Thick ropes of meaty tubes, like pulsing arteries or veins, crawl across the door. It could technically be opened, but some of the growth would have to be cut off.

“Hey, has anypony played Starcraft? Because this place is really Creepy.” CD said.

“Don’t expect me to zergrush in there.”

“Ugh, punsters.” Vinyl face-hoofed as she spoke.

“Hey, Vinyl, do you know how I can get out of this chicken-shit outfit?” CD said, grinning widely. “Okay, I’m done now, unless you wanna get invited to my next barbecue.”

“Let’s just keep going, this place smells pretty bad.” Sketch said.

With that, Vinyl leveled her plasma cutter at the gooey tendrils on the door, and began systematically blasting them off the wall. After opening the door, hauling on it with her magic and metal fingers. The door screeched open, sliding across the sticky mat, one of the older kind with hinges.

Inside was a small storage room, crawling with a thick mat of the growth, there was some barely visible smashable boxes off to one side, and some chairs. There was plenty of room, and a pair of lockers against one wall. One was signalling red, saying it was locked, but the other was green-lit.

“Green means go, I guess, let’s try that first, then see if we can unlock the other.” CD suggested, “But let’s see what is in those boxes, last time I opened some, I got 1,000 bits.”

“I hope we find some medkits, can never have too many supplies, unless it’s bordering on the extreme.”

CD walked over to one of the boxes and kicked it into the wall, breaking it open. Inside is a Compact Tool frame. CD picked it up, placing it into his inventory slot, the frame folding and compacting as it fit into his bag.

“This suit gets cooler and cooler, I don’t even know entirely what that thing will do, though.” CD stated, looking at the thing in his bag.

“Lets see what I get, maybe it’s a puppy!” It was empty, though, “Aww.”

Broker groaned as he slowly sat up, holding his head. A pounding ache pressured the back of his mind, like there was a balloon inflated between his brain and his skull.

“Hey, the decoy woke up, glad to see you aren’t dead man.”

“Oh, shut it, pack-mule.” Vinyl’s response to Sketch was biting, but even the quiet tones of the two hurt Broker’s head, making his migraine spike agonizingly. Fluttershy trotted over and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, allowing him to put his aching eyes into her shoulder.

“Hey, you look like you need this.” CD tossed a med-gel capsule to Fluttershy, who caught it in a wing and slotted it into Broker’s RIG. With a soft chime, the small capsule was used, and Broker’s headache receded somewhat.

“You feeling better? Headaches are the worst, huh?” CD said, keeping his voice low just in case the gel wasn’t as effective as he hoped.

“My eyes burn, head still hurts mildly to a point of irritating me, and I feel weak, but overall fine. Where are we and how did I get here?” Broker said quietly, pain being obvious within his voice. As he tried thinking back, all he could remember was that ear-piercing shriek, and not much after that. Something about a window... but not really anything concrete.

“Just great, I’m not the only one with memory issues, will things get better from here, or does fate hate us?” CD asked, not really expecting an answer. “Maybe the next box will help.”

“Well I’m going to keep breaking boxes.” Sketch said, smashing a box. This one has a cartridge, designed for a plasma cutter. The counter on the side lists ‘5’ for the charge number.

“Hey CD, got some more ammo for you.” Sketch said, holding up the cartridge.

“Cool, I think I’ve got ten shots now.”

“Vinyl could use it.” Broker added in quietly.

“I’ve got enough, for now. Lemme smash one though.” Without waiting for a response, Vinyl grabs one with her telekinetic aura, simply flinging it across the room to smash it. Inside was a large pile of cartridges for the plasma cutter. “Eeyup, hunch was right. These’re mine.”

Vinyl proceeded to began slotting the ammo into her suit for later retrieval.

“Next box is mine.” Sketch breaks yet another box, revealing... nothing.

“Wow, you have bad luck, I’ll take the next one in case you mess up again.” CD states, breaking a pair of boxes with one stomp. Inside were an Ammo Box attachment, and in the other was a Tesla tool core. The two are easily folded and slotted into Copy’s bags as well, sitting next to the frame.

“C-can I get one?” Broker asked, not even attempting to get up from the pain he was in.

“Incoming.” Sketch said, tossing him a box. Broker caught it weakly, bringing up a hoof to smash it. Inside of that box was a single credit chit. Slotting it into his RIG, the total it added to his account was about 12k credits.

“Lucky bastard, hey, Broker, open this box for me.” CD said, handing another to him.

Broker, weakly, smashed the box with a hoof. Inside was a tank for a Hydrazine Torch. Unfortunately, nopony in the group had a Hydrazine Torch.

“Does anypony know what Hydrazine is? I’ll just leave it or sell it.” Broker said looking at the tank.

“I know you can sell it for a lot, but I wouldn’t sell if you can get the torch to go with it.” CD said, quickly swiping the tank from Broker. “Now if we get the weapon for this thing, we’ve got a flamethrower, it also doubles as a bomb-launcher.”

Vinyl just facehoofed again, keeping an eye on the door, just in case.

“Vinyl, get a box. You seem to be having the best luck out of all of us ammo wise.” Broker added laying on the stretcher again.

“Fine...” Vinyl pulled a box from the mat of growth, the sticky residue from the corruption. Inside of the box was... nothing. “Yeah, I’m gonna watch the door again.”

“I agree with Vinyl, maybe staying in one place for too long is a bad idea.” CD said, getting his plasma cutter out just in case. One last smashbox sat in the tangle of meaty grossness. “Hold on, I’ll get that one.” CD used his suit’s Kinesis Module to pull the box out, and levitated it to Fluttershy. “Here, you have a go.”

“Uhm.. a-alright...” The yellow pegasus daintily tapped the box, then drew back her hoof with lightning speed, hiding from the box as if it was going to explode.

“Uh... okay... how about you try again, Fluttershy. It’s okay, it won’t hurt anyone.” Data said, pushing the box gently towards the wall of pink hair.

The timid mare peeked out, and mustered up the courage to try again. She raised her hoof again, a look of determination as she brought her hoof down with great speed and force... stopping just before hitting it, and giving it a soft tap. A faint blue glow encompasses the box and it breaks open at Flutters touch, making her leap back in fear, clutching onto Vinyl.

Inside was a single power node.

“Okay, a power node, this has a few uses, one being upgrades for machinery... I think.” CD said, memory still a bit fuzzy. “I know it can fix broken electrical connections, though. We should go now before monsters show up.”

“Locker... Open it” Broker said weakly.

“Fine.” CD activated his Kinesis Module again to open the locker, the door refusing to open. “Sketch, why don’t you give it a try? Maybe you can kick it.”

Without saying a word, Sketch just walked over to the locker and bucked it. It stayed resolutely closed.

“Okay, now that we’ve ruled out that, let’s just hit the ‘open’ button.” CD said, grinning at Sketch. “Hope you didn’t pull a muscle.”

“Oh shut it, at least I’m the only one here without something trying to kill them besides Shy and Vinyl.”

“Fine, fine.” CD opened the locker, and looked inside to find a small pile of Divet clips, a couple of plasma cutter cartridges, two medi-gel capsules, and a holotape.

Keying the holo for download to everyone, showing everyone its contents, and the hologram flickers for a moment, revealing the same man as before.

“Alright, so, if you found this you probably found my other logs. Good, that means you aren’t one of those things. Those, things, are called Necromorphs. Now, I left you a couple of things, if they’re still there...” The man scratched his stubble in thought. “I hope they are at least. Anyways, I am going to leave these around a bit, they should hold information that would be slightly helpful to this situation.

One thing that is important, shoot the limbs off. That is the first thing you need to do, when you shoot off the limbs, especially the claws, shoot those off and use the Kinesis module if you have it, if you don’t, still shoot of the limbs. But, most of all you need to-” a sharp metallic screech, familiar to the ponies listening to it, cuts the man off.

“Shit, they found me.” He fumbled with the device in hand as the Hologram cut off.

“And let’s hope they don’t find us too.” CD said “Or those crazy scientists. Isn’t what they’re trying to do illegal?”

“Those scientists just want you back CD. I think they are doing something illegal in a time like this! We need to keep moving anyway.” Broker says, still tired out. “Especially if we have those crazies chasing us.”

“Hey, here’s an incentive to help me, what if I tell them I will cooperate if they take you guys too.” CD said smirking. “Now who wants to help me?”

A sharp slap across the face from Vinyl knocked him to the ground, through his helmet.

“I meant the guys not you!”

“That probably doesn’t help your case much you asshat.” Sketch replied

“Oh, so you’d help me if it wasn’t in your interest to do so?” CD asked sarcastically. “That sounds so much like you, Sketch.”

Broker sighed. “How about we get moving while it’s at least quiet here?”

“Fine, let’s all listen to the idiot in intensive care.” CD said actually taking the advice.

“Uhm... guys?” Fluttershy’s voice is completely ignored as Vinyl starts speaking over her.

“At least he shows more balls than you two put together!”

“And your point is?” CD asked. “Let’s just get going.”

“Guys?” Flutters was interrupted by Sketch, yelling, “Hey! ‘Shy is trying to say something, dammit!”

The group quiets down and looks to the quiet yellow pegasus, who is now hiding in her sweater and mane from the attention. “Uhm- ah... w-well, uhm...”

Now that the focus was on her, Fluttershy’s resolve had broken, causing her to shift her eyes nervously from one pony to the next. Finally, she just pulled her head into her sweater, like a large, adorable turtle, her mane covering most of the sweater’s neck, one bright, turquoise eye peeking out.

“Now that is just cute. What were you going to say Fluttershy? I would like to hear it.” Broker said while smiling at Fluttershy, trying to convince her that she can finish her sentence. Instead, she just squeaked.

“Come on... Please?” Broker requested again. The timid pegasus just squeaked again, sounding kind of like a mouse.

“Dude, let her speak when she wants, and stop staring, as a pony with scopophobia, I know the feel.”

CD whispered to Broker “He’s afraid of telescopes?”

Broker just rolled his eyes.

Vinyl huffed in annoyance, picking up Flutters and pulling her close to her chest. Nuzzling the pegasus’ head tenderly, she cooed to Fluttershy soothingly. Slowly, Flutters drew out from her sweater, and the two kissed.

CD just looked away, trying not to think dirty thoughts, as Sketch shrugged in utter apathy at the display of affection, Broker simply looked away and frowned a little.

“So... What were you trying to say earlier?” Sketch asked

“Oh! Uhm... right... Oh, yes, I think that stuff coming out of the vent is moving.”

“Crap.” CD said “I’m going, like now, come on Sketch. We need to get out of here, Broker can be a distraction!”

“I can’t move, CD! Any of you would have to carry me! Plus, I still own a weapon!” Broker said.

“Not now, dragging!” Vinyl grabbed the other unicorn’s stretcher, slamming the door open in the process. In the fifteen minutes they’d spent in the storeroom, thick tendrils of veiny, matted gunk had spread across the outside of the door. Yanking the edges of the stretcher from the grasp of the material inside the room, Vinyl flung it and Broker from the room.

“I was just joking, now let’s move!” CD said, running for the door.

“Dude, she’s gonna kill you, be stupid later, right now, run!”

The five ponies fled the room, a quick peek back showing the tangled growth visibly spreading to fill the cramped quarters, as if searching for the life that had just been within its grasp.

Looking around, the five saw that the mall that had, just shortly before, been mostly clear, was now coated in mats of this stuff. The pulsing, twitchy mass was disgustingly smelly, forcing each of the keen-nosed ponies to cover their muzzles from the stench.

“What is this stuff?” CD asked. “Nevermind, how do we get out of here first?” CD looked around for a map or something of the mall. The nearest map stand, however, was nothing but a shuddering mound of tangled flesh. A loud, gurgling scream caught their attention, coming from around the corner.

“A

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we need Frost, she should be able to do something.” CD said, again, worried if Frost decided to shoot him first.

“I agree, but first we nee-”

“Will you two shut up and run?!” Vinyl practically screamed the question as she began to drag Flutters with her, the two fleeing away from the screams as the first shambling form turned the corner.

“Good idea.” CD ran after the mares.

“Wait, don’t leave me! I can’t move!” Broker shouted and now growing more fearful.

“Just shut up.” CD said, grabbing the stretcher and shoving it forward, away from the horde of monstrosities.

“Damn it Broker!” Sketch picked up the other end, catching up to CD easily, even with the extra weight.

Broker’s weapon lifted up into the air and aimed towards the crowd of alien life forms. He pulled the trigger, the shot slamming into the crowd. Squeezing it time and again, he fired every round he had, swapped clips, and fired again. A few of the beasts fell, wounded or downed it was impossible to tell, but some did. The tide wasn’t stopped, but it was slowed enough to get away, the five ponies finding themselves near a sign, pointing to a different tram station.

“At least he’s hitting a few of them!” Sketch shouted, not bothering to look back, hoping the thuds were the sound of bodies hitting the floor.

Broker’s weapon soon dropped onto him as magical burnout took control, giving him a headache. “Burned out. Can’t hold anything.” Broker said weakly.

“Alright, wuss.” CD activated his Plasma Cutter and fired behind him, aiming for the monsters closest to them. “Vinyl, a little backup?”

“Kinda busy here!” the white unicorn shouted over her shoulder. Looking over his own shoulder, CD saw that his fellow engineer was standing up again, firing into the crowd that had formed ahead of them. They had gotten trapped in an alleyway.

“Vinyl, how are you for ammo? I’ve got a spare clip if you need it.” CD said, firing again, keeping his focus on the beasts.

“I’ve got enough! Keep them from getting too close, dickweed!” Vinyl had a shaking, terrified Fluttershy stuck to her legs.

“There has to be a door to block off one of the halls.” Broker suggested while trying to look around for anything clickable.

“Well, I can’t see anything, you know, because I’m running for both of our lives!” Sketch’s words are a bit stressed, as there was nowhere to run.

“Kind of a moot point, we’re in an alleyway genius.” CD said, firing faster. “Do something!”

A sharp, painful screech echoes through the alley, and the shape of one of the unicorn-things rises from the crowd behind them. A burst of wild, green magic, shot through with angry red streaks, flies overhead. It almost struck Vinyl, and splatters of molten ceramic and metal flew from her helmet to the floor as she fell.

“Shit, Vinyl, you awake?” CD asked, firing still, reloading his Cutter in between shots. “Can you fight?”

No response is heard as Fluttershy crouches over her fallen marefriend, trying to wake her up.

“Shy, keep running, I got this!” Sketch shouted, throwing Vinyl onto the stretcher, landing on top of Broker. Broker’s breath is pushed out of him. “Keep moving!” His voice gasps out, barely audible as his hooves pull down on Vinyl to hold her in place.

Flutters grabbed one end of the stretcher, pulling it towards the smashed and slashed remains of the crowd ahead of them, the magical bolt having blasted several out of the way.

“Fluttershy, is she hurt or just unconscious?” CD asked, “I have another medigel if you need it.”

“N-no time!” The panicked pegasus continued to yank the stretcher towards safety.

“Shut up and fucking run, fucking ruuuuuuuuuuuun!” Sketch shouted at Copy, and the five ponies sped onwards, the two carrying the stretcher barely keeping to their hooves as they trample over the bodies and corpses of the human and pony-based things ahead. Fluttershy made an oddly resilient battering ram, hardly flinching from the creatures in the face of the danger to her marefriend.

Sizzling bolts of energy pass overhead and slam into the floor behind. The concussive blasts battered them back and forth, Data being nearly knocked from his hooves. Sending return shots of plasma at the creature, he missed, but at least he knocked some of the littler one to the ground with lucky shots to the waist or knees.

“Guys, a little help? Please?” CD called over his shoulder, as he backed up after them.

“Get the fuck in my backpack so I can carry you!” Sketch shouted sarcastically to him, continuing to run onwards.

“Okay, I’ll just keep running after you guys, rather than shooting at the monsters chasing us, as I’m the only one who can fight.” CD snarked back, doing his best to catch up. “How well can you run backwards?”

“P- probably not w- well.” Broker almost jumped out of his skin as Vinyl croaked out the words, right next to his ear. Being driven by shock along with fear, Broker’s Divet lifted into the air and began to fire in the direction they were running.

“Just stop running backwards so you don’t trip then!” Sketch shouted.

“Now that there’s something other than me keeping the monsters back, I will, genius.” Copy yelled at Sketch, giving him a dirty look.

“Fire at the crowd in front of us!” Broker shouted weakly while his weapon made the loud clicking noises of an empty clip. Broker tried to load in another clip, but found out he was out. “Damn it! Fire at them, CD! Vinyl, give me the plasma cutter you have.”

“N- no, ‘smine... Ooh, my head...” Vinyl cradled the custom cutter to her chest, one hoof going up to her helmeted head, where some of the plates had fused together.

“Make up your dang minds! Do I run or shoot? I obviously have no worth to my opinions!” CD yelled at them. “You fire-” CD was, however interrupted by Fluttershy.

“Shut up! Just shut up already!” The normally timid pony had obviously snapped, rage in her voice and actions as she trampled another necromorph to the ground, two hooves smashing into the thing’s face with a vicious stomp as she passed. “I’m sick and tired of all your fighting! Just! Shut! Up!” She punctuated every word by lashing out at a nearby necromorph, still carrying the stretcher on her back. Every kick at least knocked on of them down, even if it did no lasting damage to them.

“Fine, running.” CD replied, a bit scared but doing just that, running like a pansy.

With a smash and the rushing of air, however, every pony there felt the world get lighter as 40mm rockets slammed into the horde behind them. With a glance up, CD saw an E-Gov gunship hovering outside the habitat, a window blown out as an extraction team fell into the mall. Shortly after that, the emergency hatch covered the broken window.

“Keep moving! Just keep running!” Broker shouted, putting down his weapon.

CD closed his eyes, and ran faster, avoiding the people from the ship, hoping they weren’t there for him. A loudspeaker blared out from the group as they opened fire, a soldier with a commander’s golden striping on one shoulder plate making him stand out as he shouted after them. “Copy-dot-Data! Remain where you are for immediate extraction! All others, lay on the ground and place your primary appendages over your heads for evaluation!”

CD, really scared from hearing that, said the first thing he could think of. “Aw, shit.” CD then turned to the others. “If you get me out of here, I will owe you big time, really.”

“Listen, dickcheese, I am not walking to the feds again. ‘Shy, can you get us to the tram station from here?” Vinyl said, to which Fluttershy nodded. “Good, let’s bolt.”

“With us, right?” CD whimpered, thinking of what they’d do to him if they caught him. “Please?”

Vinyl looked at him levelly from her spot on the stretcher. “I’m ditching you if it’ll save ‘Shy... but otherwise, well... Fight the man, right?”

“Oh thank y-”

“Oh, don’t get mushy, I’m only letting Broker get this close ‘cuz he saved ‘Shy. I’ll save hitting him for later.”

“Okay, whatever, right now, we run.” And they did.

“Well, shit. Only one tram’s still working.” Vinyl remarked as she looked at the smashed green trams of the Widdershins Tramline, the remaining one old, with the really uncomfortable seats. however, it was a way out of the mall.

“C-can you get it working, CD?” Vinyl asked.

“Definitely, if I’m given two minutes to work with, can we manage that?”

Vinyl nodded, and she and Broker, having gotten off the stretcher around ten minutes before, led the way in, bearing weapons and checking the small confines of the tram. It lit up as they stepped in.

“Uhm, nevermind, it’s already working. Alright, swinging cocks, get aboard! You too, ‘Shy.”

“Y-you don’t have to be so mean to them, Vinyl...”

Vinyl just shrugged.

“She can call me anything she wants if I can make it without getting caught by those crazies.” CD said. Vinyl only snorted, replying, “Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, meet pot.”

“I agree.” CD replied. “I’m nuts, and I’m proud.”

“No fucks given.” Sketch added

In the harsh, fluorescent light of the tram, CD and Broker got a good look at Fluttershy’s unshielded face. A plethora of scratches, gouges, and bruises had formed across it, blood welling from the cuts mixing with free-flowing streaks of tears.

“‘Shy, you okay?” CD asked. “You need help?”

“Wait,” Sketch looks over her for a second, “You can’t use medigel? Why didn’t you let me be the battering ram? Vinyl doesn’t give a shit if I get hurt.”

“Wait, what? What are you talk- Oh, shit, ‘Shy, what happened?!” Vinyl had taken a moment to realize what the conversation was about, but looked, at least as far as anyone could tell with her helmet still up, horrified.

“I- I couldn’t just leave you, Vi. A- and I knew that they wouldn’t get through, and then I- I got so angry... I- I’m so sorry...” Fluttershy cried and covered her face with her hooves. “I- I’m sorry, I- I know my face was pretty... I’m s- sorry for ruining it for you, Vi...”

Vinyl just moved over, running an armored hoof through Flutter’s mane. “Shh... It’s alright, Flutters, I love you for you, not your face. Pretty as it is.” The two mares embraced, mostly with Vinyl doing the work to hold Fluttershy to her as the tram started moving.

“Vinyl, keep her in back, without being able to use medi gel we actually need to keep her safe, so CD is operation meat shield, after all, he can use it.”

Sighing, CD replied, “Fine, only for the mares though, you guys aren’t really doing much to help me.”

“Ok, just remember, you have no chance with either of them, and I feel the same way towards you.” Sketch said with a smile.

“Nice comeback, jerk.” CD smiled back. “You’re not all bad.”

“Moving on, where exactly are we headed?” Sketch asked.

“Ah, who put in the destination?” Vinyl spoke hesitantly.

“I didn’t. Broker?”

Broker looked over at the group and shrugged. “Not me.” Then turned away from them to look outside the tram’s widows.

Again, CD said the only thing he could think of. “Crud, we’re not gonna like this. Are we?”

“Nope.” Sketch added.

Author's Notes:

So, that was chapter nine, folks. Thank you all for voting if you did, and shame on you to those who didn't.
seriously, shame guys, you had a whole darned week. Actually, you STILL have another week, as chapter 10 is with this group still, so you still have time to vote. Go on, it's on the last chapter. There's also the one for the next guest appearance.

Thanks to the following for contributing to the story so far:
Itsmyfuneral, starring as Sketch
Hunterz263, starring as Broker Wordsmith
Rosethorn, starring as Victoria Frost
SomeGuy, co-starring as Johan Allegro
The Pieman, as Copy.Data