Tock. Tick.

My hoofs shook when I put my map on a table. I could barely see anything because of the flickering lights, and the blood from my hoofs streaking across it from when I flattened it out did not help my cause any. My eyes scanned the torn paper for any signs of A-1 Mane Enterprise Hub, but I couldn't find it. I found towns, roads, parks, and government locations, but nothing about Mane Enterprise.

“Baton, where is A-1?” I asked.

Before I could hear an answer, I growled from a painful pinch in my hip and I glared at the source. The pinch came from a syringe that Aria had so kindly stabbed me with. I felt the shrapnel in me get pushed out from the restructuring muscle and the skin growing back over it, which is a feeling that I will never get used to.

Anyway, I put my focus back on Stocker, who was keeping an eye on the doorway with his cannon, but before I could ask him about A-1, Wilhelm tapped an area on the map marked Hill View. It was about twenty miles from my Stable and in the opposite direction of where Sixty One was.

“A-1 Hub is right there,” said Wilhlem.

I used some blood to circle Hill Vista and after blowing it dry I rolled the map up, put it in my saddle, and then removed some armor from a dead Sentry For Hire merc. Aria tried to tell me not to do that, something about not healing all the way. I ignored her. Though, she was right since it was hard and painful to put the armor on. Every move was like a stiff muscle snapping or a brittle bone cracking, but I was not going anywhere else dressed as a Sadist, much less save Rose Petal looking like a maniac.

“Wait, you aren't seriously thinking about going to the Hub?” asked Lilac.

“Yeah.” I said, now collecting a belt of shotgun shells from a dead Sixty One soldier.

“In that condition?”

“Yes.”

“You can't go like that! Baton, tell him not to go.”

Baton rolled his eyes, and with a loud sigh he looked at me, completely lacking the urgency Lilac had.

“Exile, Lilac said for you not to go, but you are a grown stallion, you can do what you want. I ain't stopping you,” he said.

Lilac whined and looked at Baton, horrified. “Baton, that's not how it works! You're supposed to stop him, not encourage him.”

Baton shrugged. “What? He ain't my kid. If he wants to be a dumbass and get himself killed that'll be his fault, not mine.”

Burst Fire then walked up and decided to toss his two caps in.

“I have to agree with the lady,” said Burst Fire. “A-1 is a fucked up place and I hate to be the bad news buck, but your friend is probably dead by now. No telling how long they've been in there. Days? Weeks? If not them starving or dehydrating then those things in A-1 would have gotten to them.”

“I'm going! End of story!” I said.

After that, Aria approached me. Her eyes were wide and wet and her ears were drooped, and she said in a quivering whisper: “But the medicine didn't heal you all the way. You can die.”

I looked at her, then at Wilhelm -he was listening to the radio's broadcast intently- then Baton and the others, and when my eyes were back on her I shrugged.

“Well, if I'm dead I won't be a nuisance.” I said.

I then limped out of the center with my new armor supply of ammo as fast as I could. The ammo belt and my watch lightly bounced against me and the armor's pieces rubbed against me and its pieces clanked against each other. My speed was dropped immensely by the weight of the armor and ammo, and every step had a painful pinch that made my eye twitch, but I kept walking. I heard the others talking, but I could barely hear them. Not that I wanted to hear them, anyway. I was about halfway towards the stairwell when I heard the steps behind me, but as much as my head wanted to turn, I kept walking.

“Stalker, wait,” called Wilhelm.

I kept walking.

“I SAID WAIT!” boomed Wilhelm.

That froze me in place, and I turned slightly to see him walking towards me with the rest of the team in tow, save for Burst Fire and Stocker. Baton looked pissed, Lilac and Aria were worried, and Wilhelm, as usual, looked like he wanted to kill something.

“I will be taking over this expedition to the A-1 Hub. They will join us and once Major Pie returns to this location with his troops Engel and Burst Fire will meet up with us,” said Wilhelm.

I frowned skeptically. “Really? You've been trying to kill me since day one and now you suddenly want to tag along for my well being?”

“Consider it goodness from my heart.”

“You don't have a good heart.”

“Neither do you.”

I stared at him and he walked forward without saying another word. I watched him for a few more seconds, which during that time frame the others walked past. Aria didn't look at me. She kept her head down and purposefully looked away. Baton walked by me without saying much of anything, but he at least looked at me. Lilac actually stopped by my side and gently nudged me forward. I just looked at her, face soured and eyes heavy, and she looked down with a swallow and kept walking. I followed the group when she was in front of me, deciding to keep to the back, and we all walked in silence.

My breathing and heart felt heavy and I stared at Wilhelm, wanting to know what his angle was for this run, and Burst Fire's words clawed their way up to the front of my mind, and I got that awful thought. What if I'm too late?

645 minutes. Or 38,700 seconds. Or the simpler 11.25 hours. That is how long it should have taken us to get to our location. But it took us a little over 14 hours due to frequent stops, despite the trip being quiet.

No one said a word to each other, except for Wilhelm ordering Baton to scout ahead and Baton giving us the all clear. Part of the slow down was because we stopped and went into cover every time Baton went ahead, and we took a bland route where nothing was around us, save for a house here or there. Now, when it came to these houses, Wilhelm ordered me and Lilac to clear them out. Most were empty and we scavenged what we could.

Lilac found some clothes she really liked, and she took a couple of books from one place. How she expected to read them was beyond me since they were warped and moldy. There was one house that was occupied, though, and I almost got shot for trying to get in. Luckily Lilac sweet talked us out of a mess... and Baton walking up with his beast of a weapon probably helped with that. That was the extent of our excitement for the most part.

When we reached our destination we were greeted by a big block of a building with a gray exterior that was crumbling piece by piece. From smooth to rough patches that look like something took a bite out of it, and metal rebars poking out from random spots, it had seen better days. Now windows were seen, but I guessed it to be about twelve stories high. Fourteen max. Its parking lot was barren with large potholes and swirling green haze, and in uniformed spacing was a bunch of lampposts. The facility was once surrounded by a barbwire fence, but weather and time warped and rusted it.

We traveled across the parking lot. Baton and Wilhelm had their weapons at the ready and I made a mental note to buy a battle saddle after wishing I was a unicorn just so I could levitate my shotgun.

Anyway, a gust of wind blew by, causing the metal to creak and groan from somewhere, and as we walked I peeked in one of the potholes. I wasn't sure what I was expecting beyond discolored dirt, but a skull wasn't one of them.

So we're going at a slow pace. It is bugging me. I really wanted to run in there and get Rose out, but I think my quickening steps might have given my ambitions away because as soon as I started I was told to slow down by Wilhelm. Then he ordered all of us to stop, so we did, and he looked at the ground intently.

Curious, I also looked at the ground and realized that there were tire tracks leading from the entrance and out to the Wasteland. I looked at Wilhelm, trembling, sick to my stomach and a pressure in my throat that demanded that I scream at him.

We all knew what those tracks meant. No one else but Sixty One had vehicles, and the broadcast was in a Sixty One tower. They were there and we could have beaten them if we weren't shuffling our hoofs!

“We're going in,” said Wilhelm, his eyes back at the door.

“Shouldn't we be following the tracks?” I said.

“Not unless we have to.”

“We have to! Sixty One has Rose!”

Wilhelm swiftly marched towards me and got right up to my face, forcing me to take a step back, but I still managed to stare back at him. Even though my whole body was shaking and it felt like my insides were clamped.

“You don't know that,” said Wilhlem. “But if you want to chase a cold trail then you can do so, but the rest of us are on a mission and I will see that mission done with or without you.”

I looked at Baton and Lilac, and then at Aria, and all of them looked at me like foals caught in a lie.

“I knew there was an ulterior motive.” I said.

“Exile, we did tag along to help you, but Wilhelm also believes that there is something in there to help us,” said Lilac.

“Oh, really? Like what?” I turned my focus to Wilhelm. “What could you possibly be after in there?”

“Classified,” said Wilhelm.

And then he walked through what was left of the front door and disappeared into the darkness.

So here's what happened next. Me -in all my brilliance- decided to go in the opposite direction of the group when they went into the building after him. They went inside and I tried to follow the trail, but I quickly realized that the trail faded into nothing, which made me remember that my tracking skills vary from 0 to 0.5 on a scale of one to ten.

I hopped through the front door, which was a mangled mess of twisted metal and shards of glass, and I carefully trotted through the lobby. Old paper had fused to the discolored tile and a receptionist desk had crumbled. Behind it was MANE ENTERPRISE in big, metal letters which had long faded colors and began rusting in spots.

I tried to listen in to see if I could hear the group, but I couldn't. I silently cursed myself and the universe for this. I was only gone for two minutes and I already lost them. All those nice thoughts I had about them were rapidly eroding. All that mushy stuff about a group I could be with and count on and yeah fluffy stuff. Poof. There is goes. Fading.

So, I walked up to a map that was on the wall and much to my surprise there were eighteen levels for the Mane Enterprise hub. Twelve up top and six below. I made the educated guess to check the lower levels first for Wilhelm's group, so I headed towards the elevator at the end of the lobby. But then I stopped myself and decided to take the stairs instead.

The stairwell was... well, pretty bad. The steps groaned with every step and some kind of ooze was trailing up the wall. Ooze and claw marks. I looked up the stairwell and gulped when I saw that it went all the way up, and all the warmth in my body and soul disappeared when I saw streak of old blood and dried flesh sticking to the wall. I'm pretty sure I saw a bone in the ooze, too.

I took another deep breath and started walking slowly down the stairs. I passed a fresh hoof and I thought it was one of the group's, but another take showed it to be covered in cloth of what I guess was part of a military uniform.

When I got to the first level I found bullet holes all along the wall and doors. Bullet holes, blood, a mangled pony I couldn't recognize anymore who was swimming in a pool of blood, and next to him was something else.

I didn't know what it was, but I approached it. It was dead, thankfully, but its beady eyes were wide open, as was its mouth. It had a forked tongue and its mouth was filled with curved teeth and its body looked like an overgrown squirrel with curved claws on its paws.

I stepped over the corpses as quietly as I could. My hoofs still touched the blood, so I left a trail in my wake, and now my whole body was shaking. My throat and mouth was dry and my bones and armor rattled from my trembling.

When I was walking by one of the rooms I heard a shuffle, so I stopped and listened. There was more shuffling and clicking, so I pushed back that voice in the back of my mind that told me not to open the door... and I opened the door.

As soon as I did, a bullet narrowly avoided my face. It blew apart the door frame and scratched my face up good with the flying splinters. I cursed up a storm, unslung my shotgun and in a flash I fired blindly back inside while falling on my back.

“Whoa! Whoa! Friendly! Friendly!” shouted a vaguely familiar stallion.

“What? Friendly my ass! You shot me!” I yelled, biting my tongue soon after and looking down the hall, blinking blood out of my eyes.

“Wait... Ephemeris, is that you?”

I rolled back up and pressed myself against the wall, keeping my shotgun in my hoofs and still diverting my attention to both ends of the hall, plus the door.

“Who's asking?” I said.

“Its me. Red Wine! I-I'm sorry for shooting you. I thought you were one of those things!”

“Bullshit. I do not look like that thing.”

“Hey, man, I'm sorry, all right? I've had a bad few hours and I'm a bit jumpy, but I'll make it up to you... How bad are you hurt?”

“I'm not telling you.”

“I got a few potions with me. I can spare one.”

I blinked blood out of my eyes and looked at the droplets that fell on the floor. All those little red dots building up into one big blotch.

“How do I know you aren't going to shoot me?” I asked.

“Why would I shoot you? We're both exiles,” said Red Wine.

I huffed and poked my head into the room, still clutching my shotgun, and standing behind the table with a rifle propped on it was Red Wine with a bloody bandage over his eye. He was also wearing Sixty One armor.

“You're with Sixty One?” I asked.

“...Yeah... Unfortunately I had no choice,” he said. “Soap Box also joined and I have no idea what happened to Sylil or the others.”

I cautiously came around the corner. My shotgun was slung, but I was ready to charge him in case he tried something against me. When he saw me in my Sentry merc armor his eyes widened and a smile spread on his face.

“You're with Sentry For Hire? Oh, thank Gold, I thought I was a goner, but we're on the same team,” he said.

I stared at him. Not really mad or concerned for my safety. Just confused and surprised now that I am seeing Red Wine like that. And him seeing my confusion, his smile began to fade and he limped around the table. His hind leg could barely lift and the makeshift bandages have turned red with streaks of blood sticking to his exposed fur.

“Let's get out of here while we still can. The others left, but we can desert them and start over somewhere else. Maybe find the others along the way,” said Red Wine.

“Uh...” I took a step back and he took a step closer. “Well, I actually got tasked with investigating a distress call here.”

“Was it mine?” asked Red Wine. “I sent out a signal when they left me behind.”

“It was Rose Petal's.”

“Oh, Rose. Yeah, we found her and Artisan here inside one of the vaults with a bunch of orbs, but after we got them out they were taken to Lieutenant Butter Bars.”

And just like that, my vision blood red, and I grabbed Red Wine and threw him on the desk. It cracked, he yelped and I pressed my hoof down on his chest while I went muzzle to muzzle with him.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS BUTTER BARS!” I screamed.

“He-he's supposed to be at Mane Manor,” stammered Red Wine.

I threw him to the ground and as he tried to stand, I unslung my shotgun and aimed it at his head. He froze and held up his hoof, shaking and crying.

“Oh, come on, Ephemeris. Please don't do this. We're exiles. I'm not even supposed to be here,” whimpered Red Wine.

“Neither am I, but do you see me complaining?” I snapped. “You are going to take me to Mane Manor or I will blow your brains all over the ground, got it?”

Red Wine gulped and nodded.

“Good. Now get up.” I ordered.

And then something rammed me. It knocked me right off my hoofs and when I hit the floor all of my air was gone, and then I felt a dozen sharp teeth sink into my bad shoulder of all places. I screamed as each curved tooth set a blazing flame in my shoulder, blood gushed out ad I heard my bones cracking.

My vision blurred with tears and blood loss and my heart thumped loudly. The thing that bit me started to shake its head, sweeping me across the floor like a bloody mop. Red Wine hightailed it out of there, and I screamed again when I felt some of my bones pop.

It was by sheer luck that I managed to grab my shotgun with my working hoof when I slid across it, and whatever that thing was stopped to gnaw on me. The teeth rubbed against my muscle, tugging it up and down as it chewed, and I rested my shotgun against my messed up shoulder so it was against the things face, and then I pulled the trigger.

It slumped to the ground with the top of its head gone and I laid there, panting and gulping for air. I cried through my gritted my teeth, and when I pushed the fangs out of my body all the blood just gushed out, and I collapsed and blacked out.

“Meris,” was what I heard in the blackness I was floating in. I heard that and ticking clocks. Lots and lots of clocks. I squinted my eyes and saw faint outlines of them in the darkness, turning at various speeds. Some fast. Some slow. Some stupid fast. Some stupid slow. None of them seemed to be going normal.

“Meris,” said the voice again. It was a nice, familiar voice. Very feminine.

I looked around and saw Rose standing not too far from me. All my troubles vanished, all the weight of the world was gone, and I galloped to her, smiling. I leaped into her and hugged her tight, laughing and crying as I rubbed her mane. Something was pressing on my chest, but I ignored it and kept hugging her. Oddly she didn't cry. I cried all over her and rocked her gently, afraid to let her go, but she didn't move, didn't shed a tear, she didn't even smile.

The pressing continued and I pulled away to look at her. Her eyes were wet, tears streaked down her face and she stroked my face, sniffling. I grabber her hoof and cupped her cheek and asked her: “What's wrong?”

That's when I noticed I wasn't hold Rose any more.

“Please come back,” said Honey.

“Please come back,” begged Aria.

I opened my eyes, gasping for air. I coughed out something. I think it was blood. My vision was pulsing and Aria was lifting her head up with her hoofs on my chest. My shoulder was bandaged and throbbed. Each pulse pushed against my bone and blood stuck to my coat.

Aria gasped out my name and hugged me tight. I grunted and squeezed my eyes shut, and yet my good hoof still latched on to her and my head found comfort in the crook of her neck. Aria also rested her head on my good shoulder and rubbed my back, rocking me back and forth, sniffling and whimpering.

I opened my eyes a bit, blinking out tears, and I saw Wilhelm staring at us. Behind him, Baton guarded the door and Lilac was leaned against the wall. She was pale and holding her stomach, and blood stained the wall and floor. Baton was shaking and had streaks of blood to accompany his collection of bandages and cuts.

“How the hell did a couple of Stable Dwellers get in here?” asked Baton.

“Butter Bars has Rose...” I said, choking on my words. “He has Rose... He has Artisan... He has them... We have to get them back.”

“Not until we get Lilac patched up,” said Baton. He then looked at Aria and tilted his head towards Lilac. “Fix her.”

Aria nodded and went towards Lilac, and as she worked on her I looked at Wilhelm. He was using a terminal on the wall that I didn't notice using wires and gadgets from his metal pack, and after some attempts of whatever it was he was doing he swore and punched it. Sparks exploded outward and smoke billowed from it, and he glared at me.

“Did you use the terminal?” he asked.

“How could I use the terminal if I was bleeding to death?” I asked faintly.

“You have a special talent for causing problems.”

“And you have a special talent for being a jackass.” I tried to stand, but I fell to the floor, panting with sweat shaking off of me, but that didn't stop me from staring at that old coot. “Had you listened to me then we wouldn't be in this mess.”

“Don't lecture me, Stalker. Going in here was necessary, but I wouldn't expect a sheltered brat like you to understand.” He walked past me and peeked out into the hallway. “Lilac won't make it with our supplies and Stalker is useless if he is crippled. We need to use the facility's clinic.”

“Change of heart already?” said Baton flatly.

“No. You get to carry Stalker,” said Wilhelm.

Baton balked. “What? No! I carried him last time.”

“Tough. I hate him.”

“I hate you, too.” I grumbled.

“But he's heavy,” said Baton.

“And I'm an old goat. You wouldn't want to strain my fragile bones with a heavy load would you?” said Wilhelm.

That was rich. If only Baton saw what I saw when we were at Orange.

Anyway, with great reluctance, Baton helped put Lilac on Wilhelm's back and put me on his back. Wilhelm ordered Aria to stay in between him and Baton, and he put Baton up front while he took the rear. I will say that I was proud for not wanting to puke from the motions, but when your hoof feels like it is about to literally fall off because it is held in place by a few strands of muscle you do feel a little ill.

So, we're going down the hall, passing more of those things in the hall that have been shot to pieces. Hoofs splash in blood, bullet casings are kicked to the side, and the glow of Baton's levitation illuminate the carnage on the walls.

A sign is partially lit up pointing towards the stairs, and another had a list of floors and locations, but when Baton stopped to have a look at it, Wilhelm ordered him to keep moving.

“I have to find out where the clinic is, genius,” sneered Baton.

“Fifth floor, room five. It has a healing pod,” said Wilhelm.

Me and Baton looked at him, and he looked back at us, obviously irritated.

“Keep walking. It won't come to us,” said Wilhelm.

Baton shook his head and resumed walking, but I continued to stare at Wilhelm, or tried to, anyway. Aria kept getting in the way. I eventually submitted to just laying limp on Baton's back and let my brain get to work. It was all fuzzy from blood loss, medication and general trauma of nearly being eaten alive, but one thought dominated all others.

Wilhelm was a freak.

Luck O' the Hayrish: You don't have much Luck, but when the Luck kicks in you are a winner. Or a survivor. Mostly a survivor. Don't expect to win any caps or ladies, just a soul kind enough to keep you walking.