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// You know that if you're compared to something called the "pygmy mouse" anything, you're really, really small. 
// Story: Destination: Thataway! 
// by Hawattie 
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	Our progress towards the front of the train was impeded about halfway by a stampede of panicked ponies heading straight toward us. I hastily flung myself to the side to avoid being trampled, finding shelter in a little crevasse set into the wall. Don't you just love herd mentality?
Once the last of the rampaging herd had passed, we were able to extricate ourselves from our various hiding places - I don't know how, but Fphant had managed to hide atop a decorative chandelier - and address the problem the herd was running from. 
Namely the horde of angry undead swarming down the length of the train, destroying everything left in their path.
The Courier wasted no time gaping at the horde in horror like the rest of us were. In one fluid motion he pulled one of the longer guns off his back and started blasting away, pausing briefly every couple shots to reload. The loud gunshots startled the rest of us into action.
Sure, the course of action Unique and the sorceress took wasn't the noblest course of action I could think of, but if running away screaming like fillies is what makes you happy then I'm not gonna argue. Fphant's plan was a bit more reasonable; his arms morphed into a couple of blade-like appendages and he charged into the fray, keeping the closest skeletons off of the Courier. After a moment his movements seemed to flicker and blur making him hard to track. He was like a flickering light mixed with a torrent of water. One that left re-dead skeletons in its wake.
I stepped up next to the Courier as he fired repeatedly into the mass of mindless minions. From what I could tell, this particular gun fired shots in a cone that shredded the tightly packed ranks as opposed to the single projectile his other guns displayed.
"You don't seem particularly phased by this," the man commented. I shot him a quizzical look while I shot a couple lasers into the horde. Pew, pew! The extra energy from my berry binge made it so I could fire lasers like this all day without feeling tired.
"The rest of the ponies all ran," he continued, raining lead into the steadily advancing enemies, "and you yourself were nearly shitting yourself when I described just a little bit of my home. This seems like it'd be a bit much for you to handle." The skeletons closed into melee range, away went the Courier's cone-firing gun and out came a long pole tipped with some sort of bird. I just took a step back and played the role of beam turret from behind the protective wall of human.
"Well I'm not what you'd call a 'normal' pony." The mass of skeletons was starting to thin, forcing me to actually aim if I wanted my blasts to connect. "In fact, I'm probably as far from a 'normal' pony as you can get. Normal ponies don't fire lasers from their hooves. That, and he made it personal." I wasn't about to forget how he tricked me into giving up the Pawner.
"I thought not." A well-aimed swing of his pole knocked the skull off of one skeleton and into another, knocking it over. "I'm guessing there's a story behind that? The lasers, not the vendetta."
"Science experiment," I replied simply. "I don't rightly know the extent of what got changed, but I can fire lasers, regenerate wounds, and store a helluva lot of energy to do both."
"I can relate," the Courier said. Only a few skeletons remained, the Courier's weapon was once again swapped out, this time to the small, one-handed gun I'd first seen him use. "My heart, spine, and brain were all replaced by synthetic parts against my will."
A single skeleton was all that remained standing. I readied a laser and the Courier aimed his gun, I glanced at the man from the corner of my eye and he glanced back. Looks like we'd have to fight for the last kill. We both fired at the same time and watched with baited breath to see whether the skeleton was felled by his bullet or my blast.
Before either shot landed a shadowy blade sprouted from the skeleton's chest and crumpled at Fphant's feet.
"Kill stealing bastard," the Courier grumbled.
"The heart and the spine I can see," Fphant said, stepping primly over the heaped bones over to us, "but replacing a brain?" He sounded skeptical.
"I got it back," the Courier said defensively. A faint rattling sound outside the train caught my attention.
I cut off Fphant before he could reply. "Hey, did you guys hear that?" The three of us stood silently for a moment.
"I don't hear any-" Fphant began, before he was cut off by another rattle, this time much louder.
"It sounds like bones..." the Courier eyed the still skeletons littering the floor.
The rattle sounded a third time. Funny it almost sounds like it came from...
"I think we should get outside," I said. Before any of us could move a screeching tearing sound assaulted our ears as the metal roof of the train was torn off. I saw at least four gigantic skulls floating in a nimbus of blue magic emanating from a gigantic rib-cage.
I think I sense a boss battle incoming.
A large bony appendage crashed into the now-convertible train car, pulverizing the skeletal remains and nearly crushing us all. "We need to get outside!" Fphant cried. Thank you captain obvious.
The Courier quickly scanned the walls for an exit. "There!" he shouted, pointing to a large tear in the wall caused by the boss's blow. "Head thataway!"