//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Here's something unexpected 
// Story: Welcome to Essence 
// by Element Reading 
//------------------------------//

After about thirty minutes of climbing in the vents they finally reach the residential area of Slum Square, the vent got a whole lot dustier then in the entrance of the city. Shining Armor asked.

"So how much longer do we have to crawl?"

Otter replied, "Not long, you should be getting near the apartment complex as we speak, just another minute, I'll tell you when to stop. Like I've been for the past thirty f**king minutes."

"What?" Asked Shining Armor.

"Sorry, a bit of static." Cadence asked.

"So what are they like?"

"Who?" Asked Otter.

"your family."

"Oh right, they are wonderful, my little girl is but a year old and she's already said mommy, I can tell she'll do great things. And my wife is beautiful, I honestly don't know how I got her. Oh here's the opening."

Shining Armor looked down and saw a small road, it was made from asphalt, duh. Though they heard voices from a little bit away, like on the next street corner. "Oh crap, your not alone, just be very careful and quiet and you two should be fine." Said Otter.

Shining used a bit of magic and moved the vent cover, he dropped his head down a bit and looked around. The area was very small, compact, and very filthy, there was trash all over the street, and blood on the road. The space of the road is about 10 feet and a sidewalk about 3 feet, 13 feet between very tightly packed apartments, it was like they were getting as many people down there as possible.

He jumped down and raised his gun, Cadence followed him down almost immediately, "Shining, this is a very.... weird place, I mean there is no space, no cleanliness, and humans would live here."

"We did, to be honest I was lucky to be crammed in here, I have such a dumb job, I'm a janitor for god's sake. But we got by down here, alright the building with my family should be right in front of you, slowly get to the door and get to the stairs. The one big rule down here, never trust elevators, they can be a bit wonky, with a lot of death in the mix."

Shining Armor and Cadence did as they were told and quietly walked to the front doors and they opened the doors. The bottom floor was just a small rectangle with a mailbox shoved in the wall, to the right was a small and very ominous staircase, to the left was a small elevator, it had the classic metal doors which looked a lot more inviting than the stairs.

But going with the local's suggestion, they took to the stairs. Each step was more scary than the last one, they feared falling down and dying.

When they got to the second floor Otter said, "This is it, now go down the hallway until you two get to the end, then take the right door and you'll be in my apartment."

The couple slowly walked down the hall, the more they went down the more... filthy, and deadlier it got, until. They heard something moving behind them, they looked, but nothing was there, "Otter, what's that?"

"I don't know, but I'll send a drone over there, until then you'll have to deal with this on your own, proceed with caution." Shining Armor took the lead and slowly walked a little bit up, until the noise got a little bit closer.

Shining Armor looked up and saw a human looking down at him drooling, it had the dried out face of a mummy, and glowing yellow eyes. "RUN!" Shouted Shining Armor, he pointed his gun up and fired, the creature fell off the ceiling and hit the floor with a small, yet distinct splat.

"Sweet Celestia, what was that?!" Asked a scared Cadence. Two drones flew in, the drones looked at the body, then Otter replied.

"Ah, that would be what I like to call a spooder, it can crawl on walls and rotate it's head 180 degrees to look at you from the ceiling. I've seen a lot of people try to kill one, but fail, luckily you found a stupid one, so you two have dumb luck on your side, nice. Now then, the door is just a little farther, please keep going, my drones will take point."

The drones flew down the hallway, but nothing really happened, they stopped right in front of the door. It was a heavy brass door, it had a little rust in the corners, it also had a little view hole on the door that was, leaking water?

"Is that supposed to do that?" Asked Cadence, Otter shouted over the radio.

"Oh shit, open that f**king door! NOW!" Shining Armor used some magic and he turned the knob, but as soon as he did that a large wave of water gushed out of the room pushing Shining Armor and Cadence away from the door.

After about 2 minute Cadence and Shining Armor started to wake back up, "What happened? I can't see anything, my drones were taken down for a second, what's going on?!"

Shining Armor replied, "We're still alive, but we're not seeing anypony on the ground."

"Oh shit, please look in the room, I wanna know what happened."

Shining Armor helped Cadence up and they proceeded to enter the apartment, but what they saw shocked them. In the middle of the room was two bodies, a grown woman with red hair, and a small infant.

Otter's two drones flew in and just hovered over the bodies, there was complete radio silence for at least 2 minutes, until.

"Oh my god, they're dead, I- I. What have I done to deserve this? My family, just, gone. They were everything, they were my life, I, I, don't know what do anymore, why'd they have to die, why not me instead? What'd I do? AARRRGGHHHH!!" 

They heard Otter starting to sob, Cadence ran to the end of the hallway while Shining Armor walked to the bodies and used some magic to close their dead, distant eyes.

He walked back to Cadence, the drones followed right behind him all the way to the end of the hallway. She was crying in a corner, Shining Armor put his hoof on her shoulder, she leaned her head into it and cried a bit more. "Cadence, there was nothing you could have done, there just isn't."

"You two could have arrived sooner, allowing my family to live, this is... I'm sorry, it's nobody's fault, or it's not any living person's fault. Since you two got there, just go to the vent and head down for 3 miles or so, I'll set the drones to protect the vent opening, while I will go cry in a corner with a bottle of vodka in one hand, and a bottle of hard cider in the other."

They heard him get out of the chair and walk away, the drones flew out of the complex, and into the street. Shining Armor wrapped his arms around her and just let her cry.

After about 10 minutes she looks up at Shining Armor and says, "Thank you for being the strong one right now. I needed to get that out, so we just go down the vent and we get to submarine, escape with Otter, and teleport back to Equestria, good plan?"

"Very good plan dear, now let's get going." Cadence stood back up and they walked down the stairs and onto the street. Now the street was being overrun with the creatures, Shining Armor got his gun out and started to shoot the closest ones, three of them fell before he ran out of ammo.

The drones were trying, but the creatures were jumping up to the drones and beating them down like flies. Shining Armor and Cadence ran as fast as they could toward the vent, but one of the creatures pounced Cadence, it was a female and said.

"Oh killing you will be such a blast darling, I wonder what horse tastes li-" Shining Armor grabbed his knife and stabbed the creature in the back of the head making it fall to the ground dead.

"Thank you Shining."

"We gotta move Cadence, come on." Cadence got back up and flew up to the vent, she held her hoof out and grabbed Shining Armor's hoof. She pulled him up and they quickly crawled away from the action and toward the submarine.