Using a spare lantern they’d found in the train coach, Air Slash and Turf War lit their way through the darkness to the stairs that led them down here. With Turf War being the only one with his gear, Air Slash would have to rely on him in case of an emergency, something he wasn’t eager to acknowledge even if he’d be using the weapons that he’d made for him.
They reached the top of the stairs, and slipped out through the rustic door. At the end of the channel was a manhole cover with tiny rays of light creeping into the dark tunnel. Air Slash peered through it to see that it was just below what appeared to be bushes. The distant sound of a running fountain and chirping birds led him to conclude that he was below a city park. He carefully lifted the cover, and peered out to see that he was correct. “This is where you shall wait for me, friend. Do well not to get bored in case I take a while.” He said.
Turf War nodded. “Stay frosty, mah boy.”
With that, the swordless samurai carefully crept his way out of the sewer, careful not let the cover make any significant noise as he slid it open and then back closed. He peered out of the bushes, and waited until no passerby was looking in his direction before slipping out. He casually strolled across the paved walkway before ascended into the Baltimare skyline amongst many other pegasi. He briefly stopped to smell himself to find that navigated through the sewer had left a little stink lingering, so he flew towards Horseshoe Bay, and found a small public ‘beach’ area if you could call it that since it felt more like a riverbank due to the lack of sand, and a….beach-y feeling. Either way, he didn’t look suspicious other than he got here in such a rush. He left his saddlebags in a designated area, and dove in for a few moments.
When he reemerged, he decided to have a look around for any potential foals of interest. So far,….nothing. Every foal in sight was as content as could be playing happily with their friends and parents, so he grabbed his bags and left. Exploring the city more and more, Air Slash could only see normal foals. No matter where he went, be it the park, around a school, within residential districts, in stores and restaurants, the docks, there was nothing. Perhaps he was looking in the wrong place? Where hadn’t he looked? Such thoughts were interrupted when his stomach suddenly rumbled.
Observing his current surroundings, he noticed a small, inexpensive-looking bakery. “Perhaps a loaf of bread to share amongst my comrades would be ideal.” He thought to himself. He descended to the front door, and was about to step through when a dark-grey mare with a black and white stripped mane and sapphire eyes stepped out right in front of him.
“Oh! ‘Scuse me, sweetie.” She said.
Air Slash cleared his throat. “Beg pardon, madam.” He replied. He flew up to the door, and held it open for her. She thanked him, and entered the bakery.
There wasn’t a line, and nary a soul within the whole establishment. Air Slash simply dismissed this as not being busy, but the distressed look on the baker’s face seemed to mean more than just a failing restaurant. Looking at the menu, a loaf of regular bread was surprisingly expensive at 5 bits! He had decided to carry 12 bits on his person just in case, so he could afford this, but it still raised his eyebrow.
“Pretty ridiculous, huh?” the baker suddenly said in a depressed tone. Looking at him, Air Slash could tell that he wasn’t content with it any more than he was.
“If you are so discontent, than why not lower the price, sir?” Air Slash asked him.
The baker shook his head solemnly. “If only it were that easy, kid. The wheat farms in Fillydelphia have been having pretty rough harvests as of late, and we’ve had to raise our prices as a result.” He explained. “I can’t imagine why they’re doing so rotten. The soil over there is supposed to be some of the most fertile in Equestria!”
Air Slash could tell that he wasn’t lying. Thinking more about it, when he looked into restaurants for lost foals, he remembered them not being very occupied, especially if their menus revolved around bread and wheat, so this was merely another example. “I see. Well…. I’d like a loaf anyway. I can afford it.” He said as he pulled out 5 bits, and laid them on the counter.
The baker smiled. “Thanks, kid.” He said with some color returning to him. He handed Air Slash a fresh loaf packed in a bag for it, and Air Slash left.
As he exited the establishment, Air Slash could tell that it was getting late, so he decided to make his way back the manhole in the park with his bread in tow. When he reached the park, he landed and casually strolled through it once more towards the patch of bushes that hid the manhole. He looked around to see that he wasn’t being watched, and quickly slipped into the bushes. He carefully slid the manhole open, and slipped through. As promised, Turf War was waiting for him.
“Damn, son! Where da hell you been? Dis f*-freakin’ sewer startin’ to actually smell kinda nice I been down he’e so long!” he said.
“Only every possible place I could look without drawing suspicion , and…..sadly came up short.” He said. “However, I did get us a little amenity.” He held up the bagged loaf of bread he’d bought.
“Well, least we won’t go hungry.” Turf War said. The two made their way back to the old door, and made their way down the stairs to the dark abyss.
Meanwhile
Within the abyssal subway, the other foals just waited for their friends to return. The dark, silent ambience was so deafening, that everything else seemed to almost imperceptible; Shadow Shroud was the most alert to this. Having been born and raised in the dark, she knew it like the back of her hoof, so she could tell if something was amiss within them, and in a place like this, those senses had to be on constant standby. She would occasionally pace around the coach, and….listen. The shadowy ambience was like a second language to her, and she interpreted every little word and phrase carefully as she deciphered her surroundings.
“Shadow Shroud?” The ninja filly jumped, and drew her kunai when she suddenly heard her name. She looked to see an equally startled Spiral Galaxy looking at her wide-eyed, and her horn lit a little too brightly for her liking. Fire Fight looked on with some apprehension while Kickback just looked at them with calm concern.
“Everything ok over yonder, fillies?” Kickback calmly asked.
The two fillies looked at him, and lowered their guard. Shroud sheathed her kunai while Spiral put her horn out. “Y-Yes. Thank you, Kickback!” Spiral said with an embarrassed smile. The cowpony just casually smiled, and tipped his hat. Fire Fight calmed down, but was surprised that Kickback could keep his cool so easily……so long as his mother wasn’t mentioned.
Spiral turned back to Shroud. “Sorry, Shroud. I didn’t mean to startle you. Is everything ok? You seem kinda tense.” She said.
“I’m fine, Spiral. Sorry I caused you to nearly blind us.” Shadow Shroud sneered. Spiral rolled her eyes in friendly annoyance. Shroud giggled. “Nothing in particular has me on edge…..I’m just patiently waiting for something that might.” She said. She didn’t mention the strange feeling she’d gotten earlier so as not to frighten them, but she thought it’d be a good idea to keep them on edge in the unpredictable environment. “Could I trouble you to look around this place with me for a bit? I want to know if there’s….anything down here that we should know about.” She said.
“Umm……sure. I’ll…..just keep my horn lit, I guess.” Spiral replied.
Kickback stood up. “Ya sure ya don’t need me an’ Fire Fight to join y’all? Ah’d feel mighty bad if Ah let somethin’ happen to ya.” He said.
Fire Fight shook his head. “They’ll be ok, Kickback. This whole place is practically Shadow Shroud’s domain. If anypony is gonna be even remotely safe down here, it’s her.” he said.
“Indeed. Really, you two should stay here, and…ahem…watch the homestead.” Shadow Shroud sneered. Spiral giggled at that statement, to which Fire Fight just rolled his eyes.
Kickback just politely tipped his hat, and sat back down. “Well alright, then. Reckon Sound and Fury might get a little jumpy anyhow.” He said.
The fillies walked out on that statement. As Spiral’s light faded into the dark of the tunnel, Fire Fight faced his gun-wielding friend. “You meant you, didn’t you?” he asked.
“Pardon?” Kickback asked.
“You meant that you’d get jumpy, not your guns, right?” Fire Fight reiterated. Kickback stared at him for a brief moment before slightly lowering his hat. Fire Fight put his hoof on his shoulder. “Kickback, don’t be ashamed to be afraid every now and then. I was utterly terrified when I first met Shroud- I thought she was trying to kill me for Celestia’s sake! But I was still able to hold my own until we came to understand one another. You managed to break out of your panic back in the Sand Vipers lair, didn’t you?”
Kickback slowly glanced back up at Fire Fight, and sighed. “Reckon that was nothin’ but a fit of anger on mah part, sheriff. Ah just wanted them varmints to be quiet.” He confessed. “Besides, the circumstances weren’t quite the same as with you an’ Ms. Shadow Shroud.”
Fire Fight took his hoof back. “Even so, it’s not good to bottle up your emotions like that. You did yourself a favor that night…..even if our ears were ringing afterwards.” He said.
Kickback sat solemnly for moment before a smile slowly creased his face. He tipped his hat. “Much obliged.” He said.
“Yeah, dude…….But seriously, how do you not go deaf every time you fire those things!?” Fire Fight asked.
“Pretty simple, really. Whenever Sound and Fury got somethin’ to say and they ain’t talkin’ to me, Ah just don’t listen.” Kickback explained.
Fire Fight looked at him dumbfounded. “You mean you just…..ignore the shots!?”
Kickback nodded. “Reckon so. It’s only courteous not to eavesdrop on a conversation, right you two?” he said as he looked at his guns.
Fire Fight was left with his brain cells tangled in a bunch. Kickback was almost as perplexing as Shadow Shroud, but without a mysterious or somewhat threatening air about him. Rather, it was his demeanor even with his guns. Was he still bottling his anguish over the loss of his mother, or was he really just that calm when he could be? Either way, Fire Fight wouldn’t complain about having a new friend.
*****
Spiral Galaxy shined her horn forward like a flashlight as she carefully scanned her surroundings. It was what one would expect from a subway save for the fact that it was lost to the ages, and in shambles. A couple coaches had tipped over off of the tracks, a few big lights had fallen from the ceiling, some pipes were dripping, and echoes from the distant past could be heard within the dark ambience. The unsettling atmosphere caused the cosmo filly to panic a little, but she hung in there.
Shadow Shroud, by contrast, was right at home. Walking through sensing exercises set up like this subway were some of her favorites when she was still training with her masters, and she just liked the dark to begin with. She could tell that her friend was not at ease, but wanted to careful not to startle her for the risk of sparking another episode. “So…” she calmly said.
Thankfully, Spiral only glanced in surprise at Shroud, but her horn’s light shined right into her face, causing her to recoil. “Oh! Sorry.” Spiral said as she dimmed her horn. Shroud rubbed her eyes from the sudden influx of light, and looked at her. “W-What’s up?”
Having been around Fire Fight and co. had allowed Shadow Shroud to observe what would be called ‘friendly interactions’, so she tried what she could to try and ease Spiral’s anxiety. “You ok?” she simply asked.
Spiral took a deep breath. “Y-Yeah….sort of…” she mumbled. While she felt safe with Shadow Shroud with her, Spiral was still a little skittish within her ominous presence as well as the dark ruins.
“Just relax as you look around. We don’t want a black hole in an already black hole.” Shroud said.
Spiral sighed gloomily. “Will you please stop mentioning my powers so much?” she said.
“My regrets. It’s the most readily mentionable thing about you, and indeed something we need to keep watching.” Shroud said.
Spiral rolled her eyes. “I’m a whole lot more than just an unstable cosmomage, Shadow Shroud. It’s because ponies only knew me as that that I……kinda…..lost the ability to be anything else…… Every time I’d do as little as go outside, everypony would either slowly move away from me, or just freak out altogether. They forgot who I used to be- just a normal little filly…..”
Shadow Shroud softened her expression as she listened to her friend. “Then…..tell me, Spiral. Who was this ‘normal little filly’ whom you once were?” she asked with a lighter tone.
A tiny tear fell from Spiral’s eyes as she thought back to her life before she became Little Miss Black Hole. “Well…really, just like any filly you’d imagine. I liked to try on new dresses, I always loved to try the new treats Mr. Frosting would come up with at his bakery, my friends and I had sleepovers and go see cute movies together and stuff, but my mom would never take me to the jewelry store though; I guess she didn’t want me to start begging for a 50 bit diamond ring that I’d grow out of in the blink of an eye. My friends and I loved to scribble on our desks in school just to pass the time; we’d get in so much trouble for it, but it was funny, and……yeah. Really, everything was about as normal as could be.”
“But you said that you’d started practicing your cosmomancy early on, correct?” Shadow Shroud inquired.
“Yeah….that was really more of side thing that I’d do at the end of the day than anything else. I had no idea it’d……get as bad as it did. After that, well…….I already told you. But even when I was in my room at night trying to sleep off my magic, I still thought about all those others things, and what else I wanted to do.” Spiral explained.
“I don’t suppose an adventure across Equestria was on your bucket list.” Shroud commented.
Spiral lightly giggled. “Yeah. This came out of nowhere. When I ran away, I thought I’d just live in the forest in case I somehow decided I actually wanted to go home. But of course, I met you guys, and now I’m having a blast.”
“You’ve no regrets?”
“Not really. It just kinda sucks that I won’t be able to live as normally as I wanted. There were a couple movies I kinda wanted to see, Mr. Frosty is constantly coming out with new stuff, and I was even thinking about looking into a special magic school to help me understand my cosmomancy better.” Spiral said. She giggled. “Maybe even go out with a cute colt too…”
Shroud chuckled at that last comment. “Well, you have three eligible bachelors to choose from.” She sneered.
Spiral playfully cocked her eyebrow. “Three? Oh! So that means you’ve already picked out Fire Fight then?” she playfully asked.
Shadow Shroud looked at her with light surprise. “Don’t be stupid. I meant Air Slash. His clan and ours aren’t allowed to marry outside of our respective ones. You either join by being sworn into one, or you’re born into it by two clan members who happen to fall for one another. Besides, he’s far too arrogant to even be able to perceive those kinds of feelings” She retorted. Spiral’s playful gasp clued Shadow Shroud into something that took her a second to realize. “I-I-I mean that stupid Bladerunner!”
“How disrespectful of you, Shadewalker.” Spiral mocked in a deep, imitating tone.
Shadow Shroud glared at her friend’s insolence, but Spiral could see past her brave face, and continued to giggle. Eventually, Shroud could no longer maintain her feigned frustration, and began giggling with her until they broke out into full on laughter. Once they were done, the two fillies looked at one another with happy smiles on their faces. Even if they were in a void of darkness, where one of them was comfortable mind you, just being in each other’s company proved to be a pleasure for the two fillies.
Things suddenly got serious again when Shadow Shroud picked up on something. She held her hoof out in front of Spiral. “Wait!” she whispered. She thoroughly scanned her environment with every sense at her disposal.
“What?” Spiral inquired. The two looked around in their spot. Shroud continued to scan while Spiral looked around in a little panic; her horn noticeably flickered. They suddenly heard what sounded like hissing coupled with scampering across the ruined stone and metal structures; little shimmers of light from Spiral’s horn reflected for a split second on something that was moving about in the dark. Shadow Shroud donned her mask and drew her kunai, prepared for a fight, but what not quite so much for what suddenly appeared before them…
*****
Air Slash and Turf War had at last returned to the lit train car. Air Slash retrieved his swords as the two colts walked in. Fire Fight and Kickback could see that the only thing new was a big packaged baguette-styled loaf of bread. “Anything?” Fire Fight asked.
Air Slash shook his head. “Forgive me, Fire Fight. I searched high and low where I could without arousing suspicion, but nothing was amiss. No foal I observed fit our criteria. Perhaps we could have Shadow- er, the Shadewalker investigate in the dark….however immoral that would of course be….” He said.
“Speakin’ o’ which, where homegirls went?” Turf War asked.
“Reckon Ms. Shadow Shroud might o’ heard somethin’ over yonder, so she an’ Ms. Spiral Galaxy went with her to see what it was. Fire Fight an’ mahself are just guardin’ the homestead.” Kickback explained.
This caught Air Slash’s attention, and drew his swords. “Is that so?” he asked as he looked around as though he was searching for an opponent. “Even I won’t question the Shadewalkers instincts so long as she remains trustworthy.”
“If they don’t come back after say…..five minutes? They’ve been gone for a while, then we’ll go and-” Fire Fight was cut off when an intense light suddenly flooded the tunnel as everything started to shake. The colts quickly jumped out of the coach in case it toppled over with them inside. The light faded a little as a swell of power could be felt coming from its direction. “WE’RE GOING TO FIND THEM NOW!”