Everypony’s eyes widened as they realized what Cloudbank was planning.
“That’s awesome!” grinned Sandbar. “We’ll be able to bypass the ghouls completely and they won’t even know it!”
“Exactly,” nodded Cloudbank. “And we’ll be able to take some bits with us when we do, so we won’t have to go back empty-hoofed.”
“It could work,” mused C. Shells, glancing back at the vault door. “But we should go sooner rather than later. The longer we wait, the more likely it will be that the ghouls will stop waiting for us to give up and come out. If they head back up to the first floor before we’re gone, they’ll see us leaving and come after us.”
“Hmm.” Conscious of what C. Shells had said, Drafty moved over to the vault door, pressing her ear against it. The others stayed silent as she listened, and after several seconds she pulled her head away. “I can just barely hear some noise, so at least some of them are still out there.” She glanced back at Cloudbank. “If you cut through the ceiling, I don’t know how loud the crash will be, but they might hear it when it hits.”
“I might be able to catch it,” volunteered Sandbar.
“Are you kidding me?” Drafty didn’t try to keep the disbelief out of her voice. “I’m pretty sure that a huge chunk of the ceiling would be seriously heavy.” She pointed at the top of the vault. “That’s solid metal, you know.”
“Hey, don’t underestimate me.” Sandbar’s chest puffed up with pride. “I’ll have you know that on our ship, I’m number one at anchor-tossing.”
Cloudbank gave C. Shells a curious look. “Is that-”
“How do we even know that the first floor is above us?” interrupted Turbo, breaking the silence he’d held since Cloudbank had unveiled her plan. He shifted uncomfortably as everypony looked at him, wondering if he was saying too much. “I’m not trying to be a neigh-sayer here, but if felt like we walked a long way to get here. What if we’re not under the bank anymore?” He looked at Cloudbank. “What if you start cutting out the ceiling and all that falls down is dirt?”
She shook her head in response to his question. “We’re still underneath the bank. I’m absolutely sure of it.”
“How?” asked C. Shells, and the question was visible on the others’ faces as well.
Turning so that she was standing in profile to them, Cloudbank pointed at the house-shaped cloud that was her cutie mark. “You see this? Before Vanhoover went to Tartarus, I was a cloud architect, so I know all about building structure and design.” She waved a hoof to encompass the vault. “I know this isn’t a cloud building, but you don’t get to be a cloud architect without studying ground-based architecture also.” She turned back so that she was facing them directly. “This bank is in an urban area. That means that the ponies who built it needed to take the nearby buildings into account when drawing up their blueprints. If they tried to build this basement so that it didn’t stay directly underneath the ground floor, then they’d run the risk of digging into a neighboring building’s basement, or the sewers, or something else nearby, which would be a disaster. So I’m completely confident that we’re still directly underneath the first floor of the bank. Make sense?”
“Sounds good to me!” smiled Drafty, “so let’s blow this popsicle stand!”
Cloudbank smirked in agreement, and had just started to flap her wings when C. Shells held out a hoof in a clear gesture to wait. “Hang on. I think we should get everything ready first.” She canted her head towards the shelves on her right. “Once you cut our way out of here, we’ll want to leave immediately. We should start gathering up as many bits as we can first, otherwise we’ll run the risk that a stray ghoul might find us before we’re ready to make our escape.”
“You’re right.” Cloudbank couldn’t help but feel slightly chagrinned, knowing that she’d been too eager to put her plan into action. “Let’s see if we can find any larger bags that we can throw some of these in, maybe some rope to tie a few together, anything that will make it easier to carry a bunch of them at once.”
Nodding, everypony turned toward the shelves to start getting things ready.
“Alright, you sure you’re up for this?” Cloudbank looked down at Sandbar from her place near the ceiling.
He gave her a cocky grin in reply. “Absolutely! See?” He put his injured hoof on the ground, giving a satisfied grunt as he leaned his weight on it without flinching. “Better already, so let ‘er rip!”
Giving the others – all pressed against the far wall, just to be safe – one last glance, Cloudbank let out a breath before gripping Severance in her teeth. Still no objection, huh? she thought to herself as she reared back. She wasn’t surprised; the scythe had made no objection to her plan when she’d voiced it, so there was no reason for it to do so now. So this doesn’t count as “dependent” either. The circumstances which the scythe objected to and those which it had no problem with were still unclear to her, but she was becoming more certain that it had its own criteria for how it determined one from the other. She just had to figure out what those were. Just like with Lex.
Putting those thoughts aside, she turned back to the task at hand as she swung Severance upward with all of her might.
The blade sank through the metal ceiling as though it were made out of cardboard, the blade sinking through the substance to the hilt. Impressed despite knowing what it could do, she flapped her wings harder as she started to pull it in a circle. The going was slower, the ceiling’s composition being thick enough to generate some resistance, but not enough to stop her as she slowly dragged it around, trying to make the hole big enough to accommodate them but small enough to minimize the amount that would be dropped onto Sandbar. Just please don’t let there be any ghouls, furniture, or anything else right here! she pleaded silently as she brought Severance back around to where she’d started cutting.
Below her, Sandbar reared up on his hind legs, raising his fore-hooves upward just as the part of the ceiling inside the circle Cloudbank had cut fell toward him. Bracing himself, he couldn’t suppress a loud grunt as the heavy weight slammed into him, and for a fraction of a second he wondered if he’d bitten off more than he could chew, his knees almost buckling under the force of the collision. But then the moment passed as, straining with everything he had, he managed to keep from collapsing, limbs quivering as he slowly placed the unwieldy mass of metal and stone down carefully, letting out a strangled gasp as he finally released it, looking at the other three ponies along the far wall. “T-told you…I could…do it…” he panted.
“That was incredible!” gushed Drafty, coming over to put a friendly hoof around Sandbar’s shoulders. “You were really amazing, catching that heavy thing!”
“That was pretty impressive,” admitted Turbo.
C. Shells nodded, giving Sandbar a proud smile. “You did great. When we get a new ship, I’m letting you name one of the longboats.”
“Ooh!” Sandbar’s eyes lit up. Now that was a reward!
“Keep it down, you guys!” hissed Cloudbank, sticking her head down from the room above. “We’re all clear up here, but I don’t know how long things will stay that way, so let’s go!”
“Right.” Turbo looked at Thermal Draft. “You ready?”
She nodded, flapping her wing experimentally. The healing spell that Cloudy had used to save her had spent most of its energy restoring her torn throat, but at least some of it had patched up her wing as well, since there was only a slight twinge when she flapped it. “Let’s go!”
Having already worked out the order in which they’d leave, the two pegasi lifted Sandbar, carrying him upward until he could reach the hole in the ceiling, where Cloudbank reached down a hoof to help pull him up. “Huh, so there was an office right above the vault,” he murmured, looking around. For once, they had gotten lucky; Cloudbank’s randomly-placed cut had just managed to miss the desk and overturned chairs in the room. Moving aside, he watched as the winged ponies ferried C. Shells up a moment later. After that, the two of them started bringing up the bags of bits, and less than a minute later they were done, flying up from the hole for the last time before they all started to pick the bags up.
Figuring out how much they could carry had been an exercise in pragmatism. They hadn’t been able to find any large bags, so instead they’d settled for tying the drawstrings on some of the smaller sacks together, turning them into makeshift saddlebags. Each of the pegasi planned on carrying two bags, while C. Shells had volunteered to take four, and he was going to carry eight. That way, even if their cart wasn’t waiting for them once they got outside, they wouldn’t be carrying enough to slow them down.
A moment later they were all loaded up, shooting each other nervous grins as Cloudbank slowly opened the office door. Everypony was tense as she peered out, but a moment later she looked back at them and nodded, making a “follow me” gesture before heading out into the hallway. Silently, the others marched after her, trying to keep their bags from jingling as they set out.
Slowly, the five of them crept through the silent halls, every sense on high alert, ready to bolt for the exit at the slightest indication that they’d been spotted. But no ghouls leapt out at them as they moved, and less than a minute later the ponies emerged into daylight, gasping in relief as they finally left the building behind.
“We did it we did it we did it we did it!” squealed Drafty quietly, looking at the others in amazement.
“Even the cart’s still here!” pointed Turbo, unable to keep a joyful grin off of his face.
“Keep moving!” urged C. Shells. “We’re not safe until we get out of the city!”
Quickly, the others righted the cart and began to load it up. When it was full, Sandbar quickly strapped himself in. “Now let’s get out of here!” he urged, and nopony argued with him.
“Follow me!” Cloudbank pointed back the way they’d come. “We’ll have to take a quick detour around that mess we hit before, but if we’re lucky every ghoul in this part of the city is still in that basement!” Her statement earned a round of subdued laughter, more from nerves than humor, as the five began to run back towards the camp, staying close together with Cloudbank in the lead, Severance at her side.
Barely a minute later, they came upon the street-choking pile of debris that they’d hit before, but this time Cloudbank didn’t even slow down, waving everypony to a side street on the right. We’re going to have to risk it! she knew. With any luck, it wouldn’t be a big deal. The side streets in this part of town weren’t alleys, even if they weren’t exactly large thoroughfares either. We take this one block over, then turn left and keep heading back toward the camp. Easy as- “WHOA!” The cry spilled from her lips involuntarily as she rounded the corner down the side street, stumbling to a stop as she saw what was waiting for them. Behind her, the others skidded to a halt as well, warned by her inadvertent cry, but she barely noticed them.
Barely twenty feet ahead of them, its features obscured by the shadows cast from the tall buildings on either side of it, was the silhouette of a pony.
Cloudbank instantly brought Severance into a ready position. “Back! Go back!” she yelled at her friends, not taking her eyes off of the figure ahead of her. She was certain that it was a ghoul, and while just one of them wasn’t a big deal, the undead things were never alone, which meant that there were more nearby. We can’t get bogged down in fighting these things now! Not when we’re so close! “Circle back around! We can-”
“Stop.”
The voice was that of a mare, and was completely calm, her tone containing none of the insane crooning or screaming that typified the undead ponies. But it took a second for Cloudbank to realize that she knew that voice, the sheer incongruity of meeting its owner all alone in Vanhoover making her frown in confusion. But a moment later the shadowed figure stepped into the light, removing all doubt about her identity, and Cloudbank could only stare in bewilderment.
“Nosey? What are you doing here?”