Chapter Forty-Five: Into the Depths
“And boldly they rode…”
I wonder if I’ll ever see Stable 84 again.
It’s an odd thought, actually. I mean, it’s not like I’m super attached to that place specifically. Yeah, I’m invested in the lives of the changelings who live in it, sure. But the stable itself? I’d never really thought about it. It’s not my own home, not like for Altrix. But… well, Xena and I had hoped it might be one day. Just maybe.
Did that make it home already? In some way? It WAS the place Xena and I had… started. And the whole reason I came out here in the first place, even if it was for a ridiculously different and far more selfish reason back then.
Maybe I was already more attached to that place than I’d thought.
Emotions are weird.
But we still had to leave.
The moment that the day had started to break, we were up and out of our comfy clean beds and gathering all of the equipment and supplies we would need. We inventoried as quickly as possible, packing a little lighter than usual in terms of food and other amenities. This wouldn’t be the longest trip we’d taken and, hopefully, it’d be an in and out if all went well.
If not… Well, I guess it won’t matter either way.
When we were done, we all gathered together in the atrium and started retreating back through the hallways, making it all the way to the entrance and stepping out into the depths of the hive. Upon exiting, for no other reason than to ensure its safety in the absence of the changelings, I ensured to hit the door controls on the way out.
The alarm started to blare, the great door of Stable 84 being rolled back into place before sliding forward with its signature screech. The fallout shelter was sealed, and I doubted anything would be getting inside in the meantime.
And then, after all that, there was nothing left to do but leave the hive entirely.
It was all far behind us now, we had made for the Sky Bandit, still where we had left it between the rocky outcropping, Altrix and Moon Blossom hitching themselves back up to the ancient bus as the rest of us secured our gear and once again took our seats.
Now the grey dead sky surrounded us, the Equestrian Wasteland passing harmlessly by below. The journey to Prosperity would be a relatively short one, especially compared to how it was to walk there. But the flight still gave me ample time to think and thus my inner crisis about homes and stables and all that lovely shit.
Ugh, when exactly did my life get to this heap of confusion and righteous questing?
Derpy, I blame you.
“We shall be fine, I am certain,” Xena tried to reassure me, placing a hoof on my shoulder as I continued to stare out of the cracked window. “It is but a short way away now, but we will do as we must.”
“Don’t I know it,” I said with a sigh, looking towards my marefriend and leaning back with a sigh. “Let’s just hope the metro isn’t too crowded.”
“Honestly, a sentry down there would probably be more for looking out for any approaching ghouls from the Crystal Empire than for us,” Cobalt mused from the next aisle over. “Not that they won’t have been told about us. But I doubt they’ll be expecting us to go in right now. They don’t know we have the code.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” I said back to him. “Kronos doesn’t strike me as being a normal dumb slaver. And then there’s the Goddess to deal with…”
“But Cobalt is not without his point,” Xena supported. “Our acquisition of the entrance code should not be known to him, lest Watcher were to prove untrustworthy.”
“I doubt he’d tell them.” I just couldn’t see it, not after he helped us find it in the first place. “Unless a changeling had ‘told’ them we we are after it.”
“Let’s just hope none of them has been forced into that position. It’s all we can do,” Xena said sadly.
Insidiis would never tell Kronos what we were up to. The griffon probably didn’t know that a copy of the code even existed in Vanhoover. The Goddess on the other hoof…
If they had caught on to what we’d been after, then we were in trouble.
Oh Celestia, now I’m imagining us running up to the door and they’ve changed the code!
Okay… they probably don’t know yet. And we can sneak right on in and everything will be fiiiine.
Ah, we’re so screwed.
…
Well, now that that moment of self-doubt is out of the way…
“Everything all right up there?” I called out towards our resident fliers. “Any trouble?”
“Just fucking dandy!” Moon Blossom called out in an unsurprisingly snarky tone. “We’re playing I Spy! I’m looking at an R!”
“Is it that radroach?” I just about heard Altrix ask.
“…How in all of Equestria did you manage to see that?”
“Um… we have good eyesight.”
“Ah. Alright, you go!”
At least they were having fun.
They kept at it, though the rest of us remained in relative silence for the rest of the way. My thoughts remained on what we were about to do, the crushing weight of having so many lives depending on us. On me.
Everything we had been through. All we had bled for. The end of the line wasn’t a distant dream, this was it. And it really was dawning on me.
It was bothering Xena as well, I could just tell. She’d lost more than I had. She’d lost family. So had Altrix. All I had really lost was a paycheck and a way of life. Not even close to the same level as them. This hadn’t been easy on any of us, but they…
I had no idea how they could do it. If I got out but my friends didn’t… If Xena didn’t…
I had no idea if I could be that strong. I prayed to Celestia, Luna and whatever else might be listening, even zebra spirits for all I cared, that I wouldn’t have to find out.
By this point, my hoof had found its way to Xena’s. We held each other, enjoying this one final moment of peace before it all could be snatched away forever.
And it lasted for all it was worth, because Prosperity eventually came into sight.
“We’re here, guys!” Moon Blossom shouted back at us, the buildings of the small town rising up to meet us. “Not been shot yet!”
Clearly.
My E.F.S. was clear for the moment, so I took that with some comfort. We did a fly over the town, the Megamart where we’d first met Moon Blossom catching my eye. I frowned at the sight, the place looked… burnt. A large portion of the roof had collapsed, and what was left was blackened and scorched by fire.
“Looks like the slavers took our escape out on the building,” Cobalt noted dryly. “Nothing much left now.”
“Good riddance,” Moon Blossom spat.
“Where are we landing?” Altrix asked. “The Megamart doesn’t look safe…”
“Let’s move her towards those buildings. Like Vanhoover, set her down in an alleyway somewhere.”
“Alright, how about that one there?”
“Good spot. Let’s put this bucket down!”
The skycarriage banked, smoothly descending down to the street beyond the Megamart and setting down onto the cracked road. The duo pulled us into the gap that Altrix had seen, bringing us to a quick halt nestled between two rundown buildings.
The pegasus turned to give us a pleased grin. “Ta-da!”
We had arrived.
We all got up, gathering our things and ensuring we had all we needed for the trip through the metro tunnels. We emptied the vehicle of everything valuable, double checking to make sure we didn’t leave something under the seats or whatever. Once we were content that everything was accounted for, Cobalt and Xena piled off of the Sky Bandit as started to follow behind them.
Then… I got a strange feeling.
I turned to look back at the two rows of seats, my eyes trailing around the skycarriage. We may have only had it a short time, but this thing had been a sent by the goddesses themselves. No way we would have made it from one place to the next in any feasible amount of time without it. We’d probably still be in Vanhoover right now, unable to do shit about the changelings and without the code for Site B.
Maybe I should thank the slavers for leaving it behind?
I chuckled, giving the vehicle a thankful tap before jumping out of it and using my horn to close the door up behind me. It would be relatively safe here, we’d collect it when all was said and done.
“We all set?” Cobalt asked.
“I do believe we are,” Xena answered him. “Shall we proceed to the station? I would not wish to delay.”
“Neither would it…” Altrix agreed.
“Everything still clear on that Eyes Forward Sparkle of yours?” Cobalt asked me.
I nodded.
“I guess the slavers ran away, huh?” Moon Blossom said with a cackle.
“More like there was no value in leaving a garrison,” Cobalt pointed out. “This town is dead. There’s nothing here to protect.”
One of two settlements we’d destroyed since all this began. True, one was a raider camp and the other was a crazy cutie mark cult, but it was still somewhat eerie to hear the silence. I wonder what’s become of the ruins of Our Town?
Goddesses, how does our encounter with Starlight Glimmer feel like decades ago?
“Come on,” I said to the others. “Leave this place to the ghosts.”
We moved out of the alley, heading around the burnt remains of the Megamart and back towards the metro station we’d retreated through the last time we’d been here. It was only a short trot, and the station quickly came into view. I led the way as we came to the top of the stairway leading down into those tunnels, a little cautious due to the fact that the last people here were Kronos and his goons.
Everything seemed clear, but…
We headed down the stairs, my eyes peeled as my magic took hold of the large gate at the bottom.
“Wait!” Cobalt shouted, and I stopped instantly in place. “Hang on…”
The stallion moved forward, a small bit of light coming from his horn as he looked at the gate. And as he did so, I saw what I had very nearly missed.
A wire hooked up to the gate, set to break when it was opened.
“Nice spot,” Moon Blossom complimented him as he carefully disarmed the trap with his magic and let me swing the gate open. A combat shotgun was hooked up to the wire just beyond the gate, set to go off had we walked on through.
“Mines,” Xena also noted, gesturing towards the small disks across the floor of the station.
“I guess they didn’t want us coming back through here,” I said.
“They can be disarmed by that button on top.”
That had always struck me as a major design flaw in those things. Stepping on them literally stopped them from blowing up. They were still dangerous to those caught unaware, though.
And…
“Cobalt, Altrix, we can just use our horns to clear them aside,” I pointed out.
“Good point. Push them into the station and into the opposite tunnel to where we’re heading.”
Some creature down here was going to have a bad day coming through there.
We stayed back as our three auras vary carefully took hold of the bombs and moved them out of our path. Once a swath of them had been moved safely away, we started to move into the station and onto the platform.
Then, all of a sudden, there was a beep around the corner as we stepped onto the said platform!
BEEP BEEP BE- TING.
I turned to look, staring at the mine we’d missed with a striped hoof pressed down onto the large button on top of the disk-shaped object. I felt a little queasy as my eyes trailed up to my silent marefriend, who also appeared to be letting out a slow breath after the close call. She then lifted her hoof off of the deactivated explosive, giving me a reassuring smile before trotting onwards.
I really love her.
I let out a relieved breath as we finished moving the rest of the many mines the slavers had laid out for us a good distance away before we all set them down in a cluster.
“That was close,” Altrix stated. “Are there any more?”
“I don’t spy any,” Cobalt noted cautiously. “Hopefully it was just the station they trapped. But keep an eye out.”
I nodded, dropping down onto the track at the opening of the tunnel. The other followed me down, all with the exception of Moon Blossom.
I looked up at the pegasus. “You coming?”
She then just gave me a cocky smile that screamed ‘I have a bad idea’, before my stomach dropped as she picked up the mine, flipped it and then proceeded to buck the fucking thing! Amazingly, it didn’t blow as it flew through the air and landed right in the middle of the cluster we moved aside.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
There was an amazing explosion down the tunnel as every single mine detonated at once! We were far enough away from the chorus of detonations not to be hit by any shrapnel, but the entire tunnel gave a shudder from the event.
We all gave Moon Blossom a bewildered look.
“What?” she said with an innocent shrug, giving a flap of her wings and hopping through the air towards us. “Problem solved! Not like we wanted any other dipshit to walk into them, right?”
…Sure. Point taken.
I turned, looking down the tunnel ahead of us. There was a full day’s walk ahead of us, but we were ready.
It was time.
“Nothing yet…” I informed the others as we steadily moved through the tunnel, keeping an eye on my E.F.S. as we approached the station leading into Haven.
We were all feeling the strain of no sleep. But we’d all come prepared with little pick-me-ups to keep our energy levels topped off. Altrix, for example, was sipping on a flask of coffee she’d brought along. I wasn’t so different, getting a sugary boost from a Sparkle-Cola I’d swiped- Er, ‘borrowed’ from the stable’s cafeteria.
I didn’t need anything else to keep me going. It really is a wondrous drink…
“Just make sure you’re keeping an eye out and not imagining doing a sex with your drink,” Moon Blossom taunted.
“Fuck you. That is all.”
“If you want.”
Xena gave Moon Blossom a bemused glance, the pegasus giving her an innocent smile in turn. My marefriend rolled her eyes, probably planning revenge somehow on the mare and her promiscuous remark.
I made sure to neck the rest of the Sparkle-Cola and toss the bottle aside, just to be safe.
We were getting close to Haven, very close. The station would be coming up at the end of the tunnel, and I was keeping a very close eye out for any red bars that might show up at any moment. I was fully expecting some kind of slaver presence down here, though I couldn’t tell you exactly how much of one. Probably only a few, but who could say?
There was a wrecked train just ahead, the last obstacle between us and the station. As it had been the last time, it was derailed and sitting at an angle. The tunnel was almost entirely blocked by it and debris caused by its crash, but the back door was torn from its hinges and one of the side doors had been opened up by us the last time we had to move through it.
I went first, looking into the rusting train and through the skeletons for any traps. There didn’t appear to be any, so I jumped up inside the hulk and started sneaking towards the next door.
Then two red bars finally appeared.
“So, we ran into this ice ghoul the other day,” a gravelly voice spoke, and I gestured to the others to stop. “Completely frozen over, honestly kept her fresher looking than most ghouls.”
I looked through one of the train’s shattered windows, spotting a sandbag barricade that had been absent the last time. A griffon and an earth pony were sitting behind it, honestly looking more invested in their conversation than keeping watch.
“I go to kill it like the others, last thing we need is more undead crystal ponies walking in on us, right?” the griffon continued. “Then the guy I was with, ex-raider as will become apparent, started going on about me leaving it alone.”
“Alone? A feral?”
“I know right? But get this, dude decided the mare was in good enough condition to have some ‘fun’ with.”
Uh…
“Wait, seriously? A feral? What the fuck?”
“That what I said! Some settler mare is one thing, plenty of slaves to pick from in Fillydelphia. But those ponies are too beat up to do anything about it and, ideally, aren’t undead monsters.”
“What happened?”
“Guy is trying to convince me to join in, I say I should put a bullet in his head for being so stupid. Didn’t have to, the ghoul got tired of waiting and sunk her teeth into his face.”
“Ha! What did he expect?”
“Yeah, well, I watched the show for a bit until his screaming stopped. Then I put a bullet in both of them just to be safe.”
“This is what Red Eye gets for letting raiders join.”
“A merc is more reliable any day of the week.”
Well, I wasn’t sure I needed to hear any of that.
“I have left, Moon Blossom can take right,” Xena deadpanned, clearly as nonplussed at their little tale as I was.” “Quick and quiet.”
“On it!” Moon Blossom whispered back enthusiastically.
Xena popped her head up, getting the first slaver in her sights.
CRACK.
They went down instantly, their brains splattered onto the track.
“FUCK!” the other shouted, just as Moon Blossom shot out of the train towards him with her knife drawn.
He turned, trying to lunge for a radio set out on a barrel behind them.
Moon Blossom landed on his back, probably fracturing his spine even before she plunged her knife into his brain.
Red Eye clearly can’t get the help these days…
“Hopefully, it will be a while before somepony comes down here to relieve them,” Cobalt said as we all followed Moon Blossom into the station. “We should move quickly, just in case.”
“You’re probably right,” I replied. “We should try to avoid any of the power armoured griffons. They will have Eyes Forward Sparkles too, no hiding from that.”
We started to move up and out of the station, red bars somewhere above us starting to appear quite frequently. Fortunately, the station seemed to be otherwise empty beyond the guard post we’d taken out.
Moving up towards the exit, I motioned for the others to stop as I waited for a couple of red bars to pass by and vanish. After I was certain the area was clear, my ears primed for the sound of hooves, I started to move up and out of the metro station.
I emerged back into Haven, the very place where we’d first encountered Kronos’ slavers weeks ago.
I was also immediately aware of how out in the open we were here.
“Get to those buildings!” I whispered towards the others urgently, heading towards two empty homes and ducking the space between two of them.
We’d arrived right in time, three bars appearing as three griffons marched right on past us and around the metro station’s entranceway.
Too close.
“We should keep to the buildings as much as possible. The streets leave us a sitting target,” Cobalt noted. “This place is crawling with them now.”
He wasn’t wrong, yet more bars appearing and then vanishing from my vision.
We really were in the manticore’s den…
We slowly started to follow Cobalt’s suggestion and move through any small gap between homes and other such buildings as possible. We would hop fences, moving into the back gardens of abandoned houses, quite often filled with their long-dead residents. Staying out of sight was the only way we’d reach the Donut Joe’s hiding Site B.
After moving through the first cluster of buildings, we came across a street we’d have to cross. There was another cluster of buildings beyond that, and somewhere past the mass was our destination.
The exact route was a little foggy in my memory, but a quick check of my PipBuck’s map was enough to fill in the blanks. If we could just make a path through the alleyways and gardens between us and it, we could hopefully avoid patrols.
Alongside some good timing and luck, anyway.
“See anything?” Altrix asked as Xena peaked out into the street.
She immediately pulled back.
“One in power armour. If they get closer…”
We’d be spotted for sure.
Gotta admit, wasn’t enjoying the thought of being on the receiving end of an E.F.S for once.
Or S.A.T.S. for that matter.
I gave a peak around myself, seeing a griffon down the end of the next street flanked by two slaver ponies. They were just about out of range of my Eyes Forward Sparkle apparently, but it couldn’t be by much.
If they came this way…
I watched the griffon with bated breath, silently urging them to turn and go in the opposite direction.
And then, much to our collective relief, he turned and stomped away down the street with his guards keeping close behind.
We moved, rushing across the street and into the next cluster of buildings. We moved as swiftly and quietly as we could, weaving through them and staying still and silent whenever any slavers started moving nearby. If we made a sound that got them suspicious, we would be in about as much trouble as if an E.F.S. got wind of us.
But, fortunately, we managed to get through without raising any alarms. And upon getting past the final back alley, there was the restaurant we were looking for.
Unfortunately, getting across the street this time wasn’t going to be as simple.
“Sniper on the rooftop,” Xena noted as we hid from their view. “Moving from here will undoubtedly attract their attention.”
“I’m guessing that shooting him is out of the question?” I asked sarcastically.
“Unless you want to draw every slaver in the wasteland to us, no.”
“Could we fly?” Altrix suggested.
“It worked for that other dude back there,” Moon Blossom supported.
“A shout up here is all it will take,” Cobalt disagreed. “But… maybe I could teleport one of us up there behind them.”
“Count me in!” Moon Blossom instantly volunteered, readying her knife.
I bit my lip, glancing carefully around the corner and up at the sniper. They were studying the streets around the diner, rifle at their side with a few crates and a lawn chair set up behind them. I then looked back at my two friends, giving them a nod. What other choice did I have?
“Ready?” Cobalt asked Moon Blossom.
“You bet!”
He was silent, closing his eyes in concentration as his horn lit up and surrounded Moon Blossom in a blue aura.
There was a pop.
I heard a noise from the roof of the Donut Joe’s, and I looked back around to see Moon Blossom’s hoof literally in the stallion’s mouth to stop him from screaming as she forced the combat knife into his neck. He looked like he was biting into Moon’s leg, but she only flinched as he drew blood before the pony went limp and was dropped to the ground.
Moon Blossom hopped down, and we quickly crossed the street and piled into the restaurant, heading straight into the kitchen and closing the door quietly behind us.
“Fucker…” Moon Blossom swore as she held her bleeding leg.
“Oh, let me see…” Altrix cooed gently as she immediately starting to tend to Moon Blossom.
I moved towards the door I’d picked way back when, gently taking a hold of it and finding that it was still very much unlocked. I moved into it, looking to the left and into the open storeroom hiding the hatch going into Site B. It was shut up tight, but I knew how to open it.
The others came in to join me, a new bandage around Moon Blossom’s leg as she complained about the sting of disinfectant. I guess it wasn’t serious enough for one of our healing potions.
I looked towards the nearby alcove containing the lever, lighting my horn and pulling it down. As before, the floor shifted as the secret hatch retracted, revealing the metallic staircase. I ensured to pull out my pistol as we started to descend, Altrix looking around with a nervous expression as she beheld the elongated corridor at the bottom.
“I can’t believe you just stumbled into this…” Altrix mumbled.
“And here I thought all the crazy stuff happened after I joined you guys,” Moon Blossom remarked in agreement.
I hummed, pulling the twin lever down here to shut up the hatch behind us. I then looked towards the closed door at the end of the corridor, obscuring the room containing the elevator down into the facility. I took a few steps forward, and two red bars quickly made themselves known.
“Trouble ahead,” I whispered to the others, noting how we’d have to file through the door one at a time. “Alright, Altrix, you spit in the face of the one to the left while I take out the other one. We can then deal with the second as he struggles.”
Altrix gave a small nod, and I moved ahead towards the door, ready to hit the panel.
I waited a moment, listening out to see if they knew we were here. I didn’t see the bars move, so I had to assume they were not equipped with power armour.
With that in mind, I hit the door controls and stepped through as it slid open with an unfortunately loud screech.
“What the-!?”
Before the door had even finished opening, the slavers had already raised the guns as I engaged S.A.T.S. and took aim. A cold shiver went down my as I noticed that both earth ponies already seemed to be pulling the trigger on their battle saddles.
Shit.
I lined up two shots on the first one, lining a third on the second for good measure.
The moment I engaged the attack, one hunting rifle round pinged the doorframe while another bit into my barding as if I’d just taken a buck to the chest. Despite the sudden stroke and surge of pain, I barely stumbled as I quickly took all three shots as the spell directed.
The first slaver crumpled, the second was saved by my bullet pinging off his own rifle.
Only for a glob of green goo to fly through the air and strike him in the face.
The stallions started to thrash as I levelled my pistol, muffled shouts coming from behind the goo as he started to try and pry it off with his hooves.
My bullet went straight through the spit and out the other side.
“Well, now that the sentries are taken care of…” Cobalt started to say as he walked into the room and glanced towards the terminal.
He didn’t need to say more, I understood.
I approached the terminal, opening it up to the login screen that Cobalt had tried to hack before. Inwardly praying that the code was still good, I brought up my PipBuck and browsed for the password I’d retrieved from Twilight Sparkle office.
Bingo.
One at a time, I started to input the random letters and numbers into the terminal. I made extra sure I was typing each and every single one correctly, and I think the tension had reached breaking point when I finally finished and attempted to enter the code.
Ding.
We were in.
“Thank Celestia,” Cobalt muttered as he took my place at the terminal, giving it a look over. “Alright, opening up the elevator now. We should be good for the moment, though I can’t say how long we’ll go unnoticed once we’re inside.”
“We’ll come to that…” I replied, taking a moment to breathe as I looked into the now open elevator.
The door leading into the depth of Site B. The end of the road.
I looked towards the others, looking between every single one of my friends. I nodded at them to start piling in, which they did so without argument as I stood rooted for a couple moments more. For some reason, I felt the need to glance at my PipBuck and into my collected inventory. Using its own sorting spell, I quickly located and brought out the item on my mind, holding it out before me.
Twilight Sparkle, the eyes of the fake statuette looking into mine.
“Bring us some good luck, yeah?” I said to her, receiving no reply.
Even if the real Twilight Sparkle was a prisoner in Unity, I part of me was comforted by the thought that she might be looking out for us as best as she could. Rebelling against the Goddess with all she had.
I knew she would want us to succeed, to destroy a project she so clearly despised creating. And it was a wish of hers I was all too happy to oblige.
I stepped into the elevator, returning the statuette to my saddlebag as the door closed behind us and we started to descend.
No going back now.
Footnote: Max Level