//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 Out of the Frying Pan... 
// Story: Undead Equestria 
// by Sorren 
//------------------------------//

        Moon awoke to darkness. She lay on her side, a heavy weight pressing painfully against her ribs. A dull throbbing filled her head, and the rest of her body felt no better. She lifted her head slightly and the very small world began to spin. Nothing really seemed clear at the moment. She tried to push up but the pain in her ribs grew more severe as the weight above shifted. It took her a moment of observation to realize that a heavy beam of wood had her pinned. Above her, even more sections of paneling and debris blocked her view of anything.

From somewhere ahead, there was a long whistle, low and mournful into the quiet air

Moon gave a heave and managed to pull herself an inch forward. The beam above creaked and pressed on her side, causing a small whimper of pain to escape her vocals. She breathed deeply, then pushed all the air out of her lungs and pulled with her forehooves. After some strain and a few breathless curses, she managed to pull herself out of the debris. 

“Sweet Celestia,” she whispered, looking around at what was left of the train car. It was nighttime; she could tell this easily due to the fact that the car no longer had a roof, except for a small piece near the front end. The full moon shone in from the right side, casting it’s white light over the savaged train car and creating ghastly shadows in the wreckage. 

“Hello?” she asked skeptically. “Where is everypony?” The car was still moving, which meant the train was still moving, which had to mean that there were still ponies on the train. 

Similar to the roof, the whole right wall of the car was gone, along with a section of the floor and half the seats. She could look down at the rails below from where she stood. Heavy steel beams ran below the car, connecting the front and rear chassis. Every window on the left had been broken, allowing the cool wind to whip her brown mane. 

Forebodingly, Moon inched forward, stepping carefully around broken glass and bullet casings mixed with drying blood. Off to the right, the ground dropped off sharply and a valley could be seen far below. The wheels of the car clicked feebly on the tracks below, a low, almost mournful rhythm. Ahead, the engine chugged along steadily, the pounding of the pistons reverberating off the stone walls to the left.

As Moon crossed the devastated length of the car, a cold reality settled in on her. Something terrible had happened, and somehow she had missed it. The past events were nothing but a bur. There were griffons, zombies, water... 

The engine rounded a shallow right corner and Moon got a good sight of the engine. An orange glow seeped from the cabin and below the wheels, under the firebox. The steady cone of amber light from the headlamp slashed through the night ahead, lighting up the mountainside and the beyond abyss. Moon’s eyes focussed on the light from the windows of the second car and she breathed a sigh of relief. Feeling a little less dreadful, she pushed out of the car to stand on the plates above the couplings. 

The outside of the cars had fared worse than the inside. The steel railing had been reduced to nothing more than mangled scrap iron and the brake wheel had been torn off completely. Carefully making the transition to the second car, she walked forwards and pushed open the door, which only hung on one hinge. 

This car had fared much better. Some of the windows had remained intact and there was only one pony-sized hole in the roof. In the middle of this car, all of the seats had been unbolted from the floor and arranged in a circle. Fourteen ponies sat around a gas lantern sitting on a stepstool. Among them, she recognized Snowglobe and Brick. There was the pink unicorn mare and her foal, the mother wrapping her child in a close caress. She was also glad to see Sage and Jade. The turquoise mare had her face pressed into the coat of the dark pegasus, who only gazed absently at the flickering lantern. All of the ponies had weapons, either tethered to them or resting on the floor beside them or up against the seats. 

Snowglobe lifted her head and her eyes spotted Moon, going as wide as saucers. “Moon!?” she asked in disbelief. The others turned swiftly to look at her at Snowglobe’s outburst. Something seemed off. Some of them looked pleased, but others looked angry, and some didn’t even seem to care. 

Moon walked slowly towards the lantern, feeling like she were about to step on a landmine. She took a seat to the left of Snowglobe and Brick. The brown stallion gazed at the lantern his face grim. 

“Moon...” Snowglobe repeated. “I... I... I thought you were dead.”

Moon frowned. “Dead?”

It took the gray mare a moment to form a sentence. “Yeah, Moon... You’ve been gone for hours, like, sixteen hours.” She sniffed, wiping her nose. “I thought you’d been... dragged off.” A baby blue mare across from Moon choked back a sob.

Moon blinked. Sixteen hours? “I was in the third car. I was under a bunch of boards.” She tilted her head to the left and her neck cracked painfully. “I think it was the one—”

“The water tower fell on,” Snowglobe finished quietly. 

Moon looked around at the small group of battered ponies. “Where’s everypony else?”

Snowglobe inhaled a shaky breath and looked away. Moon looked at the others, but none of them would meet her gaze. “Snowglobe?” she asked, her voice a little higher than normal. “Why... why won’t you answer me?”

The gray mare looked up, fresh tears in her eyes. “We’re it.”

Moon’s heart skipped two beats. “W-what?”

“We’re it!” she shouted suddenly. “There isn’t anypony else. We’re all that’s left! Us, and Dusty and Copper in the engine.” She wiped her face again. “You had disappeared by the time Dusty had gotten me off the front of the train and Brick was unconscious on the footplate.” The brown stallion beside her looked down as if he were ashamed of himself. The Mare-60 lay by his side, a spent ammo container beside it. “The only ponies who made it were the ones who hid or had enough ammo to not get eaten. There were too many. Once they got on the train it was over from the start.”

The small orange filly let out a cry and sobbed into her mothers flank. “I don’t want to die!”

The pink mare pulled her foal in tighter. “Shhh,” she said lightly. “I’ll try my best dear, but there’s only so much I can do.”

For Moon, reality had begun to set in, and it was horrible. “So, that’s it huh?” She felt her jaw begin to tremble, but stopped it. Fifty ponies were dead at her hooves. She had led them to this, and it was her fault. She might as well have lined them up one by one and pulled the trigger. Foals, parents, lovers... all dead. She hadn’t been good enough—strong enough—to save them. Appleoosa seemed like such a small feat now that they were gone.

“I hid with Sage in the first car,” said Jade quietly, never pulling her eyes away from the floorboards. “I’m a coward.” 

Sage sighed and placed her hoof around the dark pegasus. “We fought while we could. Your decision saved us.”

Well,” said Moon carefully, “At least there’s some good news.” She motioned toward the half-healed talon marks on her back. “The griffons’ talons don’t infect you, because I’m not trying to eat any of you.”

The pink mare nodded and flicked her yellow tail. “I figured as much. We’d all be dead otherwise.” Now that she looked, Moon noticed that most the ponies around the lantern had plenty of cuts, some worse than others. But of them all, the pink mare had it worse off. 

“Would you like a healing potion?” Moon asked her, eyes scanning the many wounds. 

The mare’s eyes lit up. “You have one?”

“Yeah.” Moon dug in her saddlebag and produced a vial containing a deep, purple potion—which miraculously wasn't broken—and levitated it over to the pink mare. 

Gratefully, she took the potion and uncorked it. Taking a drink, she breathed a sigh of relief, then passed the potion to the dark-gray stallion with an orange-black mane beside her, who was looking pretty rough as well. “That’ stuff always feels weird going down,” she muttered smacking her lips a few times.

The stallion finished off most of the potion, leaving a swig in the bottom. He looked at it, then to Moon, before sliding the bottle to her. “For your back,” he grunted. 

“Thank you.” Moon took he bottle and downed what was left, feeling the familiar tingling sensation. She pulled out two more bottles and distributed them to the others.

That left her with two. 

“You know,” the dark-gray stallion muttered in a gravelly voice, “I thought that the normal zombies were bad.” He laughed disgustedly. “Those griffons are like fucking... super zombies or something. I watched one of them tear open the roof like it was tissue paper and then turn a pony into silly string before I could even blink.” He pulled out a cigarette and lighter and struck the flame, sheltering it from the wind with a hoof. “Those things... What they hay are we supposed to do against those things?” He lifted his head, taking a long draw on the cigarette. He let out a sigh. “These things are amazing. Thank Celestia whats’isname pony came up with the idea for these little anti-stress sticks.”

“You’re putting it nicely,” the mold-yellow mare to the right of him muttered. “You didn’t watch two of your friends die in front of you.”

Moon massaged her head. “Please, I don’t want to talk about this.” She winced at the hurt look the yellow mare gave her. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be inconsiderate, but I don’t think I can handle any more of this right now.”

They all looked up as the door leading to the engine swung open and a pony’s silhouette appeared, walking towards them. 

Snowglobe gave the pony a frown as he neared. “Dusty... who’s driving?”

The pegasus took a seat between Moon and Snowglobe. “Don't worry, everythin’s stable an’ Copper’s in there watchin’ if anythin’ goes wrong.”

Moon was unable to pull her eyes away from the bloody bandage wrapped horizontally around the top of his head. “What happened to your head?” she asked rather blatantly.

He gave her a squinted look, eyes brightening a moment later. “Moon! You’re alive!” He smiled, then lifted his hoof to the bandage, smile fading. “Oh... that. Yeah, ah uh... Ah lost my ear to a zombie.”

“I-is... Are you infected?”

He looked at the lantern for a long time. “Ah don’t know yet.” From beside him, Snowglobe began to shake. Dusty put a hoof around her and looked up at Moon. “We’ll find out in time. If it comes to...” He looked to the revolver on his leg.

Moon tried to tear her mind away from the gloom and focus on something else. “So were we able to resupply?”

Dusty shook his head solemnly. “No. We shot right through Dodge and the griffons stayed on us for another half-hour maybe. We never got coal or water.”

She growled in her throat. “So what does that mean?”

“If we don’t stop to take on water, we aren't goin’ to make it to Baltimare.”

Moon could feel that particular feeling in the pit of her stomach. “So... where are we going to have to stop?”

Dusty gave her a look, eyes flat. “Canterlot.”


*              *              *


        “Willow!” Sunny called, bracing her hooves on the mare’s chest. “Willow, stop!”

        The white mare thrashed wildly on the bed, screaming something incomprehensible. She gave a mighty kick with her hind legs that threw Sunny off from atop her and three feet into the air. Sunny landed on his belly on the rubberized concrete and it took him a moment to regain himself. By the time he had stood up again, Willow’s thrashing had subsided and she now lay curled on the bed, quaking.

Carefully, he approached her. “Willow... are you okay?”

She rolled onto her back, looked up at him, then quickly rolled onto her belly to hide her underside. “Yeah...” She was quiet for a moment. “Bad dream.”

Sunny rubbed his neck sorely. “Yeah, I could tell.”

“I thought I was tough.” The mare laughed cruelly. “Look at me... I’m a mess.”

Cautiously, he approached her side and laid down. It was time for one of those storybook motivational speeches that always seemed to work. “Willow, you’re the best pony — the strongest pony I know. Remember the very beginning? When we saw you running down that sidewalk like you had a pack of wild dogs on your tail? You knew the dangers, but you still did what you could. Willow, you’re the only reason I’m still alive — the only reason everypony who left that hospital with us is still alive.” He placed a hoof lightly on her neck, trying not to flinch too much at the bothersome feeling. “You’ve survived more than anypony I’ve ever even heard about. You’ve been bitten, injected with your medicine stuff, half eaten by a buffalo, you’ve fallen off a ridge, and you’ve even been shot.”

She pulled away from his hoof and nodded slowly. “Yeah, but all of those I was able to fix with a healing potion... I guess I just got high on myself, overconfident. I never thought that something like that could ever happen to me.” She sniffed. “I’m the dominant one! Me!” She broke off, sobbing lightly. “They took that away from me!”

Sunny winced and tried not to jump away as she buried her muzzle in his side. “It’s okay.” He drew a breath and tried not to think about it. A touch was one thing, but having her head shoved into his side just behind the forelegs was screamingly uncomfortable for him. He patted her neck again. “It’s alright... I guess... Just get it out, but do it kind of fast so you can stop touching me please.”

Of course, she either didn’t hear him or pretended not to hear him. He sat quietly, trying to ignore the itchy tingly feeling from his coat. He wished he could do something for her, anything. But sadly, there wasn’t a thing he could do other than try and give her some support. Even thinking about the ponies who had done this to her, he was filled with such a rage that he could imagine himself shooting them, and shooting them over and over again. They deserved death, no less than torture. In such a trying time for everypony, ponies needed to work together, not sexually assault each other.

Baltimare—the word itself was a sour of the tongue—a city without rule but filled with thousands of ponies. This place was a giant pit of anarchy with minor code enforcement making it no better, and the REA was responsible for it all. What was left of the REA was not what they had been. They were broken, corrupt, ruined; they were no more than a bunch of schoolyard bullies with guns and pretty uniforms. Some of the ponies he had seen on the way to the testing center—they didn’t know; they weren’t aware of what was really going on. They didn’t know what was happening beyond those fifteen foot walls and anti-air gunners. On the walk, he had spotted two ponies who seemed to have had a clue. A stallion and a mare had looked back at him, their eyes had said it all. They knew along with him that this wouldn’t last, and Equestria would never be the same again. 

A repulsing thought struck him. The army had no checkpoints, nowhere to screen ponies entering the city. That could only mean one thing; they weren't letting ponies into the city. Baltimare wasn’t a safe haven; it was a quarantine. The doors to the city had been locked up tight and the key had been swallowed by some high-ranking officer. Thats why he and Willow had drawn so much attention in the streets—there were never ponies from the outside. An outsider in the city was about as common as a friendly zombie.

It all made sense now. Baltimare was never a safe zone. All it was was one big place to corral the living. The ponies here were the ones that were here when the city was walled off. Life for the ponies here was somewhat normal, because nothing out there was real. It was like reading about a war in a faraway land. You knew it was happening, but it never really hit at home.

For him, it was very real. It was all much too real. But he’d rather be out in the real than trapped here in this pseudo paradise. His friends were still waiting for him in Appleoosa. They had been with him from the start, and Celestia strike him dead were he not able to return to them.

Slowly, Willow sat up, blinking tears from her eyes. She coughed once as if nonchalantly putting off the whole ordeal. “Sorry.”

Unconsciously, he slipped off the bed and took an uncomfortable step away, then realized what he had done at the hurt look Willow gave him. To justify himself, he reached forward and placed a hoof on one of Willow’s outstretched forelegs. “It’s okay.”

“I’ll kill them,” she said with sudden venom, batting his hoof away. “I swear it by Celestia, if I find them—”

“Willow,” Sunny interrupted. “I promise you, that if we find them, I will kill them.”

She actually smiled a little. “Thanks, Sunny.”

He noticed that look in her eye and quickly searched for a new topic. “So, do you think they’re breaking any ground with what we’ve given them?”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. But I swear, if Grayhooves takes any more of my blood he’ll have enough to fill a barrel.”

“What about the drug?”

Willow folded her ears. “I don’t think it’s actually going to work.”

He blinked. “Excuse me?”

She seemed frustrated. “Well, I think my circumstance was just plain luck. I’ve heard them talking, about their research, discussing data strands or testing results. They’re making it sound like it’s just a really strong, dangerous antibiotic. If you remember correctly, it never actually cured me of the virus. I flushed most of it out myself before it could spread, then used the drug later. I have no idea what it did, but it never killed it. That stuff does something we don’t know about, but it isn’t a cure.”

Sunny was silent for a moment. “Well, then if they know that... why are they still keeping us?”

“Correction, why are they keeping me? We all know why they’re keeping you. You’re immune, I’m just some sort of bi-product of chem mixing. They didn't use any tactics on me. They actually gave me a direct injection of the virus, just to see of I would die.”

This was news to Sunny, and it wasn’t exactly feeling him with a tingly happy feeling. “Well, what’d they get from that?”

She shrugged. “It floated around a little in my blood before working itself out. I don’t have any idea of how to read all of this stuff. I think it isn’t taking to me because it already thinks I’m infected?” She squinted at her own comment. “Look, I don’t get very much of this stuff. My specialty is emergency work and surgery, not analyzation. Usually, back at the hospital, I had other ponies to do that part for me.”

Sunny looked at one of the shaved patches on his legs. “Well at least they know what’s going on with you. They won’t even tell me what’s going on.”

They both jumped as the door mechanism clicked. Willow was off the cot and on her hooves in a second, standing tense as the door opened. 

The pony who stepped into the room was clad in a full-body environment suit. It was white and bulky and the helmet had a mirrored and tinted glass faceplate, obstructing the view of the pony inside. There was a lapel pinned to the suit’s front. ‘Grayhhoves’. A picture of the white stallion was just under the name; he was making a serious face at the camera.

Grayhooves stopped a little ways into the room and motioned for them with a forehoof. Willow rolled her eyes and approached, but Sunny was a little more skeptical. It was either Grayhooves, or somepony else. A little behind Willow, he approached. Grayhooves turned away from them and motioned for them to follow, leading them out of the room. 

Willow gave Sunny a questioning look. “You think it’s—”

“Yes.” He had told Willow about Candy’s message to him, but neither were expecting her back so soon. Last thing they wanted to do was make a move when this was the real Grayhooves.

The pony slammed the door once they were through and herded them forward roughly. Sunny shot the pony a glare. “Stop pushing. I can walk on my own.”

Grayhooves didn’t respond, instead leading them forward, down the white hall, keeping them within the reaching distance of a foot. Willow walked low to the ground, eyes darting about nervously. She skirted a stallion as they passed one another in the hallway, pressing herself up against the wall like a cat trying to scratch itself. The passing stallion—one of the staff members—gave Grayhooves a look, but didn’t say anything.

Sunny moved up close to Willow and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Where’s he taking us?”

Willow jumped and gave a little eep, then realized it was him and went slack. “I’m not sure. Either the elevators or the observation rooms.” 

Sunny’s heart began to beat faster as they veered away from the hall with the sign pointing towards the observation rooms and instead followed the sign pointing the way to the elevators. It was Candy—it had to be. 

A familiar pink mare with a wispy pink and white mane and tail backed into the hall ahead of them, closing a door behind her. She looked up and spotted the three, eyes immediately going to the suited pony. “Oh, hey there, Grayhooves.”

Grayhooves motioned towards Sunny and Willow, then swung his suited head to the right. 

She frowned. “Oh, right. I thought you were off right now. I was just coming to see you in your room.” She shifted her stance and blushed a little. 

Sunny rolled his eyes. “Well isn't that wonderful.” 

The pink mare gave him a brooding look. “Really, stop being so cynical. It’s not like you’ve never done it before. Ponies gotta’ do it.”

He gave her a flat look.

The mare snorted. “Oh my gosh.” A wide grin crossed her face. “You haven’t! Ha!” She laughed again, then rubbed her eyes. “Sorry. It’s just, you know, you’re as old as me and—” She cackled, unable to complete her forced apology. 

Grayhooves shrugged at the mare and pointed to his two captives. 

The mare frowned. “I don’t know why you’re wearing that suit; they’re hotter than the sun and it’s near impossible to talk out of them.” She paused. “You were working on patient twelve again.” A nod from Grayhooves. “Yeah, suit’s a good idea. Better safe than sorry.”

Sunny shrugged off the mare’s rather teasing words and tried to think. It had to be Candy, Grayhooves would have said something by now. The pony in the suit was purposefully not talking. 

They passed each other and the pink mare gave Grayhooves an expectant look. “Don’t be too long.”

They were nearing the next bend in the hall when another pair of hoofsteps reached Sunny’s ears. He looked back in time to see a white stallion trot around the corner and nearly run into the pink mare. “Oh, Cotton, there are you are,” he said casually. “I can’t find my ID anywhere, did you happen to pick it up? I would have sworn I left it in the lounge but—” He looked at her face. Her eyes were wide and mouth slightly agape. “What’s wrong?”

The pink mare now known as Cotton went white. She looked to Grayhooves, then to the Grayhooves at the end of the hall in the environment suit, then back to Grayhooves, then to the other Grayhooves. “Intruders!” she bellowed, coming to her senses. She spun and fired several green bolts of magic their way. Sunny and Willow ducked but the suited pony in front of them took one of the beams straight to the face. The green burst of magic reflected off the visor and shot back at the yielder. Cotton ducked and Grayhooves took the burst straight to the front. His eyes rolled in his head and he collapsed to the floor in a writhing heap.

“Run,” yelled a mare’s voice from the suit, muffled and distorted from the rebreather. Sunny didn’t have to be told twice. He turned and ran, Willow by his side and the suited pony a few feet behind, unable to keep up under the weight of the suit. Sunny skidded to a stop in the middle of a four-way intersection in the hallways, unsure of which way to go next.

“Left,” yelled the muffled voice again, taking the lead. 

“Now I’m sure it’s Candy,” Willow commented as they ran in the suited pony’s wake. 

Several red domes lit up on the ceiling and alarms started blaring all throughout the building. “Attention!” Cotton’s voice bellowed over the microphone. “Two patients are free from captivity and attempting escape with the aid of an imposter! Subject’s twenty-three and twenty-three B, orange male and a white female. Do not let them escape. Non-lethal force authorized!”

Willow laughed from beside Sunny as they ran, some of the old fire back in her eyes. “Looks like we’ve stirred the fire a bit!”

Sunny puffed, beating his wings to take some of the strain off of his legs. “Looks like it.”

They skidded around another corner and Sunny was relieved to see a waiting elevator just ahead. What were the chances of that? And, what were the chances that two guards armed with shock batons would charge into the hall to block their path? Pretty high. 

The pony blocking their path on the left was an earth pony stallion, holding a sparking baton in his jaws. The other was a unicorn mare, wielding two batons. Willow charged the stallion on the left. He raised the baton but she batted it aside and hit him like a train. The suited mare lept at the unicorn and the two batons struck her faceplate, but only sheared off and went clattering away. The stallion screamed in fear and agony as Willow bit into the side of his neck.

“Willow!” Sunny ran forwards and tried to pull the mare off, but she wouldn’t budge. “Willow, stop, please!”

She released the stallion and turned on Sunny, teeth bared and running with blood. He jumped away like a scared kitten, shamefully terrified. The pony in that mare’s eyes was not Willow. It was something, but it wasn’t Willow. She took a step towards him, letting out a sound similar to something between a hiss and a growl, eyes hungry. In a second, the look was gone and Willow looked down at him worriedly. She looked at Sunny, who was still trying get his mane to stop prickling, then to the wounded stallion writhing on the floor, crying as blood spilled from the wound on his neck to pool on the white tile.

“Come on!” Yelled the suited mare, grabbing Sunny by the mane and yanking him towards the elevator. He stepped over the guard mare, who sported several shock burns on her flank and head. Willow followed close behind in somewhat of a daze. The three pooled into the elevator and the suited mare hit the button for the first floor, causing the doors to slide shut and cut off the blaring of the alarms.

“Candy!” Sunny exclaimed happily, now absolutely sure that the suited pony was the striped mare. 

Willow looked at her reflection in the stainless steel paneling on the wall. Blood had stained her muzzle and matted her front, and when she opened her mouth it could still be seen on her teeth. “What am I?” she asked herself. 

The suited mare unclasped her helmet and tossed it to the floor, letting her red and white striped mane fall free and hang around the the suit. “Jeez,” she muttered. “I don’t know how anypony can stand these suits.”

Trying not to focus on Willow as she tried to wipe blood off of her, Sunny instead focussed on Candy. “I knew it was you!”

The former REA Private gave him a smile. “I told you I was going to get you out.”

Sunny kicked the air and looked to the ground. “Thank you. You know, for getting us out, and saving Dusty back at the camp.”

Candy shook her head. “Don’t thank me for anything until we’re out of the city.”

Willow had just seemed to notice the striped mare and was wearing an expression of relief. “So you did make it away.”

Candy looked up, squinting at the blood staining the mare’s muzzle. “Yeah, thanks for that distraction... You saved my life.”

“Well I see you’re returning the favor.” Willow had done her best to wipe the blood off her face, but hadn’t succeeded very well. Now it was a reddish-pink stain across her mouth and front.

Sunny watched the floor counter above the doors switch to the number four. “Get ready.”

There was a sudden lurch as the elevator stopped. Willow tensed. “What was that?” There was a hum from up above and the elevator started to rise. 

Candy stomped her suited hooves. “Horseapples! They’re taking us back up!”

Sunny frantically mashed the stop button on the wall panel, to no avail. “Well what do we do?”

“Move,” Willow commanded, not even giving him a chance to move before she shoved him aside. She raised a hoof and bashed it against the control panel, sending broken bits and pieces of the little buttons raining to the floor. Two more hits and her hoof punched clean through the sheet metal. She gave a pull and the cover yanked free from the wall with the spark of several wires.

Candy stepped forward as the elevator passed the sixth floor and examined the circuity beneath. “Okay,” she said looking at one of the fuses, “If we remove this fuse, then cut this and—” Willow’s hoof smashed right through the fuse bank in a shower of sparks. The hum of the elevator whined down and a red light blinked on the readout above the door before fading out. The panel clicked and the overhead lights shut off, casting the elevator into complete darkness. 

“Willow!” Candy scolded, looking at the pair of disembodied, yellow-orange eyes. 

“What?” she asked defensively.

“Why the hay did you do that?” 

The orange eyes blinked. “What? I got the elevator to stop, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but now we can’t see anything, Willow.”

“Well I can.”

Sunny remembered Willow’s night-vision. Of course she could see. “Do you have a light?” he asked Candy. 

“No,” she responded sourly. “Willow, Can you pull off one of those light spells?”

“Nope.” Willow’s eyes turned up to face the ceiling. “Hold on, there’s an access hatch up there. Somepony give me a boost.”

“You help her Sunny,” Candy said from the direction of the control panel. “I’m going to see if I can salvage this.” 

“No thank you,” he replied meekly. 

“What?”

“Candy,” Willow said sternly. “Help me up. Sunny has a thing.”

He wasn’t able to see the mares, but he listened as Candy gave a grunt and there were some sounds of scuffling and a metallic grating. Yellow light spilled in through the roof, barely bright enough to provide enough light to see. “Got the cover off,” Willow muttered. A moment later her eyes disappeared from sight.

“Okay, pull me up,” came Candy’s voice. There was a grunt and some more scrambling noises.

“Okay, Sunny,” Willow said after a moment. “Get over here and I’ll pull you up.”

He stepped up to the hatch, which was faintly outlined by the yellow light above. “I can make it myself.” He unfurled his wings for what felt like the first time in ages and gave them an experimental flap. Everything seemed alright. Jumping up, he beat his wings, lifting himself higher, ignoring the tiniest twinge of pain in his back. His head smashed against the roof and he crashed back to the floor of the elevator with enough racket to wake the dead.

“Nice one, Sunny!” Willow cackled. 

He picked himself up, rubbing his head. “Shut up.” Trying again, he got it right this time. Shooting through the hole, he landed neatly on the roof of the elevator.

From far above, a yellow maintenance light shone, giving them a dim light source, which seemed pretty bright in the solid black—kind of like yellow moonlight. 

They had stopped inconveniently between floors six and seven with no way to reach either door. Candy pointed to a ventilation shaft about eight feet up. “We could use the vents. I read the blueprints and apparently they’re used to filter air through the shafts. They all lead to a system of air handlers on the first floor.”

Sunny frowned. “That’s too high to reach.” He knew he might be able to reach it, but there was no way he could get the others up. 

Candy scratched her chin. “Well, there’s a vent every twenty feet.”

“So we need to lower the elevator,” Willow finished with exasperation. 

“Why can’t we just pry open one of the doors?” Sunny offered, looking at the door to the seventh floor, which was only five feet above.  

Candy shook her head. “They’re security doors. Hydraulic pumps drain to open them. If they’re closed, the only way they’re opening is with a terminal command.” She turned to look at the cable system mounted to the roof of the elevator. “Those urban horror stories where ponies get cut in two by elevator doors—these are the kind of doors that do that.” Her eyes skimmed over a steel pin secured to a red lever on the cable mechanism.

Sunny shrank back as she examined the metal pin. “W-what’s that do?”

Candy pulled the pin with her teeth and spat it onto the roof of the elevator. “Cable release.”





His stomach turned over as the elevator below him began to drop, the pulley wheel spinning madly. “Candy!” he screamed, clinging to the roof like a scared cat. “Why would you do that!?” Pipes and sections of the shaft blurred by, causing him to panic. They were going to hit the bottom of the shaft before they stopped.

There was a clank from the left guide rails as the wheels slipped out of their tracks, pitching the elevator sideways in the shaft. Sparks lit the air as the metal box ground to a cockeyed halt. “Candy,” Sunny gasped, picking himself up shakily. “I am going to kill you.”

She picked herself up, then pulled a stunned Willow to her hooves. “Later.” She plodded to the high end of the elevator and pulled a vent cover off the wall. “No time. Let’s go.”

Sunny winced as the elevator groaned, watching with impatience as Candy climbed into the vent, which was tall enough for her to stand if she ducked. Sunny climbed up next, turning around and beckoning Willow towards him.  “Come on, Willow.”

She moved up to the vent and placed her forehooves on the lip. At that moment, the elevator below her slipped and shuddered down another five feet. Willow dangled by the lip for a second, rear hooves churning the air. Sunny jumped for her, but she slipped and fell back, out of sight. There was a loud thud as she struck the metal roof. 

Sunny dashed forward to peer over the lip. “Willow!” 

The mare rolled from her back to her side and groaned. The stripped elevator wheels squealed and the steel ground as the box slipped down a few more inches. 

“Willow!” Sunny screamed. “Willow, get up!” Willow lifted her head and looked around, then dropped it back to the floor. 

Candy shoved in beside him to look down. “Come on, Willow!”

Slowly, as the seconds ticked away, Willow picked herslef up. A trickle of blood ran from her head as she looked around, eyes blank. 

“She knocked herself senseless,” Sunny whispered fearfully. Before Candy could stop him, he pulled himself forward and dropped the six feet down to the elevator, landing hard and coaxing another groan from the steel.

“Sunny!” Candy bellowed at him. “Are you insane!?”

He rushed over to Willow and tugged her to the spot below the vent. “Come one Willow come on Willow,” he breathed frantically. “Come on, go! I’ll give you a boost!”

She looked at him tiredly. “What?”

He was left with one option, and it wasn’t a good one. “Come on, Sunny!” Candy screamed. 

Flaring his wings, he brought himself over Willow and wrapped his forehooves around her middle. Despite the uneasiness that assaulted his stomach, he held her tight and beat his wings, managing to lift the both of them a few inches. Something metal below snapped and the elevator dropped away, crashing and sparking down the shaft, the cable snaking by dangerously close. He flapped his wings frantically, lack of strength and practice showing profusely. There was a familiar pain in his back and wings, like a million tiny needles sticking into every nerve and muscle. He clenched his teeth as pain obscured his mind. 

“Come on,” Candy urged as he drew near. There was a deafening sound from below as the elevator stuck bottom and the whole shaft shook. 

Sunny pinched his eyes shut, trying not to lose focus. All his strength was being channeled into keeping Willow and himself in the air. He felt himself began to drop and forced as much strength into his wings as he could, crying out in pain. To his relief, Willow had made it a little easier on him by wrapping her hooves around his, but she still seemed to be out of it. 

He was at equal height to the vent now. Candy looked at him fearfully, beckoning him forward. With the last bit of strength he had, black seeping at his vision and colorful specs popping in his eyes, he pulled himself up another two feet. Candy reached out and grabbed Willow around the middle to haul her into the vent. When Willow was clear he fell forward, catching the lip and flapping his dilapidated wings once more to push himself to safety.

Done. That was it. Done. His vision faded and when he came to a short moment later, he was on the ground. He couldn’t move. The cold steel of the vent practically burnt against his searing coat. His wings lay dead at his sides and it felt like somepony had twisted a pretzel out of his spine. A series of violent muscle spasm ran up the length of his body and he cried out again, hacking up mucus in the process.

Candy passed Willow a healing potion and the mare took it with minor confusion. Enough of her sense told her to drink it and her eyes seemed to refocus again as the magical potion fixed whatever was wrong in her head. 

“What happened?” Willow asked, giving her head a little shake. She looked around and spotted Sunny in the low light, sprawled in the vent and looking half-dead. Concern welling up in her eyes, she rushed over to him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he gasped before coughing violently. “Good thing you’re not too heavy.”

She scrunched her nose at him. “What?”

Candy pushed by Willow and helped Sunny to his hooves, supporting most of his weight. “You fell and hit your head. Sunny flew you back up to the vent.”

“Stop touching me,” Sunny snapped.

Candy took a sharp intake of breath. “Sorry.” She left him and he crashed back to the floor of the vent. “Sorry,” she repeated. 

Willow cocked her head at that exhausted pegasus, mouth lolling open a little. “You... flew me?”

He gave a chuckle that transitioned into a cough. “A little ways.” His body ached; his wings felt like they had been set on fire, extinguished with a mallet, and then lit on fire again. Never in his life had he exhausted himself like this before. Swallowing his misery, he pushed himself to his hooves, standing a little unsteady but managing to stay upright. “Let’s go.”

Willow’s eyes once again began to glow faintly as they continued down the ventilation duct. “You carried me?” Willow asked, still dumbstruck.

“Yeah, just don’t ask me to do it again.” The tingly feeling in his legs left from touching the mare was one he could have gone without. He stepped on one of his wings and nearly fell, only saving himself by leaning on the side of the vent. They wouldn’t even furl to his sides.

Willow slowed to let him pass and instead walked beside Candy. The two began muttering about something, but Sunny was too out of it to listen. Candy broke away from Willow and pushed in beside him. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah... I think—” He cried out as his forehooves churned air. He tried to back up, but it was too late, he slipped and fell forward. Candy tried catch him, but his momentum drug her forward as well. He found himself falling. Of course he was falling. There was a sharp pain in his head as he bounced off the side of the vent, then the rest of his body as he bounced around like a rubber ball. He struck something soft that cried when his hoof hit it; that had to be Candy. 

Hopelessly, he tried to maintain the fall with his wings, but not only would they not reach half their width in the ventilation duct, they wouldn’t exactly move. He flipped over and at least managed to control his fall, looking up to the darkness as the wind whipped his mane around his face. His back struck something hard and there was a squealing of metal accompanied with the crunch of wood and plaster. Sunny pinched his eyes tight shut as the feeling of being in a blender overwhelmed him. There was another impact on his back and violent surge from his stomach, then it was over.

He opened his eyes to light. Out of sheer luck, he had somehow landed on a cot, and was now looking up at a blasted hole in the ceiling. From what he could tell, this was a confinement room, exactly similar to the one he had been held in. Candy had landed sideways across him, mane knotted and dusted with white plaster. 

“Get off me,” he groaned angrily, shoving the striped mare to the floor. A mattress, what was the luck? They had fallen on a mattress.

There was a rattling and banging from the vents above, followed by a joyful shriek. “No!” he yelled trying to roll over but failing. “No nonononono!” He tried to roll off again, but his tired muscles refused to listen to him. Willow shot out of the vent like a bullet from the barrel of a gun and hammered him into the bed, crushing the frame and possibly his ribs. No longer able to speak, he just gave a low moan. 

Willow sat up and looked around. “Well that was fun.” She looked down and spotted the orange pegasus she happened to be standing on. “Oh, shoot! Sorry!” she hopped off him hurriedly and scrambled away like she’d unsuspectingly stuck her hoof in a spiderweb. “Are you okay?”

“No,” he wheezed, rolling into his side and clutching his middle.

Candy looked up at the hole in the roof. “Well that worked... It’s not what I would have preferred, but it worked. I think we’re on the first floor now.”

“Who’re you!?” yelled a frantic voice, causing all three of them to jump. Sunny managed to sit and caught sight of a green buck backed into a corner, holding a toilet plunger out like a spear. His overgrown, orange mane was matted and shot out every which way; it looked like he had gotten in a vicious fight with a desk fan, then managed to get himself electrocuted. His mane also had premature gray streaks, along with his tail. He had two, rippled scars on either side of his back. But worst of all, it appeared his cutie mark had been bleached, or something. His coat was slightly rippled and lacked color where his cutie mark should have been. 

“I-I-I’ll use this!” he threatened, voice shaking.

Candy held up her hooves in a gesture of peace. “We aren’t here to hurt you.”

He backed up further, plunger shaking madly. “H-horseapples!” He pointed to her environment suit. “You’re one of t-t-t-them!” His voice had a higher pitch than most stallions’, and cracked oftenly.

Willow trotted over to the door and banged on the wall, ignoring the green buck altogether. “How do we get out?”

The jumpy pony stopped shaking a little. “Y-you don’t. The doors are locked. They’re always locked.”

The buck was speaking so fast that Sunny was having a hard time understanding him. 

Candy looked over to Willow. “Think you can get it open?” The buck suddenly lunged forward and smacked her across the face with the head of the plunger. He went to swing again, but Candy smacked it out of his grasp. It bounced away, rolling to a stop against the wall. 

He eeped and retreated back to his corner. “Don’t hurt me!”

Candy gave him a confused glare. “You hit me with a plunger? Really?”

Sunny rolled to his hooves to interrupt, wincing in pain. “We aren’t here to hurt you.” He blocked Candy, who had retrieved the plunger and was making her way back to the buck, most likely to hit him back. “Don’t hit him back.” Back to the scared pony. “What’s your name?”

The buck pointed at himself. “My n-name?”

Sunny deadpanned. 

“B-bl-blaze.” His electric blue eyes darted to the ceiling. “If you’re not here to hurt me t-then why did you drop out of the roof!?”

Sunny slumped as an unexpected wave of nausea hit him, but he was able to fight it off a moment later. He pointed to Candy. “She’s getting us out.”

Blaze blinked. “So, she’s not—”

“No,” Candy answered. 

Blaze took on an eager expression. “A-are you b-b-breaking out?” Sunny was finally able to flare his wings and fold them neatly back to his sides. “Ooooh!” The green buck’s eyes lit up and he trotted around Sunny in a little circle. “It’s been forever since I’ve seen another pegasus.”

Sunny furrowed his brow. “Another pegasus?”

Blaze gave a little hop. “Yeah, I’m a pegasus.”

Sunny looked at Blaze, noting his lack of wings. “Care to explain to me how that works?” He looked to Willow to ask her a question, but the mare was sitting with Candy near the door, the two muttering urgently.

Blaze looked back at one of the scars near his spine and his expression deflated. “Well... I was a pegasus.” He folded his ears and hung his head. “They took my wings off.”

Sunny couldn't stop his jaw from dropping. Rage filled him at a very thought that somepony could do that to a living pony. Taking a pegasus’ wings was like taking an earth pony’s legs. It was a part of them. “Why would they do that?”

Blaze shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad. They put me to sleep for when they did it.” He kicked at the air.

Candy broke away from Willow and waved for Sunny’s attention. “I didn’t want to do it this way, but we have to get the door open.”

“You’re coming with us,” he stated matter-of-factly, addressing the green buck. 

Blaze blinked in surprise. “I-I am?”

Sunny stood and nodded seriously. “I don’t plan on leaving you here to be tortured any longer.”

Candy backed away from the door, examining a square package she had placed there. “Are you sure it’s safe to take him?”

Sunny gave her a hard glare. “What do you mean?”

She shuffled her hooves. “Well, he’s a test subject... He could be dangerous.” 

Willow stepped up beside Candy. “She’s right. The first floor is where they kept the biological testing subjects. Grayhooves took me down here once for some screening.”

Sunny couldn’t believe his ears. These two mare’s were actually willing to leave a pony here. He cast a glance to Blaze, who seemed to be trying to catch his tail. Maybe they only had their well-being at heart. “We’re not leaving him,” he said firmly.

Something in his eyes must have shown, because Candy immediately dropped her guard. “Okay, calm down.” She crossed over to the cot they had crushed and tilted it up on its side. “Get behind this.”

Sunny trotted over and hopped behind the bed with Candy. Willow joined them a moment later. “Why are we hiding behind a bed?” he asked them, beckoning Blaze over. The green pony complied and skittered over.  

Candy produced a small device with a single button and set it on the floor before her. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a bunch of shrapnel stuck under my flesh.” She reached up and pushed Sunny’s head down, then hit the button.

A sound similar to a board being snapped in two filled the room, but multiplied by ten. Sunny covered his head as shards of metal and ceramic rained from above. Another alarm sounded from somewhere and he groaned. That wasn’t good. No matter what, it would never be easy. Nothing could ever be easy. 

Willow pushed the mattress aside and looked at the now-unlocked door. “We need to move before they get here. I doubt that’s the bingo call.”

Blaze seemed to be a little overwhelmed by the situation. His eyes stretched wide as he watched Willow kick the door out of its reinforced frame. “W-why’d you blow up the door? They’re going to come now!”

Sunny shoved the buck towards the door. “Well then let’s get out of here before they do.”

The four crept out into another hall, perfectly similar to the one they had left above. Like above, there was a door and a number every fifteen feet on either side. Candy pointed to a door at the far end of the hall and herded them forward. “That way!”

Blaze jumped, then ran the exact opposite direction. 

“Blaze!” Sunny yelled. “What are you doing!? We have to go!”

“Your new friend is going to get us killed,” Willow complained. 

“Let’s take him with us,” Candy said in a mimic of Sunny’s voice.

The green buck sprinted to a red box on the wall and used the little hammer on a chain to break the glass. “Not yet! I have to get her out!” He mashed the button and a fire bell joined the drone of the alarm. Sprinkler heads popped out of the ceiling, hissing as water rushed through the pipes, and all the lights on the keycode panels for the confinement rooms blinked green. 

Candy slumped as her mane soaked through and hung around her eyes. “Really?” she glared up at the sprinklers. “Really?”

Blaze dashed back up to them, sliding to a stop and splashing Candy and Sunny with more water. Candy looked like she wanted to grab him on either side of the head and squeeze. “Why’d you do that?” Sunny asked.

Blaze ran by them and Sunny hurried to follow. “It opens the doors!” By now, random doors along the length of the hall were bursting open, scrawny or confused ponies stumbling out into the hall. Sunny dodged around an unsteady mare, only to have Willow bowl the pony over behind him.

“Sorry,” Willow yelled back. 

The three of them were forced to slow as Blaze skidded to a stop ahead of them and yanked open a door. Willow looked back, jittering with impatience. “We have to go!”

Sunny stepped into the room to see that Blaze was standing in front of a yellow, earth pony mare. “Wish!” Blaze urged. “Wish, let’s go. We can get out of here!”

Sunny’s eyes were drawn to the needle lines up the mare’s left foreleg, then to the incision scars along her spine, neck, and belly. Once again, he was overwhelmed with a burst of anger and disgust towards the ponies would would do this. 

Blaze reached up and grasped the mare by the shoulders. “Wish!” She only looked back at him blankly, her eyes wide and vacant. Sunny hardly registered as Candy and Willow filed in on either side of him. Something wasn’t right with the yellow mare.

Blaze wrapped the mare in a hug. “Please! Please, Wish! Come on!”

“Blaze!” Sunny screamed suddenly, mind rushing in terror as he watched the yellow mare spread her jaws. Before he had time to move more than a foot, she had her teeth fastened in Blaze’s neck. Blood sprayed from the buck’s neck as the mare he trusted so dearly tore his flesh like tissue paper. He screamed and tried to pull away but she released and bit again, this time a little higher up.

Sunny couldn’t move. What was happening was a sort of... horror, a nightmare. 

Blaze managed to pull free and he stumbled backwards, blood pouring from the fatal wound in the side of his neck. “Wish?” he asked, trembling. “W-what did they do to you?”

The mare didn’t move. She stood there, staring blankly ahead, face soaked in blood. “Wish...” Blaze took an unsteady sideways step, then turned back to look at Sunny. “T-they killed her,” he slurred. “They...” His eyes rolled to the top of his head and he collapsed on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Wish stepped forward to sniff the stallion, then opened her mouth.

Sunny looked away. “Celestia...”

“We need to get out of here,” Willow said blankly, looking at the sight Sunny refused to view. “This place... This place is bad.”

“Let’s go!” Candy hollered, breaking the daze. Willow jumped, then grabbed Sunny by the mane and yanked him back into the hallway, where it was still raining.

“She just—” Sunny spluttered. “I can’t believe it.”

“Come on, Sunny,” Willow nudged him forward, causing him to shy away from her. “These ponies will get thiers.”

“Come on!” Candy yelled from ahead, shoving a spluttering pony out of her way and smacking another that got too close to her. “I just want to get out of here! Now get your idiot faces out of mine!” 

Willow trotted forward and fell in beside the suited mare, giving her a tender look. “This isn’t you, Candy. I know you. Just take it easy.”

Candy huffed, banging open the door out the end of the hall and beckoning them through. “How do you know this isn’t me? You don’t know me.”

Willow flicked her tail now that they were out of the sprinklers, splattering the floor with water. “You’re stressed and agitated.” She smiled a little. “Besides, you can always tell who a mare is in bed. Trust me—I know you.”

Candy didn’t reply. Sunny stifled his laughter with a cough. So it really had happened! Willow did swing both ways. He would have to tease her about it later, get back at her for all the teasing she’d given him. 

Willow butted the door ahead of them and it rocketed open, smashing against the wall and breaking free from the top hinge. 

He rethought. Maybe it was a better idea to never bring it up. 

Any second now, he expected to turn down a hall and come face to face with a platoon of armed guards. But, to their immense luck, they didn’t see a single pony with every turn in the hall apart from the occasional patient they’d freed. 

Candy led them around a bend determinedly, eyes vigilant. “This is the was the way I originally planned us to go. You know, before we took the express route.”

They burst out into a colorful hall and Sunny had to rub his eyes to get them to focus. He had grown so used to white everything that color was a foreign sight. Two more doors later they found themselves entering the lobby through a side door. Sunny started forward, but Candy grabbed him by the tail and pulled him back, shaking her head frantically. She pointed to the two armed guards flanking the counter and and four more at the front doors. She led them quietly along the side of the lobby, keeping low and close to the wall. She then led them around to the a door labeled for use only by personnel and ushered them inside. Sunny had no idea how they weren’t spotted — the guards must have been blind; the three of them had made such conspicuous targets. 

Candy closed the door behind her and let out a long breath, relieved. Sunny looked around the dirty room, taking in what very little it had to view. Two large contraptions sat against the far wall, humming noisily, held off the concrete by a series of small springs to prevent vibration. This had to be the air handling room Candy had mentioned. 

There was a sudden burst of racket from outside the door and a stallion’s voice sounded from the lobby. “That’s them!” Sunny tensed. They had been seen — their little escapade was over. More noises and confused yells from the lobby. “Freeze! Don’t come any further!”

Sunny allowed himself a guilty sigh of relief when he realized that pony outside wasn’t speaking of them. 

“I said don’t move!”

Candy trotted over to one of the air handlers and yanked off one of the ventilation panels. “They must have spotted the ponies Sunny’s friend let loose.” She reached her head into the large vent and dragged out an assortment of bags, then a familiar-looking, black battle saddle. 

Willow pranced forward happily. “You’ve got my bags!”

“Quiet!” Candy snapped in a loud whisper. “They’ll hear us.” She looked back to the pile of supplies and nuzzled out a white medical case. She flipped the lid and revealed a neat row of healing potions. “With interest.”

Sunny flinched as two gunshots sounded from outside. “Get back!” hollered a mare. 

Candy motioned Sunny over and pointed to the battle saddle. “Here, put this on.”

It was his old battle saddle, complete with the sleek carbine on the right and the shotgun on the left. “You realize this is going to turn me into a walking target, right?”

She slung the heavy device over his back and began fastening the straps. “Those crazies out there aren’t going to keep the guards busy for long, and when they wrap up, it’s standard procedure to do a full search of the area to neutralize all threats. I hate to say this, but it may be shoot or be shot.” He fidgeted as he yanked one of his belly straps tight, then reached underneath him for the other one. 

He jumped suddenly and yanked away, nearly knocking her over. “Watch it!” He huffed a breath of air and took a slow intake. 

Candy fed the strap around him and managed to shrug while doing it. “Sorry, forgot you were a stallion.”

Willow gave Candy a contemplating look before levitating her saddlebags from the ground. It only took a her a moment to strap on the light set of bags. She hopped twice, testing to make sure it was secure. Levitating the white medical box towards her, she slipped it through a strap on the left and cinched it tight to the side of her bag. From one of the pockets, she produced her small, automatic pistol and strapped it to her inner foreleg. 

There were more gunshots from outside, mixed with yells and screams. Sunny tried to ignore it, instead examining the battle saddle and taking comfort from its familiarity. He remembered the way Moon had said that it went well with his mane and allowed himself a small smile. He checked the load in each weapon and was pleased to find the rifle magazine full with fifteen rounds and the shotgun full with eight in the barrel. Taking each bit, he tested the safeties, then checked to make sure the lines were taught.

“I’m ready,” he declared, swallowing his anxiety. 

Willow took place beside him. “Ready.”

Candy stripped off the environment suit, her sleek, but muscular body damp from sweat. Her mane still wet from the sprinklers, hung at about the same height as her belly, the red and white strands glistening in the light. This was the first time Sunny had seen her without barding and his eyes were inexplicably drawn to her flank, then her cutie mark. Of course, it was candy cane—six of them actually, all crossing one another so it looked a little like a candy cane pinwheel.

Willow thumped him on the side of the head. “What are you looking at?”

He gave her a sheepish look. “I hadn’t seen her cutie mark yet.”

Willow glared at him for a moment, disbelievingly, then smiled. “You are too innocent, Sunny.”

Candy crossed to the door, hobbling on three legs as she tried to strap a pistol to one. She finished securing the pistol and held her ear to the door to listen. “Sounds like those ponies out there are getting their rumps kicked.” She huffed. “We let them out to die, great.”

“What do you mean, too innocent?” Sunny asked Willow with a frown. 

Willow ducked her head a little. “Because, that mare’s hot enough to belong in a playmare magazine. You aren’t going to see a flank like that in a long time.”

Sunny looked at the spot Willow’s eyes were focussed: Somewhere around Candy’s rear legs and her middle. “So, are you saying I should be eyeballing her?”

Willow nodded. “Yeah, any normal stallion would. Heck, most mares would.”

Sunny rolled his eyes. “Any normal stallion, Willow.”

She gave him a friendly nuzzle, which he shied away from. “Right, I forgot you like stallions.”

He covered his face as Willow cackled. “If you really think I’ve got a thing for stallions then I might as well shoot myself.”

She shook her head. “Nah. I just like to mess with you.”

“Um...” Candy looked between the two of them impatiently. “Are we going to talk about Sunny, or are we going to get out of here before they kill us?”

Willow grinned behind her hoof. “Sure thing.”

Sunny dropped the smile and flipped off the safeties on the two weapons. “Let’s go then.”

Willow scooted in close to him. “Since you have the big guns, I’ll just kind of hide behind you, if that’s okay.”

Candy took the other side. “Don’t worry, Willow.” She smirked. “I’ll protect you from the bad ponies.”

Willow gave her a playful glare. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to protect you from my hoof in your face.”

Sunny smiled lightly. It was great to have the old Willow back. This was the happiest he’d seen her since her ordeal. It almost felt normal. Taking a deep breath, he reached forward and kicked open the door. 

The lobby was in chaos. REA members, Bottle of Progress staff, and escaped patients ran around in a frenzy, attacking one another brutally. A red pony sprinted for the door with a cheer, only two have to bullet wounds blossom from his chest. He ran a few more feet and stumbled before dropping to the polished floor and sliding to a stop in a streak of blood. 

A blue, uniformed mare beat a patient aside and came face to face with Sunny, eyes widening slightly. He lowered his head to her and mouthed the bit, giving her a clear warning. Her eyes shot to the bit for her battle saddle, but shone with the realization that she wouldn’t be able to reach it in time. She raised her head and screamed: “Armed target near—”

She took a shotgun blast to the front and when down in a bloody heap. Sunny took a moment  to balk at what he had just done. He had just killed a pony. This wasn’t a zombie; this was a living, breathing pony. 

“Sunny!” Willow bellowed over the racket, driving her head into his flank. “Move!” All guns had turned on him the moment he had fired the shotgun, the lobby seeming to freeze in place for a moment. The three of them bolted across the lobby, bullets whizzing by and pitting the ground at their hooves. Miraculously, none hit a mark. Sunny skidded into a corner behind the receptionist’s desk and the mare taking cover there eeped.

“Don’t hurt me,” the older mare pleaded, scooting away from Sunny as Willow slid into cover behind him with Candy.

“Come out!” A commanding voice yelled over a few stray gunshots. 

“You first!” Willow yelled. She winced as several bullets tore through the desk beside her. “Never mind! Stay where you are!”

Sunny jumped up and fired both weapons, then ducked down again before he could even see if he had hit anything. A mare screamed somewhere and there was the sound of a small scuffle, then a gasp. “Would somepony help me out here?” a mare asked angrily. “I’m only shot through the damned leg!”

Sunny peeked over the desk to see a row of ponies, all with guns trained on them. A thick stallion raised a powerful-looking rifle and Sunny jumped down again. A shot rang out like the blast of a canon and Sunny cried out as blood sprayed his face and front. 

“Who’s hit!?” he cried, looking fearfully at Willow, then to himself. Had it been him? He looked over himself. Was there a hole in him somewhere? 

“Damn,” whispered the receptionist, looking down at the hole torn in her side. Her eyes rolled and her whole body hitched twice before she collapsed in a heap on the floor, leaving a smoking hole in the wood behind her. 

While Sunny was sorry for the mare, he also felt a guilty relief that it had been the mare, and not him or Willow. 

“Got it!” Candy cheered, voice muffled. She pulled her head from her bag, biting on two grenades. Willow took them both from the striped mare and magically pulled the pins. 

“Special delivery!” Willow bellowed, tossing the grenades over the counter. She ducked down and covered her ears.

Sunny ducked as well, coming near muzzle-to-muzzle with the white mare. “Special delivery?” he scolded.

There were two loud bangs from the lobby and several yells and shouts of pain. 

Sunny glared at Candy from his position. “Those grenades suck! They didn’t even blow up!”

Candy furrowed her brows at him and jumped as a bullet pitted the wall above her. “They aren’t made to make a big boom, they’re anti-personnel grenades. They’ll shred you with shrapnel if you're close but they won't bring a roof down on your head.”

Sunny jumped up and fired three more shots, receiving twenty in return. “Don’t you have a gun!?” he complained to Candy, watching as a lock of his black mane fell to the floor, having been shot off. 

“Yeah, but I’m not about to go poking my head up to shoot it.”

Willow looked down at the automatic pistol strapped to her foreleg, then rolled her eyes. “Forgot I had it.” She pulled it from its holster and magically held it over the counter, firing blindly.

Sunny jumped as a surge of green magic blasted by his face. He turned his head to see a familiar dark-pink mare, Cotton, charging at them from the side of the desk, a small pistol clenched in her jaws. Without thinking, he spun and trained the rifle on her. The mare’s eyes widened in realization and she skidded to a sideways halt, dropping the pistol. Sunny fired and the bullet struck her in the upper hind leg. She crumpled and went down like a sack of flour, letting out a strangled cry of pain. 

Sunny felt terrible. What had Cotton been thinking? She wasn’t a fighter—she was a lab junkie. She had charged him with a pistol, and he had shot her. He watched as she dragged herself across the floor with her forehooves, trailing blood, eyes streaming while she cried in terror. To bash at his already quakey conscience, he was struck with a cruel but effective idea. He tried to shut the idea down, but it was the only thing he could think of.

“Willow.” He jabbed the mare in the side to get her attention. “Can you pull her over here with your magic?” He pointed at Cotton.

Willow looked the the crying, bleeding mare with skepticism, but nodded. Her horn glowed a dark-red and Cotton was dragged towards them, screaming. Once she was behind the safety of the counter, Sunny rolled her over with the rifle barrel, not wanting to touch her.  

Cotton looked up at him, terror in her eyes. “I’m sorry I experimented on you! Please, don’t kill me.” she covered her face fearfully. “What do you want?”

He bared his teeth at her. “Are you in charge of this facility?”

“Why would you—”

“Answer the question!”

“N-no,” she stammered. “The REA owns the facility, Grayhooves and me just run it.”

Sunny huffed. “Good enough.” He turned to Candy. “Hold her up.”

Cotton balked. “W-what?” Candy exchanged a glance with Sunny and understanding passed between the two. Candy worked her head under one of Cotton’s forehooves and lifted her, much to Cotton’s horror. “Put me down!”

“All of you, hold your fire!” Sunny yelled, praying to Celestia for this to work. Candy shoved Cotton over on the counter so her upper half was in sight. Sunny stood up cautiously, placing his forehooves on the bullet-scarred countertop. Countless guards and REA members barred the doorway. Most of the escaped patients lay dead or bleeding out on the floor. The ones that hadn't been shot down were cuffed to a bar at one end of the room. 

Swallowing his doubts, Sunny leaned forward and pressed the barrel of his shotgun against the side of Cotton’s head. “Don’t,” she pleaded. “Please, for all of what you believe in, don’t.” 

“Let us go, or she dies,” Sunny said in the firmest tone he could muster. He hoped his bluff would hold — there was no way, absolutely no way, that he could shoot this mare. Hopefully, the ponies with all the guns didn’t know that. Several metallic noises were coaxed from some of their rifles and Sunny felt his ears fold down. It wasn’t going to work. They were going to shoot him.

“Wait!” a pony called, causing him to nearly jump out of his coat. Grayhooves pushed out of the line, taking stance in front of the guards. “Don’t shoot—we need her!” He turned to look at them. “She has the passcodes to essential medical research that nopony else knows.”

The small mare in charge of the force swore under her breath, “Are you sure nopony else knows them? It’s not written down anywhere?”

“No,” Grayhooves replied urgently.

 She looked to Cotton. “Yell us the passcodes.”

There was a long, awkward silence.

Despite her grimaces of pain and the hitching of her breath, Cotton managed to produce a glare. “Do you think I’m that stupid!? If I tell you, then you won't need me anymore, then you’ll shoot him and he’ll shoot me!” She choked back a sob. “Fuck you!”

The mare stomped a hoof. “Tell us!”

“Shoot me!” Cotton returned.

“I’m telling you!” Grayhooves yelled to them. “If she dies, we’re losing years of medical information, not just modern research, but old data as well—data we’ve had since before the breakout.”

“Please,” Cotton choked, whimpering. “Put me down. It hurts. It hurts.” Sunny nodded to Candy and the striped mare began to lower Cotton. He kept the shotgun trained on her head.

“Let us go, and she lives.”

Luckily, Grayhooves seemed to have seized control of the situation, and was handling it sensibly. “Let them go.” The mare whom had asked for the codes stamped over to him and the two took up a whispered argument. The assorted REA soldiers and Bottle of Progress staff members stood around, mingling idly with one another, waiting for their commanders to settle. 

“Look,” Grayhooves stated after a moment. “There’s no way they can leave the city, and they know it.” He looked to the three anxious ponies and one terrified mare behind the check-in desk. “I know one of those ponies. She’s a good mare, but she’ll kill to save her friends. Trust me, I ran three psyche tests on her.”

“I can’t walk,” Cotton moaned. She looked down at the pool of her own blood and whimpered. 

Sunny decided to use this to his advantage. “She’s bleeding out,” he said to the ponies. “We’ll give her the care she needs, but not here. If you don’t let us go soon, she’s going to die.” He blinked at Candy for her attention. “Could you carry her?”

Candy nodded and stooped down for Cotton. Sunny—rather awkwardly—helped the mare onto Candy’s back. Cotton screamed in agony as her leg twisted and the wound’s surface broke, sending new torrents of blood down her leg. With a worried expression, Sunny realized his bullet had torn completely through her left hind leg and had seated itself in her belly. He had really torn her up.  

Willow dug in her saddlebags and pulled out a gauze pad, then realized the extremities of the wound and chewed her lip. She pulled out two more pads and a bandage. “Sorry about this,” she said apologetically to to Cotton before unrolling the bandage.

Cotton’s head rolled around and she looked back Willow. “Sorry for, wh—” She screamed as the white mare applied the two gauze pads to each side of the wound, then wrapped them tightly with the bandage. “Celestia,” she squeaked. “Shit... Kill me! Just kill me now!”

Keeping his shotgun on Cotton, Sunny led them out and around the counter, towards the front doors. “You aren’t going to follow us,” he said, sounding much bigger than he felt. The line of ponies parted as he and his friends left the counter and made their way to the door. All eyes were on them as they exited the building, out into the street.

Just to be safe, Willow closed the double doors behind them and bent the two steel handles around each other.

An injured and bleeding mare, a pegasus wearing two guns, a white mare covered in blood and another one that looked like a candy cane. They didn’t exactly blend in.

A curious buck trotted up and squinted at them. “Did you just break out of that testing place?”

“Yep,” Willow replied casually as she trotted along, procuring an annoyed glance from Sunny.

He cocked his head, looking a little skeptitive. “Well... are you dangerous?” For whatever reason, he trotted along beside them as they walked.

Willow shrugged and flicked her tail in Sunny’s direction. “Only if you piss off the orange one.”

The buck made distance between himself and Sunny, watching them from a distance. Sunny gave Willow a sour look. “Thanks.” Now they were drawing looks from everywhere. Ponies watched fearfully from windows of from street corners, not scared enough to run but not brave enough to approach them.

Cotton groaned and shoved her face into Candy’s neck. “I hate you ponies.” Sunny kept walking, wanting to get off the street as soon as possible. After a while of aimlessly wandering, he began to realize that Baltimare seemed to be one big maze of streets with ponies occupying nearly every inch of it. A small group of onlookers had begun to follow them, some looking curious, others a little shooty. 

“We’re being followed,” he murmured. 

Candy nodded. “I’d noticed.” She threw a glance to the mare on her back. “Look, we have to do something or this mare’s gonna’ die. She’s still losing blood — I can feel it running down my coat.” She gave a little shudder. 

Cotton turned her head to glare at Sunny; it looked more like a pouty face. “Why’d you have to shoot me in one of the biggest muscles in my body?”

“Hey,” Sunny said in honest defense. “I was aiming for your girth. You’re pretty lucky I missed.”

Candy squinted at him. “Girth?”

Willow rolled her eyes. “It’s a spot right behind the forelegs where all of a pony’s vitals are.”

The striped mare’s eyes dawned in understanding. “Oh, the killzone.” 

“Is that what the REA calls it?” Willow asked with an irritated flick of her ears.

Candy shrugged. “Well, they pointed to a picture of a pony and said ‘shoot there,’ so basically, yeah, the killzone.” She looked to Sunny. “Since when do you start using anatomical terms?”

He shrugged. “It sounded better than saying middle, and it wouldn’t have been right to say belly.”

Cotton lifted her head, but then slumped, eyes rolling to the top of her skull. “Great,” Candy said irritably. “She just went as limp as a cooked noodle.” She did a little hop to position the mare on her back. “Is she out?”

Sunny nodded. “Yeah, we need to get her fixed.” He didn’t think he’d be able to live with himself if Cotton died. She had kept him captive and run tests on him, but she had never been bad to him. She was just doing her job—that was no reason to hate her... or shoot her... or kill her. 

“Hey,” a whispered voice called, the whisper proving to be rather loud. Sunny looked up, eyes darting around frantically. “Hey!” they voice repeated, a little louder this time. Sunny spotted the source of the call: a brown, unicorn stallion peeking out at them from the cracked lobby door of a multi-story apartment building. 

“Go around the back.” He made a gesture with his hoof, just in case Sunny hadn’t heard. Sunny pointed at himself, then made a curious face. The stallion nodded frantically, then disappeared into the building.

Sunny exchanged a glance with his two companions, who had seen the exchange as well. “Well?”

“Think it’s the REA following us?” Willow asked. 

“Yeah,” Candy added. “It could be a trap.”

Sunny nickered. “Well, we have to do something about Cotton and we have to get off the streets. We don’t have much of a choice.” Making up their minds for them, Sunny changed course and led them swiftly between buildings. In an attempt to throw off any ponies that may have been following them, he quickly led them around a small apartment and through another before making his way to the backdoor of the first. 

The brown stallion was waiting for them anxiously by the rear fire-escape door of the building. “Who are you?” Sunny asked rather bluntly as they came to a stop in front of him. 

“Did you really break out of Bottle of Progress?”

He frowned. “How do you know that?”

The stallion beckoned them through the door and into an unkempt hallway. “You three are all over the radio.”

Sunny gave him a long, untrusting look. “So, what are you doing?”

He led them up a steep flight of stairs. “Helping you.” He shooed some foals playing in the hall back into their apartment. “All of Baltimare is going to be looking for you. You need a place to hide.”

Candy huffed at the weight on her back as they hurried up the stairs. “So, what, are you some sort of thrillseeker or something?” 

He threw her a quick look. “Pardon?”

“Most ponies aren’t too keen to go out of their way to help ponies that the REA wants stopped.”

The stallion took a moment to reply, taking them up another flight of steps. “That place was a bad place before the infection. I doubt it’s changed much. Anypony who made it out of there is a friend of mine.” He stopped them in front of room 5-17.

“Do you trust him?” Willow whispered to Sunny, watching with judging eyes as the stallion produced a key and worked it into a trippy lock on the door.

Sunny gave the tiniest of nods. “He seems genuine. Either way, I don’t think we have a choice. He’s offering shelter and if what he said is true, we’re wanted by the whole city.”

The stallion opened the door and beckoned them in quickly, throwing anxious glances both directions down the hall. When they were all in he slipped inside and slammed the door, sliding the deadbolt over and setting the chain lock. He took a deep breath and slicked back his mane. “It’s not much, but it’s home,” he said in a falsely-casual voice.

They were in a small, vintage-style apartment. The living room was combination of the dining room and there was a little walk-in kitchen behind the worn-down dining room table. The walls were clad with faded, wooden paneling and the carpet was a creme color, turned a little brown in the traffic areas from dirt and age. A short hallway led off from the living room, with two doors on either side and one at the end.

“Be warned,” a charismatic stallion said from a small radio on the kitchen counter, “The ponies we have just described are armed and extremely dangerous. They are said to have broken out of Bottle of Progress laboratories and are mentally unstable. If you happen to see these ponies, do not approach them or interact with them under any circumstances. Contact the nearest REA official immediately, and leave the area.”

“Oh, honey, you’re home.” A green mare with a pink mane trotted out of the hallway, a little smile on her face. “Have you been listening to the radio. There’s these ponies that—” She stopped in front of the brown stallion, one hoof still half-raised in the air. Her eyes widened in shock as they traveled over the four ponies behind him.

“What the hay is this?” she asked the brown stallion, who looked like he wanted to do nothing more than sink through the floor. “Those are the ponies from the hospital, aren’t they?”

“Well—”

“They are!” she yelled, not allowing him to speak.

“Surprise?” he said with a forced smile.

Sunny could practically feel the anger radiating the mare. “You know...” She fell back on her rump, suddenly flaccid. “It was one thing when you tried to raise that baby manticore, or let that runaway stay here, but they’re felons!”

Willow pulled Candy forward with her tail, past the green mare. “Sorry,” she apologised, sounding not at all sorry. “But I have to get this mare patched up before she kicks the bucket.” Candy lowered Cotton to the ground in front of a woven couch and Willow set to work. 

“They’re not felons,” the stallion defended. He turned to Sunny. “You’re not felons, right?”

Sunny tried ignore the image in the corner of his eye; Willow digging in Cotton’s belly with a pair of forceps.

“They said the orange one was a murderer,” said the mare.

The brown stallion turned to Sunny. “Are you a murderer?”

Sunny took a moment to reply. “Well... I did shoot a pony... Three ponies...” Sweet Celestia. He was a monster. Killing zombies was one thing, but he had killed a living pony. He fell back on his haunches, eyes unfocusing. “I’m a murderer.”

What had he done? That mare he had killed, she could have had a family, a very special somepony. And just like that, he had taken all of that away from her. He remembered the look in her eyes as clear as if he had taken a snapshot of her final moment. She was reaching for the bit on her battle saddle, but she knew it was of no use; the pony in front of her was readied. Her eyes had sunken with the realization a second before she had raised her head to yell—to give her companions a warning. Then had filled her full of buckshot. She was dead. She was dead on his hooves. 

“I’m a murderer,” he repeated blankly.

The green mare motioned irritably in his direction. “See, he admits it,” she snapped, rubbing in the fact that she was right.

“Sunny,” Willow called to him, never taking her eyes off of Cotton. “Come over here.”

In a sort of trance, he crossed the room to Willow and sat down beside her. “Yeah?”

“You aren’t a murderer. You were doing what needed to be done.” He tried to speak but she silenced him with a look. “If anypony’s a murderer, I am. I know for sure I’ve killed two ponies so far, and that’s not counting failed surgeries, or the stallion I OD’d.” She shrugged. “Honestly, you get to live with it. In a world filled with zombies, killing a pony doesn’t seem as bad as it used to be.”

“You’re not making me feel any better.”

“Give me those bandages,” Willow said urgently to Candy, her full attention back to Cotton.

“Well what do you suggest we do?” the brown stallion burst out angrily. 

The mare sat back and threw out her hooves. “I don’t know! But just think of what’s going to happen if we get caught with them.”

“You and I both know that the army doesn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground!”

“Put pressure here!” Willow yelled to Candy.

The mare jumped into action and pressed down on Cotton’s wound. “Can you save her?”

“Maybe,” Willow tore a package of bandages open with her teeth while levitating over a healing potion. “If I had blood for a transfusion, then yes. But whatever she loses here, she isn't getting back!”

“We can’t throw them out!” the brown stallion yelled. “They’ll be killed!”

“And if we’re caught with them, we’ll be killed!”

Sunny blinked. His head spun like a top. “Please,” he muttered, completely unheard over the clamour. “Enough.” The stallion and the mare both burst out at once, yelling at one another. “Shut up!” Sunny bellowed. The effect was instantaneous — Complete silence. “Look,” he said, taking a deep breath. “We just broke out of a testing facility after being taken captive and abused and flown halfway across Equestria, where me and my friend were threatened with death multiple times. They raped my friend in the testing facility and stuck so many needles in me that I felt like a pincushion. Then, I got shot at and nearly blown up and fell down ventilation shaft after I nearly killed myself trying to fly. Then, I was turned into a murder and a fugitive!” He was practically screaming as he continued. “Can I have some damned peace and quiet!?” He stood stiff as a board, breathing heavily, face burning. 

Willow looked up from tilting a healing potion down Cotton’s throat. “Damn... Sunny.”

The brown stallion looked pleadingly to green mare. “Please.”

She groaned, then huffed, a tiny bit of sympathy shining in her eyes. “Fine. But don’t expect me to be happy about it!”

The stallion’s ears folded and he gave her a thankful smile.

“Done,” Willow declared with relief. “I’ve done all I can for her. From here on, whatever happens, happens.”

“Let’s hope she makes it,” Candy fretted. “She’s the only thing keeping the REA from shooting us on spot.”

Willow sat back approvingly and pointed to a bloody and slightly-mushroomed bullet sitting on a small tray. “Want your bullet back, Sunny?”

He glared at her. “Well you’re funny.”

Willow rolled her eyes and flopped over on the carpet, uncoupling the straps on her barding and rolling out of the apparel. “I know you feel bad about shooting her.” She rolled onto her back with a yawn and drew her hooves to her belly, looking up at the swirl-plastered ceiling. “Sorry for that.”

Sunny sat down beside her, looking at her upside down face. “Well you look tired. I thought you had zombie strength?”

“Pffft!” Willow spun one hoof in the air. “Sure, but I still get tired. I’ll tell you what I’m gonna’ do though. I’m gonna take a shower and get this blood off me.” She heaved a sigh and something in her eyes seemed to change. “I don’t feel right, Sunny... I’ve changed. Since those stallions... I’ve been having thoughts, bad thoughts. Sometimes I’ll see a pony, and I’ll just imagine them dead, and I’ll imagine that I did it.” She sniffed, eyes welling up with tears. 

Sunny sighed internally. He was really hoping she had gotten over it. “It’s okay,” he said with as much comfort in his tone as he could muster with his sour mood. Candy sat a little ways away, head turned away but ears perked. 

Willow sniffed again, making a little sound in her throat. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to let a pony touch me.”

Sunny swallowed. “I-I know I should say something comforting here, but honestly, I don’t know what to say.”

Willow got a certain look to her that Sunny didn’t at all like, and she smiled up to him. “But I don’t have to worry. You’ll take care of me. Right, Sunny?”

He blinked and kneaded the carpet with his forehooves. “W-what?” 

She blushed a little. “You know, you’re the only pony I trust. I know you won’t hurt me.”

He positively balked at her. “No,” he said, a little louder than he had intended. “No way.” He shuddered. She was asking him... She wanted him! “No,” he repeated for emphasis. 

Willow rolled onto her belly, her face sunken and eyes shining with hurt. Tears were now flowing freely and Sunny winced like he had been struck. “No, I mean, I like you,” he improvised desperately in an attempt to save himself. “I just don’t like you that way.”

She let out a low whimper. “I’m trying to fix myself, S-Sunny... I-I-I thought you could h-help me.”

“Willow.” He went to place his hoof on her shoulder, but stopped right above. “I can’t even touch a pony without trembling. How could I possibly—”

“Forget it!” Willow jumped to her hooves, nearly sobbing and shaking with anger. “I know it was too much to ask!” 

Sunny didn’t know what to do. This was all falling apart around him and he hadn’t even been the one to build the delicate emotional tower. “Well, yeah it was a bit too much to ask! You can’t just expect me to follow up something like that. I’m... Well I’m... I’m me!”

One second, Sunny was looking into Willow’s hurt and angry face, the next, Willow’s hoof was meeting his face. Stunned, he lay flat on bis back with his head ringing like a bell. Willow stood over him, face teeming with so many emotions he couldn’t even read them all. “I hate you, Sunny!” She kicked him in the belly, causing him to curl into a defensive ball. “You’re the only pony who could help me get through this. I should have known you were such a... spineless jerk!”

She went for another kick, but stopped herself. She let out a strangled scream and turned away, stomping off down the hall. She opened the door to the bathroom at the end of the hall and slammed it shut behind her hard enough to crack the molding.

“Wow,” the green mare whispered. “And I thought we had problems.” 

Candy glared at Sunny from where he recovered on the ground. “What did you do to her?” She placed her hoof on Cotton to make sure the mare was okay, then refocused on Sunny.

He cringed, pushing back to his hooves and massaging his muzzle. “It’s hard to explain... She asked me to do something I can’t do.”

The green mare looked over to what Sunny could now safely call her husband and smiled triumphantly. “Guess who’s got to fix the molding over the bathroom door? And scrub the blood out of the carpet.”

“Sunny.” Candy wrapped her tail around his neck and led him to the corner of the room. 

He batted her tail away. “What?”

She gave him a sad smile. “You know, Willow likes you.”

Sunny rolled his eyes. “I know she likes me, but—”

“No,” she interrupted. “I mean, Willow really likes you.”

“What?” he asked, feeling as the color drained from his face. 

“Haven’t you seen the way she looks at you, Sunny? How she was so protective of you in the skywagon?”

Sunny shook his head in denial. “No. No, she can’t.”

Candy pressed. “But she is. In Appleoosa, we did a lot of talking. She looks alright, but once you break her shell, she’s an emotional train wreck. Sunny, Willow isn’t the type of mare to fall in love. She may meet a nice mare or stallion and get some fond feelings, but that’s it; they’re just feelings. Sunny, Willow doesn’t fall for ponies, but she fell for you.”

He shook his head in a panic. “No! She can’t. I’m a terrible pony to care for. I don’t like ponies; I can’t. She might as well be chasing her own tail.”

“I’m just telling it how it is, Sunny. Willow cares about you. She cares more than you’ll ever know.”

Sunny turned away and yelled at the wall. “I don’t want anypony to like me! I can’t like them back and somepony always ends up getting hurt!”

There was a banging from the adjacent wall. “Shut up!” an old stallion’s voice rasped loudly from the next apartment. “I’m tryin’ to take a nap!”

“You mean like Moon?” Candy shot back sharply. 

“I—” He stopped himself and took a deep breath. “I am not ready for anything with anypony. I am not ready emotionally and I sure as hay can’t handle anything physical.”

She gave him a sad look. “I think you are; you just don’t know it yet...” She smiled and hung her head. “You best hope Moon and Willow get along if you ever meet up with your friends again.”

He scrunched his brow. “Why’s that?”

“Because you’re going to have two mares gunning for you, and it’s a battle you aren’t going to win.”

Sunny slumped. “Kill me, please.”

Candy rolled her eyes and placed a hoof on him, causing him to tense and look at her hoof like he was going to blow it up with his mind. “Sunny, Willow really needs a friend right now. She told me what happened to her while we walked. She needs somepony to be there for her; at least be that.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

“No, you don’t.” He looked her straight in the eye. “Can you imagine not being able to touch anypony? When you touch a pony, your belly churns and your flesh starts to crawl and all you want to do is get away? Not able to care for a pony, really care, because you’re afraid that they’re going to leave you? You want to care, but you can’t; you want to let ponies touch you, to... to be with them, but you can’t. On good days, I can touch somepony without freaking out. Then there’s days when even thinking about it almost makes me throw up.” He looked steadily into her widened eyes. “So no, you don’t understand.”


*             *             *


Sunny stood in the dark of the apartment outside the door to the guest room where Willow had taken refuge. He could hear her faint whimpers from inside, and a faint light escaped from below the door. 

Candy and Cotton lay asleep on the couch. Candy had hoofcuffed herself to the wounded mare. Sunny allowed himself a small grin at the thought. Cotton Candy. Funny.

He took a shaky breath. Was he really about to do this? He wasn’t only going to try for Willow, he was trying for himself. Swallowing his doubts and fears, he pushed into the room. 

Willow lay on her side, the covers below were shifted and crumpled. Slowly, she lifted her head from the tear-streaked pillow. “What do you want?” she asked in a voice little more than a whisper. 

Sunny closed the door behind him and tried to think of how to proceed. “I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. “What I said back in the living room was a little harsh.”

Willow dropped her head back to the bed and looked up at the ceiling. “No, don’t apologise. I’m the one that should be sorry. I asked you for something I knew you wouldn’t do, then got mad at you for it.” She sniffled, fresh tears begging to flow. “I said I hate you... I don’t hate you, Sunny.”

He plodded slowly up to the guest bed. “I know you don’t hate me.”

Willow closed her eyes and shook her head. “Yeah...”

“I know,” he said carefully, not quite sure how she would react. “Candy told me.”

She sighed. “Great, now you know.”

Sunny couldn’t bear to see Willow this way. She was always the strong-minded and strong-headed one. She was the one that seemed to keep everything going. Having her like this... This wasn’t Willow — this was some scared, insecure pony in Willow’s body.

Although he still dreaded the idea that Willow had a thing for him, he still found himself curious. “When did it start?”

She rubbed her eyes and smiled. “In the hospital, in Desert Sage. You were so cute in confinement. It was like watching a puppy in a box. You were just so energetic. Then I got to checking you every day while you were in your self-induced coma. It was my fault you almost died, and I felt responsible for you. You... you started to grow on me.”

He blinked. “For that long?”

She sighed. “I figured you’d end up with Moon, so I tried to ignore it. But then it was just me and you, here. And... you were there for me. It all just sort of...” She stopped, needing to say no more. 

“Willow, you know why I haven’t taken to Moon?” She perked her ears at him. “Because I can’t let myself. It’s this fear I have. I’m afraid to get close to ponies because I’m afraid something will happen, and they’ll leave.”

Her eyes brightened the tiniest bit. “Sunny, I would never leave you.”

He placed his forehooves on the bed to look at her. “I know you wouldn't, but you could die, or I could. Everypony dies.”

She flinched like he’d lashed out at her. “I don’t have anything to say to that.” She shifted hesitantly, looking at him with contemplation. “Do you think you might be able to help me, maybe, try and get past this?”

Sunny thought for a long while, examining the bedspread. Willow didn’t press or make a sound as she patiently waited for his answer. “I can try to help. But I can’t, can’t, do anything extreme.” Fighting back his nerves, he climbed onto the bed and sat down beside Willow so as her belly faced him, not feeling comfortable enough to lay. He forced a little laugh. “You have trouble touching ponies... You sound like me.”

Willow shook her head. No, I can touch ponies, but I have to be the one doing it.” She was quiet for a long moment, just looking at him. “So...” She shifted, drawing her legs in close. “Do you want to try?”

He swallowed. “I’ll try... What do you need me to do?”

Willow exhaled a long breath. “Just... put your hoof on me.”

He stuck out his hoof hesitantly. “Are you sure I have to do this?”

She nodded from where she lay. “I think I’d kill anypony else.”

“Well, that’s a nice thought.” He readied himself mentally, then gingerly placed his hoof on her coat, near her front shoulder. Today must have been one of his good days, because he didn’t jump away like the mare was electric. Unlike Willow, who was only stable touching a pony, he was the exact opposite. Touching another pony purposefully was even worse than being touched. Still, his nerves screamed and a familiar itch filled his mind.

Willow tensed and she looked up at him, eyes momentarily clouded in fear. She blinked, then the fear was gone, instead replaced with uneasiness. “Move back, Sunny.” She closed her eyes tight as Sunny slid his hoof to her middle. 

Sunny tried to take deep breaths. He was insane; he was absolutely mad. Touching another pony, what was he thinking? His self-conscious screamed for him to pull away, but his determination and dedication to Willow urged him to hold strong. 

Willow had begun to shake, her eyes pinched tight shut, hooves churning the bedspread. “Do you want me to stop?” he asked worriedly.

“No,” Willow squeaked. She cleared her throat, then spoke in a voice closer to her own. “No, I just— No. Don’t stop.”

Sunny felt that if he got any more uncomfortable, something in his brain would snap and all of his emotions would flatline. He watched, almost in a trance, as his hoof reached Willow’s hind leg.”

Willow whimpered and he tensed. After a moment, he resumed, setting his hoof lightly on her haunches, right next to her scalpel and and and needle cutie mark. 

Suddenly, Willow jumped and he ducked just in time for her hoof to whoosh over his head. Willow rolled to her hooves, snarling. She took another swing at him and he didn’t move fast enough. Her hoof struck his shoulder and he was thrown off the bed to land painfully on the floor.

He scurried backwards across the carpet. What had he been thinking? His chest heaved as he hyperventilated. His whole body twitched and itched with the ghost feeling of his hoof on the mare. What had he been thinking? Stupid!

Willow looked down at him from the bed, new tears in her eyes. “Sunny, are you alright? I’m sorry.”

Shakily, he climbed to his hooves, trying to fight the bad case of tunnel vision which was overwhelming him. “Yeah... sort of.” He tried to put weight on his leg but his shoulder screamed, so he held it a little off the ground.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I-I lost control. I just—”

“I understand.” He rubbed his shoulder. “Your hooves are like sledgehammers.” He winced as a shudder racked his body. “Nope. Not doing that again.”

Willow nodded, but looked slightly down nonetheless. “It’s okay... Thanks for trying... I can tell you’re really uncomfortable right now.”

He shook the hoof he had ran across her flank. “Imagine the most uncomfortable you can feel, then multiply that by ten. Whenever I touch somepony, it literally hurts my brain. It hurts, mentally... if that makes any sense.” He rolled his eyes. “So, do you think you’ll really kill somepony if they touch you wrong?”

She hung her head over the edge of the bed. “I’d like to say no, but I’m not sure. I-I tried to kick your head off, even when I knew it was coming. I’m... afraid of what I’ll do if I’m not ready for it... I know exactly what it is—it’s traumatic recall. Touch brings back the memories.” 

Sunny nodded in agreement, but had no idea why. “Well, I’m going to head back out to the living room and get to sleep.” He trotted to the door. 

“Sunny, wait,” Willow called quietly. She looked at him sheepishly. “Could you... maybe... sleep by the door?” She folded her ears. “It helps me sleep. You know, like in confinement.”

He smiled lightly and sat down in front of the door. “Throw me a pillow.”

Willow fell back and tossed him a pillow. “Thanks, Sunny.”

He grabbed the pillow and positioned himself comfortably. “When are you going to start being the leader again?” he asked, yawning. “I don’t like being unofficially in-charge.”

Willow reached over and shut off the lamp on the nightstand. “I don’t know. I sort of like you being in charge.”

Sunny sighed into the pillow. “Goodnight, Willow.”           


*              *              *


 Two stallions walked slowly through the dark undergrounds. Their two sets of hoofsteps echoed ominously from the tiled concrete walls, setting them both on edge. A steady drip of water leaked from a cracked pipe along the length of the ceiling, serving as some sort of cruel palindrome.

Both stallions were clad in official REA uniform and sported the standard issue carbine and battle saddle. It was only of dead unluckiness and a mischarged spark battery that only the one walking on the right—the red one—had a working saddle lamp. The light was mounted to the left side of his battle saddle, opposite of the rifle. Due to the fact that the REA was scraping the bottom of their ornamental barrel, these lamps weren't exactly quality; they weren’t even run of the mill. This pony’s lamp had been fashioned from a running light of a crashed skywagon and wired to lead-acid battery which he had to lug around like some sort of exercise weight. Lead-acid batteries were a thing only found in the beforetimes of magical energy storage and production, and worked at about twenty percent of the efficiency of a modern spark battery half its size.

The one with the light looked to the blue pony on his left, who hovered just a little out of the lamplight. “Did you hear that?” Although his whisper had been quiet, it filled the tunnels almost as if he had yelled.

They both froze for a moment, listening. Blue looked to Red and breathed slowly through his nose. “Why are we even patrolling down here?” They started forward again, passing dirty benches lain in a square around a tiled support pillar. He glared at a moldy sign as they passed it.

‘Baltimare Central Station’

“What the hay did they use this place for anyways? I was never from Baltimare... I hate this place and all the advancement crap.”

Red shone his light over a few benches and a stucco trashcan. “They’re called subways. The city of Baltimare had them built three years ago. It’s all new technology. It’s a whole system of underground railways. The rails were electrified back when they pumped power down here. For a while they tried the rechargeable spark battery design in the engines, but it was too inefficient. The only trains with onboard power sources are the money trains.”

“Money trains?” Blue asked.

“Armoured train cars. The best way to take money across the city was to transport it underground. They put old-tech gem generators on them in case there was a power failure.”

Blue skirted the body of a rather large rodent sprawled out on the concrete platform. “What’s the point of an underground train?”

He clicked his tongue. “There were too many ponies living in Baltimare. They tried to fix the problem by switching to skywagon transportation, but once the skies got too crowded, down was the only way left to go.” He shone his light along the length of a train car as they walked. In a way, it resembled a train, but had no stack or boiler. The resemblance was of a box on wheels, but the roof was rounded and rippled aluminum siding ran its length. “Once the buildings get taller than they are wide, you run out of room for ponies.”

Blue squinted. “How do you know all that?”

Red stood a little straighter. “I was Baltimare’s central district officer in transportation affairs. To be honest, I liked it all a lot more ten years ago, before all these advances in technology and industry. There was hardly any crime, no skyscrapers. Ponies were more interested in being ponies than trying to fill a bathtub with bits.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Blue, blowing him off. “Why the hay are we on patrol down here? I mean, nopony ever comes down here. What’s the point? You know they locked the access gate behind us? That’s like saying, ‘hey, go look for zombies down here, but if you find any, you’re boned because you can’t get out until the end of the shift.’”

Red only smiled. “That’s why I left the gates unlocked. Does it look like I want to die down here?”

Blue returned the smile. “Nice,” the two shared a hoof-bump.

With a certain casual stiffness, the two made their way along the length of the train car. The side and doors were inscribed with a big ‘BR’, the two letters blending decoratively with each other. Blue rapped on the aluminum siding. “Think they still work?”

Red shone his light away from the path and through the windows of the car, which had began to collect dust. “Definitely. They haven’t been out of commision for very long. If you supplied them with power then they’d probably start right up... Why were you wondering?” He continued to examine the car, noticing smears in the dust on the windows. “Hello?” he asked at Blue’s lack of response. “Did you—”

He was gone... Red spun left, then right, frantically shining the powerful lamp around the platform tunnel. “Jack,” he whispered loudly. “Jack, you better not be screwing with me because I’m going to tear you a new flank if you are.” He gulped.

Red froze as something warm dripped onto his head. Eyes widening, he backpedaled and looked down at the ground in time to see a small shower of blood rain to the concrete. His mind screamed for him to run like a scared filly, but his body wouldn’t let him. Shaking, he slowly panned his light to the roof above.

Jack’s terrified eyes shone down at him as he hung upside down, blood running down his face, his mouth open in a silent wail. “Run,” he choked, blood seeping from his lips. He pinched his eyes shut at a wet tearing sound and his vocals crackled. Three, black shapes stood on the ceiling like four-legged spiders, tearing mercilessly at the blue stallion. Red stood frozen in absolute terror as he watched one of the creatures sink its fangs into Jack’s back and tear out his spine with a crunch and a squelching sound. The pony went limp and blood showered from above.

He fought the darkness at the edges of his vision and instead got a terrible case of jitters. One of the three looked down at him with it’s red, orb-like eyes and bared it’s fangs, flaring a pair of leathery, decayed wings.

Red screamed and bolted, unable to use his weapon on anything on the roof. He heard the hisses of the creatures behind him as they took chase and ran faster, praying to Celestia that his hooves not falter. The light on his back picked up more movement ahead and he skidded to a halt, hyperventilating in fear. Improvising quickly, he ran to the train car beside him and tried to pry open the hydraulic doors. There were more sounds behind him and he expected a sharp pain in his back any second now. “Shit!” he cried.

He managed to shove through the crack he had opened in the doors, but lost his carbine on the way in. Not daring to spend an extra second to retrieve it, he forced the doors closed again. “What...” He breathed heavily, jaw trembling. His voice came out in a little more that a squeak. “What was that?” It was quiet now, unnerving so soon after the traumatizing experience. 

Cautiously, he crept up to the window. Were they gone? He caught a flash of red eyes before they crashed into the window, sending a wave of spiderweb cracks through the glass and shaking the whole car. “Shit!” He fell back, heart racing faster than a rabbit’s.

There were several thuds from the roof and scraping sounds from the steel above. The sound of breaking glass sounded from further along in the car and, instinctually he ran the other way. Bolting between rows of seats, he could hear them behind him, hear the pounding of their hooves on the roof and the breaking of glass. His own hooves thundered, breath coming in painful bursts. Fear and adrenaline carried him twice the speed his body should go, but it wasn’t enough.

The end of the car was nearing now—a safety door and window. There was no other option. He jumped and lowered his head, never thinking twice. The window gave and his body rocketed through the space, left leg catching on a shard of glass still fitted in the steel frame. In an uncontrolled fall, he crashed painfully down in the trackwell. He tried to scramble to his hooves, but fell back to the ground. Blood matted the concrete below, and the stallion looked back at the gash in his hind leg with a fallen heart.

More carefully, he picked himself up, but ran no further. He could not put weight on his damaged hind leg. Blood splattered the ground below, running from the wound like water squeezed from a sponge. Painfully, he took a few hobbled steps forward, but stopped panting heavily. Every movement sent an agonizing bolt of pain to his brain.

Ahead in the tunnel, dozens, no, hundreds of reflective yellow eyes looked back at him, never blinking. One screamed and ran for him and he drew his sidearm, a revolver of preference. The first one fell, but two more took it’s place. There was no way back now, the train completely obstructed the tunnel and those things were still back the way he had come. He fired three more of the high caliber revolver rounds and struck two more down.

No way back, no way forwards. The realization of the situation dawned on him. No way back, no way forwards... He drew back the hammer of the revolver and turned it on himself. One of the monsters looked down at him from the window of the train car and bared its fangs. More crept along the roof. 

The stallion reached back and flipped off the lamp, letting the battery die with a whine.

A lightning bolt of muzzle flash filled the tunnel, then all was quiet.