My Little Metro

by redsquirrel456

Chapter 8

I froze in place as we came into the open. The city of Stalliongrad lay bare before us, magnificent and wretched. There was an almost unlimited amount of space here, stretching all around me, and all of it filled by dilapidated, worn out buildings. Around us were apartments and post offices, police departments and office buildings, all of them now worn away to pitted, grey sameness by acidic, poisonous rain. We stepped out into the streets, which were choked not just with debris, but with strange plants that were slowly turning the city into an irradiated forest. The knobby, claw-like branches of alien trees poked through the facades of buildings, and twisted tangles of shrubs threatened to block our progress at every turn. All around us huddled creaking monuments that gaped at the dead world through broken windows and cracked doors. It seemed the entire earth was covered by these ancient skeletons, the broken bones of a once proud city, and from my perspective this was Equestria. An entire country filled by sad, empty coffins. Even older buildings, topped by cupolas and once painted with vivid reds, greens and blues were now cracked and shattered. The symbols of the Princesses, crescent moons and great shining suns, had fallen from the rooftops and littered the streets.

Above all else, I was astonished at the state of the sky. In my pictures the sky was blue and heavenly, falling ever upwards into Luna’s vast night sky. Here too the sky loomed overhead, but instead of gentle blue there rested a low ceiling of brooding black and grey clouds, from which a drizzling sleet of rain and snow fell. Lightning forked every so often, frightening me. I’d never seen real lightning before.

“Nothing like a good stroll around town. Least there’s no tourists this time of year,” Sidewinder muttered, but I barely heard him. Nopony told me to hurry up, and I didn’t move for several long moments, staring at the vast, dead landscape. Even the Metro, with its infinite recesses and miles of twisting tunnels, seemed tiny and unimportant compared to the huge mausoleum of Stalliongrad. Such a tiny bastion of life, threatened on all sides… right in the middle of a vast and desolate wasteland where nothing but monsters thrived. And below their talons we scuttled, eking out our pointless lives…

“Lockbox, come on!” I barely heard through the wind, channeled by the labyrinth of buildings and broken windows into a howling funeral dirge. I hurried after the others down the east facing street, filled with terrible visions of being lost and alone in this place. In minutes the snow and wind would cover our hoofsteps and nopony would ever know we’d even passed by. We tread where no ponies had for years on end. We weren’t standing on our own soil anymore, but trespassing on land that ponies didn’t belong to and weren’t welcome in. I finally began to turn over in my mind the thought that this was the new world, and it was a horrid place to live. Was this really the land I’d once fancied saving, restoring? This broken and sad wasteland wasn’t the Equestria I’d seen in my visions, the one I dreamed about…

We marched down the street in a straight line, with Maple Leaf bringing up the rear and Sidewinder staying in front to guide us with his expertise. I noticed Wind Chill stayed close to him, and her gun barrel was pointed more towards him than the surrounding buildings. Ray Drop ceased her friendly conversation and kept her eyes on the street. Maple Leaf seemed the most disinterested of the group. It was Sunny Side who worried me.

He stared almost continuously at the ominous grey sky, and I saw his eyes darting back and forth through the foggy visor of his gasmask, tracing the lightning. I wondered if he even felt some instinctive urge to use his magic to keep the weather neat and tidy, as pegasi did in days of old. I nudged him to help keep his mind in the present.

“This is it,” he said quietly. His breathing was deep and labored through his gasmask, in awe of the utter devastation. “This is Stalliongrad. I… I had no idea.”

“Nor I,” I answered. “This is… beyond anything I’d imagined.”

“Cut the chatter!” Wind Chill hissed. “Celestia knows what’s lurking up here!”

As if on cue, Sidewinder held up a hoof and we all rushed to the side of the street, sheltering under rusted carriages and the husks of old cars, long since stripped of anything remotely useful. Thankfully, there were no skeletons… my fanciful imagination lent me visions of whole buildings still full of irradiated, mummified corpses. I huddled against a tangle of street sign and crashed sky carriage, finding himself right behind Sidewinder. He pointed up ahead, and at a nearby crossroads I saw my first glimpse of the many monsters that inhabited the surface.

There was a whole pack of them. They reminded me of wolves, which I’d read about in old books, but they had a vaguely reptilian shape to their long, lanky bodies and snake-like snouts. I then realized I hadn’t seen them arrive, they simply seemed to show up out of thin air. I peered closer and noticed that only now, against the dull grey of the buildings, were they visible through the wispy, snow-white fur that covered their bodies. It seemed to me snow was drifting off of them, but on closer inspection I saw that it wasn’t snow at all, but motes of light. These creatures were infused with magic, which confused their silhouettes and gave them the appearance of a wavering mirage. Sidewinder was perfectly still, and I followed his cue and barely even breathed. I didn’t know what kinds of senses these creatures had, and the smallest breath would bring them down on us, all flashing teeth and merciless claws. If I even sucked in air too loudly I felt that would alert them to our presence, even at this distance.

A deep, bellowing howl reached our ears, and the beasts before us lifted their heads, snuffling and nipping at each other. They began to move away, towards the direction of the howl. I had trouble following their movements as magical energy bent and distorted their shapes into vague wavering blobs, a perfectly confusing camouflage. Soon the crossroads was clear.

“This area isn’t safe,” Sidewinder said, relaxing only after several minutes of silence went by. “We will need to cut through the buildings.”

“We should stay on the path,” Wind Chill retorted. “Straight down this street. It’s the quickest way.”

“You want to be right in the middle of an army of mutants with nowhere to hide, be my guest,” Sidewinder growled. “Me, I give a fuck about my life, so I’ll be going that way.” He gestured towards a building at the crossroads the wolf monsters once occupied. Its entire front face had collapsed, creating a large ramp of debris that led to the third floor. “I remember this area, traveled it a few times. There’s an indoor route that skirts around a creek, then an open gate to-”

“We will stay. On the path,” Wind Chill hissed. “If we don’t then we risk getting lost, and if we’re lost, then we’re lost.”

“At least you understand that much,” Sidewinder grumbled, looking up and down the street.

“Fine!” he snapped at last. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Any of you fuck up and it’s open season.”

“You seem to forget who is working for whom,” Wind Chill growled, but Sunny Side nudged her flank to get her attention.

“This isn’t the time,” he said quietly. Wind Chill growled at him, too, but as we were all anxious to get going, she complied. I felt we should heed the Stalker’s advice, but I also remembered I didn’t trust him and had very little reason to. Cautiously we threaded our way down and through the street, hemmed in on both sides by the ancient, crumbling buildings. Distant howls and hoots permeated the air alongside the ever-present moan of the wind. The snow and rain continued to drum down upon us, making me feel the chill all the way down to my skin. I wondered if it was possible the “demons” Ray Drop mentioned would hunker down to weather the storm. Unless of course they enjoyed hunting in weather like this to better stay undetected…

On both sides the buildings might once have been apartments and office buildings, but I couldn’t tell what true purpose they served from how broken and cracked they were. The paint had long since faded and peeled away. Twisted metal and fallen lamp posts were everywhere, and even the ground itself had suffered upheaval. I saw little hills and raised areas in the street where the asphalt had split into ditches and crevices, and some of the buildings stood askew upon their mountains of rubble. The sheer destructive power of the bombs and magic unleashed on Equestria had ripped the ground asunder. Here and there half-frozen puddles of radioactive sludge steamed and sizzled.

This is Equestria now, I realized, and the thought struck me like the lightning above. This is our land. It’s like this everywhere… nothing but snow and emptiness and sad, slow death. I took a step forward, realizing for the first time just how terrible the War had been. This wasn’t all stories and anecdotes; this was the harsh, dark reality. Stalliongrad wasn’t just beaten, it was dead. All of Equestria was dead. From here it even seemed the entire world was well and truly dead. It was only then in those all-encompassing moments of realization that the finality of the War’s end came down on my mind, pressing in on me, taunting me. The pictures of old Equestria I’d seen were not a contrast to this ultimate destruction, they were another world entirely. How could friendship and harmony rise from this?

“Hold,” Sidewinder said, and we all stopped again. “Look up there.”

I followed his gaze far upwards, to a tall spire visible between two fallen buildings. I feared it was the fabled Victory Spire, but there was no statue of Celestia, just a tall decoration. I didn’t see anything at first. But then a shadow moved near the top, and the spire suddenly sprouted wings. Long, bat-like wings I could see the size of from here, and then they began moving as a sinewy tail trailed out behind them. Another pair suddenly erupted from off the roof of the building at the base of the spire, and a large winged thing shrouded by shadows launched off, circling the spire. It buzzed the creature that had claimed the top as its roost, making it leap away. I watched in amazement as the two winged horrors jockeyed for position in the sky, while more of their foul brethren joined the aerial duel, startled by the commotion. I couldn’t even tell which was which, so frenzied was their activity, and that section of the sky was claimed by a whole flock of the beasts, snapping and screeching at one another. Then finally, for no discernible reason, the crowd of wings and shadows dispersed, and another had taken the place of the first, twining itself around the spire, hugging its contours until it was almost imperceptible from a distance.

“That’s a building you definitely want to avoid,” Sidewinder said grimly.

“Demons?” Sunny Side wondered. Nopony answered. As we started down the street again now that the tumult had passed, I began to understand my city was now a foreign and hostile place. Pegasi didn’t belong in the sky with those creatures.

“They flew so freely, like they owned the air…” Sunny Side muttered. I and Ray Drop gave him a worried glance.

Struggling through the snow that seemed to be following us, I began to wonder if Wind Chill had deliberately chosen this route because she was more used to it and wanted us foreign ponies to suffer, since it was mostly our fault she’d been chosen as our custodian. I knew I’d much prefer being inside the buildings, as ominously silent and empty as they were, if only it’d help us avoid the biting wind and rain. My breathing became more labored, and I could even hear the loud breaths of my fellows as we pushed on gamely, hugging the side of the street that sheltered us more from the wind. The deep, rasping sound of my own breathing gave me almost as much fright as the emptiness outside. I had no idea what was lurking just outside my field of vision. After those two brief glimpses of the mutants, I knew we walked on their turf.

I maintained a watchful gaze, as did we all, but Sidewinder seemed to know which howls were dangerous and which were just the distant keening of monsters marking their territory, so our progress remained thankfully steady. Every so often we’d have to pause and hack our way through shrubs. We stayed on a straight line like Wind Chill said we would, and soon we’d arrived at a street almost completely blocked by the fallen corner of a six story building, and the rest of it was choked with thick, woody vines. I saw the empty floors inside, all once full of furniture and living ponies. Had they been in there, I wondered, when the bombs fell? Was that desk I saw sitting in a corner on the second floor occupied when this city was scorched?

“We should be getting close,” Wind Chill said as we navigated the broken piles of concrete. “Kuvoz Street is coming up…”

“Can’t see a damn thing,” Maple Leaf complained. “My visor keeps fogging up! Blast this snow.”

“Don’t jinx us,” Sunny Side warned, but too late. The wind suddenly began to pick up again, blowing gusts of snow right into our faces. My gasmask protected me from the brunt of the shower of shining particles, but nonetheless I was struck blind if I looked straight ahead.

“Move to the side! Don’t lose sight of each other!” I heard Sidewinder command. We sidestepped to an alcove created by the rubble of a large building, and me, Sunny Side and Ray Drop huddled as far as we could into the meager shelter. Outside I saw the world become nothing more than a blanket of white and brown, the buildings nothing more than vague silhouettes. The howling became unbearable, and I lowered my cold-numbed ears against my skull. The speed with which the storm had blown up shocked me. I almost jokingly asked him to clear up the clouds, but I couldn’t even see his face through the mask.

Outside our meager shelter, I heard what sounded like a gunshot, and then my eyes caught some kind of movement. First it was there, then it was gone, a bulge of solidity in the shifting wind. I didn’t see what it was. Perhaps one of the snow wolves from before? I couldn’t tell.

The wind passed, and we crawled out of the alcove, our leaders appearing from under a destroyed carriage.

“Everypony all right?” Wind Chill called down the line. Sidewinder was with her. I looked behind… nopony else answered. We only had time for a cursory search.

Maple Leaf was gone. Nothing remained except his medical bag. Wind Chill didn’t want it going to waste, so she threw it over her back and we moved on.

/-/-/-/

“I love saying I told you so,” Sidewinder said with a leering look from under his gasmask, “so… ‘I told you so.’”

“Fuck you!” Wind Chill snapped as we squeezed into a doorway partially blocked by a fallen pillar. “Maple should’ve fucking stayed with us. He knew the rules. We all did.”

“If we’d gone with my path, he might still be here. We’d have shelter from this blizzard. I think it was a storm ghost that did him in… they love to hide in this stuff.”

Behind us, the wind raged again. I had no wish to go back out there and face the invisible monsters that’d stolen away Maple Leaf. Poor thing probably hadn’t even known what hit him… or at least, I hoped he hadn’t.

Ray Drop took it stoically, as did we all, but perhaps to alleviate the fear that spiked whenever a pony vanished, she began to speak. It seemed like instinct, to try and distract oneself from fear immediately after a terrifying incident. Her voice echoed in the small entryway, which seemed to be a lobby for a once opulent business. I saw a receptionist office and a hallway that led to the back which we walked into, entering the comforting darkness of the building. The lack of light and the closed space reminded me of the Metro, and with a glimmer of darkly humorous irony, I appreciated that.

“I never thought Maple Leaf would get done in by a little walk,” Ray Drop murmured, sticking close to me and Sunny Side. Wind Chill was predictably too cold to maintain conversation with, as she was too busy fuming over Sidewinder being proven right and losing a pony under her command to talk. It didn’t help that Sidewinder kept wheedling her with whispered comments under his breath. I didn’t understand them through his mask, but I could tell they irritated the mare. What was his point? Did he just enjoy pointing out glaring failures in other ponies, like he’d tried to discourage me in that prison cell?

“He was always a strong pony, Maple,” Ray Drop continued, filling the silence with her voice, which wasn’t unpleasant. I kept my thoughts to myself. Was this wise? Were we all going to die up here? Our only chance was to trust that Sidewinder wouldn’t abandon us and Wind Chill wouldn’t lose sight of our route.

“You all seem like strong ponies,” Sunny Side said. Ray Drop smiled (I think, I wasn’t looking).

“Well, everypony has to be strong in the Metro,” she said softly. “I have a sister, Cherry Pie… she runs one of the ammo shops in Bucklyn. We’re the only ones left of six. The others perished from the plague. Hard times, when we had to grow up supporting each other…”

“My father…” Sunny Side began, and then trailed off. His father had been murdered by a scoundrel who didn’t appreciate do-gooders calling him out on thieving from our stores. My father had all the thief’s legs broken and left him on the surface for the mutants.

“I’m sorry,” Ray Drop said in a whisper I barely heard, but the conversation sparked some of my own memories.

I didn’t know what exactly happened to my real parents. Obviously they’d died in some way, or figured I was too much of a burden and dumped me in the nearest inhabited station. My father said he’d found me as an abandoned child in a station that’d recently been hit by a mutant attack, and none of the survivors bothered to take me in. I didn’t dwell on it much. The truth was out of my grasp.

“It was a while ago,” Sunny Side said. “Like you said, ponies have to be strong… I think that’s why I joined the militia. So I could be strong for my station.”

“A noble aspiration.” Ray Drop’s voice was soft, and not just for the sake of being quiet.

“Oh, look what we have here!” Sidewinder said cheerfully, entering a small side room. It was empty except for an old desk, smashed by the body of an earth pony who’d been driven through the table. His entire front had been ripped open and feasted on, his belongings scattered across the ground. I saw the flag of Stalliongrad on his shoulder marking him as a Stalker. His gasmask’s visor had shattered, giving us a good look at his frozen, blank expression.

“Poor devil,” Sidewinder muttered as he went right to work stripping the body of anything useful. “Where there’s one, there’s more. Check the other rooms, and for Luna’s sake stay in sight of each other.”

“We’re wasting time!” Wind Chill growled. “We have to move, there’s no point rooting around in a building for dead bodies!” I had to admit she had a point, but didn’t voice my opinion. I was too busy fidgeting from the ticklish feeling I got in my side.

“Yeah? Just thinking ahead,” Sidewinder said. “Just one minute, all right? It takes a bit… oh, an extra filter, thank you brother…”

“Piece of shit,” Wind Chill grumbled.

“Ignorant bitch,” Sidewinder shot back. “You walk around, take a stroll through the park, and you think you can order me around…”

“Five minutes!” Wind Chill hissed. “Then we leave.”

The tickling on my side got worse. It felt like something was buzzing inside my saddlebag. I began to move away on the pretense of checking another room.

“Sunny Side,” I said, giving him a nudge, and I headed for the stairs at the end of the hall, with my friend trailing behind me. Something told me to go… up. I didn’t know what it was, but the feeling was there, and it was definite. The buzzing in my saddlebag seemed inaudible and intangible to the others, but for some reason I felt it directing me. It wasn’t controlling my actions or my thoughts, more like… a nagging. A touch at the edge of my senses.

“Whoa, whoa!” Sidewinder exclaimed. “Stay alert. The beasts like to hide in upper floors.”

“I’ll be careful,” I said over my shoulder, but Sunny Side took the lead regardless, as he had more experience with such things. He pointed his Mule up the stairs. Ray Drop stayed behind to poke around the lower floor and watch Wind Chill’s back. I tried not to focus on how empty the Stalker’s eyes had seemed, like he had never been alive at all. Were Celestia and Luna really waiting for us in the afterlife? Was that dead pony now in a better place? I wondered and hoped… but there was no way to know. I followed my friend up the stairs, noting the third floor flight had been destroyed, rusted and rotten away until it collapsed. Floor two was the only one available to us, but as we came up I noted the buzzing radar in my head was satisfied. I looked around, feeling light-headed as Sunny crept forward, shining his light into all the dark corners. There was nothing… save a scrabbling noise on the floor directly above us.

We dropped down and froze on our bellies, staying stock still. For several long moments there was nothing but the sound of our raspy breathing through the mask filters. I noticed I couldn’t even hear Sidewinder’s muffled speech as he rooted around, looting his Stalker brethren. The noise didn’t return, and very slowly we stood up and began to move again. We didn’t dare say a word to each other, Sunny Side because he was being careful, me because I was distracted. Something pointed me somewhere, teasing me at the edge of my perception. As Sunny Side swept his gun and light down the hall, I peered at a small corner where something glowed on the wall. It was an arrow, pointing down the hall. Fascinated, I moved towards it and scratched it with my hoof several times. It must have been a magical marker, because it wasn’t affected by my touch, and its glow was undimmed. I looked towards Sunny Side, who was still creeping down the hall in almost perfect silence, sweeping his gun back and forth. He didn’t need to be bothered.

I felt the buzzing clearly now, and this time it was more of a tingle, dancing over the surface of my mind. It was coming from where I’d placed Hunter’s talisman. Was it guiding me somehow? I didn’t want to entertain the thought that he was communicating with me from beyond the grave, but I couldn’t take the chance that this was a trap or a coincidence. Not if it was from the Rangers. Another arrow on the ceiling, several rooms down, pointed to the back of the building which had mostly fallen out. I peered out the gaping wound and found still another arrow, glowing faintly and pointing at a small room at the end of the hall. I saw no traps, but then again, having to run across a long open hallway that was exposed to the elements and to the mutants outside was a risky proposition. But the arrow pointed there regardless, and I had to get there. Something inside told me to.

Boldly I stepped out into the open, keeping an eye on the skies; it’d be one of the flying creatures that did me in here since there was no easy access to the ground. I passed old cans that littered the floor, torn from their moorings. Something had already been through here, and I slowed my progress, sticking to the wall. I crept forward, driven by the strange tingling from Hunter’s talisman. Perhaps this was how Rangers communicated. Was their base hidden in this dilapidated structure? I couldn’t believe my luck!

It was at that moment I felt another little pulse from the talisman. I stopped, stepped back, and took a closer look. There across the hall where it ended in a T-section was a small length of rope, painted to hide it from the casual observer. But it, too, glowed in my sight like the arrows. A trap set by Rangers to guard their safe havens, no doubt. Perhaps Hunter really was watching out for me.

I might’ve questioned why I was able to see magical markers all of a sudden, but the drive to keep going, to uncover this mystery, prevented me from dwelling on it too much. After all, didn’t every pony have magic of some kind? Mine, as an earth pony, was just less obvious, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be sensitive as far as I knew. I poked my head into the hall and saw the line led up to a log stuck through with spikes and nails. Crude, but brutally effective on anyone not wearing heavy armor, and the only ones who had that were Rangers and Monarchy stormtroopers. I gingerly stepped over the wire and followed a final arrow into a small room in the back corner of the building, where there rested an impressive assortment of tools and gun pieces amidst a mess of ammo and random equipment. My eyes widened, raking over the treasure trove. Even if I didn’t know the exact value of what was here, some vague subconscious knowledge I’d absorbed living in the Metro told me I was looking at a wonderful find. But what could I use here? I wasn’t a gunsmith or an engineer, and most of it looked too bulky to carry… looking at this wonderful array of valuable craftspony’s tools, I felt more than a little useless that I wasn’t skilled in some kind of profession. I resolved to fix that if I survived the journey home.

And yet the talisman still nibbled at my senses from within the bag. I cast my gaze about the small safe room, looking for another glowing clue. Nothing immediately stood out, so I began opening cupboards and drawers. It was then I chanced upon two things that caught my eye. First, a flashlight to replace my tiny lamp, and a map of the Metro, which was covered in notes and scribbling about different places that I didn’t know about, especially where danger threatened that a regular map didn’t tell me. I pocketed it, feeling somewhat guilty, but the Rangers would surely understand? Perhaps it would help me know why their base had fallen silent. Other piles of papers told me little more than movement plans, but I stumbled upon a strange little note.

Tracer,
Take this package back to Outpost 6. Hunter says it’s important. Key phrase ‘sweet gold terrace.’

Another quick check of the room told me the package was no longer here. Tracer had done his duty and taken it away to this mysterious Outpost 6. I put the little piece of paper in my saddlebag regardless, and took a few hooffuls of ammo and several military grade cartridges. If I was going to all this trouble, might as well make sure I had money… But my actions gave me pause. I had believed Sidewinder was out of line and rather disgusting rooting through dead bodies, and here I was stealing from the Rangers. But to accomplish a mission Hunter had given me. I resolved to somehow pay them back.

I forgot about that once I saw the heavy jowls and boxy head of a mutant poke through the ceiling. I fired automatically and didn’t stop to see if I’d killed it. A bellowing howl erupted from the floor above. Something collapsed on a table in the room as I bolted for the exit, rushing into the hall. My hooves clattered. Something’s claws scrabbled, something hot breathed on my flank.

Into the hall! I tripped on the wire, falling flat on my face as I skidded into the open hall. I heard a snap, a sharp whistle and then a meaty wet thunk. Something screeched and squealed in horrible pain, like the sound of metal being rent asunder. I turned back, saw the beast tangled in the thicket of spikes and rusty metal as it flailed, ripping apart its own insides through its panicked struggles.

Before I even got a good look at the thing, something heavy slammed into me from the side out of a half-broken door. I saw a blur of grey fur and felt claws wrap around me, digging into my thick clothes. The world spun into a vortex of wild shapes as everything blurred together and went red. There was nothing but the sensation of falling through open air and then the loud thud that came with the landing, before we started rolling and skidding. Reach, reach! Fire! I couldn’t do anything, everything was happening so fast, couldn’t do anything except scramble and throw my hooves out for purchase. I heard a clatter of equipment and tangled limbs as we rolled down the long slab of icy debris. Something was growling right in my ear, sharp teeth tore at my barding.

At last we hit something solid and the weight on my back fell away. I snatched a piece of rebar sticking from the snow, too late, and was yanked away as something caught my hind leg, dragging me the rest of the way down. My face smacked into stone and my visor cracked, leaving a scar over the corner of my vision. I didn’t have time to worry about whether I’d start suffocating. We hit the snowy earth hard. I spun and came face to face with the boxy maw of a mutant coming straight at me. Kick! I struck out with my front hooves and it went sprawling. Not nearly as durable as thumpers, at least. My body knew what to do before my mind even registered what was happening, and as the beast stood up to attack, I greeted it with a spray of bullets to the face. I noted the new holes that sprouted over its limber body with satisfaction. Mules weren’t accurate and overheated like hell, I remembered from Arsenal, but praise the Sisters they got the job done if you held the trigger long enough.

Two more, from the left and right, one standing tall, three times the height of a pony, howling… that same bellowing call I’d heard on the street and in the building. Howlers, were they? Calling more of their brothers to come get the fresh meat.

Not me. Not me.

The first took a few more bullets than the last, and the other was almost upon me as its cousin fell, claws reaching out as it pounced. I spun and rose on my hind legs to meet it, letting my knife spring free, one little claw against many. But I had the strength of the earth on my side.

And support from above. Twin shots rang out and the howler promptly collapsed at my hooves. My epic duel was left unfinished, and I dropped back on all fours. Ray Drop and Sunny Side had zoomed out from… somewhere… and lent their support as more howlers entered the small plaza like area I’d dropped into.

“Lockbox, go! Get across the yard! We’ll cover you!” Sunny Side shouted down, and somehow I could hear the happiness in his voice. Up there was where he belonged, doing his job to the best of his ability. My heart swelled upon seeing him flying in tandem with Ray Drop.

“NO!” I heard Sidewinder’s voice, choked and fuzzy through his gasmask. “Get down! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE SKY!”

I didn’t have time to worry about who was shouting at what. I had a pack of howlers bearing down on me and needed to run. I charged across the open area, noting in a flash I’d entered a… a courtyard, that was the word. A broken fountain in the middle, stony walls marking raised islands where lush little gardens once stood to entertain the pedestrians… all barren, or choked by the twisting, knobby plants of the new world. Across the yard, another row of buildings, what appeared to be a stairway leading down at the rear of one… I had no intention of staying on the surface, and instinctively marked that covered stairway as my goal. Forget that something might be living at the bottom.

I heard more shots echo through the courtyard. Sunny Side swooped overhead, followed closely by Ray Drop. Nothing else stooped down to hunt them. In that moment, pumped with adrenaline, dodging a howler that leaped over a low wall and blasting it with my gun as I leaped to one side, I wondered if Sidewinder’s warning was unfounded. The demonic winged beasts hadn’t come upon us yet, we were far from their territory… I felt almost invincible, and thoughts of murdering ponies and the weight of my mission gave way to sheer emotion. I scrambled over a dirt island, dodged under a branch and heard a howler land heavily atop it before being hurled backwards by strafing fire from my friends.

Friends… Ray Drop was saving my life, without being asked and knowing she wasn’t getting a reward. Sidewinder wasn’t here, and I presumed Wind Chill was elsewhere, probably dead? I didn’t know. I knew Ray Drop was my friend now, and the thought of it being too early to decide never even entered my mind. We fought for each other, supported each other.

That’s what friends are for.

I saw a howler rise up from the stairwell and veered away, noticing a gate at the far end. That was my next goal. The howlers, having suffered casualties, began to peel off from their wild pursuit as I thundered towards the gate, clearing the distance in seconds. I saw a lock on the gate, spun, and with a powerful buck smashed the rusted hinges open. I came to a stop when I saw the next area was a small loading area for trucks that once serviced these buildings. All the roads back to the street were cut off; somepony would have to fly me over. I looked back for Sidewinder and Wind Chill, and saw nothing. Then, Sunny Side scooped me up and flew me over a debris pile, back to the main street we’d been traversing so far. The howlers wailed, but they had given up their pursuit, confused by the staccato bark of our guns.

“So much for indoors being safe!” Sunny Side remarked, and looked flushed and excited under his gasmask. He’d never, ever flown in such wide open spaces before. I couldn’t imagine what effect this was having on his psyche. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware I should’ve been worried, but right now we needed to keep moving.

“I’ve never been so… active before!” he said with a wide grin, looking up at the sky. “Maybe I should go higher. I can… I can scout the area and find the next Metro-”

“No!” I barked. “Sunny Side, we should get going. The Metro shouldn’t be too much farther…”

“It isn’t,” Ray Drop said, consulting her map. “Just up the street, really. All this noise is going to have attracted more creatures. We have to get moving now.”

“But…” Sunny Side said, fluttering a few feet away from us. He turned back to the sky, looking up. “But we… it’s right there…”

A chill that wasn’t the wind ran through me. All the good, triumphant feeling of the battle before evaporated. “Sunny Side,” I said sternly. “We have a mission. We have a duty. We can’t turn aside now. I need you back down here!”

Sunny Side struggled, shaking his head quickly as if clearing it of cobwebs. I stood frozen, ready to act, afraid to act, knowing Ray Drop was our only chance of catching him if he made a break for it. My heart thundered in my chest. In an instant he could just flap his wings and my best friend would be gone, gone…

“Sunny Side,” Ray Drop said, flying up next to him and putting a hoof on his shoulder. She said something quiet to him that made him look intently at her. I didn’t see what passed between them, but I had to assume it was a look of understanding, or something else that made the moment pass and reign in my friend’s impending lunacy. Sunny’s wing movements became less erratic and more focused, and he gently began to lower himself to the ground again.

“All right, I… I dunno what came over me. I’m okay, now.”

“It’s okay, Sunny,” Ray Drop said, her hooves not leaving his shoulders. “We all feel it.”

Ray Drop screamed and pushed Sunny Side away before zooming upwards. I turned, realized the scream wasn’t coming from her, but from a huge black shadow that weaved expertly through the alleyway we’d just left. The two pegasi lurched in midair, spiraling, Sunny Side went one way and Ray Drop another… and I ran.

I had no intention of abandoning them, no. I had to get to higher ground, to shelter, fire from a protected position. I heard gunshots in the air behind me as I charged into the first building on my right, turned back just in time to see more shadows darkening the air as they swooped to the kill. I charged at a flight of stairs near the back of the room, and staggered up to the second, then the third floor. I prayed Ray Drop and Sunny Side had the sense to get inside like me. The air was thick and dusty in here, and I had trouble breathing. Then I realized it’d been a while since I’d changed my filters; they were clogged and deteriorating quickly. I looked up at a tall, narrow window as I gulped in a final breath of air and punched out the old filter, slapping a new one in its place. The fresh air I sucked in was like a gulp of cool water. Occasionally the moonlight outside was shadowed by a winged thing that growled and hissed as it passed, searching for me and my friends. I made sure not to linger near that opening. Once I regrouped with my friends we could find a basement or another sheltered alleyway and move on.

Sidewinder and Wind Chill were on their own for now.

I heard more gunshots above and hurried along to the third floor, as the fourth was blocked off. Maybe I could get to the other side of the building, find another stairwell… my mind swirled. How long had it been since I’d just tumbled down into that courtyard? A few minutes? An hour, it felt like. And already our chances of survival had plummeted. This was my fault… my fault. If I hadn’t run off to chase Ranger ghosts, I wouldn’t have gotten separated, the howlers wouldn’t have come, Sunny Side and Ray Drop wouldn’t have had to rescue me and attract the demons. Sweet Celestia, it was all my fault!

I heard another gunshot, and then a feminine scream followed by a loud crash and a creature’s grizzled snarl.

“Ray Drop!” I shouted through the ceiling. I heard more sounds of struggle, more gunshots, more snarling and scratching. I hurried down the hall, turning left and right. Stairs, stairs, where were the stairs!

“I’m coming! Hang on!”

At last I found them, the damn stairs. Thank the sisters. I tripped and bumped my cheek on the way up, flailing clumsily up the last flight.

“Ray Drop! Answer me!”

Silence reigned on the fourth floor. In the dim glow of my flashlight I saw dust curling and spinning in the air, a sure sign that something big had come through here. I ran to the main hallway and looked down its length. Bullet holes and spattered blood was all over.

“Ray Drop!”

I was answered by a plaintive growl. At the far end of the hall, one of the winged demons crawled across my field of vision, staggering as it bled from many bullet holes that lined its body. I dashed forward, pulling down my trigger and holding it for all I was worth. The demon screamed in rage and pain and flinched away from my thunderous assault, disappearing down the next hallway. I followed it a short distance before I saw it stagger to a window and drop out. It didn’t take to the air again.

I spun when another noise came from behind me.

“Ray Drop.”

She lay there in a puddle of blood, beneath another window with an iron screen over it. Deep gashes and claw marks ravaged her body, her barding and clothes turned red from arterial blood that came out in gruesome squirts. The demon had torn her to shreds, but her life lingered still, and by the signs of epic struggle I’d seen, she’d sold it dearly. One of her wings hung limp and ragged at her side. The other flapped uselessly, slowly in the air, like a child attempting their first flight. The sight was so horrible and wretched I struggled not to vomit.

Her eyes, distant and pale from shock, looked right at me from under the visor. I think she said something, but it was hard to tell from the ringing in my ears.

No. Celestia, please, no… not like this…

I took a single, numb step forward. A shadow filled the window.

Another demon slammed into the iron grate and thrust a claw through, grabbing her already mangled body and lifting it clear off the floor. She was saved only by my reflexes and the iron bars that checked her progress. She whimpered and struggled vainly, hooves windmilling in the air as her remaining wing flapped uselessly.

“No! NO!” I shouted, wrapping my hooves around Ray Drop and pulling. My impotent rage was drowned out by the horrid snarl of the beast as it began a gruesome tug-of-war, with Ray Drop’s torn body as the prize. Latching on to the pegasus with all my might I braced my hindlegs against the windowsill and pulled.

I am the earth. I am the earth.

I knew the magic wouldn’t fail me. It couldn’t. Not now. I had to save her. I had to. I didn’t care how beaten and battered she was. I wasn’t letting this dark world take another pony away.

I heard something tear and give. I looked up and my mind went blank with horror. The creature’s toothy maw was full of Ray Drop’s other, working wing. It trailed blood and tendrils of flesh as the limb sheared away from the pegasus while she squealed in pain and kicked mindlessly. Cartilage and bone snapped and crunched, and at last the entire appendage was ripped clean off. My eye twitched. I’d never seen such a macabre thing in my life. Ray Drop’s scream tore into my ears. She shook her head in fierce denial of her awful torment, shaking and shivering, unable to coordinate her movements due to the sheer amount of agony she must have been in. The only thought in mind was to pull, to get her away from the window. If I did that then everything would be all right. I hauled us backwards, and even against the beast’s prodigious strength, I began making progress. The earth felt so far away up here in this cold, dank hallway, but I felt it lend me strength still.

The demon needed to give only one good tug before it lifted us both off the ground again. I slammed against the iron grating, my face full of the demon’s slavering jaws. It roared at me, hot breath washing over my face. I could smell its putrid stench through my filters. I felt its raw, animal rage at having its meal interrupted. I saw Ray Drop’s feathers stuck in its teeth.

“F-fu-FUCK YOU!” I retorted. The beast had lifted me up to where I could get a good sight of him… and where my bullets could reach.

It wasn’t an impressive barrage. I was almost out of ammunition. But three or four bullets right to the face will deter almost anything. I saw every clear detail as my last few cartridges slammed into its open mouth. Its tongue was severed, its cheek opened, a nice clean hole appeared in its neck. The demon wailed and dropped its prey, wheeling away from the window and retreating into the cold night air. I collapsed, Ray Drop fell on me, and I dry heaved into my mask. I’d done it. I’d done it. I saved her. Hadn’t I?

“Ray Drop,” I said, hugging her still form to me. Her blood steamed in the freezing air and felt warm on my exposed ears. “Ray Drop, I got you… don’t worry… I’m gonna find Sunny Side. We’re going to get you out of here.”

“Don’t…” she whispered. I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. She was damaged beyond repair, but I still jabbed three shockers into her system, making her convulse violently. Blood continued to spill out of her. Death hovered over us, waiting to take her. But I couldn’t just leave her here to freeze like the dead Stalker.

Get out of here, a little voice in my head commanded as I clumsily wrapped her up as best I could, with bandages and the strips of her thick clothes. Just get her up and walk. If I make it to the Metro, then everything will be fine. Everything…

I struggled to get her on my back. She groaned as broken bones rubbed against each other and her remaining wing hung limply at her side. Dead weight, that’s all she was, but I refused to even consider dropping her. It didn’t come into my head. I focused entirely on getting Sunny Side and then getting back below, and then we’d get Ray Drop help, and she’d be fine, and my mission could go on.

She was already dying. I felt her dying. Felt her warm blood dribble onto my barding through the bandages I’d so hastily slapped on. Every wobble brought more, and going down the stairs was torture for us both. I heard her voice getting weaker every time she said something, mostly incomprehensible gibberish born from shock, but what she could say both steeled my resolve and chipped away at my reserves of kindness.

“Don’t… don’t leave me… don’t leave me Lockbox…”

“I won’t. I promise,” I said. I had given my word and now I’d keep it.

“Don’t leave me alone… don’t leave…”

“I’m here. I’ll get you out.”

“Don’t leave me here… don’t leave me Lockbox…”

“…”

/-/-/-/

I made it back outside to the stormy, alien streets. The clouds seemed to roil and fester above, and the poisonous rain was falling harder now, chilling me. I didn’t know where to go, and Ray Drop had lost her map in her struggle with the demon. I just knew I had to find an entrance to the Metro. Sunny Side was nowhere in sight. I didn’t dare call out. Demons circled above like vultures, but they either didn’t care about me or didn’t notice. I stuck to the shadows regardless, moving through alcoves and under old awnings that groaned with the weight of snow and many years.

Ray Drop felt heavier with every step. Her blood continued to dribble out, gushing from her wounds, steaming on the air. I was a walking buffet table for any creatures that picked up the scent. I didn’t care. One hoof in front of the other. I had to get inside. I had to survive.

I didn’t know where anypony else was. I prayed constantly to the Royal Sisters like they were gods, dead or no, because they were the only higher power I’d ever heard of. I prayed for Sunny Side and Ray Drop, myself and Equestria.

I can make it. I can make it. The mantra was repeated with every slow step. Ray Drop died a little more every foot I covered. I’d already failed her, but the thought refused to materialize in my head. I can make it I can make it I can make it I can make it…

“Don’t leave me Lockbox,” Ray Drop said.

“I won’t,” I whispered back. I won’t, I won’t, I won’t. Don’t mind the weight. Don’t mind the blood. Don’t think about it. Keep walking.

“Don’t leave me here.”

I began to suspect she was already dead, and her final thoughts were stuck on that one small line. One last spark in her brain that ran through the same circuits over and over, slowly receding into darkness.

“Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me. Don’t leave, Lockbox.”

“I won’t.”

Was she even aware anymore? Couldn’t I just… no. Sunny Side hadn’t left me. She hadn’t left me. I wasn’t going to leave her. Without loyalty, without sacrificing of myself for other ponies, what hope was there for any of us? For the Metro? I couldn’t leave her. I couldn’t.

“Damn it. Where’s a fucking hole when you need it?” I gasped in frustration.

“D- don’t… don’t leave me here like this…”

“Stop it!” I said, louder than I intended. Oh, Luna, I could feel her blood seeping through my clothes. I looked back. Her face was pale, her eyes dim and unfocused. She was completely covered in blood. My skin crawled. I looked around to try and distract myself. Another faceless street. Another grove of scrubs, more dead cars… but something was different here.

The street and the ground underneath had been literally ripped open, a giant gash that reached down the street and through an underpass farther down the road. Water and sludge had pooled at the bottom, and my geiger counter went crazy as I peered over the edge. The water was lethally radioactive. It steamed for reasons I couldn’t see. More water dribbled out of the exposed pipes in the ground. What terrible force could have split the earth like this, like a pony ripping open a garment? I saw a street sign hanging precariously over the unnatural river: Kuvoz Street. My eyes widened. That’s the one Wind Chill had told me about! I almost laughed with triumph, but I was interrupted by a howl nearby. The wind began to pick up again. Lightning flashed overhead. The hellish, oppressive landscape was quickly starting to drain my stamina and my earlier confidence was already wavering. At least the storm was keeping the demons at bay. I was so close… I just needed to find one place. A hole, a stairway, anything.

I saw movement. Something skittered through the ruins to my right. Another howl. They were everywhere. Waiting for me to stop. To put down Ray Drop and give in to my fate. I wanted Sunny Side. I wanted Sidewinder. I wanted my father and Hunter… I’d never felt this alone and vulnerable. It was an awful feeling. The wind began to pick up, and Ray Drop groaned.

“It… It hurts… hurts… I can’t… I can’t…” I could barely hear her breathing now.

She’ll be dead soon. Drop her.

No. No. No.

You’ll have a better chance alone. The mutants are tracking you. You can see them.

No no no… please, Celestia, Luna, anyone that’s listening. Don’t make me do this.

The wind continued to gain strength. I found an old bakery and kicked down the door, staggered along rusted aisles that hadn’t held food in ages. I went to the counter and slid Ray Drop off my back, breathing heavily. Not from fatigue. From fear that gripped my heart. Ray Drop was gone, now. She just sat there and mumbled inanely. Deliriously. Loudly.

“Lockbox!” she gasped, perhaps vaguely aware I’d set her down. “Don’t leave me! Please don’t. Don’t leave me like this.”

I put my head against the counter. My helmet clanked. I wondered if a baker might show up and give me some bread. That’d help quite a bit right now, some nice, warm, crunchy bread. I’d thought Ray Drop was too weak to keep carrying on. But she did. And she kept bleeding. She was literally being held together by the magical healing I’d smothered her with. But it wasn’t enough.

Another howl. Close this time.

“Don’t leave me, Lockbox.”

A sob hitched in my throat. I’d given my word. My word. But the Metro was still so far. I had so much left to do. And she was…

She was already dead. I turned to look at her out of the corner of my eye. The sound of my breathing through my mask was louder than any storm. My heart pounded. My head felt light and fuzzy. She’d still be alive when the mutants came for her. There was only one thing I could do.

“Don’t leave me, Lockbox.”

Another howl from outside. I slid off the counter and looked into the storm, wondered if the snow ghosts or demons or whatever in Hell’s name waited for me out there would come first. My breathing seemed louder than thunder, rasping in my ears.

“Don’t leave me here, Lockbox...”

“Hush now.”

“Don’t leave me all alone...”

“Quiet, now.”

My hoof felt like lead as I checked my gun’s safety.

“Don’t leave me here…”

“It’s going to be all right.”

I turned back to her, and looked her in the eye. She deserved that much at least.

/-/-/-/

I still carried Ray Drop. I’d found a picture on her. One of her and who I assumed to be Cherry Pie. An old one, taken when they were young. It rested in my saddlebag alongside Hunter’s talisman. I still carried her.

That’s what friends are for.

I trudged down Kuvoz Street, hurrying away. Away from… everything. My steps felt light and undirected, and I didn’t even lift my head when I heard more howlers wailing in the distance. Something peered at me from an open window. It never ended. It didn’t matter how many monsters I killed. This place was deadly and dangerous. I wanted nothing more than to get back below to the equally dark and deadly Metro, but at least I was familiar with it. Other ponies lived there.

I could breathe without having to forcefully suck air in through a filter; that had to count for something. I had to knock out another one and replace it. I did it in the middle of the street, I didn’t care who or what saw me. The whole incident seemed so far behind me now. Everything did. In this cold blasted landscape my mind could run away, far, free of guilt and conscience. I began to understand the logic behind going feather-brained. Just fly, and never stop, fly far far away, into the Sun that didn’t exist anymore behind the clouds. With the pegasus’ blood now cold and indiscernible from everything else, and her weight off my back, I was surprised how easy it was to forget. I just felt empty and light, free from burden, from thought… It was all behind me, a different time, forever ago in a distant life. Ray Drop? Who was that, just some vague face from a photo album? Sunny Side? He was friends with that Lockbox character, right? Sidewinder, ha, don’t get me started on him! Sidewinder is a kind of drink, isn’t it? I felt surprised by how little I puzzled and mourned over losing all my friends in the space of a few hours. I didn’t feel as terrible as I thought about Ray Drop, and if their ghosts visited me I felt I’d just walk away… I didn’t want to think about the mission that’d been thrust upon me or the lives it’d taken just to get this far. I imagined by the time I got to Ponyopolis there’d be a long line of corpses, trailing all the way back to Exiperia. And there at the head was me, the bearer of a dead soldiers’ epitaph and harbinger of the Dark Ones, of death.

I felt so alone.

I came to a large park area, and it was full of trees. Sunlight, warm and bright, filtered down through leaves so green and succulent I thought I could suck on them like candy. I smiled and touched a little bunny on the head that came up to sniff me. I bent my head down and snipped some grass with my teeth, chewing on it. I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like, but I imagined it was sweet and juicy, with a rough sort of texture.

I came to a small grove in the middle of the park, and there sat the yellow pegasus with the pink mane. She looked at me with such a gaze of sadness that all my previous feelings came rushing back. My knees grew weak under the weight of my crushing guilt and I dropped down onto my belly at the edge of the grove. My breath shook, and I realized that I still had my mask on. I didn’t know what I was seeing but I didn’t care to know if it was fake or real.

“You can’t stay here,” I heard Hunter say in my ear, whispering furtively. “You have to keep going.”

“I’m sorry,” I said to the yellow pegasus. “I’m so, so sorry. I had to. I had to.”

She didn’t say anything, just looked at me still longer with those eyes that held nothing but infinite kindness. What did she want from me? A fever dream, I snapped at myself. Nothing but a crazy vision! You’re dying and you’re just seeing something you long for. I crawled forward, desperate, wanting to know I’d been forgiven. I had been able to push my thoughts away so far, but there she sat, that symbol of the old world, and how much further I was getting away from it. I couldn’t stop. Didn’t she understand? I couldn’t stop, my home meant everything to me, not even something like this could keep me from accomplishing my mission.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “If I could take it back I would. I’m sorry.” But I knew it wasn’t her I should apologize to, and the way she looked at me it was as if there was nothing to forgive. Like she understood everything and I was just babbling like a child trying to explain why he’d raided the cookie jar. I clung to a desperate hope that Ray Drop was somewhere nice now, where this yellow pegasus and all her animal friends were.

“There’s danger, you have to go,” Hunter said. I had almost reached the pegasus. She smiled sadly at me as I reached out.

“I didn’t want… I’m so confused, I…”

My hoof touched hard stone. I blinked, and there was nothing in front of me but a statue. A broken statue of a regular old pony, cracked and pitted. My hoof dropped. A dream. Nothing but a desperate dream from the pit of my soul. Well, that’s it. I decided I was going insane.

“Lockbox?”

I spun. Sunny Side stood before me, wide-eyed and shaking.

“Oh, thank the Sun!” he gasped, and rushed forward to embrace me. “I got separated by the demons. It felt safe here so I waited. I was so worried! I can’t find the others…”

He stood back and noticed my lack of response. For some reason I didn’t feel happy to see his darting eyes, his twitching ears and stumbling hooves. Something was dreadfully wrong.

“Where’s Ray Drop?” he asked quickly.

I stared at him. He began to pace nervously.

“Um… I found the entrance at last!” he said, and his voice quivered as he pointed over his shoulder at a metal awning that hung over a deep, black hole that was the entrance to the Metro. Helpfully, giant letters that spelled the words “Stalliongrad Metro” hung over the doorway, but they were covered in ice and several had fallen off, so it looked more like “Stalingrad Met.” I nodded dumbly. It was just across the street, but something about it seemed a little too dark and ominous. The giant icicles reminded me of the demon’s teeth.

“We should go inside,” I said simply. “We have to go back, Sunny Side. There’s nothing but nightmares up here.”

“Um. Yes. But don’t you think we should wait a little longer? Out here? There are no mutants here…”

I raised my eyebrow when I heard a far-off howl.

“Well, none close right now. I just think we should wait outside.”

“We need to go in, Sunny,” I said, very slowly and clearly. “Back home to the Metro.”

“What about Sidewinder?” he babbled, turning away from me.

“He can take care of himself. Let’s go, Sunny Side.”

“No no no, see… I think… those clouds aren’t far off, right?”

I took a step forward, noticing the way his hooves trampled the snow and his wings shivered on his back, ready to shoot open.

“I can feel the sky,” he said in a hoarse, far-off voice. “I can feel it calling, Lockbox. I’d never noticed until now. It’s so close, like I can touch it… like a blanket that needs drawing back…”

“Sunny Side.” Another step closer. Fervent prayers ran in circles through my head. Not him too. Not him too, not after all this.

“It’s still there, Lockbox! The Sun… through the clouds… and the Moon. They’re there. Calling for us. It’s just these clouds in the way. I can get rid of them! I just need to…”

“You need to come back!” I snapped at him. What had Ray Drop said that calmed him so last time? I began to breathe faster, took another step. He didn’t seem to notice. Just another foot or so and I’d get him.

“No, no… the Sun, she needs to shine again. If we, if all the pegasi, could clear the clouds… we’d melt the white snow… the Sun’s warmth and beauty would shine on us again.”

“You’ll go blind, remember?” I growled, trying to imitate Hunter’s deep, commanding voice. “The Sun is too bright for us now. If you go up there you’ll fry your eyes… and the storm and the radiation will get you.”

Sunny Side’s wings began to spread, achingly slow. “I just need to…”

I bolted. Sunny Side saw me coming and jumped, his wings snapping open, but not quick enough, not with a flap that would’ve sent him launching into the air. Just a hop that I managed to match, catching his back legs in a snarl of limbs. I clung fast and dug my hind legs into the earth. I am the earth. Sunny Side can’t lift the whole thing!

His progress was miraculously checked. I didn’t know how, but somehow I kept him weighted, some invisible tether had wrapped around me and kept me anchored to the ground. Sunny Side could only flail helplessly, reaching for the sky with his front hooves like a child reaching for his favorite toy.

“Let go!” he screamed. “Let go of me!”

“No!” I snapped like a petulant colt, dragging him back with all my might.

“Lockbox! It’ll work! It’s right there! I can do this!” He was shouting, sobbing, hysterical. The louder he cried, the more I clung fast, keeping him from his death wish. He screamed at me and I screamed right back, dragging him inch by inch to the earth no matter how hard his wings flapped. I didn’t care how pained he sounded, it was just the sound of madness and grief, some deep instinctual well of sorrow that all our kind shared in our subconscious for our lost world. It screamed at him to set things right, like the way the yellow pegasus looked at me, but there was no way, just tears and grief and madness, longing for a home that would never come back. I wasn’t losing another friend to this aimless, screaming hysteria. Not again. Not again.

“That’s not going to work.”

“Sidewinder!” I shouted into the empty air. I’d almost gotten Sunny Side to the ground again… I lunged upwards and wrapped my hooves around his middle, bearing him to the ground while he wailed and struggled. We wrestled on the ground for the upper hoof.

“Sidewinder! Help me!” I shouted. His voice came from far off.

“It’s his choice, Lockbox.”

“Get away! All of you! Stop bothering me! Help me!”

“Sidewinder, I swear if you don’t get your ass over here-!”

“You’ll what? You’re crazy, Lockbox. That’s blood, isn’t it? You tried to carry somepony… Ray Drop?”

“Fuck you, all right? Fuck you!”

“Let go! LET GO!”

“Sunny Side… forgive me.”

I clobbered my friend in the side of the head with my hoof. I feared I’d struck him too hard, but it was through his helmet and it simply dazed him. I took out some rope and began to bind his legs. I could barely see Sidewinder through the swirling snow that cascaded around us. He looked like another statue.

“Let him go, Lockbox.”

“NO!” I shouted into the wind, louder than I’d shouted anything before. “I don’t know what drives you, Sidewinder! Survival? That’s it? You survive to survive some more? You don’t know what I had to do back there! You don’t know what it was like!”

“I do. I’ve done the same thing…”

“You what? Carried them? Or just gave up on them?” I finished tying Sunny Side’s wings down as best I could. “Where’s Wind Chill?”

Sidewinder looked away, to the Metro entrance.

“Where’s Wind Chill?”

I heard something like a chatter of gunfire from far off. It faded on a howl of wind. The snow was coming back again in force, thickening in the air around us like fog.

“She fell behind.”

I gulped.

“You know, Lockbox, you used to be a mystery, but I think I’ve figured you out…” Sidewinder was moving away as I heaved Sunny Side onto my back. “You’re a fool. You have so many ideas locked up in your head you’re confused which one to go with. You want to do so many things… the Metro is too small for your big head, Lockbox. And I’ve fulfilled my obligations to you twice over now.”

“Sidewinder, we have a mission! The plantations… you have to help us reach them!”

“Oh, no I don’t. You see, this entrance? It’s been blocked off.”

My heart sank. “No…”

“Yes. I scouted it out while your friend was walking around like a loony out here. Somepony blew the place and destroyed it. Got a nice little nest of snow ghosts in there now too…”

“Then… then help us find another entrance! There must be another close by.”

“Yeah.” Sidewinder was moving south. I hurried to keep up but the snow was closing in fast, and he was still moving, too fast and nimble for me to follow.

“Sidewinder?” I asked, at first sounding questioning, then sad, then angry. “Sidewinder. Sidewinder!”

The snow began to close up over us, shrouding him as he leaped up onto a pile of rubble, blending in…

No. No no no!

“Sidewinder. You can’t do this! I can’t leave him! Come back here!”

The snow swallowed everything. He was gone. I heard something move on my right, turned and fired, made sure that Sunny Side was still on my back. I backed up and found the little statue where I’d seen the yellow pegasus, hoping she was still with me. I huddled against it, wondering how I was getting out of this. I had to wait until the snow passed… assuming I lived through that… and then find another entrance to the Metro, get my bearings, and move on. I had to find the Ranger hideout first and foremost. I filled my head with plans while the wind filled my bones with cold.

And I listened to the howling.

“Come on. Come on, you bastards…” I whispered into my mask, making sure I stood directly over Sunny Side. I tugged the ropes around his hooves free. He seemed to have fallen asleep, perhaps overcome by the intense nature of his madness. I hoped it would pass when he woke up.

I heard steps on the left, saw something amorphous and shiny. I didn’t shoot at it. They were circling me like… like sharks? I’d read about sharks, distant and monstrous predators of the sea. Once apex hunters in their environment that enjoyed circling, testing and teasing their prey to find out if it was worth eating. I’d just have to make myself too unpalatable to devour. I wondered if in our poisoned seas there existed something worse than sharks now.

“Come on. Come on. I’m waiting. I want you to come at me. Come on.”

Another blur in the blizzard. A snow ghost or just my imagination? I continued to wait, shivering. I had to be as patient as these beasts. I touched my saddlebag, where the last memories of two friends now rested. I wasn’t going to add a third.

I am the earth. It is with me. I am strong.

The first one came straight at me. An excited juvenile, maybe. I saw it coming because it left its mouth hanging open as it sprang out of the snow, panting. A burst from my rifle put it down. Magical energy flashed before my eyes as its cloak of camouflage fell away, smoking and curling up in wisps around its sleek, snow white body. I extended my knife and held my hoof up, waiting to strike. I knew the next one would be much more careful.

I was right. Another creature streaked in from the left and then darted away again, leaving me open for an attack from the right as one slammed into my side. Sharp teeth dug into my barding, heavy paws pushed down on me… and I slid to one side, but didn’t collapse. I reared up and twisted, coming down hard with my front hooves, pulverizing its hind leg and burying my knife into its flank. The creature wailed and kicked me, giving me a retaliatory swipe over my face, cutting me open at the neck, but not too deeply. I felt something crack in my gasmask. The crack in my visor grew.

Another from behind while I struggled with the first latched onto my face. Buck, stomp, snort! I missed with my back kick, scaring off my other attacker for a moment, but the one under my front hooves struggled still, ripping open the front of my jacket. I lifted my head to keep my vulnerable neck clear of its snapping jaws, and continued to stomp all over the beast’s chest until something cracked. The snow ghost wailed and curled up under me as I stepped over it, slashing my knife wildly as the third one snapped at my hindquarters, tearing open my trousers and scoring deep gashes in my skin. I bucked again and felt a satisfying crunch, and the savaging teeth left me, disappearing into the wind. If these things wanted to eat me, they’d have to earn their meal.

I was already bleeding, and the snow was picking up. This was going to be my last stand. Protecting my friend from certain death. I supposed there was some honor in it, and anyway I didn’t think about it much. I was tired and angry. I was sad and stubborn. I just wanted to keep stomping and kicking and shooting and venting.

The wind closed in on me, driving me against the statue again as I waited over Sunny Side, who began to groan and stir. I didn’t plan on stopping him from flying away this time. Adrenaline pumped through my veins like liquid ice, making me jolt and twitch at the slightest provocation. They waited for me in the snow. I heard their growls.

“Lockbox?” Sunny Side questioned. He sat up and saw the still twitching snow ghost I’d trampled. “What the… what the hell’s going on? Where are we?!”

“Get up, Sunny Side!” I shouted over the roaring wind. I saw enemies everywhere. “You’ve got to… got to…”

I heard a sharp, loud crack and then an explosion of noise. The blizzard nearly drowned it out.

“Got to go!”

“The hell I am! What’s happening, is this… are we still outside?!”

“Sunny Side don’t question me, just-!”

I felt something touch my shoulder and lashed out… but I didn’t see the maw of a snow ghost. I saw a very pony-like face covered by a gasmask and a darkened visor. They were covered in dark, thick clothing, but bore no weapons that I could see. I stopped midway through my swing. My eye twitched. I didn’t feel done or satisfied with violence just yet. And yet I was pleasantly shocked to find I wasn’t going to die just yet.

“Come with me!” the new arrival shouted. “It’s not safe here. I scared them off for the moment.”

“The entrance is blocked,” I answered.

“No, my friend. Come! I know another route. We should hurry; dawn will be here in a few short hours.”

Sunny Side was quicker to trust than me. He rushed forward and bumped his head against my backside, prompting me to move. I wondered if he was no longer mad because the sky was covered by the snow overhead. The other pony nodded and led us back towards the Metro entrance, where I saw a little furrow dug through the snow clogging the doorway. Had this new pony just come out of there? Right when I was in danger and needed an escape? I almost refused to believe it, and thought it was another insane vision of mine. Our new friend slipped back into the calm dark of the Metro, and we followed them gladly.

“How’d you come here? How’d you find us?” I asked. All around us was a blasted, dessicated corpse of a Metro lobby, with ticket booths and benches and turnstiles all over. Sheets of metal and marble had fallen and collapsed, lying amidst mutant guano that covered whole swathes of the floor.

“It was easy,” answered the stranger. I couldn’t tell their gender, as their clothes were too thick to discern the shape of their body, and their voice was strangely distorted through the mask. I didn’t see a horn on their head, so they were no unicorn using a magic spell to change their voice.

“I followed the white rabbit.”

I stopped, and Sunny Side did too, but he seemed more disoriented and confused than baffled by what our new friend said. White rabbit. I’d seen rabbits before, around the…

But then our new friend laughed. “I’m kidding! It was a miracle, really, or whatever you like to call such things.”

Somehow I didn’t believe them. Something was ahoof here. Had the yellow pegasus really been waiting there for me? Guided this stranger here too? I kept vacillating between believing in my visions and thinking they were the product of a feverish, inexperienced mind… but our friend seemed certain of where he or she was going. They led us to a rickety series of escalators at the back of the large lobby, which were defunct and creaky. The path plunged down into darkness so deep my Ranger flashlight barely penetrated it, but that comforted me. The darkness was easier on my eyes and wrapped around us like a warm blanket, and soon we were even able to slip our gasmasks off again. The trigger slid out of my mouth and I worked my jaws; they were sore from clenching in fright so long. Sunny Side gave one last wistful look over his shoulder at the outside, and then we shouldered our burdens and continued on, away from the nightmares we’d endured above.

Back into the claustrophobic dark of the Metro. Back home.