//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: An Equestrian Metro // by MrAwesome343 //------------------------------// Chapter 3 Rainbow Dash sat on the decaying bench, Taro snoring lightly beside her. Her heart pounded slightly in her chest at the thought of being out in the dangerous tunnels. She held her revolver and took out a small piece of cloth. Opening it up, she wiped clean the gun, caressing the rainbow colored lightning bolt on the side of it. Taro’s watch beeped quietly. It was Pinkie Pie’s shift. Taro woke up the next morning to see his pink haired friend leaning over a sandbag and jumping from side to side with her bastard gun. “What are you doing? Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked, shaking Rainbow Dash awake. “You didn’t tell me to wake you up,” Pinkie replied, putting down her gun. “I said we were taking hour long shifts,” Taro yawned. “No, you said ‘I’ll take the first watch, Rainbow Dash, I’ll wake you in an hour, and then Pinkie Pie will take her turn.’” “So you only got two hours of sleep last night?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Well DUH! What did you think?” “Whatever, come on. Let’s get moving,” Taro commanded. Rainbow grabbed her rucksack and pulled out her shotgun, making sure every shell was in its slot. Pinkie Pie flicked off the safety on her machine gun and hoisted it over her shoulder, the barrel shoved into Rainbow Dash’s face, to which she promptly pushed it aside. Taro threw on his rucksack and loaded his own machine gun and they were off, switching on their headlights and leaving the fire for other travelers. Taro pulled out a small cardboard pad and lit a bullet-shaped lighter to view the map he had on it. “Won’t be long. Just a half-day to make it to Alandra, then it’s up to the surface,” he said, flipping the journal cover back over and closing the lighter. “Good, I want to see people again, this is really starting to get lonely,” Rainbow Dash complained. “Do you want to stay at Alandraskaya?” Taro asked. “And do what? Miss out on the rest of this adventure with you? I don’t care about being lonely, I just want to go places,” Rainbow Dash replied excitedly. “Aw, I wish I didn’t have stuff to do in Venice or I would TOTALLY come with you two!” Pinkie Pie interjected. Taro laughed lightly, continuing to lead on. “So, Rainbow Dash, I’ve been meaning to ask you, what’s the story behind that gun of yours?” Rainbow Dash looked up at him. “Oh, right. My pistol. My mother gave it to me when I was young. Well, sort of. She had a shift at the stall where they make the guns in Trotvitskaya. She said she heard of other people talking about how they wanted their children to always have a means of protection with them, you know, things parents worry about. So she decided to get me a gun for when I was older. She put a little lightning bolt on it because I liked to collect pictures of lightning, for the reason, I still don’t know. Then she added a rainbow color scheme to mark my name, since I still couldn’t read.” “Wow. Does she know you left?” Taro asked. “She died when I was six. Her and my dad went to travel to a next door station. A trader told my uncle who I was staying with that they were killed by soldiers of the Solar Republic,” Rainbow answered, tear welling up in her eyes. “Now all I have is the gun she made for me. I still remember the words she said to me when my uncle gave it to me for her. ‘Now this is for protection, Dashie. Don’t go shooting anyone for no reason... That’s what your ma would’ve said.’” Rainbow Dash curled into Taro’s arms. “I never thought I would actually use it.” “It’s okay...” Taro was interrupted by a loud sob from Pinkie Pie. “It’s so sad!” she screamed. “Pinkie, could you do that a little quieter?” Taro asked. “But... it’s... wahh!!!” she continued. “Pinkie, what if...” Taro was cut off again by a loud growl from a small entry hole in the wall. “Uh-oh. A nest of nosalises. Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash turned to face the hole where a nosalis was crawling out of. “What do you think they want?” “Well, one of four options: one, they want to know why they were disturbed,” Taro answered. “That’s an easy one,” Pinkie said innocently. “Two, they were getting kind of hungry anyway.” “I don’t like that idea,” Rainbow said, watching a third nosalis exit the hole. “Three, they also notice the smell of their dead brother from yesterday.” “And what’s the fourth?” Pinkie asked, a little worry in her voice. “Well... all of the above.” Taro released a clip from his gun into the chest of two monsters, causing them to fall to the floor. The pack attacked. One lunged at Rainbow Dash. An action it quickly regretted after being shot in the chest on purpose with a shotgun, and then again in the face out of panic. Pinkie Pie dropped her gun into her hand shot furiously. A futile attempt after noticing she never took off the safety. “Watch where you swing that thing!” Taro shouted. After reloading, Taro shot a few bullets into another nosalis, using the recoil of the gun to punch another one in the face several times. Rainbow Dash finished the rest of the bullets in her magazine and,not having the time to reload, moved straight to her revolver. Shooting dead-eye shots straight into the heads, all while Pinkie Pie was still fidgeting with her machine gun, unknowingly shooting several nosalises. Rainbow Dash took a sigh of relief as the last nosalis fell with the last bullet in her gun. “Got it!” Pinkie Pie shouted, whipping up her bastard gun. “Hey, where’d they all go?” Rainbow Dash shoved shotgun shells into her uboinik, shaking her head. “They’re gone, Pinkie Pie. You missed it.” Taro reloaded his gun. “Even when you didn’t know what was going on, you shot like five of them.” The team emerged from the battle with only minor scratches. “Anyone need a syringe?” Taro asked, pulling out an orange case from inside his coat. Opening it up, he grabbed one of five medicine filled shots and injected himself. He hit his arm a few times to get the blood circulating with the medicine. “Numbs the pain and helps the wound fight infection.” “I think I’ll let my body do it’s thing for now,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Suit yourself,” Taro said, putting the medkit away. “It’s no big deal, though. I can buy more when we arrive in Alandraskaya.” “No it’s okay,” Rainbow Dash insisted, continuing to walk.