A/N:Please read all of the author's note now. It has information of relevance to the story.

In a way, I am happy that I must delve into the tunnels beneath the palace. It felt like I was back in the Metro, wandering from tunnel to tunnel in search of mutants and gear. The tunnels below the palace, they felt the same yet different. It was tough to explain but it felt like there was something evil about them. Khan would have had a field day with them.

I was beginning to think that ponies enjoyed walking up and down stairs. Once again I found myself behind a pony, descending down a seemingly endless flight of stairs. Each step just reaffirmed my theory that ponies secretly loved stairs. Only a few times in all of my life before Equestria I had ever climbed this many stairs. At least it was a decent way to warm myself up, to get slightly loose and ready to fight.

No doubt I would have to fight. I hadn’t been briefed on what was needed of me yet, but I knew that it would involve me fighting something. My evidence being the numerous guards that I had seen being carried on stretchers. At least ten injured guards had passed us on the stairwell, the ones who were still conscious had saluted Scowly on their way up. I wasn’t a fool, injured guards meant something was down these stairs.

They had immediately lead me back to my room, once I agreed to help, so I could get equipped and prepared to head below the Crystal Palace. I had been quick and efficient at getting my armour and gear put on. I had even taken the liberty to put on my helmet and the gas mask off the bat, though the mask didn’t have a filter prepared.

Until either Cadance or Scowly told me what was going on, I was stuck pondering what was causing so many guards to be injured. After we left the dining room, Scowly had kept his mouth completely shut. He was most likely more than annoyed at having to outsource help. It was probably only made worse when his wife decided to have me help. Maybe he would stop acting like a prick once he figured that I was no pushover. Of course, this was assuming that there would even be a chance to show him my actual skills. Cadance had been rather tight lipped as well, only telling me that “there are entities beneath the palace.”

Like that did any good in helping to explain why we were descending this endless staircase. We had already passed five floors, each one was separated by at least three flights of stairs. I had started to zone out after that, focusing on the two ponies in front of me was rather boring and the scenery didn’t change either. Continuous crystal walls that seemed to meld into crystal stairs.

Imagine how much this would have bought back in the old world. Khan had told me that true crystals were valuable to many people. Someone could probably sell a single room from this place and make themselves one of the richest people in the world. Of course, that would be after they found a way to come to this world.

I would have continued to drift deeper into that thought if I didn’t bump into Cadance from behind. Hell, I was surprised I didn’t bowl her over. It wasn’t like the ponies were small. Twilight had reached up to my waist, if I remember right. Cadance, Luna, and Scowly had reached my mid section while Celestia was nearly my height. So it surprised me that Cadance hardly moved when I walked into her. In fact, I was almost sure that she hardly noticed if it hadn’t been for a small blush that creeped into her cheeks.

My low light vision had significantly improved during my life in the Metro. Living in the darkness for so long forced my eyes to become used to such a setting and even then they were considered outstanding by Metro standards.

“We are nearly there, Artyom. If you would mind paying attention, I will explain our… situation to you.” Why was I not surprised that she knew I had been nearly daydreaming?

“Go ahead,” I spoke as we started moving again. I hadn’t even realized that we were no longer on a staircase. We had somehow reached the end of that obscenely long monstrosity. Maybe that was overkill on how long it was, since the one in the Canterlot Castle seemed longer. I mentally chuckled again at the name of the place.

Cadance had fallen into step on my left side while Scowly had picked up his pace so that he was on my right. I glanced around the spacious hallway we were walking in. We must have been somewhere that was long abandoned until recently, that was the only way to explain why the crystal walls were hardly uniform to the rest as well as the spires of crystal pointing down from the ceiling. I couldn’t remember the term, but it mattered little since I never studied rocks.

“It was a little more than a week ago that this started up. We had been trying to map out all the caverns that are under the Crystal Palace. There is apparently an extensive network of caves that run under the entirety of the Crystal Empire. Up to when this occurred we had gotten a fair amount done, in fact we had been lucky to find a major cavern which was connected to that old archive that Sombra built.”

I could almost sense where this was going. Of course I was going to ask just what this event was that occured. I was cut off before I could speak though.

“When this started up, a scout group was using the main passageway to what we called the “Main Room”, that was the one that was connected to the archive. The moment they arrived in the Main Room, they were ambushed by creatures that we have never encountered before. The scouts fled the area swiftly but two of the four were trapped behind a cave in along the main path.”

Yeah, I could almost say what was going to happen next. It wasn’t like this was typical, well it was since tunnels can only hold all of that weight for so long and anything could collapse them. It happened in the Metro, but those usually occurred due to explosives or the destruction of support beams… usually. The whole situation as it was, seemed to be something out of a story, but someone had probably said the same thing about what happened to my world.

“Ever since then we have had constant breach attempts being made those monsters. My guard have been on a non-stop rotation in order to make sure those beasts don’t over run our barricade. It is our last stand point before we have to retreat completely from the tunnels.” I was surprised to see Scowly speaking up.

We took a right turn down the hallway, which ended up placing us in a rather large looking cavern. I was a little bewildered by the natural crystal structures in the area. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but some of the spires that descended from the ceiling were beyond large. One could have cut a train in half if it ever fell on one, though I don’t think the ponies would have to worry about that.

Scattered around the cavern were ponies doing various activities. There were not as many as I had expected. Maybe fifty at best, yet this room looked like it could hold five times that number. Most of them looked to be trying to relax, they were probably the latest to be rotated out from the barricade. We walked towards a large tunnel opening, my guess was that that tunnel was the only way to the frontline. There were a few side tunnels, but they seemed too small for it to be of anything truly important.

The few ponies in the cavern that actually cared to look at who just entered gave a sharp salute followed by a bow to their Prince and Princess, before going back to whatever they had previously been doing. Not a single one had paid any heed to me, well, aside from a few glares that had been thrown my way. It seemed that Cadance had picked up on them as well.

Even though she passed it off, I wasn’t satisfied with that answer though. “Jumpy? They do not like me.”

“According to many of the soldiers, there were taller bipedal shadow beasts. You must look similar.” Scowly said in a nonchalant tone. To him it was something to pass off, but I knew there was more to it than that. I didn’t need to pry more into that path in order to tell that something was off here.

We continued through the rest of the cavern until we were right in the entrance way to the main tunnel. Cadance stopped us, Scowly turned to face her.

“This is as far as I will be going. Now, Artyom, we only need you to scout out the tunnels and hopefully deal with any beasts along the way. Shining will accompany you during this, but he will constantly be under my watch so don’t get into too much trouble. Hopefully you can find out more than we could.”

With that, she gave Scowly a quick kiss before trotting back through the large cavern. Scowly must have had a lot of faith in her and us, for he barely gave Cadance a second look before turning and proceeding down the main tunnel. I followed right on his heels ... did they even have heels?

Anyway, we continued our walk in silence, not even bothering to glance at one another. Nothing had changed, though it had hardly been a full day since I had actually started this journey with him. I had a feeling that much of our journey would involve silence, neither of us willing to speak up. Well I actually was more than willing, but I didn’t want to ‘play a single card from my hand.’ Better to learn as much as you can from someone, then you were the one who held the power. It seemed Scowly knew this as well, at least that was my guess.

It wasn’t that far of a walk before we reached the ‘barricade.’ It honestly looked like something one would have found in the Metro. That was a guess, considering I couldn’t see the front of it. It stood about four meters high which was about half of the tunnel’s height. From behind it seemed to be mainly pieced together from wood and stone. There was a makeshift rampart that was probably just high enough so a pony could see over it. Underneath the makeshift rampart was also a gate, which I found beyond odd. Why would they need a gate if they were trying to keep something out? Probes maybe?

Either way it seemed that most were on constant watch, many ponies wielding crossbows, while the rest had only pikes and swords. It was odd that they had a train, yet their weaponry was medieval.

I grinned at that observation, who knew that those history lessons would pay off. Made it easier to assess what weapons they had because if I didn’t find a way to produce more bullets, I would be forced to utilize those weapons.

“Those not on the rampart report to me now!” Scowly’s booming voice broke me from my thoughts. I didn’t realize it at first, but I had been staring at the ponies on the wall, yet I didn’t notice the glowing half dark blue wall on the other side of the rampart.

I paid it little heed for the moment, instead focusing on the ponies that were moving into formation in front of us. There were more ponies than I thought, since they formed a group of seven deep and seven across. All of them gave a quick salute, before standing at attention.

“Listen up, this is Artyom, a ‘specialist’ in navigating tunnels.” At this, all of them zeroed in on me. Little emotion came to their faces, probably due to Scowly being right there. To think that the ‘Prince’ was also the commander of the forces. I always thought a General would be a better commander.

“Him and I will be making a scouting run through the tunnels along with two select guards. I want you all prepared to give a push up past the point of the auxiliary tunnel.” He continued, all eyes had switched back to him. “Once we are in the tunnels I want a full retreat back to the barrier. Do not risk this position. We move in five!”

All the ponies lined up gave a swift salute before heading back to the barrier. Scowly followed shortly thereafter heading towards two specific ponies. One was a pegasus and the other was an earth pony. My brow furrowed at this, it seemed that most of the ponies I had seen were earth ponies. Why were there so few unicorns and pegasi?

I looked back to Scowly, seeing he was still talking to those two ponies. I decided to utilize what time I had before the push to prep my weapons. I slipped my Kalash off my back, bringing it up to sight level. The thing was still on safety so I removed the magazine before cycling the hammer a few times. Finally I put the magazine back in but kept it on the safety since I still had to add one more thing. I bent down to reach into a pocket near my boots, from it I pulled out two silencers; one for my Kalash and the other for my revolver.

It was always useful to have silencers on those two weapons. You never knew when sneaking was required, especially with the amount of Nosalis lairs that the side tunnels had. The moment I had the silencer on my Kalash, I holstered it and drew my revolver. The chambers were full, so it was just a matter of putting the silencer on which took no time at all. I was cycling the hammer on my Saiga when Scowly returned.

“We are about to move, Specialist Yellow Gleam and Specialist Able Swift are going to be coming with us in case we run anything. You better be ready to go.” He motioned over to the ponies he was referring to, his voice was hardy and stern as if he thought I was one of his soldiers.

“Да, just readying weapons.” I said while putting the drum magazine back into the Saiga.

“That does not look like much of a weapon no matter what you have said about them. I would prefer a sword any day over that.” I honestly didn’t expect anything less considering I told them little about my weapons and that they probably had never seen a gun before. I was feeling lenient at this point.

“You’ll change mind soon enough.” There was a tinge of a laugh connected to that statement, hoping that he would get the light hearted feeling. It was always tougher to convey emotions when I had my helmet on.

He merely snorted at that, before moving up to behind the guard group. They were ready to move out, which meant I had to be ready. I quickly pulled out my hand charger to see my flashlight’s level. A little under three quarters but that was fixed with two quick pumps. I put the charger back into it’s normal place before drawing my Kalash. It only took a few steps to be right next to Scowly and the two guards who were accompanying us.

The earth pony was wearing the typical guard armour which was a darker blue colour. Well, typical for what I had seen in the caverns; the one I had seen in the palace were a very pale blue that glimmered like the crystals as well as their coats were that of a purple crystal nature. Odd, perhaps a ceremonial dress style? Who knew, but I can say that the dusty golden coat of the earth pony helped him to stand out a little. His mane was nearly the same colour as his coat but slightly lighter and was up in the helmet much like what those ‘Spartans’ had from back in ancient times. It was rather short compared to the other ponies, probably to save some individuality. He looked up at me briefly, revealing light blue eyes… nearly white.

The pegasus was going to be the odd one of the group as she was a greyish colour for the most part with her mane being a deeper hue of purple. Much like the earth pony, she was dressed in the same colour of guard armour. I hadn’t noticed at first but both of them had sheaths of some sort on the outside of their fore hooves. There was without a doubt that those probably held swords but how they were drawn was something beyond me. Maybe I would ask one of them later.

“Ten seconds, everypony ready,” was bellowed out from beside me. At that everypony seemed to get lower as if in a position to charge which we were going to do anyways. I could actually see a few of them shaking in what I was guessing at fear. I felt a little bit sympathetic to them since I had once been in their... shoes. Back then I was probably even more of a fresh soldier than them but I had changed since then. I hardly felt my nerves when something happened, maybe resigning myself to death on multiple occasions had dulled any feeling of being frightened or nervous.

“Open the gates!” The moment he yelled that, the gates were surrounded in a blue glow; no doubt there was a unicorn manning them. The wave of ponies surged out through the gates and past a raising shield. I followed swiftly behind them, Shining on my left and the two Specialists on my right. The moment we ran passed the rising shield, it slammed back down onto the ground or at least that was what I thought made the ‘thump’ sound behind me. The tunnels were clear for the first twenty meters that we dashed but, as if we reached some sort of marker, a swarm of dark shadow creatures materialized from the depths of the tunnel, charging headlong towards our own ranks. I hardly could see what they looked like but It was like watching a wave clash with another wave.

The moment the shadow beasts hit the charging ponies the sound of pikes being sunk into flesh could be heard. The shadow beast were obviously made of more than just shadow, but that didn’t mean that they had any intelligence.

The company of ponies pushed slowly ahead, a few unicorns near the back were shooting beams out of their horns, setting the beasts ignite before they promptly vanished. The ponies that held pikes were basically head down with their pikes pushing forward, soft glows of magic encompassing their bodies.

It seemed that there were enough unicorns to provide temporary shielding to them. This didn’t stop everything though, as one of the pike ponies gave a pained cry before falling down. One pony stopped to make sure he wasn’t ran over by the rest but they were both passed as the march kept on. When we passed him, I could see gouges on his back, claws having slashed through flesh. He was still breathing though.

I didn’t dare to waste a shot yet, this company could handle the beasts easily enough. My job was just to be prepared to make a mad dash down the auxiliary tunnel. The fact that they had only had a single casualty against these beasts just proved that they were able to handle them by themselves. Though that did beg the question of why they didn’t push them back entirely?

“Get ready to move!” Scowly had been giving orders during the push but I hadn’t cared until he yelled. Even without being told, I knew that was my cue to get ready to split off from the group.

With a mighty yell, the company of ponies ramped up their moving speed against the continuous shadow beasts. This was the final push that we needed as the auxiliary tunnel came into view beside the ponies. The moment the company in front of us passed the tunnel, I moved in front of Scowly and down the tunnel, followed closely by the two Specialists. I glanced over my shoulder to see if Scowly followed but didn’t see him.

“Keep going, he will meet us!” The pegasus mare shouted as if reading my mind. I didn’t have the time to nod as my feet continued to carry me down the tunnel, a few sharp turns and winding passages before we entered a small clearing. Whatever light the torches along the corridor had given was now gone.

I nearly skidded to a halt in this small natural room. No matter what he ordered, I was stopping the group here to wait on Scowly. I might not like him, but I knew that if something happened to him Cadance would undoubtedly kill me. Luckily, I didn’t have to say anything to the other two as they stopped as well, probably thinking the same thing.

“Now we wait on Scowly.” I slipped by saying my nickname for him, but at least he wasn’t around.

“Who?” Asked the pegasus mare, the earth stallion just opting to looking back down the tunnel we had just ran.

“Nickname for your prince. Don’t tell though.” I didn’t bother explaining it farther than that and, luckily, she didn’t ask further. I only hoped the she didn’t mention it.

I glanced down the dark tunnel, trying to see if anything was coming down there. It was too dark for my eyes so I decided to flip my night vision on. The moment it was over my eyes and on, I saw the everything clearly. That startled me as I had just remembered that they were cracked when I first got to this world. I had forgotten to even check them back in Canterlot, but it seemed that those ponies fixed them. How they did such a thing was beyond me, but I instantly assumed that it was with their magic.

I looked down the hallway for a few seconds before pulling my hand charger and giving a few pumps. I then turned off the night vision and pushed them back up. It would be better if they could see the area as well, so I instead opted to turn on my flashlight, which made both ponies jump in the air before turning to face me.

“A head mounted flashlight?” The earth pony spoke with a little bit of curiosity in his voice.

I merely nodded at them, these Specialists were receptive to say the least. The fact he knew what it was gave me a few more details on just how advanced these ponies were. They had flashlights which meant that they had batteries but why would they even need electricity when unicorns could just create a light source?

“I don’t see a place to insert batteries, or even a running connection… is it hidden? Am I right? Is that it there? That funky device that is attached to you? It is, isn’t it!? This is amazing, and don’t get me started on the brightness of the light itself!” The pegasus mare had nearly shouted that last line. She must have had good eyesight, there was no light illuminating my gear from her position. I merely nodded but an annoyed voice came from down the tunnel.

“No matter how much it amazes you Specialist, keep your bucking voice down!” Scowly had appeared in my flashlight’s range and I had saw him but said nothing. I was going to start playing the silent type, at least after I said something to them all.

Able cowered slightly before nodding. I merely looked over to Scowly who begrudgingly nodded at me.

“Listen, we are going silent. Watch for my signals. This means hold and this means move.” I said as I raised my arm up with a closed fist and then I proceeded to motion my hand forward while the palm was facing me. Next I opened my hand up and motioned the open hand up and down with my palm facing the ground, “this means stay low.”

I went through a few more motions. I showed the hand gestures for saying that I had spotted enemies which involved pointing to my eyes and then to a direction. I also showed them the motions for telling them that an enemy needed to die silently. That one involved bringing a finger to where my lips would be and then drawing the same finger over my throat. Overall they were simple to learn and the ponies easily picked it up.

The moment that we had finished our little group meeting, I flipped the light off and lowered my night vision. Everything took on a green hue which was fine by me since that meant I could at least see everything clearly. I rose my Kalash up to eye level before proceeding to creep down the rest of the tunnel. The ponies followed behind me, the clopping of their hooves died off slowly. I didn’t even need to look to know that Scowly had cast something to damp sounds.

The tunnels system had to be massive, a single straight away seemed to go on forever. Maybe it was just due to the range that my night vision presented. Either way, we all knew that if we were going to scout these tunnels and caverns it would no doubt be slow going. There were only four of us so we couldn’t afford to get into a fight with a major group.

I constantly checked my watch, it was instinct at that point. When we had stopped to wait on Scowly it had read 21:00; now it read 21:30. I mentally sighed at this, it was probably going to be an all nighter down in these tunnels. Wasn’t the first time and, if I could find a way back home, it wouldn’t be the last. I was lucky to have laid down to have a nap earlier in the day. The only downside was that I had no food rations, except that I had filled my canteen with water before leaving my room.

We came to a T-intersection point shortly after. I moved myself to the left side of the tunnel before holding up my right fist. The group stopped dead in their tracks as I slowly crept forward one foot quietly settling in front of the other. I titled my Kalash slightly as I leaned out just enough to peek around the right corner. Not a single beast in sight so I proceeded to lean out and look down the left side.

Not far from the intersection, I saw a pony guard standing there. My first thought that it was a lost guard or something but I soon quelled that idea as I noticed that the fur on its legs was nearly gone and the flesh itself was rotten to hell. My gaze drew upward, eyes nearly bulging as I saw that half of its jaw was limply hanging from a muscle. As well, I noticed that the armour was not that of the guard but instead something that was pure black with designs on the sides, at least that was my guess since the green coloured night vision hampered my perception of colours. The spiked edges of the armour gave me even more clues.

“Other guards down here?” I whispered to Scowly who was a few meters from me. He merely just shook his head in response.

I knew what had to be done. I didn’t even give the group a glance as I quickly switched from the left tunnel wall over to the right one. With my Kalash raised, I set the reflex sight on the undead pony’s head. I exhaled softly before slowly depressing the trigger.

A soft pop resounded from the silencer before the round connected with the back of the undead’s head. The body jerked forward before falling down to the floor. Of course the weapon’s report and the sound of a body hitting the ground got the attention of the three waiting in the tunnel.

“What was that?” Scowly whispered to me, probably trying to take hold of the situation.

“Saw an enemy. Killed it quietly.” I said simply before moving out into the intersection. I looked down the tunnel that the undead was in, not a single thing in sight. I motioned for them to move forward. As the three came into the intersection they saw the body.

They must have thought that it was a comrade as the two Specialists immediately rushed to the body while Scowly proceeded to glare at me with all of his wrath. He was probably about to chew me out for killing a ‘friendly’ but was cut off before he could even begin.

“Umm, sir? You might want to see this.” Specialist Gleam spoke up but still within a whisper range. Scowly continued to glare at me before moving over to the body as well. I just turned my gaze down the empty tunnel, debating on which route to take. I still listened in on what was being said though.

“Well, sir, it umm… it seems that this pony wasn’t ours.” The Specialist replied.

“What do you me-” Scowly stopped mid sentence. He must have just seen the body.

“It wasn’t even alive, sir,” Able chirped in. “Plus that isn’t our armour. In fact I think that was from Sombra’s reign.”

There was that name again. It was coming up more and more which meant that it was tied to someone that was important. Maybe it was a previous ruler of this place. That was the most likely answer but I would still have to go find out; you can’t live off assumptions.

It seemed that Scowly was slightly speechless at that revelation, since he didn’t speak a word but instead returned to me. He looked at with eyes that said he was willing to bow down to my judgement on the situation. Able and Gleam followed into line behind Scowly. I just simply moved my head to indicated we were going down this tunnel.

Once again we started our way down the tunnel, with only a quick stop for me to charge up the night vision. One of the Specialists was going to speak up, probably on what the charger was but I cut her off.

“Keeps electric charge.” Nothing more was said on the subject. Instead, silence reigned as we continued do the tunnel. Luckily, this one wasn’t as long as the last one, with a crossroads looming up ahead, as well as a few open doorways to our left and right. From what I could see, there was nothing in those rooms and it seemed like they had been carved out and never finished.

It was only two steps past one of those rooms when I felt it. The ground itself trembled just enough to get my attention. It shouldn't have been a big deal since we were underground, but there was a pattern to the tremors.

A dull thud in the distance before a brief pause. Then another dull thud. It repeated and was slowly drawing closer.

My head spun around to the three behind me, their wide eyes meeting my own. They knew what it was as well. Their terror was painted on their faces, clear as day to my night vision. Even Scowly had a look to match the situation.

With each impact, the sound drew closer and closer to our position. Whatever was making those heavy footsteps, it was headed right our way.

Without sparring another second, I motioned for them to move a room on the right side of the hallway. This was followed by a mad dash by the three, each one acting more like children. I didn’t blame them though since I was doing the same but to a room a little farther ahead and on the opposite side.

The moment I entered the pitch black room, I threw myself into a corner facing the doorway. Even if instinct told me to hide from it’s sight, I knew that I needed to be able to see when it passed my room. With the ponies being down the hall I had to be ready to help them.

It only took a few seconds for the source of the tremors to reach my room but each second felt like a day. That was how it always worked. The anticipation for a fight, for pain, for death… it wasn’t something you could get over or just stop. Instead I embraced it, aiming my Kalash at the door while being prepared to draw my Saiga. Plans raced over in my mind on how I would take this thing down; even though I had no idea on what it looked like, or how it could be hurt.

I had no fear in me, I was ready for the fight, but I wasn’t quite ready for what it looked like. Years spent in the Metro had made me immune to the frightful visage of the many mutants. They started to become such a commonplace that it rarely drew any emotion. This was different.

I couldn’t see it all thanks to my limited view, but from what I could see, it was as tall as the tunnel was. The thing was made completely out of crystal, jagged pieces jutting out from each limb. To put it simply, it looked like a massive human that was made out of razor sharp crystal; by massive I meant that it reminded me of the Bear I fought back in Moscow. Of course such a creature couldn’t look like a normal humanoid shape, it instead had to have four arms with each one ending in a spike of crystal. At least the two that I could see did.

For more than a moment the thing just lingered in the doorway. My mind instantly assumed that I had been caught. My legs tensed in that crouch position, ready to spring in whatever direction necessary to dodge a swipe.

Instead, the monstrosity just start to lumber down the halls again. The trembling thumps along the crystal ground continued far off into the distance. For a moment I just kept crouched, kept staring at the door ahead of me.

Then I laughed. It was only loud enough to be called a chuckle but I still laughed at that. It wasn’t a the erratic laugh of someone trying to cover up their fear. It wasn’t the type of laugh anyone would expect from such a situation. No, it was a laugh that conveyed a message.

Like being home, it spoke. I continued to chuckle as I rose from my feet and proceeded back out the door. The creature was long gone at that point and we needed to continue on.

At the doorway, I peaked around the corners to scan down the halls. With my Night vision I saw not a soul, just the green hued tunnels that seemed to stretch endlessly. A soft beep emitted from the goggles brought a sigh out from my lips. Having to constantly recharge these was perfectly acceptable, but still a little bit tedious.

Just as I put away that hand charger, Scowly poked his head out from the room that the ponies were in. He stared down the path that the crystal monster took, as if expecting it to come back in a dead sprint. When he was sure that it wouldn’t return he turned to look the other way, which included catching a glimpse at me.

I swear that he seemed to visibly relax at the sight of me. That was a first and if he ever knew I saw that, it would also be the last time. His head slipped back inside the room for a brief moment before he slowly walked out from the hiding place. Behind him was both of the Specialists. To my surprise not a single one of them looked phased, but for all I knew they were just covering up their real discontent.

“That was close.” Muttered Scowly as he approached me, “A golem… I haven’t seen one in years let alone one here in the empire.”

“Right, you aren’t from here,” he stated with a fair amount of maliciousness in his voice. “A golem is basically a magically created being. They are usually created from stone but I supposed crystals work. You would need to be extremely powerful to build one of those and even then it is rare to actually get one to be animate.”

I simply nodded my head at this, there wasn’t too much time for him to explain and we needed to move. If there was one golem then there was a good chance that there was more. Who wouldn’t want to create as many of those things as possible. Something as big as the Bear and made out of crystal… well they would be effective here. If they were in the Metro they would hardly stand a chance. The sheer amount of firepower that each faction had would no doubt decimate what little golems that there was.

That actually brought my mind to a similar, but more pressing thought; could my weapons even harm them?

That was not the moment to be musing over something like that. We needed to move just incase that thing came back or another appeared. With a quick flick of my head, indicating to move, we started back up. The only path we could follow was the way that the golem had come from. It wasn’t ideal because it meant that we were going deeper into the tunnels.

We proceeded with caution, but this time we moved faster. There was no telling what was ahead of us, but I feared more of what would be coming from behind. Our rear wasn’t protected by more than a pony with two blades. Little good that would do if we got attacked from behind or if we got surrounded. There was only so much I could do with my limited ammo, it wasn’t like I would be getting any way to resupply.

I sighed mentally, noting another crossroad that we had passed. It was the second one since the golem incident. These tunnels were maze like and with no markers or map, it was all blind luck that we were going in the right direction. I knew how to get back to the main tunnel but if we took too many turns then it would be tough to remember. I just hoped that Cadance was true to her word in that she would pull us out if things got beyond hairy.

I threw my fist up, signalling for us to stop. We had come to another crossroads and I was not content with going straight any longer. The ponies behind me fanned out slightly so that we weren’t in a perfect line formation. That fact that they were military trained brought a nice feeling of relief to my mind. I wouldn’t need to escort them and hold their hand… hoof.

Scowly slowly made his way up to where I was standing; along the left wall so that I could peer down the tunnel to our right.

“Deciding direction. Straight doesn’t feel right.” I replied while looking around the corner. For some reason the tunnel dead ahead seemed much darker, further down the tunnel, than the rest. I brought my hand up to gently tap the night vision goggles to see if there was some sort of issue. The image didn’t change at all.

I shook my head in response, “I remember now. Farther we go will be... issue.”

I wasn’t looking at him but I could tell that he was staring at me with at least some minor contempt for me. It wasn’t a surprise, but at this point I cared little. As long as we could function together, it didn’t matter what our personal feelings for each other would be.

I motioned for them to move forward, of course staying behind me. I carefully moved from my position, each foot in front of the other as if I was walking in a boobytrapped area. Each step was hesitant, my direction set, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that going right was wrong. I stopped walking, the nagging for me to turn back was nearly painful. I was torn though since left wasn’t any better and straight could lead us nowhere. There was no doubt that my intuition was screaming for me to turn back.

My intuition were rarely wrong. That was something that I hated. Sometimes I just wished I was wrong.

Six meters down the tunnel is when I stopped, my mind was made up to turn back when the shrill, almost feminine, scream of a pony came from behind us. It took me a mere couple of a seconds for me to whip around but far too late to react.

The sight that I was given was a shadow beast, that resembled an extremely large Watchman, gripping one of Gleam’s back hooves in it’s maw. The brief question of why Gleam wasn’t stabbing it flashed through my mind before I finally caught the entire picture.

The beast had nearly bitten his right foreleg completely off. The leg lying limp on the ground while the magled stump that was left spurted blood in a near continuous stream.

My sight went from Gleam’s to that of the beast. It met my gaze evenly and without a single thought it turned around, dashing down the former left tunnel. My reaction was that of pure instinct of having a comrade being dragged off.

“Move! Держите уёбка!” I nearly shouted as I dashed headlong down the path. The sounds of my footsteps were indefinitely reverberating down the halls. I couldn’t hear any clopping of hooves behind me, so it was impossible to tell if they followed my lead.

That blackness from before wasn’t natural. No, it was created by the bodies of various shadow beasts. The very same group that was now running headlong towards me. Each beast looked nearly the same as a Watchman, so they should die just like one. I merely grinned under my helmet, if a pike could kill one of these things, then a bullet would be more then enough.

I didn’t stop running at them, there was no time. Well there was, but only enough to raise my Kalash and press the trigger.

The first shot out of the silencer hardly felt like anything. At least that was my assumption before the rest of the forty round clip followed it, each shot slamming the weapon back into my shoulder, but I cared little. All that mattered to me was the deaths of these creatures and saving that pony’s life.

The hail of bullets ripped through the air before doing the same to the bodies of the shadow beasts. I didn’t bother to count how many fell to my gun, I didn’t see anything aside from my path to Gleam.

I was told later by Scowly that all of my shots had found vital hits of some sort. The beasts were not even made of shadow, but instead masked by it. Their bodies had to be weak since many of the rounds went clean through.

I was reckless in my charge, too reckless, but I still managed, thanks to luck… and Scowly. Three shadow beasts managed to live through the spray of metal. I was too set on my path to actually be able to defend myself from them, but I didn’t have to.

Three separate beams of what I assumed was magic connected with the bodies of the beasts. Each one was thrown back against the walls, a smoking hole left in their bodies. There was only one unicorn in our group. I would have to thank him later.

My running didn’t falter, I merely stepped on each body as I moved down the path. I would make it to Gleam, even if he was dead I would ensure that the piece of shit shadow beast that did that would die.

The walls of crystal seemed to whiz by, much like riding on a train. It felt like I was running faster than I ever had, adrenaline pumping through me in order to keep me moving forward. I continued to carry my Kalash in my hands yet I didn’t bother to reload it. Doing so would only slow me down.

As I rounded a particularly sharp curve, I found myself in a large cavern. Nothing even close to the size of the main cave that the ponies were stationed in. There, on the other side of the cavern, was Gleam. Blood was flowing slowly from the mangled limb that was left of his right foreleg. He was quietly sobbing, mumbling words that I couldn’t hear clear enough.

That wasn’t all in the cave though. Halfway between him and I and off to the left a little, the shadow beast stood. It’s head was turned to me, those deadly red eyes trying in vain to burrow into me and frighten me. I merely smirked under my helmet, knowing that I had it.

My eyes widened as I just remembered that I forgot to reload, but there was no time now. The beast also noticed that I wasn’t ready to kill it. If it could smirk I swear it would have before turning towards Gleam. He must have noticed as well since a wordless gasp escaped his mouth as the beast started it’s run towards him.

My hand moved without a single thought, as if reacting by itself. The Kalash fell from whatever grip I had on it, my right hand sliding down my side towards the holster my revolver sat in.

If my life had been some sort of tacky movie, time would have slowed down as I flipped the button locked strap off my holster before drawing it. Instead it happened in the blink of an eye. My hand had the revolver halfway up to a firing position as the shadow beast got within a few meters of Gleam.

It must have known it was going to die either way because it swiftly launched into a diving pounce aimed at the pony. It was a last ditch effort that was bound to fail. I had easily brought the revolver to face level by that time and had my sights marked right its head. A single squeeze was all I needed; it was all I would get.

The kick of the revolver was hardly anything but the impact that the bullet had on the head of the beast was the opposite. The counter momentums threw the beast in a mild spin, landing it at the hooves of Gleam, dead and bleeding with a portion of it’s head missing. For a moment I just smirked at this small victory.

A small pricking feeling arose in the back of my head, causing me to briefly keel over. I quickly recovered and looked back up. What I saw sent a chill down my spine.

Anna was in front, leading us down the right hallway since the left had been collapsed. Skeletal bones littered the ground, those which wasn’t covered by some sort of unnatural moss. Each step along the ground made a sickening squelch, like stepping on the head of a dead mutant. It wasn’t the cleanest tunnel I had moved through, but it was hardly the worst. The fact it was so close to the surface probably made it so dank.

I hardly noticed the squeaking of rats but Anna did, “Something alarmed them! Stay sharp.”

She was looking around the corner that the tunnel made, her flashlight attempting to illuminate the dark crevices that the tunnel held. I strode up to right beside her, looking down the same path.

Without a single warning, a Lurker barreled down the tunnel from the other side. The thing must have been scared as well, since it took one look at us and turned tail. I wasn’t going to let that happen though.

I snapped my RPK-74 to my shoulder and fired a quick three round burst at the fleeing Lurker. Two rounds connected with the beast, sending it sprawling to the ground. Its life ended by my shots.

“Shit! That thing’s fast!” Anna said as she proceeded forward, “you got reflexes, I’ll give you that.”

Without hesitation, Anna ran right past the body and continued down the tunnel. I tried to follow but some force held me back. I stopped briefly before shaking my head, everything around me dissolved.

I blinked rapidly as I found myself back in the crystal tunnels, my revolver still drawn and the beast still dead. Scowly and Able had rushed into the cave during my flashback and were now kneeling beside a still sobbing Gleam. His crying wasn’t loud and he seemed to be trying to cover them up with false bravado.

“Hang in there, Gleam. You’ll be alright buddy, everything is going to be fine, you’ll see!” Able was on Gleam’s left, holding his other hoof in hers. She herself looked like she was going to breakdown.

I reached into the pouch that held my medicine. There was two syringes of morphine left in my little orange case. It wasn’t something that was up for debate; this pony needed it at least. I quickly rushed over to him, all the while pulling a syringe out of the case.

“Hold on.” I said as I quickly dropped to my knees, aiming the syringe at his right shoulder. I think Scowly was about to object to what I was doing but the needle found its mark in his shoulder before Scowly could say a word.

The moment the morphine was injected, I could see Gleam visibly relax, the pain being dulled at least. His crying slowly died down to just a mere heavy breathing. His eyelids descended from their fully open position into a more half lidded looked. It was clear that the morphine did its job.

“What did you give him?” Able asked, Scowly would have asked the question had he not been entirely focused on bandaging the stump of a leg.

“Morphine. Pain killer; won’t heal it but will stop pain.” I said simply, my mind was still racing at a hundred kilometers an hour. Constantly trying to find solutions for this situation as well as plans for what we would do next.

I hardly noticed that Scowly had pulled out a gem. The thing looked akin to all the crystals that were surrounding us but this one was finely cut and had an odd green glow to it. My first thought was instantly that there was some sort of magic to it. Once again, magic was indeed the answer.

“FOB Cavern this is Prince Shining Armour, do you read?” He spoke towards the crystal. So this was their form of radios, at least from what I had seen. I would have to ask one of the ponies just how advanced they were.

“We read you, Prince.” Came the reply back. The voice, though it came from the crystal, it seemed to speak from all around us.

“We have wounded here, I repeat we have critically wounded here. We need Princess Cadance to teleport a friendly out.” I had to give Scowly some credit, he did seem to know what he was doing.

“Specialist Yellow Gleam, he is missing a leg. It will be apart of the package.” Scowly stopped his communication to look over at Able. Her eyes were staring back at his, as if pleading to let her go with him. They must have been really close for her to be acting like this. I had never seen a Ranger hold the same look about another one. Scowly seemed to relent to the silent barrage of pleads. “As well, Specialist Able Swift will be apart of the package. She is not injured.”

So we sat, not for long mind you but it felt too long. For the first few moments there was silence. It was Gleam who, out of all ponies, broke the silence. “I’m sorry, sir. I… I wasn’t paying attention.”

Scowly’s normal visage softened, something I had yet to see; flirting with Cadance aside. “Don’t fret, soldier. You did fine, nopony could have known. Just relax now, you’re going to make it.”

Gleam attempted to smile but you could tell that it was tough to do such in this situation. I could tell he wanted to say more but a soft glowing started to encase them.

Shortly after, the glow strengthened until it was impossible for them to be seen through it. It stayed that way for a brief second before the glow expanded, much like a light bulb that was being fed too much power. I closed my eyes hard as the night vision became almost painful to use. I held them close until a pop was heard, only daring to look because I figured that they were gone.

I was right, the only thing left in their spot was the blood that had fell from Gleam’s stump. I sighed in minor relief, the glow was gone and I could actually use my night vision again. I glanced over to Scowly who was standing, his legs quivering slightly.

“If so, then it was for good cause. Everyone dies sometimes; some sooner than others.” I said, walking back towards the path we had come from. I had long since holstered my revolver but my Kalash 2012 was still on the ground and empty.

“A good cause?! What good cause?! If he dies it is because we have been wandering these tunnels aimlessly!”

“I never wander without purpose. Whatever is down here, we will stop it,” I said while picking up my Kalash 2012. After removing the clip and slipping it back into one of the pouches, I pulled another one out. Scowly was silent, too silent honestly. I looked over my shoulder to find he was just sitting there, staring at me in a wordless way.

I walked over to him after reloading. Just by the way he looked at me, I could tell that he thought I was insane or at least crazy. I dropped to a crouch in front of him, looking straight into his eyes.

“I am no wise man, that was my friend, but I can say that shit happens.” I said, while poking a finger into his chest. “It will alway happen. Do not mistake screw ups for such. Now, I didn’t come here for scouting. I want that book and out of here, only way is by helping.”

“I don’t do thing with half heart. It is only way to fail.” I said as I rose from my position, turning to face the tunnel again. “You saved me and I saved your soldier. We are even but we also work good together. Prove to me that you are not what I thought, Scowly.”

With that I proceeded to walk down the tunnel, with or without him. I was determined to get that book if it meant what Khan implied what it meant. I had blazed a path through the tunnels of the Metro will little assistance and these tunnels were hardly any different. If Scowly decided to come with me then all the better, but I would survive otherwise.

“What did you mean by Scowly?” His voice came from right behind me. I wasn’t surprised though, because I expected him to follow and for him to also question that specific statement.

“Nickname, fit you well.” I said as we continued to walk, I was only realizing that we had run a far distance to get to Gleam. We hadn’t even passed the bodies of the shadow beasts yet.

“Really now? How did it fit me?” He said, his voice coming from directly beside me. I looked down to my right to see he was walking evenly with me … or was trotting a better word?

“When we met, you scowled. From then I saw nothing else. Name fit.” It was simple logic and I don’t think he could even fault me on it. “Was not worst nickname I gave.”

“Yes but is secret. Maybe someday.” What followed, I couldn’t believe. I actually heard a small snicker coming from him. That was something that I never thought I would hear. maybe there was actually some sort of connection being made between us.

We continued to walk down the tunnel, passed the beasts. I didn’t even care to glance at them, their bodies were just stark reminders that I quite possibly got a pony killed by my recklessness. Even with the words I told Scowly, I still felt I had a part in Gleam’s injury.

My train of thought had slowed down at Scowly though. I looked down at him briefly, he didn’t notice but I couldn’t help, but feel that maybe the name didn’t fit him anymore. In this hectic situation, I think he might just have earned my respect and the least I could do would to be calling him by his actual name. The name Scowly wouldn’t be killed though, instead I would save it so I could taunt him later. Just like that little flirting bit with his wife. Stuff like that was a gold mine when there was a situation that needed some sort of humour.

Eventually we arrived back at the Crossroads again. I proceeded to do my usual method of looking down the paths. it was easier this way. No matter if I had done it before, there was no telling what the darkness of the tunnels could hold. We had already learned the hard way that it could conceal just about anything, especially if there were beast that were akin to shadows.

The tunnel that we had attempted to go down was just about the same as every other one. The crystal walls continued to stretch on as far as we could tell. The fact that I couldn’t see that far meant there was something unnatural about the darkness that was consuming this place. Khan and I had seen something like that once, he told me afterwards that it was another thing that happened when there were spirits who were stuck on this world. However, I later learned that their endless cycle of having to relive their last moments wasn’t the worst fate that could befall on them. The ones that the Little One and I saw at Red Square were much worse than just an unnatural darkness.

As we moved down this dark tunnel, the darkness eventually began to let up. It wasn’t like a light had appeared at the end of tunnel, I chuckled lightly at a few sayings involving such a case… it either meant you were dead or safe. Instead it seemed that the darkness was lifting much like a fog would. I smiled slightly under my mask, maybe there was some good that would come out of what had just happened.

There was a bend in the tunnel that was where the darkness was the weakest. Maybe we had found a way into a major cave system, perhaps close to our goal.

We rounded the corner to find something the exact opposite of what I was hoping for. At that point I couldn’t help but groan.

“Ну почему это должны быть именно лестницы?”

Metro: Retribution

by RF and AG

Chapter 10: Into the Depths