Trigger to Tomorrow Side Story: Crossfire

by thatguyvex

Chapter 4: Crossfire and Bruise

Chapter 4: Crossfire and Bruise

“Drop the rifle,” Bruise said with a hard scowl, mouth less than an inch from the firing bit of her battle saddle, “Or don’t, and we can see if your looks are improved by a direct injection of buckshot. Your choice. You got until the count of three.”

In the distance, echoing off the countless sewer tunnels so the sounds seemed to come from all directions at once, the howls and shrieking hoots of what had to be scores of Gobs reached Crossfire’s ears. Along with those unearthly cries was a steady, deep pounding of drums that seemed to match the tense heartbeat in Crossfire’s chest. The Hammer Crusher gangers looked about tensely, guns aiming at the darkened tunnels around them, while Bruise kept her eyes solely fixed upon Crossfire as she began counting.

“One...”

Crossfire ground her teeth, her tail flicking like a whip behind her. She just escaped this gang, and gotten her rifle back. There was no way she was going to just surrender. Narrowing her eyes, she looked left and right, scanning the room for anything she could use to gain an advantage she’d desperately need to escape. She resisted the urge to smile as she caught sight of a set of pipes that ran along sewer’s ceiling. The pipes were rimmed red with rust, and spotting a few pressure valves spaced along them, she surmised that whatever was in there was compressed to one degree or another.

Should have paid more attention in my advanced spellcasting training. Being able to teleport, or pull off a shield, would be pretty bucking useful right now! Note to self; if I survive this, I’m learning more spells! On the bright side, they seem to want Knobs and Wellspring alive. That’s something at least.

“Two...” Bruise licked her lips and put her mouth on the firing bit of her battle saddle; the dual double barrel shotguns aimed squarely at Crossfire’s chest.

Even if Crossfire pulled the same trick she did last time, using telekinesis to throw of Bruise’s aim, there were still plenty of other gangers to fill her full of holes, not the least of which was the griffin with the machine gun, who unlike the other gang ponies wasn’t looking around nervously and had her eyes fixed on Crossfire along with her gun. However, none of the gangers seemed to have realized they were standing beneath those pipes. Crossfire knew it would be a gamble, but she’d have to bet on her rifle’s bayonet being able to break one of the pipes open.

Of course, even with whatever distraction that’d provide, it was still just here against a lot well armed ponies and a griffin, and her without any ammo. She might be able to escape if she just ran after breaking the pipe, but that’d mean leaving behind Knobs and Wellspring. In her mind’s eye Crossfire could see herself back at the Ruin where she’d lost her squadmates, and a flash of anger and shame mixed with the more recent memory of Knobs, who’d looked after Crossfire’s wounds, and come to rescue her from these very gangers that now held Knob’s hostage.

No, there wasn’t any way in Tartarus that Crossfire was leaving Knobs behind. Wellspring... meh, jury was still out on that one, but certainly not Knobs! She’d just have to bet on being able to take out the ponies holding Knobs and Wellspring before the gangers recovered from her distraction, assuming she managed to break the pipe before getting shot.

Bruise smiled in satisfaction, seeing Crossfire wasn’t tossing her weapon down as ordered.

“Hoped that’d be your choice.”

Just as Bruise started to bite down on her battle saddle’s firing bit, Crossfire’s horn flashed red and she threw herself to the side. At the same instant a burst of telekinetic force slammed into Bruise, Crossfire’s rifle flew up and the bayonet jammed into a particularly rusty section of pipe above the ganger’s heads. Gunfire slammed around the confined sewer junction, deafening in the close quarters. Most of that gunfire didn’t come close to Crossfire, the burst of brown, brackish liquid spraying from the broken pipe throwing off the aim of the ganger’s who were caught off guard by the putrid shower of sewer waste. Bruise herself had been braced for Crossfire’s telekinetic shove, but had still been pushed back a few meters and her twin double barrel shotguns tore up chunks of brickwork from the wall next to Crossfire, but failed to strike her.

In the immediate confusion following her breaking the pipe, Crossfire charged forward, and directed her rifle at the same time. The rifle, held tightly in a glow of red magic, flew down and stabbed the ganger holding Knob’s through the back, causing the stallion to cry out and fall in a heap. Crossfire herself leaped in at the ganger holding Wellspring and while that ganger was still trying to clear sewer gunk from her eyes, Crossfire spun on her forelegs and bucked as hard as she could. She felt her hooves crack ribs as that ganger went into the wall with a grunt.

“Run!” Crossfire shouted, hauling a confused Wellspring away and looking back at Knobs.

Knobs, shocked, but quickly reacting, snatched her own small rifle from the back of the ganger that’d confiscated it, using her own telekinesis, and bashed the ganger over the head with the butt of the rifle before making a gallop for the nearest sewer tunnel.

By the time Crossfire and Wellspring started doing the same, though, the gangers had recovered from the impromptu sewer shower and fired upon the fleeing mares, the heavy rattling sound of the griffin’s machine gun loudest of them all. Bullet’s tore apart the sewer around them as Crossfire, Wellspring, and Knobs rushed into another sewer tunnel. Crossfire felt a bullet graze past her neck, and another tear a painful flesh wound across her flank. There was nothing for it though except to keep running. She slowed only enough to let Wellspring and Knobs take the lead, deciding that she’d be the group’s rear guard.

“After them damn it!” she heard Bruise shout, and knew the burly mare would be leading the charge to hunt them down.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the howls of the Gobs were now so loud they sounded as if they were practically on top of them.

“H-how did you...” Wellspring panted as they galloped full tilt down the tunnel, “How did you know they wouldn't shoot me or Knobs back there!?”

“I didn’t...” Crossfire admitted with her ears flattened, “Would you have rather I’d surrendered?”

“No!” said Knobs, “Totally glad that you decided to do the not-surrender thing! Bruise was really, really, really mad though!”

“Well, I did just bathe them all in sh-”

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on running, not talking?” interrupted Wellspring, who Crossfire couldn’t see frown, but the mare certainly had that ‘frowny’ tone to her voice, “And in case you failed to notice, you bathed me and Knobs in that filth as well!”

“Sorry, I’ll remember to find a pipe of clean sudsy scented bath soap the next time I need to rescue you two from murderous gang ponies!”

“Bruise isn’t murderous,” said Knobs defensively.

“Did you not see the same pony I did, pointing shotguns at me?” Crossfire shot back.

“Can’t we talk about this when we’re not running for our lives?” asked Wellspring between heavy breaths as the trio tore through several more sewer junctions without slowing down.

Crossfire kept looking left and right as they galloped past numerous sewer tunnels, only hers and Knobs’ horns illuminating the area around them. The sounds of the Gobs was so close now she expected to see the monstrous little beasts leaping from the shadows at any given moment. The three ponies followed a curve in the tunnel that lead into a larger, open chamber. Crossfire didn’t know what the room could be for, perhaps some kind of maintenance area? It was too large, and filled with boiler-like machinery that honestly Crossfire couldn’t imagine served much purpose in a sewer, but yet there it all was, clustered at the bottom of the chamber.

The tunnel she, Knobs, and Wellspring came out of led to a metal catwalk that ran above the machinery, with a curved arch of a ceiling hanging above with a hooful of old barely flickering lights; indicating this area was still getting power from somewhere. Crossfire saw a broken set of stairs to her left, long ago rusted away, that would’ve led to the bottom of the room, where she could see a few doors leading to other parts of the sewers. Just as the ponies started to run across the catwalk Gobs started to boil out of the entrances on the floor of the chamber, their shrieking gibberish filling the room like the buzzing of mad hornets. Crossfire was grateful for the fact that the stairs up the catwalk were busted, but that gratitude was short lived. Before she and the others got halfway across the catwalk, Crossfire heard a wrenching sound of twisting metal, and the entire catwalk lurched.

Crossfire barely kept her hooves under her, but heard a gasping yelp as Wellspring teetered and nearly went over the catwalk’s railing as the entire thing swung to the right, the moorings holding it to the ceiling starting to break loose. Wellspring would have fallen, if Knobs hadn’t quickly caught the other mare’s mane with her teeth and hauled her back from the brink.

“T-thanks,” Wellspring said, then yipped in pain as something flew by her, cutting her flank. Crossfire caught sight of rusted metal glinting off of the room’s dim light and saw more such objects flying up at them; the Gobs were hurling their makeshift axes, and seemed to have no shortage of the things packed into the bulky bags many wore on their squat shoulders.

“Keep going!” Crossfire yelled, feeling the catwalk lurch again. She didn’t know if the thing was coming apart due to bad luck or an intentional trap on the Gobs’ part, but either way they had to get across before the whole thing came down! The bottom of the chamber was already filled with Gobs, too many to fight if they landed amongst them.

Ducking by flying axes, Crossfire resumed her gallop, pushing Wellspring and Knobs before her.

“There they are!” shouted Bruise’s feminine lilting voice behind them, and Crossfire didn’t have to look behind her to know what was coming next.

Leaping forward she shoved Wellspring and Knobs to the floor of the catwalk as shotgun and machine gun fire tore up the air above them. The move caused the catwalk to buckle once more, and with a snap of metal the entire back half came loose and fell to the ground, leaving the affair tilted. On the bright sight that cut off the Hammer Crusher gangers from following them. On the ‘oh shit’ side, that gave a route for the Gobs to start surging up after the three fleeing ponies.

Oh, and the catwalk was now three times harder to get up due to the steep incline along with the swaying.

Nevertheless there was only one route to go in order to get out of this deathtrap, so Crossfire kept pushing the ponies in front of her along a Wellspring and Knobs struggled to start climbing the tilted catwalk. Knobs levitated her rifle around and without looking fired into the advancing horde of Gobs. Crossfire was grateful the teal mare remembered she had a gun, but wished she’d at least glance over her shoulder before shooting. Crossfire felt a bullet snip past her cheek and shouted, “Little higher, Knobs!”

“Sorry! Sorry!”

As Knobs adjusted her aim while still focusing on climbing alongside Wellspring, Crossfire turned and started to slowly climb backwards while leveling her rifle in front of her. The first of the Gob horde was nearly upon her, the little humanoid creatures scrambling up the catwalk with the jerking movement akin to insects. Crossfire grimaced at their sour stink as one reached for her, swinging a gunk covered hunk of axe-shaped metal as it gibbered at her.

“Horsey flesh, horsey flesh, yummy horsey flesh!”

Crossfire used the butt of her rifle to knock away the axe and quickly countered with a straight thrust that went clean through the Gobs’ lightly armored chest. She heaved with the rifle, tossing the body at the next Gob, which caused a snowball effect sending more Gobs tumbling away, yet more flowed upward like a hairy tide of gnashing teeth and swinging weapons. A thrown blade like a half broken kitchen knife bounced off Crossfire’s chest, her torn up leather armor barely keeping the blade from causing worse than a shallow cut.

Above all this, at the lip of the entrance they’d used to get into the room, Bruise and the other ganger’s watched. Crossfire glanced at them, and saw that the only reason they hadn’t kept shooting was because Bruise and the griffin were both reloading their weapons while the other gangers were shooting down the tunnel, towards another mass of Gobs that had come up the tunnel behind them. The gangers had their own hooves full now with the Gobs, and Crossfire knew she and the other’s best chance of getting away was now, while the gangers were distracted.

Fiercely she fought, crawling up the catwalk step by step while keeping the Gobs at bay. Her horn was starting to feel strained from telekinetic bursts she sent to toss Gobs away, and even levitating her rifle around, slashing in huge swinging arcs with the bayonet, was getting tiring. Every Gob she killed seemed to only spawn another one, and her body was starting to rack up a disturbing amount of cuts from near misses or glancing blows from the Gobs makeshift blades.

Finally she felt hoove grab her from behind and yank on her, pulling her into the tunnel at the top of the catwalk. Knobs gave her a smile and wink as she and Wellspring both turned to the catwalk and reared up at the same time, bringing their hooves down on it and causing the entire thing to break free and spin to the ground, sending Gobs bouncing off of walls and the machinery below. Crossfire, catching her breath, grinned as Knobs offered her a hoof up.

“Nice,” she said.

“That was remarkably satisfying,” said Wellspring, looking at the carnage below, then ducked as an axe hit the tunnel wall next to her, “Okay, satisfaction had, leaving now.”

The three ponies resumed their flight, running down the tunnel and away from the noise of screaming Gobs and the gunfire of the gangers they were leaving behind.

----------

“Oooooh, I hope Bruise will be okay...” said Knobs as they trotted.

They were no longer galloping along, the noise of the Gobs having faded behind them. All three of them needed to catch their breath, but Crossfire didn’t want them slowing down too much. She was still nervous, eyeing cross sections of tunnel as they went by.

“Why, precisely, are you so concerned with that brute of a mare?” asked Wellspring, “I gather you two were friends at one point; but clearly she does not share that sentiment any longer.”

Knobs chewed her lip, not looking at the other mare, “I... Well, do I need a reason? I don’t have to stop thinking of another pony as a friend just because they... drift away from me a bit, right? If it wasn’t for Spiked Heels orders I’m sure she wouldn’t be doing any of this. She’s not bad, just, well, the Outskirts can make anypony a little hard around the edges.”

“It certainly hasn’t appeared to have had that effect on you, Miss Knobs,” pointed out Wellspring, not unkindly, but with an even tone that suggested what she thought of Knobs’ reasoning.

Knobs just sighed, “I’m nothing special. There are plenty of ponies that do more than I do, ponies that actually make the Outskirts a better place to live. I just... live there. I don’t do anything that helps other ponies.”

Wellspring gave Knobs a pensive look, her tail twitching, “I’ve been visiting the Outskirts for many years in pursuit of stories. I’ve met few ponies who have your kind of relentlessly positive outlook. Don’t sell yourself short, Miss Knobs. But don’t oversell others either, even if you care for them. Your ‘friend’ is trying to kill us.”

Knobs made a small, pained nicker as she looked at the ground, and Crossfire stepped between the other two mares.

“Let’s just focus on getting out of here. Wellspring, do you have any idea where we are?”

Wellspring paused at one of the tunnel junctions, examining the numbers on the wall. She frowned, eyes narrowing in thought.

“Well, I can give you some good news, and some bad news. Do you have a preference on which you want to hear first?”

Crossfire snorted, “Doesn’t matter, just tell us what’s up, and then I’ll decide how much we need to panic.”

“Very well. The good news is that our little dash from danger has covered quite a bit of ground. If I’m reading these numbers right and my memory of the sewers isn’t entirely faulty, we’re very close to the wall of the Inner City, perhaps even already under it. The unfortunate news is that I don’t recognize the exact tunnel numbers, and am unsure how we can reach the surface. More than that, these particular numbers indicate we’re rather deeper than I ever dared venture when down here before.”

“So... you don’t know which way to go from here, do you?” Crossfire asked, already knowing the answer. Wellspring nodded, maintaining her composure despite the grave light in her eyes.

“I’m afraid so, yes. As of now, the best I can offer is we look for any tunnel that leads up, and hope we make our way to the surface.”

“Any chance we’ll run into those Sewer Guild ponies you went out with?” asked Crossfire, sniffing the air, trying to get a notion of which tunnel had the fresher scent. Unfortunately everything smelled equally stale and rotten in the sewer, and not just because by now all three mares were covered in filth and sweat themselves. Crossfire didn’t even want to guess what kind of things were getting into her wounds.

“First of all, I only dated one Sewer Guild pony. As to your question, the chances are low. They do most of their work on the sewers beneath the Inner City, true, but this deep, they don’t maintain a presence beyond a few scouts. Too many Gobs, or other creatures.”

“Fan-bucking-tastic,” muttered Crossfire, “How are you two doing on ammo?”

Knobs’ ears drooped, “Not much. One clip, plus a few extra rounds. I, uh, didn’t bring much with me to rescue you.”

Wellspring examined her own pistol, “I always ensure I bring plenty of reloads when I venture outside the Inner City, and honestly I haven’t run through very much. That said, I don’t favor getting into too many more scraps if we can avoid it. None of us are in top form at the moment. No offense, Miss Crossfire, but you look... rather wretched. As if a quick tap will topple you over.”

“I’m fine,” Crossfire grunted, ignoring the fact that the way Wellspring called attention to her wounds made the pain of them all the sharper, “Alright, so we don’t want to get into another shootout. Only thing for it is to push on, following any way up we can.”

She was about to pick a tunnel at random when Knobs spoke up, her entire form perking up like an alerted puppy, “Hey, what’s that?”

Crossfire looked over to where Knobs was pointing with her her snout like a pony-shaped bloodhound, and blinked. It was so dirty it all but blended into the sewer wall’s dirty brown coloring, but there was actually a door that looked little like the other sewer maintenance doors they’d seen so far. Crossfire approached it, taking in the details as she wiped some of the grim off with a hoof.

“Is this... an elevator?”

The doors were of a sliding variety, with no obvious handle or knob, but a quick enough examination showed a call button built into the wall next to the doors. Crossfire laughed, “Buck me, I think it is.”

Wellspring and Knobs gathered around her, Wellspring quirking an eyebrow.

“Does it have power?”

Crossfire shrugged and pushed the call button. For a second nothing happened, but then a small light above the doors lit up, and with a rusty chug the doors slide open, revealing a surprisingly clean and well lit interior large enough to hold half a dozen ponies with room to spare.

“I guess it does,” Crossfire said, poking her head in, frowning. There was only one other button on the inside, indicating this elevator only went to one location. And there was no way to tell if that location was up or down. She glanced back at the others, “Want to give it a try?”

“Can’t make our situation much worse can it?” asked Knobs innocently. Wellspring groaned, and Crossfire joined her.

“I can think of a few ways it could, but its not like we got a more promising option,” said Crossfire.

“Agreed. Shall we?” Wellspring said, stepping in. Soon all three ponies were inside and after a moment, Crossfire hit the button.

The doors chugged closed and soon the elevator car shuddered, and started to move. It wasn’t long before all three ponies looked at each other, feeling the same motion.

“Looks like we’re going down,” said Crossfire with a grim tone.

--------

After a minute Crossfire’s mind was realizing several things at once, and she felt the need to vocalize to her companions.

“Alright, Wellspring, Knobs, riddle me a few things.”

“Huh?” asked Knobs, and Wellspring nodded silently.

“Either of you,” Crossfire continued, “notice that this elevators is in a lot better condition than the rest of the sewer?”

“I did,” said Wellspring, “I’ve come to the same conclusion. This was recently built, relatively speaking.”

“Like, how new are we talking here?” asked Knobs curiously, “It can’t be that new.”

“I doubt this was made by anypony from the city, but I don’t think this is from two hundred years ago either,” said Crossfire, “Just the fact that the elevator works at all suggests that much.”

“That seems unlikely to me,” said Wellspring, “Skull City was fairly lawless until the Guild’s formally organized about fifty years ago, and only the Guild’s could have the resources to build an elevator like this down in these sewers. If not the Guilds, then only a pre-war organization could build something of this nature.”

“So you think this is a Guild thing?” asked Knobs, sounding nervous, “Like, maybe a Labor Guild base? I heard they tried enslaving Gobs at one point, but it didn’t pan out.”

“If it is, it's probably been abandoned for some time,” said Wellspring, “But if we’re lucky and if they have a back way in like this, then there will be a front way out that will lead to the surface.”

Crossfire let the two mares muse, keeping her other thoughts to herself. She wasn’t convinced this was a Guild built affair. It just felt... off to her.

A minute or so later the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened, leading out into what looked like a large storage facility. It was mostly empty, but there were still pallets containing metal piping and other building materials, and several loading forklifts parked to the side. Opposite the elevator was a large metal sliding door, halfway opened up, and leading to darkness. There was no lighting down here aside from what the two unicorns were providing, but Crossfire knew this place had power, from the blinking lights on a terminal sitting on a metal desk in one corner of the storage room.

“I think must retract my earlier assessment,” said Wellspring, her tone growing distasteful, “I don’t see any Labor Guild symbols, and they do so enjoy plastering their logo on their property.”

“I... don’t like this place,” said Knobs, shrinking back towards the elevator, “The air doesn’t smell right.”

Crossfire sniffed, and found there was a faint acidic tang to the air. She had no idea what to make of it, but it was barely noticeable. More like the memory of a scent rather than the actual scent itself. It didn’t burn the nose, and you wouldn’t notice it unless you were paying attention, but it left an uncomfortable sense in the air that’d put anypony on edge.

“If you want to Knobs, we can try going back,” Crossfire began, not really liking the idea, but worried about the other mare’s nerves. However just then the elevator doors closed and they heard the hum of the elevator going back up the shaft.

“What the hay?” Crossfire said, then her eyes widened, “Oh shit...”

Knobs gulped, “Why is the elevator going back up on its own?”

“Its not,” Wellspring said before Crossfire could, “Somepony called it.”

“My money’s on the Hammer Crushers,” said Crossfire, “They had enough firepower to fight past the Gobs, and they’ve already proven they can follow our trail. Its not like we hid the fact we used the elevator; we pretty much cleaned off the doors so anypony could spot it now. Come, we got to move. Its about three minutes up, then three back down. We don’t want to be here by then!”

She received no argument and the three ponies quickly galloped across the storage room. Beyond it they found themselves in a wide, tube shaped corridor, with metal supports lining walls of natural rock. The corridor spanned to the left and right, and without any talk the ponies naturally gravitated to the left, Crossfire in the lead. As she ran she took note of the size of the corridor, wondering at why the space was so large. The reason for the size of the hallway became clearer when they ran past a large autowagon that was crash into the wall; this corridor was built to accommodate vehicles, not just ponies.

“Wait, wait,” Wellspring said, slowing down, “Did you see the logo on that wagon?”

Crossfire shook her head, saying in a rough voice, “Wasn’t really paying attention!”

“That was an Equestrian military wagon.”

Crossfire slowed down slightly, turning to look at Wellspring curiously, “How do you know that? Equestria military symbols aren’t exactly common knowledge these days, are they?”

Wellspring just looked back at her with a guarded expression of her own, “You’d be surprised the kind of things a pony learns when your lifeblood is ferreting out stories for a radio show. Trust me, that wagon was part of the Equestrian army from before the balefire bombs.”

“That’s interesting and all,” said Knobs, “But what does that mean for us?”

“Right now? Probably nothing,” said Crossfire, then laughed, “Unless this is a secret base where a portion of the Equestrian army hid from the balefire bombs, and now have transformed into an army of zombies due to a viral outbreak and are just waiting for a chance to unleash their undead fury upon the world. Then it means we’re running to our deaths.”

At the looks she got from Knobs and Wellspring, she cringed, “Okay, sorry, stupid joke.”

The pain and stress must’ve been getting to her; if she was resorting to her own limited sense of humor to try and stay calm. She wanted to stay as strong as she could. Between the three of them she was the only one with military training, and when it came down to it, she owed it to these two to get them out of this mess alive. Neither Knobs or Wellspring would be here if not for Crossfire, and she was all too aware of the fact.

As they ran on more signs of the Equestrian pre-war military became evident. First was a blockade, ruined and torn apart. Crossfire knew the signs of a desperate firefight when she saw one, and the pair of armored wagons, combined with the strewn and skeletal remains of at least twenty ponies was a clear sign of a battle. The armored wagons looked as if they’d been gutted by heavy ordnance; but Crossfire couldn’t tell what. Not missiles or other high explosives. It looked more like the armor had been melted by extreme heat.

The dead ponies were into deteriorated a condition to really guess what specifically had killed them, but the old green combat armor had burn marks and scorched through holes that Crossfire could tell it wasn’t conventional weapons that had done these poor ponies in.

“Anypony else getting the feeling we really shouldn’t be going this way?” asked Knobs nervously as they slowed down to work their way around the remains of the old battle.

“Too late to change our minds now,” said Crossfire, “Your pal Bruise is going to be right behind us with all of her heavily armed, pissed off friends. Our only choice is to keep going... though first...”

She started picking around the bodies. The weapons were all in poor condition, not the kind she’d willingly pick up and use for fear of the things misfiring and taking her snout off. But the ammo was still good, if she could find the right kind.

“Come on... come on,” she muttered, picking up and tossing aside assault rifles and shotguns, “Has to be one of you that was the designated sniper...”

Neither Knobs or Wellspring questioned what Crossfire was doing, instead taking the time to also check for useable ammunition or other supplies. Despite the danger of the Hammer Crusher gang being close, they didn’t spend more than half a minute at scavenging. Crossfire let out a soft sigh of joy as she managed to find what she’d been looking for, a skeleton bearing a battle saddle with a mount for a long, scoped sniper rifle. The rifle itself she had no interest in, but the battle saddle’s packs of spare ammunition, all .308 rounds, was the prize she wanted. Levitating the ammo from the battle saddle she started to quickly unload the rounds from the Equestrian military clips and transfer them over to the single clip she had for her own Protectorate rifle.

She glanced at her companions, seeing they’d managed to snag some spare ammo as well, Knobs fiddling around with transferring ammo between magazines, while Wellspring was fortunate enough that her pistol, being a revolver, didn’t need to be concerned with magazine compatibility. She just loaded up on rounds for it, finding several from similar revolvers carried by what had probably been the officers’ bodies.

“Won’t go down for a lack of shooting back, now.” Crossfire said, slapping her freshly loaded clip into her rifle with a satisfying metallic click.

“Preferably we can avoid the messy affair of having to shoot back at all,” said Wellspring, honey gold tail swishing behind her as she holstered her pistol, then looked at Crossfire and Knobs with a look of prim calm that belied a fearful gulp, “Shall we resume running for our lives?”

Crossfire kept a wary eye behind them as they started down the tunnel once more. They hadn’t wasted much time at the ruined blockade, but she had a icy feeling at the back of her neck that told her that danger was coming up fast. The only problem was she wasn’t sure if this instinct was being triggered by the threat of what they were running from... or what they were running towards.

Minutes crawled by with disturbing slowness, the only sound being the panting breaths of the three galloping mares and the loud, echoing clang of their hooves on the smooth tunnel floor. The faint wafts of acidic scent seemed to grow stronger the deeper they went, and Crossfire noted a shift in the air, a buzz of energy that wasn’t unlike walking into some kind of magical field.

“Anypony feel that?” Crossfire asked.

Wellspring gave her an odd look, but Knobs nodded, her eyes skittishly looking around, “Yeah. I... I don’t know what it is, but my horn’s humming.”

Wellspring licked her lips, letting out a soft, worried whinney, “We’re not walking into a magical trap or somesuch, are we?”

Crossfire frowned, then shook her head, “I don’t think so. It just feels like the air itself is charged with magic, but from what I can’t...”

She trailed off as the tunnel suddenly opened up into a vast darkness. The wall spread out to either side of them, but in front the tunnel let out into a wide, open room, though no clear ceiling or far wall was visible. The floor continued on, but switched from being hewn stone to clear metal platform. Crossfire looked up, but couldn’t see the top, and to either side of her she could barely make out walls a good fifty or so meters away, which simply curved away like the edges of a cylinder.

Before the three of them, directly across the tunnel opening, the metal platform ended in a void of black, but was connected to something out there via a much more narrow walkway, a bridge across the blackness. But it wasn’t total darkness. No, Crossfire could make out something out there. Something massive.

“Where are we?” Knobs asked, voice going soft with awe as she slowed to a light canter, her horn glowing brighter to try and illuminate the huge open area.

“Somewhere important enough to die defending,” Crossfire said as she noticed that, upon the metal platform they were walking across, dozens of more skeletals bodies lay, along with a few more armored wagons either turned over or burned out.

Wellspring, who was looking up towards the seemingly non-existent ceiling, rubbed her chin in wonderment, voice musing, “I think we’re actually beneath the Inner City now. Not directly under the center, but close enough that we’re beyond the wall. I never imagined a chamber this large would be down this deep. This place... nopony in Skull City knows it exists, I’m certain.”

“Great, but that doesn’t help us much,” growled Crossfire as she started a fast canter across the platform, towards the bridge across the void. She wanted to get a closer look at what was out there, and hopefully find something that’d indicate a way out of this place. Preferably before a band of screaming, bloodthirsty gangers showed up behind them.

“Oh, hey guys!” shouted Knobs happily, who’d gotten ahead of Crossfire, “Look, there’s a tram over here. Well, a tram station anyway!”

Crossfire and Wellspring caught up with Knobs to see what she was talking about. Next to the bridge that spanned out into the empty air of the chamber was a small collection of buildings, like storage shacks, all stacked up alongside a raised platform with a guardhouse next to it. Connected to this platform was a metal tube with magical gems glowing softly along its surface. Crossfire hadn’t seen the like, and gave Knobs a curious look.

“What is it?” Crossfire asked after a moment, a little embarrassed she didn’t know, since both Knobs and Wellspring were wearing looks of interest that said they knew.

“Its a MagLev tram line!” said Knobs happily, “Magical Levitation! The Inner City has one that runs the length of the city! Skinner...” she paused, sighing, tail flattening, “Skinner told me all about it, once. Said that when I... I made it as a full ghoul-wrangler he’d take me on it when I got inducted to the Skull Guild.”

Crossfire lowered her own head, trotting up and, after a second of hesitation, nudged Knobs, “Its not your fault Knobs. The bastard took advantage of your trust, but that’s not your fault.”

Knobs chewed her lip, giving a silent nod, but quickly seemed to shake off her funk and wiped at her eyes, “It’s okay! I figure if this MagLev line still has power, then the tram has to be around here somewhere! I bet we can call it from the control booth, once we find it.”

“I suggest one of us do that, while another keeps an eye behind us for our approaching... fans,” said Wellspring, coming up on Knob’s other side with a comforting nudge of her own, “The third one should check the bridge, just to see where it might lead.”

Crossfire nodded, surprised a little at the good sense of the plan, “Works for me. Knobs, you see about calling the MagLev. Wellspring, you keep watch. I’ll check the bridge.”

By her estimate they had three, maybe four minutes before company arrived. That would be just enough time for Knobs to hopefully find the controls for the MagLev and call it from wherever it was, and give her enough time to take a look at where that bridge led. If the MagLev was broken the bridge would be their only available route, so Crossfire wanted to know what lay in that direction.

As Knobs quickly trotted off towards the guardhouse on the platform for the MagLev and Crossfire started for the bridge, Wellspring came up to her and whispered, “Listen, if we find ourselves truly cornered with no way out, then I ask that you... consider surrendering.”

Crossfire shot a sharp glare at the earth pony mare, “What?”

Wellspring didn’t wilt under the stare, holding Crossfire’s gaze with a steadfast look in her own cloud gray eyes, “I appreciate your heroic efforts in freeing us, but you could have just as easily gotten us killed earlier, with that stunt using the sewer pipe. If we’re cornered again then think about just letting them take us captive. The chances of talking Spiked Heels down may be small, but its still a chance. Better than fighting a hopeless battle.”

Crossfire drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, “Just get to watching that tunnel,” she said without giving Wellspring’s advice any comment. Wellspring pursed her lips, not liking being brushed off by the way she flicked her tail, but she did as Crossfire bade and took up a position near the MagLev platform, eyes aimed towards the tunnel they’d come from.

Meanwhile Crossfire quickly trotted out onto the bridge. It was wider than she’d thought when seeing it from afar, easily large enough that two wagons like the one they’d seen earlier could move across it abreast. It was suspended in the air with rings of metal that glowed faintly with magic; levitation magic like the kind in the MagLev pip. Crossfire glanced over the side of the bridge’s railing, seeing the darkness below. This entire chamber was like one huge vertical pipe, and Crossfire couldn’t see where the bottom was. Pushing back some vertigo with a shudder Crossfire trotted further down the bridge.

Ahead the huge dark shape she’d seen began to take sharper focus and she could start to make out details.

What she saw sent a frosty shiver down her spine, all the way to the tip of her blue tail, which flicked about in agitation.

Before her was the wall of a monolithic tower, the curved surface spanning down into the depths and up towards the unseen ceiling. It was made from a material that was clearly metal, but of a dark, violet hue, like rotten flesh. Along the metal walls countless curving bright orange metal protrusions snaked along like the veins inside a living creature. From those metallic veins even more bands of orange light flowed, a web of dense, glowing circuitry. The tower was made from vast, tiered segments, widening out into larger bases further down, and tapering upwards towards the ceiling; and along the rim of each tier Crossfire saw smaller towers rise, capped with gigantic orange crystals.

The air was thick now with that buzzing magic she’d felt before, and she realized this unnatural looking tower was the source. A tower that she felt certain wasn’t built by ponies. In fact the strange construction of it, it reminded her immediately of a Ruin. This was one of those ancient, unexplained Ruins that the Protectorate had been excavating in their own territory. The same kind of Ruin that had contained the monster that had killed her platoon.

The scale, though, of this Ruin was utterly dwarfing in comparison to the Ruins she’d seen before. The tower could contain a city of ponies... or a veritable army of monsters.

So wrapped up in staring at the sheer immensity of the tower Crossfire almost didn’t sense the magical energy in front of her before she ran into it. Luckily she pulled herself short of the faintly incandescent glowing field of green that bisected the bridge in front of her. Carefully she poked with the tip of her bayonet, and felt hard resentance, followed by a ripple of green magic that coursed along a curving cylindrical barrier in all directions.

“A shield...?” Crossfire wondered aloud, eyebrow raising. She wasn’t the greatest expert on magic in the world, but her basic training told her enough to realize that the magical barrier encasing the tower was not only ludicrously potent, but it couldn’t possibly be powered by any one unicorn, or even a group of unicorns using matrix casting techniques. The barrier surrounded the entire tower, and just from a slight prob with her own magic Crossfire could sense the density of the barrier. Somepony wanting to get in there would need something akin to a megaspell to shatter this level of barrier. Crossfire couldn’t even begin to guess at what was powering it, or what it was meant to keep out...

...Or meant to keep in.

“We’re definitely not going this way,” Crossfire said to herself, not that she was that disappointed by the fact. She didn’t want to go any closer to that tower than needed. Its very presence felt wrong. But what was it? What was it doing down here? And perhaps most worrisome, what had the Equestrian army been doing down here with it?

Leaving those questions to linger in the back of her mind she turned and started trotting back towards the main platform, every step making her more anxious. Wellspring hadn’t shouted a warning yet, but the gangers had to be nearly upon them. As she got about halfway back Crossfire halted in her tracks as she heard a noise, a keening, distant roar that echoed up from below. The sound froze Crossfire, her yellow eyes widening. For a second she remained still, convinced that what she’d heard was just some trick her stressed mind was playing on her; rattled by the sight of the huge tower Ruin.

But no, the roar came again, rising from the darkness below, louder than before, and now quite unmistakable.

Can’t be! That Ruin was a hundred miles away from here. There’s no way it’s the same one...

As the roar reached her ears again, now clear and vibrating off the walls, she knew it to be the same. The very same roar of the Ruin creature that had slaughtered her squadmates back in the Protectorate. Even as she broke into a gallop the logical part of her mind was trying to explain things away. Obviously this wasn’t the exact same monster that her platoon had run afoul of. It was probably another Ruin monster of a similar type. That was hardly unheard of, and the Protectorate military was filled with reports of engagements with Ruin monsters of relatively similar build and ability.

That thought wasn’t much of a comfort, however. If this creature was at all similar to the one from before, then they were in a great deal of trouble. That monster had wiped out a fully armed and trained platoon of soldiers, and Crossfire had with her two civilians, one a kind-hearted mare, the other a slight snooty reporter.

“Wellspring! Knobs!” she shouted as she reached the MagLev platform, “We’ve got a serious problem!”

Wellspring came rushing up, pistol drawn in her mouth. She gave Crossfire a worried look, pointing back the way she’d come. Crossfire glanced to see lights from flashlights and glowing horns flickering by the tunnel entrance. The Hammer Crushers had arrived. Crossfire narrowed her eyes. Good. That’d give the monster something else to chew on. As she and Wellspring went up onto the platform, the creature’s roar reverberated loudly, coming from somewhere close beneath the platform.

It’s under the platform, Crossfire realized, It must be clawing its way along, looking for a way up.

She could hear the wrenching screech of metal being rent by something sharp, but couldn’t tell quite where along the platform the sounds were coming from. She shoved aside fear and looked around for Knobs, spotting the red maned, teal head of the mare poking out of one of the larger shacks on the opposite side of the platform. She scampered out, long legs carrying her quickly over to them.

“Found the control room over there!” she chirped, “Hit the call button, but the tram’s on the other side of the chamber; won’t be here for a couple of minutes.”

The creature’s high, ear grinding roar sent a visible shiver over Knobs, her mane practically standing on end. She had an odd smile on her face as she said, “That’s not anypony being hungry, is it?”

Crossfire sighed, “No, something else being hungry.”

Knobs put a hoof to her face, “This must be karmic payback for all those times I played pranks on Nightmare Night.”

I doubt that, we just have crap luck... wait, you Skull City ponies celebrate Nightmare Night too?” Crossfire asked, askance.

Knobs nodded with a smile, “Uh-huh! Its a big holiday here! I always dressed up as a mummy!”

Crossfire cocked her head, trying to see it, “You strike me more as a vampony, really. Me, I prefer ghost. Simple, effective, always a classic.”

Wellspring raised a hoof, “Not to interrupt this fascinating conversation, but-” she pointed towards the fast approaching gangers, “-slightly more pressing concerns than our Nightmare Night habits!”

Crossfire frowned. She’d actually been trying to keep Knobs calm, not to mention calm her own nerves, with a little levity, but Wellspring had the right of it. If they had to survive a few minutes for the tram to arrive there was only so many options they had open to them. They had to hold the platform, as it was their point of egress from this hole in the ground. They had a dozen well armed gangers coming up fast, and a monster with unknown qualities. Crossfire formulated a plan fast enough.

“Knobs, Wellspring, go to the far side of the platform, and use the shacks as cover. Hold your fire and wait for the tram, only chip in if you absolutely have and can get clear shots.”

“Uh, okay, but what about you?” asked Knobs worriedly, brow furrowing, shifting from hoof to hoof.

Crossfire turned towards the approaching gangers, floating her rifle at her side, and really hoping she looked a lot more confident than she felt, “I’ll decoy them away from the platform. If they see the tram, they’ll just rush us here. I got to get their attention elsewhere.”

“Can you, well, survive getting their attention?” Knobs asked fearfully.

Crossfire laughed without much mirth, “I’ve lived all these years without dying once; so the empirical evidence would suggest I’m actually immortal. So no worries.”

“Don’t joke,” Knobs said, choking back more words as she used her own magic to levitate off her red jacket. Crossfire gave Knobs a surprised look as the other mare floated the jacket over to her.

“Also, don’t die,” Knobs said quietly. There was no more time for conversation, the gangers flashing their lights towards the platform and only a few dozen paces away, so Crossfire silently nodded and slipped on the jacket over the tattered remains of her leather Protectorate uniform. It fit with remarkable snugness, more sized for a pony Crossfire’s size than Knobs’ long legged frame.

The trio exchanged final looks of encouragement, then Wellspring and Knobs sprinted off towards the far end of the MagLev platform where they dove down around the corner of the metal shack tucked up against the platform. Crossfire didn’t think any of the approaching gangers saw them move. The gang ponies and one griffin were approaching at a slow, wary pace, apparently put on edge by the clear roaring of the nearby monster. They were lined up in a rather spread out semi-circle, shining small flashlights or glows from their horns around. Crossfire counted eleven of them, with the huge, broad form of Bruise leading from the center.

Time to earn my pay. Only I’m not getting paid for this. I should looking into fixing that, if I live through the next twenty four hours. Mare’s gotta eat, and I can’t always impose on Knobs.

Knowing her little mental banter was just a delaying mechanism to help her work up the nerve to do what she was about to do, Crossfire took in a deep breath, let it out, and stamped her hooves in preparation to charge. At about that same moment one gangers finally spotted the red glow of her magic around her rifle and shouted a warning to his comrades. Crossfire burst into a full gallop, springing off the platform and rushing across the line of sight of the gangers, firing off a few half-eyed shots with her rifle as she went. That got their attention.

Adrenaline surged through her and she felt her heart pounding against her ribs as bullets ripped through the air around her. Only her speed combined with the surprise of the gangers kept her from being torn to pieces in those first few seconds; too many of the gang ponies overcompensating their aim as Crossfire’s form darted across their field of vision. Crossfire’s own aim was a shade more accurate, because she’d marked in her head the ganger’s locations and movement before starting her dash. She still wasn’t looking, knowing that even if she didn’t intend it a simple glance at her targets would slow her down, and she needed speed. Moving would keep her alive. Stopping, she was dead.

Still, she was satisfied to hear at least one scream of pain from her rifle’s sharp retorts. Even if she hadn’t killed, she’d undoubtedly gotten the entire gang’s attention focused on her now, and nopony would be paying the platform, and hence Knobs and Wellspring, any mind.

Now with the gang ponies focus entirely on her, Crossfire ceased firing and put on as much speed as she could, pistoning her legs, lowering her head, and working her lungs like bellows as she galloped full tilt towards the far end of the platform. The pop-corn scattering of gunfire continued, bullets whipping by her or striking the metal grating of the platform in small showers of sparks. The gunfire was joined by the heavier rattle of a machine gun, a long burst stitching its way across her path from above. Crossfire didn’t need to look to know the griffin had taken advantage of the wide open spaces of this chamber to take to the air.

Crossfire didn’t bother to try shooting back; her sole goal was to get to the end of the platform, while getting the gang to make as much noise as possible. It wasn’t long before she heard their angry shouts as they started to give chase, the pounding of pony hooves on metal joining the sporadic gunfire.

She reached the end of the platform, which ended in another railing, and more empty space beyond. She could see the gentle curve of the chamber’s stone wall sloping off into the distance, following the curve of the tower, but for her there was nowhere to go; just the sharp end of the platform blocked off by metal railing. Turning to face the onrush of Hammer Crusher gangers, Crossfire readied her rifle, and hoped her gamble was about to pay off. If not... well at least Knobs and Wellspring had a good chance of getting away now.

Looking up, she spotted the griffin getting closest first, arching in from Crossfire’s left, taking aim with her bulky machine gun. Just as the griffin opened fire, Crossfire snapped off a shot of her own while throwing herself to the side. She felt the blast of pain in her side from a bullet tearing into her hide. At the same time she heard a piercing squawk of pain, and looked to see the griffin wheeling through the air in a downward spiral, one wing crumpled. The griffin hit the ground at an awkward angle, one of her legs snapping as she skidded a score of yards. Crossfire didn’t see if the griffin got back up from that, but she painfully managed to get back up on her own hooves. Glancing at her side she could see where Knob’s jacket had caught the bullet, not quite breaking. Her pain was from impact, not the bullet going in. Crossfire laughed, wincing; lucky jacket indeed.

Her exchange with the griffin had given the other gangers time to catch up, and Crossfire soon found herself facing down a whole line of guns with angry, glaring ponies behind them; chief of all Bruise. Just one look told Crossfire there wasn’t going to be any more banter. Bruise had murder in her eyes, and so did the rest of the gang. They also had Crossfire completely cornered, with no further places to run or dodge, and certainly nothing to use to create a distraction like last time.

However the gangers in their rush to get Crossfire had forgotten that there was something else in this chamber with them. Crossfire hadn’t, and was betting her life on the chamber’s hidden guardian finally making its appearance, agitated by all the gunfire and the smell of sweaty, angry ponies.

The bet paid off as, with a horrendous rending of metal, a massive claw burst through the bottom of the platform. Ruby claws impaled one gang stallion in a shower of blood and viscera, the pony barely having a moment to gurgle a half drowned scream before the four crimson claws rapidly clenched and unclenched, pulping the pony like one might squish a grape. The claw itself was part of a bright orange, metallic hand; like the metal protrusions upon the tower. A second later another claw grasped the torn hole in the platform and ripped it wider. Then the creature itself pulled its body through the whole and up upon the platform.

Crossfire felt her mouth turn dry. She’d never seen the monster that killed her old platoon, only heard its cries over the radio. Seeing the beast, or at least a similar beast, she wondered what her squadmates must have thought, seeing the thing’s form. It wasn’t entirely organic. Its dark green hide had a metallic sheen to it, covered with segmented armor of that bright orange metal that seemed to glow with an inner light. The creature’s body was a hunched, faintly reptilian form, with bent hind legs tipped with red claws that were just a sliver smaller than the ones on its hulking, oversized hands. Its neck was long, serpentine, and ended in a pointed maw capped with two, solid gold eyes that held neither iris nor pupil, and seemed more like the dead glowing eyes of a robot than a living creature’s. Spine-like armored plates lined across the creature’s back, all the way to the tip of its long whipcord tail, tipped with a final, curved orange protrusion like a scythe.

“Buck me...” somepony breathed, and Crossfire wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t her. Even if this had been her idea, she hadn’t been prepared for the size of the creature, or the menace it exuded.

Then the monster let out its painful howl and the gangers reacted instantly, with the kind of brutish, cold practicality a lifetime of violence had taught them. Gunfire erupted, drowning out the roar, and sparks danced up and down the beast’s body; its metal-like hide taking the bullets with the same indifference a tank’s armor would.

“Scatter!” Crossfire heard Bruise shout in a commanding tone, even as the monster brought a claw down on one of the other gang stallions, turning the pony into a red smear and a pile of disassociated body parts in a mere split-second.

As the gangers started to dart off in different directions Crossfire took her window of opportunity to start galloping back towards the distant MagLev platform. As she did so she caught sight of distant movement, a shadowy object with a pair of brightly glowing lamps hanging from the top of it moving along the MagLev line; the approaching tram. The gang ponies were by far too busy dealing with the rampaging monster to pay Crossfire any attention, and she wasn’t even shot at as she galloped back the way she’d come.

To her left she saw the griffin she’d downed earlier getting up, the half-lion half-eagle hybrid keeping her shot through wing held tight against her side. The griffin saw Crossfire, and halfway raised her machine gun, which she’d miraculously kept a hold of during her crash, to shoot at the fleeing unicorn. However one glance back at the monster that was chasing down the scattering gangers one by one seemed to switch the griffin’s priorities and she switched targets, spraying a burst of heavy rounds at the sizeable creature that had run down one gang mare and had been about to smash its claw down on her.

Crossfire didn’t bother watching to see if the griffin’s shots were effective. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t planning to stick around and fight the monster herself. Her only goal was to get out of here with Knobs and Wellspring, and with the tram arriving, and the gang busy, this was their best shot.

However there was a hitch in that plan, as Crossfire saw as she got to the platform. The problem was that Knobs herself was rushing past Crossfire, galloping away towards the monster.

“What the-!?” Crossfire skidded to a halt, almost tripping over herself trying to turn around, “Knobs! What are you doing!? Our ride is already here!”

“I can’t leave her!” Knobs shouted back, “That thing will kill her!”

Her? Crossfire cocked her head in confusion for a second, before she remembered. Bruise. Knobs, naive and apparently made of pure distilled forgiveness, was going to try and save her one-time friend. A friend who, not half an hour ago, was more than happy to kill any of them for her gang. Crossfire let out a loud, heartfelt groan of annoyance as she turned to gallop after Knobs. Wellspring, Crossfire noted, was nowhere in sight.

Crossfire didn’t know if she was grateful Wellspring was doing as she was told and keeping out of sight, or angry she hadn’t stopped Knobs from rushing out into the open.

“Knobs! Wait! Dammit! We can’t kill that monster! We have to run!” Crossfire shouted, voice turning desperate.

Knobs didn’t respond, instead aiming with her small rifle and popping off shots at the monster, which didn’t even notice the attack as it skewered another helpless ganger pony with its tail, flicking the body across the entire platform to slam into one of the old broken military wagons.

“Hey! Over here, you big ugly jerk!” Knobs shouted, jumping up and down, “Look over this way!”

“Knobs!” Crossfire reached the teal unicorn and had to force down the urge to clobber Knobs over the head right then and there, “You bloody idiot, get back to the platform!”

Knobs halted her shouting just long enough to give Crossfire a pleading look, “But I can’t let it kill Bruise.”

Bruise and the surviving Hammer Crusher gangers had retreated back to where their griffin comrade was, rallying around the heavier firepower offered by the machine gun. The monster itself, its metal hide still sparking from the bullets scratching at it, seemed to pause as if considering its target rich environment. It paid the bodies of those it had slain already no mind, and Crossfire wondered if it even ate meat, or killed for an entirely different reason. Glancing back at the ominous tower Ruin, its orange metallic protrusions eerily similar to the material of the monster’s armored plates, Crossfire had to wonder, was this monster born... or built?

Was my platoon killed by what amounts to a security robot? Fuck it, doesn’t matter. Have to get Knobs away from here.

Even as the monster started to stomp its way towards the remaining Hammer Crushers one of them looked towards Crossfire and Knobs, then nudged Bruise with his hoof, pointing them out. Bruise cast a narrow eyed look at them, then kicked her battle saddle to pop the breeches on its double barreled shotguns open, which she began to reload while directing the other gangers to start running for the tunnel back the way they’d come.

The monster saw its quarry trying to flee, roared, and began to charge to run them down. Crossfire expected to see Bruise run alongside her fellow gangers, but the bulky mare stood her ground, acting as a rear guard, steadfastly staring down the onrushing monster as she rushed to reload her battle saddle.

The sight sent a lance of pure shame and guilt through Crossfire.

A damned Skull City ganger was showing more loyalty and courage to her comrades than Crossfire had to her own platoon, willingly throwing her own life on the line to cover their retreat while all Crossfire had done for her squadmates was push a detonator trigger that’d sealed their fate.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Knobs, seeing what Bruise was doing, immediately galloped over to stand by the ganger mare’s side, leaving Crossfire to stare in surprise. Bruise glanced at Knobs in equal shock, but at Knobs’ simple smile Bruise just shook her head and huffed out a small laugh as she kicked her battle saddle again to make the mechanisms close the breeches on her freshly loaded shotguns.

Both Knobs and Bruise fired together, Knobs’ tiny rifle barely making any noise in comparison to the quadruple roars of Bruise’s shotguns. The rounds barely slowed the monster, which was less than a half dozen strides from the two mares by the time they’d fired. Crossfire, growlingly under her breath, did the only thing she could, and charged to intercept the monster just before it bowled over Knobs and Bruise.

With a shove of her magic she hit the monster in the leg, managing just enough force to send the thing stumbling, and buying Bruise the extra second the ganger mare needed to grab Knobs and dive out of the way. The monster righted itself, turning its serpentine head towards Crossfire, and roared just in time to receive a rifle round to its forehead. Even the .308 bullet did little more than rock the monster’s head back and daze it slightly, but that gave Crossfire another second to get close and thrust her bayonet at the creature’s knees, trying to lodge the blade through one of the joints in its armored hide.

The blade sliced in, and Crossfire felt her magic struggle to maintain a grip on the floating weapon as it dug into hardened flesh that couldn’t possibly be natural. But dig the blade did, eliciting a small spurt of strange, white blood. Crossfire ripped the bayonet out as the monster screamed and slashed with its claws at her. A diving roll barely saved her as crimson claws sliced gouges through the metal platform behind her.

Crossfire fired again, trying to hit what looked like weaker armor under the monster’s neck, racking the lever on her rifle as fast as she could fire off the rounds. Again and again the .308 rounds of the Sniper Shark XR sparked off the monster’s hide, just not seeming to be able to penetrate, and all the while Crossfire scrambled to stay away from the creature’s lashing talons.

It tail snaked around and flashed at her with its curved blade, and Crossfire jumped to get over it, but she tripped over the ropey appendage and was sent head over flank to sprawl painfully on the hard metal floor. The monster loomed over her, its soulless, merciless eyes boring down on her as it raised a claw to finish her off.

Then the monster reared in pain as the air was filled with a high pitched whining sound followed by a tearing peal of rapid gunfire. Tracers rounds that couldn’t have come from Knobs’ tiny rifle or Bruise’s shotguns tore into the monster from the side, and Crossfire scrambled to her hooves and looked to see where the shots were coming from. Across the way, near the platform, one of the military wagons was firing on the monster; its top turret mounted mini-gun spewing forth a stream of fire that forced the creature back through sheer volume of fire.

Stunned, the creature took several steps back, raising its huge claws in front of it like shields against the pouring rain of mini-gun fire. All too soon, however, there was a sound of breaking metal and the mini-gun stopped firing. Steam and smoke rose from the old, broken down wagon and out from its hatch stumbled a the gray, gold maned form of Wellspring, coughing up smoke.

“Oh my, that was, well, perhaps not my smartest of ideas. Everypony, the tram is here! I would suggest running, now!” Wellspring shouted, stumbling back towards the platform where the MagLev tram had arrived.

Crossfire glanced around to see Knobs and Bruise nearby. Bruise and Knobs exchanged looks, and Knobs gestured at the tram. Bruise looked to see that her gang had run off down the tunnel and were well gone by now, and that the monster had been driven by Wellspring’s intervention to now stand between her and that very tunnel Bruise would need to take to rejoin her gang. With a sour look on her face Bruise nodded at Knobs, who made a tiny ‘squee’ sound and smiled as they both started galloping for the tram.

Crossfire sighed heavily and started galloping as well.

It wasn’t long before she heard the monster roar and the sound of ripping metal as it started to give chase, bounding forward with large, jerking motions. It didn’t seemed designed for sprinting, however, whereas ponies, even the most physically weak among them, were natural runners. Came with being a species of four-legged herbivores that had evolved in a world filled with mystical predator monsters.

“Get. Tram. Moving!” Crossfire shouted between breaths just as she reached the platform right behind Knobs and Bruise. Wellspring had already galloped into the tram, and the huge, vaguely train shaped vehicle was already in motion by the time Crossfire leapt into the open door in the final car.

The MagLev tram consisted of four cars, the three lead ones seemingly made purely for passengers, but the last one that Crossfire had jumped into was a mostly empty cargo car. Each car was connected by a short walkway with a detachable latch, and the cars themselves were suspended over the MagLev line with purple glowing levitation crystals that extended from the bottom sides of each car.

Crossfire rushed up to the next car, where Knobs was there with Bruise, her legs wrapped around the big mare in a tight hug, and Bruise looking particularly uncomfortable, as if she wanted to be anywhere else, doing anything else.

“I’m so glad you’re alright Bruise! I thought that thing was going to get you!” Knobs exclaimed, sounding nearly tearful.

Bruise made a sound that was one part uneasy grunt, one part frustrated sight, “Knobs, will you let go of me? We ain’t... my gang... “

Bruise gave Crossfire a look, and with that one look Crossfire knew things were hardly over between her and this mare. Bruise’s eyes were boiling over with barely contained anger and violence, all of it directed now solely at Crossfire. Crossfire considered if it wouldn’t be worth it to just shoot Bruise right then and there... but she couldn't do that in front of Knobs. Maybe if Bruise shot first, gave Crossfire some kind of excuse...

“You two alright?” Crossfire asked, more as way to just let Knobs know she was there than anything else. She could look to see they were both mostly uninjured. Bruise had a lot of lite cuts and scrapes, much like Crossfire had. Probably from the Gobs.

Knobs started, letting go of Bruise and stepping back from the big mare, and then looked herself over, turning in a circle once before giving Crossfire a smile, “Looks like I’m fine! Can’t believe we got away from that thing! What do you think it was? Did you see those huge claws!? And I thought it was bad enough just keeping the ghouls in check up top; them Sewer Guild ponies got a lot of guts working down here with things like that crawling around.”

“Doubt that monster goes into the sewers much,” said Crossfire with a low tone as she cast a suspicious look at the tower, which the MagLev tram was slowly following the curve of as it went around the tower’s massive form.

“You figuring that critter was guarding this place?” Bruise asked, though from her tone she didn’t think it much of a question.

“If I had any caps, that’s where my bet would go,” Crossfire said, trotting past Bruise and heading towards the front of the tram, intending to check on Wellspring. Just then though, the tram shuddered, and there was a metallic crunching sound from outside.

The three mares all looked around fearfully, readying weapons, while Crossfire whispered, “Anybody see where it is?”

The windows showed nothing, and the sound had been too indistinct to tell its location. But something that large couldn’t be that stealthy.

When the monster did strike, it was from below, just as it had with its first appearance, with one claw ripping up through the bottom of the tram car.

Sparks of arcane energy went flying as debris smashed arcano-tech lights, and internal wiring was shredded by the claws. The car was plunged into dark, only illuminated by the now flickering lights from the adjacent cars. It didn’t matter, Crossfire had seen where the claw had struck, and roared in anger at the sight of Knobs hind legs both being sheared off by the monster’s thick crimson talons.

“Knobs!”

Both Bruise and Crossfire had shouted at the same time, both rushing to the hole the monster had torn in the floor of the tram, both aiming their respective weapons down the hole and emptying them down there in a twin thunder of gunfire. The lights inside the tram flicked over to a dull red emergency lighting, and Crossfire saw Knobs laying against the side of the tram, looking dazed as she stared at the two stumps where her hind legs had just been. Already blood was pooling underneath the horrible wounds, the blood appearing black under the harsh red glow of the emergency lights.

Crossfire didn’t waste a second; because there weren’t any seconds to waste.

“Keep it busy!” she shouted at Bruise and was at Knobs’ side in an instant, ripping at the tattered remains of her uniform, using her bayonette to cut long leather strips off of it, while also pulling off her red Neighlisus military scarf.

“Whoa... I don’t have legs...” said Knobs, voice the detached dullness of a pony in shock.

“Quiet, and focus on me,” said Crossfire as she started to tie the leather strips as tightly as she could around one stump, a few inches above the wound, and used the scarf on the other leg, also tying as tight as she could could, using her magic to make fast work of the makeshift tourniquet.

This somewhat slowed the flow of blood, but Crossfire knew she’d need to pinch off the arteries, or cauterize them. Feeling it out with her magic, knowing that with Knobs in the state of shock she was in that the pain would be a secondary concern for now, she sought out the open arteries, and used magic to forcibly pinch them closed.

“I... I can hold them,” said Knobs, gulping, “I can keep pressure on my legs, Crossfire. You gotta go help Bruise.”

Crossfire looked, to see that Bruise had gone into the cargo car, and was shooting. Crossfire could see the muzzle flashes and hear the gunshots, even if she couldn’t see the ganger mare herself.

“Knobs, are you sure-” Crossfire began, but Knobs, with remarkable strength, used her own magic to overpower Crossfire’s own, the teal mare’s horn lighting up and taking over putting telekinetic pressure on her own bloody stumps.

“Go; help her!” Knobs said, eyes lucidly focused on Crossfires, “Please.”

At that moment Wellspring came in, fearfully looking about, “Don’t tell me... Oh, oh no,” the mare put a horrified hoof to her mouth as she saw Knobs.

“Take care of Knobs,” Crossfire told Wellspring, then rushed through the door to the cargo car.

Inside she saw Bruise, carefully reloading her battle saddle as she slowly backed up away from a fresh hole in the floor. Crossfire saw there were several such holes torn into the tram car, and as she entered there was a screeching sound as another hole was torn open, the monster’s massive claw coming in through the roof to try and skewer Bruise. Bruise, nimble for a mare her size, jumped away, and retaliated with her shotguns. The quadruple blast hit the claw, and Crossfire saw some of the creature’s unusual white blood spurt across the tram wall.

Apparently Bruise’s shots were wearing out the monster’s armor. Crossfire grimly smiled, raising her own rifle. If the creature could be wounded, then they could also kill it.

Bruse gave her a fearful look as she came in, her features tight, her tone stiff, “Knobs?”

Crossfire nodded once, “Alive. But not for long if we don’t get her to a hospital.”

Bruise ground her teeth in a pained scowl, “There’s one inside the Inner City, but we’ll never make it.”

“Screw that noise. I owe that mare. We’re going to make it, and we’re going to bucking kill this monster while we do it!” Crossfire said as she galloped across the tram car, heading for the back hatch, “Get ready to separate this car the second I give the word!”

“What!?” Bruise shouted back, but Crossfire ignored her as she rushed past a slashing claw that ripped in from the side of the wall, diving and rolling, and coming up galloping again as the claw withdrew.

Crossfire, ignoring Bruise, reached the back of the tram and tore the door open, then headed out onto the tiny back platform, which had a ladder that led to the tram’s roof. The tram wasn’t moving that fast, so it was easy enough to keep balance as she climbed the ladder and clambered on top of the smooth, flat roof of the tram.

To her right the unnatural form of the tower was slowly turning by as the tram got to its opposite side, and Crossfire saw it looked the same from this end as well. In the distance she could see another tram station, with what looked like an entire series of large cargo lifts nearby, leading up. That looked like their way out. There was just one final bit of business to take care of before saying goodbye to this underground Tartarus.

“Hey!” she called out the monster, which was leaning over the side of the roof, preparing to strike inside the tram again, but it raised its head at hearing her voice.

Crossfire glared at the monster, raising her rifle. In her minds eye she was back at the Ruin she’d lost her squadmates at, back with the detonator in her hoof, and Shell Casing screaming at her to hit the switch. She could hear the screams of her comrades being torn apart by the monster, heard their pleas for her to wait, that they were almost to the entrance. She felt the same heart thundering fear, and had to face the unpleasant truth.

She hadn’t hit that switch out of a sense of duty, or because of orders, or for any kind of ‘greater good’ that would’ve come from preventing that monster from reaching the surface.

She’d hit it because she’d been scared. She hadn’t wanted to die, facing such a horrific monster.

She accepted that fact and let the pain of it pass through her. With that, she found the strength to confront that fear again, and calm her heart as she faced down the monster as it turned and roared at her.

“That’s right,” she said, “Come right at me.”

The monster obliged, ripping its way across the roof as Crossfire started shooting, aiming for the head. Bullet after bullet ricocheted off the monster’s head, slowing it, but only barely. It lunged at her, and Crossfire jumped back right off the roof. The creature’s claws snapped over her head as she fell, and she just managed to catch the edge of the cargo car’s back platform, her forelegs feeling like they might snap from the force.

Grunting, she pulled herself up and into the cargo car as the monster roared and scrambled down after her. She slashed back with her rifle’s bayonet, cutting a glancing blow on the monster’s hand. It screeched and snapped at her with its teeth as she rolled through the door into the cargo car.

“Bruise! NOW!” Crossfire shouted at the top of her lungs, and a second later she felt the car she was in lurch as it was disconnected from the rest of the tram. Knowing she had moments at best, she hauled herself to her hooves and galloped for all she was worth towards the opposite end of the cargo car.

Behind her the monster literally ripped the back of the car off, pushing itself inside and clawing after her, enraged and focused solely upon her. Crossfire felt it behind her, could feel every shudder of the car as more and more of it was ripped away as the monster tore after her. On she ran towards the open door ahead, seeing the passenger car with Bruise standing by the entrance as the space between the two cars started to lengthen.

Crossfire put on a final burst of speed and soared through the door of the cargo car, for a second completely suspended in empty air over the deep void towards the towers’ bottom. Behind her the monster ripped its head through the back of the cargo car and snaked towards her. Crossfire couldn’t move her rifle in time to try and shoot the creature away...

A harsh bark of shotgun blasts tore past her, hitting the creature’s in its snout and snapping its head up, away from Crossfire. It roared and fell back into the cargo car, which now fell back well behind the passenger car. Crossfire flailed with her limps, trying to catch the edge of the passenger car, and just missed it, for a moment feeling gravity take over and pull her down into the black. Then a mouth was around her trailing tail, and rather painfully hauled her up into the passenger cars.

Drawing in powerful lungfuls of air, not quite able to calm her racing heart, Crossfire looked up at Bruise.

“Tha-” she began, but Bruise shoved a hoof into her mouth and fixed her with a hateful glare.

“Don’t. I did that for Knobs. Not you.”

“Fair enough,” Crossfire said, turning to look back towards the detached cargo car. The car had fallen back a good few dozen yards, slowing down now that it was no longer attached to the rest of the tram. The monster had recovered from Bruise’s last shot, and was standing at the end of the car, staring at the tram that was escaping it with its emotionless, glowing eyes. Crossfire looked into those eyes, and found herself raising her rifle, aiming.

“What are you doing?” asked Bruise, “You’re just going to waste bullets, trying to kill that thing.”

“Am I?” asked Crossfire, as she lowered the aim of her rifle away from the monster, and instead targeted the levitation crystals along the bottom of the cargo car.

Her rifle barked, and one of the crystals exploded in a shower of purple sparks and faint arcane energy discharge. That alone did nothing, but Crossfire worked the bolt of her rifle, and fired again, then again, and again. Each time a levitation crystal shattered, all along the right side of the cargo car. When the last crystal was destroyed the entire car tipped over like a capsizing boat. The monster scrambled with its claws to keep a hold on the car, but this proved to be pointless. With half of its levitation crystals gone, the remaining crystals couldn’t hold the car onto the MagLev line, and after tipping over, the cargo car pulled off the line and went sailing down into the dark; taking the monster with it.

Its roars echoed up at them for a few seconds, then couldn’t be heard at all.

----------

The MagLev tram came to a stop at the station on the opposite side of the tower, and four ponies emerged at a fast, but cautious trot.

Knobs, conscious but growing weaker by the minute, was riding on Bruise’s broad back. Flanking the big mare, Crossfire and Wellspring both had their weapons at the ready as they emerged from the tram. Just because they’d dispatched one monster didn’t mean there couldn’t be more. Crossfire almost dared any monster to try and attack them now, however. To get Knobs to medical aid she’d tear through an army, if she had to.

Fortunately there was no immediate danger on this platform. It was roughly the size of the one they’d left behind, with a similar guardhouse to watch over the tram station, but without the same collection of metal shacks the other platform had. Instead much of the space seemed taken up with piled cargo crates near four massive lift platforms, all attached to rails leading up.

There was a hatch of some sort between those four lifts, but Crossfire didn’t get a good look at it, her attention drawn to Wellspring as she rushed over to the guardhouse.

“What are you doing?” Crossfire asked, and Wellspring was quick to shout back.

“Might be a first aid kit in here!”

No further explanation was needed and Crossfire left the gray coated earth pony to it while she and Bruise made for the lifts. Getting closer, they saw that each lift was labeled in bold, black lettering alongside the wall by each lift. Crossfire frowned at the names.

Central Hangar, Fabrication and Processing, Residential and Barracks, then finally, Surface Access.

“Pretty bucking obvious which one’s ours,” said Bruise, hopping onto the platform labeled as ‘Surface Access’.

“Yeah, but what in Tartarus is this place supposed to be?” Crossfire wondered, looking at the one hatch that was on this level, something about it seeming faintly familiar. It was a huge metal door, shaped almost like a gear, circular, surrounded with spokes.

“Who cares? Its just some buried deathtrap,” grunted Bruise sourly, “Nopony with brains in their head would ever come down here.”

From the tone of her voice, and the hateful glare she was giving Crossfire, it was clear who the ganger mare blamed for her being here. Crossfire met that glare with one of her own, getting more and more fed up with Bruise.

“You got something to say, say it,” Crossfire said, teeth bared.

“No. Not until Knobs is safe,” said Bruise, matching Crossfire bared teeth, “Then, only then, we’ll... sort things out.”

The hardness of her voice suggested that ‘sorting things out’ would involved gunfire and blood. Crossfire was fine with that. But Bruise was also right. Not until Knobs was safe.

“Please, you two, don’t fight...” Knobs said, and Crossfire blinked in shock, having forgot that Knobs was still awake and listening to them. She sighed, ears flattening back, mane wilting slightly.

“Course we won’t, Knobs, we just got some frayed nerves right now,” she said, coming over to look at Knobs, “How you holding up?”

Knobs chuckled, weakly, “Oh, you know, feeling like I’m on my last legs, heheh...”

Bruise made a choking sound and Crossfire blanched, “Knobs, that was terrible.”

Knobs just smiled, sticking out her tongue, despite the pale cast of her features, beaded with sweat, “That’s what makes it a good pun. Um, yeah, but to answer the question, I’m still breathing, so yay? I don’t know. I can’t feel much down there, but I can still hold my magic.”

Crossfire frowned, looking where Knobs magic was holding her wounds closed, “I can take over, now. You should save your strength.”

“These should help, too,” said Wellspring as she came trotted onto the lift, something balanced on her back. Crossfire glanced over and saw the object was a roll of medical bandages. Curious, she washed some of her magic over them, and found the bandages had a light cast of magic to them as well.

“Was that all you found?” she asked Wellspring, who gave Crossfire an apologetic look.

“Unfortunately, yes. The guardhouse was... damaged. It looks as if whatever fight occurred on the other side also happened here. The first aid kit was broken open, and the healing potions inside cracked. No potion left. But these bandages were in one piece.”

“It’ll help,” said Knobs, “Crossfire, if you can hold my wounds closed for a bit, I can wrap them myself.”

Crossfire nodded, and lit up her horn, letting her red glow of magic take over for Knobs’. As she did that, Knobs levitated the medical bandages from Wellspring’s back and floated them over, beginning the process of carefully wrapping the bloody stumps of her hindlegs.

While that happened, Wellspring looked over at the giant, gear shaped hatchway, and let out a small gasp.

“Is that... a Stable!?”

Crossfire blinked, and Bruise stiffened, both mares giving the door a double-take. Crossfire couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before, but Wellspring was right, that door was shaped like the ones that sealed Stables! The Neighlesius army rarely encountered the pre-war shelters, but each soldier was briefed on how to identify one, and on first-contact procedures in the event one was ever discovered in Protectorate territory. To her knowledge that had never occurred, which was partly why the knowledge of what a Stable door looked like hadn’t sprung up immediately, but she knew enough about what a Stable was to be surprised to see one here. And also to notice something odd.

“Where’s the Stable-Tech logo and identification number?” she asked, confused. To her knowledge, a Stable door was marked not only with the logo of Stable-Tech, the company that built the Stables, but also the number that identified which Stable it was. This door, however, was completely blank.

“That’s strange, there doesn’t appear to be one,” said Wellspring, “Curious. Could it just be coincidence? A similar looking door design, but not actually a Stable?”

Bruise snorted, “Again, I got to ask, ‘who cares’!? I swear, its like you two are just fascinated by all this mysterious bullshit! Let’s just get out of here! Somepony start this damned lift already!”

Crossfire couldn’t really argue that the hulk of a mare had a point. Ultimately the mysterious of this place were secondary to surviving, especially given Knobs’ condition. Even with the stumps now thoroughly bandaged Knobs looked like she might pass out at any moment. Crossfire didn’t want to think about how much blood the young mare might have lost already.

Without further prompt Crossfire found the controls for the lift and hit the button. The lift rose silently upward, the mysterious and foreboding shape of the Ruin tower remaining an ominous view before them. Up and up the lift took them, easily a hundred feet or two before the ceiling of smooth hewn stone came into view. The tower’s form continued into the ceiling itself, as if the tower was spearing itself into the solid rock and just kept going up. Directly above the lift a metal hatch was visible, and as the lift reached it a few flickering yellow lights came on around the hatch, which grinded open with the hiss of hydraulics.

Beyond the hatch was shrouded in darkness, giving no clue as to what was waiting for them ahead.

Casting a worried look towards Knobs’ pale face, noting the teal mare’s labored breathing, Crossfire could only hope that whatever lay beyond this lift, the surface and safety would not be far away.

Author's Note:

Hello again folks! Once more it seems like it takes me forever to get these chapters written, but hopefully they remain entertaining. We only got in theory one more chapter to go before this side-story with Crossfire wraps up (plus possibly a short epilogue, if I feel like I there are some loose ends to tie up). As usual thanks go to Doomande for helping me with prereading and getting things polished. Not much else for me to say except thanks for reading and any comments, questions, or critiques are greatly appreciated. 'Till next time.

Comments

[the other sans]

flew down and stabbed the ganger holding Knob’s through the back
so Crossfire kept pushing the ponies in front of her along a Wellspring and Knobs struggled to start climbing the tilted catwalk
Finally she felt hoove grab her from behind
they ran past a large autowagon that was crash into the wall
The dead ponies were into deteriorated a condition
dozens of more skeletals bodies lay
Carefully she poked with the tip of her bayonet, and felt hard resentance
I doubt that, we just have crap luck... wait, you Skull City ponies celebrate Nightmare Night too?”
At about that same moment one gangers finally spotted
Tracers rounds that couldn’t have come from Knobs
The car was plunged into dark, only illuminated
hitting the creature’s in its snout
Crossfire flailed with her limps

1. Knobs (since y'know, that's how you typed Knobs in the rest of the story)
2. Umm... either this is an extra word or there's some missing.
3. Hooves.
4. Crashed.
5. In too.
6. Skeletal.
7. Resistance.
8. Forgot your opening quotation mark.
9. One of the gangers/One ganger. (I have got to stop thinking it's supposed to be spelt ginger.)
10. Tracer.
11. Darkness.
12. Creature.
13. Limbs. Unless she's actually limping? But no, that can't be right...

Knobs made a small, pained nicker as she looked at the ground

D'awww, Knobs is so visually cute

It didn’t matter, Crossfire had seen where the claw had struck, and roared in anger at the sight of Knobs hind legs both being sheared off by the monster’s thick crimson talons.

... That bastard needs to die.

I also feel like I'm going to need a map of the entire Badlands and with the location of the Stables. I feel as if the one mentioned here is going to be epicenter to the main story somehow.

Why do I get the feeling of Balamb Garden lifting off again?

I just loved the music for this scene too much.

I also get the feeling you're gonna kill off Knobs in some way. That or have her in a sort of coma that changes Crossfire to be the way she is now.

Let's also not forget her 'changing' cutie mark, thought I feel that is going to be addressed possibly in the main story

[Doomande]

3924394
...

I will blame my move and new apartment for missing all of those mistakes. A good thing that we have you to clean up after my lacking work

[the other sans]

3926375 Trust me when I say this, I still miss things quite a bit so there's nothing to worry abüt.

Besides, real life and their problems come first since they're the ones that will mostly be quite a hurdle to pass

[SubjectSigma]

Knoooooobs! I saw it coming but damn I didn't expect her to get her legs torn off! Definitely worth the wait but poor fiily...