My Little Metro

by redsquirrel456

Chapter 17

My Little Metro: Chapter 17

There are some secrets that must remain secrets, because they have no answers.

Get up. Get to work. What are you doing down there, sleeping? Don’t you know sleeping is for fools and weaklings? Don’t talk. Strike the wall. Curse the earth with every breath, drive another tiny scar into its fraying nerves. Pray it doesn’t lose patience and collapse on you. Stop slacking! And remember not to look up. Whatever you do, don’t look up. If you cause too much trouble, you’d go work near the Diamond Dogs. Do not cross Triton, or he will rat you out to the guards, and then you’re in deep shit.

That was the extent of my days for the last several days or so. Time blurred together into a violent ocean of swinging batons and morose ponies. I couldn’t even be sure if our sleep schedules were the same as the rest of the Metro. I’d lost so much precious time I didn’t bother thinking about how much of Exiperia had already been leveled by the Dark Ones. Any news I’d get in these pits would be old and inaccurate. I spent most of my evenings huddled up against Sidewinder for protection against the cold, watching and waiting for a chance to do... something. Anything except this grinding monotony. Sixpence kept his distance, doing what he was bidden and quickly establishing himself as a meek little cog in the Republic’s greater machine. The so-called ‘boss’ Triton patrolled our sleeping hovels with his gang, extorting, threatening, and spying. Before the week was out, three ponies had died not from violence but expiring from the sheer amount of stress and sickness we were forced to suffer. It wasn’t until the seventh time I was kicked into wakefulness after a long sleep that I found news about the outside world.

The Warden visited us again. We lined up and stood still as he trotted down the line, giving us the same claptrap he had the first day we met. Again I felt the stirring of some strange power, but now it was like a food I had grown tired of: unpalatable and ineffective. But it was magic for sure, magic that had no power over me. I withstood his onslaught in stoic silence, and he did not come around to single me out again as he spoke.

“The Celestian Monarchy is beginning another push!” he told us. “They think with their rusting power armor and failing magic that they will come all the way here to destroy us. Well, they are wrong. They have not broken through our lines yet, and they never will! Because we are ponies united! That being said, a few vacancies in our ranks have opened up. Know that we will be watching closely for those who display extra strength of spirit and resourcefulness in the coming days. Work hard and you will be among the lucky few who are chosen to bring the Republic’s wisdom to our enemies. The wisdom of guns, lightning, and steel! Earn a place in our great army, ponies, the army that will beat back the elitism of the Monarchy, and strike at the heart of darkness itself! Those chosen will be given food, shelter, an equal standing in all our stations, and honor and respect from our citizens! Volunteers are also accepted on a probationary basis! Will you not join us in uniting the Metro for the good of all ponies?”

So it was either conscription by being found ‘worthy’ or voluntarily throwing yourself at their mercy. What a choice. I surreptitiously rolled my eyes at his claptrap, but the ponies around me were equal parts dismal and enamored. The thought of freedom from these pits was enough magic for most, but the magic that flowed from the Warden turned the idea of trading one servitude for another into a heady tonic. Some just didn’t want to dig anymore. I knew the stories, though. The ponies who joined the Monarchy were destined for a lifetime of slavery. Those who joined the Republic were doomed to die in their routine mass attacks on Monarchist outposts. I had no wish to meet a Monarchist exoskeleton assault squad in battle, and stayed quiet.

A commotion erupted at the end of the line. An earth pony, his body yet unmarred by disease or starvation, threw himself at the Warden’s hooves and cowered before him.

“Me! Take me, please! I’ll fight for you, I swear! I’ll die for you! I promise, I’ll uphold everything the Republic stands for! I’ll kill every Monarchist I meet!”

The Warden waved away the guards that were about to lay into him, and brought the pony up with his hoof, looking him in the eye. There was a sharp edge to the Warden’s gaze.

“What’s your name, boy?”

“String Bean, sir. I’ll do anything, I promise!”

The Warden looked him over and then gave a broad and generous smile, stood at the new recruit’s side and threw a wing around his shoulders.

“Do you all see how easy it is? We ask so little of you! A willing heart and a strong back are the only things you need to lift yourselves up from squalor in the Republic. Yet so many of you stay silent. Will no more come forward? Will not others embrace the destiny of the Metro, and lift themselves and all of ponydom up another step towards the light?”

I didn’t move an inch, but several other ponies crawled forward, slinking like they were caught red-hoofed in a crime. It was a good lure; at least in the army they might die on their own terms. In reality their life expectancy would be measured by how long it took for a Monarchist’s bullet to travel from its barrel to their head. The rest of us, too scared or stubborn to speak up, were dismissed. The work day would be upon us soon.

As for me, I needed to get out. I felt my body starting to waste under the cruel treatment of the guards. In just a week here my weight had dropped considerably, and every day it felt harder to pick up my hooves and get to work as I was asked. I wasn’t going to be wasted in these pits. I would force them to kill me before making it my destiny to rot away, like the older ponies of Exiperia did when radiation and poisoned air caught up to their lungs. Even after all I’d seen, this struck me as one of the most cruel ways to kill a pony. Put a gun in their hooves. Let them fight. Let them live. At least the bandits could claim freedom, even if they wasted it. But this pointless, routine terror? I couldn’t let it stand. I felt nothing but deep, growing anger that seeped into my bones the longer I was forced to stay here, knowing the mission I’d sworn to complete was never going to be finished. Most of all, I was tired of not being able to make a dent in the terror and death I saw in the Metro. This would be where I made my stand, where I bloodied the nose of tyranny. If I was going to get out of here, it would be with a curse on the Republic’s name.

I came back to our rest area after the backbreaking labor was done with sore hooves and a buzzing mind. The Republic needed ponies for the war effort. I could have slipped out with the other volunteers, but that would leave Sidewinder and Sixpence back here. I had no love for Sidewinder, but he’d proven helpful, and Sixpence was the one with answers. I needed both of them, and while all three of us could have gone to the front, the chances of three successful desertions at once were frighteningly low. If I was getting out of here, it would be through the one place nopony escaped from: the prison itself.

I found Rocket in the middle of the crowd, wandering aimlessly as he stared at the ceiling. “Where are the Diamond Dogs?”

Rocket’s wings twitched, almost springing open. He kept staring upwards, as if he could see the Sun through the rock. “Below,” he whispered. “Below. They don’t like the Sun. Even more than we do.” His head drooped as he slipped back into melancholy. “I want to see the Sun. It will kill my eyes, but I want it to be the last thing I see.”

I sighed. “Yes, I know. But where can I find the Diamond Dogs? Do you know? Does anypony know where they are kept after the shift is over.”

“Below,” he whispered. “Special cages to keep them from getting out. Never seen them. Nopony does. Kept under heavy guard! Only way to talk to them is to be assigned to their work line. But nopony is ever assigned to the Dog line. The Dogs don’t like it.”

“Is there any way to be positioned closer to them? To get a message to them?”

“Sorry Ranger. I don’t know. But bad ponies get the lower levels. It’s where all the water is, and where the monsters live.” He shuddered. “Sometimes you crack into a cave. Once there was a cave break when I first came here. Monsters poured out and killed half the ponies on my line before they blew the cavern. I still heard screaming after the rocks fell.”

I sighed again and turned away, wondering if my plans were already falling apart, when Rocket suddenly grabbed my tail. I turned back and stared into his yellow eyes.

“You hear tapping,” he whispered.

“Tapping?”

“Sometimes. It’s in the rocks. You have to listen deep. I’ve been down here so long I can hear it. The tapping from below. That’s how the Dogs talk to each other, I think, because they are muzzled and cannot speak.”

I nodded in satisfaction. “How do you find it?”

“It only comes to those who listen. Those who See.” He grinned unnervingly wide and went down on his belly, looking up at me like a worshipping acolyte. “You can See. My Ranger did, too. You can find it in their eyes, how they never focus on what’s in front of them. They can look further than that.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. I took a nervous step back, suddenly wanting nothing to do with the strange pegasus. “How do you know about that?” I asked in a hoarse voice.

“The Sight? It’s obvious, Ranger. It’s the new magic, the new life. I can’t See, but I can find those who can. Unicorns don’t do magic anymore, not the way they used to. Magic is different now. It’s more... primal, you see?”

I turned away, not wanting to dwell on it. Being able to See hadn’t brought me anything but trouble, and something about Rocket knowing anything about the Sight disturbed me greatly. If being able to See only brought me the company of the insane and the violent, I wanted nothing to do with it.

I left Rocket to his mutterings, going to find Sidewinder next. He sat in the midst of several ponies, entertaining them with stories around what passed for a campfire—a miserable pile of burning trash that stank to high heaven, but then again, we all stank, and the fire was warm. I sat down to listen to him talk for a while. Sidewinder was going on about a story of ponies who died horrible deaths in the Metro, oblivious to the apathetic, bored expressions on the other ponies. Apparently, they had heard this story before, but there was nothing else to do, and Sidewinder’s erratic motions made the story a little more interesting than usual.

“—and none of his limbs were ever found again!”

I watched with mild amusement as his audience all gave each other bored looks and shuffled away from Sidewinder, leaving him to curse the backs of their heads and their lack of appreciation for good storytelling.

“Sidewinder,” I said as I dropped down next to him.

“Yeah?” he said, looking as tired and worn as I felt.

“I’m getting out of here.”

Sidewinder peered at me for a good long moment, and then his face split into one of his disturbing grins. “No you’re not.”

“Yes, I am. Come with me, we need to find some place private to talk.”

Sidewinder rolled his eyes and stood up to follow me. We pushed through a crowd of lazing, sickly ponies and trotted into a cramped room lined by rotting wood. A sprite-light flickered on the table, and I jolted it back to life with a quick shake, illuminating my grave face and Sidewinder’s cocky smirk.

“So,” he said in a whisper, “planning a breakout, are you?” He glanced around at our less than stellar hideout, which amounted to little more than a place that was out of earshot of most ponies. “You know this isn’t going to work, right?”

I glanced outside at the ponies who slumbered fitfully, or stared straight ahead in dull, defeated silence. “I’m not going to die here, Sidewinder. I’m going to die out there, on my own terms.”

Sidewinder just smiled. “Still crazy as ever, eh? Count me in.”

“Just like that?”

“Come on, Lockbox. I’m as crazy as you. There’s no way I’m going to pass up a chance to say ‘fuck you’ to the supposedly unassailable fortress that is the Republic slave pits.”

I tilted my head. “There has to be at least a few ponies who’ve escaped before.”

“Mmm, there’s stories... but then, there’s always stories.” Sidewinder grinned, twirling an imaginary moustache. “I’d know. I made up most of them. Perhaps, when we put our plan into action, I’ll make up a story about us too. Perhaps about how we died heroically.”

“Wonderful.” I rolled my eyes and looked back and forth, making sure nopony was in hearing range. Those that were looked like they were were asleep. “You heard the Warden going on about the troubles they’ve been having with the Monarchy, right? How they need recruits?”

“Mmm, yes. Delicious, isn’t it, hearing about how they’re kicking each other in the ass? Of course, everypony prays that nopony actually wins or they’ll be able to go and kick everypony else’s ass. No offense to any actual assess that might have survived the War, of course.”

I took a deep breath and sighed, finding it easier to just talk through the weird pony’s eccentricities. “Right. Sidewinder, I have a mission for you.”

“Whatever you need that gets us out of here, Ranger.”

“I need you to get on the Republic’s good side. Volunteer for the front lines, then sneak your way back here and find the armory for the guards.”

He stared at me for the longest time. And then he started to laugh. When my dour expression didn’t change, he just doubled up even more and guffawed, drawing several unwanted stares. I settled onto my stomach, waiting until he was done. By that time he’d laughed himself out of breath and the other prisoners seemed convinced he’d just cracked and gone insane, I gave him a good cuff around the ears.

“I’m serious,” I told him in a low voice. “I need you to do this. You’re the only here who can. And the only one I can—”

“Trust?” Sidewinder finished with a huge grin. “You could just do it yourself.”

I shook my head, resisting the urge to slug him across the jaw. “I can’t guarantee they won’t just shove a gun in my hooves and ship me to the front the moment I sign up. And I know I won’t be able to sneak my way out and back here as well. It’s too much risk. I can’t sneak around and find hidden passages like you can, Sidewinder. Besides,” I added with a flick of my tail, “I’m not going to escape for just myself.”

Sidewinder tilted his head. I shrugged.

“I want to show the world that ponies can’t be caged and trammeled like this without consequences. I want to show the Metro that tyranny does not always win, that fear does not always break down a pony and keep them from doing great things. Ever since I left my home station I’ve seen nothing but death and destruction rule the day. I’ve seen ponies control the lives of others purely because they had a stronger hoof, or because they just so happened to be in a position of authority. Ponies who trap, kill, and enslave others. Ponies who don’t deserve to be called ponies. And I’m tired of it, Sidewinder. I’m so very tired of it. I’m not scared of being here. I’m angry.” I stood up, pacing as much as I could in the tiny room. “I’m not going just escape, Sidewinder. I’m going to take this place down. I’m going to show the Republic and the Metro that bad things don’t last forever.” I sat down again, leaning against the wall. “Because I’m here to destroy them.”

Sidewinder’s smile grew even more. “You’re insane, Lockbox. Insane like me. Insane like a Ranger. How does their motto go again?”

“Just tell me if you’ll get it done.”

“You know that you’re making a lot ride on my success.”

“My success means the survival of my home. Probably of the whole Metro.”

“And you’re saying you’re going to trust a pony who abandoned you with your life?”

“You haven’t left me again so far. And you owe me for getting you out of Ruby Red’s cages. That’s how Stalkers work, if you’re any true Stalker. They pay what they owe.”

Sidewinder barked another harsh laugh, shaking his head. “True, true. Perhaps I do. You’re a strange pony, Lockbox. You saved me and now you’re going to save all these ponies?”

“There’s no way to save them,” I snapped back. “There’s no way to save anypony here. I’ve lost a couple of good friends on this journey already. Growing up here in the Metro has taught me one thing, Sidewinder.” I held up a hoof for emphasis. “One thing: that it’s impossible to save ponies. Perhaps even yourself. But what we can do is give others a chance to live, and maybe make the better choice with that life.” I dropped my hoof again. “I didn’t realize it until now, but Sunny Side has been teaching me that all this time. Him and Ray Drop, and even Nopony. I can’t save the world, Sidewinder—I never set out to do that. The Metro is all I know, and few are the ponies in it who I care about. I’m sick and tired of just moving through it. It’s time I started making a difference.”

Sidewinder rubbed his chin, staring at me intently.

“You know if I fail or never come back, your plan falls apart?” he asked with unusual solemnity. “That your grand speech will come to nothing?”

“I’ll figure something out,” I replied. “And anyway, you’ll die horribly whether I catch you or not. This is the Metro, after all.”

Sidewinder nodded firmly. “All right! You’ve convinced me. This is a stupid, foolish, crazy idea. And that’s why it just might work. If only my great-great-great-great-ish grandma Pinkie were here to see us now...”

I scoffed. “So you actually do believe you’re related to an Element of Harmony?”

Sidewinder waved me off. “A colt can dream can’t he? I’ll have to tell you about them, some time. I know all their stories, you know.”

I pondered a moment how little I—or anypony else in the Metro—knew about the Elements of Harmony. Those who cared to brush up on what history we scraped together knew the basics: a group of ponies who wielded fantastical powers and saved the world more than once, but had either died before the War or, if they were around at the time the War happened, were somehow powerless to stop it. Clearly, anything as powerful as the Elements would have done something to keep the world from collapsing. But unfortunately, news on them was about as sparse as it was on anything else. They weren’t on my radar right now...

Yellow wings whispered my name as they brushed my face. When I turned to face them they were gone, and Sidewinder was looking at me strangely.

“You look like you saw a ghost,” he whispered. “I’ve known plenty of ponies who do.”

I rubbed my cheeks with my hoof, pensive. Then, I stood up and left. “Story time comes later. Let’s just get out of here.”

--------------

Sidewinder left just before the next morning muster, informing the guards he wanted to sign up for the front line just like I’d asked. I didn’t know if they’d take him out and shoot him, or if my plan would work at all. It was in the hooves of fate now. I suffered through the Warden’s spiel once more, and for some reason Triton gave me an odd look when he didn’t see Sidewinder standing next to me. That was good. He and the rest of his ilk were integral to the next part of my plan.

“What a load of bullshit,” I said once the Warden and his retinue had left, muttering it under my breath. The ones who did hear me immediately scuttled away, frightened of the consequences of just being nearby such treacherous talk. I sniffed at them and did my best to look wild and angry, the picture of a prisoner who had reached his limit and couldn’t stand another minute of his torment. The perfect target to be made an example of.

“You don’t agree with me?” I snapped at them, lunging at a nearby pony who turned and ran. The guards eyed me ominously, preparing their batons as they closed in. I just started shouting. “You don’t think everything he’s said is a bunch of crap? Harmony? What Harmony is there here?”

Triton quickly scurried off, just as I wanted him to. He came back in moments, leading a trio of guards and pointing straight at me.

“You! Shut up!” a guard snapped at me, angling a baton at my face. I raised a hoof but not fast enough, and it cracked over my cheek. I fell to the ground spitting blood, jerking and twitching from the electric shock it delivered. The guards weren’t done and kept up their beating as I sputtered and coughed and shouted at them, and then it suddenly stopped. I was pulled up by the mane and had a collar slapped down over my neck.

“You need some discipline,” one of the guards growled. “You’re going to work with the Diamond Dogs today, my friend! I wonder if you’ll come back with all your limbs intact.”

I tried to hide my smirk as they dragged me towards the digging pits. That smirk quickly fell when they pulled me to the edge of the pit and didn’t stop. A flash of panic overtook me. Were they just going to dump me into the lowest levels and leave me to die when I dashed on the rocks? My plan was stupid, but I didn’t think I’d die quite like that. When the guards got to the edge of the pit, I started to struggle, looking down at the bottom. The Diamond Dogs were already working at the bottom, but their hulking bodies suddenly looked so small from way up here. In the moment before they kicked me over the edge, I apologized to my father for being such a fool.

“Wait!” one of the guards said. One of the others had a hoof on my flank, prepared to shove me to my doom, and stopped right at the same moment my heart did.

“We shouldn’t just drop him from this high up. He’ll be crushed on the rocks.”

“Yeah, so?” sneered the guard about to push me over.

“So the Warden will have our asses if we kill prisoners without his leave! You know how he is about that.”

“You mean we have to walk this piece of shit all the way down there?”

“You’re the one who said he’s going to work with the Dogs! It’s all right if they kill him, but I’m not going to get in trouble for you!”

“Ugh! Fine. You walk him down there, I’ll tell the Warden if they rip him to shreds.”

I almost vomited out of sheer relief, and then had a chuckle at how absurd something like that would be. One more brush with death out of the way. The guards picked me up and dragged me down the side of the pit, past workers hauling up their finds of gems and other minerals. The other prisoners didn’t even look up as I went past. I noticed Sixpence among the throng, but he was busy pushing a cart, staring dejectedly at the ground. I didn’t bother to get his attention, but he was one of the ponies apart from Sidewinder I had on my list of fellow escapees. That pony knew something about the Dark Ones, and I needed him alive.

We passed a clear line of demarcation between the ponies and the Dogs: one floor above the Dogs’ workspace there were no workponies, just guards stationed at regular intervals. Their guns were trained at all times on the hulking figures that swarmed around the bottom of the pit, hacking away at the walls with their formidable claws. I was struck with a sudden flash of curiosity: what were the Dogs being told to dig for down here? I knew they were used as slave labor when they were caught, being more capable than any pony at digging out new living space or clearing out debris from collapsed tunnels. I had heard rumors that Hoofsa often made use of them to clear out the Ring whenever a section of the tunnel collapsed. But why were these Dogs digging here?

The guards dragged me to the bottom of the pit, and here I could see up close the bulk of my new working partners. These were nothing like the Dog I’d saved so far back at Ruby Red’s bandit checkpoint the chain line the Dogs were all attached to. A new length was added to it, and at the very end, I was attached by the metal collar around my neck. It already chafed. The Dogs gave no indication that they noticed or cared about the newest addition to their group, and instead kept digging. A pickaxe was thrust into my hooves and I was told to start digging. They didn’t tell me which wall or what direction, just to dig. The Dogs, of course, dug much faster than I: I suspected that in a matter of hours a single Dog could do triple the amount of a pony in the same time.

It wasn’t until the guards left for the safety of the upper levels that I found why working near the Diamond Dogs was a real punishment. It started with a simple glance my way—a big bruiser of a Dog turned and snorted at me. I turned and made eye contact, peering into his deep orange eyes. The Dog grunted again and then headed right for me, raising a huge paw to swing down at my head. Before it came close I danced away to the very limit of the chain that bound us until it snapped taut and I fell. The Dog’s heavy claws came dangerously close to tearing the skin from my bones, and the Dog withdrew, grunting, back to its fellows. I gulped and went back to striking the stone, keeping a close eye on the Dogs all the while. They didn’t molest me for a time, but they couldn’t keep digging on their side of the room forever. Eventually they came around to my side of the pit, and I noticed they were digging in layers: starting at one side of the pit, they dug across the bottom and peeled away another layer before going back around.

I had no way to get around them—there were about twenty of them and I would have to squeeze between the workspace of two. I didn’t know what to do, just hacked away at the hard stone beneath my hooves as the Dogs crept closer. They were less than a leg’s length away before another peered up at me, this time with pale yellow eyes that gleamed with shocked curiosity before shifting to animal rage.

It lumbered forward but I was already gone, leaping for the space between them, feeling its claws rake the air behind me, dragging through the hairs of my tail. The Dog on my other side also barked and snapped at me, almost getting its jaws around my tail before I was a safe distance away, clutching my pickaxe in my hooves. The guards did nothing to make sure the Dogs didn’t go too far; in fact, some of them were even lazing around chatting. I was in here for the Dogs’ amusement, nopony else’s. Were they even sane or intelligent? But I knew Dogs could speak, at least, and one was smart enough to ask me to free it and let it help me against the bandits so many days ago. These Dogs had a chip on their shoulders; understandable since they had been enslaved and beaten on a regular basis like me. I hadn’t thought very far ahead, but it was too late to go back. I just had to suffer this latest indignation and try to end the day alive.

Now that the Dogs were facing away from me I was able to see what they were doing more properly, without the threat of their great paws striking me. I watched their hooves as I hacked at the solid stone, noting the way they dug, the way they kept equidistant from each other, and how every once in awhile the Dog on my end of the chain looked back and gave my chain a gentle tug to keep me from trailing behind. This, I knew, was not out of compassion or concern for me, but to keep the entire line from getting shocked whenever the chain was tugged too hard.

Hours dragged by. I suffered numerous scrapes and large gashes on my hide as the Dogs took swipes at me whenever they could, even once chasing me around the perimeter of the pit as they barked and snarled under their hideous muzzles, careful to keep me away from them without pulling the chain too far. It seemed they wanted me at a distance rather than kill me outright, but my bloody cuts argued against that. I kept close and watched them, listening for... what did Rocket call it?

A tapping.

Beneath the rough scrape of their paws on the rock, beneath the huffs and growls and guttural noises they made, I gradually picked it out under the toes of my hooves. At first thinking it was some cave creature gnawing on my hoof, I stopped and raised a leg, examining it. Immediately the feeling of tiny vibrations left me. I gingerly set my hoof back down, and there it was again, almost without pause. Daring the wrath of the guards I stopped my work for just a few seconds and watched the Dogs more carefully, staring at their paws and pickaxes as I felt the unseen speech...

And then I saw it in the way their paws occasionally reached out and extended a claw to strike the chain that bound them, or the rock before them. I felt it in my hooves, through the earth itself when the Dogs rapped out a rhythm on the rock, disguising it as a nervous tick. My earth pony magic must resonate in some way with it, or I’d never have picked it up. It was just a quick series of clicks and raps, almost too fast to follow. It took me this long to see it, but now that I had it I knew what to look for, and desperately watched for signs of more. As the hours wore by and my teeth became sore and my eyes started to hurt from straining at the corners of my eyelids for so long, I discerned only one simple pattern that was repeated up and down the line. It came only when the Dogs were ready to make a simultaneous about-face to begin the next layer of digging: one tap followed by three quick ones, and two more slow taps.

After being scored in the side once again by their claws on the next pass, I took a chance. One tap, three quick, two slow. The Dogs were halfway through the next cycle of digging, and a few of them stopped and looked up at me. I stared back and repeated the tap signal with the tip of my pickaxe.

The Dogs growled, low and ominous.

I backed up a step and looked at the guards, who were spectacularly uninterested in what was about to transpire. The Dogs leapt at me. A cold rush of terror filled my limbs with ice water. I leaped for the far side of the pit, didn’t move fast enough, and cried out as one of the Dogs caught me by the leg. His paw covered most of my limb and jerked me out of the air with just a twitch of his oversized arm. I crashed to the stone chin-first, painfully clicked my teeth, and looked up to see the Dogs closing in around me. I lifted my pickaxe and swung it in desperation, but one of the Dogs caught it and yanked it out of my mouth, nearly taking my teeth with it. And then he reared back, raising the pickaxe to drive it down into my skull.

I rolled and yanked the chain around my neck as far as it would go. It snapped taut and my world exploded with pain.

It was not the pain of the Dog’s pickaxe cracking my brain case open, but a sudden explosion across every nerve ending, like a million small red hot pokers jabbing me all at once. The electric shock traveled down the whole line, seizing the Dogs and making them convulse and drop to their knees. The Dog with my pickaxe raised the weapon again, and through a hazy cloud of agony I yanked the chain once more, even harder this time.

More pain. A rod of agony shooting straight up my spine. The noise of the Dogs was almost drowned out by my own screaming. Almost. I just pulled all the tighter, daring the pain to get worse. And it did.

It stopped when the guards charged in, bearing long poles with shock spells on the ends. They attacked us mercilessly until we were all shivering, whimpering balls on the floor, and announced that today’s workload was done. They descended on me and I prayed that I would be detached from their line and put back with the other ponies, but no such luck. The Dogs were herded back up the slope and dragged me behind them. The collar around my neck didn’t shock so much as choke now. I slid and bumped over the rocky ground, whimpering as it tore at my already scratched and bleeding hide, and soon I just closed my eyes and waited for it to stop. The floor I was being dragged over eventually changed from rock to metal, and there were more lights than there were in the caves. I opened my eyes, but I’d become so accustomed to the lack of light in the slave pits the new ones nearly blinded me.

“Stupid fucking Dogs,” one of the guards herding us muttered.

“I know. Can’t go five minutes without causing trouble. If they got into another feeding frenzy it would be hours before we can put ‘em back to work.”

“You mean the stories are true?”

“Damn right they are. Those claws aren’t good for just digging. They rip the flesh right off your bones. The bastards will even eat what they don’t tear to shreds. It’s why we got the muzzles on them. Ever since we tried domesticating them they just got worse.”

“Damn... and this guy’s got to work with them?”

“One thing about the Dogs: they’re stupid as the rock they mine, but the messes they make are an excellent motivator...”

My trip ended with me on the cold, hard floor of a cage. My body was covered in burning lacerations and dirty open wounds, but I forced my eyes open anyway and looked around as the door to the cage slammed shut right in front of me. We had been deposited in a dark place with only a single sprite-light on the ceiling. It looked like the spare room of a train depot, with no real purpose than storage. Perhaps the Dogs were kept here so they could not dig through the floor? The chain on my neck snaked through the door and led to another cage at my side, preventing me from going more than a foot in any direction for how much slack was left over. At the end of the chain was a Diamond Dog, large and burly and yellow-eyed, glaring at me through the eye-holes of his muzzle.

I sat down against the bars and sighed.

The Dog’s paw shot out between the bars of his cage, reaching for my eyes. I jerked back again, sending another painful shock running through the entire line. I listened to the chorus of painful howls and whimpers, and the Dog who’d tried to rip my face off continued to glare at me with the wide-eyed, wild look of somepony who desperately wanted me dead. But he couldn’t reach me, and I couldn’t talk to him. I just had to hope that I could break through whatever mad hate the Dogs had for ponykind.

My mind flew back to the first Diamond Dog I’d ever met, in a cage just like this one next to a bandit outpost. I’d helped him escape, and he’d run off into the tunnels to never be seen again. Did he have a home to go back to? Did these Dogs have a place of their own, like mine? A place they wanted to see again and the only thing keeping them from it was ponies? I wondered, too, if the Dog I freed would actually thank me for giving him a chance, or if he knew the ones trapped here. No such luck. I closed my eyes and a yellow mare shared my sad sigh. How I had come to hate the Metro.

The Dogs were quiet for a time, and I noticed, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, that this room had no guards. Apparently nopony had the patience or desire to stand around watching creatures too stupid to understand anything . And then I heard it. A quiet, gentle tapping that echoed through the room. And then again, another series of rapid taps from all along the line of cages. My ears perked as I listened to the quiet symphony, trying to catch on to whatever beats seemed to be repeated the most. At first, the noise was too quiet and too fast. I sat against the bars of my cage, waiting and listening, trying to quiet my breathing, determined to make sense of the gibberish. I just needed to catch a few strains—even one would do—and I could try again to open lines of communication. I reached out with my earth magic, letting the vibrations sort themselves out when they reached my hooves.

I chose the first rhythm I heard and tapped it out with my hoof.

The other taps stopped.

I opened my eyes, trying to see the Dogs through the gloom, but all I could discern was the big one in the cage right next to mine. It glowered at me through its muzzle. In the darkness, I heard a few more series of slow, uncertain taps.

My staring contest with the Dog opposite me went on. And then...

Tap. Tap tap tap. Tap tap.

The Dog watched me intently.

Tap. Tap tap tap. Tap tap.

The Dog reached up to the bars and held them tight, staring at me expectantly. It tilted its head and blinked, and in its curious eyes I saw what I’d seen in many ponies: a spark of real intelligence. What do you want? it seemed to be asking me. Why are you here?

I pressed my face against the bars.

“I want to help you,” I whispered. “I want to get us all out.”

The Dog started tapping.

------------

Three more days. Three days of work and toil and stoic patience as the fruit of my labor eluded me. I didn’t see Sidewinder, nor had I found a way to contact him. I presumed that he was just delayed, refusing to think that he had abandoned me all over again. I hadn’t suffered the indignity of dying an ignominious death yet, so perhaps my luck would hold steady as long as I faced it with the same certainty as before. My eye was bruised and swollen, my entire body hurt all the time, and I was always hungry. A pony subsisted on a very precarious diet in the Metro, and the nutrients I so desperately needed weren’t to be found in the gruel they served us. Sooner I’d be nothing but skin and bones like the rest of the slaves.

But my time wasn’t completely wasted. I spent my days in the Diamond Dog pit, and the guards wondered at my ability to stay alive with such “mindless beasts” as my caretakers. They had to keep up appearances and I went to sleep every night with angry red scratches on my skin, but it was a small price to pay for a better understanding of my cellmates. Through hours of instruction and little sleep, both hooves and arms flailing wildly as we tried to draw concepts in the air, I learned. My earth magic helped me, growing more familiar with the gentle vibrations and what they meant than my brain alone ever could. I figured my lockbox cutie mark had something to do with my keen memory which served me so well.

I picked up the basics of their makeshift language quickly, learning how to say no, yes, and other small things. By the third day I was even able to talk to them while on duty, making short taps with my pickaxe before striking the rock as if I was searching for the right spot to hit. The big Dog whose cage was next to mine spoke to me most often, as my hooves had become the most familiar with his tappings’ idiosyncrasies. He had even taught me that he was a ‘he,’ and at least three other Dogs were female. I had no idea how to tell the difference, though. I also had no idea what his name was. The only response I got was ‘none’ and ‘don’t.’ Friendship wasn’t built in a day, I supposed.

Friends outside, he told me on one workshift, speaking in fits and starts in between clawing at the rock. Come help.

Me too, I answered. Wait long.

Me too. Far. Why help why speak?

Few friends. Want more. Want out. Help Dog.

Dog no friend Pony. Help out.

Will help?

Will help.

It would have to do.

-----------

I was kicked into wakefulness on the morning of the fourth day. The guards hauled me from the cages and made me take my usual place at the end of the line of Dogs, and we started our walk to another day of backbreaking labor. More bad smells. More sad pony faces. More wondering if my plan had already failed miserably or not.

Perhaps I felt ballsy. Perhaps I felt fatalistic. Perhaps I just didn’t care. But as we reached the pit, I spoke out again.

“This place really hasn’t improved since we moved in. Maybe we need some floral curtains?”

I got the expected baton to the back of the leg, and collapsed without a care in the world. The Dogs stopped so I didn’t yank the chain, and a guard stepped forward to haul me to my hooves. As I stood, I got a look at his face.

Sidewinder grinned back at me from under his helmet.

Then his face melted back into a scowl. “Get moving you piece of shit! Two levels up the ponies in east block are working much harder than you are and they don’t even have a way out!”

My eyes widened, and I said nothing as he pushed me forward—notably with his hoof in my mane. I dared not look around or back as he vanished over my shoulder, waiting until we were back in the pit to find out what he had thrown into my mane. Masking the gesture as just scratching an itch, I reached back and found something solid. Without even waiting I pulled it out, dropping it on the stone floor. My heart skipped a beat.

It was a key.

I couldn’t suppress a smile. The revolution was going to happen now. But what about Sidewinder? He’d said... two levels up, in the eastern block. That must be where he’d been stockpiling the weapons! Celestia, was this really happening? Luna, could you see me from the afterlife and blessed my journey for me to have such good fortune?

There would be no waiting. No wasting time. This happened now before the opportunity slipped away. I looked back at the Dogs, tap tapping out a signal to my big friend.

Key. Take.

The Dog didn’t even flinch. On the next pass as we danced our little dance of pretend hostility, I put the key in his path.

Day end, I heard the reply. Kill guards.

Countless strikes of the pick later, our shift ended. I heard the clink of chains, and then felt the weight of my collar loosen. The guards came down to herd us back to the cages. I felt excitement boiling in me as we tramped back up to the edge of the pit. It felt as though a sheet was lifting off my face and I saw everything for the first time; even in the dim light colors were vibrant and sounds were clear and beautiful to my ears. The endless hammering of picks and hammers was like a drumbeat counting down to action.

The moment I stepped onto the platform one level above the pit, the Dogs struck.

I had never understood why we had a lighter guard than the section with the ponies. Perhaps it was because of the idea that Dogs were stupider and needed less attention. They weren’t intelligent enough to escape, only to strike out at ponies when they got too close. Perhaps it was an oversight. Perhaps it was just a strange circumstance that worked in my favor. But on that day, I saw that whether or not the Dogs were stupid, they were more than capable of killing ponies.

We were crowded together like always, the guards bored and confident with their guns and shock sticks. They had always stood just out of clawing range, knowing the Dogs were deterred by the shocking chain around their necks. But today the collars, unlocked during our work day in the pit with my key, just slipped off as the Dogs lunged. As one, they struck. I saw the guards’ eyes widen, their teeth tighten around the triggers of their war reins. Then the Dogs enveloped the faces of their chosen targets with their massive paws, and in dreadfully macabre silence, tore their throats out, broke their necks, or ripped their heads cleanly off with a twist and jerk of their bulging arms. Twenty-two Dogs. Twenty guards. No chance.

None of the guards were even able to get a shot off. The levels above us weren’t alerted, and the Dogs suddenly turned to me. Their eyes were no longer dull and angry. Their claws had tasted the blood of their oppressors: ponies. They wanted more.

I saw my big friend reach up and tear the muzzle from his mouth, and all his friends followed suit, spending a moment to stretch their jaws. His mouth opened, revealing jagged, yellowing teeth. He sucked in air, billowing his chest, and spoke.

“Poooo-nyyyy.”

I stared.

“Lock-booooox.”

I gulped down a lump of sheer terror building up in the back of my throat.

“Friend.”

I almost dropped onto my stomach with relief.

The collar was slipped off my neck, and the Dogs turned to leave. I stopped them with a hoof on one of their shoulders.

“Wait!” I said, struggling to pull on a flak vest and a war rein of my own. A Mule submachine gun was better than nothing. “The second level, the eastern section! That’s where Sidewinder said he’d meet me. He has more weapons and a way out!”

I had already explained the plan via our tapping lines, and the Dogs only needed to give each other a glance before they agreed. I had just enough time to wonder how we were going to get past the other guards when the Dogs threw their paws into the wall and started digging straight into the bedrock. I gaped in amazement as the rock seemed to wash away before them, and had just enough time to register a guard calling out in alarm before my big friend picked me up and carried me into the newly-made tunnel as bullets skipped on the stone behind us.

I didn’t have time to react as I was enveloped by darkness and the sound of cracking stone. Falling dust clogged my nostrils and I sneezed uproariously, prompting a chuckle from the Dog carrying me. In seconds we were dumped out into another tunnel, surrounded by ponies who were jumping up and screaming and shouting.

The Dogs were already fanning out around me, and through the tangle of ponies scrambling out of their way I saw them jump on the nearest guards and bury their claws in their throats, tearing their heads from their shoulders with victorious shouts. The ponies screamed, unable to comprehend what was happening, and how could they? They didn’t know I sought their freedom. All they saw were monsters erupting from the ground and ripping into other ponies. Fortunately, they didn’t attack the Dogs themselves, just crawled over each other to get away from them and flooding into the tunnels where they clogged up the guards rushing to investigate. The Dogs calmly congregated at another wall to dig through once again.

Over the melee I heard a voice calling my name, recognizing it as Sidewinder’s.

“Over here! Over here!” I shouted back, and the Stalker pushed through the crowd to reach me, tearing his helmet off before the Dogs took his head.

“Lockbox! Tell them to dig up one more level! From there we can reach an abandoned Metro tunnel and escape!”

“I have to find Sixpence.”

“Who?”

“Sixpence! The pony who is responsible for all of this! He was on our digging team, do you know where they put him?”

“There’s no time!” Sidewinder replied, pushing me into the tunnel the Dogs had made. I babbled a quick explanation that Sidewinder was my friend before they ripped him to shreds and we were off, again before the guards could regain their senses and attack. Damn it, damn it, damn it. I was going to leave my one source of answers behind! But I couldn’t have trusted him with the plan, nor could I have expected him to be right where I wanted. The Metro, it seemed, wanted me to wait for answers.

We dug up another level as Sidewinder instructed, spilled into the next tunnel above.

We stood and faced a Republic firing squad, crowding the width of the tunnel on both sides. A wall of guns pointed directly at us, closing off any escape.

We froze, knowing any movement meant our deaths. The sounds of far-off confusion echoed, ghost-like, through the tunnel.

The Warden stepped out from the crowd, fluttering his wings. He tried to mask it as a sign of bored contempt, but I knew it was the same agitation that all aging pegasi suffered from. At least I knew I’d ruffled his feathers before I died.

“This is it?” he asked, staring at our motley crew. “This is the revolution I was told to expect? Just a bunch of Dogs trying to dig their way out through our lines?” He shook his head as though disappointed. “Sad, really. This won’t do for my report, no.”

“Report?” I asked, feeling stupid for asking but unable to think of anything else to say. How had they known what we would do before we even did it? It made no sense!

The Warden shook his head again, as if to chide me for my ignorance. “Look around you, pony. Look at what you’ve done. You wanted to escape, but your plan was so half-baked it failed before things even got interesting. Give up now and I’ll only shoot a few of you. The Dogs are good workers so we’ll spare most of them, but you have to go.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Sidewinder said, “this doesn’t make any sense. How are you here?”

The Warden sighed sadly and looked around at the guards. “You see these ponies? They are loyal. I know this not only because of what I see, in how they watch over their fellow ponies and risk life and limb in these caverns, but because of what I feel.” He turned to me and tilted his head. “We learned the secrets of the heart, you see. That’s how Lucky Clover always knows what’s best. That’s how we learned that you were disloyal, right from the very beginning. It’s not about what you do or don’t do, it’s about what’s in here.” The Warden pointed to his own heart. “In old Equestria there was magic that allowed a pony to see into the heart of other creatures and discern how they really felt about others. Lucky Clover was lucky enough to come into the possession of a tome that studied that exact field.”

“What then?” I asked him. “You spy on ponies’ hearts? You tap into their feelings and control them?”

“Not control them. Guide them. Lucky Clover is our leader because she unlocked ponydom’s greatest secret: that we all do what we do from the corruption or goodness of our hearts. It all comes from there, you see. And that is why we must keep such a tight rein on them.” He closed his eyes for just a moment. When he opened them again, they glowed a sickly neon green. “There is nothing more dangerous than a pony with his heart in the wrong place, and you, my friends... have always had your hearts in the wrong place.”

He gestured with his wing, and from the crowd of guards Triton stepped forward. His cracked horn glowed with the same color as the Warden’s eyes. The Warden stared straight at me, and all at once I felt a terrible pull from inside my eye sockets, as though a hook had been stabbed into my skull and yanked my attention towards him. The Warden stepped forward, and even the Dogs took a collective step back.

“There were monsters that plagued ponykind even in the days of Equestria’s apex. They fed upon ponies and the love they shared for each other, using subterfuge and mind control to achieve their vicious ends. Though they are gone, their magic survives. It has been repurposed like so many other things for the betterment of the Republic, and thus, the Metro. And with it, the one you called Sidewinder could not hide his intentions from us. All is given to the service of Harmony... even the minds of our enemies.” His strange gaze continued to bore into me, and I felt something like tendrils worming their way into my mind. I set my hooves in the ground and dared him to reach further.

“You, Sidewinder, were easy to spot. As were you, Lockbox. Neither of you loved the Republic. Neither of you lost the love you had for everything else like a pony must do to become loyal to true Harmony.I had you pegged the moment you arrived. And... you, Lockbox...”

His stare did not abate. I leaned forward, pushing against the strange mind magic with the power of the earth, planting myself in the confidence I had in my mission and the friends I had with me. Incidental friends, but friends nonetheless. The Warden kept coming, and the pressure on my eyes increased and a whining grew in my ears, pressing in on my skull from all sides. It told me to break, to bow, to grovel and beg for forgiveness. The Warden seemed to glow, a vision of beauty that demanded subservience. But I did not move. The Earth does not move. It remains.

The Warden was just a foot away now, in striking distance. The whining was now a long, sustained screech that scraped at my skull. My head felt like it was going to explode. I felt blood trickle out of my nose, I shivered on my hooves, and my vision tunneled. But I did not move. At last the Warden stopped, looking confused. He shook his head as if to clear it of dizziness, and I knew I’d won. The moment he stepped away the pressure lessened, and the screeching abruptly stopped.

“Triton, come forward.”

Triton stepped up next to the Warden, looking proud of himself.

“It was he,” the Warden said, “who discovered your true nature in the days following your capture. Something is very, very wrong with you, Lockbox. Something that will be of great interest to the Republic; perhaps even Lucky Clover herself. You have no love for us. Your love is... what is that I felt? Something bigger. Broader. You love ponies. You love home, and the past, and big ideas. Ideas like that have no place in the Republic. But there is more than that, something that prevents your mind from being confined to the tunnels of the Metro. You are very dangerous, Lockbox, and good Triton found you out. As such, he and his cohorts will be rewarded for their loyal service and become full-fledged citizens and soldiers for our great nation, to replenish the numbers taken when the Dogs broke loose. You, however, will be given over to Special Intelligence.”

I felt vibrations through my hooves. It was not a tapping. It was a long, sustained crrrrack that worked its way through the ground and over my head. I stayed quiet as the Warden kept talking about how loyal citizens could still be found even in these dark times. I wanted to rip his tongue out. The entire Republic was a gulag and recruiting center, existing only to beat ponies down to build them back up as fanatical zealots for their cause, and the strange, monstrous magic the Warden mentioned was the key to keeping them all in line. No wonder they got so many ponies to die for them in their suicide charges.

“Now, it has been amply demonstrated that you never had a chance of success. We let you have your moment of freedom to show the rest of the prisoners that trying to escape means failure. You are surrounded with no way out. Surrender at once.”

A vicious rumbling came from the Dog behind me as he bared his teeth. The crackling I felt through my hooves was very close now.

“Pooo-nyyy,” he snarled, “pooo-nyyy dieee!”

“I thought you’d say that. Gun crews, prepare to—”

The ceiling collapsed atop him. From the newly-opened fissure poured a river of Diamond Dogs. Their bulky bodies swarmed over the disoriented guards and immediately set about eviscerating whatever they could catch. Before I blinked, the Dogs behind me turned on the guards behind us and leaped on them. The entire tunnel became a melee of wailing ponies and the Dogs that preyed on them. Gore flew in every direction as what few ponies that could opened fire, cutting down whatever got close—but it was too little too late. The Dogs were too numerous and too strong. I saw one take a shotgun blast to the gut and continue on to drive its claws into its attacker’s eye sockets before tearing the pony’s head from her shoulders with a clean twist and jerk.

I stood in the middle of the riot, looking back and forth for a way out. Something smacked into my face and flopped to the ground. It was Triton’s head. I looked up and saw the Warden had gathered two or three ponies to him and used them as meat shields as they ran from the battle, down another tunnel.

I knew, then, what I had to do.

I charged after them, watching the Warden’s guards die one by one as I slipped under the flailing paws of the Dogs, who seemed to take some sick satisfaction from the slaughter as they ripped open earth pony and unicorn alike with their bare hands. The crackle of spells and gunfire dropped off sharply until it was all drowned out by the braying of the Dogs.

“Lockbox!” I heard Sidewinder call behind me, but I didn’t heed him. All that mattered was the Warden and all he represented. I saw his tail disappear around a corner and I charged after him. Though he took wing I kept pace as he was constantly forced to slow down and make hairpin turns. I opened fire with my Mule, but the constant jostling from my sustained gallop kept me from scoring a clean hit. I saw the Warden glance back only once, his eyes full of hate, and then he pushed on. If he tried to turn and shoot me, he knew I’d have him.

We burst through a door into a tunnel lined with concrete and wires—a tunnel of the Metro. The Warden spun and juked as he raced down the straightaway, angling towards the bright lights of some room further ahead. My bullets chased him, and just before he landed I saw a dark spurt of blood erupt from his shoulder as he crashed into the door, shouting something unintelligible.

I ran in after him, heedless of danger. Bloodlust drove me now. An overwhelming need to find the Warden and crush him, as if he was the symbol of the Republic itself and killing him would end the entire institution. Bursting through the door I leveled my Mule at his back while he hunched over a console covered in buttons and lights, shouting into what looked like an intercom.

I stopped short when I saw the other two guards in the room. There was a blinding flash. I heard the ear-splitting boom of a gun going off in a small space. I felt the slight sting and harsh thud of something small yet powerful impacting with my chest, drilling through my body armor made more for quelling riots than stopping bullets.

Stars exploded in my eyes, and then all I saw was red.

When my vision cleared, I saw the barrel of a gun filling my vision, getting closer as the guard wielding it pushed it up against my skull. My helmet and war reins were gone, tossed away. Everything hurt, but I felt the worst in my chest, which I was sure had a hole in it. My front leg wouldn’t move. Lifting my head to meet the gun aiming between my eyes nearly made me faint with dizziness.

I realized I was in shock, and because of my foolishness I was about to be executed, right here on the floor.

There was a muffled shout and the gun lifted from my head. A pegasus barreled into the room, skinny and green and not the Warden or Sunny Side. One of the guards opened his mouth just in time to receive the sharp end of the pickaxe that went into his throat and out the back of his neck. I watched, dazed and almost enchanted, as the guard fell in slow motion and the pegasus leapt on the other guard, bearing him to the ground with unnatural strength, pounding on his face like an animal.

I heard words, muffled and indistinct like cotton was in my ears. They were coming from the pegasus as he tore the guard’s helmet and war reins off, grabbed him by the cheeks, and viciously hammered his skull against the ground. “Show me the Sun!” he screamed, even as the guard’s eyes went dark. “Show me the Sun! Where is she?!”

There were three more deafening booms. The pegasus’ body jerked and three holes appeared in his chest and belly. It was only then, when his face contorted in pain and fear, that my brain caught up with reality and realized it was my acquaintance Rocket. The Warden stood behind him, a smoking pistol in his war rein.

I had to move. I pushed one leg underneath me. Rocket twisted around and leapt at the Warden, who fired the rest of his bullets into the other pegasus. Rocket didn’t seem to notice or care, begging to see the Sun one last time.

He collapsed against the Warden and slumped into a chair just as I got back on my hooves. The Warden gave Rocket a contemptuous sniff and turned back to the intercom, speaking into it. I reached down, down into the earth, feeling my magic work into the dirt like roots, sucking up strength to overcome the pain and confusion that wracked my mind. The same overwhelming awareness of the world that overtook me in my battle against the Hydra made me keenly aware of the gaping wounds in my body that should have destroyed me. A normal pony would have blacked out already. But I had accepted that I was not a normal pony, and a normal pony did not have the whole Earth pushing them up.

Wordlessly, I grabbed the pickaxe from the nearby guard’s corpse and plucked it out as easily as a dart from a board. The Warden was still talking, and only the scrape of the pickaxe and my shuffling hooves drew his attention. He hadn’t even finished his sentence by the time he turned to face me, eyes widening in shock and surprise. Ever since I heard him start talking, I wanted to shut him up.

And then, with a single swing of my working leg, I did.

I imagined more than heard the wet, meaty sound of the axe point driving into his head, disappearing into his brain like the intervening flesh and bone weren’t even there. It was so much easier than striking rocks. Funny, that. I noted with satisfaction the two black little dots his eyes became at the point of death, unable to believe I had actually done it.

His body twitched like a bug’s when I shoved it out of the way, looking down at the console. The room overlooked a large section of the pit, and by extension the entire mine prison. The intercom, I suspected, would carry my voice through most of the facility.

I felt Rocket’s hoof on mine. I hobbled around to face him, ignoring the pain.

“Take me home,” he said. “Take me to the sky. Won’t you? Please?”

I reached out with my injured leg and put a bloody hoof around the back of his head, gently stroking his mane. A whisper passed my lips. I couldn’t even be sure if he heard it.

“I will, Rocket. I promise.”

Then Rocket died, his eyes full of confusion and wonder.

On a whim I reached down and plucked a feather from Rocket’s wing, sticking it in my mane. I then released him and turned back to the intercom, putting my hoof on the transmit button. It slipped a few times, being so slick with my own blood. Goodness, it was everywhere.

“Ponies of the Metro,” I said, my words slurring together like a drunkard. “the Warden and many of his guards are dead. Diamond Dogs have penetrated the prison. The magic the Warden used to control you is gone. If you wish to be free, now is your time. Now is your time to say to the Republic that if they want to kill you, they will kill ponies. Not workers or slaves or whatever they want to confine your small life into. We don’t have much of a life here in the Metro. But they are our lives. And damn anypony who will take that from us. Forget the speeches of Harmony and peace. The Republic lies about these things. Take back what will truly bring our world back. Yourselves. This is our one chance at freedom, and however we die after this day, it will be because we made the choices that led us there, nopony else. Take back your lives. Be free.”

I staggered away from the console, and already heard the angry shouts and gunshots of a world gone mad. So it was true. Everything I’d theorized was correct. Without the Warden’s presence, whatever magic he wielded was disrupted just long enough for the ponies in the mines to unleash the anger and indignation he had suppressed. A full scale rebellion was breaking out, just like I wanted.

It was only then I realized what I’d done.

I was surrounded by dead ponies all over again. How many would die as a direct result of this? How many would spend their few moments of freedom clawing their way out, dying at the hooves of the guards, or at the claws of whatever monsters awaited those who made it to the Metro itself? What real difference did any of this make, apart from the number of bodies it took to get from one point to another?

I turned away, shaking my head as a gentle yellow pony reached out to help me, her eyes full of tears. I’m sorry, so sorry. I can’t be as pure as you. I can’t be as kind. This world is not yours. It is mine, and it is full of death. My world spun and twisted, and I collapsed to the ground. Instead of my dream mare coming to my rescue again, I saw the square jaw of a Diamond Dog, moving as it grumbled out words.

“Pooo-nyyy friend. Dyyyyyinnng.”

I coughed up blood, adding to the formidable collection on my clothes.

“So... so many ponies... dying,” I rasped. "Can't it be over?"

The Dog shook its head, and I couldn’t tell if it pitied or mocked me.

“The War is never over, pony," it rumbled, "not for us." It picked me up in its paws like a foal.

I gave myself to darkness.

Comments

[UberUrsa]

I have to admit, when I first started reading this, I thought it would be like ponyized version of the game or the book, at least the original book. Man, am I glad I was wrong.

[CommanderCupcake]

An apex.

[ZettaLux]

3011344
Very much, so. Lots of original content.

I'm glad things are finally going his way... More or less...

[Bmercy]

This is story is freaking awesome! Keep up the good work, and I really look forward to the next chapter.

[Tanglemane]

Very happy to see an update. Good work.

[RoboRed]

Well done, Lockbox. Well done.

[PresentPerfect]

Even after all I’d seen, this struck me as one of the most cruel ways to kill a pony. Put a gun in their hooves. Let them fight. Let them live. At least the bandits could claim freedom, even if they wasted it. But this pointless, routine terror? I couldn’t let it stand. I felt nothing but deep, growing anger that seeped into my bones the longer I was forced to stay here, knowing the mission I’d sworn to complete was never going to be finished. Most of all, I was tired of not being able to make a dent in the terror and death I saw in the Metro. This would be where I made my stand, where I bloodied the nose of tyranny. If I was going to get out of here, it would be with a curse on the Republic’s name.

Our little Lockbox is becoming a stallion! ;_;

I really like that bit about magic changing.

Why would he If being able to See

I think you accidentally a word.

These were nothing like the Dog I’d saved so far back at Ruby Red’s bandit checkpoint the chain line the Dogs were all attached to.

And possibly another?

Whew! Good chapter! :D

[Lesolan - Rest In Peace]

Why would he If being able to See only brought me the company of the insane and the violent, I wanted nothing to do with it.

Looks like the a sentence got partially chopped there.

“I’m not going just escape, Sidewinder...

Missing a word.

... me loyal to true Harmony.I had you...

Needs a space.

That being said, pleaseohpleaseohplease can I have some more, and soonish?

[redsquirrel456]

3114231

Thanks for being a good spotter.

[the other sans]

Being able to See hadn’t brought me anything but trouble, and something about Rocket knowing anything about the ability to See disturbed me greatly. Why would he If being able to See only brought me the company of the insane and the violent, I wanted nothing to do with it.

Yeah, mentioned twice before by Lesolan and presentperfect. Something about this sentence is throwing me off. Could be the capitalised If but who knows right? Also, no problem on spotting them as I tend to take my time to enjoy reading stories like these and as a result, I tend to find some small things like these.

[McEgg]

I´ll do my very best to spread the word of this awesome Fanfic in the german part of the Fandom. Keep on writing! From one Autor to the next: you doing a wonderfull work here. I´m looking forward to the next Chapter as many of my german Bronies do. Keep upt the good work!

[Darkdragonv0942]

awesome I hope to see more of this to the end dude

[ScrewdriverPie]

I love this fanfic, and not just because it features ponies and magic.
When I started it, I believe it was just after chapter 9 was released.
I came back to it every week for a month, Then every month for a year.
I don't care how long I have to wait, as long as the material is as good as before,
I will read it to the end.

[PersonalGamer]

Excellent story, but that cliffhanger at theend of this last chapter...

I must be content to wait it seems.

[Yestcher]

Don't worry Lockbox you'll survive to carry on and shake up the Metro, I mean your story hasn't ended right?

... right?