We don't go to Sub-Level Five

by RadBunny

Chapter Nine: A friendly face?

Waking up to a soft chime, Astral looked around, his body jerking in surprise as the memory of the previous day flooded back.

“Whoa, easy there. It’s all clear,” the voice said softly. “Get some food and water in you and then take the tram on your right. It will take you to the central transit station. The creatures are gone; I lured them into the other tram car and locked it halfway down a tunnel.”

Astral nodded, downing some of the less-than-healthy food and cautiously opening the door. The voice was indeed correct; the station was empty aside from some disturbing silk-like stuff along the stairs.

Ew.

After double-checking to make sure everything was clear, Astral did a few stretches and scrubbed his face with some water; the best he could do for his wake-up routine.

He didn’t even know what time it was. None of the supply closets had a watch or clock.

Tugging his supply sled into the tram (after making sure it was clear), Astral sat down with a slump. It was almost like a normal subway car; he had been on one a few times before.

“Departing, Silo Transit Station One,” the obnoxiously positive mare’s voice said cheerfully over the speakers, “Destination: Central Silo Transit Station.”

The double doors smoothly shut, and the tram took off smoothly. The question of time was answered by a digital clock dutifully still functioning.

Midnight. Well, at least I didn’t sleep an entire night away.
Unfortunately, the lack of a bed and heavy exertion were starting to take their toll. Already Astral could feel his limbs and muscles aching, let alone his neck from sleeping in an awkward position.

He took the time to pop a few painkillers, eyes drifting to the floor. It was almost like his world had a sick sense of humor. The training, mock fighting, and such had been a fun part of the Guard program. The Thestral had genuinely enjoyed it both as a potential career and hobby. The legal ramifications and daily stress had not been a goal in the slightest.

But when your entire family is in the Guard business, one way or another, what career choice did I have?

This wasn’t the first time his path had been abruptly diverted. Of course, his ‘washing out’ of the program was a bit more complicated than what most knew. Well, Gabbro was only friend who knew the whole story, the only one of his friends who did.

He was also the only friend Astral could trust to believe him. Naturally, the cheerful hippogriff had without a second thought.

I still don’t even know if Mom and Dad believe me. I know most of my siblings don’t. How did my lack of wanting to be a guard make them think I was a worse pony? Just because I didn’t follow in generations of tradition? Is that all it took?

Ironic my training instructor is the only one who helped me, same with the judge. That made it real, of how deep I was in. If not for the poor mare's own testimony…

He shook his head; starting off the morning with such depressive thoughts wasn’t a good idea. But being on the run for two, no, three days now was starting to get to the Thestral. He had to stop somewhere safe, even for just a bit in the future.

By the time the tram began to slow down, the painkillers had kicked in, at least pushing the aches and pains to the rear of Astral’s mind.

“Now arriving at Central Silo Transit Station.”

Astral was wishing for a clean station like the one he came from. No blood, no bodies. Was that too much to ask?

As the tram stopped and the doors opened, evidently, it was.

Gritting his teeth, Astral pulled his supply sled through the remains of a few dozen ponies. He honestly wasn’t sure how many; it was hard to tell since none had an intact torso.

Bile rose in his throat, but he managed to shove it down along with the shaking in his limbs.

One hoof in front of the other. Keep going.

There was only one place to go; a stairway that led up into a larger stone room. On emerging, Astral briefly wished he had stayed in the tram a bit longer.

The massive dome was almost like the new, modern stock exchange in Manhattan. Large, tree-like protrusions with dozens of screens dotted the open tiled area. Bunches of desks were organized near each one, massive, now-blank screens hanging from the ceiling. Across the dome, there were two other staircases that led down; ‘Station’ lettering barely visible from Astral’s location.

But it was the bodies that made the stallion’s limbs start to shake. Dozens upon dozens of them, draped over desks, parts of them hanging from ceiling lights, some shoved halfway through some of the screens...

There were plenty of security personnel, their armor torn to pieces and torsos ripped open. Astral had the unfortunate realization that most of their internal organs were outright missing…or decorating nearby screens. The fact that there were quite a few unicorns indicated that magic hadn’t been of much use here.

He could feel the rising panic beating at the door of his mind. If he stayed here any longer, the stallion was afraid he wouldn’t be able to leave, his limbs simply freezing.

A large set of signs greeted the Security Guard when he made it to the rough ‘center’ of the dome, a simple arrow giving him some hope.

‘Silo 2 Transit Station
Silo 3 Transit Station
Transit Hub Security Station.

Security. That was a good word indeed, and that was where Astral angled his path. There were, notably, a large number of dead soldiers in this path, metal barricades being strewn up near the hallway in the distance. It was in this section of the dome that Astral saw hundreds if not thousands of bullet-holes decorating the wall, along with a smattering of dead grey creatures.

Thankfully, like the other bodies, they seemed to be in pieces and not moving. Oddly, about two-thirds of them (the largest ones) had barcodes on their right forearms. The other, smaller creatures didn’t.

Almost there. A security station.

The door, thankfully, was intact. A massive, pockmarked metal chunk of steel that looked more like the entrance to a bunker than anything. A smaller, equally-dented side door was locked up tight.

A familiar keypad and card scanner seemed to be operating, but barely. On tapping in the code and using the ID card, the scanner blinked yellow with a soft fizzle of electronics. That was when Astral saw the bullet hole in the side of the unit.

Oh, ponyfeathers. Come on…

He didn’t see any visible cameras, but an intercom panel was, of course, covered in bullet holes. The bat-pony tried it anyways.

“Hello?” he asked softly, depressing the button but hearing nothing, not even static.

As much as he hated to make more noise, there was only one other tried and true method to seeing if anypony was home.

He knocked three times, the sound echoing far more than he had hoped. But thankfully, there wasn’t any creepy skittering or heavy breathing. Almost more disturbingly, there wasn’t any sound.

Setting down his supplies near the door, Astral stayed within sight as he checked some of the desks. Just financial forms, more mentioning of experiments…he couldn’t make head or tail of it. There were a lot of acronyms, to say the least.

There was a soft plinking sound, and that made Astral’s ears swivel. A small piece of plaster fell down to shatter on the ground next to him, and then another.

That’s when he heard the breathing.

Terror spiked into Astral’s heart as he casually moved, acting as if he didn’t notice pieces of the ceiling falling around him.

I have to be quick.

More plaster, the breathing got louder. As he trotted towards the security barricade, Astral forced himself into a gallop, hooves skidding across the tile as he spun around, barrels aiming upwards.

The grey monster dropped from the ceiling, propelling itself towards Astral with a mighty bound-

*BANG!*

The creature’s torso abruptly grew a dinner-plate-sized hole, Astral firing again, this time punching a hole in the thing’s thick neck.

The creature let out a warbling hiss- the cry cutting off as the third and fourth shots destroyed the creature’s head and face. The Thestral put another four shots into the creature’s torso, reducing half of it to reddish-grey jelly to be sure.

Astral’s hooves shook, the creature’s claws only a short distance from him, the grey body quivering before laying still.

I killed it.
I didn’t freeze, and I killed it.

Any jubilation was cut short as movement drew his gaze. It was close, far too close for him to react even if his legs hadn’t abruptly seized.

A second and third creature had been flanking him; the two of them crawling along opposite, curved walls as the first had come straight down the middle. As the one to his right launched itself at him, Astral could only watch in horror, his body refusing to respond as a four-clawed hand reached out to tear into the pony’s throat.

Astral wasn’t entirely sure what happened next.

One moment, the creature had been on a straight path directly towards him; the next, it was skidding along the ground face-first. With a blur of movement, a figure skidded to a stop, aiming with two cut-down barrels of a side-saddle firearm, cutting the second creature down mid-leap. They moved fast, almost too fast to be natural.

Armored head to hoof, the pony looked at him, face invisible behind the tinted gold-tinted visor. Trotting over to the still-twitching first creature, the pony fired, the round blowing off the thing’s head.

There was a warbling cry; Astral’s heart in his throat as half a dozen creatures began to spill from a hole in the ceiling, previously hidden behind a large light figure.

“Move or die, Astral!” the pony barked, galloping towards the now-open security door, effortlessly yanking in the Thestral’s supply sled with them.

Galloping in with such speed that he whacked into the wall, Astral watched as the security door slammed shut, a high-pitched hum echoing around the entryway. Judging from the pained screeches and electronic crackling in the distance, the door was protected somehow.

The immediate entryway was a large, oval-like room with a few lockers, numerous doors branching out to varying other sections. The armored pony stood in front of Astral, barrels trained on the exhausted Thestral.

“Thank you,” he panted, barely managing to stand. The stallion then realized that the other pony’s firearm was definitely aimed at him.

“Whoa, I’m not-”

“The question I want you to answer is if you’re a good pony or a bad one. Because I’ve had to deal with a lot of bad ones lately.” the armored individual said firmly. Astral wasn’t even sure if it was the same creature from the speakers; the tone was so much more clipped, professional, and cold.

“I can hear your heartbeat, so I highly recommend you answer quickly and honestly. If you lie, I’ll be able to tell.”

Author's Note:

Comments

[eric167]

Security. That was a good word indeed, and that was where Astral angled his path. There were, notably, a large number of dead soldiers in this path, metal barricades be9ng strewn up near the hallway in the distance.

typo.

Thankfully, like the other bodies, they seemed to be in pieces and not moving. Oddly, about two-thirds of them (the largest ones,) had barcodes on their right forearms. The other, smaller creatures didn’t.

you idiots made the things self-replicating?!
this is why you listen to that one guy who tells you that making extremely durable, uncontrollable, self-replicating monsters is a very bad idea.
There's a reason the Evil Overlord List recommends at least one 5-year old on your planning team.

“The question I want you to answer is if you’re a good pony or a bad one. Because I’ve had to deal with a lot of bad ones lately,” the armored individual said firmly.

Looks like someone else is sick of what's been going on down here.

[RadBunny]

Dangit! Thank you for the catch; I have no idea how that typo got through. I run these chapters through a spell/grammar checker prior

A bad idea indeed.

That's definitely a way of putting it. No time for pleasantries!

[Schwabauer]

A'ight nothing gonna break my stride, ain't nothing gonna hold me down. Ah huh ah huh I gotta keep on moving.

[robot1840]

metal barricades be9ng strewn up near the hallway in the distance.

just to ask but this nine isnt intentional, no?

[RadBunny]

11052161
Dangnabit. Thank you! Not sure how that got through the spellchecker

[ibanix]

Tugging his supply sled into the tram (after making sure it was clear, Astral sat down with a slump. It was almost like a normal subway car; he had been on one a few times before.

… looks like a missing parens after “clear”

“Departing, Silo Transit Station one,” the obnoxiously positive mare’s voice said cheerfully over the speakers, “Destination: Central Silo Transit Station.”

… “one” should be capitalized

He took the time to pop a few painkillers, eyes drifting to the floor. It was almost a sick sense of humor.

… “sick sense of humor” would be applied to a person. Something or someone has a sense if humor. I think a good rewrite is “It felt like someone had a sick sense of humor”, or perhaps “Fate seemed to have a sick sense of humor.”

But when your entire family is in the Guard business; police-ponies, Royal Guard, Night Guard, Town Guard, what career choice did I have?

… bad use of semicolon, it breaks the sentence in a way that is not correct. Honestly the list feels awkward in his internal monologue. I would suggest dropping the entire list from “police-ponies” to “Town Guard” along with the semicolon. If you feel the list is required, drop the semicolon and put the list in parens (which is still awkward for an internal monologue).

This wasn’t the first time his path had been abruptly diverted. Of course, his ‘washing out’ of the program was a bit more complicated than what most knew. Well, Gabbro is the only friend who knew the whole story, the only one of his friends who did.

… “Gabbro was” to keep correct tense use.

Ironic my training instructor is the only one who helped me, same with the judge. That made it real, of how deep I was in. If not for Her testimony…

… Her should be lower case unless I missed where it was testimony from a Princess. Also…. the training instructor? Is this mentioned ever again? I recall it being a plea deal with testimony from the victim of the assault he stopped.

There were plenty of security personal, their armor torn to pieces and torsos ripped open. Astral had the unfortunate realization that most of their internal organs were outright missing…or decorating nearby screens. The fact that there were quite a few unicorns indicated that magic hadn’t been of much use here.

… personnel instead of personal. This is a great example of where spelling and grammar checks fail and why proofreaders are so useful!

‘Silo 2 Transit Station
Silo 3 Transit Station
Transit Station Security Silo.

… last one there is kind of confusing. It’s a separate silo for Transit Station Security? If that’s not true, needs a rewording.

“The question I want you to answer is if you’re a good pony or a bad one. Because I’ve had to deal with a lot of bad ones lately,” the armored individual said firmly. Astral wasn’t even sure if it was the same creature from the speakers; the tone was so much more clipped, professional, and cold.

… should use a period instead of comma at “lately” as no further dialogue in this paragraph

[RadBunny]

11181873
Dang. Fixed; thank you! I need to spend more time double-checking the double-checker True, proofreaders are helpful!

[MathBrony173]

“I can hear your heartbeat, so I highly recommend you answer quickly and honestly. If you lie, I’ll be able to tell.”

Reminds me of a certain griffonness. Speaking of which, is there a possibility of Toxic and Gelly appearing in this story?

[RadBunny]

11680397