I was running down a corridor, blood coating my hooves. Behind me I could hear the screams of those that hadn't been fast enough to escape. Such high pitched screaming. My ears were bleeding from the sound. I could barely imagine the pain they were going through. A head rolled past, like some grotesque ball. I stumbled and stopped, looking down in horror. The head belonged to one of the miners, a black earth pony buck named Coal Dust, one of the mining ponies I was supposed to have protected. I had failed my job, and the consequences were as terrible as I had always feared. Suddenly, from behind me, I heard a roar of anger as the beast I had been trying to escape from turned round a corner to face me. I tried to run, but I slipped in a pool of Coal Dust's blood and went down. A searing pain went through my leg and I knew I'd broken something. The beast knew it to, and slowly walked towards me. It knew it didn't need to run, there was no way I was getting away from it now. Then it was standing over me, the glistening black insect-like forelegs either side of my head. An insect-like head bent towards my neck. I struggled. If I could just lift my pipbuck... Then it was biting, ripping, tearing my throat. And all the while, the screams were getting louder and louder...
I woke up, drenched in sweat, with my pipbuck's alarm ringing in my ear. I smacked it against the wall until it stopped ringing and sighed. Boy I sure despise the pony who designed these! Alarms that make you feel as though a drill is being inserted into your skull via your ears? Check! A system that can't tell a radroach from a rock dragon? Check! Still, it has its uses I suppose, after all the Eyes Forward Sparkle has helped us find miners who'd got lost in the seemingly never ending tunnels, and the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell has helped most mine guards give those wretched rock dragons a good hiding time and time again. In fact, S.A.T.S and E.F.S almost make up for the rest of the annoyances, if it wasn't for one crucial detail. My pipbuck seems to be horribly glitched. The E.F.S has sent me in the wrong direction, the S.A.T.S nearly got me killed on a couple of occasions, and the alarm clock... Well, I've already mentioned that. I sighed and looked at the inbuilt clock on my 'Glitchbuck'. 5.30 AM or maybe it was 7:35 AM for all I knew. Morning shift. I sighed again and slipped out of my hammock. The miners and repairers weren't going to guard themselves!
My name is Darke Blayde. I'm a guard at the underground crystal mining facility, commonly known to its inhabitants as Ramshackle. However, it hasn't been used as a mining facility since close to the end of the war. Dead ponies and zebras have no need for crystals. Now the ponies that are living in this dump are solely fixed on one task: digging their way out. Of course, giving the fact that essentially a mountain range fell in front of the entrance, it was no wonder that they'd been trying for close to 200 years to break through. I walked down the dark corridor, lights beginning to blink on, that was starting to come alive with the sound of ponies waking up and going about their morning rituals of showering, getting breakfast, and preparing for the days work. I went into the communal bathroom, deciding that the best way to recover from the nightmares was with a nice, relaxing shower. I was just about to go in when something smacked into the side of my head. "Hey! Cold Turkey!" I heard a gruff voice shout as I looked up from the bar of soap that had been thrown at me. Two big, burly earth pony twins, both with red fur and teal manes, and a tall beige unicorn, who wasn't as muscled as his self appointed body guards, but had an air about him that made him just as intimidating were walking towards me. Oh great, precisely what I needed this morning, a bunch of brain dead asshats who think that a bar of soap hurts! "Oy! Cold turkey! I'm talkin' to you!" The unicorn snapped, blowing a quiff of his brown mane out of his eyes. The two earth ponies behind him snickered.
"Really? And there was me thinking that there was a tiny fly in the room." I retorted. Yes, great idea Darke Blayde, start a fight before breakfast, with three ponies, two of whom are stronger than you, and one that can use magic! As you may have guessed, I'm not a smart pony. The tall unicorn glared at me for a moment before saying "You better watch your mouth cold turkey, or-"
"Yeah, this 'cold turkey' insult you keep using, isn't it a little old now? Or are you just too dim to think of a better one? And here was me thinking unicorns were supposed to be smart!" I interrupted. Oh I'm so good at keeping out of trouble! One of the twins moved forward. "You'd better watch how you speak to Handle, turkey, unless ya wanna lose your face!" He growled at me. I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Look Pick" I said looking him in the eye. "We both know that you'd have better luck finding a mare who'd be interested in you, and everypony knows there's no chance of that!" I said. He glared at me. "Furthermore" I continued, deciding that, as I was already committed to getting the shit kicked out of me, I may as well get it over with. "You and your idiot brother might want to consider dying your manes and tails, teal and red really don't go together that well." I finished, holding his gaze.
"Say that again cunt! Come on Axe, I think we need ta teach this shrimp a lesson!" He said, gesturing his brother forward. I Bent my fore legs, getting ready for a fight, when Handle's voice stopped us. "Don't waste your time on him." He said, his voice cold and haughty. "There's no point in using up your stamina punching a pathetic experiment with no family anyway." I reeled back as if physically struck. This was a new low, even for a pony as much of an asshole as him. "Wassamatter?" He sneered at me "Is the baby gonna cry 'cause nopony likes him?" He moved slowly forward, the twins chuckling in the background. "Fly off cold turkey." He said, his voice like ice. "I'm sure a lot of ponies in this mine would be happy to never see your pathetic face aga-" That was as far as he got before I decided to smash my glitchbuck across his head. He stumbled, a scratch on his face from where the edge of the glitchbuck had caught him. "You'll pay for that you little shit!" He said, grabbing my mane with his magic and puling my forward, I tried to resist, and ended up face planting the floor. "Pick, Axe, deal with this pathetic specimen." He said, giving me a kick and walking to where he could get the best view. I struggled to my hooves, deciding that if I was going to end up in the medical bay, I'd take at least one of them with me. The twins approached, the blood lust obvious in their eyes. Deciding to take advantage of how slow they were, I leaped forward landing between the two. Before they had a chance to accustom to my new position, I sent a kick into Pick's ribs, jumping forward after and headbutting the side of Axe's head causing stars to flash across my vision. As they stumbled back I went to leap again, but suddenly found myself immobilised and surrounded by an orange glow. I tried to move and found I couldn't, a flash of panic going through me. "Well well well, looks like somepony's been practicin' don't it boys?" Handle asked, moving forward. The twins moved in, horrible smiles appearing on their faces.
"Do we get ta kick 'im now boss?" Axe asked, speaking up for the first time.
