Through the Underground

"You have a military RIG!? Daaammn! Don't see those ones often unless you're in one of those big fancy clubs... You're not in one of those are you kid?" It wasn't the best greeting but Blank Flank felt her pride swell a little, the pony asking the question was in a mining RIG, his entire face and boy cloaked by the thin metal armor. "Does it have one of them systems on it too?" As if to answer the pony's inquiry a short notice appeared before his vision. Link synchronized. "Huh, whattare you do-" Hi there! I'm Pinkie Pie! A NEW PONY! Will you be my friend!? Oh oh you've gotta meet Blankie she's my bestest friend e- "Ahem.." Blank Flank cleared her throat and grinned at the shocked stallion.

"Uhhhh.. Nice to meetcha Pinkie Pie.. Guess you are her System..?" "Nah uh! I'm a real pony, just like Blankie said!" "Uh huh..." the Colt shifted awkwardly before making a gesture with his hoof towards Blank. "Blankie, was it? Welcome aboard the Runnin' Railway. She ain't much but she's good enough." The train cart, or more precisely what was left of the train car, was rusted and dented. The top half had been completely torn off leaving the two ponies and two diamond dogs within visible to the natural elements of the tunnel. "I'm Duty, and that is my crew." Duty trotted towards the train car and nodded, the two ponies and two diamond dogs shifting uncomfortably as Blankie stepped aboard. "Sorry, they ain't used to military RIGS. 'cept when we did that job for those Solar Empire pricks. Makes us all a bit edgy to be honest. Anywho.. New Mare on deck! introduce yourself crew!"

"Oohh he's like some kinda pirate pony! Except on rail thingy instead of the sea! Duty gave Pinkie Pie a look, now that his systems was linked to Blank's he could see and hear her as well. The first of the Diamond Dogs approached and for some deranged reason Blankie wanted to call her a puppy. She was tall and a bit on the slender side, thick tufts of auburn fur and a rather puppy-like muzzle that showed youth over ferocity. A slight gleam was in her brown eyes. "I'm Collar! And that there is my old man, Pit." Pit was needless to say the complete opposite of his daughter. He was large and thick, his right eye was a glazed white and a scar zig zagged along his snout. "I'm the driver and he's the engineer! Don't be fooled now, my ol' man is just one big cuddly puppy on the inside." a throaty growl left Pit's muzzle when his daughter called him that, the rest of the group chuckling. Both wore a simple engineering RIG, unlike the Military or Mining RIG, the Engineering one lacked the natural protection and instead had a large variety of engineering tools, including a few modules that allowed non-unicorns to use mundane forms of magic.

"I am Freelancer. And this is Dedication." She could tell by the voice emitting from the Mining RIG that Freelancer was in fact a mare. Dedication remained quiet and nodded. "Dedication doesn't talk much. Actually.. I don't think Ded has ever talked." Even with their facial expressions hidden by their visors the three ponies stared at Dedication, the enigma of a pony gave a shrug at their stares before turning back to its post. "Never really put much thought into that.." Duty mutter to himself before turning towards Blank Flank. "Right, lets get this show on the road then. The path to Coltler is pretty easy. We shouldn't run into any trouble. With luck we'll have these supplies there in an hour or less!"

Pit took a spot besides the engine, his wrench resting besides him. Collar moved to the front of the train cart and grabbed the wheel. The four seats for the guards of the cart were positioned in such a way that the front seats were facing towards the back to watch the rear while the back seats faced the front to watch the front. Dedication and Duty took the front seats while Blank Flank and Freelancer took the back. A soft hum emitted from the engine before it sputtered to life, the grinding screech of a rail was thankfully muffled by Blankie's RIG and soon enough it was gone, replaced with the soft and occassional thump of the modified train cart moving along the railway.

"First time riding one of these, huh?" Blankie managed a slight nod, the silence had gone on for ten minutes. She found the dark tunnels and the thrum of the engine to be rather peaceful through it all. "Thought so.. Nopony has ever relaxed in the Tunnels, especially with the bug ponies, the Shadows, bandits, and those vying for power that are hiding anywhere.. But first timers always look like they're gonna take a nap." Now that Freelancer mentioned it, Blank Flank did feel rather tired... And.. And the Train Cart was slowing down. "Hey! Keep up the pace, we ain't got all.. Day.." Duty's shout sounded a distance away, the cart was now inching forward slowly, it was nearly at a full stop.

Blank turned her head to glance at the driver only to find Collar slumped on the floor, her leg twitching and soft little snores emitting from her maw. She would have taken the time to find it adorable, besides her she could hear soft snorts and grunts, apparrently Freelancer had joined Collar in the dreamworld. Something nagged at Blankie's mind, she could hear somepony mumbling and shouting desperately. "Stay awake! You have to stay awake! Don't sleep, BUCK DON'T SLEEP!" but a nap couldn't hurt, just for a little bit.. Her eyes shut and another yawn wracked her body before the inviting darkness took over.

"Please... Don't go.."

A little whisper jolted Blankie from her slumber. She was enshrouded by darkness. Whispers, she heard many, mutters and murmers. Some sounded threatening while others were friendly. Had she fallen off when she had fallen asleep? What if she was lost in the tunnels forever? How would she survive!

"Follow..."

A sensation tugged at her insides. Her emotions twisting to obey as she trotted onward into the never-ending darkness. It felt like hours. Hours of trotting, hours of soft unintelligible whispers, until a single voice that sounded higher and just as pleading as the last spoke up.

"Stop.. Please.."

Blankie obeyed, after a few seconds of nothing a pair of iridescent blue eyes stared at her, tears flowed from them only to be lost within the sea of darkness. Blankie took a few steps back from the eyes but they moved closer, a chitain covered hoof filled with holes reached out for her and of course the mare wanted to scream.

"Save.. Me.. The hive.. Tainted.. Dying.. Please.. I'm.. Afraid.. So alone.."

A need grew in her chest, a strong desire to hold what could only be described as a bug pony, and she did just that. Her emotions twisted in her gut, she couldn't describe the sensation. It was not entirely draining but it felt as if something was tugging at her emotions, as if they were tied to a string and slowly but surely being pulled away.

For a few seconds the creature felt content. Her waning power was feeding its growing strength. Blankie somehow knew it, but.. She didn't mind. The strange bug pony needed it more then she did, and she had her RIGs strength to get her through anything. Suddenly a screech from the bug pony ripped her from her thoughts. The words a garbled mess of pain and agony. More eyes appeared, but they looked like some twisted version of her new bug friend.

"WAKE UP! RUN!"

Click click, clack, click. Blankie's head hurt, it reminded her of that one time a bully threw a rock at her head. Click click, hiss, clack, clack. The racket that was approaching wasn't helping either. She wanted a good five more minutes of sleep. "Oh nononono wake up, please please please.." She desperately wanted to tell Pinkie Pie to come back later. She was just exhausted, but something told her not to. Instead she opened her eyes and was greeted to the familiar darkness and metalwork of the train car. Click, screech, clack clack. And then, a sudden scream.

The scream was what got her up, in fact it got the entire crew up from their snooze. Duty was struggling against a strange creature. His RIG let out a few quickened beeps as it tried to block away the beasts strikes. It was like a spider and a pony had a foal. Its head was that of a ponys, and its body was covered in thick chitin. It had eight eyes in total, all glowing a familiar iridescent blue and its legs were elongated and formed in the way of a spiders, each tip formed into sharpened chitin rather then hooves. A jagged horn jutted from its head and a small pair of wings fluttered about wildly. It let out a hiss of anger, its strikes becoming less precise but more brutal with each passing second. One of its pointed hooves broke through the dented plating of Duty's RIG. What sounded like a squee of joy left the creatures muzzle when a spray of crimson splattered against its chitin.

"Flashlights! Now!" the built in lights within each of their RIGs flickered to life, focusing upon the bug like mutant. It wheezed and struggled, boils began to puncture its chitin, one of them popping and a green ooze seeping from it. The mutant screeched in agony and rolled off of Duty and onto the tracks. Their lights remained shining upon the withering beast as it rolled onto its back and started flailing about madly. A single shot rang out and the underside of the twisted chitin pony exploded, thick green sludge oozed from its now wide open stomach. It let out a final hiss of defiance before going still. Freelancer winced and grumbled. "Changlings.. They are sensitive to the light. Once they get onto their back its an easy kill."

"What the BUCK happened.." Duty growled. He stood awkwardly, the Changling had struck his shoulder and now the pony was having a tough time standing. His RIGs health monitor was in the yellow and it looked like the recent puncture was already sealed. "I.. I donno boss.. One moment everything was fine then.. I woke up and here we are!" Collar tugged at the collar of her RIG while everyone went silent. Blank almost expected Duty to chew them all out, even though he had fallen asleep as well. ".... I think it was an anomaly, boss." Pitt grunted which earned himself a nod from Duty. "Right, right.. Thing must have been pretty damn quiet to get the drop on us.. Collar, where are we?"

Collar was already checking the train carts systems when Duty asked. "Uh.. I don't know." Duty sucked in a breath of air. With the calm of somepony who was barely restraining themselves he spoke. "What do you mean by I don't know." Collar winced and shook her head. "I think the mapping device is a bit out of whack, I mean. It DOES say where we are. But we can't be there, it isn't possible." Duty grunted and his voice was nearly a growl. "You best tell me where the buck it says we are." "Station Seven." From the way everyone had their head turned to stare at a baffled Collar, they were confused. Even Pitt was showing some form of emotion on his face, the old Diamond Dog looked a mixture of tense, confused, and afraid.

"What is Station Seven?" Blank hated being out of the loop. Much to her surprise it was Pitt that came to the rescue. "When the top world came to an end, enemies became allies in the Underground. Changlings were one such enemy. Ten years later they betrayed everyone. They were.. Mutated, but disorganized. Us Diamond Dogs found as many entrances to their hives and caved them in. We aren't perfect, but we got all the railway entrances and the main entrances..." the old Dog was staring off into the darkness, in another place, and another time. Duty took it upon himself to continue. "Station Seven is where the Changling Hive is located. It's also three stations ahead of our objective. To put it fucking bluntly.. We're not only trapped in a hive of hostiles but we are not going to make our delivery."

The group was busy discussing what they would do next. Blank on the other hoof was sitting down and watching the thick darkness of the tunnel. So far nothing else had attacked them, no changlings, no other monsters. Nothing. It was a bit unnerving and she didn't like it one bit.

This way...

Her ears twitched and she stood. Pinkie Pie was besides her and even she looked a bit somber. "Soo.. We're going?" Blank nodded her head. "Okie Dokie Lokie.". Not a single soul noticed Blank as she hopped off of the train cart and continued her way on hoof. It felt like hours, walking in dead silence with only the bare warmth that Pinkie Pie emitted to comfort her. The darkness had enveloped her like a chilling blanket of snow, a breeze lashed against her RIG and she could swear that she felt it bite down against her very bones. The feeling of being watched didn't help either and she kept turning her head back to watch for anypony.

Or anything.

But there was nothing. Only the darkness greeted her and the fading distant light of her group and the train cart she had arrived in. A part of her wondered if this was a dream, or if it was reality. Perhaps she had fallen asleep and was suffering from another nightmare. But if she wasn't.. Then this was a bad idea, who knows what could be out there, or what was calling for her. Waiting for her. Pinkie Pies unusual silence wasn't helping either. 'Perhaps I should turn back..' she thought. Her hooves froze in place as she inwardly debated.

Please... Help..

The strange sensation of a tug against her emotions reemerged. It was much like her dream but now it had a sense of comfort to it. Somepony or something needed her help, and she had to help it. Right? Her life was at risk though. Maybe she could convince the others to come with her.

I'm so.. Lonely..

The tug grew stronger and so did her resolve. She faced the darkness and continued her trek.