Author's Note

WARNING: Child abuse and some pretty fucked up violence. Even though I know half of you are here for the latter.

Also holy cow pies I can't believe I got four chapters out in the span of two weeks! Not sure how long it'll take to get the next one out since this is the end of the Raiding Party arc, but I make no promises of speed this time! I have to get back to my regular work schedule now. Have a good one!

-Jake

Raiding Party pt.3

Chapter 10
Raiding Party Pt.3

There was a terrible crash and the sound of screeching metal as Patches knocked a SOMETHING over. For just a moment I could see again, then the darkness enveloped my eyes once more.

“Well shit, not quite loud enough to get to the Master downstairs,” Patches huffed.

“Is that what that was about? Here I thought you were just being destructive for the sake of it,” I said with a sigh.

“I noticed you had a couple of crummy-looking grenades when I was packing some gear for you. Would you go get a pair of them for me?” Patches asked.

“Yeah, gimme a few to figure out where the hell I left my pack,” I grumbled as I made my way out of the factory. I noticed the spell’s hold over my eyes lessening as I moved closer to the edge of the building.

I could see again by the time I was out of the building, so getting to my pack was simple. I grabbed two of the grenades from it and took the time to reload my revolver before heading back into the factory. With every step toward Patches I took, my eyesight slowly faded until I was completely blind again. It was unsettling and my body urged against me to continue, to just do the smart thing and get the fuck out of there. I eventually bumbled through the darkness until I felt the soft feathers of Patches’ wing.

“Two subpar grenades, as requested,” I said as I held them up, not sure if Patches’ ‘seeing trick’ would allow him to make them out in my hand or not.

“Alright good, I found the door that leads down into the nest, I’m gonna open it up and I want you to throw one down the stairs,” he instructed.

“What about the ponies they’re keeping prisoner?” I asked. “Won’t these hurt them?”

“Their cells are down the hall and around the corner. I’m actually gonna shoot anything dumb enough to be in the doorway, then you can toss one of those grenades in,” he explained. “Before you ask, the reason I want an explosion in there is because of the noise it’ll make. Masters have very sensitive hearing and the blast should disrupt his concentration enough to allow us to see again,” he finished.

“Won’t the blast collapse the tunnels?” I asked.

“Nope, stuff’s all reinforced pretty damn good, plus it’s underneath the concrete frame of the factory, there’s hardly any dirt down there. It’ll also help the blast echo to the Master’s chamber,” I could hear that grin on his face again. His confidence helped ease my nerves a little.

“Alright, sounds good,” I said as I clipped one of the grenades to the top edge of my chestplate and worked the pin out of the other. I managed to yank the pin out and held the fuse in with my fingers. He guided me to the door, the thing felt like it was made of metal. “Ready,” I whispered as I grabbed the door’s handle with my left hand.

“Open it!” Patches shouted. I yanked the heavy door open, hearing his wings snap as I did. I heard a shout from down inside the tunnels.

“Oh shit! Get the-!” Was all I heard before the roar of Patches’ rifle silenced the voice forever. The darkness over my eyes faltered slightly as the report of the rifle echoed through the tunnels.

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” I bellowed as I threw the grenade through the doorway, hearing it bounce once before I slammed the metal door shut. Patches threw himself against the door as well, making sure nothing could open it.

I wanted to just hear a dull thump, but truth be told it was a very fucking loud bang. The metal door vibrated and rang from the force of the explosion. It was loud enough to hurt my ears and make my teeth rattle, I still couldn’t see. Then I realized I had closed my eyes when I braced for the explosion.

I was relieved to be able to see again, but neither Patches nor myself knew how long the spell would be disrupted.

“Let’s get the fuck in there!” I yelled as I yanked the door back open. Patches was only too eager to help and damn near yanked the door off its hinges.

Patches was the first one in. “Watch your step!” He called back as he ducked to fit in the confines of the tunnel and plodded past the remains of whatever vamp had been unlucky enough to be behind the door when it was opened. The floor and walls were scorched and bits of metal shrapnel were stuck in the walls and ceiling, but there was very little structural damage. I was glad Patches was right.

I ran in after him, thankful the tunnels were about seven feet tall so I didn’t have to watch my own head when I descended. When I reached the end of the tunnel Patches was waiting for me, it was a T-shaped intersection and he was looking both ways as quickly as he could. There was one really old light flickering in the ceiling, it cast a dull yellowish light a few feet down either hall.

“Prisoners and Master’s chamber are right, don’t know what’s to the left. Didn’t go that way when I came here the first time,” Patches said as he turned to me. “Gimme that other grenade, I have an idea,” he said with a little grin.

I did so, wondering what he had planned. He pulled a tin can from a pouch on the back of his utility belt, noticing my inquiring expression he quickly said. “I got hungry earlier and had some of my canned tomatoes,” with a sheepish grin he pulled the pin on the grenade. He stuck the pin in his pouch and put the grenade in the tin can. The grenade fit, but there wasn’t enough room for the handle containing the fuse to pop off. He placed the tin upside down on the floor in the hallway to the right and ran some fishing line from one wall to the other. The line was wrapped around the top of the can and ran about six inches off the ground. He secured the line with nails and looked up at me with a grin from where he crouched. The thing was damn near invisible in the poorly-lit hallway.

“If they try to bugger out on us while we check the other side of the nest they’ll trip this up and pop!” He made a little exploding gesture with his hand and smirked.

“Fucking genius,” I said with a chuckle as I turned to head down the other hall. “Let’s go see what they’re hiding over here!”

Looking down the hall to the left I could see another T-intersection lit by an old bulb. This one was in better condition than the last and when we reached it we could clearly see the end of either hallway connected to this intersection.

“Two doors in either hall, left or right first?” I asked.

“We went left last time, let’s go right,” Patches said simply as he turned and went to the right. I followed, keeping an eye on our backs just in case.

There were two doors at the end of the hall on either side, Patches kicked the door on the right open with his hoof, his rifle at the ready as he lunged into the room with surprising speed as cramped in here as he was. I peeked into the small room, four bunks attached to the walls and four footlockers for personal belongings.

“Depressing little room,” I muttered as I moved to check the door on the other side of the hall. It matched the first. “Eight bunks in two rooms. They had plenty of space to sleep over here,” I observed as we made our way back to the T-intersection. We had just reached the light when we heard a high-pitched scream from the end of the hall.

We both rushed forward, like the other short hall, this one had two doors at the end. The scream had come from the door to the left. Patches moved in front of me and kicked the door open, what I saw inside shocked me.

Strapped to a table was a very young-looking Pegasus. Couldn’t have been more than ten years old, naked, bloody, and shaking. Tears stained the filly’s bruised face and much of her fur was missing. The swollen redness of the skin atop her head lead me to believe her mane had been torn from her head. A little ‘V’ had been carved out of her left ear. Cuts covered most of her body, shallow ones meant to hurt, nothing more. Standing next to her was a Bat wearing a white plastic apron coated in blood over his clothes, he was looking at Patches and his eyes were the size of dinner plates.

I felt a rush of air as Patches took two steps to cross the room, his right hand cocking back across his body. He backhanded the Bat so hard he flew across the room into the corner, I could have sworn I heard his neck snap from the force of the impact. I immediately moved to the filly’s side and started unfastening the straps keeping her pinned to the table, I noticed that she didn’t have a single bite mark on her. I wasn’t sure if that was a relief or not.

“What the actual fuck is wrong with you?!” I heard Patches screaming at the Bat. I looked over my shoulder to see him choking the vamp, his form flickered slightly like he was trying to shadowstep but couldn’t. I thought impaling them was the only way to stop them from jumping, then I noticed Patches was squeezing his throat so hard his fingers were sinking into the flesh and drawing blood. His eyes bulged out slightly as Patches slowly crushed him.

The quiet sobs of the abused filly caught my attention as I looked back to her. The table she was strapped to was designed to catch the blood and pour it into a bucket. They were harvesting blood from their prisoners in here! This way they didn’t have to bite them to do it either…

I noticed a little cabinet in the corner of the room behind the table, it was full of gauze and disinfectant. Her clothes were on top of it, neatly folded into a pile. The orderly neatness of this corner was a disturbing contrast to the rest of the bloody room. I grabbed the gauze and began tending to the little filly. She winced away from my touch, her eyes shut tightly.

“Please don’t. No more,” she cried.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” I said as calmly as I could. I gently dabbed the disinfectant on her injuries as she curled into a ball, bringing her wings around herself to hide from me. Her feathers were mangled and many of them were missing, there were several scars on her back as well.

“Hey, I’m here to help. I promise,” I said, feeling my voice shake a little. “If you curl up and hide I can’t treat your injuries. I can’t help you,” I spoke softly, trying to keep myself between her and the violence in the opposite corner. Her face peeked up over the edge of her wing, her bruised and bloodshot eyes looking at me.

“Did you kill the monster?” She asked, her voice soft and meek.

“Working on it!” Patches called over. There was a loud ‘SNAP’ as the vamp’s neck was bent to an extreme angle. “There we go, monster’s dead!” Patches said in a nearly singsong voice.

“Good,” she whispered before looking back to me. “Did you get the rest of them?”

“We will soon enough, but we have to help you first,” I said insistently as I held up the medical supplies.

“Ok,” she mumbled quietly as she slowly unfurled her wing and stuck her arm out, the freshest cut. It was bleeding pretty harshly.

“Yo Alex, I’m gonna go clear the other room then wait for you by the trap, just to make su-” He was cut off by another loud boom. “Well shit gotta go!” He grabbed his rifle and took off down the hall, I could hear some distant screaming that was quickly silenced by the report of Patches’ rifle.

“Yeah you better run, shithead!” I heard Patches call down the hall.

“What was that?!” The filly cried as she curled up.

“That was a trap for the vamps Patches made,” I said as reassuringly as possible. “The second loud bang was his rifle, it’s pretty darn good at killing those monsters,” I said with a little smile as she stuck her arm out again for me to resume treating.

“You look like one of the Royal Guard,” she said as she bit her lip, her brow furrowed in thought. “But you look different from them,” she finished.

“How so?” I asked as I started wrapping a bandage around a gauze pad I had pressed against her arm. “It’s not too tight is it?”

She shook her head. “The Guard ponies all had this shiny gold armor and spoke really fancy. You don’t talk fancy like they do, and your armor looks heavy, and kinda beat-up. I thought knights were supposed to have shiny armor,” she said.

A little smile came over my face as a particular quote came to my mind. “My father always told me that ‘a knight in shining armor hasn’t had his mettle truly tested yet.’ I guess I speak a little differently because I’ve spent a long time away from Canterlot,” I said as I finished wrapping her arm up.

We were quiet for a few minutes while I treated more of her less serious injuries. Once I started applying more bandages to her she continued pointing out how different I was as I patched her up. “Your eyes are different from every Guard pony I ever saw too,” she said, much of the shakiness and fear was gone from her voice now. “They don’t shine as much. Why are they like that?”

I could feel a little lump in my throat, I knew exactly why that question bothered me so much. “Sometimes a pony sees something they really shouldn’t have. Sometimes it changes them and hurts them in ways others can’t see, but it shows in their eyes,” I sighed a little as I fastened the last bandage.

“You don’t look easy to hurt,” she commented as I retrieved her clothes and gave them to her.

“Neither do you,” I said as she dressed herself. She was a strong-willed filly to endure what had been done to her and still talk to a complete stranger. If I had been through that at her age I probably would have been silent for months.

“By the way, what’s your name?” She asked. “My name’s Zephyr, if you tell me yours you won’t be a stranger anymore,” she held out her hand like she meant to shake mine.

“I’m Alex Rustwing, it’s nice to meet you,” I said as I gently shook her hand.

She hopped off the table and looked into the corner, grabbing my hand as she did so. “Are you sure it’s dead?” She asked, shrinking away from the vamp in the corner and hiding behind me.

“Cover your ears,” I instructed. After she did so, I fired my revolver at it. The round took a chunk out of the vamp’s head, causing it to flop back a little.

“That’s loud!” She called up at me.

“Yeah but he’s definitely dead right?” I asked, moving my hand a little as I looked down at her.

“Yeah, but I still don’t like that noisy thing…” She grumbled as I lead her out of the room. Her hand never let go of mine.

I lead her to the T-intersection, not the trapped one where Patches was waiting, but the one closer to the bunk rooms and knelt down to her level. “Zephyr I’m going to have to ask you to wait here ok? We’ve cleared out this area of vamps but not the rest of it. If some of them escape from us they’re going to try to leave by turning and going up the stairs over there,” I pointed to the intersection with the flickering light where Patches waited. “If you see anything coming around the corner over there that doesn’t look like me or my big friend over there I want you to hide around this corner, if they start coming over here you should head to one of those bunk rooms ok?” I asked.

She nodded. “Be careful, and if you see my mom please help her,” she said softly as I stood back up.

“Don’t worry, I will,” I said with a little smile. I then turned and hurried over to Patches.

“How’s she doing?” Patches asked as we started down the hall toward the cells and the Master’s chambers.

“Way better than I would have at her age,” I said as I carefully stepped over the remains of a half-transformed Gargoyle missing both of her legs. A massive hole had been punched through her chest right about where her heart used to be.

“Glad to hear it,” Patches said with a little smile. “I’m glad we got there in time to help,” he added.

“Yeah, let’s just hope we’re not too late for everyone else down here,” I said as we reached the next T-intersection. To our right was a hall lined with cells, to our left was a short hallway that dipped a few feet lower with a short staircase.

Various cries for help lit up the right hallway with noise, Patches and I did the best we could to calm the prisoners and reassure them that we would be back.

“Screw that, I’d rather get out of here now and not hinge my escape on a shitty chance of you two not making it back!” One stallion called back.

That lone comment caused another loud outcry among the prisoners. Everything from desperate pleas to angry curses were thrown my way. Turning my back on so many begging for help was difficult, but oddly enough not the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’d be back, they could wait a few more minutes.

Patches and I descended toward the chambers, what else could this place throw at us? How many vamps were left? We reached a very short stretch of hallway with a door on each side and another short staircase leading down.

“Left first,” I said as I walked up to the door with my revolver raised. I grasped the handle with my left hand, my right hand aiming the pistol across my body where it would be more out of reach of anyone waiting to ambush me. I quickly shoved the door open and stepped inside, the lights were off and my eyes took a moment to adjust.

It looked like some kind of office for small meetings. On one end of the room was a desk with a large chair behind it, on the other end were four smaller, considerably less comfortable-looking chairs. I caught movement behind the desk and raised my revolver, feeling for the light switch on the wall.

I found it.

Click.

Nothing.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I moved toward the desk.

The vamp hiding behind it quickly rose to his hooves, his hands raised above his head. “I surrender!” He yelped.

“What…” I heard myself say more as a reaction than a question.

“Hey, its the one who ran!” Patches exclaimed gleefully.

“Please just don’t kill me! I give up, I don’t want to fight!” He cried out at me.

“You fucking hypocrite,” I heard Patches call from behind me. “You have to LET another vamp bite you a fourth time to finish turning! You CHOSE to be that way!” He yelled.

“You don’t understand I-”

“I’ll be honest!” I said, raising my voice to cut the vamp off. “I didn’t wanna hear another sob story about why you got turned but you’re still noble for some obscure reason anyway,” I said as I raised my revolver and fired.

I took a deep breath and sighed as he crumpled to the floor, dismissing the rush of adrenaline as best I could as I left the little office.

“Let’s check the other room,” I said, gesturing to the door.

Patches kicked the door open and stepped inside, leveling his rifle as he swept the room.

“Clear,” he called out to me. “Another one of those bunk rooms, nothing interesting in here,” he concluded. Once he extricated himself from the room we both turned and faced the final set of stairs.

We moved together, almost in-step as we descended to the double doors waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. We stopped, looked at each other, and nodded. We pushed the doors open at the same time, aiming our weapons as we moved through to double doors. There was no attack waiting for us, was it some mind-fuck magic? It looked like we had entered a large room that had been divided into three smaller rooms with a small hallway connecting all three. The walls of the hallway didn’t completely reach the ceiling, making it easy to see how it had once been a single room, Patches was able to stand at his full height in here as well. At the end of the makeshift hall were four doors, one on each side of the hall and a set of double doors at the end. We started forward and stopped suddenly as a voice broke the silence.

“Before the two of you barge in here to murder me I want you to take the time to check the other two rooms. I want you to see the lives you ruined,” it spat, the voice dripping with anger and hate.

I looked at Patches and offered a shrug, which he returned. I opened the door on the left and peered inside, nothing living was in the room, but whoever had lived down in this room had done so in the lap of luxury. There was a large four poster bed centered over the wall opposite the door. Much of the room was decorated in a matching maroon set of upholstery, it reminded me of the kind of stuff the wealthy in Canterlot owned. Opposite the bed was a vanity with a large mirror with a view barely obscured by the chair in front of it. There were various makeups and perfumes on it, I lifted one of the bottles and took a light whiff.

My mind immediately charged back to the Master outside Patches’ house, her well-kept hair, her soft, gentle features, the massive hole in her chest his rifle had punched through her, her blood spattered several feet up the tree she had been hiding under… I remembered her voice, how I heard it in my head when she held control over my mind. It was an oddly comforting voice...

“Quartz Starfall,” the voice suddenly resumed as I explored the room, nearly causing me to drop the perfume. “She treated every vampony in this nest like family. She was just as much a mother to them as she was a Master. She managed schedules, comforted the wayward coping with the transformation, and she chose the best candidates for the transformation. This family loved her, and you took her from us,” it finished as I looked into her wardrobe. There was a surprisingly large amount on lingerie in there.

“Something tells me I don’t need to guess how she comforted the wayward,” Patches chuckled at my discovery.

“Think what you will you animals,” the voice insulted as we exited.

“Hey we aren’t the ones so madly blood-hungry that we start killing our own friends and family,” I responded as I kicked the second door open. I was already tired of this stupid game.

This room was similar to the first, albeit more like the den of a wealthy sports fan. Most of the furniture was a warm brown and the room was filled with old replica trophies from sporting events conducted when I was just a little colt.

“Comet Dust, he was a good friend to most in the nest. As Patches probably remembers, he was the greeter for our nest. Disguising this place as a survivor’s hideout was his idea and he ran the charade. He also came up with our system for extracting blood. While it is nowhere near as satisfying as drinking right from the source, he did manage to keep everyone’s urges in check while keeping our stock healthy. He was going to get the radio working as well, to help expand our reach, then you murdered him Patches,” the voice spat.

“How the fuck does he know your name?” I asked, ignoring the rest of the room as I turned to my companion.

He hesitated, inhaling a little. “I’d rather show you. Come on,” he said as he turned and left the room.

I followed him cautiously, ‘show me.’ The words repeated in the back of my mind as I gripped the handle on the left door, Patches at the right. He nodded and we pushed the doors open.

In what was definitely the larger of the three rooms that looked more like a chamber for meetings than a personal living space sat a lone Master. He was in a wheelchair, his figure looked lopsided as he leaned heavily on his left arm. Both of his legs were missing, as well as his right arm, his horn had been snapped off and his face was deformed slightly, like the bones holding his jaw and brow together had been smashed. The left side of his face had a massive scar running from below his chin to his forehead. His left hand was tightly gripping a little pink crystal.

“Patches,” he said coldly.

“Cinder,” he responded. “You look like you’re doing well, considering the state I left you in,” a small grin spread across his face. I immediately realized who this Master was, the one he said he nearly beat to death, the one he pulled apart like a doll. From the look in his eyes, I thought Patches wanted to do it again.

“Here I am,” he gave a mirthless smile as he shook his head. Patches started forward but I held out a hand to stop him.

“Wait, your horn is broken, how were you casting that spell on us earlier? How did you blind us?” I demanded.

“Simmer down, child,” he huffed at me as he adjusted himself in the chair to hold up the crystal. “There have always been ways for the less magically inclined to focus what they have,” he gave the crystal a little wave. “This method allows for very precise control of one’s magic, but once the crystal loses its charge it’s completely useless,” he said as he dropped the thing carelessly. “I was relying on Miss Starfall’s return to recharge it, imagine my surprise when a simple mission to retrieve one Pegasus turned into a massacre!” He snarled at Patches as he leaned forward in his chair.

“Patches how the fuck do you know this asshole?” I asked.

“You keep the most charming company, beast,” the Master known as Cinder grumbled.

“Hey fuckface, can you not end a sentence without tacking an insult onto it? It’s pretty rude,” Patches said.

“RUDE?! You have no room to speak about manners you.. you.. ANIMAL! You destroyed my entire family! You broke my body and left me for dead! FUCK YOU!” He swung his arm in rage, tipping the wheelchair and falling out of it. He hit the ground with a grunt, staring angrily up at us. “You ruined EVERYTHING!”

Patches looked at me and sighed. “I knew Cinder before he turned. He was a good guy, kept his muzzle clean, donated to charity, kept his lawn trimmed, the usual. After the outbreak he started a shelter that he and his wife ran to help ponies who lost their families or their homes. One day I came by to visit, I was dropping off more supplies to help them run their shelter and I saw this worthless fuck behind the building talking to somepony. He was selling the entire shelter out, and getting himself turned. He killed his own wife when she tried to stop him, don’t listen to any more of his bullshit about having a family here. He had one and he threw it away for a dark and dirty little harem underground, living like a fucking rat in the dirt,” Patches spat at him, his wings ruffling up as he lost his temper.

“You are scum! You made every wrong choice possible and NOTHING will ever justify what you did!” Patches bellowed as he strode forward and kicked the Master in the head. There was an extremely loud snap as the back of his head made contact with his back. Patches wasn’t satisfied and took a step back to aim his rifle at him. He fired a single round at the Master’s head and blew it off completely.

We stood in silence for a few moments, it was over. The nest had been cleared.

“Come on Patches, we have ponies to save,” I said as I tugged on his arm a little and started back down the hall. “If any of them are addicted to the venom like that mare you saved we’re gonna have a lot of work to do,” I said as I reached the stairs.

“Yeah,” he said with a little sigh as he ducked into the tunnel after me.