A light grey stallion cautiously walked down the steps into the tunnel. It was dim in there, but that was to be expected. Construction of the Everfree Express had only begun a few days ago, after all. He was just here to check up on things. The unicorn flipped his blue mane out of his face and walked down the tunnel. He quickly found the pony he was looking for. "Hey, Rusty!" he called, waving his hoof in the air to get the pony's attention.
A reddish-brown colored stallion with a black mane spun around, half smiling when he noticed the pony. "Hey there, Boss," he said, walking over. "Checkin' up on things, I'm guessing?"
The grey pony rolled his eyes. "I've already told you, just call me Silver Coin. Or better yet, just call me Silver."
"Alrighty then, Boss... um, I mean Silver," replied Rusty, chuckling. "Anyways, things are going along pretty well. Heck, we're ahead of schedule!"
Silver smiled. "Good, good. You're doing a great job as the lead worker, then. Keep up the good work," he said as he levitated a clipboard out of his bag and in front of his face. "Mind if I take a quick look around then?"
Rusty opened his mouth to speak when a loud metallic clang was heard. The two stallions jumped in surprise as it echoed throughout the tunnel.
"What in the hay was that?" said Rusty.
A tan colored pegasus mare with a long brown mane suddenly came skidding around the corner, stopping right in front of the stallions. She took a moment to catch her breath, but stood up a little straighter as soon as she saw Silver. "Hello, Boss," she said, giving him a quick nod before turning to the earth pony. "Rusty, we have a problem."
Silver and Rusty looked at each other, concerned. "What seems to be the problem, Copper?" asked Silver.
Copperheart looked down, as if she was ashamed. "I, uh... accidentally burst a pipe."
Rusty and Silver exchanged another glance. Silver opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Rusty, who burst out laughing.
"Oh, that's it? Just bust a pipe? Oh, don't you worry about that Copper. I've busted plenty of those before. A little duct tape should do the trick, no problem. C'mon, let's have a look." The rust-colored pony began walking in the direction Copper came from, motioning for her to follow. Silver shrugged and decided to follow as well.
Copper led the two stallions over to where the pipe was. There were several ponies working in the general area, chipping away at the rock and dirt. But no one seemed to notice the pipe. "Here," said Copper, gesturing to it.
Rusty looked puzzled. "You know, I know you're a fairly new worker and all, but I thought you could handle a situation like this yourself. There's not even anything leaking out of it!" He shook his head. "Meh, whatever, I'll go find the duct tape." Rusty turned to walk away. Copper looked down at the floor, ashamed, as if she wanted to say something else.
Silver stared at the pipe for a long moment before his eyes widened. He put a hoof on Rusty's shoulder. "Wait," he said firmly.
Rusty groaned. "Ugh, what now? Uh, I mean... yes Boss?"
Silver rolled his eyes. "You don't get it, do you? We're directly underneath a forest, Rusty. Forests don't have pipes running underneath them. Don't you find it a little odd that there's a pipe down here? It seems like a pretty old one too..."
Rusty hesitated, realizing this. "Oh... well, then that's more reason for me to get the darn-"
"H-Here you go, Boss!" called Copper's voice from behind the two stallions. They turned around to see her waving a hoof in the air, a roll of duct tape around it.
Rusty smiled. "One step ahead of us, huh? I like it. Anyway, let's get this thing patched up."
Copper nodded and was about to hand him the tape when a sudden hissing sound startled the three ponies. They all turned simultaneously to see a whitish gas coming from the pipe.
"Is that... steam?" said Copper quietly.
"Oh, what do you know, there is something in there," said Rusty. The three stared at the pipe for a long moment, mesmerized. A couple other ponies had also stopped at he hissing sound, and were watching the pipe. As more of the gas came out, it began to grow thicker, like a cloud.
Silver suddenly cleared his throat. "Um, something tells me that's not just steam..."
Rusty shrugged. "I'll go check it out, and then patch up that hole." He snatched the duct tape from Copper and walked directly into the cloud.
"Wait!" shouted Silver. "That's dangerous! You could-"
Silver was cut off as the stallion jumped back out, in a coughing fit.
He caught his breath after a moment, but hesitated before speaking. "Ugh! That's definitely not steam! Dang, that stuff smells awful!" His right eye was twitching.
Silver opened his mouth to speak, but closed it when he found himself backing away from the pipe. The cloud was getting bigger and bigger. It almost filled up half of the room.
"We... should get out of here," said Copper, who was also backing away. In fact, all the workers were.
No one had to say anything. All the workers turned toward the tunnel leading to the exit. But it was too late. The thick cloud was blocking it.
"What do we do?" shouted Copper over the terrified shouts of the workers.
"I dunno about you, but I'm getting the hell outta here!" Rusty hadn't moved from the spot where he was laying earlier. But he ignored the looks from the other ponies and stood up. His right eye was twitching even more, and his body was shaking slightly. The gas had obviously done something to him. Rusty shot one last look at Silver before running into the cloud once more.
"He's... he's going to die in there..." Silver muttered to himself. The gas was getting thicker by the second, and the unicorn could hardly see around him. The other workers were gone, probably running the opposite direction, deeper into the tunnel. Running deeper is pointless, Silver thought. They would reach a dead end, and by the speed that this stuff is spreading, they'll get infected. Silver froze at that word. Infected. The gas was some type of poison.
"Silver?"
The unicorn jumped a little, but calmed down as he saw Copper standing a couple feet in front of her. The gas was so thick, he could barely see her. "Y-yeah?"
"What do we do?" By the sound of it, she was probably crying.
"I... I don't know," he said. Right then, the stench of the gas hit him. Rusty was right, it was awful. The gas was completely surrounding him now. There was nowhere to run.
Right then, a thought struck Silver. Immediately, he levitated a scrap of paper and a pen out of his bag, and began furiously writing. He tried his best to ignore the horrible scent, but it was still there. He tired holding his breath, but there wasn't much breath to hold.
"What... are... you doing?" he heard Copper ask between breaths.
Silver didn't reply. His vision was going fuzzy, but he kept writing. Finally, his horn glowed brightly, and the paper disappeared with a flash. He looked at Copper one last time, but all he saw was blur and black spots in his vision. Then, he blacked out.
I sat on a cloud in my favorite spot above Ponyville, right above Town Square. From here, I could see the ponies walk by below, going through the routine of their everyday lives. But this time, my eyes were closed. I was lost in thought, only focusing on the afternoon sun shining down on me.
For the first time in a while, I thought about the past. A few years ago, I didn't have a cutie mark. I couldn't fly. Now, I had both.
*****
It wasn't long after the Equestria Games that I learned to fly. I literally spent every spare second I had trying to, with help from Rainbow Dash. And then, one day, it just happened. I only flew a few feet, but still. I flew. I had never felt as proud in my whole life at that moment. Not to mention that Rainbow was beaming just as much as I was.
I eventually flew longer and longer distances, until flying was like a second nature to me. Rainbow told me that her "training was complete," but I was welcome to hang out with her anytime. I still did, just not as much.
I then started applying the same stunts I learned on my scooter in the air. There were many crash landings at first, but eventually I got the hang of it. Even Rainbow Dash was impressed when I showed some of them to her. Said I had a real talent. But who knew that that would be my special talent? Who knew that I would be the first of the Crusaders to get a mark?
*****
"Hey!"
"GAH!!" The voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I spun around, my eyes filled with anger, then relief once I saw the pony that scared me. "Oh... thank Celestia, it's only you, Rumble."
Like I said, I was the first of the Cutie Mark Crusaders to get a mark. And ever since then, me and them have been pretty distant from each other. They got their cutie marks too, eventually, but we were still distant. I want to call them friends still, but things are just... different.
Rumble got his mark around the same time I got mine. We pretty much became friends right after that. People say we're dating, but we deny it. It's not wrong to have a colt as a friend and nothing more, is it?
The bluish-grey pegasus laughed. "You must've been pretty deep in thought, huh?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah...wait, what are you doing here? I thought you were on cloud duty today."
Rumble smirked. "Already done. Doesn't take long to make partly cloudy skies with these babies," he said, flexing his wings. "Hold on, I'll be right back." Before I could speak, the colt zoomed off, returning literally seconds later with a small cloud. He placed the cloud next to mine, laying down with a sigh. "So, what's up?" he asked. "Whatcha thinking about in that brain of yours?"
I shrugged. "Nothing much," I replied, which was partially a lie. I didn't want to tell him that I was thinking about the times before I met him. I don't know, it just seemed awkward. Instead, I looked at him, confidence in my eyes. "Hey," I said with a smirk. "Wanna race?"
Immediately, the same smirk appeared on Rumble's face. "Sure," he said, sitting upright. "Where to?"
I thought for a moment and looked around. We could race to another cloud, but we might destroy it if we do. Town Hall was an option. No, Mayor Mare was having a meeting there today. She wouldn't want us flying into the roof. I turned towards the Everfree Forest. I could see Fluttershy's house from there. And then I saw the tree. It was a smallish tree, right between town and the forest. I pointed toward it. "There," I said.
Rumble looked where I was pointing. "Alright. On three?"
"Yep!" We both stood up, flexed our wings, and got in a starting position. "One?"
"Two?"
"Three!" I shouted, and we both sped off. I pumped my wings as hard as I could, but Rumble was faster. He beat me to the tree a good half second before I did.
Rumble let out a fake yawn. "What took you so long?"
"Oh, shut up," I said, giving him a playful shove. We laughed for a moment before a scream cut us off. We looked at each other, concerned.
"The hell was that?" Rumble asked.
"I don't know. I think it came from the forest," I said, looking in that direction. I couldn't see much, though. The forest was practically always dark.
Rumble looked in that direction too. "Maybe we should go check it out?"
I shrugged. "Alright."
Rumble nodded and we took off from the tree, flying side by side above the forest. We scanned below, looking for anything interesting, but the Everfree seemed the same as it usually was.
Another scream erupted. It was louder, which meant we were close.
"Down there!" I heard Rumble shout. He flew down towards the forest floor, with me close behind. And then I saw it.
A silver coated unicorn was wandering around the forest floor, muttering something to himself. I almost gasped. His blue (at least I think it was blue, it had a reddish tint to is) mane was a huge mess, and it seemed like it was falling out. His eyes were bloodshot. His entire body was shaking.
Rumble and I shot another glance at each other before turning back to the stallion. "Hey, buddy!" The grey pegasus shouted. "Something wrong?"
The unicorn's head slowly turned toward us, his eyes settling on Rumble. I heard something that sounded like a growl.
"Helloo?" Rumble asked again. "You alri-"
Before Rumble could finish, the stallion lunged at him. He landed flat on his back, with the unicorn's hooves pinning him down. This time, the unicorn made a hissing sound. I was too shocked to move.
"Hey! Get off me, man!" Rumble squirmed underneath him, but the unicorn's grip stayed strong.
"Beware the Deadline!" the stallion shouted. "Beware! Beware the Deadline! Bewaaaaare!!!" His voice was raspy, as if he'd been screaming a lot.
I jumped back in surprise, but Rumble only groaned. He shot me a glance as if saying, The hell is wrong with this guy? He says stuff like that a lot. Then it dawned on me that I should try to help. But just as I took a step forward, the colt reared his back legs, the ones that weren't being pinned down, and bucked the guy right in the crotch. He let out a howl and flew a good two feet away from Rumble, who was already standing and dusting himself off.
"You know, you could've helped me," he said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. It was just surprising," The stallion was curled up in a ball, still trembling. Rumble was staring at him hard.
"What?" I asked.
He didn't look up. "This guy... he seems... somewhat familiar. I just can't put my hoof on it," he said. I looked at the unicorn. He didn't look familiar at first glance, but then...
"Silver Coin?!" I exclaimed.
Rumble looked up at me. "What?"
"Remember when the playground got redone at Ponyville Elementary? There was a lot of workers there, and this one unicorn with a clipboard, just watching. I went up to him and asked what he was doing, and he told me he was the supervisor. He even told me his name. Silver Coin!"
Rumble's gaze went back to the guy. "Oh yeah..." he said. And then his expression changed to something I didn't recognize. He looked at me again. "Wasn't he in charge of that tunnel?"
This time, I looked at Rumble, confused. "What tunnel?" I immediately shook my head, understanding. "Oh, right! That one that was supposed to run underneath the forest? The Everfree Express or something like that?"
Rumble nodded. "Yeah, that one. Didn't it close down or something?"
"Yep. I heard it was for budget cuts."
Rumble gave me a look I've never seen him give me before. A completely serious look. "And did you ever see any of the workers after they shut it down?"
I thought about it for a moment. "Nope. I thought they all went to work in another city or something." I could tell the colt was onto something.
"Right. After the way this guy's been acting, something tells me that's not it. What if... what if they're trapped inside the tunnel?"
A chill went through my body. Maybe the tunnel didn't close just for budget cuts. I wasn't sure what to say, so I just looked at him. Usually, I was the smart one.
"Let's go check it out," he said.
My eyes widened in surprise. "What? Are you crazy? We could get hurt! Or killed! Or worse!"
"Or we could save the town," Rumble suggested.
I just looked at him in confusion.
"Think about it," he said. "This guy... uh, Silver Coin, escaped the tunnel. And as far as we know, he went completely insane. What if the other workers escape? We need to go down there and kick their butts before they do,"
I sighed. "But can't we have somepony else go down there and-"
"Nope," Rumble interjected. A small smile appeared on his face. "I've always wanted to do something worth remembering. Let's go. You and me."
This was crazy. But Rumble had a point. Even if we did go back to town and get some stronger ponies to help us, the workers could escape while we were gone. "Alright," I said after a moment. "Let's go."
"Alright! Oh, wait, hold on a sec. I gotta do one last thing." He trotted over to the unicorn and gave him a look of disgust. Then, he kicked the guy right in the face. The guy howled, then went unconscious. Rumble looked back at me with a smirk. "That should keep him out for a while,"
"You're crazy," I said, smiling a little now. I pointed to some trampled bushes nearby. "Looks like he came from that way."
Rumble nodded. "Let's go then," he said, trotting off in that direction. I stayed close by his side.
*****
We walked in silence for a good ten minutes before I felt my foot hit something hard. Metal. "Gah!" I screamed as I tripped over it, landing on my stomach.
Rumble looked back and chuckled. "Well, at least I'm not the only clutz around here," he said, offering me a hoof. I took it and stood up, turning back toward the thing I tripped over. It was a metal hatch, the initials EE engraved on it. It was pretty hard to see with the overgrown grass covering it.
"EE?" I said. "For Everfree Express?"
"Probably," He opened the hatch. A high pitched creak sounded, and I winced. A set of metal stairs led downward. The tunnel.
"After you," Rumble said.
This was my last chance to back out. I could die in there. But like Rumble, I wanted to do something important. And this was my chance. Slowly, I walked down the stairs. I heard Rumble's hoofsteps behind me.
It was a long staircase, but we eventually made it to the bottom. A creepy white mist hung in the air, making me cough. We were in a large open area, the walls and ceiling made of metal. I noticed something a few feet in front of me, and walked over to it. Rumble followed.
It was a sign. There was a bare spot on the wall above it where it should be hanging, but it was on the ground. I squinted and read the words Everfree Express.
"Whoa..." I heard Rumble say behind me.
I was about to ask what when I noticed it. I couldn't read the sign well because it was covered with different words. The Deadline, it read. Written in dark red. Blood.
"Yep, I'm outta here," I stated, turning around on my heel towards the staircase. But just as I did, a loud metal clang sounded, so loud that it echoed. Rumble and I looked at each other, then ran up the stairs as fast as we could.
The hatch was closed. Rumble pushed against it, but it wouldn't budge. "Shit..." I heard him mutter.
Shit was right. We were trapped.
Author's Note
My first shot at a dark themed story. Don't worry, there's more creepyness to come! >:)
