Torchwood: Equestria- Parallel Loose Ends

Manehattan police taped off both ends of a back alley, and officers started photographing and marking evidence. In the center of the alley, which rested between a bakery and a book shop, a mare lied dead, the same puncture wound on her neck that they’d discovered on the author yesterday. Just as before, the cause of death greatly confused them. No blood left in the body.

“What in Equestria is going on in our city?” Officer Jones said, looking down at the lifeless mare.

“Mayor sent up a notice about this to Equestria when we found the author,” Officer Bookem replied. “Now that we’ve got two of the same cases, and very little clues to work with, I hope they send help soon. We’ve got a real crisis on our hooves.”

“Emergency police can’t help,” Jones said. “They’re just for active situations, terrorists and the like. Who’re they gonna send?”

“You remember the brief from the captain? Sounds like some new organization just got put together. If they show up we’re supposed to let them take over.”

“Oh, great.” Jones rolled his eyes. “It’s bad enough when another division of the police steals your case, but now we’re supposed to just hoof over anything these ponies want.”

Bookem shrugged. “Eh, rules are rules. If they can figure out what’s going on better than we can, I’d sleep better at night knowing whoever did this is getting caught.” His teeth grabbed another evidence marker out of his pack, and he gently set it down on the ground where he found a couple drops of blood.

“Sleep, yeah…” Jones started. “I don’t know what’s going on, I’ve been having some terrible dreams. Nothing to do with work, just bad. Haven’t been sleeping well.”

Bookem began to reply before his ears perked at some commotion coming from the end of the alley. Two stallions and a griffon, who he’d never seen before, stood talking to an officer, and after a few moments, the officer stepped aside and the three walked in to the alley.

“Well hey, turn around,” Bookem said. “Looks like you can take a couple days off to get some rest.”

Jones turned, and approached the new faces. All three of them had some sort of badge he’d never seen before, a bit of metal in the shape of a T.

He met the dark blue stallion first. “I’m Captain Jack Harkness,” he said to Jones. “This is Wing, and Dr. Cazan. We’re Torchwood, and we’ll be taking it from here.”

***

Cazan frowned, puzzled at the medical predicament that faced him. Inspecting dead bodies was something anyone with extensive medical experience could do, however, without training in that field, it took more effort to analyze problems. He spoke with officers on the scene about the mare and yesterday’s case.

Wing stayed back at first. His stomach lurched, and he nearly lost his previous meal the first time he saw the mare, laying there lifeless. He’d handled everything in royal guard training, and managed to help in the chaos at Ponyville, but looking at a dead body was something entirely different. Jack put a reassuring hoof on Wing’s shoulder, and moved him away so he could sit for a few moments.

Just like Cazan and Wing, Jack faced something new as well. He had to solve a case that likely involved alien life, without the usual technology he had back on the Earth in his own universe. Until Ruby could get some machines functioning out of the storage of misc parts, Torchwood’s detective work would be done the old fashioned way.

Jack leaned his head over the dead mare’s neck, examining the puncture wound. He shivered at the sight of how deep the puncture went. Cazan walked over next to him.

“This is the second case they’ve found like this,” Cazan said. “One pony yesterday, one today. Both in a back alley, both with a deep puncture wound in the neck, and both completely drained of blood.”

Jack raised his head back up, and looked at the rest of the mare’s body, searching for anything odd. “You’ve fought against a lot of things. Any creature in Equestria capable of doing this?”

“No, and from my knowledge, not outside of Equestria either,” Cazan replied. “There are many strange, magical creatures on this world, but vampires were made up for horror stories.”

“This victim died during the day, so I already ruled out vampires,” Jack said. “So that leaves alien involvement.”

Jack turned his head back and called out to Wing. “Wing! Find out where they found the author yesterday.”

Wing became alert when he heard his name, and nodded. He was glad for something to do, feeling a bit worthless after nearly fainting when confronted with a corpse.

“From what I heard about the Ponyville incident, Wing is quite capable,” Cazan remarked. “I’m surprised to see him like this.”

“He’ll be fine, he’s just new,” Jack said. “This can be ugly work; you see a lot of things you wish you could forget.”

***

Left alone at Torchwood, Ruby set to make herself useful. She pushed open the storage door, and quietly walked among the shelves. She felt as if she toured around a history museum, seeing some things she recognized, and other things that she knew to be ancient technology.

She wandered about the room for quite some time, just getting a feel for how much there was, and making mental notes of things she wanted to work on.

Eventually, she found the perfect technology to make her first project. She found several small, round devices with rubber hooks, designed to be concealed by an ear. This was an old form of communication device. They didn’t respond to her stimulus with a hoof, and the rubber wouldn’t fit on a pony’s ear, but that’s what she was here for.

“Time to make some repairs,” she said to herself.

***

Some sort of clue had to show itself. Jack knew it. He analyzed every inch of the alley, searching for signs.

Everything in the alley looked untouched. Various boxes left out in the alley all sat perfectly arranged against the walls. A larger dumpster took up space against the wall near the felled victim, again untouched. He looked around the edge of where the mare’s body rested, seeing no marks on the ground, or drops of blood.

No struggle occurred. That much became clear. Whatever sucked the blood out of the mare likely hid in the shadow of the dumpster, waiting patiently for her to walk by. With a leap out, whatever killed her used its teeth, a weapon, something, to puncture the neck, and she was paralyzed in the pain of the grasp. She didn’t pull back or struggle to get away. She stood in one spot until all her blood left her body, then fell.

Jack explained all of this to Cazan, who was using a claw to hold a magnifying glass from a borrowed medical kit, examining the puncture wound on the neck. “If we find this thing, we have to be careful,” Jack said. “One wrong move and it could drop us just as easily.”

“There’s some sort of substance here…” Cazan looked closer. “It’s definitely not any fluid that came from the mare. Perhaps a venom,” he deduced. “If I’m right, whatever did this uses a venom to paralyze the victim until they’re done.”

“That’s scarier than a vampire.”

Wing approached, keeping his eyes away from the body on the ground. He’d spoken to several of the officers, and had information to share. “I know where the other murder location is,” he explained. “About twelve blocks from here.”

They all spent a few more minutes investigating the alley, then let Wing lead the way to the other location in hope of connecting the two murders. As they walked, Jack marveled at the immense buildings and bustling crowds. Businesses, hotels, department stores, theaters. He felt just like he was in London, amidst a bustling modern age capital, despite the low amount of technology ponies have come to build. He felt baffled that even with magic to help, creatures without hands could build such humungous structures.

The walk to the other alley took a bit of time, with the late afternoon crowd filling up the streets. They walked four blocks down one street, then made a left and kept going. None of the three spoke much, their thoughts on who or what caused these murders to occur.

After weaving their way in and out of crowds of ponies, the three arrived at the other alley, confirmed by the furniture store the police mentioned when describing the area. The body was already moved, and just like the other alley, everything appeared untouched.

A similar dumpster, more boxes, but nothing out of the ordinary. Their culprit definitely knew how to escape without leaving a trace. That thought, however, didn’t sit well with Jack.

“When did the first murder occur? Time of day?”

“The report Ruby read said sometime in the afternoon,” Wing recalled.

“That’s where this doesn’t add up,” Jack continued. He pointed outside the alley. “Look at how many ponies are out there. That’s no small amount walking around. So something that probably isn’t a pony managed to kill in the middle of the day, then escape without anyone seeing him, or without anyone seeing the body until he was already gone.” Jack turned back to Wing and Cazan. “All it takes for someone to see a dead body in this alley is to look over. It can’t have been long before someone saw.”

Wing and Cazan nodded in agreement with Jack, but they too were now puzzled with the questions Jack now proposed.

An idea burst into Cazan’s head once he looked down, and saw something he considered meaningless only moments before. “He needed an escape route,” Cazan said.

Neither of the other two gathered Cazan’s meaning, until he walked towards the end of the alley, where on the ground rested a circular sewer grate. Cazan slipped a claw into a hole on the edge of the round piece of metal, then lifted it up and out of the way, revealing a ladder and a portion of sewer below.

“He’s using the sewers to hide,” Jack said. “And I bet if we went back to where the mare died, we’d find a sewer grate in that alley too.”

“There was! I remember seeing it!” Wing realized.

“Well then, gentlecolts, we have part of the problem solved,” Cazan said. “The next topic is how to either get this culprit out of the sewers, or how to head down into his own territory and search him out.”

***

After returning to the site of the mare’s murder, the Torchwood team confirmed their suspicions. Just like in the other alleyway, there was a sewer grate on the ground. As they walked back they checked any alley they came by, to see if sewer grates in alleys was a common occurrence. No alleys on their way back had any, which was a good sign.

Wing spoke with police officers about getting a map of the sewer system and where grates were, and afternoon turned into evening after the three walked to City Hall to request these items. There were unused offices in City Hall, so the team found a nearby restaurant to grab take out dinner and took over one of the empty rooms.

The office was of a fair size and rectangular, with a rectangular wooden table in the center. On the far wall a window showed the outside street, and Cazan shut the blinds. The three sat at the table, surrounded by faded yellow walls. No artwork or photos decorated the edges of the room, and a small clock by the door made a noticeably loud tick as each second passed by.

After eating quickly, Cazan rolled out the map of the sewer system, which took up almost the entire table. With no room left, he took the city map and rolled it out on top of the sewer map, prepared to just slide the top map around when they needed to look underneath.

“The city map has storm drains drawn on it, fortunately,” Jack noticed. “Let’s find our two murders.”

First, Wing found the location they’d searched for when they arrived at Manehattan. The letter had been sent to Equestria after the second murder, which occurred only a day after the first. From that location, Jack ran his hoof along the path they followed to reach the other murder, and both alleys showed storm drains.

“Cazan, we’ll keep these spots marked,” Jack said. “Run your eyes over this map carefully, grid by grid, see how many other alleys we have with sewer grates in them.”

Cazan did as Jack asked, proceeding through the map at a delicate pace, making sure he missed nothing. There were many sewer grates on the streets themselves, but outside of the two already found, Cazan only saw three alleys that had one.

“Whoever’s doing this is smart enough to commit two murders in two days without getting caught,” Jack said. “We can hopefully assume that he won’t go to the same place twice. Police would be on the lookout.”

“What are you suggesting?” Cazan asked.

“Three grates, three of us,” Jack replied. “I’m suggesting we each learn as much as we can about the immediate sewer tunnels around one of those three grates over the next couple hours, then stake them out. We each take a police officer with us for backup, but we have to split up. We can’t leave it up to police to catch this guy, one of us has to be there.”

Cazan agreed, and after a moment’s hesitation, so did Wing. The three each decided on a grate, then turned to the sewer map to try and learn some of the tunnels.

***

Night fell in Manehattan, but the noise level never dropped to silence like it did in Ponyville. The grand city kept going around the clock, though no pony had to deal with a traffic jam of carriages at this hour.

Jack sat atop a roof, looking down at an alley below, watching patiently. He yawned, considering getting a bit of sleep and letting the officer keep watch. Unlike Jack, this pegasus officer slept during the day, and was already scheduled for the night shift. He shook off his tiredness and kept his focus, however, not wanting to waste time if the officer had to shake him awake.

He knew he may be forced to sleep at some point, since none of them knew when this murderer would strike next. The last two murders occurred in the middle of the day, perhaps that was the pattern. Perhaps out of fear, no attempt would be made for several days, or at all. Jack considered all these possibilities, debating whether taking the risk of searching the sewers now would be better to ensure this creature’s capture, and if so, when that search should begin.

Several hours passed by with nothing. The night grew quieter, though Jack still heard a few wheels turning on the road, and saw a few lights on in the high floors of apartments. During this whole time, besides greetings neither Jack nor the officer had spoken. The officer decided to break this long silence, but still made sure she didn’t move her eyes from the alley below.

“So what’s this new Torchwood thing we’ve all been told about?” she asked.

“Not much to it, actually,” Jack lied. “Just a different kind of emergency police. The emergency police can’t really do anything when the danger isn’t immediate and big.”

“You got that right,” the mare replied. “So many officers here dream about being on that team, but I’d rather be a detective. Not just a bunch of muscle that shows up when some ancient creature gets out of its cage.”

“Can’t argue with that, Tara,” Jack said. His ears perked at a sound, but he realized it was something unimportant, and looked back down at the alley again. “Nice uniform by the way.”

“Thanks,” Tara said with a grin. “You’d look good in it.”

Jack chuckled. “Would be a bit of a demotion if I joined your police force, wouldn’t it?”

“Who said anything about joining our police force?”

Both laughed, enjoying the lightened mood after staying serious for so long. Tara spoke up again. “Seriously though, if you’re not the type of pony to wear clothes, you should be. You’d look good with something on.”

Jack took the thought into consideration, wondering what he’d buy to wear. It would certainly feel more normal to have clothes on; that had been one of the awkward points to get used to when he first arrived in this universe: getting up in the morning and staying naked all day.

Both their ears perked at a very noticeable sound, metal moving on metal, and they shut their mouths instantly, ducking their heads away from the edge of the roof. The sound continued, metal now screeching against pavement, clearly the sewer grate moving from its home. With a gentle tap, the grate was set down, and the noise stopped.

Jack and the officer waited until they heard another faint tap of the grate being set back in place, then carefully peaked over the edge. Tara’s eyes widened in confusion, and Jack stared with an analyzing manner.

The creature to emerge looked male, and was certainly not a pony. He was bipedal in stance, with hands similar to a human’s. He had no hair, and his skin was a deep red, mostly covered in black clothing. His right hand held some sort of device, with two long, fang-like prongs on the end, and tubes leading to a black pack on his back.

He moved to lurk behind the dumpster, as the police and Torchwood predicted to be the location of his initial assaults. So far, no pony entered the back alley, and Jack knew they had to move fast.

Jack had to assume that the creature was alert, not wanting to get caught. Trying to slowly drop down from above would only let him hear wing flaps. He looked over to the officer, and saw her dumbfounded look. He realized his mistake in needing an officer with him to catch an alien, but it was too late. Knowing he couldn’t change that, Jack developed a thought that might work.

He tapped Tara on the shoulder, and motioned for her to back away from the edge of the roof top. Once on the other side and out of ear shot from the creature, Jack spoke up in a whisper. “You’ll have to trust me on this. I can stand to lose a little bit of blood. I want you to drop me down on this side of the building, then wait as I go down the alley. I’ll put up a fight, then let him get me. That should focus his attention on me, and you can swoop in.”

She shook her head, blinking. “What is that thing? What do you mean you can stand to lose a little blood?”

“Don’t worry about that now,” Jack said. “It’s me or an innocent civilian, who wouldn’t survive like I can. Let’s go.”

The officer didn’t question Jack’s authority further, and picked him up to fly him down to the ground. She let him down gently, then landed next to him, getting herself right along the side of the building. Jack took a deep breath, then started a casual walking pace, as if nothing was happening.

Behind the dumpster, the red alien silently prepared, and Jack continued his walk, readying himself for what was to come. The sound of hoof steps hitting pavement echoed through the alley at an even pace, like a clock ticking the seconds down on a bomb waiting to go off.

After both front hooves moved past the edge of the dumpster, the alien lunged forward, but Jack had shifted all his weight to his forelegs, and he swiftly lifted and pivoted the back of his body around, bucking out hard.

The kick from Jack managed to catch the alien off guard, and he smashed against the wall, shaking his head. Jack turned around to jump forward, but the alien pushed into the lunge and knocked Jack back, sending him into the ground. Jack grunted, and his eyes grew wide in fear as he saw the alien’s right hand swinging down with the puncturing device.

Jack wanted to scream when the long, thick needles pierced into his neck, but no sound came. As blood started to drain from him, he felt his hooves stop fighting back against the alien pinning him down. Whatever paralyzing agent this device contained, it was powerful. His head started spinning and his eyes struggled to stay open, the needles working quickly as his life began fading away.

Once again, the alien was caught off guard as Tara tackled him off the earth pony and down to the pavement. Since the device was attached to the alien’s pack, it slid out of Jack’s throat, however, with his body nearly sucked dry from the advanced technology, the rest bled out in the span of a few seconds, and he was dead.

The officer landed a couple strong kicks with her front hooves on the alien’s face, then pushed to keep him pinned down. At first, her toned body was winning the struggle, but the alien slowly reached for the device connected to his pack, snaking his arm out. By the time she noticed, it was too late, and she was flung off after the needles stabbed into her throat. As blood began to drain, the alien reached with his free hand and moved the sewer grate off of its place. Instead of draining her completely, he took enough to prevent her from following, then retracted his device and climbed down into the sewer.

***

Wing let out a sigh, knowing that no trouble was a good thing, but bored out of a lack of anything to do. He sat on a rooftop with a male unicorn officer, watching the alley below. His sewer grate was just close enough to Jack’s location for him to glance over and look at the rooftop now and then. Two tiny, dark figures sat up on a roof in the distance, doing the same job he was doing.

He conversed a bit with the unicorn next to him, Lens, sharing stories about their home. Wing fiddled with the truth a bit to avoid admitting his home really was Canterlot, just six decades in the future. The hours passed, talk continued, and every time he looked over, Jack and whoever his partner was still sat up on the roof.

Lens was telling a story about his mom’s cooking, when Wing looked to the far off roof and did not see what he usually saw. The roof was empty, and Wing stood up, causing the other stallion to cease talking.

“What is it?” the officer asked.

All Wing’s thoughts turned to Jack. Was he alright? Did he catch the alien? His body trembled in nervousness, and he knew there was no point in continuing to watch this sewer grate.

“The other team is off the roof, something happened,” Wing said. “I’ll let you down from the roof, get to Dr. Cazan’s position as quickly as possible and let him know what’s happening.”

The officer nodded, and let himself get picked up by Wing so they could fly down to the street below. Once let down, he spoke up. “So if I’m going there, where are you-“

He cut his question short at a sound from behind him. Wing had moved the sewer grate they were assigned to. “Toss me your flashlight,” he said quickly.

Lens used his magic to fling the flashlight down the alley, and Wing caught it in his teeth. He clicked it on, and dove into the sewer depths.

***

Like Wing, Cazan had a unicorn partner, a mare named Cristi. He wondered at how some ponies ended up with odd names that perfectly matched their cutie mark, and others got more typical names just like any other griffon. When he asked about this, Cristi said she’d honestly never thought about it, and wasn’t sure.

The two occasionally conversed through the uneventful night, Cazan already reliving some of his secret police experiences. Sometimes, patience was the key to capturing threats, rather than a full on assault. Had they attempted to search out the sewers, they would likely have been outclassed by the culprit they chased, who already knew the tunnels well.

He found the night air peaceful, and calming. He took the time to think over the recent and unexpected events in his life. His curiosity still lingered on the dead stallion prisoner Torchwood held, hoping for a time of quiet after this investigation so he could work on that issue.

As Cazan prepared to say something else to Cristi, frantic hoof steps and heavy breathing caught both their attention. “Cristi!” A male voice called out from down the street.

“Keep watching the alley, I’ll see what’s up,” Cristi told the griffon. She trotted over to the edge of the roof that showed her the street below, and she recognized officer Lens approaching as fast as possible.

“There might be trouble!” Lens shouted as he approached. “The pegasus with me saw that Tara and the other guy were gone from the roof, then he went down to the sewer. He asked me to get both of you down to that location in case something is up.”

Cazan overheard the conversation, and dashed over to the side. “So you were with Wing, correct?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” Lens replied.

Cazan didn’t wait a second longer. He spread his wings and took off into the air, headed straight for Jack’s assigned location.

***

The amount of time it took for Jack to come back to life varied. This time, fortunately, only a few seconds passed before the holes in his neck sealed back up, new blood churned through his body, and he gasped for breath, shot back into the living world. As he gasped, he forced himself to come to his senses quickly, and he flipped over on to his front hooves, noticing a trembling Tara and a growing pool of blood. Jack bolted to her side, then pressed down on her abdomen as he ripped her officer uniform with his teeth. His bodily strength as a human translated from the muscles he used in his own world to a powerful jaw grip that many earth ponies required for tasks. Her shirt quickly came undone, and he reached front hooves underneath her to rotate her body. Working with a hoof and mouth coordination Jack didn’t know he possessed, Jack got her uniform out from underneath her back, then moved his mouth to the front side of her to pull it off of the one foreleg still attached to the clothing. Once done, he kept her on her side and pressed the uniform down on to her wound, applying as much pressure as he could without injuring her neck or preventing her ability to breath.

“Stay with me, Tara,” Jack said, hoping to keep shock from adding to her present medical condition. “You’re gonna be fine, stay calm.” He desperately hoped he got to her in time. At the moment, she still breathed, her body trembling but her eyes wide open.

He looked over to the sewer grate and found it out of position, and the alien gone. He dreaded to think how much effort it would take to catch him now, if they even could, before he found a new place to hide and new victims to take. At the moment, however, he stayed by Tara’s side, hoping to keep the bleeding as minimal as possible until help arrived.

That help came in the form of Cazan, who dove down at the dreadful sight below him when he reached Jack’s location. “We got word from Wing’s partner that you were gone from the roof,” Cazan explained. “Wing went down into the sewer, and his partner came for us.”

“Wing’s down there?” Jack looked back at Cazan in fear. “The two of us couldn’t handle this guy, if he went in alone-“

“This is what you hired me for, leave this mare to me, she’ll make it,” Cazan assured Jack. He placed a claw on the uniform covering Tara’s wound and using his other claw to move Jack’s hoof away. “He can’t have gone far, and Wing might be right on his trail. Go do what you hired yourself for, and I’ll do my job.”

Around the corner, Wing and Cazan’s partners both arrived, and darted for their fellow officer at the sight of her on the ground, shaking. Cazan looked at Jack one more time and nodded silently, and Jack returned the nod. Without asking, Jack bit down on officer Cristi’s flashlight and pulled it out of her belt, then hurried to the open hole leading down to the sewer, descending the ladder at a frantic pace.

***

Wing had memorized a route from his sewer access point to both Jack’s and Cazan’s, and flew quickly through the tunnels, his flashlight showing the way. He did his best to shut off thoughts about Jack, and let his royal guard training focus his movement. A left, right, another right, Wing made every turn without a single mistake.

Soon, he was at Jack’s location, and he saw moonlight shining down from the ceiling. The sewer grate was open.

At first, Wing thought to fly out, that the alien awaited to strike. Then, splashes echoed from around a corner into his ears. Somepony, or some creature, was moving down here. He dove around the corner to see a tall, red, bipedal creature running down the tunnel to get away. He paused to turn back at the sudden light flashing on him, then doubled his efforts to run through the sewage. There were paths carved out on the sides of the tunnel, but the curve of the ceiling on the edge was too low for him to use it. He already had to duck running through the small tunnels.

Wing spat out his flashlight into his hooves, then yelled out at the alien. “Stop!” He bolted forward, his strong wings greatly out speeding the fleeing murderer. Noticing this, the alien stopped and turned around, raising the device that had already taken two ponies lives, and as far as he knew, two more just a moment ago.

Wing had a fear of leadership. He was still a brand new officer, and felt nervous when other ponies looked to him for orders or guidance. Luckily lieutenants did most of the work, but if his lieutenant were to ever leave, or fall in combat, like the time in the castle when…

Wing couldn’t think of what time was about to come to his mind.

But that fear played no part in this conflict. This was the part of his training he was good at. Letting all thoughts take the back seat in his brain, and intensive, repetitive training take control of his muscle movements. As the device rose up, ready to strike and drop the approaching pegasus, Wing waited until the last moment, then veered to the side, flying past the alien and causing him to miss.

The alien spun around, but Wing moved faster, and having tossed the flashlight to the side path, he too spun back, and both front hooves landed a grip on the strange device. He kept flying, yanking it out of the alien’s hand, and the tubes attaching it to his pack snapped off. Wing threw it down the tunnel, watching it land in sewage with a noticeable splash.

This time, the alien had the element of surprise, having chased after Wing when he stole the device. Immediately after Wing turned to face his adversary, a fist punched into his abdomen, and he staggered, his wings nearly failing him and dropping him into the sewage. The alien grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him into the wall, then clasped his rough, bony hands around Wing’s throat, squeezing hard.

Wing struggled, and nearly broke free, his muscles extremely well built from royal guard training, but the alien held fast, and he struggled to get air. His lungs burned, screaming at him, and he continued flailing about, desperate to break free.

“Nice try, puny horse,” the alien spat out, his voice raspy. “Even had you caught me, you’d be too late. I got enough pony blood, decided to stick around for the sport of it. Now you’re going to die like your friends up above.”

Jack. Wing had quickly grown to like Jack, and cringed to think that the alien had put Jack through pain, but he could save one worry. He knew Jack couldn’t die. That’s when it hit him. This alien did not. And he stood here, choking him, with no awareness of his surroundings. Wing’s eyes widened, and a small glimmer of hope filled him.

***

That glimmer of hope turned into reality, Jack blazing down the tunnel. Fear for Wing turned into blinding rage at the sight of the alien, choking out his companion. Jack ran along the side path, creating less noise than had he slushed through the sewage, and it was little enough for the alien to fall for the same distraction trick again. Jack lunged forward and screamed, ramming into the alien’s side and tackling him into the murky water. Jack no longer cared about anything but seeing this alien pay.

The alien landed face first in the sewage, and Jack used his body wait to keep him down. Anger consumed him, and he pushed hard at the alien’s head with his front hooves, forcing it to stay down. The alien fought hard, but his body, which had proven to be stronger than even the strongest of ponies, was in a disadvantageous position, and he couldn’t move enough to break free. He continued to fight, reaching, grabbing at nothing, clawing at the path on the side of the tunnel… then several bubbles appeared at the surface of the sewage, and his body went slack.

Off to the side, Wing still gasped for air, the hard punch to his stomach followed by choking having put a huge strain on his body, and his lungs fought to catch up. With the alien dead, Jack turned to rush over to him. “Jack-“

Wing’s words were cut off by Jack pushing into Wing for a hard kiss. He held the kiss firm for several seconds, beyond relieved that Wing was alive, and Wing decided that this was worth his lungs burning for air just a little bit longer.

Jack broke the kiss and wrapped his muck covered forelegs tight around Wing’s body, and Wing resumed panting for air. “I’ve got you,” Jack breathed out, his own lungs heaving as adrenaline still coursed through his veins. “I won’t lose you again,” he said softly, hugging Wing tight. “I won’t lose you again.”