The Fast, Dangerous and the Furious

Chapter Three: The True Villain

Ugh …

I scratched the back of my head letting my eyes roam around at almost nothing but total darkness. The only light around me was from a lantern on the other side of the room. It tinted the room an eerily dark red color. I started to take in deep breaths then went into the biggest coughing fit of my life. Something rustled next to me. By the time I stopped coughing my eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness. Cages were everywhere. Piles of … Oh sweet Luna please let it be junk and nothing else. I’m calling it as junk before I hurl out my guts.

A quick glance to the other side of my cage revealed another one of those piles. Ugh, I think I’m going to be sick. A voice other than Silver Shoe’s caught my attention, “Don’t panic, it’s just a rotting infected corpse.” The stallion speaking to me was in the cage right next to mine. He was fiddling with something in his hooves, but I couldn’t tell what it was. A long moment of silence fell between us while I watched him take a rock and slide it against something shiny.

“Where’re we at?" No response.

I cleared my throat. Still nothing.

“Excuse me, could you maybe tell me where we are?”

The stallion dropped whatever he was holding. “What? What? WHAT? What do you want, huh? Oh, little foal can’t handle being trapped in a cage?” Geez. I just wanted to know where we were at. “Well boohoo, get used to it.” I’ve never shot a pony out of anger before, but this punk is really starting to irk me. Wait.

Where the hell are my guns anyway? I felt around the cage for them only to come up empty hoofed. Yeah, no pony would be dumb enough to leave a prisoner with their weapons. The grump spit at the ground the knocked on the side of his cage. “Your friend’s over there, least she’s quiet.” I looked over at the cage across the room and could make out Silver Shoe’s body just lying there on the ground. I called out her name. No response.

I swear if they … no, she’s fine. She’s just fine.  I called out her name again. “Would you be quiet?” The grump shouted back at me. It’s a good thing there’s a cage around me, I get the feeling this guy would have used that scissor blade to get me to stay quiet. The grump took the blade and inserted it the best he could into the lock on the outside of the cage. I watched the blade jiggle around until it inevitably slipped out of Mr. Grump’s hoof.  He reached out and knocked it further away.

My horn engulfed itself in magic and I started messing with Mr. Grumps lock. I couldn’t get it off. “I’ll give you the scissor blade if you tell me where we’re at.” The stallion looked at his scissor blade then back at me aggravated. He looked at the blade and back at me. I assume he said yes from the begrudged groan he made.

“Reaper’s headquarters inside of the mine right next to the town.” The scissor blade moved a little closer to his reach. Mr. Grump looked at me. I waved my hoof around hoping it would persuade him to keep talking. He didn’t say anything. I moved the scissor blade away from his reach a little. “Alright, alright!” Thank you, Mr. Grump!

“Reaper pony,” I asked curiously while piecing together that symbol around town to the ponies that jumped us.

“Not ‘Reaper pony,’ Reapers. Bolt Action’s gang of vigilantes going around doing what they want.” Now I’m getting some answers. Keep talking buddy, I need a lot more information. I moved the scissor blade closer to his reach. I gave him a look that said I was clueless. And I kind of was. Scratch that, I was clueless. “You know, one of the three factions controlling Equestria, four if you count the infected.” I stared blankly at him. “You really have been living under a rock.” Well … yeah I guess I was.

Reapers, factions, infected. Why do I get the feeling I’m talking to a crazy pony? Mr. Grump jumped at the bars only to run into them trying to grab the blade. Yeah, this is a crazy pony, and me without my comic book. The stallion kept trying to get ahold of the blade, I just kept it out of reach while I went over what happened back at the town. I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but I’m assuming it’s been a while if those Reapers got us all the way down a mine. “It was all that stupid devices fault. One miss step and, BOOM! Infected everywhere, cops rising up to combat King Sombra and murders. Isn’t that a fine way to kick Equestria in the teeth?” Great, now I can’t get this stallion to shut up. I gave him the scissor blade back. He dropped it out of his reach again. Silver Shoe, please wake up. “You want to know more? Go read a book.”

“Stay away from the Crystal Empire though, that place is bad news,” the stallion warned before reaching his hoof out at the scissor blade again.

I rubbed my head with my hooves and regretted ever opening my muzzle in the first place. “You two ladies done gossiping?” I blinked. My head snapped over to Silver Shoe’s cage and my eyes watched her horn light up. A bobby pin along with a decently sized screw driver rose up from a nearby table. They moved over to my cage getting to work on the lock.

Click.

The door opened with a loud squeaky screech. I jumped out and kicked the scissor blade over to Mr. Grump. No 'thank you', not even a hum.

Ass. I galloped over to Silver Shoe’s cage looking straight at the lock. I have no idea how to open one of these. “Just stand back, I’ve got this.” Silver Shoe looked over at something and fell against the ground. I looked behind me.

“One of them escaped!”

Ah crap!

I pushed myself away from the cage meeting a wood plank to the face. My body hit the ground, two ponies picked me up and restrained my fore hooves. Mr. Grump started pointing at me shouting, “He picked the lock! I saw him. He used his horn!” That son of bitch! I lurched forward, but got pulled back. I’m gonna buck his freaking teeth if he rats Silver Shoe out. I called him a psychopath. “Whatever keeps me alive, kid.” The two Reapers dragged me through some doors and covered my head with a bag.

*** ***

My body was spun around in the Reapers magic field like a rag doll trapped in a wind tunnel. By the time they threw me down in a chair I thought my eye balls were going to fly off in one direction while my body went another. Thanks to them my head started pounding like crazy. I couldn’t even think straight.

The two Reapers took the bag off of my head and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them. “Then kill him before he gets to Harbor City! I don’t care how you do it, just kill him. If Dead Eye doesn’t leave the casino, then kill him there!” A dark blue stallion wearing a snakeskin coat stepped into the room slamming a pair of double doors behind him. Apparently I had been carried up several flights of stairs, because I could see he had been talking to a griffon on a balcony. The stallion sat down at his desk in front me, his chair squeaked in protest as he leaned forward a little.

My head was still spinning. I felt like I was in a movie where the camera was constantly spinning around a character, and it was getting worse. The stallion sighed and reached for something by his cutie mark, it was two rifles crossed together. “Here,” he handed me some medicine. I took it without question. “I’m sorry about my guards, they can be a bit … stupid with other ponies.” I shook his hoof. My head suddenly stopped spinning and my headache was cleared right up.

I introduced myself to him, he told me to call him Bolt Action. “Nice to meet you, that’s some welcoming committee you’ve got.” Bolt Action chuckled. He reached inside his drawer and pulled out a bottle of Apple Whiskey.

“What are you doing in my town,” he asked, pouring himself a glass.

His town? We trespassed without even knowing it, great. My eyes darted around the room. Nothing really special, just a rundown room like something out of District Twelve. Something caught my eye. It was a tacked blueprint of a wagon that had reinforced armored platting. The picture of the armor resembled something the old Equestria military would use. I turned my attention back to the stallion questioning me. “We broke out of District Twelve and were just passing through looking for a map, didn’t mean anything by it.”

“You smashed a trashcan on one of my stallions. Now, who’s ‘we’.”

I rubbed the back of my head where that same stallion had hit me. “Your sniper didn’t give us much of choice. And we being me and Silver Shoe, the other pony you have stuck inside a cage.” Bolt Action nodded. He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. I looked down at his desk spying a map of Equestria with different colored routes on it. One starting at a place called the Smokey Mountains, a second going through the Badlands, Manehattan, and Fillydelphia. A third started from an unmarked town. It went through some unmarked roads that ended at the Crystal Empire.

There was a knock at the balcony door. Bolt Action leaned back and moved the curtain to see who it was. He shook his head and groaned. “Give me a minute!” His hoof moved away from the curtain letting the cloth fall back into place. “Interesting, from what I hear the only two Districts left are nearly impossible to get in or out of.” There’s only two districts left? There’s supposed to be thirteen. And yet there’s another piece of history the higher ups decided not to tell us. Screw them. Bolt Action explained to me that his faction controlled everything close to the Badlands, the cops controlled Canterlot, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan, and King Sombra controlled a small amount of territory known as Harbor City while the infected, by a technicality, populated most of the Crystal Empire as their own faction. Like I said, that’s a technicality.

Note to self, stay away from the Empire. My eyes kept going back to the highlighted routes on his map. “Mind telling me what those routes are for?” Bolt Action stopped talking and looked down at the map. He smiled obviously having some plan for that. “Ah, that’s for a big race I’m hosting. Whoever wins it will receive something beautiful.” I didn’t like the way he said that. It made feel a little uncomfortable, unless of course he means a large bag of gems. Silver Shoe and I could use some bits if we ever find a town that isn’t trying to kill us.

Wait, he said a race. Dang it, I don’t even have a glider to use. It’s not like I can just walk back into District Twelve without being noticed. I cleared my throat gaining my captors attention. “Sounds like fun. Look we obviously just got off on the wrong hoof here. How about I just get Silver Shoe and leave.” Bolt Action shook his head and laughed. Yeah, I didn’t think that would work. After all Silver Shoe did kill, or at least severely injure, one of his men.

The Reaper leader finished his glass of whiskey then slowly tapped his hoof against the ground. He stared at me for a good long minute. “I’ve got a better idea. I could use some ponies like you and that friend of yours. How about you join my gang.” What is this an interview? And hell no! Your sniper can’t even tell the difference between a threat and two ponies aimlessly walking through town. Piss of you dick.

“No thanks. We’re good. Besides we’re looking for someone.”

Bolt Action exhaled slowly with a hint of disappointment. He got up from his chair turn facing the window. From the way he was staring at the window it was obvious that he was thinking deeply about something. “Then it looks like we aren’t on speaking terms anymore. See my scientist is looking for a way to cure the infected and he gave me a quota to fill. Looks like you and your friend will be his next test subjects.” I lit up my horn. It didn’t glow.

I tried to light up my horn. It wouldn’t light. My eyes went straight to the drugs I had taken.

Pain Reliever:

Cures all headaches or magical ailments

Side Effects may include, but are not limited to, loss of magic.

I deadpanned. Way. To. Go. Smartass. Bolt Action opened the balcony door and walked out. “Just wait there, my guards will be here in a second.” He closed the door behind him before yelling at some poor soul. It was some griffon.

Clang!

I almost fell out of my chair. My head turned towards the air duct and Silver Shoe’s head poked out of it. She smiled at me and rolled out. “Sup?” That son of a bitch, looks like Mr. Grump didn’t rat her out to. Then again he did think that I used my magic to free myself … even though I’m sure he noticed my magic field is blue, not magenta. You know what, I’m just going to assume he did a good deed and believe that he did the right thing. Silver Shoe looked at the balcony door with her horn aglow. The desk and chair moved against the door, pinning it in place. She also locked it.

Before I had time to say anything, she was already diving into another room connected to the office. Silver Shoe scavenged a few spare parts then shoved them in her bag. Once she was done she joined me and gave me my saddle bags, weapons and all. “Alright, there are some guards coming this way.” Just as I said that the doors opened up. Silver Shoe’s horn lit up, sandwiching them together. The highlighted map crumpled itself up before going straight inside one of the stallions mouths. The blueprint from the wall came down and had the other stallions head shoved against it until it went inside his mouth.

We both galloped out of the room shutting the door quietly behind us. Silver Shoe made sure to lock it. A small map was levitated in front of us. Silver Shoe cleared her throat and pointed at the office room marked on the map. “We’re here. If those guys figure out I’m gone or you’re not in the office they’re going to raise an alarm. Our best bet is to go down deeper into the mine then we can find another exit. Avoid the town and sniper altogether.” That actually makes sense. This is a mine that means there has to be more than one exit. Maybe there’s a lift somewhere.  We nodded at each other and gallop down the hallway.

I pushed open a door to the stairwell looking right over the guardrail. I couldn’t see anything but darkness. Silver Shoe reached into her bag and dropped a gear. We leaned over the edge and kept our ears turned to the falling gear.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Ding!

Our jaws dropped. We looked at each other. Ah crap, this was going to take a while. Alarms started going off. We did the only thing we could think of. Run down the stairs. Dr. Psychotic won’t be using us today!

*** ***

We reached the bottom of the stairwell, both of us breathing hard. No pony had found us. Must have been because Bolt Action had raised the alarm thinking I would go after Silver Shoe, which was lucky for us. I turned my attention to the door in front of us. It took me until now to realize there was a sickly green cloud floating from underneath the door. “Spores.” Our gas masks were on in no time flat.

Silver Shoe put her hoof on the door and pulled it open. A sick green cloud rolled out in front of us, almost like poison, slowly rising up the stair well. Large chunks of bookshelves mashed together against crates were stacked like a staircase. I went up first, she followed and closed the door behind us. Silver Shoe nickered, “What the hell are they keeping down here, shit?”

"Nah, shit smells better than this," I shot back. Just the mere sight of green fog made me want to hurl. My throat started to warm up a little, which was something that happened to me anytime I was about to hurl, I took in a deep breath and the feeling went away. We jumped down finding another door blocking our way along with ….  HOLY CADENCE, SLEEPING INFECTED FUNGUS PONY THING!

I moved back against the crate staircase sitting inches from a pony covered with fungus. The fungus pony's head looked exactly like a fungus plant, only with a mouth and the rest of its body just had gross sticks growing out everywhere. My stomach was emptied out in an old crate next to me. Ugh. So much for not hurling. Silver Shoe’s eyes widened while she pulled the crate over to her. She looked like she was about to hurl, but didn’t. “Let’s get moving before I hurl a big one, ugh.” She shook her head. We hit the buttons on our flashlights, nothing. Batteries were dead.

The fungus pony didn’t move. Just sat there. I tried to light up my horn, but nothing happened. The effects have to were off eventually, please let it be soon. Strapped to the pony was a saddle bag. Ugggggh. Why me?

I got closer to it. And then slowly inched myself towards it.

Don’t come alive.

Don’t come alive.

“Bleghghegh,” the body moved at me. I jumped back and hit my head against the crates making a few topple down on me. Silver Shoe burst out laughing with one hoof on a door knob. Checking the infected pony out again I noticed it was wrapped in a magenta magic field. “Two for flinching.” She punch my shoulder twice.

“Really, you pull a joke like this now?” Silver Shoe shrugged, just trying to keep our spirits lifted I guess. This wasn’t really the time for that though. She chuckled and put her hoof around me. I threw it off checking the infected pony’s bag. YES! Enough batteries for one of us. I popped them into my flashlight and flicked it on, after that stunt Silver Shoe pulled I’m keeping these.

Silver Shoe’s horn lit up attempting to illuminate the room. Her horn started to do something, but crapped out. “You hiding any lighting spells in that head of yours?” As a unicorn you’d think I would, but no. I gave her a simple 'Nu-uh.' We both took in a deep breath and pushed open the closet door. I took a step out and saw red grime everywhere. It spider webbed all around us like overgrown tree brnaches stuck in cramped hallway. Fungus was growing around the wall in patches with red organic spikes sticking out all over the ceiling. Silver Shoe went back into the room and came back out with the infected pony’s bag. She pulled out a large piece of paper and unfolded it. It was a detailed layout of the mine, even better than the map of Bolt Actions hideout.

“Looks like we just need to head down this hall here. That’ll be our exit strategy,” her hoof traced one of the halls that led to a larger area. Looks like a factory area actually. Geez. This place makes no sense. It’s like one of those fun houses I read about at the library. Only more terrifying and brutal. Silver Shoe folded up the map and shoved it in her bag. Our hooves moved as fast as they could down the hall.

“BLEGH!” I looked to my right just as an infected jumped at me from an intersecting hallway. It tackled me against the wall but I rolled down with it. I pushed the thing away and let it fall back into one of those red spikes … that did nothing but break apart. WHAT THE HELL! Spikes are supposed to hurt ponies or at least the ones trying to kill us. Infected ponies all around the area started running after us. I tried to run, but fell. The infected pony pulled my hoof towards its mouth. I looked away and waited to feel its mouth bite down on my hoof, but felt nothing.

CRACK!

My eyes slowly opened and the first thing I saw was Silver Shoe’s rifle shoved inside of the infected pony. “BUCK YOU!” Her horn lit up and threw the body against the dozens of infected scrambling at us from the adjacent hall. Silver Shoe was tackled against the ground with an infected biting frantically for her neck. I pushed myself away from the wall rolling the damn infected into another wall. My hooves beat into its squishy face over and over again. The thing put its hooves against my neck, pushing me just out of reach, with its mouth opening wide. Magic engulfed my horn.

HELL YES! I telekinetically threw the thing up into the ceiling and rolled out of the way while the pony was crushed by a satisfying metal crunch from a fallen air duct. I shined my light down the hall and saw … too many infected to count!

I bit down on Silver Shoe’s mane just in time to rip her away from an infected. We galloped down the hall listening to the screams and shouts of a dozen or more infected. It was like a freaking nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from! I looked over my shoulder to discover they weren't bothered by things such as stamina. I turned my head back to the double doors ahead of us.

WHA-THUNK!

We bucked open the doors and leaned against them. A piece of wood and metal pipes were shoved through the door handles by Silver Shoe. The infected banged against the door from the other side. Our horns lit up, slowly levitating a machine amongst several dozen over to the door. Suddenly, all the sounds of banging were drowned out. Silver Shoe and I leaned against the machine gently sliding our bodies down to the floor. We looked at each other and leaned against one another. That was to close.

Silver Shoe hit my shoulder with her hoof while she let out hard pants. “Those things didn’t stand a chance against us.” Right. Cause that’s why we were sent sprawling through those doors. You know, cause they were so scared of us. I just chuckled. Looking straight ahead. And froze.

Infected ponies. Everywhere.

One of the ponies ahead of us stumbled around, noticeably with way more fungus growing on its head, and stopped. It looked around. It looked straight. At. Us. Searching. Hunting.

The thing started making a weird sound. I looked at my friend with both our breaths held.

“Aregh! Aregh! Aregh!”

Ugh, those noises. Chills shot up through my spine freezing my very core. I … I wanted to move, but dear Luna those things were making noises that no pony should ever make. I barely managed to look back at Silver Shoe. My tough friend, the one that was hardly ever scared of anything, was frozen and shaking. SHE. WAS. SHAKING!

But, wait. It dawned on me that this clicker-noised infected pony wasn’t chasing us. In fact the light from my flashlight wasn’t even bothering it. I squinted my eyes and saw fungus covering its eyes. This one was different from the others. Those other infected we had escaped didn’t have fungus covering their eyes. They were just acting feral.

I stayed low to the ground and started moving over to the other machinery. From what I could see, there was a machine blocking the door we needed to go through. Of course it can never be easy, then again if I wanted easy I would have stayed home. I turned off my flashlight. If there were other infected ponies around here without fungus on their eyes, we would be seen, then bitten apart. I vaulted over a conveyer belt and stopped next to a machine. Silver Shoe bumped into me, our combined weight early tipped the thing over. It wobbled a little making only a few noises. We kept our eyes on the infected making the clicking sounds. It stumbled towards us.

How the hell is it following us? It can’t see.

We crouched lower to the ground and moved past the machine. The infected pony stumbled around the conveyer belt then came to a stop at the machine we had just been at.

THUNK!

I turned my head to the noise. From what I could tell an infected pony had hit a wall. The creature behind us stumbled back around the machinery aiming to find the source of that noise. Wait. I looked at the machine we had used to block the door. Then back at the machine we had bumped into. Then at the infected pony hitting the wall. I reached into Silver Shoe’s bag.“I need to borrow this.” I grabbed a few large screws from her bag. I really hope this works. My magic engulfed the metal.

I floated them over to the machine near the double doors, letting dropped them as hard as my magic could against the metal. Loud pinging sounds echoed around the room. Every infected in the general area stopped moving. They turned towards the door and started walking towards it. I smiled. I leaned closer to Silver Shoe, “You see that?” She nodded. We start moving around the machinery while the infected were distracted with the machine.

I rolled over one of the other conveyer belts without thinking about the infected at all. Their screams were far enough from me I didn’t need to worry about them. I moved forward and got pulled right back.

“Aregh. Aregh. Aregh!”

My heart was in my throat. It sunk back down feeling like it was ready to pop out of my chest and slap me. I looked at Silver Shoe. Her eyes were wide while the fungus pony stumbled past us without even looking in our direction. She let go of my mane, smiled, then leaned close to my ear. “Watch where you’re going.” Agreed. One hundred percent agreed. Now. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

We started moving again. By the time we reached the door every infected had stopped messing with the machine, which was a shame. So close to busting out. Silver Shoe and I lit our horns up and we pulled the machine blocking our exit back, slowly and as quietly as we could. I looked back at the infected. None of them noticed us, thank Celestia. Silver Shoe wedged herself around the machine and pushed the doors back.

Chink-chink.

She took a hoof step back leaning close to my ear. “There’s chains on the other side of the door, with a lock and everything.” This shit is never easy. Although I’m kind of surprised and I really don’t know why. Silver Shoe went back to the door, telekinetically levitating the same screw driver and bobby pin from earlier. I looked back at the infected. They weren’t paying us any attention, but that could change.

“Can you pick it?” She stopped and looked at me with a frown.

Sorry. I’ll let you do what you gotta do. Silver Shoe went back to picking the lock. I looked back at the infected. Just a few more seconds and we are out of here. It might as well have been an hour, each passing second felt longer than last and each glance at the infected wasn’t helping my nerves.

Click.

Clink-Clink-Clink-Clunk!

The chains hit the ground, loudly. Silver Shoe froze and looked at me. I slowly turned my head at the infected and saw the infected stop in their tracks. They all turned to us and galloped in our direction. “Oh shit!” Silver Shoe pushed the door.

Thunk!

COME ON! ARE YOU SERIOUS!

Silver Shoe started squeezing her flank through the narrow space. “There’s dozens of bookcases back here!” Oh, screw you Bolt Action. Silver Shoe pulled herself out between the door and into our escape route. I turned around and levitate my pistol up. It fired off randomly while I tried crawling through the narrow space. I got stuck. My body twist in one direction, but it was wedged. “Suck it in!” I did just that and Silver Shoe pulled on my fore hooves. I looked up at the bookcases that kept the doors almost completely closed. There were a lot. Something grabbed my back hooves causing my magic to implode. My gun clattered against the ground. I rolled over and bucked the infected pony as hard as I could. It kept biting for my legs. I frantically moved them around while a long metal barrel was shoved past my head.

CRACK!

My horn lit up and I shoved my gun into its holster. Silver Shoe pulled me through, just before we let two of the bookcases topple down in front of the doors, jamming them shut permanently. The infected on the other side kept beating at the door. We just sat there, in the center of a shit ton of book cases, and breathed frantic pants. “Have I ever told you how much I hate infected?” I looked at Silver Shoe with my head shaking. She reached into her bag and tossed the maps she found into a trashcan. We got up, aimlessly finding our way through a maze of bookcases, no books, just dozens of shelves, sadly. I pushed open the exit door at the end of the hall and was greeted to the sight of … clouds! Thank Celestia, Luna, and Cadence for clouds! “You hear anything," Silver Shoe questioned. We took off our gasmasks and listened carefully.

“Nu-uh!” We both smiled and kept walking.