The Fast, Dangerous and the Furious

Chapter Six: Gems in the Rough

AGH! My head! It’s like a hangover and clicker are fighting in my head and both winning!

The low creak from a cabinet forced my eyes wide open. A low ringing in my ear made me want to vomit. Actually …

I turned to a bucket next to me and unloaded everything else my stomach had left in it, followed by an uncontrollable coughing fit. My head raised up slowly and my eyes locked onto the wonderful sight of headache medication and water. First I cleaned my mouth off with a rag, then I downed the medication without question. I’m hoping this doesn’t end with my magic being disabled for a short amount of time. I checked the label. Side effects may include blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. Nothing about magical loss.

Ugh.

I slowly rose back up, almost falling face first into my hurl bucket, but I managed to lay back down without doing so. My heart pounded a lot less than I thought it would. And now that I thought about it, where the hell was I? I blinked a few times, slowly turning my head around to see I was in the Sheriff’s office inside of a jail cell. Silver Shoe wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Welcome back to the land of the living,” it was Sheriff’s voice. My head twitched to the side. Ugh. Please. Just. Please, shut up! My head is … starting to feel better now. Huh, that medicine kicks in fast!

I lit up my horn and tried to lift my pillow a little. The thing just fell on my face. Can I just lay here? Forever? It beats getting shot at and terrorized by infected. Ugh, I can’t do that. I pushed the hurl bucket under my bed and rolled off. My legs wobbled like crazy while I started coughing again. Sheriff looked up from his magazine. “Whoa … easy there Runner, you took some nasty hits an’ inhaled a lot of those spores after your mask feel off. Least that’s what the doctor said.” I kept moving. My hooves caught the edge of the cell bars to help me keep my balance. I waited for a second or two, it was probably more like a minute, then kept moving. It was like breaking out of my former home, escaping Bolt Action’s mine, getting here and dealing with that bloater all at once with no sleep, food or water times a really big number that was making my head start to hurt again.

“Yeah, I’m going to feel this in …” I looked outside, “the morning. Its night right?” Sheriff nodded and put his Apple Whiskey up. Somehow I think he knew I was about to ask for some of that. It’s for the best that I don’t mix alcohol with medication. Sheriff, on the other hoof, had no trouble getting the bottle back out to pour himself a glass. Something was tugging at my stomach. It was a white bandage rag that stretched all around my wounds. I pulled up a chair, wobbling a little before taking seat in front of Sheriff’s desk.

He eyed me carefully and looked at the hurl bucket. “I’m gonna have to ask you to refrain from hurlin’ all over my desk.” I chuckled with a courteous nod. My head felt … empty. I couldn’t think straight to save my life. The only question I really wanted answered was about Silver Shoe. Where the hell was she? Sheriff set a large pitcher of water down on his desk.

“That is the most beautiful thing I have seen in my entire life,” I chimed softly licking my lips. I was thirsty. No. Scratch that. I was dehydrated.

“Take it.” I looked at him with my eyes wide. He was serious!

I grabbed the pitcher and chugged the water down at a speed I didn’t even know was possible. Celestia, thank you for bringing me to ponies that can save my flank! Thank you so much! Something caught my attention, a squeaking chair that wasn’t making my head yell out at me. I looked at the poker table and saw Silver Shoe leaning back in a chair with her map sitting on the table. When did she get there? You know I’m not going to question it. My senses are too far gone. Silver Shoe cracked her shoulder, rolling her fore hoof a couple times. “We scratched your back, now you scratch ours.” She was pissed? Oh for the love of … I can’t tell if she pissed, happy, sad or ready to kick some ass. Probably all of those mixed together? I need to sleep.

“Of course.”

Sheriff nodded and walked over to the poker table. He put his hoof down on some town I couldn’t read. Silver Shoe starred down at it, “Remington?” Sheriff nodded.

“That’s where they were last seen. You’ll want to be careful heading over there. Mass amount of infected an’ criminals have been sighted near there. Fireflies to.” Silver Shoe nodded and rolled up her map. She shot me a sly smile while carefully rolling up her map, her horn lit up in the process. The Apple Whiskey bottle along with a small glass floated up just before the bottle tipped over pouring Silver Shoe a glass. She took the glass and put everything back before taking a victory chug. I noticed she had the same kind of bandage rags I had on, only hers wrapped around part of her stomach while the rest coiled around her right fore hoof. Silver Shoe set her chair down finishing off her drink. Her horn lit up and the saddle bags from her jail cell floated out.

She set the bags on her back just as she trotted to the door. Her hoof was on the door when she turned to look at me. “You doing okay?” She quietly took a step over to me, looking straight into my eyes. “You might want to get some rest, spores made your eyes look red.” A mirror from her cell levitated over to us. I looked into it taking note that my usual green eyes were bloodshot. I hummed and tried to get my hooves to lift me up. They didn’t want to. I’ll try again later.

Sheriff poured himself one last glass of Apple Whiskey to finish off the bottle. He threw it in the trash and downed his drink right away. “You two feel free t’ stay here tonight. Least I can do for ya’ll after everything you’ve done for us today. As for me, I’m starving.” With a tip of his desperado hat the stallion walked out the door just before it started pouring rain. A loud clap of thunder shook the office.

“So what’s our next play?” That was my go to phrase when speaking to Silver Shoe about a plan. I could make plans like it was a cake walk, but more often than not they fell apart for lack of a backup plan.

Her hoof pointed straight at my bed. “For starters, you’re getting some rest. I’m going to find a workbench and fix my rifle up with a better scope. We move in the morning.” All the parts were shoved back into her bag and she trotted out the door. I lit up my horn gently shutting on my friend’s way out. My attention went back to my bed.

Alright. I can do this.

I got up. Slowly.

One leg in front of the other.

Right. Left. Right. Left.

I fell forward and caught hold of the cell bars. My breathing turned into fast pants while I lifted myself back up. With another step turned into a leap, my body flopped down on the bed earning a loud squeaky protest.

Now where were my saddle bags? I found them under the bed and grabbed my Swordmares comic. I’ll get some light reading done then I’ll hit the sack.

*** ***

I opened my eyes and found the main character from the comic starring back at me. The book slid off my muzzle while I sat up being greeted to the sweet smell of breakfast. Deputy sat in Sheriff’s chair with two plates in front of him. “Morning.” He scratched his ear before pulling out a few magazines and comics one at a time. I slid my Swordmares issue into my saddle bags then got up. My legs didn’t wobble. In fact my head was clear. No headaches or pains. My stomach felt great as well.

I walked out of the cell stealing a few glances at my bandage rags. They had turned slightly red, probably from some cuts I had, don’t remember getting those, but a lot happened when that bloater attacked. “How come I’m doing just fine? Medication usually doesn’t heal a pony up over night with the beating I took.” I looked at Deputy’s body and noticed he had some bandage rags wrapped around his fore hoof as well.

“That’s all thanks to Fluterrshy’s bandage rags. Some mare a couple hundred years ago made the fastest healing rags any pony has ever seen. If you can’t get to a hospital, these are the next best things.” I bit down on the rags feeling their slight sting while peeling them off my body. They came off with ease despite being a bit painful. It was like I had been to a hospital, received the best treatment available and then some. “They’re easy to make to. Just get some medical alcohol and bandage rags from any medical kit.” Noted.

I tossed the rags into the trash and stretched. ARGH! Man a good stretch and I’m good to go! WOO!

I sat down eyeing at the stack of comics and magazines. Grand Theft Glider: Blitz Play and The Walking Undead: Escape the Iron Fortress were the only titles I could see. My gaze moved to the comic Deputy was holding. Swordmares issue two. “You’re into Swordmares? How far are you?” Deputy’s ears perked up. He looked at me with a cheery smile.

“I’ve read roughly forty books out of order, and I’m the proud owner of two issues!” His hoof moved two other comics away before I caught sight of the third issue. He moved it on top of the stack and went back to reading. My eyes went to the food.

Damn, that looks good. “Oh, that’s for you.” Deputy pushed one of the plates to me. My eyes grew wide at the sight of three apples, hay and two oranges. I ate them without hesitation. The door creaked open with Silver and Sheriff blocking the doorframe while the trotted inside. Her bandages had already been ripped off along with any sour expression she might have had, or that I thought she might have had the night before. In fact she looked rather cheerful with a slight hint of being ready to kick some ass.

Silver Shoe walked past me and I tossed her two of my apples. They landed in her levitation field before floated into her saddle bags. “I hope ya’ll are feeling right and dandy this morning,” Sheriff’s thunderous voice drew all of our attention. Sheriff looked at me and Silver Shoe. I smiled taking a bite out of my apple. “Deputy, come on, get up. We’ve got us another problem out near the ridge.” Silver Shoe floated out Sheriff’s weapons while he put each one into a holster. Deputy threw his comic down on top of the desk and galloped out the door. My horn sparked to life telekinetically shoving whatever belonged to me back inside my saddle bags, which only consisted of a pistol. Plus a mask.

Sheriff put his hoof on the door ready to follow Deputy, but stopped. He looked back at us. “It was great having you two here with us. I hope you find what you’re looking for, but if’in you don’t, feel free to come back here anytime. Door’s always open to hard workers like ya’ll.” With a tip of his hat the sheriff trotted out after his deputy. I looked out the window and saw a few other ponies following them to deal with whatever issue needed them.

“Wait outside, I’ll catch up,” Silver Shoe said rather calmly. I hummed to her finishing the rest of my food. Just before I trotted out the door I caught a glance at her taking a bottle of Apple Whiskey from Sheriff’s cabinet.

“Did he say you could take that?” Silver Shoe looked up at me and nodded.

I walked outside taking in a breath of fresh air. It wouldn’t be the first time she took something that didn’t belonged to her and it wouldn’t be the last. Somehow I could actually believe that Sheriff would let us take a least a little something for the road. A hoof went around my shoulder. It was Silver Shoe’s. “Alright, let’s move out. That way.” Silver Shoe spun me in the direction we were heading in. We started moving that way.

*** ***

Rain drops started hitting my muzzle several hours after we had left. I looked up at the sky listening carefully for thunder. Nothing. Just rain. Silver Shoe hummed to herself allowing her pink mane to bounce around while she stayed in her own little world. I swear she was ready to bust out into some dance when she got into the music playing in her head. “What made you so happy?” She stopped humming.

Her map of Equestria floated out in front of me covered in a healthy magenta glow. I could see a bunch of empty space between us and Remington. Silver Shoe’s smile turned into a sly grin. “Between here and Remington is the carnival.” Of course. Should have guessed. I let a long sigh and shook my head.

“Fine. But after this we’re going through to Remington.”

Silver Shoe rolled her eyes before casually rolling up her map. I noticed it went into my saddle bags. “Once we get to Remington we’ll look for Showering Stones, if she’s not there or the pegasus we find isn’t her then we can go anywhere you want. No complaints. Promise, but only if you stop mopping around!” I looked at her and smiled. Alright. Deal. We shook hooves and pressed on. “Oh, I also got you these.” Silver Shoe levitated out the second and third issues of Swordmares.

What! You. Got. Thank you!

“Wait.” I looked them over carefully. They looked awfully familiar. I mean I know I had seen them before, but they looked really familiar. I turned them over a couple of times. The only pony I know that had these was … no. She didn’t.

“I saw you reading the first issue last night and figured you earned something to read while we go from place to place.” I stopped in my tracks not looking up from the colorful covers. These didn’t belong to me plus they weren’t taken from a pony that deserved to have something taken from them. “Bet you’re happy as I am now,” Silver Shoe said with a bright innocent, if yet somewhat sly, smile.

I shook my head defiantly, “No. We need to take these back.”

“Why,” she gave me a flat response.

Why? Because we actually made some friends over in that town. Why? Because if your sister turns out to be the one that stole their stuff and we go back then there’s a high chance we’re going to be kicked right back out. “You took these from Deputy. Last time I checked we stole things from ponies that deserved it, not ponies that give us a place to stay and information we desperately need.” Silver Shoe kept moving. I trotted after her.

“Just so we’re clear, those weren’t the only interesting titles I knocked into my bags.” I brought my hoof to my face. She wasn’t going to turn back around and I knew I wasn’t about to turn all the way back by myself. I opened my mouth, but Silver Shoe turned around anticipating that; she put her hoof against my mouth. “We’re just borrowing it. Sheriff is the only pony that seems to know anything about a pegasus, which means we’ll have to come back if everything else turns up empty.” She had a fair point. I’d rather just give them back now, but if we stop back through there then I’d be okay with giving them back then.

Silver Shoe levitated a few more books up. They circled my head. Enchanted: The Unicorns Guide to Casting Protection Spells. I took that and put it in my bag. The second one was … Wing Boner magazine. I could feel the blush burning on my face. “That one’s a little light on the reading, but it has some really interesting pictures.” I knocked it away. She brought back over to us and tried to put it in my bag.

“Hey! I don’t want that thing in my bag!” I galloped around her in circles while the magazine followed me. Silver Shoe’s straight face turned into a sheepish grin before she finally busted out into a laughing fit. “Silver Shoe! Get this thing away from me!” As if on que she bolted away from me.

I looked over my shoulder spying the thing gaining on me.

Come on Runner! Be like your name and run!

Silver Shoe slowed down enough to shout out, “What, you don’t want to learn how to cast protection spells, your comic book hero’s latest adventure, or this week’s sexiest mares?” I galloped past Silver Shoe and just ran. I had the map. I’m good.

“SILVER SHOE!” I could still feel that stupid magazine following me! My horn sparked up engulfing both Silver Shoe and the magazine inside of my magic field.

She frowned, “Fine. I’m sorry for the dirty mag joke. I’ll find you something else to read later and you can keep the map.” I didn’t buy it. Silver Shoe put the magazine back in her bag and I let her go. She trotted past me with a devious smile. “Was that so hard?” I’m not going to answer that.

We kept walking.

*** ***

Half an hour later we started galloping as fast as we could down the road to some train station. The weather had gotten worse and wasn’t showing any sign of letting up anytime soon. I galloped onto the wooden platform and stopped. Silver Shoe stopped next to me.

“Work you damn diamond dog!”

We looked at each other then carefully looked around the corner. A large hulking dog pulled a mine kart towards us. Packed to the rim with a pony sitting on top of it were hordes of shining gem stones. Silver Shoe pulled me back, “They haven’t noticed us yet.” I looked around frantically for a place to hide. Nothing. There were a few barrels, but that never works. My eyes went to the barrels near a door. We quietly moved towards them …

“We got some more unicorns in today, some of them mares.”

“Mm.”

Two more voices, coming from the opposing corner. Silver Shoe looked at me and then at the dust tinted window behind us. Her horn lit up shaking the glass up a little. She scrambled through it and I followed her. We shut the window just as the shadow of the mine kart moved past us not even a minute later. I put my ear up close to the window, just enough so that I could hear what was going on, but not close enough to be seen. “I can’t wait to get my hooves on one of them.” Slave traders. It had to be slave traders. Staring at the window a bit longer, I could see a flag handing from a rusted curtain rod. The emblem embedded on it was of a charcoal pony, looking as if it was flying, with wings made of light.

That’s not a slave trader flag. In fact that flag looks like it was recently hung.

My eyes finally adjusted to the dark and I immediately noticed the station was small. I looked at Silver Shoe. She was grinding her teeth together. Her horn sparked to life. I looked back at the window and watched two shadows move by.

I put my hoof on her shoulder. She took in a deep breath slowly beginning to calm down. “Whoa, don’t start something we can’t finish.” Her horn’s light subsided. She jerked her head away from me and started looking through some boxes. The door jiggled behind us.

Silver Shoe looked at me and ran over to a bar. She pulled me with her, taking me right behind the counter. The door slowly opened. “Just do me a favor and go easy on them. I still need them to work. Besides you know how Queen Firefly feels about the way you treat mares. I’m surprised she hasn’t cut your throat yet.” I swallowed. Another murderer. Here? I leaned my head at the corner of the bar, but Silver Shoe pulled me back. Her hoof swung back towards a bottle of whiskey. I lit up my horn and stopped it from hitting anything.

Hoof steps echoed closer to us. Silver Shoe’s horn sparked up while a dark blanket was thrown over me. A second later, Silver Shoe got close to me and looked up at the stallion staring down at us. “You’re telling me.” The stallion looked at a wall safe. “You know how pissy that mare gets sometimes, speaking of being pissed.” He pulled out a sack from the safe and tossed it to his friend. “Give those to her for me. The one thing she hates more than the things I do to mares is not getting her share of gems.” The other stallion hummed and walked out of the station. The stallion in front of us walked away, not even sparing us a second glance.

The door shut.

Silver Shoe moved away and pulled the blanket off of me. I l just stared at her alongside the blanket. “I love your illusion spell.” She smiled and put the blanket back in her bag. Next thing I knew she was digging into the wall safe, no lock picking required. Just turn and pull the handle! Her head went inside and she came back out with a bag of bits.

I walked away from the bar looking around for some kind of weapon. Nothing really stood out. “Those miss-treating-mares sons of bitches,” Silver Shoe growled with her horn flaring up. I walked back over to her placing a hoof on her shoulder. She was tense.

“I know, I know.” I looked at the door, slowly beginning to light up my horn. A cabinet moved in front of it. Silver Shoe wasn’t easing up at all. I looked into her eyes, “You tell me what you need me to do.” She smiled and grabbed an apple from her bag. Silver Shoe moved us over to another window that overlooked a large cliff leading down to a mine. Her hoof tapped against the windowsill. I looked at the area surrounding the cliff, a town with dozens of buildings was built a couple feet away from the edge, a good several yards from our hideout. Yeah, if this is a mine there’s got to be a lift somewhere in that town.

Silver Shoe bit into her apple, giving her head a light scratch. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” I nodded. I’ve got a pretty good idea.

“What’ve you got in mind,” I rested my hooves against the windowsill keeping an eye on the town.

She swallowed and took another bite out of her apple, “I’m thinking these slave traders have a mine filled with slaves and gems they don’t need anymore.” You know I’m really starting to like where this is going.  “One of us will find the lift in town. The other one will find the slaves, release them, find the gems being stashed in the mine, feed some into the lift and get pulled up into the town.” Alright. Sounds good.

If Silver Shoe uses her illusion spell to sneak by the guards, dogs and murderer we might be able to pull this off without having to waste any ammo. The way this storm is going it won’t be too hard sneaking around the town. Silver Shoe finished her apple, “Oh, you’re going into the mine.” Yeah, yeah. Then we’re home free once we get the … wait … what?

I looked Silver Shoe. She smiled, biting into her second apple. I opened my mouth to speak, but she put her hoof on my mouth. “Because knowing me, if I see those slave traders in that mine miss treating any of those mares, I’m going to go trigger happy. You’ve got better self-control.” I … well … but your plans … I’m going to get shot at. A lot. I don’t like this plan. “I don’t know about you, but I can think of some good reasons why they don’t need that shit anymore.”

Fine.

*** ***

I crouched behind a large crate, only taking a second to peer around it slowly. Diamond dogs were everywhere, so were the slave traders moving out of the mine. Bad part is there are tons of them.

How the hell am I supposed to get from here to there without being seen was a good question. It would have been easier if Silver Shoe had freaking done this instead. There were some TNT crates a couple feet away.

I rolled over to them.

My head snapped around the crate, no one noticed me. Good. I took in a deep breath and looked over at a few tents pitched near the mine. There were two rows, most of them empty. Oh … that gave me a great idea. A sly smile stretch across my face. I checked around carefully and kept moving to the first tent. My eyes darted around restlessly for any ponies that might have noticed me. I slid into the first tent and rolled under the bed.

Hoof steps crept past the tent.

“Look all I’m saying is maybe we think about taking that bitch out.”

It was some stallion that had no idea some pony was under the bed. He kept walking giving me all the time I needed to scavenge. There were some lockers set up in each tent. I started there. The locker came open without any noise, thank Celestia, and something caught my attention. SCORE! A sawed-off shotgun. I cracked it open. Empty. I strapped it to my back anyway. There wasn’t any ammo around, but it didn’t hurt to check the other tents.

I moved to the next one, hearing hoof steps in the tent across from me. The first thing I did was dive under a table that had a blanket drooping down around most of it. I stayed close to the blanket and watched a slave trader walk in. “Shit, you got more courage than I do. I’d give all my gems to get moved out of Brave Day’s office. She’s always giving me that killers-eye of hers! I swear she’s going to stab me in the back one of these days.” The stallion walked towards the mine and didn’t look back. Phew.

Moving out from underneath the table I began searching. I opened another locker only to find nothing. “I’ll get the stun gun,” a stallion shouted from right around the tents flap. I dove under the bed. My eyes were locked on him while he grabbed a stun gun from the table I had been at. The stallion trotted out.

I quietly followed, using very bit of stealth I had to sneak into the next tent. First thing I did was open the locker. Jackpot. I found two ammunition boxes with shotgun ammo in it. They were immediately shoved in my bag, aside from two shells. The second thing I did was reload the shotgun.

This didn’t feel right. Something felt off. It was never this easy. Hardly any plan I’m apart of goes this swimmingly without any contingencies. The though had crossed my mind that maybe scores outside of what I was used to were different here, but I shoved that thought aside.

VEROOOOOOOOOOGHGHHGHGH!

A glider slowly came flying down at the ground. The pony it was strapped to hit the ground with clean precision and accuracy, she parked it in one of the tents close to where I was hunkered down at. She walked out and I hid behind some of the crates just outside the tent she had gone into. “You guys go back to town, send the next workers over here.” They were all scared of her, which could only mean it was the boss lady, Brave Day. Surprisingly enough she was a deadly attractive unicorn mare with a dark blue coat.

OH COME ON! Things were going so well. I’ll admit everything feels about normal now.

Brave Day took her share of money from that stallion from earlier before heading inside the mine. I scratched my head and smiled. All the slave traders were walking away from the mines entrance. Once they were far enough away I galloped over to the entrance.

I went inside, arriving face to face with a large underground room the size of Canterlot that had branching tunnels going in all kinds of directions. The air inside made me want to cough uncontrollably. Without any though, I grabbed a rag from my saddle bags keeping it pulled tightly around my mouth to avoid inhaling whatever was in the air. Metal support beams stretched up to the top, holding the structure intact along with one large office building built into the dirt wall. I managed to glimpse Brave Day going inside. Before any pony could see me I hid behind some overturned mine karts. My eyes scanned the area. Amongst the dozens of karts filled to the brim was a drill the size of Sheriff’s office.

Damn, what the hell do they need a drill that big for?

Amongst my amazement of such a machine, I caught sight of chained up diamond dogs pulling karts of gems into one of the branching tunnels. With any luck that would be where they were stashing all the gems. And even if it wasn’t my lucky day, I could still swipe a few small bags away before making my escape. My hoof began to lightly tap one of the karts next to me. Decision needed to be made now. Or at least after I found out where the other ponies were being imprisoned.

And … there it is.

Several mares were violently shoved out of a tunnel to the right. The stallions behind them held them at gun point, forcing them into another tunnel. That’s where I need to go next. I started moving. It wasn’t hard avoiding detection, most of the stallions were too busy checking out the mares. You know, I might be a guy, but even I know when staring at mares just becomes creepy. Then again when you’re a slave trader you probably don’t give a damn. Just keep moving Runner, they’ll get what they give. You know what, I’m starting to appreciate the fear they have for Brave Day.

I scrambled behind a few more karts before carefully peering around the corner. One of the slave traders walked out of the tunnel with keys jingling against his belt. My horn lit up, gently unlatching them from his belt and over to me. The moment those keys were in my mouth I galloped into the tunnel. Something caught my eye. I turned around and looked out the tunnel. A sniper was starring right at me. We locked eyes for a minute. He looked at another pony station near the drill and waved his hoof.

“Get the drill ready!”

What the hell? Doesn’t he know I’m not … whatever. Let’s just move.

I galloped into the jail room and slid across the dirt. Hung around the room were several of those banners like the ones from inside the train station. It was clear to me now that these weren’t slave traders, but rather an enemy called the Fireflies. Dozens of jail cells were stacked on top of each other with unicorn ponies practically brushing up against one another with even the lightest twitch. “I’m busting you guys out.” My horn lit up. Nothing. I tried to light up my horn again. Nothing happened.

One of the mares squeezed through the crowd, waving me over. I galloped up a dirt ramp and stopped in front of her. She tried lighting up her horn, but her horn wouldn’t do anything. “Leave. Brave Day is a murderer and psychopath, if she catches you in here with us … you won’t ever leave.” I put the key in the lock and turned it. I quickly pulled the key back out letting the slaves beat the door open. The mare smiled, “Thank you.” She joined the rest of the slaves while I galloped to the next cell. I repeated the process and eventually called down to the mare.

She ran up the ramps and joined me after I opened the tenth cage. “I need you to finish this up for me.” I looked around and pointed to a shotgun on top of one of the tables. Every pony was to frantic trying to get away to notice it. “Use that if you need to.” I reached into my bag, then pulled out some shotgun rounds and slid them into a small ammo box. She took them, before bolting off to the next cage. My hooves took me all the way down the ramps while the mare finished opening the rest of the cells. I sprinted out of the tunnel aiming straight towards the tunnel holding the gems. Brave Day’s voice shook the cave with her booming voice.

“I WANT THE HEADS OF EVERY UNICORN ESCAPING!”

The diamond dogs ripped off some sort of shock collar they had been wearing, quickly turning on the slave traders thinking they were still in control. I ran into the tunnel I was after and heard gunshots going off. Flashes of all kinds were going off as well, whatever stopped the unicorn’s magic in the jail cells wasn’t effecting them out here. A set of double doors lay ahead of me. Jackpot!

WHA-THUNK!

The doors slammed shut behind me and my … my sweet Celestia and all the other princesses. Gems as clear as dragon scales shined brightly in every corner of the room. Silver Shoe … you need to freaking see this! I put my hoof on my jaw and felt drool. Okay, I don’t remember loving gems so much that I drooled, but look at all of those gems! My horn sparked to life before flipping an overturned kart on top of the tracks leading deeper into the tunnel.

Those tracks had better take me to a lift. Cause from where I’m standing I’ll get caught in no time.

I rolled the kart back and forth making sure it could actually be used. My horn started glowing brighter, telekinetically lifting dozens of gems into a crate. That crate floated up and set itself down gently into the kart. I jumped into the kart, then, doing the only thing I could think of to get this son of bitch moving, I put my hooves against a support beam. The doors exploded open. “Get the hell out of my mine!” Brave Day, with her glider strapped to her body, pointed all of her weapons at me. A sniper rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a pump action shotgun, three pistols, two revolvers and a submachine gun. I pushed the kart away from the support beam and rolled down the tracks straight into the mine. Bullets ripped through the air in my direction.

I ducked down into the kart, listening to every single ear shattering shot fillet against the metal. Damn, that girl’s a great shot! I poked my head up and hid back inside the kart while it continued picking up speed. The kart went up a hill, past a window big enough for me to see the drill starting up. “They’re taking the drill!” I’m not taking the drill? Whatever. Something else is going down that doesn’t involve me.

CRACK!

Another bullet filleted against the metal. The kart dipped back down and started tilting to the right while it went around a turn. I climbed up, thrust my hooves against the wall and knocked the metal heap back down. The kart landed back on all four wheels while Brave Day bumped the back of it. More like shoved. I looked right at her! She did have killer in her eyes! I ducked back down at the sight of her sawed off shotgun.

BLAM! BLAM!

Enough with the guns already!

The kart tipped to the right. I popped back up, repeating my actions from before. Brave Day’s glider accelerated just enough to put the mare right beside me. She rammed into the metal separating us making the hunk of metal tip to one side. “Son of a bitch!” I popped back out aiming to push the kart back on all fours again. As I did so all of her guns faced me. I bit down on the barrel of the sniper and ripped it out of her levitation field. I dove down into the kart with the sniper while she unloaded every other gun into the wall.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Rising up out of the kart, I rifle butted Brave Day in the face, hard enough to make me drop the gun, making her slam on the brakes. Her machine nearly came to a stop, but it only halted long enough for her to get her bearings. In that following instant, Brave Day put herself right behind my kart again.

My horn lit up again. I focused my magic on a wood support beam near the end of the track. Brave Day rammed the back of my kart and I popped my head back out. The mare rose up the moment I pulled the support beam down as I passed it. The beam fell down with debris following shortly after. Brave Day’s wings hit the wall in an attempt to avoid being hit, with a metallic screech the wingspan tore itself apart sending her spinning past me right into a pile of empty crates. A large stack of them fell down on top of her. My kart went right past her just before ramming the wall, toppling over allowing me to roll out with the crate.

Ugh.

“Runner!”

I shook my head feeling dazed if yet slightly confused. Silver Shoe’s voice caught my attention again. I looked around before catching sight of a large hole in the ceiling. A metal bin lowered itself down at me until it was firmly planted on the ground. I set the crate down inside shortly before taking cover with it. Silver Shoe looked at Brave Day while she was busy trying to break free from the metal still attached to her body. “Now let’s make like this mares legs and split!” I looked up at her and shook my head. That actually made me chuckle. The metal bin jerked a little, then with several dust clouds forming under it, rose up. While it rose higher and higher I looked over the edge noticing Brave Day starring at us with murder in her eyes. She had a pistol in her levitation field, but she just stared at us.

Silver Shoe shouted to her, “Try it bitch!” I squinted my eyes a bit more before finally spying the scope that had been added to my friend’s rifle. With that scope at this range, Silver Shoe could punch a hole damn good enough to at least put Brave Day in a hospital for the next day or so.

The metal bin stopped at the top of the lift. I jumped out and showed Silver Shoe the contents of the crate I had with me. Her eyes practically sparkled at the sight of all the gems. They still glistened like that of a dragons clean scales. She lit up her horn and took five bags worth of gems. I did the same. “What the hell happened in there? I heard explosions going off around the entrance. Then I get here and see a psycho killer playing hide-and-go-murder with you.” Thank Celestia you showed up when you did.

“Some other ponies were trying to steal the drill Brave Day was using. Let’s just get moving before the slave traders decide to come looking for us instead of whoever’s stealing the drill.” Silver Shoe hummed and we galloped away from the lift. I levitated the cloth covering my mouth back into my bag. The next thing we knew we had found the main road, aiming for our next destination, the carnival.