Metro: Canterlot Line

It had been a good couple of hours travelling through the tunnel and the caravan had decided to make camp in a large supply cupboard, boarding the door and lighting a lantern the leader began to try and light a fire in the centre of the supply room as the others barricaded the door they entered through.

“Sprocket, is this what it’s always like travelling through the tunnels?” Asked Vinyl nervously as she sat near the lantern

“I couldn’t tell you myself, but I can guess that this is a prime example of tunnel travelling” Replied Sprocket as he sat down with his rifle “It should be safe to take off our gas masks in here, the Canterlot power station provides energy to the air filters in these supply rooms so travellers can make camp, at least that’s what I’ve been told”

“And you’ve been told correctly” Replied the caravan leader, removing his gas mask as the other caravan members did.

Everpony looked so different but had many similarities, cuts and scars over the faces of many of the caravan members was not a uncommon sight and didn’t surprise Sprocket at all. He looked at the fire in the centre of the room and moved towards it as did Vinyl. And the festivities of the caravan began, drinking and joking as stories and banter occurred between many of the members, listening keenly to this Sprocket accepted the glass of vodka he was offered. Vinyl seemed to decline all offers of drinks from the caravan members and stuck with the food and drink she had packed in her rucksack.

As time progressed and the fire began to burn out ghost stories and tales of haunted tunnels began to be told by the leader of the caravan, most of the time from personal experience (Which worried Vinyl greatly)

Vinyl had trouble getting to sleep because of the ghost stories, she wasn’t easy to scare but after all she had experienced today the stories told by the leader of the caravan seemed like precise reports with every horrifying detail included. As she finally began to settle down she heard bangs from the barricaded door, nudging Sprocket as violently as she could the other caravan members noticed this to, hurriedly putting on their gas masks. Sprocket rose and he slipped his gas mask on, Vinyl did the same as Sprocket took aim over her shoulder at the door. The wooden barricade slowly giving way, the door collapsed revealing a group of bandits at the door

“Give us that cart” Began the bandit, slowly turning to Vinyl “And her too!” Sprocket stood in front of Vinyl, as much as he disliked her he didn’t want to see anypony else in the caravan die or go missing.

The bandit at the back stepped forth holding what seemed to be a homemade flamethrower being pointed directly at Sprocket

“Easy now...” began Sprocket

“Lower your weapon!” Squeaked a voice behind the gas mask, Sprocket’s mind worked the quickest it ever had trying to figure out a way he could dispatch these bandits quickly so they wouldn’t have a chance to fire off a round to injure, or worse kill, anypony. After a minute Sprocket lowered his weapon

“It’s impossible...” Thought Sprocket “They thought this through... dammit...” one of the caravan members hesitantly pushed Vinyl towards one of the bandits. Sprocket began to shake a little from anger, he felt helpless. How could he, a future royal guard, let a few bandits take somepony without so much as trying to fight back, as they turned their backs he went to pick up his rifle being stopped by the caravan leader.

“They would only kill her if you so much as aimed at them” he whispered to Sprocket “And besides, we’re running off of schedule... I’m sorry but you’ll have to leave her” this made Sprocket even more angry, it was the caravans idea to rest here and now they were telling him not to try and save a pony in danger. However he did admit that perhaps it would be best to tail the bandits to a darker, perhaps more secluded area of the metro, before making his move.

A minute or two after the fiasco the bandits had made their way into the darkness and the caravan began packing to move on despite the loss of the cart.

“I’m sorry I won’t be joining you for the rest of the journey” Uttered Sprocket “I’m going after those bandits...” the caravan leader nodded

“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that” Began the leader “I’ll tell you what, if you get that cart back and to the station I’ll give you half a cut of the profit” a business proposal at a time like this?

“Well I guess...”  Replied Sprocket, confused about this out of the blue offer

“Well, you’ll need these in that case” Stated the leader passing him a few filters “I heard rumours of a bandit camp along the side tunnels before we left, they may be camped there” Sprocket nodded and turned away from the members of the caravan

“You’ll need this too” Stated the leader throwing a head-mountable torch at Sprocket which he caught in his magic and placed atop his head

“Thanks, I’ll see you at Canterlot Central then” Yelled Sprocket as he walked into the darkness alone once again and in search of the pony he had lost so quickly. His voice echoed off of the empty tunnels as darkness surrounded him.

He was gonna make those bandits pay for making him get sidetracked like this.

Hey!

Glad I could finally publish the first act / part because I've been trying to finish it for a while now.

Hopefully you've enjoyed if you've read this far and I'd expect the next whole ACT / PART to be out in about 2 or 3 weeks, I don't want to give any fixed release dates and that's just an estimate but I still hope to release whole "ACT / PART"s as one bulk upload.

Thanks for reading this far!

• Skull