The sound of machinery faded as Windrunner shut off the machine. She approached the mare who had recently broken her hind leg.

The mare looked up in fear. She was genuinely surprised when Windrunner pulled out scrap and began constructing a makeshift splint. It wasn’t professional work, but it would hold.

Windrunner’s ears perked as a voice reached her ears. It was soft and melodious, coming from the bat pony. “Why are you helping me…?” She looked both grateful and scared.

That gave Windrunner some pause. Why was she helping this mare? She eventually shrugged and sat next to her. “I’m not gonna leave somepony to bleed out from a broken leg. Speaking of which, I need to set it.” Windrunner walked around to the bat pony’s broken hind leg. She grimaced. “This is going to hurt.”

The mare cried out in pain, trying her hardest not to thrash against Windrunner and cause herself even more pain. Windrunner secured the splint onto her leg, not the best thing made, but it would do its job, hopefully.

Windrunner stepped back, eyeing the splint like it was going to break any second. She sighed, laying down next to the mare. “You alright?” she asked, a tone slipping out of her unheard in years.

“I-I think I’ll be alright.” The mare drew in a sharp intake of air through gritted teeth. “Yeah. I s-should be okay. T-thank you.” She managed a small smile.

Windrunner nodded and stood. “We shouldn’t remain here long. The vent flush will have brought the attention of starving ponies, or something.” She held out a hoof. “At least you look like you won’t eat me.” She chuckled, helping the bat mare onto her hooves. “You probably won’t be able to walk easily.”

The mare shrugged. “Well worth trying.” Ruffling her wings, she attempted to take a few steps, her hind hoof touching the ground rarely. She lost balance after ten paces, collapsing and groaning. “Never mind…”

Windrunner sighed and helped her up again, this time letting the mare use her side to lean on. “Let’s hope I don’t break a leg. Or else we will have to both die.”

The bat pony simply chuckled.

They both left the ventilation control room, and Windrunner directed them left. “We need to get you a place to lie down and find some real meds. I could really go for a real splint, or something.”

“Medical boxes would have been looted ages ago,” the mare pointed out, “Or well, stripped of everything useful. Could damn well use morphine too, to help numb the pain.”

“Yeah.” Windrunner cast her eyes at the mare, smiling softly. “What’s your story? Your name? What Shelter you went to? Did yours fail?”

A look passed over her face. “My name is Golden Glow,” she introduced herself, “And I… I was from Hollow Shades, down south. We had a shelter built for us, and it is actually still working today.”

“What?” Windrunner looked at her weirdly. “If your Shelter is still running…”

“I was kicked out,” she interrupted Windrunner, “I was kicked out from my own home for refusing to... reproduce.” She grumbled. “What a stupid reason to throw a mare into the cold. They didn’t even give me a jacket or anything, it was like execution! I’m glad I did find this coat.” She gestured to her dark cloak, which seemed a size too large for her.

“Barn door swing that way?” Windrunner took point, veering left into a small room. Inside was a broken terminal. It looked to be a security checkpoint, security glass overlooking another MagiLev station. She pulled open a file cabinet, tossing aside useless, frozen papers while Golden Glow took the moment to sit down in the chair.

“Oh, no, not that at all. I’m a stick when it comes to that. The males back home… they’re not the nicest bunch. Think they own us.” The bat pony shuddered. “Sometimes it’s better that I left that place.”

Windrunner nods in understanding. “Makes sense.” Finding nothing useful in the cabinets, she peers over at the faded map of the MagiLev stations. They were at “Junction 34B”. Not that far from Canterlot, a few miles off.

It was best to give Canterlot Shelter a wide berth anyways. Unless you wanted your head sliced clean off before you could make it close enough. But being close to the area meant that the power was still on, thanks to the still-functioning Core. And power meant heat.

Windrunner pointed out their location to Golden Glow. “It’s risky, but we could find somewhere warm for you to recover. Especially if we find some bone sealant or something. We just need to move down the MagiLev tracks and we are close enough to reach the Slums.”

“You sure it’s a safe bet?” Golden Glow peered at her. “The patrols could easily catch us, especially since I’m handicapped.”

Windrunner sighed. “What choice do we have? Your leg is broken. We either need warmth or assured safety. I’ll take warmth. It’s not much of a walk.” She pulled down the map off the wall and folded it, shoving it into her saddlebag. “There. We won’t get lost. Let’s take a look, Golden Glow. We can probably find some place to stay shortly.”

Golden nodded and stood painfully, leaning on Windy’s side as they went around and into the MagiLev station proper. The metallic tracks were broken and torn apart here, and a deactivated MagiLev train was docked in the station, leaning awkwardly towards the platform.

The duo crept inside the open doors and made their way to the front exit of the train. Windrunner sighed and helped Golden sit down on one of the metal seats before grabbing the emergency exit lever in her hooves and hauling it to the right. It gave a little at a time.

Then it broke in her hooves. Windrunner fell back, growling in frustration. “Really?!” she exclaimed, scrambling to her hooves and glancing out the other end of the door. It was too tight for them to go around the train, it blocked them off from the rest of the tunnel. Sitting down next to Golden Glow, she grumbled. “...what now?”

Golden Glow looked around a minute, then sat back, yawning. “You go look around some. I am gonna get some rest… see if you can find anything to heal this leg.”

Windrunner smiled and stood. “Will you be okay on your own?” She already knew the answer anyways. Seeing the nearest door and heading towards it, Windrunner wished Golden Glow well before leaving.

Going back into Junction 34B, Windrunner decided to poke around. This must have been somewhat populated, as there was a vent flush as well as a whole MagiLev station. The things weren’t cheap, so there must be something.

There was a shop in the station. It looked rather ransacked, but tin cans and scrap remained. Windrunner took this, knowing that it can be used for later if it is needed. The cashier even contained some bits, the small, false-gold coins faded to dull tin and silver. Since going underground, the gold was used for magical electronics, and most of the golden coins were melted down to expand the growing tunnels.

The back room contained nothing much either. A broken terminal in a small office cubicle, and some shelves devoid of any shopstock, save for a few items that aren’t really necessary for survival. Toys, magazines, the like. Windrunner picked up one of the brittle magazines, the pages frozen together. She could only read the cover.

This mare beats the cold with new fur-enhancing technique!

Windrunner shook her head, smiling as she put the magazine back on the shelf. That was before the systems started failing. After a moment of thought, Windrunner grabbed the magazine and shoved it in her saddlebags, hoping it would warm up and be dry enough to read eventually.

Leaving the store, Windrunner went up to the entrance of the MagiLev station. Turnstiles dotted the entrance, which Windrunner hopped, taking a look around the large area carved out. It seemed… strange that a place with such an odd name would be so… large. A huge, three-story atrium extended high above her head, not unlike where she and Golden had faced off earlier. It seemed to be a little more industrially focused, however. There was no frills, the place barren of any real decoration.

Moving through slowly, Windrunner passed a giant light fixture which had crashed into the floor from the roof, leaving a large impact in the stone floor. Small stones rolled under her hooves as she reached the opposite end of the atrium, where a small, double door entrance sat in the wall. A small, active terminal was on the side, which Windrunner approached.

The screen was cracked, black liquid spread across a decent chunk of the inner glass. Some text was still visible.

Admin T rmin l J34B
Do r op

Windrunner couldn’t really read the text itself, but she moved to the door. Giving it a shove she realised that it was actually unlocked, letting her into a stairwell leading down.

She shrugged, and continued down them. Flight after flight went down, and Windrunner could tell it was at least a degree warmer. Coming out into a small room filled with old, dusty computers, she finally was at the bottom.

She looked around the room. Shelves full of electronics, which some she shoved in her bags. There was some food too. Everything looked relatively untouched.

A single desk was alight with the glow of a terminal screen, illuminating a pony’s frozen corpse slumped over it. Windy grimaced as she pushed the body aside, watching it crumple and lay like a stone statue on the ground.

There was one terminal active on the desk, this time, not broken and fully legible as Windy hit the switch and turned it away from sleep mode. Wiping the dust off the screen revealed an open terminal reading one message.

I’m watching.

Raising an eyebrow, Windy hit a key which booted her to the menu. Must’ve been either a deterrent or an old prank. The main menu displayed its usual fare, with a single note.

Private log - Study 15
We are finally getting some sense from our testing. We know that there’s some link between the Elements of Harmony and the freeze. It’s too much of a coincidence that there’s been major instabilities every time their power has been used.

On the other hand, it seems we’ve had our first success in creating machines able of getting to the surface. Using test subject 44BH, we were finally able to get a simple transmitter working directly from the brain without the daunting paperwork that comes with killing somepony.

Maybe we can finally see ourselves coming back to the surface and finding out how to end this crisis, if it’s possible.

Windrunner felt her fur stand on end. These ponies were trying to do live experiments on living ponies. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to be mad or scared. She backed out of the message.

I am watching you. I know you’re there. Stealing from the lab, accessing private terminals.

Her breathing became heavy as the text flickered across the screen in quick succession.

I’ll be meeting you soon unless you get out of here.

Windrunner needed no warning. Kicking back the chair she was on, she bolted out of the room, and darted up the stairs, bounding up multiple at a time. To her horror, resounding through the stairwell was a metallic THUNK as something started to clamber up behind her, moving up the stairs at an alarming pace.

Letting out a shrill cry of terror, Windrunner ran out of the unlocked doors into the atrium, the figure still chasing her up the stairs. She spun around to see something in the relative shape of a pony starting to come up the final flight, their eyes glowing a piercing red.

Windrunner slammed the door in its face, and kicked the terminal on the wall clean off. The door clunked as a deadbolt moved into place automatically, locking it.

What the fuck was that? Windrunner thought in her head, starting to very briskly make her way up to the MagiLev station. Her heart pounded like a hammer on an anvil and blood roared in her ears. That was a little close for comfort.

“Windy, is that you?” Golden Glow’s voice echoed across the station’s walls. Windy sighed in relief, knowing that the mare was okay.

“Yes, it’s me.” Windrunner entered the train, collapsing and shaking in pure terror.

The yellow batpony immediately leaned down and frowned with worry. “Oh my goodness, are you alright? You look like you saw a manticore…”

Windy shuddered. “I was… something chased me, but I got away from it.” She crawled up onto the seat, laying down and panting heavily. She took a sip out of her water bottle before curling up. “It had glowing red eyes… I… it was watching me access the terminals. Spoke to me through them.”

“How about we find a place to get out of here, then?” Golden Glow shakily stood, limping out and peering at the train. “Hey, if you could climb on top of the train, we could probably squeeze above it.”

Windrunner got up and looked up at the train’s roof from the outside. Indeed there was a relatively small gap. It would be difficult to fit through, but it would provide them with a way out of there.

“Here. I’ll try to get up there.” Windrunner leapt shortly after, pulling herself up and attempting to squeeze through the gap. It wasn’t as hard as she thought, her thin form sliding through. She crouched under the train’s roof - there was only so much space to crawl in. She peeked through the gap, and helped Golden Glow haul herself into the tight space. The batmare’s eyes glowed softly in the dark.

Windrunner crawled only a few tail-lengths forward before sliding down the conical surface of the train’s cabin. She landed upright on the cold metal of the tracks. “Cmon, Glow! It’s safe down here.”

With both of them down, they limped down the track. Windrunner helped her along, letting a small smile grace her face. At least she wasn’t freezing.

The smile fell.

Why am I so quick to trust her? The thought prodded her mind. Why was she so fast to trust somepony she had just met?

She wasn’t sure. But she couldn’t let the wool be drawn over her eyes - she needed to keep an eye out for her.

Besides, even if Golden Glow killed Windrunner in her sleep, Windrunner wouldn’t mind. Being dead is probably better than cold sometimes.

They had been walking for a while. The duo decided to stop after a good half hour of walking down the long tunnel. Windy knew that they hadn’t covered much distance from the lab, but she could only hope that whatever was in there doesn’t get out.

She yawned, a sign that maybe it was time to find a place to rest. They could find a warm shelter when they weren’t tired. Windrunner looked over to Golden Glow. “You alright?”

She nods slowly. “A bit tired and in some pain, but I’m okay.” She gritted her teeth a moment and let out a sigh. “Yeah. Only a bit.”

Windrunner empathetically cringed and nodded. “Cmon, hopefully this service tunnel takes us somewhere.” As of then, the tunnel was a dark corridor, with a few sharp turns.

Thankfully, they emerged into open space soon enough. A wider corridor. Not much different from what else surrounded the halls. Lined with doors, there was actually a MagiLev station not too far down the area. Windrunner lead Golden Glow towards the station, and towards the convenience store.

“Wow… we really didn’t go far.” Golden Glow smiled softly, limping along with Windy into the back room. The poor, overworked mare practically collapsed against the desk, laying down on the floor. Windrunner shut the door and sat down next to Golden Glow, who was shivering lightly.

“You alright?” Windrunner smiled, turning to face the bat pony directly. Moving close to share body warmth, she made sure that Golden Glow’s leg wasn’t causing her too much trouble as she responded.

“Yes… and I have to thank you.” Windrunner was genuinely surprised at the comment, her ears perking under her hoof. “You could have hurt me or left me to die but you spent the resources to help me. I can’t thank you enough.” The yellow mare wrapped her forelegs around Windrunner in a tight embrace, catching the pegasus off guard.

Windy didn’t say anything, a bit too surprised to. She, however, returned the hug, laying back down so they were both comfortable. She yawned again. “I think it’s good to sleep some,” she said quietly, shutting her eyes.

“Agreed.”

And the two mares slowly fell asleep, sharing each other’s body heat in the cold that surrounded them.

Clank.

Windrunner jolted awake, still close to the bat mare who was still sleeping. She looked around in surprise, trying to make out the sound.

The sound of something scraping against metal heavily made her screw her eyes shut. It was extremely close… too close for comfort.

She looked around quickly, knowing that something was moving outside. She had to act fast. Pushing away from Golden Glow and effectively waking her up, she peeked behind the desk then back at the door.

She had to make her choice fast. Would she hide Golden Glow and face whatever may come, or would she hide along with the mare and risk both of them being caught in the vulnerable position?

The thoughts circled in her head before she realized she had no time to decide. What the hell was she supposed to do?

Author's Note

Now, I know my writing is a steaming pile of shit, I know. My stories have terrible pacing, badly written stories, etc. But seriously - anything wrong with this, anything that I missed in my tired editing, please tell me. I really want to improve with writing and while time may bring such rewards, right now I wanna know what I need to do to improve from an outer view. I've been delaying posting this because let's face it - I don't like my own work and it really, REALLY needs work a lot of the time.

And also - if you want to help me improve by showing me what I do wrong in advance, and help me edit my work, I'd greatly appreciate that! Don't think you're forced to or anything. But if you are interested, you should be able to send me a message.

Onto the poll.
Will you seal Windrunner's fate, and the fate of her partners? Choose what she does here:

https://www.strawpoll.me/16151727

I need to lie down.