Off the Grid Season 1

Through the inky blackness, the cart traveled along the train track's that continued on it's journey. The light would shine through the darkness once in a while, but the cart continued on it's designated path. Thankfully if ever in trouble, the cart itself was loaded with two machine gun turret's on the caboose of the two train/minecart transport's. It finally came to a point where all of them needed to rest for the next few day's, the cart coming to a stop on the track, as the three ponies decided to make camp. Stryker crawled out of the cart, and looked around to see if there was anything with them in the tunnel's.

"Let's take a break here before moving on" Stryker ordered, as his two friend's nodded, while they did their best to set up camp in the harsh....concrete tunnel's. They all managed to get a campfire going, despite the harsh situation's they were in, using some destroyed, rotted plank's from nearby to fuel the fire. Shift at the time, set up two sentry machine gun turret's with them a few way's away from the cart.

"That should do it" He smiled, as the second sentry machine gun was retrofitted for defense, as both sentries were activated, watching the darkness for any hostile's.

"What da hell?" Stryker asked, seeing Shift with his sentry gun's, as he walked up to the stallion.
"What's all this?" Stryker questioned.

"Oh hey Sheriff" Shift smiled, ignoring the stallion's question.

"Are these really necessary?" Stryker asked.

"Better safe than sorry Sheriff...you don't know what's in these tunnel's" Shift warned him.

"Eeeeehhh, don't jinx it" Stryker groaned. After the two went back to camp all of them set up, they huddled around the warm campfire, none of them really speaking a word, while they searched through their thought's, until Stryker broke the silence. "You know....Raptus....I haven't seen you since The Great Nightmare War....what happened to you, and how do you know so much about the world outside" Stryker asked.

"A long time ago.....The Grid assembled a team of ponies to explore the world outside The Grid. There were four of us, the finest, bravest, ponies I ever knew. Filled with hope's, and dream's, we deployed from The Grid. When we came to the new world....we were greeted....by it's nightmare's....." He told them, recalling the horrible memory of a faceless, Nightmare being, wrapping it's bloody, and inky tentacles around one of his men, letting his body fuse with itself. When they ran...he rembered a giant mechanical corrupted dragon, scooping up a pony with it's claw's....crushing, and ripping him apart.

The same dragon also stomped a third one to paste, while the other's ran, as Raptus contiuned the story ".....we couldn't stay....we had to go back. Defeated, and lost....we trudged on through the wasteland's to find a way back home...and then we were attacked....by one of them...." Raptus explained, his memory shifting to a time where he encountered, an unusual Equestrian being that he couldn't identify that was tall, and held a katana. "...we should have taken off, while we could....but my pride got the best of me...." Raptus explained, remembering when he drew his sword's to fight his opponent.

".....I was no match for it...." He told them, also painfully remembering the same being hitting him with a single blow that slashed out his eye, where his eye patch was now covering. ".....as if to mock me it just walked away....leaving me to die in the wasteland's." Raptus explained, his mind returning to the present.

"But...you survived" Stryker said to him suprised.

"Yeah....I suppose I did" He chuckled mildly, before his smile faded. The silence now returned among them, until Shift broke it this time.

"I don't mean to be rude Sheriff, but after everything Raptus said....you really think the ponies out there are still alive?" Shift asked.

"I don't know Shift....but somehow.....deep inside....I know that somewhere out there....Pixel's waiting for me" Stryker told him, as he looked up high into the sky.

*****
Deep in a dark area, Pixel could feel the chain's around her hand's......even in the night, she looked up, sensing a presence that gave her hope. "Stryker" She gasped.