Chapter 6: Catacombs
The passage was short and led to a staircase, behind which was a wall. But I still felt a draft. I nodded to Appletree and then towards the wall. She began scratching the concrete floor with her claws, and the battering ram worked. The wall was made up of stacked bricks, which flew into the passage behind it. Here, you could see those thick pipes again. I heard water droplets and provided light once more. The small light orb cost me more energy than just using my horn to illuminate, but it was maneuverable.

The passages were old and abandoned; it seemed like this used to be the sewer system of the training ground. We passed by water basins with old metal bridges spanning them. After half an hour, I had already lost track of where we were, but Lili was meticulously mapping everything. Eventually, we reached a point where we had to cross through the water. I approached the water, and the Geiger counter started clicking rapidly. I looked at Lili with a questioning glance. "Can you carry me across?" She nodded cautiously.

Once I was on the other side, I looked into the passage behind and saw that it had collapsed. What was interesting was that there was the body of a sewer worker here. I took the time to bury him, covering the body with debris and rubble, offering a silent prayer, and drawing Luna's symbol on the pile. Next to him was a crate. Its contents were helpful – a map of this section of the facility and something wonderful, a bottle of apple whiskey. I stashed it away and studied the map. The only way into the next section was underwater.

I grumbled and stepped back to the railing of the collapsed bridge. "We can't go any further here. We have to dive." Ferrax simply jumped into the water and transformed into a wheeling shark. Somehow, I had expected that. We did our best to waterproof everything we had and began to dive. I must admit I cheated a little when my Geiger counter started to sing. I had cast a waterproof bubble around my head, but I could only do the spell well enough for myself. Then I paddled through the passage and resurfaced on the other side with my light orb. It was another long corridor. It took some time for all of us to cross, as Appletree's legs were malfunctioning in the water. And now came the most embarrassing part for me: I shook off the water, and it went "pluff." I turned into a light blue fluffy ball. I hated my fur for that; it happened every time after I bathed or showered. Appletree's fur remained as it was. Maybe it was my unicorn genes? All three of them burst into laughter. "Priestess Fluff!" Lili howled with laughter.

I blushed and summoned my brush. "Yes, yes, be glad you don't have this problem. It's embarrassing enough for me, even without your laughter," I said snappily and straightened myself up. We reached a crossroads. "Oh, the old game," Lili said calmly. She took a piece of glowing chalk from her bag and marked the first corridor with a 1. The corridor led to two more corridors that quickly became 1.1 and 1.2. As we trotted down Corridor 1.1, my E.F.S. alerted me, and I told the others to stop. Then I whispered, "There's something around the corner." Ferrax looked cautiously around the corner, barely visible in the dark but apparently visible enough. I heard an AAAAHHHH, and a ghoul pony that looked rotten, probably once an unicorn, leaped toward Ferrax and bit his right hind leg. Green blood sprayed as the ghoul pony tore into his flesh. Ferrax screamed before two quiet pops ended the ordeal. I stood ready and cast a healing spell. I could at least stop the bleeding and ease the pain a bit. But from then on, Ferrax only fluttered. I cast a small fire spell to give the poor creature's body a proper farewell. "I hate ghouls; they always want just one thing from you." Ferrax grumbled, crossing his front legs in frustration. Then he asked, "Where are we actually? Weren't we just in the surface world?" I just shook my head. In Corridor 1.2, Lili managed to take out the first ghoul without the poor earth pony mare noticing. The second ghoul pony, probably once a pegasus, had hidden well enough that I didn't notice it until it was too late. It lunged out of the shadows and bit me right where? Right on the healing bandage. The pain was still bearable, but when the ghoul pegasus ripped the bandage off my hoof and reopened the wound, I began to cry out loudly. The ghoul pony now met Appletree's hooves, which turned it into ghoulgoulash with a growl. The room behind was probably once a workshop. Lili and Ferrax immediately began searching around. I hobbled over to the first aid kit on the wall. Healing bandages and Med-X, excellent. I applied the new bandage and gave myself the injection. It was a relief as the burning sensation disappeared, and I groaned in relief.

We left Corridor 1.2 and entered Corridor 2, which led to a five-minute corridor ending in a larger room. I quickly raised my magical shield to escape the hail of bullets from the gun in the right wall. I had already heard the buzzing, but the problem was that I couldn't lower my shield quickly enough. A quarter of the charge stuck to my shield before hitting the gun turret, which fired a second salvo that hit Ferrax in the side, causing only minor injuries. He groaned briefly before Appletree turned the turret into a smoldering heap of scrap metal. Next to the smoking remains of the gun turret, which Ferrax was now scavenging, there was a small break room. We briefly sat down on the musty sofas to rest. To my delight, I saw a fully stocked and still functioning Sparkle-Cola vending machine in the corner. I levitated one of the chilled bottles to each of us and eagerly opened mine. It hissed for a moment before I could taste the uplifting flavor of carrot. I sank into the sofa a bit and sighed. "This is almost like being at home right now, don't you think, little sister? All that's missing is a hooficure." I closed my eyes briefly to rest and relax. I heard Appletree getting up and approaching me as she rummaged in her saddlebag. I opened my eyes in amazement when I felt a long-forgotten sensation – Appletree had taken a hoof file from her saddlebag and was actually giving me a pedicure. There was a small vial of hoof polish on the table. "Oh, oh, I want one too!" Ferrax said, and Lili looked somewhat more reserved and then said, "Would you do my hooves too, Appletree?" She nodded, and we actually had a relaxing time in the bunker's sewer spa. When we all had beautiful hooves again, we continued into Corridor No. 2

The room that opened up now was a square of over fifteen meters. This time, my E.F.S. had warned me about the ghouls. Lili initiated the fight somewhat unconventionally: she took a grenade, pulled the pin, threw it twice into the air, and on the third throw, as it fell, she kicked the grenade, sending it into the middle of the ghouls. It exploded, and two ghouls were torn apart. "I guess the buckball training back then had to be good for something," she said with a shy smile. I decided to try a new spell this time – I sent a fire lance at one of the ghouls. It turned out to be a pretty lousy idea. I teleported myself a bit away while targeting the ghoul with my S.A.T.S. and fired. Consequently, a burning ghoul pursued me, seemingly not very sensitive to my plasma shots, and the others couldn't really help me either. Appletree was fighting with two of them. The first one got a buck in the torso and flew halfway across the room, while the second one tried to bite Appletree's head. Big mistake: he caught the bow. I counted mentally, "Twenty-one, twenty-two." Then something unexpected happened – her eyes lit up green, and her left front hoof transformed into wood for a strike, seemingly greatly enhancing her strength. She pounded the ghoul right into the opposite wall, where he simply burst. She carefully put the bow back on with her claw, and the wood disappeared. Lili and Ferrax were playing with one of the ghouls. Lili would drop down just before the ghoul could catch her, then she would rise again before the ghoul reached her, at which point it would run to Ferrax, who did the same thing. I watched this a few times, activated my S.A.T.S. again, and fired two plasma charges at the ghoul. The first one went relatively ineffectively into the torso, while the second one made his head disappear in a green puddle on the floor. After eliminating the bewildered ghoul, we had taken care of almost all of them. One lone ghoul tried to bite Appletree's side. She leaped to the side and simply hacked off its head with a swing of her claw. "These things are really disgustin’," she said, her claws covered in ghoul muck. I smiled, pulled out a tissue, and wiped her claws clean.

Then I began to stack all the bodies in the middle and lit a fire. Lili shook her head with a smile. "I think you're the only pony who buries all her enemies. Well, have fun when you get into a big battle." She was still shaking her head. Corridor two split again. 2.1 went down a staircase, and 2.2 went up a staircase. I tried to feel the draft, and there it was. It was leading upward. We quietly ascended the stairs and found ourselves in front of a locked door. This time, Ferrax was the first at the door, casually starting to pick the lock. That gave me more time to eat some Sugar Bombs. I was famished, and it must have been noon or later by now. The door had a very lengthy rendezvous with Ferrax, then it clicked and swung open. At the same time, I heard Ferrax say, "Ouch." He came over to me, holding his bleeding hoof. I looked at him, puzzled, and asked, "How, by Luna's grace, did you manage that?" He turned green, yes, he didn't turn red but green. "Happens when you twist the wrench, and at the same time, it's your own hoof." He scratched his head awkwardly. I examined his hoof and began to work my healing magic. My horn gently glowed green, and the wound on Ferrax's hoof closed. Ferrax thanked me with a hug, and we walked through the door.

This time, it was another hall. I thought we were on level three. We might be able to escape through the elevator shaft here, but we heard the familiar shuffling sound. There were three of them this time. The first one promptly attempted a clumsy attack on me, trying to bite. I couldn't dodge it in time, and he sank his teeth into my side. Blood flowed, but it was only a superficial wound. The retribution he received was quite something when he was hydraulically slammed against the nearest wall. The other two ghouls were going after Lili, who put two shots into the torso of one of them, while the other snapped at her – but only managed to bite off a small piece of her mane. Ferrax dissolved the ghoul into pink dust. Slowly, it was getting annoying – I somehow preferred living enemies to these flesh-hungry monsters. While I piled up the unfortunate ghouls in a heap, I reloaded my pistol. It wasn't particularly effective against the ghouls, but well, better to be prepared. A large corridor and several small rooms were connected to this room. I found some terminals and, to my surprise, a few intact books. This had to be the infirmary, at least for this floor, judging by the room's size. There was a rotting bed in one corner, and on the table next to the door, there was a terminal. I glanced at the book – "Helpinghoof's Healing Spells for Beginners and Advanced Users." I immediately stashed it away, knowing I would need it. Hacking the terminal was child's play; I mean, the password was "Helpinghoofs." The terminal was full of medical records. It seemed that on this level, there had always been mysterious accidents involving something that sliced ponies open. However, the cuts were so fine that no one knew what material the object inflicting them was made of. I wondered what kind of creature it was, a mutated ghoul, or a monster mantis? I gathered all the healing potions, bandages, and other useful items and left the room.

Lili had taken charge of the other terminals and found some more information. The time was particularly relevant; the incidents usually occurred shortly after sunset. I checked my Pipbuck for the time. My sense of time had become somewhat disoriented in this place, but the creaking soon revealed the actual time. This time, Appletree had her legs attached. The metal claws complemented the wooden ones perfectly. She looked at me pleadingly and whimpered. I smiled and asked, "Is the little wolf hungry?" She nodded, and I levitated a particularly large piece of meat with plenty of blood into her mouth. Lili shook herself; I knew the feeling, the rush that the blood caused, and I wanted to spoil my sister a little. Then we proceeded into the large corridor. The first door we came across lay sliced into pieces on the floor. It seemed to be some kind of laboratory. On the walls hung equipment like saws, spreaders, and pliers. In front of a black screen, strange transparent images were suspended. I had my light orb illuminate the glass and realized that they were X-ray images. They were pictures of a stallion – to be precise, a pegasus. What was strange were the ends of his wings. They extended out more than usual, and I believed there were more bones there than should be. "Lili, how many bones do your wings have?" I asked. She touched her wings. "Six. It's like an extra leg, with muscles and feathers attached." Okay, there was the problem – the wings had 12 bones. Three additional pairs of bones extended backward from the main bone structure. Lili came over and looked at it. "How can you fly like that? And what is that at the end? It tapers flat, what did they do to this poor soul?" I shrugged. "Maybe it didn't survive the war?" I examined the terminal and hacked into it.

Entry 17: The test subject K38, male, displays enhanced regenerative abilities since the implantation of various animal components. Furthermore, the bony wing extensions seem to be functioning well as weapon mounts. We are still experimenting to determine the best material for these concealed weapons. The Ministry of War Technology wanted us to discontinue the project, but interestingly, the Ministry of Morality insisted on further research. We also achieved a breakthrough with subject K38. With the use of enchanted gemstones, he can now become invisible for a few minutes. A complete success for an assassin.

Entry 22: Okay, we have a problem. K38 is gone. He cannot be found. He simply hacked his cell door into shreds. We don't know how or why, but he managed to escape. He must not leave this department. The project is highly confidential. Why is it even taking place in a training center and not a proper laboratory? If we don't find him within 48 hours, I will have to inform both the Ministry of Morality and the Ministry of War Technology.

Entry 24: He's slaughtering the other ponies on level three; I'm convinced it's him. But I can't tell anyone. I've already informed the Ministry of Morality that the experiment was a failure. This morning, I found the torn-apart body of my assistant, Leaf Chatscher. I'm taking matters into my own hooves now.

I stepped back from the terminal. "I now know what was responsible for the deaths here." The others looked curious. "A physically altered pegasus with camouflage abilities, enhanced wound regeneration, and incredibly sharp wing extensions capable of cutting through steel." I thought feverishly; how do you stop something like that? It was invisible, and I feared it might still be down here. Two hundred years alone and disfigured into a grotesque version of a pony. Lili reloaded her weapons. "Then I hope we can kill that thing because I'm afraid our way out is at the other end of this level." I thought hard again. This creature had been locked up and mistreated; was it seeking revenge, or had they also incorporated the mind of an animal into it? Perhaps even the spirit of an animal, like with Appletree? But it might be open to negotiation. I didn't really believe in it, but I wanted to keep some hope. I had been dreading a super ghoul when a rather obvious idea occurred to me. I had my E.F.S. search for it, but darn it, it detected nothing. Either there was really nothing here, or this camouflage even worked against Pipbucks.

The brilliant idea of how we could locate this being came from Lili. "Appletree, you have a good sense of smell, right? Does that apply to feathers too?" Appletree scratched her head thoughtfully and then nodded. "Smell my feathers," Lili said with a shy voice. "Remember the scent and look for feathers that aren't mine." Appletree held her nose up in the air and sniffed and sniffed. Then she slowly trotted down the corridor, and we followed her, trying to be as alert as possible. Holes from gun turrets gaped in the ceiling and in some side niches, with everything showing signs of craters. At the end, the corridor turned to the left, and on the wall, we found another office door. Lili was now hacking this local terminal again. She was really good at it, far better than me, but she had started teaching me some tricks. For example, paying attention to bracketed letter combinations or even the use of greater-than and less-than symbols. It really made this job much easier. These entries were different from those in the lab. On our way out, I had noticed that above the door, it simply said "Storage Room 27." This terminal seemed to have been used by one of the regular workers here.

Entry #14: Yay, punishment duty - watching over Snore-Level Three, woop woop. I shouldn't have stared at the boss's mare, but hey, she had an amazing flank, especially for a unicorn. Slim and elegant, not as skinny as the pegasi or too big like the earth ponies. I still don't understand why this damn storage level needs a guard. There's nothing valuable stored here. Just standard practice ammo and training power armor. Nothing worth stealing. But well, there always has to be someone to take the job of guarding here at night to prevent the overenthusiastic recruits from having illegal races in the facility's power armor.

Entry #18: I've finally found those strange claw marks everyone's been talking about in recent days. They seem to originate somewhere between storage room twenty and forty. I'll keep an extra eye open tonight.

Entry #19: Damn, I just found recruit Orange Tree in completely shredded training power armor. Whatever it was, from now on, I'll be on guard duty with reinforced and fully armed power armor!

Entry #20: Shit, I saw the thing. A pegasus with strange wings. It tore everything apart and disappeared as fast as it appeared. But it can't be teleportation because he's a pegasus. However, the homing missiles from my combat saddle also went astray. I will report this to the base command as soon as possible and suggest an evacuation.

I stepped back from the terminal once more. This being can cut through armor with its wings. I dropped to my haunches and gazed into the void, bewildered and horrified. Ferrax and Lili asked me in unison if everything was okay. "The creature can use temporary invisibility and has wings sharp enough to cut through power armor," I replied. Both of them went pale; Ferrax, in particular, looked somewhat comical as he turned slightly gray. We continued moving forward. As we tried to turn the corner, Appletree held her hoof out and sniffed the air. "Danger," she said, and sniffed again. My heart skipped a beat - Appletree had just spoken with her double-tone voice, the one I knew from the dream. The others also looked stunned. She turned bright red. "Since... yesterday," between the two words, she had to pause for about two minutes to find the right position of her vocal cords.

Before us was a room piled with all sorts of things – crates, old power armors, many small holes in the wall with Luna's crescent moon symbols above them. And there he stood – a red Pegasus with a white mane, trembling. When I tried to approach him, he swung around. I was startled – his eyes were those of an eagle. "Run, run, while I still have control; I don't want to kill you, but IT does," he shouted. I tried to calm him using my liturgy. "Et cessabit meus puer nihil ventura sunt vobis in nomine Luna." As the gentle glow of moonlight surrounded him, it burst through the red aura emanating from his chest. His body contorted, his front hooves turned into raptor claws, and his snout morphed into a beak. He screamed at us. I managed to dodge his wing's strike, which slid off my Starmetal cloak. At the impact site, I saw something new – the sparkling specks in the cloak had condensed and a few turned black, crumbling to ashes and falling to the ground. I teleported to the others and drew my plasma pistol. Appletree charged forward with a deep growl. She was about to pounce on the creature, but it countered with an elegant mid-air pirouette and sent Appletree crashing to the ground with a kick from its hind hooves.

I activated my S.A.T.S. and fired two shots. Both struck the Pegasus's side, causing severe burns. He came toward me, and I saw his wings up close. Embedded in the extended bones were gemstone claws, or more precisely, enchanted gemstone claws. Ferrax and I tried to create a shield. The left wing pierced my side, tearing it open, and I screamed in agony. The other wing was mostly deflected by the shield, except... the darned wing pierced through my left front hoof. I felt myself getting closer to unconsciousness due to the excruciating pain. Lili made some daring aerial maneuvers, circling the monster. She was faster and more agile than him. She fired two bullets into the creature's side, causing it to crash into a wall, causing debris to rain down. Ferrax's Gatling and two additional laser pistols came to life with a buzzing sound. He covered the entire front of the stallion. He had numerous burn wounds, but it didn't seem to faze him. Appletree had found a new jumping position, and at the right moment, she leaped onto the Pegasus from behind. He sent her sprawling with a hard buck after amputating both her front legs. Then he hurled her against the nearest wall, spraying hydraulic fluid and oil on the floor. She lay growling on the ground, waiting for her forelegs to regenerate. Now, we had a slow advantage. Lili had been intentionally targeting the wing joints the whole time. When she started doing that, the Pegasus kept flickering in and out of invisibility and reappeared in different spots. None of us had a clear shot. Appletree was slowly recovering, and I allowed the cold anger to resurface. "Lili, get down!" I calmly ordered.

She landed in astonishment. I enveloped everything at a height of more than one and a half meters in green lightning, making the creature dance in the air until I blacked out. I had exhausted my magical energy for the moment. When I woke up, I found myself on an improvised cot. My side throbbed with pain, and it had been bandaged. Appletree somehow managed to detach her forelimbs from the transformation, and I saw Lili working at a workbench. She was wearing a welding mask, and I noticed that her right wing was seriously injured. Ferrax's left front hoof was also bandaged. The monster lay there with amputated wings. I couldn't see if it was still alive. Appletree came up, licked my cheek, and said, "Dusty... wake up!" This time, she only needed half a minute between the words. They all turned to me. "How did you do that?" I asked, weakly smiling. "Well, when he was in shock on the ground, Appletree ripped his wings out. I managed to stop her from eating him." I gave Appletree a reproachful look. "What's Rule 1?" Appletree nodded, "No... ponies... eat." I looked at Lili with a questioning gaze. "How did you do that?" She took out an old pre-war newspaper from her pocket, rolled it up, and glared at Appletree. Appletree whined and hid behind me. "Exactly how it worked with cheeky dogs before the war, so why not after the war?" She smiled again and patted Appletree on the head with her wing. Ferrax was busy searching through the crates. He looked up and asked, "What are we looking for here?" I shrugged, "Ammunition, scrap, medical supplies?" I fell silent suddenly. "How many healing potions and bandages do we have left?" I looked at Lili. She replied, "We have four bandages left, and we used the last healing potion on you. I mean, we could see your intestines through the gash on your side, but you fell in such a way that everything stayed inside." I gazed at the stallion and asked, "Is he dead?" Lili nodded. "When his wings were torn off, he was briefly clear-headed. We talked to him, and in the end, he asked us to kill him because he couldn't stand it anymore. The spirit of the eagle was planted in him, but they couldn't get along.“

Author's Note

i hope you enjoy the Puff dusty^^ my reference to this chapter was a little shelterrun in fallout 4^^ and a big thankyou to my translator Silver Wing