Tempest blinked the stars out of her eyes as her ears pressed flat against her skull. The painful sensation from the loud bang was accented with an equally loud ringing that just didn't want to go away. It took her a few moments in her daze to even realize that Merkle was laying dead next to her. Only when his pooling blood reached her hoof, did she look down and gasp.

Tempest staggered back from Merkle's corpse, before looking over to John. He pulled himself out of bed and kicked Merkle's leg while aiming his pistol at the dead reptilian. Once he was satisfied with the knowledge that Merkle was dead, he lowered his weapon and looked up to the unicorn before him.

"Not much of a friend, was he?" John asked.

"I-no, not... not really... you killed him. H-he's dead. Just like that... what the buck is that weapon?!" Tempest bleated, her breathing rapidly increasing.

"It's a gun." John replied, simply.

Tempest stammered for words as John walked over to the door. The sound of several other doors slamming open and shut echoed from the hallway outside, indicating that at least everyone in their hallway heard the shot.

"H-how long into that did you wake up?" Tempest questioned, finally finding her voice just as John grabbed the knob.

He slowly turned his head to look at her, "I was never asleep." He replied.

"I-I was just getting up because I couldn't sleep. I wasn't trying to run." Tempest hastily asserted.

John gave a single nod,"Sure." He said, before opening the door just as K and half of the guards rushed over.

"What happened!?" K demanded.

"We heard a crack like lightning and now L and T aren't answering their door!" Another guard exclaimed.

"They're dead," John replied, stepping out of the way for K and the guards to see Merkle's dead body, "He made it in here before I took care of him."

K's jaw dropped at the size of the reptilian, before he shook his head to clear his shock from his face.

"W-wait, what do you mean they're dead?" He questioned, fear and uncertainty creeping into his voice.

"M-Merkle said that he killed them... his knife was coated in blood." Tempest explained, her gaze drifting down to the still bloody knife just a few feet away.

The rest of the guards rushed down the hall and into the room, falling in behind K, "We got into the room! L and T are dead! Their throats were slit!" The guard exclaimed, panic in his voice and fear in his eyes.

K and the rest of the guards fought to keep their jaws from dropping or their anger from boiling over as they took in the news. The room descended into silence for a few moments as everyone processed the loss, but quickly enough, one of the guards reached a tipping point.

"It's her bucking fault they're dead!" He exclaimed, pointing an accusing hoof toward Tempest.

Tempest recoiled slightly, her eyes wide in confusion at the sudden accusation while K and the rest of the guards physically held the stallion back.

"Calm down M!" K shouted.

"We take this bucking traitor for one bucking day! One day! Two of our best ponies are bucking dead, K! He killed them to get to her!" M screamed.

While M fought to attack Tempest, John discreetly stepped between them, ensuring that if the muscular stallion somehow got through the rest of his entire squad, that he'd have to get through him as well. However, his efforts proved to be unneeded, as the squad managed to physically pull M out of the room and out into the hallway. K hastily shut the door behind him, locking the furious stallion out of the room. With a heavy sigh, K slumped to his haunches against the wooden doorframe.

Slightly muffled yelling still reached them through the doorway for a few moments, prompting K to ignite his horn and cast a silencing spell over the door. With that accomplished, he slowly looked up to John and Tempest.

"L and T were some of the finest recon specialists I've ever known. I hope your mission is worth the cost it's already taken." K muttered, his eyes falling to the floor once more.

"It is. Trust me." John offered.

K softly scoffed, "I sure hope so. What the hay even is that thing anyway? I've never seen anything like it." He asked, pointing to Merkle's body.

"He's a lizard. At least, he's some kind of lizard. He'd never explain anything about himself in the Badlands." Tempest explained, earning a raised eyebrow from K.

"So you knew him? Why did he come for you? To break you out?" K questioned, getting to his hooves as some aggression creeped into his voice.

"He probably heard about Tempest from the ponies panicking on the street last night. The Storm King knows his invasion failed. He doesn't know Tempest is alive. Merkle thought he could take her back to him for a reward." John explained.

Tempest gave John another look of surprise while K simply shook his head and sighed. A tense silence filled the air for several moments until K finally turned around to the door.

"The train leaves in just over an hour. You two should get ready to move. We'll have to send out M and B to scout the station before we move there. I'll grab you in a few." K said over his wither.

John and Tempest both gave a nod as K opened the door to the hallway. The sound of M screaming and shouting over the rest of the squad instantly reached their ears, only to be cut off as K shut the door once more. Now bathed in perfect silence, John and Tempest slowly turned to each other. Tempest bit her lip before looking down to Merkle's body. A large pool of blood surrounded his corpse and soaked into the velvet carpet beneath him. Tempest cringed at the sight, but John simply stepped over the body to grab his boots from the other side of the room.

As she watched him, Tempest found herself struggling to keep her emotions in check. He casually slipped his boots on and threw on his flannel over the white t-shirt he slept in. Within a minute, he was fully dressed and ready to go. He gave her an expectant look as she sat on the floor, an uneasy look on her face.

"You alright?" John asked, before stepping over Merkle's body once more and grabbing his duffle bag with a huff.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine." Tempest replied, shaking her head and getting back to her hooves.

"Not squeamish about blood, are you?" John questioned.

"W-what? No, of course not." Tempest defensively replied.

John raised an eyebrow but continued on to the door. After a moment, Tempest grabbed her crutch and limped after him. As he opened the door and stepped into the hallway, he intercepted a black hoodie, thrown from slightly down the hall. John easily caught it and raised an eyebrow as the stallion approached him.

"Have her put it on. It'll make it harder for ponies or other creatures to recognize her." K instructed, nodding toward Tempest.

John turned and handed the hoodie to the unicorn. She almost eagerly accepted and sat on her haunches to don the garment. She managed to slip her head into the bottom easily enough, but her broken foreleg and jagged horn made it difficult to get the hoodie all the way down. After a few moments of struggle, she felt two strong hands grab a hold of her wither and the black fabric stuck on her horn. John gently adjusted the middle of the hoodie enough for it to slip down her wither and onto her barrel.

With John's help, her head poked through the top hole of the hoodie, and she managed to get both forelegs through the sleeves. The sleeve covering her cast noticeably bulged outward more than her other leg, but otherwise, the clothing looked normal.

"Keep the hood on." K ordered.

Tempest complied and flipped the hood over her head, her mane smooshing down in the process. Her horn and most of her face were completely obscured by the black fabric, prompting a nod of approval from K. With her disguise situated, Tempest fell in line between John and K as the stallion led them out of the hotel hallway and into the front lobby.

The rest of the squad turned their heads to observe as the trio walked through the doorway. M and one of the other stallions were gone, prompting a relieved sigh from Tempest as she limped behind K.

"Alright, everypony ready?" K asked, looking over his squad.

"Ready." They all replied.

"Let's move out. Standard VIP formation. Mr. Smith will keep close tabs on Tempest while we reach the objective. Keep your eyes open. We don't need to lose any more ponies today." K ordered, gaining several sad nods in response.

Without another word, the squad opened the front doors of the hotel and stepped outside. John and Tempest found their place in the center of the noticeably thinner circle and proceeded down the stairs onto the street outside. A brisk wind breezed through the much emptier street, sending a chill through everyone present. After taking a moment to ensure no threats would appear out of thin air, the group moved forward.

They progressed through the streets unmolested for almost twenty minutes. Big, bright neon signs slowly passed them by as the group continued to walk along the concrete streets, giant skyscrapers looking down on them as if they were ants. Even at the early hour, every light in the city beamed in all directions, turning the dark morning into a veritable rainbow of colors that all illuminated the dark and dull ground in various shades of every color imaginable.

A few were out and about, although whether they were still up late or just up early was fairly easy to determine by the stagger in their step, and the drunken slur of words spewing out of their mouths. The group paid them no mind as they passed several bars and reached the metropolitan center. Dozens more ponies and other creatures littered the streets in the bustling city centerpoint, making the entire group tense.

"Subway is just ahead and down tenth street." K stated.

"Let's go." John replied.

Without hesitation, the group pushed on through the streets toward the subway. A few heads turned their way, mostly observing John due to his higher stature than the rest of the group, but thankfully, nopony noticed the plum mare limping alongside him. It took them nearly ten minutes, but they eventually arrived at the subway entrance and hastily descended the stairs, save for Tempest. With her crutch and limp, she struggled to get down the stairs at any appreciable rate, forcing the rest of the group to tensely wait for her while the sound of shouting echoed from below.

Finally, she reached the bottom of the stairs and they proceeded onward. The subterranean entrance was filled with ponies, all bickering and arguing back and forth at the ticket booth ponies. Bright flashing red 'X's' above each line to the subway indicated that the train system wasn't available, prompting outrage from the ponies all trying to make their morning commute. K nodded toward the line at the far left side of the entrance and led the group toward the only ticket booth with less than a dozen ponies shouting in front of it.

Quickly pushing past the civilians in his way and arriving at the ticket booth, K pulled his badge out of his flannel. The mare at the booth gave a short nod and ushered them through, much to the dismay and outrage of the ponies just behind them. A renewed chorus of angered shouting and screaming echoed from behind the group as they hurried down the stairs to the metro hub below. Bright green and blue lights illuminated the subway with aqua colors, allowing K to easily find their designated train.

"Over there. Six seventy one. That's your ride to Baltimare. From there, it's up to you." K explained, pointing to the train.

John looked to the silver colored train with its flat and smooth design. It almost looked like a bullet, only there were windows lining either side and the doors. He gave a nod before the group dispersed around him and Tempest, allowing them to proceed without them. He quickly led her to the train and found the conductor waiting patiently for them at the helm. John gave a quick wave to the conductor, which was promptly returned with a smile, before turning back to Tempest.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Yeah." She responded, before stepping into the passenger cabin.

John turned around to face K and the rest of his squad as the conductor powered the train up and prepared to leave.

"I'm sorry about your ponies. We'll make sure they didn't die in vain." John announced, giving a nod to K.

K returned the nod, "You'd better." He said, before turning away and leading his squad back up the stairs toward the entrance.

Just as John turned around and stepped into the train, a small banging sound caught his ear. He turned around to look for the source of the noise, but saw nothing in the aqua colored subway. His eyes squinting in suspicion, he slowly reached for his concealed pistol. However, before he could do anything, the door shut in front of his face, startling him slightly.

"Oh, sorry about that. These old train doors can get stuck sometimes and make all kinds of a ruckus that echoes off the walls down here." The conductor explained, giving John an apologetic look.

John looked to the conductor and then out the door once more. After a few seconds of searching, and still finding nothing, he nodded once and stepped away from the window. John quickly found his seat across from Tempest as she laid down on the booth in the center of the train cart. After a few moments of silence, the engine fired up and the subway jolted forward. John gazed out the window as the lights passed by faster and faster, until the lights passed in a steady line of blue-green.

His eyes slowly drifted back over to Tempest as she sat across from him. As soon as she felt his gaze on her, she looked away from the opposite window and gave him a questioning look.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing." John replied, averting his gaze to look over the top of the booth and to the back of the cart.

John's eyes quickly squinted in scrutiny as he saw something move in the cart behind his and Tempest's. Without hesitation, he pushed himself to his feet and made his way toward the rear door.

"Where are you going?" Tempest inquired, looking at him with some concern.

"Stay here." He ordered, drawing his pistol from his pants.

John kept his gun low as he reached the end of the cart and opened the door. Immediately, the sounds of the engine running and wheels scraping along the tracks flooded the room. The sound was made infinitely worse by the tunnel echoing the noise to a nearly deafening level. Tempest's ears pressed against her scalp and she winced from the sheer volume of the train in the small subway tunnel.

John quickly shut the door behind him, and grabbed the handle of the door leading into the next cart. With a quick shove, he opened the door and stepped inside. Only the outside lighting of the tunnel illuminated the second cart of the train, making long shadows dance up the walls and down to the floor. Unlike the first cart, this one wasn't first class, and lacked in many of the decorative amenities John expected to see. There were only a few places to hide, such as the booth, bathroom, around the corner of the exit to his left, and in the skylight above. However, the light played tricks with his eyes, making shadows appear where they weren't, and long lines of illumination that bended and curved around the furniture in front of him.

John held his pistol close to his chest as he carefully proceeded through the train cart. He quickly peaked around corners and over furniture in search of any threats. Over and over he cleared the dead space of the room, finding nothing but lingering shadows that were quickly illuminated by the flashing lights of the tunnel. Within thirty seconds, he cleared the entire cart, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He slowly looked up to the window, finding Tempest looking back at him from the front cart with a curious look on her muzzle.

John gave her a shrug and a shake of his head, prompting her to nod turn away from him to return to the booth. As she walked away, John reholstered his pistol and made his way for the door, only to pause once more as the sound of something scraping against wood reached his ears from above. He slowly looked up to the ceiling, only to find the skylight blocked out by a minotaur. His hooves and hands were pressed against the edges of the raised portion of the cart, keeping him suspended above John, a fact that quickly changed as he released his hold to drop down on top of the human.

https://youtu.be/7YahQUagmY4

John jumped to the side, but he wasn't quick enough to avoid the impact of the falling minotaur, and found himself knocked to the floor immediately. He felt a strong hand grab his ankle and pull him closer, but John quickly kicked the creature in the snout with his other foot, forcing him to break his grip. Now free, John hastily scrambled to his feet, but once again, the minotaur was too fast, and charged him straight into the wall. John felt the air knocked from his lungs as he slammed into the wall under the weight of a bull, and struggled to fight back against the mountain of muscle pinning him.

John's pistol fell from his grasp and landed on the carpeted floor below. He tried to heave air into his lungs but the bull pinned him against the wall so tightly that his chest could not expand. With surgical precision, he cocked his arm back and slammed his elbow down into the minotaur's spine, between his shoulder blades. The creature immediately dropped to its knees, air forcing its way out of its lungs from the impact.

Now with room to breathe, John gasped to fill his lungs, before the bull wrapped its muscular arms around his legs and jumped back, growling fiercely as it pulled John off of his feet. The human landed flat on his back and hissed in pain as the minotaur dragged him away from the wall. John tried to reach for his pistol but he slipped just out of reach before he could grab a hold of it. He swiftly looked up to the bull, finding him rearing back to stomp on his head with one of his heavy cloven hooves.

John instantly rolled to his back, just barely dodging the impact of the hoof and pushing himself to get back to his feet. Unfortunately, the bull gave him no time to right himself, and grabbed him by the collar and the pant-leg. With a feral shout, he picked John up and threw him into one of the wooden support beams just a few feet away. Wood splintered and snapped as John sailed through the beam, before slamming into the wall on the other side of the subway. He fell to the floor with a groan of pain, but quickly pushed himself back up to his feet.

The bull gave him little time to recover, opting to rush the human once more. With only half a second to react, John lunged forward as well, only he stooped low to grab a large splinter of wood off of the ground mid stride. As the two closed the distance, John thrust upward with the wooden stake toward the behemoth's throat, but once again, the bull was too quick and ducked his head low, his horns blocking John's thrust and also catching his thigh, just above his knee. The minotaur gave an angry snarl as he threw his head back, catapulting John over his back and onto the floor in the center of the room.

John landed on his back with a grunt, and quickly rolled over to his stomach before pushing himself up to his feet. Just as he reached his full height, the minotaur turned around and rushed at him again, his hooves pounding on the floor as he swiftly closed the gap between them. John took a split second to look to the floor behind him for his pistol, finding it laying just a half dozen feet away near the window. Without waiting for his foe to catch up, he sprinted forward for the pistol.

John moved as fast as he could, but the hulking beast was simply larger and faster than him, giving him no time at all to grab his gun. Just as his fingers brushed against the polymer frame of the handgun, John felt the muscular arm of the minotaur grab his collar and stop him in his tracks. The bull harshly yanked on his collar, snapping him back from the weapon, sending him flying over the booth, and into the window on the opposite side of the train cart. A spiderweb of fractures appeared on the glass before John slumped to the ground, groaning in pain.

John uneasily pushed himself to his feet once more. His back ached and pain lanced through his shoulder all the way down to his fingers. It took him almost five seconds to get back up to his full height, but the effort required to maintain that posture felt completely draining, forcing him to hunch over and rest his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

Across from John, the bull smirked to himself as he prepared another charge. His eyes squinted as he focused on the final charge that would end the human for good. Without even a word, he broke into a sprint, his horns lowered at ready to either impale, or launch John out the fractured window and into the subway train tracks while the train moved at a steady sixty miles per hour.

John didn't move as the bull rushed toward him, steam billowing from his nostrils as each step sent a heavy jolt through the floorboards of the train and into John's feet. Only at the last possible second, did John react, by simply diving to the floor and curling into the tightest ball he could muster, his back aimed at the minotaur's legs. The minotaur reacted instantly, jumping over John and completely dodging his attempt to trip him, however in doing so, he lost any way to stop his advance.

With a sudden shriek of fear, the minotaur crashed through the damaged window and sailed out of the train cart. The sound of rushing wind and shattered glass smashing into stone ground, flooded the train, making John wince as his ears were suddenly assaulted with noise. A meaty thud, along with a squelching noise echoed out in the tunnel, followed by nothing but the rushing wind and engine noise.

John slowly stood back up with a hiss of pain, before staggering over to the window. He looked out behind the train, finding the bull splattered against the wall hundreds of feet away, red blood surrounding his immediate vicinity. With a shake of his head, John turned around and walked over to the other side of the train. He picked up his pistol and sluggishly made his way back to the front cart.

As John opened the door to the front train cart, Tempest looked back over her wither, casting him a concerned glance.

"What were you doing back there?" She asked, taking in his disheveled appearance with a raised eyebrow.

John made his way over to the booth and slumped down into the seat opposite the mulberry unicorn. He let out a long, slow sigh.

"Dealing with one of Merkle's friends." John answered.

"On the train!?" Tempest exclaimed.

"Not any more." John replied.

Author's Note

Well that was certainly something, wasn't it? Were gonna be slowing down a bit in the next couple of chapters but I have a feeling you guys will like what I have planned. At least, I hope you do. We'll see lol.