“... Agh! Dammit!”

I swore loudly, kicking the sand underneath my feet in frustration. With a face scrunched in anger, I watched as the small cloud of sand dispersed into the air, the soft winds pushing it westward and into nothingness.

“...” I sighed heavily. Despite the fit of rage, nothing changed. Despite me raising my voice in anger, nothing changed. Even now, as I stood here with my torn clothes and irritated skin from the sweltering sun above, nothing has changed for me. I, Robert Cowell—who was arguably the most average guy one could ever meet—was and stillis stranded in a damn desert. A desert!

Yes, that’s right. For whatever fucking reason that I have yet to figure out, two days ago I had found myself several miles away from the east coast… and buried six feet under the ground.

Buried. I was fucking buried! What more was there to be said to that? How the fuck should I even explain that? Exactly, I can’t!

“ Ugh,” I fell on my ass, staring off into the distant horizon. Though barely noticeable from the heat waves, there were a few masses of rock dotting the horizon, but other than that there was nothing more than sandy dunes and clear blue skies. I was even lucky to notice a cloud a couple hours ago…

…

… what the hell has happened to me?

Did… did I piss anyone off? I don’t think I’ve ever been on bad terms with anyone… except for that one guy last summer at the gym. But that was just a small thing. It isn’t my fault his membership expired. I don’t think anyone would go so far as to bury me alive for something like that. Like, holy fuck…

… dammit, I should’ve paid more attention to those stupid survival videos, despite the fact that they were fakes. But… can I really be at fault for that? It isn’t everyday that you’d wake up and find yourself buried under sand, for fuck’s sake!

“ FUCK!” I exhaled deeply, running a hand through my hair. I… I need to collect myself. I… I need to start thinking rationally. I haven’t eaten anything since I tried that one cactus out, and that was barely the best of experiences I’ve had. And… my phone’s at seventy percent. I can’t mess around with that. No point in checking for service… I need to retain that battery life, as much as I can…

…

… I squinted towards the rocks in the distance, trying to make them out from the heat waves. I eventually shrugged to myself and reluctantly stood up, continuing on my aimless walk. At the very least, I could lament my situation under some shade.

With the fans gone, the only sound reverberating throughout the corridor was the rhythmic drops of water from the damaged pipes and the thumping of the blood in my body. Not an inkling of a sound escaped the still form of the demon, who stood there in its crooked and statue-like posture. Its white irises started on with emptiness, attesting to the lack of life within its form. If I were to be poetic here, the way the red lights reflected off its porcelain-textured skin almost made this demon look like the envoy of death itself.

But even with those intimidating features, I remained firm in my spot. My focus was only and only on this demon. There was no way I could go easy here; any second of poor decisions could cost me greatly, as I've come to learn the hard way before.

“ … Mr—” From behind, Toothpick’s startled and concerned voice picked up, though I never let him finish.

“ Shut the hell up!” I barked at the colt without hesitation. I couldn’t afford any distractions, and the two of them should be well aware of that by now. Perhaps I could give some points to the kid for having the balls to talk in a situation like this, but I’m not about to humor any of that.

“ But why?!” Toothpick continued to persist regardless, despite his voice being rapid-paced and shaken. “ What’s happening?! W-Why is everything red now?!”

A vein bulged on my forehead, my focus wavering. Was this brat messing with me? Was it not already obvious what has caused all of this? “ Enough of—”

SHIEEERK!

My sentence was caught off immediately, for not a split second later did the demon move, going for the attack. It leaped forward with the springiness of a tiger, arms stretched out and claws ready for tearing. As animalistic as it appeared, it was a clever move; the demon knew when to take advantage of an opening, for it knew well the physical prowess it possessed.

But… I was smarter than that. I knew how these creatures play... and I knew just how to bait them into falling in my hands. My focus never wavered; it was a hoax, a facade to make the creature think it had the advantage. And so, I already saw its attack miles ahead and was already prepared for the counterattack.

Quickly, I slid under its outstretched arms. Onyx and razor sharp claws cut through the air I once stood in, and yet even with that failed attack the demon was already on its next assault, opening its elongated jaw and aiming to take a chunk off of my upper body. But I wasn’t going to let that happen. I immediately shot my left arm up and grabbed its outstretched forearm. With the same limb firm in my grasp, I clasped my right fist and sent a hard uppercut right at the demon's elbow. A resoundful snap echoed through the corridor, and the ear-splitting screeches that escaped its open maw confirmed that its right arm was no longer in use.

It wasn't over, however. These things won’t just stop, even if it loses a limb. And it was only further proven as—right after its scream—the demon lurched forward and tried to pincer me into a bear hug. Within such close vicinity, an attack like that was almost guaranteed. I wasn’t worried about that, though.

My left arm let go of the useless limp and quickly gripped the hidden neck of the demon, followed by my right hand taking a tight hold onto the cavity of its hollow rib cage. Using this brief momentum, I focused all my strength into my lower back to lift the demon into the air.

“ Hrn!” With a grunt, I succeeded, heaving the skinny but surprisingly heavy creature up into the air. The demon’s good arm flared around wildly, claws extended and swiping at my form. Aware of this danger, I wasted no time and chucked the creature towards the wall. It screeched loudly as it flew away, but not before managing to knick me at the bicep. With the speed of a fast ball, the demon crashed into the wall, the metal visibly and loudly denting.

I exhaled slowly, briefly glancing over at the new wound before returning my attention to the demon. It slid down and slumped upside down on the floor, its body twitching as it tried and failed to realign itself. The impact must’ve damaged its spine, probably due to the unevenness of the surface. Nonetheless, it was a good sign; I could end this quickly. Walking over to the downed form of the demon, I glanced down at its voidless eyes. Even now, as its body was nye-immobile, it continued to be expressionless. It… honestly made it much easier to deal with these things… though, whether emotions or not, I would’ve still done the same thing regardless.

Raising my foot up, I was seconds from going for the finishing blow, but suddenly the demon’s damaged arm shot outwards, going straight for my neck. The fatal attack would’ve landed had I not been on guard, but experience has made it that I was always on guard. My hand shot out towards its wrist, stopping the attack a few inches from the desired target. From there, there were no last words or anything; my foot went down, and a resoundful crack was the confirmation. The fight had ended.

As the demon’s form slowly dispatched into black smoke, I closed my eyes and exhaled. I gave myself that brief moment to calm down my nerves before reopening my eyes and addressing my wound. Three of its claws nicked my left bicep, leaving behind three equally long gashes. They weren’t deep, and despite the exploding flares of pain, I could still use my arm. Not the worst I’ve been through.

With the fight ended, I became aware of the deathly silence once again. It also reminded me that I, in fact, had companions with me. In a rather alarming manner, I quickly turned back to see whether Fluttershy and Toothpick were okay. Sure enough—to my slight relief—they were still alive…

… although, they had very frightened looks.

The mortified expressions on their faces made me frown. I’m guessing they’ve never seen anything like that before… though honestly, I wouldn’t blame them. Seeing something like that for the first time isn't the best of experiences… especially if you’re the one being targeted. I would know that more than anyone else.

Though, it does have a bit of a contradiction, now that I think about it. If these sort of creatures are roaming around underneath a city of ponies… wouldn’t they probably already know what these creatures are by now? Or maybe they don’t know… since it's all the way down here. I mean, there’s a lot of hidden stuff here I doubt the average citizen in this city would know about… well, those are just some fleeting thoughts. The only thing that matters now is that it's dead, and I can move on comfortably with that.

“ … Hey, you guys good?” I asked out after a while of still silence. Still not getting a reaction from them, I huffed and walked up to them. Kneeling down, I snapped both my fingers in front of their faces. “ Hey, wake up. Fight’s over.”

“ Wh-Whu?” Fluttershy was the first to snap out of her thousand yard stare, shaking her head before looking around with a pale face. “ I-I… w-what h-happened…?”

“ Relax, the threat’s gone now,” I explained my best, trying to give a sense of ease in my tone, “ was just a demon, is all.”

“ D-Demon?!” Fluttershy visibly flinched while squeaking, her eyes shooting out in alarm. “ A-Aren’t t-those just s-scary b-bedtime stories?”

I curled a brow. “... no… I just killed one right now…”

“ Wh— k-killed?!”

“ Really?” Toothpick was the one to ask, his eyes slowly shifting from an uncomfortable fear into sparkling awe. “ That’s what you were doing?”

I squinted my eyes at the colt un-amusedly. Yeah, I wasn’t falling for his bullshit. “ … really now?”

Toothpick pouted at my response. “ Why look at me like that? I'm just asking.”

“ You watched everything that happened and now act as if you don't know a thing about it?”

“ Uh, yeah... it looked like you were just hitting the air and stuff.”

… what? The air? But… then… could they not…

Seeing my confused state, Toothpick continued. “ Yeah… suddenly there was this loud noise, and then I couldn’t move my body! But I could move my mouth, though, which is weird cause I couldn’t move my body! And… and then I saw you hitting the air and stuff—oh, and then there was a loud snap and another loud noise!”

I blinked at his jumbled explanation. “... well, yeah, I—”

“ And then the wall suddenly caved in,” Toothpick exclaimed, pointing at the same spot I threw the demon, “ and… you stomped the floor and stuff. Was that you killing the demon? And what’s a demon anyways? Sounds like a donut flavor.”

“...” I went silent, contemplating Toothpick’s words. Everything the kid said matched what had just happened… with the only exception being the fact that, apparently, it looked like I was punching the air in their view. Which… would imply that they couldn’t see the demon…

… and adding to the fact that they apparently couldn’t move… it would mean that they wouldn't have been able to defend themselves from it.

That’s… concerning. Being alone is fine and all, since I can deal with those things. But having travel companions that can’t even see them? And adding on the fact that they get paralyzed? That’s…

“... R-Robert, y-your arm…”

“ Hm?” I glanced over to Fluttershy, seeing her look at my injury with a greatly concerned look. “ Oh, yeah, don't worry about it. It'll heal… eventually.”

“ W-We should s-still tend to it,” she insisted, walking up close before grimacing, “ O-Oh dear… this is just terrible.”

I huffed, my gaze softening. “ Fluttershy, we don't have any medical equipment on us. We can't really do much about it. But I'll be fine… so don't worry about it, ok?”

“...,” Fluttershy went silent, her ears flat on her head, “...I-I’m… I’m not l-liking this p-place very much…”

I frowned with pressed lips. I’ve seen and listened to Fluttershy enough to know that she isn’t the type to deal with these sorts of stressful situations… I can understand her concerns here. But she’ll have to endure it, just for a little while longer.

With that said, I put my hands on my knees and began standing up. “ Ok, how about—”

SHRIEEK!

“!?!”

From behind the two ponies, another demon jumped out from the corner end of the corridor and began to rapidly close the distance towards us. By the time I registered this, there was woefully only a second worth of time to react. I moved without thinking.

Grabbing both of their shoulders, I threw Fluttershy and Toothpick away from the direction of the oncoming attack. However, it left me wide open, and I couldn’t guard myself. And so I took the full brunt of the force, feeling long claws roughly slice against my chest. I grunted back my yell of pain as me and the new demon rolled on the ground in a wild mess of limbs. Disoriented and my chest flaring with pain, I struggled to get my bearings as the demon continued its assault. More scratches and gashes began to accumulate on my body, and any more of it would start leading to lethal damage.

Grinding my teeth together, I shook away the pain and forced my head to refocus. These were pains I’ve experienced numerous times before; I couldn’t let them get to me now, of all times. Readjusting myself, I managed to grab hold of one of the demon’s flailing arms, briefly halting its assault. It was all the opening I needed. Grabbing the side of its head with my free hands, I forcefully pulled it down and smashed it against the ground. The attack froze the demon’s attacks momentarily, and I gladly took the opening to do it once again. And again, and again.

“ AAAH!” With a powerful battle cry, I continuously slammed its head against the ground, using my injuries and pain as fuel to my attacks. And with a final smash, the demon exploded outwards into black smoke, dispatching into nothingness.

Stillness returned to the area, and almost in reaction did the red hue disappear, returning the corridor to its original pale lighting. I breathed heavily, slowly readjusting myself into a sitting posture as I collected my breath. I stared down at my chest, seeing my completely torn shirt and the wounds that flowed freely. But instead of focusing on the numbing pain, I focused on the overwhelming disappointment that flooded me.

‘... I’m such a dumbass,’ I was a fool. I shouldn’t have relaxed without clearing out the area first. And because of that, I nearly got those two killed…

With lazy eyes, I looked back up at Fluttershy and Toothpick, both of whom were giving me horrified looks.

I sighed, calming down my breaths and grunting through the pain as I stood up. “ Let’s… let’s get moving… now. And stick to me.”

With a neutral yet expressful smile on his face, Sham Rock flipped the reflective open sign of the Exotic Kingdom Auction House, effectively closing the building for the day. He gave a small sigh to himself as he turned around, taking in the emptiness of the main lobby.

“ Ahh… let’s see,” Sham Rock muttered to himself, “ the mural could use a nice cleaning, though I’ll have to remember not to hire that gentlecolt… ah, and the busts. They will need to be polished as well. Sweeping may come later… hm, perhaps not for the crystal room though. Those idols are quite sensitive to dust…”

He continued to silently mutter to himself as he climbed the foyer, making his way towards the hallways of the second floor before entering a small office in the far-end corner. From there, he mindfully ensured that the door locked behind him and—keeping the same heightened awareness—cautiously approached behind the refined and refurbished desk, pressing a hoof underneath the wooden frame. In response, one of the bookshelves creaked open, revealing a small and aged elevator shaft. Approaching it, Sham Rock looked around once more before taking the small elevator, closing the bookshelf behind.

At the top of the elevator, Sham Rock exited into a dimly lit room. Unlike the office below—which held a homely and welcoming vibe—this office was dark, gothic, and unshy of the numerous skulls that littered its interiors. They varied in shapes and sizes, but the most common attribute of these long forgotten remains were their equine traits. Unfazed by this, Sham Rock continued his stride, walking through the piles of skulls and towards the small marble pedestal at the heart of the room, which held a large and clear glass orb.

“... I’m disappointed, Sham Rock.”

Sham Rock flinched, pausing his stride. He slowly looked over towards the direction of the voice, squinting his eyes to see a figure standing against the corner. His smile broadened, though the sweat forming on his brow was noticeable.

“ Ah, Arcsin! I… I am glad to see you are well.”

“ … I thought we had agreed to address me by my alias,” Arcsin eventually grumbled after a prolonged silence, his malice palpable.

“ I-Indeed, we have…” Sham Rock nodded slowly, adjusting his collar, “ though, that was under a more public setting, no? There’s not many ponies that come up in the room.”

“ …It seems you value your life little, fool.”

Sham Rock grinned, undeterred from the threat. “ Why, quite the contrary. I do believe I’ve kept my word to you and your fellows. I’ve been nothing but truthful to you.”

“ Truth is of no importance to me. I can find my answers if I so wish,” Arcsin scowled, his voice seething in disgust, “ your ignorance has blinded you from what has been transpiring below.”

“... well, I can’t say I’m that informed about Tar—”

“ Must I plague that silver tongue of yours, fool?”

“...N-No…”

Arcsin sighed heavily, emerging from the shadows to reveal a hooded figure. But even while hooded, it was clear from the shape of his elongated form that there was not a trace of any pony features. “ Three individuals have invaded the lower chambers… two ponies and one mammal of unknown origins.”

Sham Rock blinked at Arcsin’s words before his eyes shot open. A pale expression consumed his face. “ … A mammal, you say… p-perhaps bipedal?”

“ I needn’t not to tell you… they were your only customers today.”

Sham Rock pressed his lips, slowly nodding. He silently cursed under his breath. “ … I should’ve expected that rough mouth to go to the extremes…”

“ They’ve infiltrated to the third level,” Arcsin continued, approaching the glass orb in the center, “ they’ve become aware of your networking scheme.”

Sham Rock clicked his tongue, though he outwardly expressed a calm smile. Of course, this calmness was a blatant facade; the flamboyant stallion couldn’t even try to mask the stiffness of his body from the close vicinity with Arcsin. “ … concerning, but not dire. Your underlings roam that level… that bunch should be dealt with by now.”

“ Yet again, your ignorance has shown to reign over your intelligence,” Arcsin growled. Suddenly, the crystal orb on the pedestal suddenly glowed bright red. A beam of light expanded upwards, forming a hazy rectangular screen. From there, the images of the mammal could be seen, sparring against one of Arcsin’s underlings.

Sham Rock’s eyes widened as he watched the mammal dispatch the creature with ease, then doing it once more to the second one that tried to sneak attack. Despite receiving significant damage, the mammal didn’t even seem fatigued or any less weakened. “... h-how… valiant…”

“ Perhaps I cannot fully blame you for being unaware of this mammal’s prowess,” Arcsin continued in a monotonous tone, “ however… your obliviousness of the infiltration is where you are to be held responsible.”

“ …I-I was not unaware of any break in,” Sham Rock defended, his quivering eyes glancing down at his hooves as he felt Arcsin’s unseen gaze, “ none of the parameters went off.”

“ That is where your faultiness lies.”

“ Urk…”

The orb suddenly turned off, the images disappearing as a deep purple light now flooded the room. Arcsin walked around the orb, bringing himself closer to Sham Rock. “ … I hope you remain aware of the guidelines of our contract, Sham Rock.”

Sham Rock was as stiff as a statue. “ I-I am aware…”

“ Then,” Arcsin stepped back, looking into the orb, “ I shall have one of my candles address these intruders. It is without a doubt your incompetence would fail to resolve this issue if I were to leave it to you.”

With these words, Sham Rock sighed just slightly. It seems that he had just dodged a bullet here. However, his uneasiness was still present. “ … but… as those images showed… the mammal can adequately handle them.”

“ You’ve deluded yourself with a mere assumption,” Arcsin scoffed, “ those intelligible husks equate to the very dirt I step on. Not even the strongest of them could hold the title as my underling.”

“ I-I see…”

Arcsin returned his attention to the orb, as if it were a part of the conversation. “ You have heard my words. Send Cosine to the third floor.”

“ Yes, my liege,” a scratchy voice suddenly came out from the orb, before the purple light dispatched.

Sham Rock pressed his lips, carefully wiping the sweat from his brow. “ T-Then, I’ll see to reinforcing the security measures of this building… we must certainly not allow another slip up like this.”

“... Indeed,” Arcsin responded before falling silent.

An uncomfortable silence befell between the two, and for a moment Sham Rock was unsure of what to do. However, the sudden pressure on his neck was the sound hint of where this was leading to.

“... I must tell you, Sham Rock,” Arcsin continued, his eyes glowing a faint red from the shadow of his hood. Sham Rock had not even noticed, but Arcsin had moved behind him. “ This aid of mine has been incurred towards your debts. You must be aware of what that implies… yes?”

Sham Rock nodded slowly, his widened eyes never leaving the silver and curved claws that protruded from the deep-red rubbery skin of Arcsin’s hand. Arcsin continued his grip on Sham Rock, his eyes illuminating bright orange as they bore holes into the stallion. Eventually, however, Arcsin released the stallion, making his way towards the far end of the room.

“ This sparing generosity of mine grows thin,” Arcsin growled, though his voice died out as he glanced over at the piles of skulls, “ though… should you resume your offerings, perhaps I may be open to lenience.”

Without anything more to say, Arcsin’s body merged into the wall, disappearing from the room entirely. A deafening silence flooded the area, and for a moment Sham Rock continued to hold his breath. He slowly looked towards the rows of skulls that lined the walls, his eyes dilating as an uncomfortable grin stretched across his face.

“ … perhaps it’s time I reopened employment applications…”

“... I, um, think this is it…”

After what felt like hours of agitated walking, we found ourselves standing in front of a giant metal roll-up door. Next to the door were the numbers thirty-four on the wall, written out in that one font they used in the military. Can’t really remember what the font is called, but that doesn’t matter. What really mattered was the implication that this place also had militaristic ties to it… but that’s just a baseless assumption.

Given that Fluttershy confirmed that this was the place, there was no point just standing around. With that in mind, I went and grabbed the handle of the door and swung it up freely. The entrance opened up without difficulty, and we were greeted with a large and dark interior. We were able to see some railing due to the light from the entrance, but beyond that was just a dark void.

“ …I wonder where the light switch is,” I muttered to myself, walking slightly in without a second thought and looking both left and right. I wasn’t able to see any switch box or something on the walls, which meant that we’d probably have to—

“ Found it!” Toothpick’s voice suddenly shouted out, followed by the ceiling lights turning on with a loud shutter effect. I blinked from the sudden change of lighting, putting my bandaged arm over my face. Squinting my eyes, I looked to my empty side to find Toothpick nowhere in sight. My attention then went back to the room, where I could see Toothpick waving while standing on the second floor.

‘... how the…’ How he got up there was beyond me, but the notion quickly went over my head. Instead, I went on to gawk as I took in the sight before me. Instead of finding ourselves in a small room filled with shelves, cabinets, and desks with stacks of papers, we found ourselves standing in front of a large hangar. With one floor above and one below, there were numerous doors on each level, going to rooms that were windowless or had the blinds turned. In addition, there was a subtle but noticeable buzzing sound that filled the air—likely due to the ceiling lights. In short, it felt like walking into the heart of an office building… though, strangely, the entire lower floor was completely flooded. Must’ve been due to burst pipes around here.

“ … well, I guess we start looking,” I hummed, crossing my arms.

Fluttershy nodded meekly, though she gave me a concerned look—specifically towards my bandaged body. “ Um, please be careful of your injuries…”

… right, of course she would still be worried about that. Given that my shirt was beyond repair, and that Fluttershy wouldn’t stop pestering me about my wounds, after the fights a while back I went out of my way to use the jagged ends of the metal around the place to cut my shirt into strips. And with Fluttershy’s thoughtful and doting help, we used the strips of my shirt to bandage most of my wounds. It wasn’t the best, sure, but it left Fluttershy just slightly more at ease.

I’ve technically already noticed this, but… Fluttershy isn’t really the type for violence. That much is obvious. I… I kinda feel bad that she saw all of that unfold, but at the same time… I warned her not to come, so…

…No… I can’t use something like that against her. That’d be unfair.

I sighed, giving the pegasus a small smile. “ Don’t worry, Fluttershy… I’m a lot tougher than you think.”

“ U-Um, ok, but… just please be a little more careful.”

“ Sure, will do… let’s get searching so we can get outta here sooner.”

With a small nod from her, we both fully entered the hangar and began our search. For what, exactly? Well, we just needed to find an indicator of where they’ve kept their recent shipments. Once we get that, we can go there and get my shit back; simple as that Toothpick had already gone out of his way to begin searching the upper level, so me and Fluttershy pretty much split the main floor in half. Bottom floor was out of question, and I doubt there was anything important underneath that still water.

The first few doors greeted me with empty rooms, the only real differences being the toppled chairs and tables. Opening my fifth door, I found something different. Suddenly, I was greeted with a wave of a distinct foul stench. Scrunching my nose, I patted the wall earnestly before feeling the switch level for the lights. Flicking on, I was greeted with the sight of a corridor covered with moss, vines, and a dirt floor to pair with it. The corridor went in a downwards slope, with the ceiling lights barely lighting the path. At the end, I could see a sharp turn, meaning it went even deeper.

“... yeah, no,” I soundly closed the door and moved on. Despite the… oddity of what I just uncovered, it’s pretty obvious that whatever that path led to was irrelevant to our goals. And so, I moved on, going to the next door. However, each door I opened thereafter led to even stranger rooms. A room filled with honeycomb-shaped walls, another room with a kaleidoscope of glass panels, and even one with a bunch of fuzzy chairs. I had absolutely no idea what any of these rooms meant, but each one I found myself looking at only further added to my thoughts that I was wasting my time.

Eventually, me and Fluttershy met up at the far end of the hangar, having completely checked through each door on both sides. Judging by her confused expression, it also seemed like she didn’t find anything useful.

“ No luck huh?” I asked, leaning against the cool concrete wall.

“ Uhm, no…” Fluttershy muttered, rubbing a hoof on her leg with a wry smile, “ they’re very, um, unique rooms.”

“ Yeah… taking the exotic of their name to the next level,” I sighed, staring up at the second floor, “ anything up there, Toothpick?”

“ No, not really!” Toothpick’s voice shouted out. “ Except for this one room! I found a bunch of papers in it talking about logs and stuff! Why do these ponies like logs so much?!”

…

Me and Fluttershy shared a look. She gave an amused giggle while I simply sighed into my palm.

‘ This kid…’

The room Toothpick was talking about was just as we had expected it to be; an office room filled with file cabinets and stacks upon stacks of papers. This was the ‘server hub’ that we had been looking for on the map, not whatever the hell we stumbled across down below.

Getting to work, Fluttershy led most of the reading while I tried to figure out which papers seemed important enough. It really sucks that I couldn’t read any of this shit, despite me having clear and concise conversations with these ponies. Whether I permanently settle down in this civilization or not, one of the most important things I should do soon is get my literacy on their language. It will help in more ways than one.

“... Robert, I think I found it…!” Fluttershy exclaimed, her eyes widened as she lifted up a particular packet. I instantly dropped whatever I was holding and moved over to her, leaning in and staring at the papers. To aid me, she pointed a hoof towards a specific body of text. “ This here says a wooden carriage was shipped in a couple of days ago… the client name is FFB.”

Bingo. I fucking knew it, and here’s the damn confirmation! I struggled to hold back my grin. “ Yep, that’s it. Does it say where the carriage is now?”

“ Um… yes, floor four, section eight, deck three.”

… hm, so it looks like we went deeper than we needed to go. This meant that we just had to go up… which is a good thing. Once we get my shit, it’ll be easier to dip out of this black market shithole. “ Alright, that’s all we need to know then. Let’s get going.”

“ Wait, Mr. Robert,” Toothpick suddenly spoke out, jumping out from underneath one of the desks, “ didn’t you say we were going to see some of the sea ponies?”

I paused, my eyes widening slightly. Right… the whole attack from the demons had thrown me off for a bit. I nearly forgot about the sea pony trafficking they’re doing around here… nearly. But, like said before, we couldn’t really do much about it. Even if we did go there… I’m not sure whether we could safely bring them out or something along those lines. A shame, really, but I had to be realistic here.

… It’s sort of embarrassing, now that I thought back to what I was yapping before. Out of the blue response without even a second thought to it… I’m just shocked I did something like that. And now I sort of instilled the ‘heroic’ idea into this kid… I should be more careful with my words.

“ …Fluttershy, have you seen any documents about that here?” I cautiously asked. If we really wanted to make an impact here about the sea pony trade, then the best bet we got for that problem is just turning in a bunch of documents to the authorities. Whether it helps or not, it’ll at least be some sort of action.

“... hm… no, they’re all just recent shipments,” Fluttershy muttered as she skimmed through the papers, “ I… i-if the sea ponies are down here, then they've p-probably been down here for a while… so, we’ll have to look deeper.”

I frowned, looking around at the numerous file cabinets around the room. There was just too much; even if I did say before that we didn’t have a time limit on ourselves, that was a lie now. With the whole fight against the demons, I’m sure we’ve caught the attention of the owners of this place and will probably be expecting visitors soon. We’ll just have to take whatever we can before then.

Glancing around the room, I found a brief case conveniently resting on the side of one of the desks. Grabbing it, I put it on top of the desk and popped it open. There were a few documents in there, but enough space to fill it up. And so I did, taking up all the papers on the desks and stuffing them into the briefcase. When I was done, I closed it tight and locked it. The pony police could worry about unlocking it later.

“ Toohthpick, come here for a sec,” I ordered, beginning to remove the cloth bandages around my body.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened in shock when seeing this. “ R-Ro—”

“ Don’t worry, Fluttershy, the wounds are already sealed,” I quickly cut her off, giving her an assured smile as I undid the bandages. Sure enough, once I got the ones on my chest off, you could see three long dark scabs on my chest.

“ Why do you need—woah!” Before Toothpick could ask, I was already in action. Pulling him close, I dumped the briefcase on his back, causing him to bend sound slightly from the weight. No second later, I took the cloth bandages and wrapped it around his body several times, effectively, binding the briefcase to the colt.

“ You’ll be carrying this briefcase around, Toothpick,” I said, fastening the knot before standing up, “ make sure you don’t drop it, alright?”

“ W—it’s too heavy, Mr. Robert!” Toothpick complained, visibly struggling to take a few steps.

“ Don’t be a wimp kid,” I snorted, making my way towards the exit, “ hurry up, we’re going for now. We can’t afford to act too leisurely now.”

Giving no room for a response, I quickly made my way down the stairs, returning towards the main floor of the hangar. Barely following close behind, Fluttershy and Toothpick made their way back into the outside corridors and struggled to catch up to me.

Author's Note

I feel like this chapter was less in quality... well, I hope it turned out well.

So far, Robert and co. have found some lead towards getting his belongings back. The fight with the two demons was tough, but they managed to pull through. Will they face more in the coming chapters?

If you have any questions or comments, please do leave a comment. I love reading critique on my works, since I really want this to turn out well. With that said, have a good day/night (and also late happy halloween!)