The Dark Ones

After a very short walk, the seven stopped in front of a closed gate. Khan turned to face the colorful little mares, breaking the semi-silent haze of the whispered conversation they were having. *A word of warning: should we see any more of my kind, don't expect them to be as accepting as myself. Even if you are not mistaken for mutants, most of the decent denizens of the Metro bear great distrust even towards their own kind.*

*‘Decent denizens’?* Twilight asked, her head cocked slightly to the side.

Khan sighed. *This new world has brought out the worst in some of its denizens, young princess. A portion of humanity, including those that live here in Dry Station, make a living out of criminal acts. Others devote themselves to power ideologies of the old days, and are hostile to everyone that does not share their view of the world. It is… ill-advised to meet either.*

Khan turned the knob on the rusted door, opening the passage to an old maintenance room lit by a lantern, and waved the ponies inside before closing and deadbolting the entrance. Pinkie Pie, the last to enter, deflated slightly at the emptiness of the room. “Aw, isn’t there anypony else for our camping party?”

Fluttershy came close to the man as he shed his gear, sitting down on a pile of rags not unlike a hay nest on the ground. *Why?* was the only thing she asked.

*It’s hard to say,* he admitted as he sat down, taking a metal dart and inserting it into the barrel of the Helsing he had just unslung from his shoulder. *While a few do it simply because they can, some are victims of the circumstances, just like us. The stomach only cares about the food, not how it was obtained.*

Fluttershy wilted like a leaf on a fire. Everything she had experienced so far – her second-hand view of the slaughter Khan had committed in self-defense, his tales of the Metro's citizens' constant fight for survival, distrust of other good ponies out of fear, and now ponies being evil out of necessity – was shocking and heartbreaking on an almost eldritch level to the particularly gentle pegasus. It went against literally everything she had been taught, everything she herself stood for, not only as an Element of Harmony, but as an Equestrian citizen and subject of Princess Celestia.

The more the animal specialist thought about it, more did the frustration and depression within her heart condense and compress into itself, coalescing to a point where it change into something completely different, something that twisted and contorted her normally meek features.

Then, she didn't feel like crying anymore.

_______________________________________________________________

“Oh, come on, Artyom, that was funny!” Bourbon said between snickers. “You should have seen your faces, yours and his!”

As it turned out, Bourbon’s revolver was empty. The hammer clicked on air, and Bourbon only laughed at the look on the bandit’s face before he kicked him in the head. I knew nothing of the prank at the time, and didn’t know what to think even long after Bourbon pulled it off. Despite his constant smell of whiskey, the bad sense of humor and the patronizing tone he used most of the time when talking to me, losing the only friendly company I had in these passages was not something I was looking forward to.

Bourbon stopped snickering a little later after he saw my mood didn’t change. “Ah, forget you, you sour puss,” he grumbled. "Okay, then, back to business. Listen up, Artyom: we’re definitely not getting to the next station before the gates close for the night, so we'll sleep outside. I want you to watch my back while I set up our camp."

I nodded and shouldered my Bastard while examining the surrounding area. We were in a stairwell just large enough for the two of us to get some rest, and while it looked structurally sound, that didn’t mean it was. This one didn’t seem to fit the rule, though.

"Artyom, give me your lighter."

I retrieved the small device from my pocket and tossed it towards him.

"Thanks." I turned to see him pull out a cigarette and puff nonchalantly on it. I took a step away from him to get some distance from the nauseating stench as the old tobacco burned. "Oh, don't tell me a little bit of smoke bothers you more than the sight of someone’s' brains on a wall?" he teased, the blaze at the end of the cigarette tracing lines on the dark air as he waved his hand around. He laughed. “You’re an odd one, boy. I like you.”

I shook my head at him and walked down the stairs to find some relief from that putrid vapor. To my surprise, I found a new weapon on a backpack forgotten at the foot of it. It looked like a rifle and was slightly larger than the Bastard, but it was lighter as well, with a top-feed magazine. The iron sights on it had green reflectors like the red ones of my revolver, and they lined up far better than those of the Bastard. A little cylinder on the side had a switch, which surprised me when I activated it – it was a laser sight. When I checked the magazine and the barrel, I had another surprise: this gun was chambered for the same 5.45 caliber as my old Bastard.

As awed as I was, I couldn’t stop a chill from crawling down my spine. Whoever left this gun behind must have had a very good reason to do it.

Wanting to test the new firearm, I lined a few cans on the stairwell's railing, took a few steps back, released the safety and sighted it. After adjusting the laser dot so it matched the sights, I pulled the trigger twice. Each shot equaled a can dropping down. My smile couldn’t grow bigger. I would stick to the deal I’d made with Bourbon, but I doubted I would need his AK anymore.

I walked back up the stairs, only to find said gun pointed at my face. The face behind the sights grinned with both annoyance and amusement. "Warn me the next time you decide to go trigger-happy, eh?" I shrugged, and it drew his attention to the weapon in my hands. “Ooooh, look at what we have here! Was this the peashooter you were playing with down below?” I nodded. “Let me take a look.”

I couldn’t help but hug the rifle close to my chest. “The deal still stands. I get you to Dry, you give me your Kalash.”

Bourbon did not react with the anger I was expecting. Instead of that, he laughed, the hardest I had heard him laugh so far. “Oh please, kid, do you think I make a living out of stealing my partners’ guns?” he said after he calmed down a little. It didn’t last long – he looked at my scowl and cracked up once again. “Fine, fine, if you insist. I promise to stand the deal… and to not run off with your new toy. Now hand it over already.”

Reassured, I did as he asked, and he spent a good minute or two checking the rifle inside and out. “You’re wasting your luck if you don’t gamble often, Artyom. This baby is a Kalash 2012, latest model of assault rifle produced before the nukes. More valuable than a crate of fresh fruit,” he wondered as he pulled back on the lever, “and it’s intact to boot! Where did you find it?”

I pointed with a thumb over to the stairs behind me and shrugged. “It was just there.”

One of his eyebrows twisted down. “No body? Blood, spent shells, anything?”

I shook my head. “Only the ones I used up.”

Bourbon scratched his chin, muttering something about 'Arbatskaya'. “Well, that's another mystery for the record.” He rubbed his eyes. “Nnngh, I'm too tired to think right now. Let's just get to sleep.”

I couldn't agree more, but as I lay down on my sheet next to the fire, my mind wandered like the flames on the firewood.

Our bloody skirmish with the bandits was over. I had expected mutants and monsters... but how many more of my 'fellow humans' would try to kill me before I reached Polis?

__________________________________________________________________

“Come on, Twilight, newsflash time!” Rainbow Dash prodded. While Fluttershy went to talk to the human and Pinkie Pie started hanging streamers and balloons all over the pipes and ceiling fixtures, the pegasus, as well as Applejack and Rarity, had pulled the larger pony to a side as soon as Khan had locked them all in. “What did he say now?”

Twilight looked at each of the three expectant faces. “He told me that…” she closed her eyes and sighed, “… we shouldn’t expect a warm welcome from pretty much anypony else that lives here.”

“What?” Rarity asked, stopping her frequent attempts at removing the dust that clung to her mane. “Why is that, darling?”

Twilight paused. “From what I got out of it, the humans are... they're afraid, girls. Some of the stations are run by bandits... or fanatics.”

“Bandits? But we ain't got anythin' to do with those no-do-gooders!” exclaimed Applejack defensively.

“That's not the point, Applejack,” the bookworm continued. “They're afraid to trust anypony they don't know.”

She was about to talk more, but something interrupted her. The twin claps of keratin hitting concrete weren’t much louder than a Royal Guard’s marching step, but in the almost dead silence of the improvised dwelling, they reverberated with the strength of a bomb, to the point that a startled Pinkie fell from atop the valve handle she was standing on, landing on her rear beside her friends.

They all turned to where the noise came from, and were alarmed at the sheer rage Fluttershy was showing behind her teary eyes. *This is cruel, unfair and wrong! It’s just so wrong!* she vociferated bitterly. *Why doesn’t anypony do something about it?!*

“Hey!” As always, Rainbow Dash was the quickest to react, launching herself into the air. Had she the slower reaction of the other, non-pegasus ponies, she would have noticed her yellow friend wasn’t fighting with the human. She came to a stop right in front of Khan’s face. “You leave my friends alone!”

The human was unfazed – except for slowly leaning away from the tomboy pony’s breath range, something she didn’t take well, there was no reaction from him. “Hey, I’m talking to you!” Dash almost shouted, getting right back inside of his personal space. “It’s cool that you helped us back there, but that does not give you the right to bully Fluttershy!”

The other four moved to the ground of the confrontation, and Twilight, the only one who really understood Fluttershy’s angered talking, yelled out, “Rainbow, stop!”

Rainbow Dash being Rainbow Dash, it would take more than a claim from her friends to quit a confrontation. What did the trick, as usual, was a strong tug on her tail, but when she looked back, she was quite surprised to see Fluttershy, of all ponies, spitting out the colorful strands. “He’s not picking on me, Rainbow,” she said after a moment, her voice still scathing.

To say the more abrasive pegasus of the pair was confused would be somewhat of an understatement. “Wha- but- then what the hay was that?” she sputtered. “You were snarling at him, Fluttershy! I've never seen you do that, even at the Grand Galloping Gala!”

Fluttershy blushed fiercely at the memory Rainbow had brought up. “I did? I'm so sorry...” she muttered, now back to her gentle melody. She steeled herself. “Anyway, I'm not angry at Khan. He’s nice.”

Twilight stepped up between Rainbow Dash, who was still flying low in the same spot, and Khan, who had calmly retreated back to his pack. Her purple wings were imposingly flared out to the sides, blocking Dash’s view of Khan. “Girls, it looks like we’ve got a misunderstanding in our hooves,” she said. “Fluttershy, you were complaining to Khan about something being evil and wrong. What were you talking about?”

The question re-kindled the fire within the bearer of kindness. “Oh, Twilight, it’s this world!” she exclaimed in frustration. “Critters shouldn't be dying just to get food home, because they are starving too much to pass on it for a day! Good ponies shouldn't be forced into being evil out of necessity! Not trusting somepony you don’t know just because they could be mean isn't right! The surface isn't supposed to be too dangerous to live on! Everything is backwards!” The last line marked the peak volume of the mare’s voice so far, as she pounded the ground again in frustration. Her voice started to crack. “Where is the harmony of this... Metro place?! Why don't their princesses set things straight?!”

Now that the rage in her heart was vented, Fluttershy slumped to the concrete, feeling too utterly drained to do anything. The tears began rolling, painting thick mustard-colored lines of wet fur under her eyes. “It's just not fair...”

Most of what Fluttershy told was news to all Elements but Twilight, and even she was taken off guard by a few of the facts being spoken by the perspective of one of her friends. As a consequence, while the others had a thin veil of disbelief to soften the impact, they hit her full-force. “I-I…” she stammered, turning to Khan, *… is that true?*

The man observed the ponies – four other heads had spun in his direction as Twilight spoke – for about two seconds, impassible. Then, slowly, he closed his eyes and nodded once. *A sad truth… but a truth nonetheless.*

It didn’t take knowledge of the Russian – or, as Equestria knew it as, Avian – for everypony to understand that Khan was confirming the story told by the disconsolate pony. Several sets of ears folded back, one set of tail and mane started deflating, and Rarity lifted a hoof to her mouth. “This is horrible…” she said in a quiet, choked whisper.

A ragged breath coming from the floor pulled their collective unfocused attention back to Fluttershy. All but one of the mares were still too stupefied to move; the depressed pegasus was gently pried up off the ground and wrapped by two pink forelegs, and an equally pink snout nuzzled a lighter pink mane. Now in Pinkie’s grasp, Fluttershy sobbed even harder, a sound that finally snapped the other four ponies back into their senses. Even the most touch-shy of them moved automatically to the two, wrapping them up in a warm group hug that scared off the chill of the room.

Together, they watched as the human unrolled a blanket and extended it near the resting space he had made for himself. Just as he finished straightening the creases on the fabric, he looked up at them. * If I’m correct, you have numerous questions you would like answers to, but I suggest you ask them tomorrow. It is late right now, and you seem like you would welcome the rest,* he said as he waved towards the improvised sleeping arrangement.

There was logic behind those words, Twilight recognized. After her time-traveling stint some time ago, she finally recognized Spike’s advice that sleeping was a basic necessity, and depriving yourself of it was only privy to causing even more issues. Not to mention that, after the mass teleportation and everything after it, she was feeling quite spent.

“Darling, what did he just say?” Rarity asked as Khan set his pack on his own blanket. “Is he… inviting us to bed?”

She nodded. “He says it’s pretty late, and he’ll answer anything we have to ask tomorrow.”

“Uh, guys, I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash said with a quirked eyebrow, “that sounds kinda convenient, don’t you think?” She leaned in and whispered, “He could be goading us, waiting for us to sleep, so he can gobble us all up!” she finished theatrically.

Twilight had to admit to herself that she hadn’t considered the possibility of the man’s friendly act to be a ruse. Hers, Applejack’s and Rarity’s eyebrows shot up and their pupils expanded in apprehension as they embraced each other more tightly. However, within the pile, a snug Fluttershy mumbled something in a different tone from under Pinkie’s mane.

“What was that, Flutters?” the farm mare asked.

“She said she doesn’t believe that!” Pinkie chirped, still sounding somewhat cheerful despite the straight state of her hair. “Oooh, look, he’s doing something!”

Fluttershy wriggled out of the embrace to observe Khan along with the others. The human was busying himself with the straps of a canvas bag, from which he took out a discoid shape, which, when he bit down on it, emanated a pleasant fragrance throughout the room. As Twilight sniffed it, she blinked in recognition. “I know that smell…”

Before she could elaborate, a certain friend of hers was already mounted on Khan’s back, making the human stumble forwards so he could keep from falling. “Mmm, that smells good! What is it, what is it?”

The man faced the excitable Pinkie, and, failing whatever objective he had in mind, turned to the agglomeration of mares, among which were the only ones that could understand him. The complete befuddlement and helplessness in his expression, along with the aroma of the same mushrooms Twilight knew Zecora collected and sold as a natural protein supplement, instantly banished the thoughts of him being a threat from her mind.

Judging by the collective bout of laughter from all around the alicorn, she wasn’t the only one who relaxed at the display.