The years after the fall

I awoke hearing Daisy wrapping up Dirk's leg in a bandage, and Sugar speaking  to the newcomer. "What is your name, and where are you from?" Sugar asked nicely.

"I am from sector 6" the pony replied, "My name is Tuxedo Changer." Everything stopped.

Daisy looked over at Tux from where she was addressing Dirk's wounds and gave him a mean scowl. He looked hurt, and said "it wasn't like you think, the changelings have had me imprisoned for over a month. They took my form and infiltrated the system."

I glanced back at Daisy, who had neared the sleeping back still containing the sleeping Strawberry and Jet. She looked wary now, and was slowly getting closer. Tux's green mane was rustled now, and he started looking scared. "I swear!" He shouted, "It wasn't me!"

Sugar stepped in front of Daisy, and led her away before she could get at him. "Now dear, we can't kill him if he's one of us. Even if they have taken advantage of  him." Daisy looked regretful, and shot another glare at Tux.

"Ok everypony, we need to find a way back into the Underground, because the surface is too dangerous." At this point, everypony was awake, and Jet trotted over to where I was, and asked, "What's going on?"

"We are trying to find our way back inside"

"Ha" Sugar said, "Good luck with that. The doors are sealed shut to prevent another breach"

"Well, there must have been a way in for the changelings to attack us" I replied, looking over at Tux. He nodded and said "Yes, yes there is, it's about 2 miles from here, up on the mountain. I believe your friend Dasher is already exploring the area."

This was the first time he really had an accent. He sounded kinda like a human Russian, based on the audiobooks I had heard. Also, I kinda was wondering where Dasher had gone, especially after the battle. I hadn't seen him in two days. Well, better look for him I guess.

I turned to Sugar. "Me, Jet and Strawberry will scout out the area and meet up with Dasher, you guys stay here."

Sugar nodded and beckoned for Strawberry to join us. "Godspeed Tup." She said in response.

We headed off in the general direction of where we believed Dasher to be.

Jeez these hills got really hard to climb up. We didn't risk flying because of the changelings who might be patrolling overhead. "Hey Tup, when are we going to get there?" Jet shouted over the cold wind. "I don't know," I yelled back, "We should be getting close!" I glanced up to the mountain, which was looking a lot larger now that we are up closer to it. Now the wind had picked up, and snow was billowing around us. "Where's Dasher?" Jet shouted, "He should be around here". "Dunno" I replied, "Tux said he should be around here somewhere." As we got to the top of the hill, we noticed four figures below. One of them was clearly Dasher, and the other three looked like changelings. "Get down!" I whispered harshly to Jet and Strawberry, not wanting to attract the attention of the figures below us. As we ducked down, I brought out my scope to see what was going on easier. I looked down the scope, and I noticed that one of the figures I assumed to be a changeling was...... Wait...... Kicker? No way, he was supposed to be dead! Kicker grinned evilly at Dasher, and then turned and retreated into a snow-covered door, an underground bunker. The other two changelings followed him and the door shut behind them. Whatever they were talking about must have irritated Dasher, because he turned away grumbling. I motioned to my comrades to stay put as I approached Dasher, who I no longer believed was a pony. Dasher looked up, and looked fearful of something.

"Why were you conversing with the enemy?"

"I..... Um...." Dasher suddenly pulled out a gun, semi-auto by the looks of it, and started shooting at me.

Bang!

Dasher's head exploded, and suddenly he changed. Into a changeling, of course.

Of course! It all makes sense now! We were being attacked from the inside! The changelings must have created a voice system so they could talk, which means.... They could be any one of us. It would explain how the camp was so quickly destroyed. They must have slipped in as "ponies" and then used the voice system to get past security.

"You ok Tup?" Strawberry's sweet voice rang out in alarm.

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks, just a little shook up is all"

We looted the changeling's body and found nothing of importance, except a key which I assumed was to the bunker. I trotted up to the door, which had an obvious keyhole, and activated it. The door spiraled open, and a dark corridor with pillar like structures jutting off the walls appeared.

"Uh Tup, I hope you don't plan on going down there....." Jet sounded uneasy.

"Well it's the fastest way to get to the mainframe, Tux said so himself" I replied, and slowly walked into the corridor. Strawberry and Jet followed suit, and lights suddenly flickered on. The corridor was very long, and the lights were bright. The walls were white/grey. The door slid shut behind us. As we walked down the corridor, I noticed a big spot of graffiti to my left. It was painted in..... Blood? TURN BACK NOW! The graffiti said, and the blood was dripping down. There was hoof-prints around the letters, on the wall as well as the ground, and it looked as if the pony was dragged a good few yards before the trail of blood ended.

But there was no body.

How odd.

I looked at my companions reactions. Strawberry shuddered, and Jet just shook his head and looked away. We neared the end of the corridor, and there were steps leading down into a chamber that had a dark red glow to it.  As we ascended into the darkness, we heard a voice come over an intercom. "Aha! So I see you have found my laboratory." A crazy-sounding German voice said, "Welcome! I hope you find it here most.... Hospitable...." He laughed, "Ah, who am I kidding? You will die in here, just as many others have. Your friends Dasher and Kicker found that out the hard way."

By this time we were in formation, guns ready to fire.

"What do you know of Dasher and Kicker?" I shouted.

"I know they were dead when I found them, but I have given their life new meaning! New purpose! To serve our glorious Queen!"

I noticed that in our square chamber, about 15 feet wide, there were some ventilation shafts on each of the four sides. And a gas was slowly seeping out of them. "GAS!" I yelled, and quickly covered my mouth, motioning the others to do the same. We rushed to the opposite side we came, and there another door open and led us to another corridor. "Enjoy your stay" the evil voice cackled, and the intercom went dead as we left. When the lights went up, so did an auto-turret that was previously deactivated. "Warning, this is a restricted area. Authorized ponynel only." A monotone mare's voice blared over a hidden speaker "Trespassers will be shot"

Well that was good to know.  It took the auto-turret about two seconds to realize we were there, and by the time it did, we had put so many bullet holes in its shell you could hardly recognize it anymore. Sparks flew out or the broken turret as we rushed down the corridor. A door labeled D34-R opened on our left, and a very pretty looking mare almost crashed right into us. "Whaaat" she said, startled. We pushed past her into the room. There was nopony else there, and the mare looked very startled. "Who are you ponies? And why have you broken into my laboratory?"

"Sorry ma'am, we're just passing through. We're looking for a way back into the Underground"

"I'm sorry, I haven't ever heard of the 'Underground' before" her sweet voice replied. She couldn't have been much older than 17, very young to be in a civilization like this. But who am I kidding? I am 17. "Who are you though?" She wondered out loud. "I'm Tup, this is Jet and Strawberry", I pointed to my comrades, "Now who are YOU?"

"My name is Autumn" was her bashful reply.

"Well Autumn, we aren't here to hurt you or steal your things. We are here to liberate you from the changeling army, as well as get back home ourselves." I said in a non-threatening tone.

"What are changelings? What are you talking about?"

"Changelings are creatures that look like ponies, but they aren't. They mimic ponies form to enslave them."

At this point, Strawberry and Jet were looking around the room, noticing the details, such as there were multiple desks that consisted of alien technology.

"Where did you get all of this stuff?" I asked.

"Well, I found it here. I was born here you know, and today was the first day I was supposed to leave this area in 6 years."

So she didn't know about the blood signs or the apocalypse.

"Hmmm. Maybe you shouldn't go outside after all" I said, "because it's too dangerous. But maybe when we get back we'll take you with us."

"That would be nice" she replied, and went to one of the control counsels.

"You will come... Right?"

"I hope so"

We left the room and continued down the corridor. The lighting was going dark, maybe because we were trespassing, or maybe it was because the lighting system was just bad. Either way, it didn't make it any easier to navigate through the corridor. We kept bumping into each other, and it was irritating.

An alarm blared and another turret turned its guns at us. "God DAMNIT!" I exclaimed, "We don't have time for this. Strawberry, do you have anything that can take this thing out?"

"Uh... I think so...."

"Well use it!"

"Ok" she replied as she threw a flash bang-looking grenade down the corridor.

"Watch out for the blast!" she shouted, just as a shockwave passed over us.

Any lighting there might have been was gone. The turret sparked and the guns lowered. "What... What was that?" I asked Strawberry.

"That, was an EMP grenade, used to scramble signals from enemy equipment back in the war when they were using the SCW. Changelings had changing abilities but to a point. When they invented the SCW, or Special Changeling Weapons, they used it to infiltrate our defenses. Shortly afterwards, we invented these EMP grenades, but it was already too late. Looks like they still come in handy. I'm glad I kept them."

"I am too."

We walked down the corridor, and got to the next room. Inside was a massive chandelier, as well a huge dinning table. The place had to be just as big as the one in Canterlot!

Suddenly, there was a bunch of scrabbling noises coming from a door to our left. The door flung open and Kicker, minus his two body guards,  walked out. "Aha" he exclaimed, in the same weird voice we heard over the speakers, "I  knew I would find you here."

"You...." I snarled, and pulled out my pistol.

"What is this place, and why did you betray us?" Jet demanded.

"Hahahaha" Kicker laughed "You really don't know anything do you? This place was built on the backs of slaves, a testimony of our will to the Queen, the TRUE Queen of Equestria. As for Kicker, he didn't betray you, and neither did Dasher. They just had to be imprisoned until our work is complete."

"Don't worry," he added, looking nervously at Jet,"they are quite alright, just in a sleep-like state, in the queen's castle in Canterlot."

"We don't need you alive, scum" I said through gritted teeth and I pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Kicker in the neck, but he was still smiling for some reason.

"Ahahahahaha, you lose,Tup."

And with that, explosions were heard in the distance. And they were getting closer. "We need to get out of here!"

"No shit!" Jet replied, and we turned around leave. We ran down the corridor, with Strawberry leading, and with each explosion the walls shook, and dust and small rocks fell down. We stopped just long enough to try and pick up Autumn.

"What's going on?" She asked urgently, "I heard explosions."

"Kicker must have rigged the place to blow up! We need to leave NOW!"

"But what about the other five?" Autumn asked, "the other five in captivity? The ones we were supposed to research? In the lab?"

"We can't leave any pony behind" I told my companions, "where is the lab?" I asked Autumn.

"It's two doors down on the right. D36-R."

"You three stay here, I'll go find them." I volunteered.

"Sounds like a plan!" Jet said in response.

The explosions were getting closer now, and much louder.

I rushed out of the room, and down the hallway to the lab. The door slid open, and I saw the five ponies, four of them in cages, the other one on a table, which from the looks of it, seemed to be ready to undergo an operation. They all were mares, and they all looked scared. I decided to unlock the cages and go for the pony on the table last. They all had weird hair colors, and I glanced down at their cutie marks. One of them was three blue jewels, one was three balloons, another was three butterflies, and another was three apples. After I unlocked the cages, they quickly hurried out of the room, nodding their thanks. "Go to room D34-R" I told them, but if they heard me, they didn't acknowledge it. The last one was on the table. Her hair was of the rainbow, and it looked shaggy, her coat was blue, and her cutie mark was a rainbow mixed with a cloud.

I could see she was awake, because her eyes were wide, and staring right at me. "Are you here to get us out?" She asked.

"Yes. What is your name?" I asked in reply.

"My name is Rainbow Dash."