The Mad Mane Six.

Chapter 9

Scootaloo ran as she escaped the creatures that were chasing her. She then hid in a spot she knew they would never find her. She waited as hooves past by her with not one stopping to search the tree. She then heard the returning. She the held her breath.
"Now, where could she have gone now? We always lose her around here, and no matter where we look, we can't find her." Something didn't seem right this time. Suddenly something pushed her out of the tree as a Shade picked her up and tossed her into the body of a mutant. The mutant immediately grabbed her and held her. Scootaloo struggled as the mutant tightened his grip to hold her still. She only gave in when it started to restrict her breathing. A mare then walked up to her.
"We've been hunting you down for awhile. Your quite the sneaky one, not that it helped us find you. Don't worry, it will help you." She said to her," Looks like we have our payday, for two bounties if she manages to get our second bounty for us."
"What do mean?" The mare laughed and then looked at the mutant, who then bore his head down upon hers and knocked Scootaloo out. It was the first time that she had slept in a week, so there was a bonus, but it's still painful.
She woke up in on a cold floor with a aching head. She looked around and found metal bars surrounding her. The green fire and jagged strand flags told her where she was at that point. Corruption's castle, in the dungeon. Figures the bounty hunters would send her here. She was a rebel, even if she didn't know about the rebellion that was now fighting against Corruption's reign, so it would be almost disappointing if she ended up elsewhere. Fortunately, she had a friend who help make the castle, specifically the dungeon. The bars all had a weak spot at the base, but she knew she had to wait for a guard to pass. It may take awhile, so she decided to look around and found someone that she had not see for a long time.
"Starlight, is that you?" Scoot said. She then was responded to by a dirty and bruised Starlight Glimmer. "I hear it, but I don't believe it. I haven't heard that voice in so long. Perhaps another Specter or delusion I created. No, it sounds older than what I would conclude. Scootaloo, is that really you?"
Scoot looked at Starlight and realized that Starlight's eyes were charred, she couldn't see. She realized something else, it wasn't a guard that was coming to visit, it was Chrysalis. Her regal, green, burning wings dragged along the floor. She then stopped in front of Starlight's cell. Starlight seemed a bit more docile as the sound of the wings scrubbing the ground. Chrysalis then produced a key and opened the cell.
Starlight quickly slunk to a corner and tried to stay away from the sound that had brought her so much pain. Unfortunately, that was not what Chrysalis's plan. " You have amused me so much, Starlight. 5 years of your torment and pain as I sought my vengeance for humiliating me, and every moment has been sublime. 5 years of hearing your screams and listening to your slow descent into your mind. I have enjoyed every moment, except for lately."
Chrysalis then got up and looks at Scoot, and then back to Starlight. She then turned and faced her back towards Starlight. "Since you have not entertained me, I have decided to end you, and a few others, lives. One a day, ending with you. It will take a week, but it will be time you can use to think about why you were never saved by your beloved princess." She then began to open the door and walk out, but not before stopping and admitting,"between you and me, I think it was because of two things. She was too scared to try, and the other, I think she never really cared for you anyway. The first execution is in a hour. Today is the day we say goodbye to a most annoying adventurer. I wonder how she tastes."
Chrysalis then left as guards the began to post themselves at the door, making it impossible to escape, must less say something helpful. Scootaloo had to wait, figures that she would. She had already made up her mind that she was getting out of there, but she now needed to fix her plan to include a blind, scared unicorn. One that may or may not be heavy guarded. Why does she put herself through this?
She had to think, and in that process, a hour passed by. More guards then came and started to gather Prisoners, and none gathered Scootaloo's interest, that was until they came to her cell. The guards opened it and Scootaloo then realized something was awry. They then tried to shackle her to a line of seven, including Starlight. Suddenly, she realized that Chrysalis had been waiting on her capture to enact her plan. This made escape more imperative.
Other than Starlight, she couldn't make out the other five, but she could tell that some were more mental than others. One kept laughing and commenting about fire, another just hummed a strange melody. There was one that glew like a dying ember in spiral patterns and another that had a yellow eye glaring to the back. The front one had a limp in the front left leg, making the chain clatter more. A strange group, and all seemed to be heading to watching one of them perish.
Suddenly, one of the guards then smiled and asked,"have you ever been to a execution girl?" Scoot only looked at him. "Better question, ever hear the screams and popping flesh of a living soul getting eaten by a being made from stone and fire? The smell is divine to us, burning hair and flesh, but it's that scream that really gets it going. Just think, you get to see it five times before it's your turn. Better yet, you get to smell it, taste the air, and hear the screams five times before you get to share the fate." The guard laughed, thinking that it was clever. The one that constantly laughed then suddenly stopped everything it was doing.
It was so sudden that one of the guards jumped at it, and then got angry. "Move you pathetic excuse for a mare." He then attempted to kick the mare to make it move. The blow connected with a thud, but she didn't move. The guard then tried to get his leg back, but found a issue. She had a hold of it, and the flickering fire from the guards body didn't seem to affect the mare. "What the..."
He didn't finish the sentence. The mare then moved in a manner that would suggest that her chains had been broken. She snapped the head off the body and tossed it aside. The one that the glow about them suddenly glew very bright suddenly and its chains melted off it. She then head-butted the nearest guard, who was more worried about the one that had seem to have broken free. That guards head was lobbed off and shattered, as was his body. It was as if a bomb had stuck him full force the other guards then started to recover from the incident and started to attack the two, only to have the yellow eyed one slip her chains and kicked the closest guard. It stunned him enough to allow the crazed mare to attack and snap it's neck. The final guard realized he was outmatched by a group of half-starved lunatics, and promptly ran to gather more to even the odds.
The glowing one took this chance to start freeing the others, and then spoke with feminine and yet gravelly voice," Firera you know know that it won't be long before more come along, and I don't have my blaster yet." Firera then answered, with a higher pitch that suggested the obvious fact that she was easy to excite. "Yeah, isn't it amazing, I didn't know we could have this amount of power without the weapons we found from those grave from that rift world. And just think, I was obsessed with hands at one point, but fire is so much more fun! Let go get our weapons!"
The yellow eyed mare then cut in, her voice was refined and trained, almost as if she was once part of the upper-crust of society. "I do thank you for releasing us, but even if you managed to find our weapons, how do you support to get out without having Chrysalis or Corruption come and defeat and then eat us? As far as I'm concerned, we may have just accelerate our death, although I'm glad that I have a fighting chance to make sure that Final Scratch gets out of here." Then the one that hummed the strange melody nodded. The one that had a limp didn't speak.
Once free, Scootaloo headed to Starlight and held her face, "you said you had weapons right? I think I may know where they are." Scootaloo said. The others looked at her and then asked,"who are you?" Scootaloo then looked at them with her purple eyes glaring with understanding and a slight bit of frustration. "I'm Scootaloo, of course it's been awhile since I was in Ponyville after the incident. I know this place top to bottom, I've done some sneaking around. Took a bunch of Bounty hunters to finally find me and flush me out. During my time hiding out here, I learned how to stay out of sight, but I hadn't been down here. Had I known that all of you where down here, I would have made it a priority to save you."
"I have many questions, but if you say that you know this place and how to avoid the hyper alert guards, then it's worth a shot to listen, we may not make it out any other way." Bomb Bomb said with certainty, and Firera just nodded energetically. The yellow eyed one looked at her with a bit of disdain, speaking to Scootaloo with a hint of suspension. "Out of all the places to hide, why here? Why not Manehatten or someplace like that?"
Scoot looked at her with a bit of understanding, they probably didn't know about the blood stained rainbows they gazed at with wonder. Scoot didn't event know about what was truly happening till that fateful day when the first Hunter attacked her and Rainbow Dash. That day marked the end of the world she knew, exposing her to the monsters that this world had to offer, long before the virus had set it's claws in. If it wasn't for three ponies, she would be another in the body count that was massive as it was. If she ever saw Rainbow, Featherlight, and Windbreaker ever again, she would have to thank them for getting her to this point. She wish she had before.
She then answered,"let's just say, it was a crime to be born broken. Anyway, we need to get moving, there should be a lose stone around here somewhere." She looked around and the walked up to a floor stone and lifted it up. Underneath it was a passage that was dark and musty. Scoot then climbed into as she knew these passages. The others took a moment to think about till they started to hear the footsteps of several guards. Once that sound was made out, it only took the seconds to get going, making sure they placed the stone back in order to make it look as if they had disappeared without a clue left to where they were going.
It was a tight squeeze, but one they could manage it without anyone complaining. They then heard the hoof-beats above them, and it reinforced the need to not complain. They quietly followed Scoot till they got to a ladder of sorts. It looked worn, but sturdy enough if they went up one at a time. Scoot went up first. She checked if it was clear, which it was. She then beckoned Starlight up the ladder, and the blind mare was hesitant, but a little push helped her. Once Starlight made to the top, the rest climbed up without any sort of issue. They then continued forward the passage here was much taller and not as tight, far more comfortable. After a period of silence and travel, Scoot finally found a place to stop. She then pulled out a stored set of food, which was wrapped in a cloth. She pulled out as sort of unleavened bread. There wasn't a lot of it, but there was enough to put some food in the half-starved, which would make things a bit better. It was also fortunate that the nightmares were omnivores, and while they complained quietly that it wasn't meat, they still ate. All except the one with a limp, who still wouldn't talk as well as show her face in any light, making it hard to determine who she was. Finally someone got tired of waiting to find out.
"Who are you exactly?" Said the yellow eyed one. The limping one looked at her and decided to ask,"what's it matter, especially for someone like you? You haven't told us your name have you, and yet you spoke of your companion's name. So, who are you exactly?" The yellow eyed one snarled at the question posed in a voice that was feminine, strong, and heroic. She then calmed down and answered,"if you must insist on knowing it, my name is Octavium Bloodbow. Now, it's time for you to do the same."
"Fine, I'm Daring Do, explorer and writer of the series. You, should know my pen name when I was a author. A. K. Yearling. Course that doesn't matter now. When Equestria fell, so did she." She said, a air of sadness hinted at the fact that she understood what she meant. She then pulled a light to her face and showed them the scars. Three massive scratches on her left side of her face was just tame considering that she had a bloody, red, blind eye on that side. "That's what broke her, my baptism in blood."
She then pushed the light away from her, "a monster called a Ryeger attacked me the day after I had retrieved a artifact that made the victims of the virus calmer. I planned on giving it to Twilight before she left, but it didn't work like I thought. The Ryeger came out of nowhere and started to maul me. It was fast, and didn't leave me any time to react to it. Before I knew what hit me, it's claws gouged into my my face and sliced my eye. The impact threw me into the ground, and it snapped my wing till it faced backwards. The thing then grabbed with both claws and bounced me off the ground, making my leg get crushed underneath me. I felt it pop out of socket. It then grabbed me and started to pull me towards it's toothy maw. It thought I was looking at the spiky vice grip of death, it smelled of it. Then I saw a metal spear go through the maw, coming from the top. One of the locals had saved my skin, and I was grateful for it. Unfortunately, I repaid them by being a target for Corruption's hunters. They saved me, healed me, and I couldn't do the same when it became time. It's something I continue to regret, and physically and mentally, I'll never be the same."
Scoot thought she was a survivor, but her accomplishments and tragedies paled in comparison to what she was just told. Daring just sat in silence afterwards. Octavium and Final stared downwards, and even Firera switched over to a more downtrodden demeanor. Then came Bomb Bomb. "So you definitely had a bad time, lass. It's not everyday that someone had saved my skin by being there at the perfect time, and much less considering the monster in question was a Ryeger. I've face one of them, and it took a lot of explosives to even mane it. It was only after Firera stabbed with her katakana. It seemed like the head in particular was susceptible to attacks that pierce through it skull. If, that is, your quick enough. Your injuries are devastating, but your here. I think that you'd want to survive, considering all that tried to keep you alive. It doesn't matter if the ones that saved you have died or not, what matters is whether or not you you live to honor that decision." Bomb Bomb said, looking around, as if she meant the message to be for more than just Daring Do.
They all sat in silence as the message sank in. Scoot then got up and said,"well, if you mean that, then you better back it up. The room we seek is up ahead."
   She then got up and moved a stone and revealed a armory of sorts. It was small, but we'll equipped. Inside was a assortment of melee weapons, a large blaster and set of guns that had a strange tank on the back of them. The melee weapons included a katakana and a modified now that would be used for a Cello. Blood covered the string, which seemed to be made of a thin metal string. It was a twisted creation from the mind of a mad mare, and she grabbed it with a embrace of a mother with a child who she had not seen for a year. Octavium talked to her blood bow,"look at that, they forgot to clean you. Probably don't know how to anyway. Now your all rusty and dirty, and in need of a drink. Let's just hope none of those mean nightlings get in our way or you have ash before blood."
   Bomb then picked up the blaster and held it, checking and seeing if what was in the clip, she frowned at the two grenade rounds that were there. Smoke rounds could put a hole in a drywall wall, but barely meant anything other than barely obscuring the vision of a nightmare. In other words, it was useless until the ammo got changed. Firera didn't fare as well either, for there was no ammo in her guns. Only melee weapons and bare hooves at this point. Scoot noticed the grim looks coming from those two.
   "Is there a issue?" Scoot asked. The two looked at each other and Firera  then said,"we got the guns, but we don't seem to have the ammo to use them. Even if we wanted fight, it would be a death sentence to get into one. Got a way out of here?"
   Scoot looked at the group. "I have one idea, but it's gonna be difficult, and it will make a bit of noise. It will mean running once we get clear." The group look at each other, and then Firera asked,"what exactly is it then?"