874 replies and 19 files omitted.
>>164010Silver goes into the cabin. He sees that there is a dead stallion pushed aside and onto the ground beneath and to the left of the driver's chair. He sees that there is at least one bullet hole. He sees that a panel of the front window has been physically removed, with trickle trails of blood leading up to it. And he sees a stick in the center, with a pedal beneath.
>>164011Silver looks out of the removed front window, wondering if somepony managed to get out of the train that way.
>>164012It goes down the tracks, to where the track goes north and splits off east. Maybe he can see vomit further down, hard to tell. There are no visible corpses, at least from this perspective.
>>164013It's not going to be pretty, if he runs over any of the corpses. He calls out to see if Spec is nearby.
>>164014"Yes?" Spec comes to Silver
>>164015"How are your wings? I do not know if there are any bodies directly in front of train. Window has been removed."
>>164016He looks at Silver, and blinks.
"Move it into the station. We'll change the tracks to let the other train go around."
>>164017Silver blinks as well.
"Uh...alright."
The unicorn looks at the pedal and the stick, wondering how they work. He first tries the stick to see what it controls.
>>164018Up and down. Moving it by itself, no change
>>164020Hmm...Silver gets in the seat, and tries the pedal while pulling the stick back.
>>164021Silver feels a slight jolt. Slowly, the entire train has started to move backwards.
>>164022"Okay, I think I get it..."
Silver tries to just edge it backwards inside the terminal.
"Did you see way for incoming train to switch tracks? It may be safer for us to move this train to next station."
>>164024Oh my God anon, you can’t just ask people why they’re German
I’m out of town right now>>164023“The platform has a double track. I’m not sure how to switch the tracks though.” Spectral Streak answers.
>>164038"Hmm..."
With the train backing up, can Silver see if there was a body in front of it?
>>164039Silver thinks he sees two corpses on the side of the rail line, possibly to be hit by the edge of a train, but certainly not going under the wheels.
>>164041Phew. That's good at least. Silver lets go of the pedal and pushes forwards on the lever, hoping that this will engage the train's brakes. He also looks to Spec.
"Are you good to fly? If you are, follow train tracks behind us to find where two lines split, there should be switching station nearby. I hope..."
>>164042He pulls his lips up in a strained smile and waves his right wing. "I think... I think I should get on the platform..."
>>164043"Right..."
Silver allows himself to think, for just a moment.
"There is train coming and we do not have much time to spare. Go ahead and get off train, drive to next station in line in your car. I will take this train along tracks to next station, and we will meet back up there. Does that sound like good plan?"
>>164044"It's... okay" He says, quickly nodding
>>164045"Unless you have better idea."
>>164046"Put it in the passing loop in the station." He says
>>164048"Well... Take it back into station. And switch the track for the next train."
>>164049"But how and where do we do that?"
>>164050"I... Well it should be automatic. I don't know. But there is a passing loop in the station."
>>164051Silver sighs.
"Do not take this wrong way, but...may I have your flashlight?"
>>164052He blinks. Then scrunches. "You've lost a lot of blood."
>>164053"Please, Spec, just for moment."
>>164054He sighs.
"Okay. Quickly." And holds his eyes open
>>164084Silver shines the flashlight into Spec's eyes, just to be sure.
>>164088Silver sees the golden eyes of his long-gone Storm Warning shing back at him, on top of two opaque white spheres
>>164101Silver turns the flashlight off.
"I do apologise, but you know what danger replacement can pose."
Silver gets on the radio.
"Anypony know how to switch train tracks so two trains can sit side-by-side on parallel tracks?"
>>164103Silver shrugs, pushes the lever forward, and presses the pedal to have the train go forward.
>>164104The train starts moving forward at a relatively low rate of speed
>>164105Silver looks forward out the window for the passing loop.
>>164107Silver keeps going forward.
"It is amazing when you think on it. This train is powered entirely on electricity, it does not use coal and steam like old trains."
>>164108Spectral Streak, however, is more anxious.
"Keep going. Faster!"
The train does pass a split, where the rail goes off eastward and north. The train continues moving north.
>>164109Silver keeps going, faster.
"Was that passing loop we passed?"
>>164110"No. The passing loop is at each station."
>>164111"So we have to go to next station, then?"
>>164112"Well now maybe we do." He says, evidently anxious
>>164113"Spec, we will be fine. Do not worry."
>>164114"Just keep going, and faster."
it isn't that long before Silver believes he is nearing the next station.
>>164115"Alright, look for passing loop."
>>164116Up ahead, Silver sees another covered train station. As before, the track splits along the length of the train station into two tracks, one which is adjacent to a platform (again on the right) and another beside the right track on the left. There are some ponies waiting at the station. Not a crowd, but some.
“Here” Spectral Streak says
>shitpost
No train rides for her.
>>164131So, this begs the question...
"How do we switch?"
>>164132gaspShe is for train rides!
Only the good ones though
>>164133Roll intelligence
[1d20-1 = (17-1) = 16]>>164134>IntelligenceHoh boy, not Silver's strong suit.
>>164135Silver remembers what White Orchid said to him once. The electrified trains will sometimes have radio connected switches in their cabs.
>>164136Silver quickly looks for such a switch to flip.
>>164142Silver does not see it, and he is very close to the station
[1d20+3 = (1+3) = 4]>>164143"Help me look!"
Silver desperately looks for the switch.
>>164147Oh, there we go. It’s on the right side on a panel beneath some other instruments. Switch it to the right.
>>164148>nat 1>"Switch it to the right."We all better start praying for the health and safety of Silver, Spec, and all of the ponies at the station.
Silver switches it.
>>164149The train enters the station, moving alongside the platform.
>>164150Did it switch, or did it remain on the same track?
>>164151Either it was supposed to go on the other track and Silver switched it, or it remained on the same track and was not switched. Hard to tell.
>>164152Silver looks to Spec for an answer.
>>164153“I don’t… I think the other train needs to go into the other track.”
Silver can either glide through the station, or go to another one.
>>164154Silver sighs, and keeps going.
"We are going to have some trekking ahead of us if we can not find way to loop around."
>>164155Silver moves ahead along open track. He can see to either side that new style of apartment building, three or four stories high, but also some stores, old apartment buildings, and a school. Silver sees a track that splits off to the left.
>>164168Can Silver switch the train onto that track?
>>164186That’s a good question. Can he?
>>164187Silver switches the switch to the left.
>>164189Silver moves along, and the train deviates off to the track in the left.
[1d3 = 1] >>164194Watching the train chug along, Silver has to shake his head occasionally to keep focus. He's having trouble staying alert with as much blood as he'd lost from getting shot.
"I hope we find medic soon. There
are medics in Homeguard, yes?"
>>164195“Some should have experience as medics. But the city has EMTs.”
For all of Silver’s internal problems, the world outside flies by at forty miles an hour. Silver sees office buildings with shops on the first floor, buildings largely from before the turn of the century. Silver knows that he is heading west, and now is in east side. The track, so long elevated above ground, now moves down into a dimly lit tunnel. Silver sees that here too, it splits, going straight, but with a section going left shortly after entering the underground.
>>164196Silver keeps the train going left, so as to loop around and eventually return to Jasmine Flower Station.
>>164197Silver moves into a tunnel with I-beam steel ribs separating it from the other track, and beige bricks walling against the ground, with a light placed every 50 feet or so. The track is parallel to the other, before slightly turning further left. Silver does not go very far at all before seeing in the train's forward lights, a wooden buffer, the rail suddenly ending, and a beige brick wall marking the end of the tunnel.
>>164198Silver has to pull back on the lever to engage the brakes.
"Блин!"
>>164201The train jolts, and Silver hears the sound of metal grinding as the train quickly comes to a stop a few feet before the buffer. Spectral Streak almost falls forward into the front window, before catching himself with a hoof
>>164202"Селестия, черт возьми! Почему маршрут закрыт?"
Silver outbursts in Cyrillic once the train stops, before turning to his son.
"Are you okay?"
>>164203“Yeah, ugh…” he pushes himself upright. “Let’s get out of here. And get you help.”
>>164204With the lever pulled back, Silver presses down on the pedal to get the train moving in reverse.
"We will try other route where track splits."
>>164205“Why?” Spectral Streak asks. “ I doubt that other train would want to come to
this line.”
>>164206Silver looks at Spec with a weird look.
"Would you rather trot all way back to Jasmine Station for car?"
>>164207"No. But I'm not sure it's safe to drive back, either."
>>164208"There may not be as much train traffic as there was. I think we will be fine."
I hope, he excludes from the sentence.
>>164209"Well, either we proceed on foot until we find a new car or a ride... or we go back the way we came, and hope not to collide with a train."
>>164211"I do not think I can trot very far in my current state. I am worried about passing out from blood loss as is. I vote we take train."
>>164212“I see.” He says, looking at Silver for a moment. “When we get out into the open, I will call the radio.”
>>164215"That is good idea, you know what to say to them and how to receive and relay information. I will keep piloting train."
Silver begins to do just that.
>>164217>>164223Silver starts moving the train backwards. He is unable to see behind him, only move the train backwards. The train moves out of the tunnel, back on the track going up (at reduced speed). Spectral Streak calls on the radio.
"We moved the train"
"The whole train?"
"Something like that. Line should be clear."
"Yeah, it seems they have already moved up to Poppy Field. Where were you?"
"We turned west to some dead end tunnel. We passed one station."
"You must have just barely been ahead of them. Give them a minute, of they stop at the next station to pass."
>>164224Silver hears this and brakes the train, hopefully more smoothly than last time. He calls to Spec.
"Am I on intersection or are we safe?"
>>164225“I…. We should be safe, I think”
>>164226Silver nods, and resumes backing up until the train is past the intersection.
>>164229As Silver moves back further, he notices that the rear cars of the train are turning north, the opposite direction from which they came. There must be another set of track that allows for mergers north.
>>164230"Hmm...Spec? Do you think way train is turning, we may be able to go back through way we came?"
>>164231“The tracks will need to be switched again.” Silver is now facing south on the track.
>>164232Silver flips the switch so they can go straight south back to Jasmine Flower Station, and moves the lever from reverse to forwards.
>>164233Left, and…. Moving forward. Silver sails down the line, going south. The train moves past the other station. Silver can see that there are still several ponies there. Mostly older, sons disabled, and sons with luggage. Some look hopefully at the passing train, though it moves by them all the same.
Silver eventually reaches Jasmine Flower Station.
>>164234If they knew what was on this train, they would not want them to stop. He brakes and stops the train in the station.
"Radio them that train is back in station. Also let them know about gas devices we found, and that they need to be on lookout for them."
>>164235Spectral Streak calls into the radio.
“Train is parked in Jasmine Flower Station. It’s… it’s not pretty inside. Chemical weapons used from some device. Many casualties. Four infiltrators killed in total, one before we got there. We have one casualty. Requesting a medic.”
Silver can’t hear the response clearly. But he knows he’s back in station, and Streak looks right at him.
>>164236"Device mixes two chemicals together to create gas. It is hyper lethal, judging from how quickly it seems some of these ponies died. Once started only way to stop it is to bash device until vials containing chemicals break open."
>>164237Silver adds to the radio. And from over the radio, someone adds
"We've seen those devices in Colton Hill. Nasty things."
Spectral Streak says to Silver.
"Okay, time to get out of this thing and get you sewn up."
>>164238"Good idea."
He gets up and out of the chair, staggering along as best he can.
"I am still good at fighting, but times like these? Makes me wonder if I am getting too old. Or maybe weapons have just become that much stronger over years."
>>164239"It's a bit of both... The time of individual heroes is long over. Has been for a while now really. Fighting is less personal. More industrial." He pauses for a moment. Silver and Spectral Streak, already sharing the cabin with a corpse, have to walk past the body of the stallion and the drone just to get to the front door next to the cabin, and even then it requires a mechanism to figure out how to open it.
"Nothing heroic about it, this industrial war. This kind of horror... I've seen it before. On a smaller scale, in raids, by the border. That was back before the War. But the War... In the cauldron at Ancornage..." He winces and shakes his head. "That was orders of magnitude worse. Worse that what I had seen before. Worse that what I've seen since. Worse even than this. It will stay with me until I die. I am happy to give back to the buggers what I can but... it'll never be made right."
By this time, Spectral Streak has figured out the door mechanism and has opened it.
>>164240Silver and his son continue to trot down the long corridors of the train, filled to the brim with the bodies of innocent civilians and guilty changelings alike.
"Да, I have seen things as well, before, during, and still after War. Great War changed many things. It changed world, it changed Equestria...changed us." He looks to his son. "Take this advice from old pony. All of this, it will stay with us for rest of our lives, but they do not define us."
He glares at the body of the changeling in the second car, the one who shot him multiple times.
"Remember what you wrote to me when War started? That we would push Chrysalis and all of her bug followers into Olenian Ocean?"
>>164241The changeling drone is at least actually dead, with many bullet holes through it, especially in the head. It isn't really necessary to go back through the whole train, as the cars are next to the platform now, or at least should be.
"It looks like it may still happen. This isn't how I imagined it happening." He says
>>164242Silver and Spec exit the train, where the unicorn stallion puts a foreleg over his son's back. Partially to hug him, partially to help maintain his balance after feeling a faint spell try to take him over.
"This time will be different. This time we will be together to very end. We will liberate Rockville, Las Pegasus, Tall Tale, Vanhoover. We will avenge those who fell at Acornage, when changelings first surround town. We will push into heart of Changeling Lands, and take hives at Vraks, Lyctida, Chrysalis' home of Vesalipolis, and port hive of Ditrysium. We will back Queen Bitch against edge of world, there at cliffs overlooking icy Oleanian Ocean. There, together, we will clip her bug wings, and both push her into icy depths, like we are meant to do."
>>164243Spectral Streak looks over at Silver as he walks, and he actually smiles. He makes a quick snicker. "Which way to Versopolis? But let's get you some help on the way."
>>164244"Да. Got to look my best when we topple Great Queen's Tower."
He chuckles, and stumbles into his son's car once they arrive.
"Sorry for any blood or vomit I get in your car. It is hard to avoid..."
>>164245Spectral Streak helps his father down the stairs, and throws off the gas mask. He helps Silver into the back. He calls into the radio:
"Where is a medic?"
[1d20 = 19] >>164246Silver can finally breathe normal air again without the risk of choking on his own intestines. He takes in as deep a breath as his punctured lungs will let him, which needless to say is not very much before he coughs.
>>164246>>164245"EMT is on it's way."
It must not be more than a minute, maybe two, before a medic comes up to Silver and the car. The doctor, a green unicorn stallion, says
"I was called for an attack at the train station.."
Spectral Streak says "Yes, my father is in critical condition. He's been shot several times." The doctor looks at Silver
"By Fluttershy, he's been shot through many times. How is he still alive? I think maybe it could be a waste of resources..."
"He's a very tough stallion. He killed several buggers." The stallion looks at Silver, and then at Streak.
"Alright... I'll see what I can do"
[1d20+4 = (5+4) = 9] >>164247>>164248The Doctor starts work on Silver, attempting to sew him up and remove foreign objects (bullets). He has some success, but seems to have less success elsewhere.
"I think he needs healing magic. It won't really make him good as new, but it'll stop the internal bleeding."
[1d8+2 = (7+2) = 9][1d8+2 = (2+2) = 4] >>164249"Ugh...thanks Doc. Not first time I have been riddled with bullets."
Silver looks over the stitches and patching up the doctor performed on him.
>>164250The doctor starts to stich Silver up. Not the finest work.
"Here, let me give you some plasma. And... Some blood, one bag, in this blood type. Let it hang in the car. Add in some morphine in the IV... And some magical solution. The solution may cause blood clots, but it'll stop the internal bleeding."
The doctor gives Silver an IV as he stiches Silver up.
>>164251Ooooooh, yeeeeeeaaaah. The morphine feels real good to Silver right about now.
"That is good. It felt like my blood vessels were running on empty at end, there."
>>164252“They kind of were. You’ll still require surgery after this, most likely. But this will do for now” he tells Silver
>>164253"As long as I can get back into fight, I can accept that."
He holds his Jenny close to him, as if punctuating that statement.
>>164254“Uh, okay… keep that IV in for a few more minutes at least.”
He looks at Silver, clearly not understanding, but starts to move away and towards the train station.
The doctor having not just plasma but actual blood on hoof is new, as is the magical blood solution given to Silver to stop internal bleeding, which if it doesn’t give Silver stroke has surely saved his life. Silver can feel that something is wrong, but he’s kind of high right now, so it sort of evens out.
Spectral Streak calls into the radio.
“I’d the television station secured.”
“No. We have them pinned down, but we cannot breach.”
>>164258"What is status of hostages?"
>>164259The radio replies,
“Unknown, but probably alive.”
>>164260"Ugh...this morphine is going to cause problems. Come on, we need to help them."
>>164261The radio: “Turn over to broadcast channel!”
Spectral Streak does so. Silver hears a civilian broadcaster’s shaky voice say:
“The exact source of the light is unknown, but certainly from within the old town Square of Canterlot, near the mountain face. The smoke cloud can be seen as far away as the Castle of the Two Sisters in the South, or Lavender up north, and all along the Front. Witnesses say there was a flash of light, and the ground shook. A reporter in east Ponyville reported that he thought it was a nearby Changeling artillery shell that landed nearby and shattered windows, then another soldier pointed up at Canterlot hill, and said the city was gone. Soldiers on the front reported that debris from Canterlot landed like artillery, and that a friendly plane was knocked out of the sky… more on this as it develops.” The reporter skittishly adds. “This is Friend of the Ponies, providing you with updates in real time.”
Spectral Streak looks at Silver with an expression of horror.
>>164262Silver feels his blood run cold. The description on the radio broadcast...it couldn't be. Could it?
He looks up at his son, startled.
"That weapon...White was working on...did Changelings get hold of it."
>>164263Spectral Streaks’ voice is subdued and low. His ears are down. He turns the car to the right, going down a street in east side.
“I don’t know. We got their weapons. That’s where our automatic rifles came from. But I think White was working on something else…”
>>164264"All those ponies...in one instant...Spec, this is not just some industrial war anymore."
>>164265“No… No it’s not. This is something else. Something even worse than Acornage.”
And then, Silver hears wailing. Loud wailing. The wailing of air raid sirens, sounding off for the second time since the war began. Before the wailing of the alarm is over, a voice comes over a broadcast speaker in the city.
“From the office of Governor Star, a reminder that a mandatory evacuation order is in effect. Those unable to leave the city should take shelter in a strong, concrete or stone building on the first floor, or underground in a well built shelter.”
>>164266"I hope they will be okay..."
Silver tries to put on a brave determined face, but how can anypony when your most ancient and culturally important city just got turned into a smoldering mountaintop?
"We need to help get those hostages to safety. We may be some distance to border but I do not know how far they can reach with those weapons."
>>164267“I think that weapon was in Canterlot s very long time before they thought to detonate it….”
The car takes a right, going north along a road with mostly five floor apartments buildings, and Streak looks up:
“I don’t think those are airplanes in the night sky…”
>>164268Silver looks up, trying to see what Spec is talking about.
>>164269Silver can see then high above. The line of buildings to either side blocks much of the view, but not of the deep sky above. High in the atmosphere, mostly to the North, and against the backdrop of a blue sky, are dozens, or even a hundred white streaks across the sky. They move with yellow dots at their base towards the west, arcing slightly with the curvature if the planet.
Silver has seen shooting stars before, but never in broad daylight like this. Nor has he ever seen them move this slowly across the sky, or leave streaks of smoke for hundreds of miles that last minutes. He may recall seeing a comet when he was younger. If so, this is like, or actually is, a comet much closer to the planet. A comet that has broken up in the upper atmosphere, and has spread its debris across a continent. Silver may think he actually sees a parent comet, much higher in the sky and leaving little smoke. He can see the various streaks are of different sizes. Some even bend and curve in unnatural ways as they move. The white clouds of the streaks overtake much of the northern sky, and are only occasional blocked from view by much lower clouds
>>164270"What are those things? Meteors?"
>>164271“It looks like it” Spectral Streak says.
Silver can see them move as he watches. Their tails are long and narrow, and linger even a minute of more after the object passes. They appear to be coming to Earth, to land beyond the west horizon.
>>164272"I wonder if this is Princess Luna's doing, calling forth for sky to rain down on changelings as punishment for crime they just committed."
>>164273“I don’t think that this is Luna’s doing…..”
The radio cuts on. Silver hears the voice of a mare speak. It’s a familiar voice, now:
“Citizens of the United Pony Republics. I have just been informed that Canterlot has fallen victim to an attack by Changeling forces. It appears much of the city is destroyed. Casualties are unknown, but possibly numerous. That the Changelings may lash out in this way was foreseen by me, and that is why I ordered the evacuation of the city’s population, and what objects of national interest could be managed given the need to not show the Hegemony our hand. That the Changelings
did lash out in this way is proof that coexistence is not possible, that their occupation of our lands is intolerable, and that this war was and is inevitable. Those who were lost to Changeling cruelty will be remembered in our hearts forever. They will be cherished by their fellow ponies. And though they are among the first to perish in this war, this war will be the last, and with it an end to centuries of intolerable cruelties. As I speak, our vengeance is already on its way to rain down on the changelings, their cities, their allies, and important tactical and strategic targets. We shall see justice for Changeling wrongs, may the heavens fall. Our martyrs rest in Eternal Glory. Long Live the Republic, and may we have Unity or Death!”
Music plays. Trumpets, patriotic tunes.
>>164274Can Silver place a name to the voice?
>>164275Yes. It’s the sand pink mare who identified as the First Counsel in the initial address.
>>164276"Do you think we will end up using those same weapons against changelings?"
>>164277“I don’t think that’s quite her style…” Spectral Streak says. The radio comes on again,
“Orders from the Brigadier General: all known infiltrators are to be eliminated immediately.”
“We’re doing the final clearing in the Central Administrative Buikding. Final clearing. Looking for any devices. They were hiked up good.”
“Make sure there are no devices. We are sending a cryptographer for support.”
“Do we need one?”
“If anyone does right now, it’s you ponies. Receive him at street level if safe to do so. He will be escorted and testing is mandatory.”
“This is Hoofbeard Naval Station. We have several suspicious ponies detained who failed to vacate the facility. We are sending a team to do a sweep now.”
“The Regional Transport Ministry is locked now. Who did that?”
“This is ponies at WMARE television station, requesting an air strike on the station.”
“The Brigadier has green lit all air strikes. We’ll put the request in queue.”
“Is that safe? If they do have a device, I mean.”
“Letting then stay there is unsafe”
>>164278Silver's worried look continues.
"This is madness..."
>>164279Spectral Streak continues driving forward.
“It’s your decision if you want to continue to WMARE or not.”
>>164280"We need to get hostages out before airstrike arrives. We cannot just leave them to die."
>>164281Spectral Streak pulls over the car in an area north and east of the city center with many tall buildings.
“There it is. The television station is in the top few floors of that office building.” Silver is stopped a block away from a grey stone building with many windows, perhaps around 16 or so floors tall. Silver can see the “WMARE” symbols on the side facing street, and a large antenna that extends much beyond the height of thd building. In front of it, and next to the car, is a shorter building of red brick, maybe 14 floors, and beside it across an alley on the far left is slightly taller building with pink brick coloration.
>>164282"Where are ponies hiding out at? Or have they pulled back?"
>>164283Spectral Streak makes a call on the radio.
“We are on scene to help clear WMARE, one block south of location, east side. Where are you?”
“Coming out.”
A pony in a home guard uniform - light red, basically pink stallion, cones out to them. “Oh. Help is here!”
“Where are they?” Spectral Streak asks
The pony looks up towards the building. Upon further examination, Silver can see that his coat is actually a salmon color.
“Up there. The station takes up the top three, well, two and a half floors. They’ve fortified it, preventing anypony from going up there.”
>>164284"How many do you estimate?"
>>164285“We are not sure. It’s not a large group. Less than 10.”
>>164286"Depending on what weapons they have, 10 can be
very large number."
Silver looks out at the station.
"Do they have watch on area around building, or is approach uncontested?"
>>164287“They keep windows open, and will sometimes take shots out of them. The streets can be dangerous.”
>>164288Silver takes his Jenny, and peers through the non-magnified scope at the building to see if he can find any windows that are being used.
>>164289Yes. He can see specific open windows. It looks like one, two, there on this side. Hard to tell which ones are populated.
>>164290"We are not going to leave those civilians to die. Are there any alternative routes into building? Sewer tunnels, for example?"
>>164291“It’s not the bottoms floors that are fortified. It’s the top.”
>>164292"I know, but to actually get
to building..."
>>164293“That… there may be a subterranean passageway. Or run across the street from one building to another. If you wish to enter from the bottom of the building, that is.”
Back home now>>164295"Well, the way I see it, there are multiple ways to attack. From below, from across the street, or from above."
>>164301"Above?"
Silver looks to the upper levels of the station.
>>164302"Well... It's a bit harder for you since you can't fly." he answers
>>164303"Fair enough."
Is there an entrance to the sewer nearby, or would they have to trot a ways away to do find one?
>>164304>>164305A pony along alongside the salmon home guard pony answers
"There should be a tunnel linking the basement of the office building with this one" he answers
>>164306Silver nods.
"I say we go underground, come up through basement and storm changeling positions. There is not much time to lose."
>>164307 The pony nods. Silver, Spectral Streak, the Salmon pony, and the new, vermillion coated pony travel inside the building, which has a lobby decorated in jade colored false marble - it appears to be the lobby of, among other things, a printing company. Silver walks through the front lobby with its green Doric columns and multicolored red and gold carpet, past a counter and through a hall. Along the wall in the reception area, Silver sees a poster from the National Review Board explaining it's objectives in promoting social morality, and ironically enough, a poster warning that your neighbor may be a changeling infiltrator. While the former poster does not have images and is interesting only for how it divides its material into bullet points, the second poster portrays a pony couple walking up to another couple on a lawn... which is a changeling drone and worker in pony clothing in front of a house. To the left is a door, which the vermillion pony opens, that takes them down into a basement with piping and what seems to include a boiler or water heater. Further to the left is a tunnel, which though small, takes them thirty or more yards, into another basement with slightly sparser piping. The vermillion pony finds and turns on a light in the dark, and takes them to a stairs. Soon enough, Silver is in a hall that leads to a lobby decorated with white porcelain, and which includes a straightforward red decorative carpet, and has the names of what must be multiple professional businesses.
"First floor of the tower." The Salmon pony says
>>164308Silver keeps his Jenny at the ready. He allows himself to marvel at the opulence of the TV station for only a little bit (
Wow, television must be very successful!) before whispering to his companions.
"Know where stairs are?" >>164309"One set. In the center" The vermillion pony says
>>164311Silver nods, and moves for the center of the building.
>>164312Past a set of bronze elevator doors, Silver sees a door, which is opened by another pony
"Staircase up to the top."
>>164313Silver peaks through the door and looks up for any watching changelings.
>>164314Silver doesn't think he sees anyone above. But he can see that it is a long way up.
>>164315Stairs...why did it have to be stairs?Silver begins the long climb up.
>>164316It's quite a ways. Silver may be concerned about sound, or becoming exhausted as he goes up, or about what is waiting for him.
>>164318Silver stops at a landing after a short time of climbing stairs to catch his breath, and to avoid aggravating his injuries too much. He looks up at how much more he has to go.
Everypony in this thread is a cute little pony
>>164320Maybe... five floors? It kind of depends on where Silver wants to stop.
>>164321no u!
>>164322n-no u!
>>164323Silver whispers, "What floor?"
>>164324"It's the top three floors." Spec says
>>164325The injured and tired unicorn nods, and continues up the stairs.
>>164328Up the stairs, Silver can here a
thick, and a click, clack, thunk, of a grenade being tossed down the flights of stairs and bouncing against walls. Silver can see the spherical grey object coming to a stand still on the landing above Silver
>>164329"GRENADE!"
Can Silver try to fling it back up with his magic?
>>164330Silver can try, but he's fighting against gravity and the stairs mostly block the line of sight to the levels above. Silver can also try to dive down the stairs and around the landing.
>>164331Diving would likely be the smarter option, even if his doctor would not recommend agrivating his injuries. Silver dives down the stairs and around the landing to get out of the blast.
>>164334>>164335Silver dives to the right on the landing and down the stairs, towards the set of ponies following behind him. They look surprised, but several of them fall down, whether intentionally or from the large, fluffy pony diving towards them. He hears a loud
Boom and sees splinters of wood hit the wall next to him, while the railing on the stairs above him becomes lose, and parts fall down.
Now Silver hears a
Ching Ching Ching from automatic gun fire above. It seems like a single burst.
>>164336Silver allows a grunt escape him as a dulled pain spreads through his chest. He gets up and aims down the sights of his Jenny up the staircase.
>>164337Silver quickly gets the impression that the enemy is firing blind.
Roll wisdom.
>>164339Looking up through the center of the stair case, a couple floors up, Silver can see a creature leaning over. It's a drone, naked black chitin, no pretense of being a pony. He is leaning over, pointing a long, black gun Silver isn't familiar with.
[1d20+6 = (10+6) = 16][1d20+6 = (16+6) = 22][1d20+6 = (1+6) = 7][1d20+6 = (3+6) = 9]>>164340Silver aims his Jenny up at this drone, and squeezes off a short full auto burst.
>>164341The creature flinches, and pulls away.
Roll one damage