Applejack and Draco both made their way back to the Hoofer Dam, both of them breathing heavily and panting. Draco's severed arm wound was still bleeding green dragon blood profusely, and he looked pale and woozy. "Apple… Applejack… I… I need… I need to lie down… for a second…" Draco said, his voice slurred.
Applejack lifted him onto her back, and carried him into the dam control center. "I don't think so, little guy. Those no good freaks are right on our tails, and I ain't gonna become no apple meal for them!" she said, determined. Draco was in no condition to respond, and he groaned in pain. Hang in there, Draco… you risked your life to save us… the least we can do is help you… she thought to herself, desperately trying to keep herself from thinking the worst.
She locked the outside door, and she placed Draco on the ground gently. She looked around for desperately for something to wrap around his stub, sifting through the desks and the lockers. "Come on… something… anything!" she told herself desperately. She heard another door opening, and she immediately aimed the Boomstick at the door. Umbreus stood absolutely still at the open doorway, a bit surprised at the sudden barrel aimed towards him. Applejack lowered her gun, and continued searching for a wrap of some kind.
"What's up with you?" Umbreus asked her, and he turned to Draco lying on the ground motionlessly. His eyes widened, and he rushed over to his side. "SHIT! What happened!?" he asked frantically.
"They up and tore off his arm!" Applejack told him frantically.
"I can see that! I meant how did it happen!?" Umbreus asked with fear. "Did they use their teeth!?"
"No… they took hold of him… and he cut it off…" she said desperately. Umbreus continued searching until he found a roll of gauze. He brought it with him and hurriedly began to wrap Draco's stub of a right arm. He fully covered the wound, and lowered his head in disappointment.
"He's lost a lot of blood… he loses anymore, and he's gone," Umbreus announced sadly.
Applejack turned to him in shock. "Isn't there anything you could do?" she asked.
He shook his head slowly. "He's a reptile… the only way he'll heal is if he does it himself. Who knows how long that'll take…" Umbreus then lifted Draco onto his back, and urged Applejack to follow him. She did so, and they made their way back to the safe room.
…
The two equine figures made their way back into the bunker underground, closing the hatch behind them as they did. Both had found the others settled into the room already, placing down crates of food and other necessities as they did. Umbreus led Applejack through the room, ending up in front of another metal hatch. He pressed the buttons on the console nearby, and it rose with a hiss of air.
Applejack peered inside, and saw the remaining Control Freaks restrained inside, still conscious of themselves for now. They turned to Applejack, and greeted her warmly with the exception of Eric, who remained glaring at her coldly behind restraints. Applejack turned back to Umbreus, and thanked him warmly. He nodded, and shut the hatch to the room. He turned back to the bunker, and approached the remaining survivors; Lyra, Cheerilee, Mare, Scootaloo, Rainbow, Derpy, Dinky, Doc, Bonbon, Colgate, and Alan.
"All right, everypony… most likely, those things outside know we're in here. If that's the case, we'll need to go through the sewers instead of the dam," Umbreus informed grimly.
"And what then? You saw how wrecked that town was… we'd be heading into a deathtrap!" Rainbow argued. Scootaloo stood beside her in agreement, clearly terrified of returning to the ghoul-infested town.
Derpy stepped next to Rainbow as well. "Yeah… and those things are out there too! And I won't let them hurt my little Dinky." As she said this, she brought Dinky in closer to her, embracing her tightly.
"I think it's better to leave than wait here to die," Colgate interjected.
"There's a reason why we left Ponyville… I'm all for staying here," Mayor Mare stated.
"And if they all zerg rush here? They'd probably leave the town empty in that case… it'd make sense to fall back in the town," Lyra countered, standing beside Colgate.
"I'm with Lyra… they'd have to leave the town if they came through the dam," Cheerilee announced.
"Definitely think heading back to town would be a better idea…" Bonbon stated.
Alan silently went over to the other foals, signaling his agreement on staying. Doc did the same, with the exception of heading towards Umbreus's side instead. Between both groups of six ponies was a wide open space, a split in the two sides, occupied only by an unconscious Draco.
"You're going to end up dead if you do go," Mayor Mare warned to the other side.
"You'll be dead if you don't," Colgate stated bluntly.
"I can't believe you're stupid enough to head back!" Rainbow exclaimed angrily.
"I can't believe you're foolish to believe this is any safer!" Doc argued back.
"I can't believe you're not thinking about the foals, Cheerilee!" Mayor Mare interjected harshly.
"I can't believe it's not butter!" Umbreus interrupted gleefully. He looked around and saw all eyes looking either confusedly or disappointedly at him, and he lowered his head in shame.
Lyra shook her head, and turned back to the other group. "Do what you want… it's suicide…" She stopped suddenly as she heard a weak groaning, and the others noticed it as well. They looked around, searching for the source of the soft call. After a while, they looked down, and saw that Draco was beginning to awaken from unconsciousness, and he rubbed his head with his left arm.
"Ow…" he groaned weakly. "I… I can't… oh, god, it hurts!" he exclaimed in agony, clenching his stump tightly. "AH! OH GOD, IT HURTS SO FUCKING MUCH!" he screamed, unable to handle his pain threshold.
Umbreus rushed to his side, and helped him to stand. "I gotcha, buddy… just hang tight…" he said, trying to calm Draco down.
As he lifted Draco up, the other bunker survivors drew their guns out and aimed at Draco. Umbreus turned to them in shock. "Guys, I told you about him… simmer down," he said slowly.
"Yeah… then we actually saw Stumpy…" Mayor Mare said coldly.
"Are you sure he's OK, Umbreus? I mean… well… look at his arm!" Lyra inquired with disbelief.
"I know he is… he wouldn't tell us otherwise." He helped Draco regain his balance, and used his magic to deaden the nerves in the severed arm. "Draco… we're gonna need you here. Should we stay here, or leave back to Ponyville?"
Draco took a few deep breaths, before sighing out, and raising his left arm to his chest holster. He pulled out another cigar, lit it with his flame, and began puffing on it. He blew out rings of smoke through his nostrils, thinking hard. After a minute or so, he took the cigar from his mouth and held it between his claws.
"You wanna know what I think? I think that BOTH of those ideas are genius and fucking stupid at the same time. Why? Because both plans involve staying as far as fucking possible from those things, yet both plans involve places we KNOW are dangerous. We either walk into the death trap, or we stay in the death trap… now, which death trap I prefer… I'd rather know where I'm running than run around blindly… so I'm saying Ponyville," he said, obviously agitated a bit.
Umbreus's group nodded in agreement, and turned back to Rainbow's group. While not moving or making any sound, their glares and lowered heads showed how they thought of the winning retreat point. "All right… then it's settled…" Umbreus said.
"Nothing is settled! If you guys wanna go out into Ponyville, that's your call! As for us… we're staying here!" Rainbow replied angrily. The others on her side murmured in agreement, and stayed standing where they were. Umbreus turned to them in surprise, his mouth hung open. He closed it, and shook his head in disappointment.
"Fine… you do what you want… we're outta here," Umbreus answered back sternly. As Alan saw Draco on the other side, he slowly approached him. Draco knelt down beside him, and grasped his shoulder with his arm.
"Listen Alan… whatever you want to do… I'll stick with you. Where do you want to go?" Draco asked, seriousness filling his voice.
Alan turned away for a bit in fear, looking at both groups. He then turned back to Draco, his eyes very watery now. "I… I don't want everyone to split up…" he answered, stammering.
Draco shook his head slowly. "Looks like we're gonna have to, buddy…"
Alan lowered his head, and sighed deeply. "I… I want to go back home…" he said slowly.
Draco nodded, and turned back to Umbreus. "Count us in." Umbreus nodded, and turned back to the sewer entrance. He led his group towards the metal door, and pressed the buttons on the wall to open it. As it hissed open, all of them turned to glance back at the other survivor group, a mixture of sadness and pity in them. They turned back to the sewer, entered, and engaged the door locked behind them as they began their way back to Ponyville.
…
Rainbow couldn't help but to continue staring at the closed metal door, something inside her tugging at her chest for some reason. She turned away finally, and looked back to Scootaloo. "Don't worry… it's… it's gonna be all right," Rainbow told Scootaloo, trying to reassure her… or perhaps herself.
"You know what we have forgotten… those things are still locked inside here with us," Mayor Mare said, pointing to the locked door where the four Control Freaks where held. Rainbow turned to the mayor in surprise.
"What about them? They won't do anything behind that door…" Rainbow argued.
"And are you willing to risk everypony's lives to keep those things alive?" Mare asked, not at all pleasantly.
"I'm not risking anypony's lives by keeping them in there. Just let them be!" Rainbow argued. Mare did not speak in response… rather; she pulled out her cleaver using her teeth, and approached the metal hatch. Rainbow saw as she did, and rushed to stop her. "You better stop right there, now!"
Mare turned back to her, and ignored her as she continued towards the metal hatch. She entered the series of numbers onto the pad next on the wall, and the hatch opened widely to reveal three Control Freaks within, all restrained. Rainbow ran up to the mayor and held her back using her wings. "Mayor… stop it! Leave them… alone!" Rainbow said, straining as she held back Mare. Mare struggled to get free, but as she failed to do that using strength, she had to rely on one more option. Without a second thought, Mare swung her cleaver down onto the base of Rainbow's left wing.
Rainbow, feeling a huge surge of pain welling in her but not finding the voice to show it, simply gawked at the source of her pain. She gaped at what appeared to be a small, white orb, protruding from her midsection. Surrounding this orb was a small ring of a thick, dark red liquid, slowly seeping around the white protrusion. Rainbow noticed, from the corner of her eye, something twitching ever so slightly. She turned to it, almost with an empty gaze, to find what it was; a wing, cyan and feathered, lying solo on the ground, leaking a bit of blood from where it was supposed to be attached.
Though she didn't realize it immediately, Rainbow had lost her left wing. After the small glance to the severed wing on the ground, Rainbow felt her head spinning madly, and she fell back, hitting the ground hard. She lay motionless, rasping for breath. As she witnessed this, Scootaloo rushed to Rainbow's side, and held her closely, tears in her eyes.
Mare ignored the two, and turned back to the Control Freaks. Now… to solve our last problem… she thought to herself evilly, clenching the cleaver in her teeth and slowly approaching the terrified Freaks.