The Greatest Failures

“Hurry! We have only 20 minutes left!”

The three Armored Equine's run through an underground service shaft as the clock in their HUDS slowly counts down. They come to a door and quickly kick it down to reveal a treasure trove of computers, displays and hard drives.

“Hurry! Just grab the hard drives! Toss them in your pack! We need to go! The M.A.R.D. isn't going to be stable for much longer!” The head AE yells into his headset.

As the two other equines fill up their packs with the raw data, via hard drive, the head equine connects his helmet to the motherboard of the center console. The helmet held a detachable hard drive on the rear for reconnaissance such as this.

DOWNLOADING SCHEMETIC NO. 315197...

DOWNLOAD SUCCESSFUL.

“You ready?!” The leader yells as he rips the cord of his helmet out of the console.

“Ready!”

“Ready Alpha.”

The second and third equines quickly turn and exit the room, quickly followed by their leader. The trio race down corridor after corridor of concrete service tunnels, trying to make their escape. Their escape route would bring them into a valley which was used to haul larger machinery below ground to help the excavation of the warehouse. The warehouse was mostly underground only two floors were above the surface. When they finally reach the fresh air of the outside, an alarm is heard emanating down the shaft from where they just came.

“Lily!”

“Sir?”

“Why are there already alarms?! I thought you disabled the communications array!”

“Sir it must be a localized alarm. It will not interfere with the mission.”

“It better not or its your ass.”

“Yes, Sir.” Lily responded through gritted teeth.

Alpha turned to Steel. “Steel set up the return gate. We need to leave.”

“Yes Sir.” Steel sat on his haunches and slid a pack of his back. He rolled the pack over, which exposed a panel of buttons and knobs. He pushed a large button with his hooves and three legs shot out from the sides of the pack, the legs dug into the ground holding the pack in place. The large stallion pushed another button and two semicircle pieces of metal sprouted from the top of the now tripod machine.

At this point the machine was approximately four feet wide and six feet tall. The console was on the ground and only made up one foot of the overall height.

Steel began pushing buttons and turning knobs in order to configure the machine and properly return them home. As Steel pushed the large green button in the center of the console, a bright lavender vortex began to form between the two pieces of metal above the machine.

At first the vortex was just small sparks shooting from one metal spire to the other, then a ball began to form in between them. The sphere of purple lightning swirled and expanded as its mass grew.

The lightning show in front of them was causing some serious problems however, the light from the vortex was so bright it could only be compared to staring at a welder, the only reason they could even glance at it was because their suits had a self adjusting visor. The other problem about the brightness of the machine was the sheer fact it was not very stealthy.

The three equines with purple flashes across their masks stood together.

“Steel have you primed the explosives?” Alpha questioned.

“Yes, Sir. They will detonate twenty seconds after we enter the portal, effectively destroying this node.” Steel replied over com.

“Good, that should allow just enough time to return home. Steel, Lily and I shall go through first, I want you to double check the explosives and follow us. Got it?”

“Sir, yes sir.”

Lily and Alpha both turned towards the machine, Alpha lowered his head mumbled 'I hate technology' as he galloped the short distance and jumped into the vortex closely followed by Lily.

Steel watched as his teammates slowly blurred into nothing and checked over the explosives once more. Satisfied they were all primed, Steel hit the button on the timer and jumped into the portal.

Two highly armed deadly equines landed together in a pile, in the center of a newly sterilized room. The room itself was barren except for a few metal tables and the large stationary M.A.R.D. in the center of the room. The stationary Multiverse Atom Relocation Device was larger than the portable ones, and was anchored into the floor with cables snaking around the room. Lily, regaining her footing stood up just in time for the third member of their party to land on top of her, pushing her back on top of Alpha.

Alpha rolled over, pushed Lily off of him and stood up.

“Idiot. Lily we learned this last time, wait three seconds before the next jump. We don't want to end up like 13 and 15.” Alpha stated angrily.

Lily disengaged her helmet and exposed her light blue coat, accompanied by her fluffy navy blue and silver mane. Thinking about 13 and 15 caused Lily's stomach to churn and unsettle almost bringing her to the point of gagging.

The story of 13 and 15 is a very simple one. Early on in the M.A.R.D. Process a test run occurred involving 13, 14, 15. Each candidate suited to go through the M.A.R.D. was given a number. Each number involved a test on the M.A.R.D. Systems, unfortunately the test involving 13, 14 and 15 was a 'Group Trial.' Lets just say when 13 and 15 came back out, they were no longer known as ponies, they were something... else. Number 14 never came back at all.

As the three equines began to converse and check their equipment for damage, a nearby door opened up to expose four scientists and a few doctors. The doctors immediately began to check the vitals of the three equines, while the scientists ogled over the large amount of data they had returned with.

“Number 1. Report to command with findings.” Came the robotic voice over the intercom.

“I will meet you two at the barracks for supper, I have a date with Celestia and her War Adviser.” Alpha stated as he turned and walked out of the room.

As Alpha left through double doors, two guards lined in to his left and right. The guards stood rigid and followed the taller equine through a few turns to a metal elevator. Alpha got inside while the guards stopped just short of the elevator, they turned around, swiped a card each and pressed the 'Ascend' button.

The elevator began ascending along with the straight face warrior stallion. The stallion stood fast as the elevator went up through multiple floors, light cascading through the spaces between metal reinforcements as it rose through each floor.

The elevator slowed to a stop at the top of the shaft, with a creek the metal bars reluctantly opened to allow Alpha passage. Once again, two guards flanked to his left and right to make their way towards the royal throne room.

The group slowly came to their destination, the wide wooden doors of the throne room. The unicorn guards levitated a key each and in sync pushed them into the door. The door glowed white and opened in towards the throne occupied by her royal majesty, Queen Celestia.

Alpha walked forward as the two guards bowed, walked backwards and closed the large door.

“Welcome back, Number 1.” Stated the only human allowed in Equestria, Dr. Xavier. “Was there any issue within your mission?” Xavier stood beside Celestia, wearing a special armour similar to Alpha's except adapted for his bipedal stance. The actual abilities of his armour were unknown.

“No, Sir.”

“So everything went as planned?”

“Of course, Sir.”

“You have the schematics?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Follow me Alpha. Oh and you may come as well, Celestia.” Xavier stated as he gestured with a wave of his hand.

“Yes Doctor.” Celestia replied sternly.

Alpha followed behind the Doctor and Celestia as they entered a small white room adjacent to the throne room, the room was barren except for a bookshelf and a steel table. Xavier pushed a card into the table causing a small portion of the tabletop to slide out of the way to show a keyboard. He then entered a password that Alpha was not able to catch due to the fast and nimble fingers of the human.

After successfully entering the password the doctor retracted his card. When the card was removed, a large door slid out from the wall to show a room filled with technology. Ranging from weapons, to visors, to experimental armour, the room was absolutely filled with prototype tech.

Once the three occupants entered the room, an automated voice welcomed them as the door behind them closed. “Welcome back, Doctor Xavier.”

“Thank you Jeni. Jeni open external drive port one, we have now acquired the new schematics.” Xavier turned to Alpha. “Plug your hard drive into Jeni.”

Alpha walked over to the large computer, designated Jeni, retrieved the detachable drive and laid it into the housing fit perfectly for it. The hard drive by its self was only an inch or so long but with added material around made it impervious to water, magic and most importantly bullets.

Jeni began a search of the data stored within the drive, “No files found.”

“Rerun search!”

“Rerunning search procedure. No files found. Drive is empty.”

The pissed off Doctor turned to Alpha raising his voice and his hand to point at him, “You better not be playing fucking games with me! WHERE. IS. THE. SCHEMATIC.”

“Sir, I downloaded it directly to my Drive.” Alpha said respectively.

“APPARENTLY NOT. EITHER FIND THE SCHEMATIC OR GATHER YOUR TEAM, YOU ARE GOING BACK!”

A purple lit, armored equine ran through the gate leaving Canterlot late into the night, trying to get as far away as she could before she teleported. As soon as she thought she was safe from detection she disappeared into a white blinding flash.

As soon as she was gone, three guards turned the corner and looked for the escaping mare, seeing nothing, they continued their search elsewhere.