Horizon Falls

“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again.”
― Malcolm X

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“The amount of toxins I have calculated to have built up in your brain by now should be enough to motivate you to sleep,” Aphelion said.

Andromeda pulled her head up from her books, “Well you’re wrong. I’m just exhausted. I went through all my old books like you suggested and used that new method of yours and STILL nothing matched up.”

“There are a plethora of languages in the world to study. You yourself have barely even scratched the surface.”

“Don’t remind me,” the unicorn moaned.

Aphelion stepped away from his console, “Perhaps you should be getting to bed now. A good night’s sleep would do wonders for you.”

Andromeda glanced at him, “Fine DAD.”

She placed a book mark in her book before stepping away from her book and trotting over to the hammock. She dropped her saddle bags on the floor before climbing in. Aphelion retrieved a nearby blanket and placed it over her.

“You go to bed too,” she ordered.

Aphelion sighed, “Yes MOM.”

“I’m serious. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep with you typing away like a machine gun over there.”

“Alright,” He said walking over and deactivating the console.

Andromeda’s horn lit up as she dimmed the lanterns until they were out completely. Aphelion walked over to her hammock.

“Good night, Andromeda.”

“Good night, Aphelion,” she smiled staring at his face, “You look funny.”

She visibly watched the plating on his face shift to form something like an annoyed expression.

“Good NIGHT, Andromeda,” Aphelion said before leaping into the air. She heard the twanging of cables as the robot grabbed the cables and flung himself farther into the ceiling before finally coming to rest on the highest cable and hanging from it and going dormant.

“Crazy bucking machine,” Andromeda laughed.

«««✧✦✧»»»

It was just a few minutes past midnight when they entered. Ten of them. They landed expertly on the plateau before quietly walking towards the open door. Those with magic were wielding guns in their aura while the others wielded blades. A dull buzzing could be heard as they passed through the field Aphelion had set up.

Silently they began searching through Andromeda’s books and papers. Another group was attempting to activate the console. A third moved deeper into the facility.

“Find ANYTHING?!” a hushed voice asked.

Andromeda moaned and rolled over. Her eyes slowly cracked open to see a group of ponies covered in black searching through her papers and books.

“Hey,” she moaned.

Suddenly they turned and stared at her just as another came from behind and put a gag in her mouth.

“Aphe-!” she managed before the cloth silenced her. One of the unicorns immobilized her, locking her in place while they continued their search. Andromeda tried screaming through the cloth to no avail. The sound of a gun cocking reached her ears followed by the feeling of a cool metal barrel being placed against her head. She gulped, sweating cold bullets and silently praying Aphelion was around somewhere.

One of them turned and spoke, “Go check on Swift and Star.”

“Why do I have to go?” A separate voice asked.

The female voice replied, “Because I said so. We need as much on this place as we can get so go check on them before I feed your dick to you on a stick.”

“Oh really? What would you tell Gates?”

“That I cut off your dick and fed it to you. Now bucking go before I make this threat into a promise,” she hissed.

“Fine, crazy bitch.”

The voice left Andromeda alone as the unicorn trotted down the hallway.

“Swift! Star! Boss wants a check in!” He called.

Nothing.

Not a sound.

Not the noise of hooves on the unknown metal alloy floor or even the sound of breathing.

“Swift? Star?” he called again as he moved further into the dark. He trotted slowly and carefully until he reached the end of the hallway. An open circular chamber with a large deep empty hole in the center at least a hundred meters across. A look down revealed the glowing lights of kilometers worth of highly advanced machinery.

“Swift? Star?” the stallion called again as he stared down into the chasm.

Suddenly he did hear a noise and instantly he found it unsettling. It was the noise of an impact of metal on metal. Instantly the dim light from far down the hallway was blocked out by a tall form several meters tall. Two red lights glowed near the top of it. The unicorn turned slowly.

“Swift?”

The form reached out and gave the stallion a push, knocking him off balance and causing him to stumble and fall down the seemingly bottomless cavern.

“Swift!” his voice faded as he fell.

Aphelion glanced down the pit and blinked before turning to the two small unconscious ponies in his hands.

On the other side of the hallway, the unicorn’s call was not lost on the others.

The female pony sighed, “Crimson! You whiny little shit! Stop yelling like-”

A dark form flew by overhead, striking the cable holding the paper lanterns before falling to the floor in a bloody heap. The body of a pony, now in two pieces slid towards the exit of the chamber, leaving a trail of red behind it.

Instantly the female pony’s voice softened, “Crimson?”

Another form flew towards her, causing her and her subordinates to either jump out of the way or merely jump out of shock/surprise. This one skipped along the floor with a sickening crunch each time it hit before sailing out of the structure and off the mountain to the forest below.

The ponies began to gather near the entrance to the semi darkened hallway.

“Crimson?”

One of them raised a revolver and fired it. The sound of the gunshot echoed throughout the installation. But more importantly, the sound of a bullet impacting and bouncing off a hard metal surface echoed back. A few seconds later, the sound of metal quickly sliding across metal followed.

Aphelion charged down the hallway and into the chamber and swiped at the nearest pony to him. This one happened to be the one whose immobilization spell was keeping Andromeda tied to her hammock. Instantly six large scratches appeared on the unicorn’s uniform before Aphelion punched forward with his left upper arm and sent the pony that was now in six pieces out of the mountain.

“Shoot it!”

Guns started going off with booming of the shots echoing out into the night immediately followed by the noise of ricocheting bullets as Aphelion raised his now clawed hands to protect his face. When the shooting stopped he lowered his arms and slammed down with one of them, crushing an Earth pony underneath his large hands.

Andromeda meanwhile pulled the gag out of her mouth and rolled out of her hammock.

The unicorns meanwhile dropped their guns and began shooting bolts of energy at the robot. Three pegasi meanwhile cracked open their bags and removed long rifles and leapt into the air and began shooting.

Aphelion growled and stood up. The plating on his shoulders moved and two rectangular protrusions emerged, locking into place. A second later twelve objects left his shoulders and streaked towards the pegasi. A shower of blood and pieces of flesh and feathers went in all directions. The remaining two remaining unicorns and one lone pegasus all looked at each other turned to run.

The pegasus was fast and was head of his compatriots by a few meters as Aphelion charged after him. Not missing a beat he simply stepped on the two unicorns that died with sickening crunches as well as splashes of blood.

He quickly caught up with the pegasus just as he spread his wings and attempted to fly away. He grabbed the pony by the leg and threw him to the floor. The snapping of bone echoed back into the chamber as he hit.

“Ah buck! Shit!” he cried out as Aphelion placed one leg on him keeping him pressed to the metal floor. The plating on his back changed again a long gun emerged from a long chamber on the right side of his back and slid forward and locked into place and bent down over his right shoulder, aimed right at the pegasus who gulped.

“Hello,” Aphelion growled. Andromeda bounded over next to him with a shocked look on her face.

“Whoa, whoa, there… uh…” the pegasus said with his hooves over his head, “I surrender?”

Andromeda scowled, “Who are you?! And why’d you break into our-”

The pegasus grinned, “Maintenance installation?”

“What?”

“Girly you really don’t know what this place is, do you?”

Aphelion turned, “Shall I vaporize him?”

“No not yet,” she replied before focusing on the pegasus, “Why the buck did you invade and violate our home?!”

“Violate your home?! The buck you call what your robot dog here did you my men?!”

“You broke in here and bound and gagged me!”

“And then you-”

He was quickly silenced when Aphelion flicked his head, knocking him unconscious.

He turned as he retracted his large gun, “Sorry but I was beginning to get annoyed with him.”

Andromeda sighed and glanced at her coat. Splashes of blood colored her white coat red. She glanced back over her shoulder and instantly vomited at the bloody mess left behind by Aphelion’s rampage. She returned to the robot, trembling ever so slightly.

Aphelion ‘frowned,’ “Sorry. They were shooting at me.”

Andromeda coughed, “It’s fine. Just… be a little cleaner about it next time.”

Aphelion nodded and turned to the unconscious pegasus, “What should we do with him?”

“I don’t know. Did you hear what he said earlier?”

“About this being a maintenance installation?”

“Yeah. Seems like he may know something.”

“Well we can’t keep him here,” Aphelion said.

“Why not? We’ve kept this place secret this long.”

“Well, uh, I kinda broke his leg. And unless you know how to fix that we’re gonna need some outside help.”

Andromeda sighed and rubbed her eyes, “Alright, alright. We’ll call the guard.”