Horizon Falls

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
― Benjamin Franklin

«««✧✦✧»»»

The last of the flashes cleaning up the bodies went out with a hiss. Members of the guard that were assigned to… clean up duty vanished with them leaving the investigators and the interviewers. Shining Armor himself was looking over the console with other members of the guard. Others were exploring the chambers further inside the cavern.

Several of the guards were leaving with hard metal cases containing the many of the books that had been found inside the installation. Two others were holding the iron grey and blood red pegasus, keeping him immobilized and silent.

A few tried to restrain Aphelion at first but quickly figured out that was a very bad idea when they found themselves on the wrong end of a rather large gun.

“That’s the last of them, sir,” a white unicorn said to his captain.

Shining Armor turned, “Thank you private. You’re dismissed.”

The pony visibly relaxed, “Thank you sir.”

He quickly galloped off after the squad that had been removing the old library hidden inside the cave and disappeared.

Andromeda, who’d been sitting beneath Aphelion’s protective limbs, sighed.

“When will we be getting those back?” she asked.

Shining Armor turned, “Those books are now the property of the government.”

“What?! But we were here first! We found them! And if I recall, we were he one’s who called you guys here to help deal with him!” she yelled pointing at the restrained pegasus, “Not to come in here and steal all our stuff!”

“Circumstances have changed. Your books are being locked away until further notice.”

Aphelion lowered, the sound of his movement visibly startling the captain, “We want to speak to the Princess.”

The guard captain backed up, “Relax… uh… whatever you are. She coincidentally wants to speak with you two.”

“When?” Andromeda asked.

“At her nearest convenience,” he replied.

Aphelion let out a groan that sounded more like the bending of metal before he lowered himself to all sixes and walked across the room towards the captain. He lowered himself until he was at face level with the captain, letting him stare into the sapphire blue lights that were his eyes.

“We want to speak with her now,” he scowled.

“And so you shall,” a regal voice said from the entrance to the room.

Andromeda turned and gasped. Standing at the entrance to the chamber was the alicorn herself. She trotted into the room and turned to the guard captain.

“Leave us,” she said.

“Your majesty I-”

“Leave us, Captain. And take the rest of the guard with you.”

He sighed, “Yes Princess.”

He gave a glare to the large machine staring him down before ordering the rest of the guard out of the cave. A minute later the unicorn, the robot, and the alicorn were all alone.

The princess sighed, “You two have certainly put me in a weird situation today.”

Andromeda cocked her head, “Your highness?”

“Seems you’ve discovered a dirty little secret here.”

Aphelion turned, “What are you talking about?”

“Do you know anything about this place?”

Andromeda blinked, “A little bit. But not much. I was more focused on trying to translate all those books you and your guard just took away.”

“As soon as I have my Archmages look over them you will get full access to them in the Builder’s wing of the royal library.”

Andromeda cocked her head, “Builder’s wing? What’s that?”

“You don’t have a Builder’s wing,” Aphelion said.

“Yes we do,” Celestia said, “Underground. Hidden. Safe.”

“What is it exactly?” Andromeda asked.

“It contains everything we have on the beings that built… places like this,” she said looking around the large chamber.

“Beings?”

“As I’ve said earlier,” The sun princess said, “It seems you’ve stumbled onto a bit of a dirty little secret of this world.”

“What do you mean by dirty little secret?” Aphelion asked.

She raised an eyebrow, “I’m surprised you of all people are unaware.”

“Him?” Andromeda asked, “Why him?”

“Andromeda, how exactly did you meet this being?” Celestia asked.

“I-I found him ten years ago. I just… touched him and he came to life.”

“Where exactly did you find him?”

“He was…” She turned to Aphelion who simply nodded.

She sighed, “He was slightly buried in the forest floor down there. Princess, can you just tell us what you know about this place?”

She laughed, “You know more about this place than I do but as for him… I can answer a few questions if you have any.”

“What am I?” Aphelion asked rather quickly.

“What are you? The jury’s currently out on that one,” she laughed lightly, “But our best ponies call… beings like you Guardians.”

“Beings like me?” Aphelion asked.

“Beneath Canterlot and in several other sites we’ve found pieces of machines like yourself. We’ve only ever found one complete specimen, if you’ll allow the term, but never one that’s active like yourself. We call them guardians due to the large amount of weaponry found on them.”

Andromeda gasped.

“If I’m right,” Celestia said, “I would say you have more than a few sharp pointy objects and guns on your person.”

Aphelion let out something of a chuckle, “You would be right.”

“Do you have a name?” she asked.

“Aphelion,” he relied.

“Now is that your given name or her name for you?” she asked indicating to Andromeda.

“Her name. I just happen to like it,” he blinked.

“I see… So you know nothing of this place?”

“She had to teach me how to speak if that lets you know anything,” he replied, “Why don’t you answer a few questions now?”

“Fair enough.”

Andromeda spoke up, “What do you know about these… builders?”

“What do we know? Not much. Only that they’ve built places like this all over our country and we theorize all over the world. Their architecture is all over this place as well. We also know they were immensely powerful.”

“Powerful? How powerful?” Aphelion asked.

Celestia sighed, “What I’m about to tell you two will never leave this room.”

“Fair enough,” Andromeda said.

“Fine,” Aphelion replied.

“Alright. Let me answer your question with a question. How do you think I raise the sun every day?”

Andromeda gasped, “But… but don’t you just- I mean- how can’t you?”

Aphelion’s facial plating moved and he laughed, “You’ve been lying for all these years.”

Celestia sighed, “Yes, yes we have been. Luna doesn’t raise the moon either. At least, not directly or by herself.”

“Then… how?” Andromeda asked.

“As I said, we’ve found several of these installations over the years. Some of them just happened to be working.”

“So… what you’re saying is-” Aphelion started.

“Exactly what you’re thinking,” Celestia smiled, “Now you understand the secret of the world.”

“What are you two talking about?” Andromeda asked.

“So… that would explain the pit in the back of this place,” Aphelion said.

“Pit?”

“There’s a large pit in the back of this place that just goes straight down. There are several kilometers of machinery at least down there. So why don’t you tell me just what you know about the world?”

“You’re on the same page as us.”

“We’ve been trying to figure out the purpose of this place for years. Just thought you might have a little something more but… what you’ve told us is certainly… interesting. But perhaps, our little prisoner outside may be of some use.”

“How so?”

Andromeda joined the conversation again, “Uh, before Aphelion, uh, knocked him out the first time; he called this place a maintenance installation.”

“You’re thinking he has a piece of the puzzle?”

“I crushed a whole bunch of these little heavily armed insects who broke in here and tried killing me and my little pony here. I don’t think they came here looking for gum drops and sugar cubes.”

“Alright. Wanna bring him in?”

“Can’t hurt,” Aphelion said.

Celestia nodded and vanished. A few seconds later she returned with the offending pegasus in her magic.

She dropped him to the floor and removed the tape from his mouth.

“-bucking cunt! You stupid bucking, semen colored, piece of-”

The tape returned to his muzzle. Celestia leaned down.

“We’re going to try this again,” She said, “I’m going to remove the tape. When I do you’re going to be silent and respectful. And if you’re not, I’m going to let Aphelion here have five minutes alone with you.”

The robot raised one of his limbs and a few blades slipped out of his hand.

Celestia returned to the pegasus, “Fair?”

He nodded.

“Alright.”

She removed the tape from his mouth and dropped him to the floor. Immediately the pegasus started coughing.

Celestia blinked, “Your name.”

The pegasus wheezed, “Iron… Gates…”

“So Iron Gates, I’m told by these two here that you may know a little something about the place we’re currently standing in.”

He coughed, “I do…”

“Tell us about it.”

The pegasus continued coughing before he returned to his hooves, “No.”

Aphelion growled, “Excuse me?”

“He’ll kill me if I speak of it.”

Aphelion let out a metallic snarling noise and raised one of his arms and released a series of blades, “And I will kill you if you don’t.”

Andromeda put a hoof on the robot. He glanced down at her and let out a form of a sigh and retracted his knives.

“My gods…” Iron Gates coughed, “How the hell do you not know anything?”

“What?” Andromeda asked.

“You’re walking around with a functional guardian. How do you know less than I do?”

Celestia ignored his question, “If you can’t tell us what you know, can you at least read?”

“I told you that he’ll kill me if I say anything.”

“I’m not asking you to tell us anything you already know, just do a little reading for us.”

He climbed to his hooves, “If he finds out I told you anything-”

Aphelion’s back plating opened and the large energy cannon slipped into place.

Iron Gates sighed, “Fine, fair enough. Just-just keep him away from me.”

Celestia turned to the other two, “Would you like to visit the library?”

“Sure,” Andromeda said.

“Aphelion I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to remain here,” Celestia said.

Aphelion shrugged, “Fine. But before you can have her I need to speak to her.”

“Alright.”

Two guards removed Iron Gates and Celestia turned and trotted out. Two other guards remained. Aphelion turned and growled.

“That’s robot for, ‘Get out.’” He said, two rocket pods emerging from his shoulders.

The two guards looked at each other and left. Once they were out of the chamber Andromeda turned.

“So explain what she meant earlier,” Andromeda asked.

“They’ve been lying.”

“Lying about what?”

Aphelion leaned down, “She doesn’t raise the sun.”