The sky is strangely calm today, Celestia thought to herself once more, as she flew through the air over the Badlands on her majestic white wings.
Her royal majesty and co-ruler of the capital city of Canterlot, felt surprised by how much she enjoyed flying without her chariot. Just thinking about the non-stop pampering and ceremony coaxed a sigh from Celestia’s lips. It wasn’t necessary, but some ponies just couldn’t treat their rulers like anypony else. Thankfully, her sister Luna had agreed to take on the extra work while she was away.
The weather today was as lovely as the day her most beloved student Twilight returned with the news. Celestia had sent Twilight, along with her assistant Spike -- whom she trusted to be able to handle anything remotely dangerous -- into the mostly unexplored badlands to the south. Their mission had been to follow the lead Twilight had discovered of a previously unknown, and extinct, civilization. When presented with the evidence, or more precisely the suspicious lack there of, Celestia could not deny that the sand cloaked badlands might hide ruins of such a place.
The southern badlands stood as an insurmountable obstacle for travelers. Only those with very powerful magic protection of a specific nature or thick dragon scales could survive the journey. For reasons unknown there was a mysterious energy in the air around that place that had pulled many a foolish pony into an early grave. It was for that reason that Celestia had long ago declared the area forbidden to the average citizen.
When Twilight and Spike returned with several artifacts in working condition, and a very unsettling story of ghosts from the past, Celestia knew she had to investigate for herself. From her student’s recollections, the race was something special. They were something that deserved to be remembered. Celestia had experienced many things that would break a lesser being over the course of her long life, but never had she heard of a race that had achieved so much. That they had destroyed themselves so utterly was-- Celestia shook her head furiously and focused her attention back on her flying. She would make sure to find out more about them, and to experience the ruins for herself. She wouldn't let them fade into oblivion. From what Twilight had said, they deserved that much.
Celestia tried to clear her dark thoughts away. Dwelling on the negative was never for the best. She knew in her heart that as long as one remembers those who are gone, then they never truly die; flashes of countless faces she had known swept through her mind. Celestia frowned a little before regaining her focus.
Her wings flapped faster. The wind roared past her ears, blowing her mane back into a beautiful streak. The clouds started to thin as if they feared the approaching badlands. The sky inexplicably darkened to a lifeless grey hue.
The princess flew stalwartly onward. She held no fear of the dangerous energy, for she had cast and maintained her protection spell all the way from Canterlot. Soon however, her eyes began to sting and she was forced to reduce her speed and elevation, lest she fly blindly into the unknown. Celestia noticed that the air above the grey hued desert below felt wrong somehow. It was heavy the higher up she flew and she could smell how chokingly unclean it was compared to the fresh air of home.
Celestia knew that few could match her magical prowess and mystic sensitivity. It was those talents that told her that she was getting close to a place that was…stained. The aura in the wind felt rancid. It was like a grand creator had shed oily black tears and forever polluted the land with sorrow. She was still trying to figure out exactly what it was that felt ‘off’, when she flew head first into a wall. It wasn’t a physical wall. No, it was a psychic one. Rage, despair, denial, and pain all threatened to overwhelm her. Fear was what she felt most. It was like an evil parasite was spreading through her gut and fought to devour her very mind with all consuming terror. This was like nothing she had ever felt before. The alicorn had to focus on dimming her spiritual awareness or be controlled by the bleeding aura of utter horror.
Princess Celestia felt faint. Her wings beat irregularly while a cold sweat soaked her fur. Her eyes fluttered. Raising a hoof up to her head, she desperately searched for somewhere to land. All she saw was a blocky, blackened, rocky outcropping. With her vision blurred, and a throbbing in her head that felt worse than when Queen Chrysalis had blasted her at the royal wedding, she landed.
What’s happening? I’ve never felt as weak as I do here. I can’t…the pain they felt. It’s too much, Celestia thought.
Her knees shook and she collapsed. The darkness felt strangely welcoming.
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Celestia awoke with a gasp, followed by a fit of coughing. She sat up and moved a hoof to her mouth as her lungs struggled to force out the sand and grey powdered dust that had contaminated them. The harsh winds had stopped, but the sun was now setting. Celestia’s wings shivered slightly. She got to her hooves and scanned her surroundings. Besides the tainted atmosphere of fear and pain – which she could now bear, having had time to adjust -- she learned that she had not landed on a rock outcropping as she had first thought.
Her eyes widened. The massive stone area was actually the cracked and scorched remains of a building. Unlike the pointed spires of Canterlot, however, this structure was rectangular in shape. It was also in positively horrid condition. Dust and sand intermingled to sew together a tan and grey blanket, while the cracking stonework groaned with every shifting of Celestia’s weight. The roof of the building was rather large, so much so, that Celestia had to trot closer to the edge just to see exactly what her surroundings looked like.
All Princess Celestia could manage was a gasp when she beheld what lie beyond the edge.
Before her was a metropolis that spread for miles. She could see that the farther into the heart of the decaying cityscape one went, the more colorless and damaged it looked, with but a few untouched structures here and there. The color and beauty of life itself was burned away from the mega-city, along with its creators. Closer to the structure on which Celestia was perched; the edge of the city gradually gave way to the desert badlands.
Celestia just stood there with the wind blowing her mane back. Her sad eyes watched the motionlessness as if expecting some sliver of life to show itself. None did, of course. The city, perhaps once the grandest of its time, stayed as silent and unmoving as a cadaver. The city was dead, tainted, diseased, and so it would remain.
But perhaps not the memory of its people, Celestia thought to herself. I can’t turn back now.
She closed her eyes and steeled her heart for what she might find. The sunset was to her back as she spread her wings wide, and glided like an angel of mercy to the devastation below.
She let the fates decide where she might land. As it so happened, the air currents guided her to a seemingly tiny metal shack surrounded by a large flat area of stonework, with a flimsy, metal-chain fence separating it from the surrounding rubble. She landed on the stone area beyond the twisted fence. Was it a circular meeting ground, perhaps? Brown weeds sprouted like the rose bushes in Canterlot from cracks in the stone floor. The site was as grey and lifeless as the surrounding ruins, with the metal shack showing only slight signs of rust. Celestia shifted uncomfortably and looked from side to side, then back at the near pristine shack.
Impressive it’s lasted so long. Yet what is it that makes it feel as though I am being watched? the alicorn pondered.
She craned her neck around one way and then the next, eyeing windows in the few nearby buildings still standing higher than two stories. She stopped and lowered her head while closing her eyes. Very gingerly, she stretched out her awareness, so as not to experience the psychic backlash. She could only feel the faintest echo of a presence coming from the shack itself. It felt hollow and somber. The realization struck her that there was also a hefty presence coming from below her as well. The presence below clawed for the surface as the deathly ill might grasp hopelessly for air.
The princess opened her eyes once again, slowly. She moved towards the unassuming shed. She examined its left side, away from the tall, narrow door. Her brow furrowed. On the side of the shed was a disturbing image. It was in much the same shape as Twilight Sparkle had depicted in her report, the apparent body structure of the city’s builders. It was black in color and looked to be smeared onto the metal. The silhouette was kneeling and its upper extremities were clasped together and raised to the sky. Celestia could see the details so clearly outlined that even the open mouth’s teeth were visible. Celestia’s heart beat faster. She moved one of her fore hooves to the painting at a snails pace. Her eyes glowed white as the city endowed her with a vision.
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The door to the shed slid open and a blurry, two legged creature stumbled out. Everything looked like a smeared oil painting, but the colors were dulled to nothing but hues of red and orange, with the exception of the giant, who was bathed in white. Everything could still be made out for what it was, except for the creature’s face, which refused to be clearly seen.
The creature stumbled around the shed as if in a daze. It was turning its obscured head from the shack to the red horizon. It turned to the side of the shed and collapsed against the wall. It pulled a silver pendant in the shape of a cross out of its white clothing and stared at it for a bit. The sound of an earth shattering boom was heard and the creature looked to the horizon once again. A mushroom shaped blast of fire blocked out the sky, the wall of flame at it’s base rushing towards the white figure. The creature didn't run or even panic. It just stayed where it was and stared back at its pendant before clasping it in its upper extremities and looking to the sky. It uttered many strange words, none of which were understandable, while shakily waving its arms at the sky. It seemed to be begging or demanding for something over and over.
More explosions blared. The creature yelled it's last words before its voice could no longer be heard above the cacophony of the dying and obliteration. For some reason this part could be understood.
“Please forgive me! I just wanted to help!”
The creature barely had enough time to open its mouth to scream before it was overwhelmed by a flash of light.
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Celestia’s eyes stopped glowing and she blinked rapidly before stepping backwards very slowly and shaking her head. She looked at the painting that was not actually a painting. Then she looked at her hoof and saw cinders on the golden shoe.
“No…no, no, no,” she whispered.
It was death and horror the long lived alicorn had never seen before. Yes, she had bore witness to many sad things and monumental unhappiness before love and harmony had taken sway over Equestria, but nothing so… bloody. It was just inconceivable. She didn’t want to think about how so many had been killed, but she forced herself not to deny it. She glanced down by chance and noticed something gleaming from a crack in the stone. She levitated it out with her magic and eyed it. It was caked in ashes, but she recognized it for what it was. It was the pendant the deceased being had held so dear. That it survived was miraculous, or perhaps a message. Celestia put the pendant around her neck and took a deep breath. Ignoring the hammering in her heart, she stepped back to the door of the metal shack. She opened it with her magic and realized it was actually more than tall enough for her, but that the width was somewhat narrow. These creatures had truly been giants, both in destructive power and size. The inside of the shack was solid white and very roomy. Celestia guessed it could hold a dozen or so of the precursor race at a time.
Celestia looked down, her stomach churning uncomfortably. The immaculate white floor had a pair of dark, flaking footprints on it. She didn’t spend any time trying to guess what they were made of. Instead, she focused on the pair of green buttons on one side of the shack. She pressed the top one but nothing happened.
“Hmph,” Celestia grunted.
She pressed the bottom one and her head whipped around as the door to the outside world slammed shut and sealed with a hiss. A light she had not noticed at the top of the room -- somehow not powered by magic or steam -- flickered on and off. She could feel that the room was moving down. Celestia wasn’t one to feel claustrophobic, but this descent was unnerving. She held up the relic around her neck and stared at it with a distant gaze. The thing both calmed her and made her heart ache. She continued to stare at it until the room came to jarring halt.
Celestia stumbled. The door slowly opened into a featureless tiled hallway, with the alien light source making a low, buzzing sound as it flickered on and off sporadically from the low hanging ceiling. The walls were coated in peeling white paint. A silvery metal door, barricaded with an empty metal shelf, guarded the end of the hallway. The black tracks turned from footprints to circular drops that led from the hallway into the elevator. Following them, Celestia levitated the shelving out of the way, and then pulled the unlocked doors apart with her magic.
Celestia was nearly blinded by darkness as the shadowed, bloody face of a creature with needles for teeth and four glowing red eyes screeched at her in a frequency capable of shattering glass!
Celestia screamed. One blink of her eyes and the demon was gone. She saw that she had entered a dim room but that there was no monstrosity with her.
It’s was just an illusion Tia, a trick from the imprinted taint. Nothing is here. Just keep your wits about you, she thought.
She wasn’t entirely convinced, though. This place felt far more tainted than the outside ruins. She thought she heard a skittering somewhere ahead of her, but she sensed no life force and saw nothing. She grimaced while looking at the new room. It was completely bare except for a wooden desk that spread across the room. On it were a bell and a broken device made out of some unknown material with a shattered glass pane on it. A steel crowbar remained wedged in the looped handles of the doors behind the desk, perhaps to keep strangers from getting in, or maybe to keep something else from getting out. Otherwise there was nothing here.
She carefully removed the crowbar entangled between the windowless double door’s handles with a fire spell at the ready. She would not be taken off guard this time.
The next room was as sterile as the last, with the same old peeling white paint and flickering lights. Unlike the last one, this room was a four way intersection with more windowless metal doors. Celestia noticed that there was a large empty jug sitting on top of a device just to her left against the wall, whose function was completely beyond her. She prodded it with a hoof and felt that the clear jug was not made of glass or ceramic but of a thick lightweight material, similar to the box in the last room. In fact, now that she thought about it, most of the random objects she had found were either made of metal or this strange, glossy substance. It was interesting, but irrelevant. She needed to find out more about the structure and its deceased occupants first.
Celestia crept to the left door and opened it, only to have her path blocked by rubble from a collapse. Frustrated, she trotted up to the right-most doors instead. It wasn’t blocked but the lighting had gone out and there was an unpleasant odor in the air as well as a low but constant hissing noise. She gave that hallway a wide birth.
I just wish to know what happened here, yet it seems this place is determined to confuse me with dead ends and more mysteries than answers, Celestia thought.
She moved with purpose to the only door left unchecked. To her surprise this room was different from the last. Its lights had managed to stay on, but only barely. The dimness cast eerie shadows from the multitude of random things strewn about the floor and on the shelves on the walls. It was also much larger than the last few rooms, with a see-through set of walls on one end to form a room within a room. The place looked like it had been ransacked. A handful of darts were lodged in random lines along some of the walls for whatever reason. Celestia inspected everything with a critical eye. There were so many forgotten things in this one room, that Celestia suddenly found herself wishing her student were present. She decided to investigate a little, before continuing on.
There were many pieces of parchment on shelves and the floor that were far too perfect to be real parchment, but Celestia didn’t know what else to call them. The writing on them was indecipherable, as she had expected. There were racks and racks of both broken and unbroken beakers, glass slides and other science equipment that cast haunting shadows across the walls; many were still filled with unknown substances. There was a table with a pair of devices that had two lenses at the top. Celestia guessed that one was supposed to look into them, but they were made for a species whose skull shape was more flat and forward facing then hers, so she looked with one eye closed and her head turned to the side. Either she was doing it wrong or the object was broken, because all she could see was darkness through the lens. There was another box-shaped object with a glass window, this one intact. She tried pressing buttons and flipping switches, feeling like a foal who gotten their first toy, but nothing worked--a shame.
Avoiding the shelf occupied by syringes filled with strange liquids, she moved over to the clear walled area and looked around to find more strange things. Most of it was, like the rest of the room, completely alien to her. The thing that caught her attention the most was a sealed container easily as big as two or three of the boxy typewriter-like devices. A pair of light blue gloves clearly not made to accommodate a pony’s hooves were attached to holes in the box. At least she thought they were gloves -- they looked more like fat spiders to Celestia. Within the box was an egg carton like container, only much, much smaller, containing an eyedropper and a vial of oily black and blue goo. Celestia tilted her head before looking back at the needles and science flasks on the shelves. She decided to move on to the next room.
Being careful not to trip in the dim and flickering light, Princess Celestia was heading to one of the doors, when something sent a chill up her spine and a throbbing through her head. Somewhere in the ceiling was a metallic thumping. It sounded like an altogether too large creature was banging inside a metal tube while crawling through the ceiling.
Clang, thunk, clang, thunk, clang.
Eventually the noise grew more distant. Celestia let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. She opened the door leading to another dim hallway, but slipped on an empty glass vial.
“Oof!” Celestia grunted.
She fell harder than a shooting star colliding with the earth. Her ears were down flat as a blush colored her face. They flicked back up, however, when she heard the metallic thumping return. It sounded like it was in a hurry. She wasted no time in getting back up and jolting down the hallway. There was a fork in the road and she trotted in place trying to think of which way to go.
An eardrum rending crash blared from behind her as something broke its way into the room she had just occupied. With no time to waste, she picked at random and went left, the cross around her slender neck bouncing erratically while she ran. It was as if it were trying to escape her the way she tried to escape whatever chased her. Her breathing wouldn’t slow down anymore than her drumming heart as she passed room after dead-end room.
A thought crossed Celestia’s mind. Wait, why am I running? Surely I can handle whatever is behind-
The glass beakers in a nearby room exploded as whatever was chasing her screeched like a banshee. Through the ringing in her ears, the she could hear more from the hidden monster.
“Arrgshotn-Alatan-Alataaaaan-Alatan!”
Abruptly, Celestia’s eyes glowed white. Her vision went grainy and blurry although she didn’t stop running. Now the sterile white hallways were bathed in red light. Skeletons rose up from all sides, reaching up for her. Bloodshot eyes remained in their eye sockets. Their mouths were all opened in silent screams as blood trickled down their jaws.
“Alatan! Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
The hallway and rooms changed back to normal in a flash of white light. Celestia kept running until she found a suitably dark room to hide in whose doors were bent shut. She blindly teleported to the other side of the doors, hoping not to materialize in a wall or something equally fatal. Thankfully she reached the other side intact. Celestia stilled her breathing while crouching down and staring at the doors. The air was thick with oppressive chemical smells. Nothing made a sound. Several minutes went by, but to Celestia they felt like hours.
Celestia started to breathe normally again. Whatever monster that had been chasing her had apparently lost the scent. Turning around, the sun princess’ horn glowed a heavenly yellow and white. The room must have been sealed from the inside because near the bent and half melted doors were various tools and several large metal tables stacked against them. The shadows crept around the newcomer; inviting her to stay with them forever. The darkness was unnaturally strong. Or perhaps, it was all in Celestia’s head? Celestia channeled more magic into her horn, causing it to glow even brighter. Finally she could see all that was around her. She inhaled sharply, but said nothing.
In the room were five tanks, filled with thick blue ooze, reaching from the tiles to the ceiling. In all but one of the tanks floated a grisly spectacle connected to cables leading up into the tanks. One tank held the upper torso – and only the upper torso – in the shape of the precursors covered with metal studs and scars. In another tank floated a sphere with many clawed arms attached to it that would occasionally twitch. A third held something whose thick body looked like that of the precursors, but its arms were replaced by long needle-like spikes with pointed protrusions sprouting from its stitched head. The next looked more like a spine or a snake. All of them were just as much metal as flesh with dim glowing red spots shining from what must have been their eyes. The final tank sat empty but otherwise intact.
Celestia took a hasty step forward, heading for the only exit leading out of this little lab of horrors. She jumped back when the snake-spine creature lunged at her before it hit the tank with a dull thud. Wispy, jellyfish styled tendrils extended from its sides to give the intruder a deathly hug. Celestia moved on before seeing if the other tank’s occupants might awaken.
The new room was as much a harbinger of death as the last. It looked like a medical wing in a hospital, but without any real medical equipment. Celestia moved slowly through the aisle to the next room, her heart heavy. She noticed that some of the beds were stained black in spots. One bed next to the door was covered in black stains that trailed to the floor before disappearing at the entry way. The scene shifted before her for only an instant.
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The precursors that filled most of the beds were dressed in white lab coats. Many were coughing up bodily fluids and groaning. One banged at the shut doors leading away from the tank room. “Vypusti nas! Vy ne mozhete sdelat’ etogo! Vypusti nas!”
No one answered the door and the creature kicked it violently before it sat back down with its head hung low as it whispered.
“Vypusti nas.”
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The vision ended and Celestia kept moving. Now she was back in the maze of featureless hallways; only this time the lighting was completely out. A skittering echoed from the alicorn’s right, but she didn’t see anything except the cracks in the paint. She jumped; something had brushed against her legs. She stomped her hoof and heard a splintering crack. It was difficult to make out in the darkness. She looked at what she had stepped on and jumped again. In the small indentation her powerful hoof stomp had created was a skeletal claw of one of the precursors.
How did I mistake that for a monster? I was sure it had brushed into me and not the other way around. I need to find out what happened here and leave. This can’t be real. I know it’s just an illusion. I have to keep moving. This place feels so wrong. If only I could help. Celestia thought.
Celestia spent many hours after that, searching almost blindly through the empty hallways and devastated labs.
If she had gone back to the severed piece of bone, she would have found that the detached limb was gone; in its place were scratch marks leading from its spot off into the gloom.
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Finally, the Princess of the Sun reached a room with working lights. She relaxed and the glow from her horn was doused. The room was like most of the others. It had dirty white tiled floors littered with occasional bits of discarded equipment. The trashed floor blended well with the room’s deteriorating white walls and ceiling. It led to a set of hallways through two sets of doors on either side. There were also more shelves with various containers and a single bed shoved in a corner. What differed from other rooms, however, was that this one contained a single metal work desk near the back wall with a huge pane of glass embedded into the wall itself.
The alicorn blew away the dust and cobwebs from a flat board with buttons on the desk. Seeking answers, she pressed some buttons randomly and flipped a switch. Her eyelids rocketed up when the screen in the wall started to flicker to life. Some unseen contraption --most likely built into the wall-- whirred and groaned as it struggled to perform its intended function.
Suddenly the lights in the room gave out with a loud pop. Thankfully the machine in or around the screen and desk still possessed some power and continued its valiant fight to operate. Despite being well beyond its projected life span without any maintenance, whatever instruments that were working to show images on the glass screen survived the power up procedures. A confusing array of color faded into view on the screen with the symbol of an arrow in a circle centered.
“Is this some form of ancient magic or more advanced technology? Perhaps it’s both?” Celestia asked nopony in particular.
Celestia waited for several minutes, but the screen stayed the same. The uneasy quiet in the room was only broken by a low humming. Suddenly a thought occurred to her.
Oh! It must require me to do something to continue. Perhaps one of these buttons is the key?
Her pink eyes moved up and down the board with buttons until she found something with an identical symbol. Hesitantly, she pressed down on the button with the tip of her hoof.
She felt as if she were in a trance as the pale glow of the flickering screen was the only source of light in the forgotten room. Her jaw dropped for an instant before she quickly regained her regal composure. Most would not have caught the quick lapse in composure but it was there. The thin layer of glass became an actual window into the past.
Although parts of it remained dark, a blurry image of the face of one of the precursors could be seen. She recognized it as being similar to that of her student’s own portrayal with a “living” member of this species. This one however, looked to be rather old. Its dark and nearly hairless skin was wrinkled with age. Its head was bare of any follicles while its upper lip remained hairy; It was as if the hair that should have been on its head had migrated to its upper lip. What really clued the princess to the creature’s age were the expressive and weary eyes behind a pair of thick, rounded glasses. In them she saw all of her subjects and friends that she had watched grow old and pass away. She saw in those eyes the weight of experience and the fear of an approaching endless sleep.
The ghost in the glass cleared its throat and began to speak in a tongue she did not recognize. Celestia frowned with concentration. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, stretched out her spirit to the machinations of the universe, and just listened. After a moment she reopened her now faintly glowing eyes.
The recording continued. “-so I am recording this for future generations. Oh, and before I forget, this is the log of Al-“kzzztk
The message went fuzzy for a second and the sound turned to a buzzing cacophony before continuing clearly.
“-day that we are to commence with the experiments. So too, it is my hope that this will be remembered as the day I contributed to the end of the war and brought peace. My team of one hundred and six staff is ready. We have all the resources we could want. This is the start of something great.”
The pane went black. For a moment Princess Celestia thought that was all there was, but the window sparked back to artificial life once more.
The old being was back again and talking away, “We’ve had some promising leads in the budding field of synthetic-organic technologies. Peterson proposed using living tissue. We’ve no shortage of cloning equipment so I gave the go ahead. He’s a smart boy. A little young, but he shows real promise and thinks outside the box. We’ll see where this takes us. I only wish the news from the war was better. In the meantime, I had Petroski form into a separate group; he swears by the old plans for creating psychic soldiers that could anticipate enemies' moves and sense danger, but that technology was scrapped in the-“ kzzztkt “-for good reason, but I won’t deny him a chance to at least try to get past the neurological feedback problems.”
The screen went black again. Celestia wondered just how long the scientist had been down here researching…whatever it was that they were looking into. Most of the specifics were going over her head, but she was getting a good idea of what the purpose of this place had been. She wondered where things had gone awry. She didn’t notice she was craning her neck closer to the screen as it sparked back on. The scientist’s expression was grave. He was farther back from the screen this time. Now Celestia could see he was wearing a spotless white lab coat and high collared shirt that covered his neck. He held a bottle of some clear liquid in his left hand with its cork removed. He took a long swig. When he finished his gulp he let out a long sigh and started talking.
“This is Al-” kzzztkt “-entire north continent has gone off the grid. Not sure if it’s been destroyed or if communications have been cut, but there’s nothing but static over the comms. We can’t even get a sky sight on ‘em. Something just jams the signals with junk data. As if that weren’t bad enough, the generals are breathing down my neck and threatening to cut all funding if we don’t have something soon. Not only that but some of the staff have begun questioning my ethics. They say that some of the test results are aware of their surroundings. They refuse to understand-“kzzztkt “-imitating higher brain functions are to be expected. That’s just the chips communicating with the grey matter. They are no more alive then a G model combat drone. Peterson understands this. Why can’t they?! Arrogant-“kzzztkt “-if we succeed the fighting can end! All of this will have been worth it. We are doing the right thing here; I know it. It has to be the right thing. We’re doing God’s work here.”
The message went dark again. Celestia was vaguely aware of something metallic crashing, somewhere far off in the structure, but remained glued and unblinking to the glass panel in the wall. Her breathing was shallow.
The scientist returned to the screen with a scowl. He sounded more collected than before, but no less grim.
“More than half the team has been relocated to” -he air quoted as he said the next three words- “more important projects. I showed those impatient fools from the military schematics and projections of our progress, but they weren’t impressed. They say we’re taking too long. I told them these things take time. They told me to shove it and be grateful they hadn’t cut the program entirely. They’ve lost faith in our work, in me. I can’t give up though. The country needs this to work. We all need this to work.”
There was another dark transition. A stone was forming in the pit of Celestia’s stomach.
This time the scientist appeared practically giddy as he said, “We’ve done it! Despite the setbacks, I and my team have finally managed to create not one, but several stable living prototypes! We’ve yet to perfect any of the models yet. There are, admittedly, some flaws that need to be addressed in their respective designs, such as not relying on remote signals that can be blocked. Petroski actually says his psychic research can help on that front, though! All in all there will be some further testing and adjustments to be made, but we’ve finally done it. With just a thousand of these new biomechanical super-men we can end this war once and for all. With these new tools we've effectively saved the world! Nothing will-“kzzztkt
The screen almost gave out as the picture blurred completely. Celestia pressed some buttons rapidly while looking back and forth between the glass and input device. She must have done something right, because the screen cleared somewhat and the audio returned.
“-complaints among the team about headaches, chest pains and eye strain lately,” the scientist said, “There must be a bug going around, though I’m not sure how we could get sick down here. I’ll be sure to have them checked after the celebration party. It’s been seven long years since everything started, but it’s all about to end!” the scientist explained.
A rattling caused the hypnotized alicorn’s body to go rigid. It sounded like the clunky thumping she had heard before. Her ears twitched repeatedly but she couldn’t locate the noise again. She waited as the recording transitioned to a later entry; while trying her best to sense any sort of danger. All she could detect was the taint and negative emotions mixed in with all the other traumas the ruins contained.
kzzztkt“-seems unresponsive to commands still. I’ll have Petroski take a look at it again. It may be the-“kzzztkt “-don’t know. The others are getting sicker. It’s only been those who have spent more time with the prototype. With our work rotation only a handful of staff are not ill. Among those who have spent significant time with it only Peterson and I seem healthy. Strange…”
The recording skipped ahead and now the window to the past showed the precursor with his head in his hands and a look of total dismay on his face.
“Petroski died today. He was working on the tight beam thought processing helmet that gives commands to the prototype when he had some kind of seizure. We,” the scientist paused to take a breath, “we found him in his chair with his eyes and nose hemorrhaging massive amounts of blood. Most of the others who are ill are worsening too. I swear it’s been one disaster after another lately.”kzzztkt “-them isolated until we figure out the problem.”
With an audible pop the screen went black, but the buzzing sound of the scientist’s voice continued. Celestia’s ears went up and swiveled behind her. Her head started to hurt and her heart began to quicken in time with her breathing. There was a metallic groaning echoing from the haunted depths of the facility.
“Just I and Peterson are left now. We’re taking as much as we can carry to an old maintenance area for the time being. The beast hasn’t found us yet as we,”kzzztkt “-uses the bodies. It has evolved in ways we never projected. We only have a single batch of the fail safe liquid left to stop it, but Peterson says it’s far safer to just stay put and wait for the generals to send someone down to find us, but I don’t think they give a damn what happens down here anymore. It’s trapped in here with us. I made sure of that. Unless one of us leaves via the elevator that thing isn’t going anywhere. Peterson insists that we just have to stay and wait for help. I disagree but until we’re certain that no help is coming that’s the only logical thing to do, I suppose,” continued the voice.
The area to Celestia’s far right erupted with the shriek of the damned and a heavy thud.
“Alataaaaaaaaaaaaaan!”
Celestia could barely see it as it rammed through the wall with a blur of motion and smashed into the device behind her. Her hooves slipped slightly before she gained enough traction to get out of the way. She sprinted out the other side of the room and into another dark corridor. Thankfully she saw light up ahead near a turn.
The recording replayed throughout the hall. The monstrosity stomped clumsily after her.
“Wait for help,”kzzztkt “Wait for help,”kzzztkt “Wait for help,”kzzztkt "the only logical thing to do,” it repeated.
The princess changed course as she reached the lit up hallway. The abomination was close behind her. To Celestias’ glee there was something she could use to slow the monster down. Perhaps it would allow her time enough to escape.
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Confusion, anger, an unstoppable drive to consume, these were the things most familiar to the beast. Time held no meaning to the abomination. However, it could sense some massive change had taken place above. That was long ago now, when the prey had walked the halls and taunted it with their weak, fleshy bodies. It had consumed them all, but the beast’s hunger knew no bounds. There were never enough bodies, and that made it angry.
It had started out weak itself, but broke free thanks to its first meal. The ignorant prey had given it orders after it came to be in the tube mother. Everything was a confusing flash of images and sounds from back then. The first meal had made everything clear, that it was made to consume and attack on command, and so it did, starting with the mind of the one who had given it orders. The prey knew it’s place and became one with it after the occasional chase. Only two would not submit to the order the beast had been told was true. It had fumbled tirelessly to find the prey that didn’t have enough sense to be prey. The prey even had the arrogance to attack the abomination. The very idea left it confused and angry.
The beast was blind --truth be told-- even though it had two sets of eyes. It didn’t see with its eyes though. It saw the world through the little ones and the glow that all prey emitted from their bodies. It would send the little ones to find prey like a parasite extending its tendrils into the warm flesh of another living being. Then it would get close enough to sense and consume the prey.
For far too long there had been no prey to find. So the beast fumbled through path after path to find more to consume. It had sensed that the way out was in a direction that its prey called “UP” but it could never go “UP” enough. This confused the beast, which of course, only made it angrier, and in turn, made its drive to consume all the stronger. It had thrown many tantrums in the empty pathways since. Where was the prey? What had the beast done wrong? It had done as it was told from the start and yet now, it could not fulfill the very purpose for its existence!
Recently, however, the prey had finally returned! If the beast could feel real emotion, it would have felt relief. The abomination had been nesting in the cozy area above the larger, prey favored paths when one of the little ones had signaled the news from its location. The prey was a different flavor. It was much brighter, and the glow it radiated just wasn’t the same as the ones that came before. In fact, ever since the new prey had arrived, the beast was suffering from a severe case of indigestion. The new prey was offensive to its senses. It didn’t matter though. Prey was prey. It had eluded the beast once, but now it would be consumed. It would-- wait, why was the wall suddenly tingling and heading straight for it?
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Celestia had thanked whatever higher power still watched over her then when she had discovered that the turn was actually an exposed part of the facility that led into a hidden inner layer. Several pipes poured out steam hot enough to have melted the metal area they pointed at into a molten puddle. They formed a barrier of deadly heat that would certainly stop anything that couldn’t teleport past it. Celestia was more grateful than ever for the power she possessed. She utilized it and was beyond the steam wall with a flash of light. She wasn’t satisfied with just that though. When the abomination rounded the corner —obscured by the steam, but clearly very large— she mustered all her telekinetic strength and ripped the plating from one of the walls right off its bolts and at the hulking monstrosity. The force would have turned just about any regular creature into a messy paste. The beast was more resilient than any regular creature.
The abomination was pinned to the wall farthest from her with the metal sheet contoured to its form. However, the creature raged and the metal sheet shook from amount of force pushing against it. Celestia didn’t stick around to see if it would hold and galloped away as fast as her regal muscles would allow.
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Perhaps coming this way wasn’t one of my better judgments, Princess Celestia thought.
The alicorn’s graceful steps carried her through a dimly lit metal corridor. It looked unfinished, or perhaps was never intended to be seen by others. Various pipes, cords, valves and button boxes made the narrow pathway an obstacle course. They cast eerie, jagged shadows along the path, as they interfered with the yellow lighting. Celestia nearly tripped more than once and had to make a concentrated effort to get past all the cobwebs without them catching in her mane. In all honesty it was a losing battle. The low ceiling pressed down on her, while her wings screamed to be stretch in the cramped confines of what could be roughly compared to an abandoned backstage behind the walls of this facility.
Things were silent for the most part. Occasionally she would hear the noisy buzz or hum of a concealed or distant piece of technology, but overall, the only sounds ringing in her ears were the clinking of her own steps. The smells were just as sterile. Nothing worth noting except dirty air and the occasional chemical scent could be detected. Along the way Celestia would see half used bottles next to dirty rags and boxes filled with strange tools. She had recognized some plain as day, like a hammer here or measuring stick there. Other tools functions eluded her like demons cowering from the holy light.
Celestia stopped suddenly. She held up the pendant around her neck and gave it a half lidded stare as her mind started to wander.
What am I doing down here? she mused, I came to this mausoleum in the hopes of finding, what, exactly? A fruitless way to help those that are long gone? Did I come here to find some long lost treasures to bring back like a wide-eyed filly? Perhaps I was driven by some misguided sense of superiority; here to find proof that my kind are somehow immune to whatever mistake caused the downfall of these giants. Now, here you are Tia, alone, below the earth with a monster, with only the knowledge that the scholars here searched for a way to save themselves from the end they saw coming, only to fail and hasten their own doom. A true princess would have had the foresight to plan a proper expedition. She would have had the power to defeat any threat to herself or her subjects if she needed to. A true princess would have had the wisdom to not go gallivanting off on her own into the unknown. Celestia, you really are an old fool sometimes.
The silver cross pendant was dull and worn looking to Celestia’s eyes. It offered no answers as she let it hang from her neck again. She let out a small sigh with her head hung low while she continued forward. After only a few minutes the cramped path widened into a small chamber. Many cords and the like still jutted out of the walls and ceiling but there was at least some breathing room now. Celestia’s eyes were immediately drawn to the desk to her left, its surface littered with random objects, and the stack of parchments and scrap parts in the center of the “room”. Absolutely everything was covered in cobwebs. Celestia took a single step forward and almost gave herself a heart attack when the deep silence was shattered by the clatter of a knocked over tin can. She looked down to discover a pile of empty cans and empty, flexible packets at her hooves. A checkered game board with rusted screws and lug nuts for game pieces sat next to them.
Someone had been living in here, Celestia thought.
Careful not to make any more noise or to set off any hidden traps, the princess made her way to the center area with a glum look about her. Using her magic, Celestia picked up the entire stack of parchments to search through them. The stacked parchments were indecipherable, with writing on them that had all but vanished over time. Some had faint, dotted line pictures that showed the same device at different angles with numbers scattered around seemingly at random. Old notes were hastily scribbled in the margins with lines pointing to certain parts of the pictures. Celestia sifted through a set of notes that might have been a treaty on the proper use of paint thinner for all she knew; until her eyes beheld the last page. On it was a crude sketch of a four eyed entity with needles for teeth. Just glancing at the fangs would cause the infirm to bleed spontaneously.
Celestia put back the papers with somewhat more force than was strictly necessary and didn’t bother to scan the other little curiosities and scraps at the center of the chamber. She turned her attention instead to the flimsy looking work desk made of that same unknown lightweight material these creatures had been so fond of when not using metal. In a passing thought, she pictured a bipedal giant made entirely out of red metal and rotten flesh rising from the ashes of the ruined city. Its face obscured and its intent clear, it would step out of the metropolis and raise a pair of massive fists in anger at the surviving world. It would obliterate everything around it in a blind wrath that spiraled out of control.
Celestia blinked twice and banished that dark daydream from her mind. On the desk, buried beneath cobwebs, were three glass containers. Each possessed a separate liquid inside. Next to those was a syringe with a trace amount of red liquid that offered a subtle glow. Also lying on the table were dozens of darts and another, tiny version of those rectangular typewriter and glass screen gadgets. Celestia half heartedly pressed some buttons on the latter relic. Unfortunately, any power it once contained was no more, not to mention there were a few slender cracks on its screen that may have hindered its operation. Something in the corner of the princess’s eye caught her attention then.
There in a corner, behind a veil of cobwebs, something sat against the wall. Celestia had completely missed it. It was like whatever hid behind those webs was too terrified to allow itself to be seen. Celestia stepped up to it and leaned her head close. She used a wing to brush apart the cocoon of cobwebs. When she discovered what was behind them she found herself wishing she hadn’t. Huddled against the wall in a soiled lab coat was the mummified body of one of the researchers. Celestia’s pupils shrunk and her head jerked back. Celestia was so surprised she didn’t even feel her rump hit the desk as she backed up. Nor did she hear the breaking glass of one of the containers falling off and shattering upon the ground. All her focus was centered on the morbid sight in front of her.
Its arms and legs were huddled together, perhaps out of fear at the time but it was difficult to say, so that the body was roughly in a fetal position. Its baggy, stained and shabby white clothing barely stayed on a thin frame that was whittled down to the bone. Its stomach region especially was concave beyond any possible measure of good health. The skin was yellowed and stretched tight against its features that were a gruesome mockery of youth. Its auburn hair was long and unkempt on both its head and face. Its claws, if that’s what they were, had grown long and split on the end of its skeletal digits. That which claimed the most attention though was the look of agony on its face. It was looking up and to the side at a random corner, its jaw set and its decayed eye area squinting. Celestia felt in her heart that this one had been in tremendous pain at the end.
She looked back to the empty cans and makeshift game board, then to the unoccupied space the precursor had been staring at and finally back at the piles of left over work before looking back at the mummy. On its tattered coat near the collar was a tag that looked like it was about to fall off. She couldn’t read the letters. Celestia glowered. She didn’t even know his name. In a flare of uncharacteristic anger she felt like she needed to kick something. Why had she come here, if all she could do was look at the un-mourned dead left in their forgotten cradles, if she could not help them? Why wasn’t there something she could do to help? What was the point of all the suffering they had endured? Self inflicted or not the whole situation made her so feel helpless and that infuriated her. What good was she then?! What leader, with all her power both shared and solitary, with both magic and might and knowledge and understanding, couldn’t even help an entire race of beings in the slightest?! At first she had believed she had been guided here, but now she was plagued by an unfamiliar feeling of doubt.
“I don’t understand!” Celestia, screamed at both the body and ashen tomb she had walked into, “Why am I here? What am I supposed to do?!”
She stomped her front right hoof on the floor. She had just the slightest quiver to her lips.
“I just wanted to help,” she said.
There was only silence in response.
Then there was an odd, whispering echo.
I only wanted to help. I only wanted to help. I only wanted to help.
The voice was hers, but Princess Celestia felt something else behind the echo. What exactly, she wasn’t sure. It was something she had only felt in passing before. No, that wasn’t true. She had felt this before, and in amounts that had threatened to break her. It was the same feeling she had when she had first arrived, only much smaller. She felt her spiritual awareness begin to swell back to its normal portions but she pushed it back down.
Her vision tinged white for a moment and the whispered echo grew louder until it was a racket that shook the very room. It mimicked her voice but there were dozens of echoes now. They all screamed in horror or repeated the phrase “I only wanted to help” in a bloody chorus of despair and fear.
Celestia put her hooves up to her ears and said, “I know you’re all in pain but I don’t know what you want me to do! I beg you, please stop!”
As if a switch had been flipped, the echoes ceased as one. Celestia opened her eyes and put a hoof up to her chest. She patted her breast bone in relief, but realized something was missing.
“Huh, where is the necklace?!” Celestia asked.
Looking down she confirmed that the necklace was missing from her neck. She turned in a circle a few times to see where it might have fallen. Did it break or had she knocked it off by accident? It wasn’t on the flimsy work table. The notes she had put back in a stack weren't its hiding place either. It wasn’t near the cans and packets. That just left one spot to check.
The princess of the sun felt the sudden urge to lose her lunch, but a sense of duty compelled her to at least check. Besides, she hadn’t brought it all this way just to lose it in a careless act of inattention. Looking over the body was, unpleasant, but she saw that tell tail glimmer in the thick cobwebs to the entities’ left. She picked it up with her magic and gave it gentle shine. Then she noticed something else covered in cobwebs just under where the cross had landed.
She gently brushed them aside and found a strange device. It was some kind of gadget for sewing thread if Celestia had to venture a guess. At least, that’s what the needle at one end suggested. Levitating it up, she spun it around to inspect it further. It had seen better days. Any paint it might have had was replaced by the worn and scratched glossy material underneath. There was a long tube wrapped around the needle, with what she guessed to be the handle just below that. There was also a thin switch in the corner between the two. It was the only “button” as far as she could see.
A transparent, yellow tinged, bubble barrier poped into existence around the machine. Celestia then pulled the switch with her magic. There was a swishing sound of compressed air escaping. A dart ricocheted from surface to surface on the inside of the barrier before coming to rest.
Celestia spoke while looking at the mummy once again, “You were hiding here for so long, waiting for help…but it never arrived,” she paused, with a determined look about her. “You were all only trying to do the right thing. No matter how dark things may have gotten, you kept hope that someone would come looking for you. That everything would work out for the best. At the very least, you wanted to fix your mistakes. Your hearts were always in the right place, even if your actions were not.”
Princess Celestia stared at the weapon, and then at the pendant on her neck with a somber look in her eyes before a passionate, fiery gaze replaced it.
“You’ve waited long enough. This needs to end. Now.”
Tucking away the dart weapon into her mane, the princess spent a few seconds searching the room. Finally, she found a low hanging corridor obscured by more cobwebs. She had to duck so low it was more of a crawl for the five feet or so that it took to get to the large hatch at its end. Celestia impatiently spun the wheel that served as a doorknob. With a hiss, the hatch on the floor opened. Celestia hunched down to get through the small opening.
She found herself back in the first ransacked lab, the one where she had heard the clanking of the abomination. The science materials cast eerie shadows and the floor was polluted with junk. Celestia moved to the door that led to the four hallway intersection so she would have some room to maneuver if the monster got too close. Her ear twitched as she detected a skittering sound from somewhere in the room.
“Enough is enough!” Celestia shouted in challenge, using the royal Canterlot voice. “Here I am, abomination! Come and face me!”
Her head throbbed and her heart pounded in her chest. Everything in the room became all the more dark. The doors on the other side of the room were still ajar from earlier. This gave Celestia a clear view of a ceiling panel being forced down by an unseen creature entering from somewhere in the area above the walkway. The metal ceiling panel had been bent from the force of the blow that released it.
Slowly, menacingly, a misshapen tree trunk of an appendage lowered into view. A deep, throaty growl could be heard from the creature. Making contact with the floor, it used its limb as a stabilizer. A chaotic tangle of pale-bluish flesh lowered itself from the ceiling in a disturbing display of limbs and metal. The abomination thumped to the floor. Its disgusting form started to rearrange out of its mangled ball state. There were snapping sounds originating from the creature, like the breaking and reforming of bone and sinew. Its flesh moved like a pack of rats scurrying under a blanket of rotten meat.
Celestia felt nauseous as the creature continued. In less than two seconds it had reformed its other tree trunk arm. The pair of limbs rippled with sinuous muscle. They also looked like some sick mind had decided it would be fun to fuse the entire bodies of four precursors together for each limb so that their legs stretched out, knees acting together as elbows and their faces frozen in a screaming expression on the shoulders. Its claws were spiked; primitive morning stars stained red. Now its moving flesh was being sculpted into a torso with an intricate pattern of interlocking metallic ribs. Whether any of the monster’s exposed “bone” was actually real or some unnatural metallic substitute was uncertain. Just below the ribs was a distended brown belly whose texture was reminiscent of the wrinkled skin on old ponies who had seen too much sun in their youth.
Bony limbs, not belonging to the beast itself, stuck out at random angles to complete the compost pile that was its abdominal region. A synthetic metal spine with an equally synthetic skull uncurled from in between its shoulders like a snail spiraling out of its shell. Its four pupiless eyes glowed like menacing red stars and its mouth was more a bear trap then an orifice for ingesting prey. A pair of short elephant styled legs completed the gruesome picture. Its jaw opened and blue ooze around its teeth stretched down to the floor like it was coughing up someone else’s lung.
Perhaps that was a signal, because hundreds of spiders suddenly skittered out from the same hole in the ceiling that the monster had skulked out of. Only they weren’t spiders, they were severed hands moving with a motorized efficiency. Where the palms were was a contraption with pistons that acted like inverted strings on a marionette. Short spiky poles on their ends rose up like the tails of scorpions from behind each crawler. They started darting along the ceiling and Celestia knew it was her move. Her eyes transformed into pure white orbs in contrast to the red of the abominations’.
“Your time on this earth is over!” she stated with otherworldly authority.
The formidable alicorn shot forward a shockwave that distorted the very air with its power. The skittering bones were blown back like leaves in a tornado. Joining them on their outbound flight was most of the debris that was on the floor, including broken glass and needles. It was not something that could be easily shrugged off. The severed limbs were either broken outright or panicked and ran out of sight in the opposite direction. One of them, however, scurried over to the larger beast and crawled up its leg. It settled down into a spot on the abominations’ torso –now embedded with needles and glass-- and settled into a perfectly fitting niche.
The abomination was less than pleased. It wailed in challenge and rage, causing Celestia’s ears to ring. She was barely able to hear as she spoke.
“You don’t frighten me anymore monster,” she said.
The abomination stood straight enough to hit the ceiling and banged its chest like a silverback gorilla. It screeched again. Celestia’s vision tried to darken even more but her heart pattered softly and her head was clear of doubts. The shadows somehow created by the abomination receded; there were no more illusions that would plague Celestia this night.
Suddenly and without warning, the monster charged at her. Still at its full height with outstretched arms, it was simply running through the walls and ceiling. They were torn asunder like cheap parchment. Its frame was larger than the doorway it was about to enter, but it wasn’t slowing down. It kept charging like an unstoppable juggernaut. Any trained soldier who didn’t freeze in terror would have broken formation at such a sight. Celestia readied herself to evade as any sane creature would, but not out of terror. When the monstrosity was about to trample the spot where she would have been, she cast a last minute teleport. While the beast’s back was turned she summoned more power. She held nothing back as she normally would with a living being. A heat ray blasted out from her horn and hit the monster full force in the neck. For once the creature was not screeching to hinder her, but because it had been harmed. Its head still remained fully attached to its body, however. The melted segments of its neck were flung out like used bullet casings. The creature had been made a few inches shorter from that.
“Arrrghlah Alatan!”
The beast turned around. Its body language suggesting it was beyond anger. It was in a state some would call blind fury. Celestia hit it again with her heat ray spell, this time in the chest. Unfortunately it didn’t have much effect this time, other than causing the beast to stomp within swinging range of its brawny fists. It brought one of them down with demolishing force. Celestia dodged and blasted it again, this time in the face. The beast stalled slightly with the power of the blow causing its head to recoil. It recovered immediately. It rotated its head around like an owl before its skull lunged out like an unholy snapping turtle. Its needle pointed teeth took a small helping of feathers out of Celestia’s left wing. She yelped and teleported out of range as the beast’s right fist smashed into the spot she had occupied just an instant before.
In a brief moment of clouded judgment brought on by pain, Celestia tapped into a more costly sort of magic. It was something she would not use under other circumstances. She cried out with her eyes shut tight. Her entire body glowed with an ethereal light as heat was conjured forth in a wave of devastation aimed at the monster. The beast’s cold flesh started to bubble, then it started to split apart. Viscous blue liquid poured out of its wounds. The metallic parts of its body glowed red, then orange, then white. Sparks also appeared around these regions. The beast was wailing in pain but was dead set on slaughtering its living opponent. It took a step forward –putting new pressure on its leg— when its thick bony kneecap exploded. The monster was plagued with an all new agony as it fell to the semi-melted floor. Not even that could stall the creature. In a move that would have been labeled unnaturally clever for a mindless beast, it ejected the crawler nestled in its chest at its oppressor. With nothing to block the severed claw, the crawler made full contact with the ruler of the sun.
“Aaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!!!” Celestia shouted in excruciating pain.
The claw –still hot from Celestias’ own attack—scorched her left side where it had landed, just barely missing her throat. The crawler obediently kept up the assault its parent had started by stabbing its pole-like tail into her side. Before the stinger could reach any vital organs Celestia knocked it off hard with her telekinesis. The crawler hit the wall and splintered into tiny shards. However, while she had been distracted by the smaller monster, the much more dangerous puppeteer had recovered.
The abomination roared with all the ferocity of a thousand bloodied demons. With the gut churning noise of squishing organs and bone, a new pointed leg erupted out in a viscous geyser of blue ooze to replace the one that had been lost. The new extremity looked more like a leg bone had been shaved down to a pointed edge. It resembled a spider leg carved out of bone in contrast to its thick elephantine partner. The beast leaned forward as it charged with both arms raised for a pulverizing blow. Celestia could hardly concentrate with the pain she was experiencing. She barely managed to teleport behind her attacker in time. She rematerialized, gasping for air, behind the wide desk in the room beyond the hallway intersection.
She could hardly breathe after the amount of magic she had expended. She realized that if she kept going like this for much longer she would burn herself out. She might not even need the monster to end her at this rate. The monster, on the other hoof, wasn’t slowing down in the least. Although it showed some new scars and a slight limp from the confrontation, it showed no signs of tiring anytime soon. Celestia backpedaled while flinging weakening electricity and fire spells. Her opponent deftly used its thick arms as a shield. It stomped closer and closer. It would not be denied its prey.
“No! I won’t let you win! I am Celestia, Ruler of the Sun and Princess of Equestria, and I won’t let evil win!” she yelled.
Her protests were in vain though. The abomination made its way up to the desk separating them. With one swift motion it lowered its morning star fists to the heavy wooden desk and hurled it up with a deep bellow. Time slowed down for the ruler of Equestria. The desk flipped end over end through the air before crashing onto the floor only inches away from Celestia. The desk broke in two with one of the pieces smacking her in the face and knocking her down. Stars polluted her vision and she barely held onto consciousness. She could already feel a huge bruise starting to form over her right eye. She got to her hooves only to stumble and fall back down. There was no way she would be able to use magic in her current condition.
The beast loomed over the defeated alicorn. Its hulking figure cast a shadow over her that promised to blot out all life and embrace her with cold, welcoming darkness. In a surprisingly gentle movement, the monster held her up with the smooth parts of its arms. It brought her face to its own misshapen metal skull, like an owner might while cuddling with their dog. Its four blood red orbs looked at her, taking in every detail, every imperfection. Celestia weakly struggled against the grip that was like a noose around her neck. Something fell and rattled on the floor. More of the viscous blue slime seeped out of its needle filled maw. Its breath carried the sickly sweet smell of death as it exhaled onto her face; a low growl permeating the air.
“Cccclast Cellllestiaaaaa…” The abomination whispered.
Celestia yelled, “No!”
The abomination dropped Celestia and screeched as it simultaneously staggered back this way and that in a disoriented daze. It brought its arms up to its cranium where three darts were now firmly lodged in three of its four eye sockets, perhaps even forced into its brain. Across from the confused abomination, sitting up with a relieved expression, was Princess Celestia. Floating next to her was the nearly forgotten dart shooter. The monster could not see this, nor could it create something with the barest resemblance to a thought. It teetered on its legs before falling on its back. At last it had managed to remove the darts from its eyes but it wasn’t recovering like before. The abomination was getting noticeably worse and its behavior reflected that. It flailed its colossal arms, repeatedly bashing the floor, while it continued to screech like it was being burned alive from the inside out. Celestia struggled to get up while the creature only got worse. The parts of its body that were composed of flesh were melting off like hot butter. Its arms, before a set of rippling melee weapons, were falling apart. Just like the shuck being pulled away from the corn it enclosed, a thin metallic limb lifted itself out of the cocoon that had been its beefy arm. Its chest remained the way it was, but everything underneath it detached with a sickening squish; including its bloated gut and legs. It began coughing up black liquid and its ruined eyes faded to darkness. All over its body gaping wounds seeped out black fluid.
The hardened shell of flesh and bone lay on the floor, leaving only the metallic creature of science that had been controlling it. The abomination closely resembled the upper portion of a precursor skeleton with the ends of its unfinished extremities displaying a set of crystalline wires and strands. The squirming torso, spine, skull and arms flopped on the ground. As its screams started to lighten, it stared at its killer.
Unblinking, with nothing but confusion in its voice, it gurgled out another word.
“Gglugtk, prey?”
The last bits of red in the beast’s last remaining eye faded to black. Celestia stared at the remains of the monster. She didn’t know what to feel just then. Relieved? Certainly. She cherished her every breath as well as her triumph. Yet somehow the victory felt hollow. The alicorn cast a soothing field around her that would reduce her recovery time, but she needed to see the royal healer if she was to have any chance to fully recover. Her muscles felt like they were on fire and her head throbbed with every heartbeat. She slowly made her way to the elevator from which she had descended into this nightmare. Finally, she laid eyes on her prize; the glorious double doors with the pair of green buttons. She took her place inside the small room, glumly noticing her front hooves were in the exact spot as the black prints. She pressed the top green button. The doors hissed shut and she felt her stomach be left behind as the rest of her body was rocketed upwards. Just like before, she found herself gazing at the silver cross pendant she had uncovered. The room came to a jarring stop and its doors opened; revealing the lifeless city that had given birth to such unbearable tragedies.
She trotted out slowly and flexed her wings. They were the only part of her that had not been vastly hurt in what seemed like a never ending journey through the structure below. Even her heart still ached with an emptiness that, while not her own, was something that nagged at her soul. She stared at the necklace yet again. With a majestic flap of her wings and great sorrow in her heart, she escaped the broken confines of the city. She had learned enough.
She would need to do something. Keeping this place a secret simply wasn’t an option. It was too historically important, as well as deadly. Perhaps she should devise a way to safely nullify the dangerous energy to allow others to purify the tainted areas. Maybe she would have to investigate more on her own at a later date, although that idea didn’t sit well with her. Should she address Equestria about the exact dangers of the city but help them learn that it was not an inherently evil place? She didn’t want to cause a panic or worse, encourage any random pony to see it for themselves. This matter required a delicate touch. At least the less inquisitive and admittedly more flighty nature of most ponies would likely deter interest from anywhere their princess warned them about. Perhaps she would discuss with Luna what needed to be done. She was high in the sky when, out of simple curiosity, she peered down at the now hoof sized shack. To her shock she witnessed nearly a hundred faceless entities clothed in indistinct whiteness filling the circular stone area around the shack. She stopped and hovered in the air, watching the strange scene unfold.
A few of the group nearest the shack held their arms out invitingly. Out of the ashen shadow burned into the side of the shack stepped a pale figure that Celestia recognized as belonging to the scientist she had seen in the recording. The spirit looked over his shoulder until another; much younger echo from the past phased though the shack door to stand next to his elder. The faceless ones kept their arms offered out to them. The pair grasped the other’s outstretched digits with their own. Their lab coats faded into indistinct white cloth and their features shifted to those of the hundred or so faceless ones. They looked up near Princess Celestia --no at Princess Celestia-- and just stared. It was like they too, were waiting to see what she would decide to do.
Suddenly, a black cloaked entity carrying a large scythe whose features lay hidden behind its hood materialized atop the shack. When this one offered its skeleton claw out to the ones below they did not take it. They ebbed away like the tides from its touch. The black spirit banged its scythe on the shack only once. Like an almighty gavel that echoed throughout the dead city, it caused all the other spirits to heed its order. One of the entities looked up at her again. He was still looking up to her when all the spirits just faded away.
As the princess flew back to her home, beaten and hurt, she couldn’t help herself. She began to weep. One sentence repeated in her mind over and over again. She tried to banish the dark thought, but it persisted like a scar. Neither the irony nor the misguided intentions were lost on her.
I just wanted to help.
End Credits Song
