Operation Fizzled Shadow

The rain beat heavily on the canopy of trees above him, and lightning flashed in the distance.

He cursed the rain, and the EQI for giving him this assignment on such short notice. Equestrian Intelligence obviously didn’t know the meaning of “retired”. The rain came down in sheets, blanketing him in icy water and pelting the brown felt fedora perched atop his head.

He had been tapped to recon an intelligence blacksite in the mountains near Ponyville that hadn’t reported contact. Due to it’s low profile nature, it did not keep in regular contact with EQI Central Command, and only checked in once every seven days, with a coded letter fireported straight to CentCom. In their thirty five years of operation, they had never missed a ‘ping’.

It was disguised as the corporate headquarters of a subcontractor for the Ponyville municipal area Weather Patrol, under the name CloudVein Rain Solutions. They actually functioned as such, manufacturing additional clouds for irregular or schedule-variant weather cycles. As it was high in the mountains, most of its staff lived onsite, leading to little intrusion from outsiders.

He could see it coming into view now, materializing out of the soaked darkness on the ridge in front of him, the mansion-like main building tucked between the cliff and a sheer rock wall to the mountain above.

Chamber stopped under the shelter of a tree, reached into his “go-pack”, and drew out the recorder inside. This pack had been supplied to him by an EQI contact, prepacked for recon missions such as this. The recorder was standard-issue, a Baltimare Aethertronics GX7 “Chronicler” camcorder. He switched it on and turned it to face him, framing his face in the lens, or so he hoped.

[“Reached the insertion point. 10.10 PM. Will recon and report any anomalies, although it looks pretty normal from out here. Oh and Cel, ahem, Princess Celestia for the record, you owe me. How you can repay me we will discuss when I deliver my report. I’m thinking Seasaddle penthouse condo." Smiles at camera and turns it away.]

Chamber levitated the camera in front of him as he galloped across the open field to the courtyard. The front door was locked, as he had expected. He instead headed for a small garden shed at the edge of the courtyard. Inside the rickety building, he placed the camera on a table and shook the water from his hat.

[“Well, ladies. It’s finally here; the shot you’ve all been waiting for. The wet mane Chamber Check org-xtravaganza! Bowchicabowchikabowchika…” Takes off hat and shakes out mane. “Drink it in girls, ‘cause that’s the last you’re gonna be seeing of me for a while.” Picks up camera. “Now, it’s the road before us.”]

On a hook near the door was a spare key marked ‘side door - lounge’. Chamber grabbed it and opened the shed door. Heading out into the wet night, he approached the main building. Detouring around the perimeter showed him the side door to which the key belonged.

Instantly he knew something was wrong. It wasn’t the physical arrangement of the room, which looked like a fairly ordinary lounge, with overstuffed sofas and a fireplace, unlit. Rather, it was a feeling, a gut sense that something was not quite right. As he headed into the hall and toward the atrium, he became more and more convinced that something was wrong. There was nopony anywhere, not even muffled voices from the upstairs living areas. All the lights were off and the reception area was deserted, not even a night guard. “Strange…” he muttered to himself.
Proceeding back through administration, he headed toward the rear wall of the structure, where a set of stone steps led to the building’s basement. He reached the bottom of the stairs and scanned the dusty, cobweb strewn maze of boxes, barrels, and minutiae for the boilers.

Two large square boilers were crammed into one corner, ostensibly to provide heat to the workers above. In reality, only one functioned as such, the other was the entrance to the true purpose of the site.

Chamber walked up to the one on the right. The flames inside were an illusion, disabled with a key and hoofprint verification. Retrieving the key from his pack he inserted it into the slot on the boiler’s face marked “service” and waited for the rune to light up, inviting him to place his hoof on the cold metal for verification. As the indicator winked into life on the dark grey surface, he heard a loud boom from somewhere underground. It clearly wasn’t thunder, so Chamber reasoned that it must have come from inside the site.

Hunkering down, he drew from under his coat a small sidearm burnished in a light rust-colored scratch resistant finish. The small .380 automatic was standard daily carry for officers at the site, with larger weapons issued only in emergencies. Chamber had brought his personal version of this weapon for ammo commonality in case something went wrong. He hoped still that it wouldn’t come to that.
Chamber readied the weapon, checked the load and reholstered it. He hoped it would stay there.

Activating the entrance, the fire melted away, revealing another door at the far end of the boiler tank, almost indistinguishable from the wall. As he crossed towards it the outer boiler door closed, and the one in the wall swung open automatically to admit him. He only had a second to glimpse the flames springing back to life before the door closed behind him once again.

He was now standing in a cramped reception area, with rows of filing cabinets, charts dictating rules of conduct in the facility and maps of the different areas pinned up behind a cramped reception cubicle. No one was on duty.

[“Strange. Nopony home. Proceeding“]

Chamber advanced, recorder aloft, past reception and down the hall, passing cells for processing the intake of prisoners or sensitive documents. As he rounded a corner he paused, scanning the words stenciled above the doors in this branching hall. One was marked ‘Intake - Bio and Aetherhazards’ and another ‘Administration and Research Annexe’. He was about to choose the second one when he heard a voice croak from the first branch, “Hello, anypony there? I can hear you, come closer.”

Approaching the cell from where the voice had appeared, he recoiled. Inside was a pony, or rather, the husk of one. It was clad in a tattered vest with a prisoner number stenciled on, with numerous lesions and abrasions crisscrossing its chest, limbs, and face. It was strung up on a rack. A dirty, rusted thing that looked like a torture device from the Canterlot Historical Gallery, certainly not something EQI would use.

Its eyes stared from a skeletal face to survey him, “You’re not one of them. I’m not a prisoner, I’m an executive. You’ve got to send for help. It’s here. They tried to hide it. But it got out anyway. They can’t kill it, and you can’t kill it. Nopony. Nopony! NOPONY!” he raved, eyes bulging, struggling against his bonds, “Go now. Send help. Wipe this place from the earth! Jegervund. JEGERVUND! GO.NOW!”

Shocked back into action by the poor pony’s yelling, Chamber replied “Wait…the Jegervund is a myth. Are you telling me…”

“I know what did this to me! It’ll find you. It’ll kill you. Go. Get help now. Pray that they can find a way. GO now!”

Chamber wheeled on the spot and headed back down the hall, “I’ll get help. Just hold on!” he called back, “I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

He just hoped that it wasn’t too late, and moreso, that the poor shell of a pony behind him wasn’t right.

Author's Note

What did you think of chapter 1? Hope you liked it. The next chapter will have more action and creepy things. I just need to finish it.

Also, three things, the term Aethertronic is my term for magical electronics, such as Twilight's EKG machine, the hospital's xray, and Vinyl's turntable and Ipod (from the IDW comics) Also, I call spike's fire-sending spell fireporting, and conclude that it is magic that certain ponies can perform, too. Finally, I'm testing out the POV camera stage-direction-y thing for this chapter. (the text in brackets). If you don't like it, tell me and I'll omit it. Just playing with the style.

Enjoy.

No flames please.

See ya.

Chamber Check

P.S. It seems to delete the word when I try to highlight and italicize things. Is there any way around this? Thanks.