The cold northern wastes are not easily travelled. Stalliongrad is a far cry from the rest of the frozen landscape, dotted by small scavenger towns whose main trade is a warm place to sleep, and weather appropriate gear. These towns hardly exist, but they manage. Most residents are people who couldn't make it into Stalliongrad, or Diamond City (formerly known as the Crystal Empire). They make an honest living scavenging from the not so secret military bases and harvesting the unique magical focus crystals that permeate the landscape.
These cutters (called so because of the technique used to mine the crystals) tell tall tales of a stable exclusively designed to hold the mother load of all focusing crystals...
Something called "The Crystal Heart"...
The story goes it was stashed away along with most of the original citizens of the Crystal Empire, to keep it and them safe from a force rumoured to be far more sinister than the zebra menace.
These tales also speak of numerous advanced technologies (even by the old world standard) used to keep that treasure safe. Technology that was priceless back then...
Funny how the apocalypse can get a price check on things, eh?
But of course, with all these tall tales of treasure, there's also the hushed whispered warnings for the world weary...
Rumour has it, whatever force wanted that heart before the sky tore itself in two, still wants it, and that it's trapped in that stable, waiting for some brave or stupid adventurer to let it out.
That's where eleven different ponies come in.
Quick Buck- An earth pony merchant of the unsavoury type. He financed this whole venture. It's clear he's hiding something though, something more than perhaps a shady past.
East Coast- A unicorn scientist and doctor joined the expedition in the hope of getting the stable up and running to use as a sort of massive clinic. He wears a Followers of Fluttershy lab coat with armored plates.
Trinity- An awkward, brash unicorn mare who seems to follow East wherever he may go. She apparently is his assistant and is far less opposed to violence then her employer. She's a cyberpony with cybernetics that redefine advanced.
Debonaire- A genius, millionaire, philanthropist with a flair for old word clothing, this unicorn seemingly is here to remind Buck that Debonaire did more than most of the actual financing for this trip, and that Buck simply brought everyone together. Whenever asked about the purpose for the excursion he always laughed warmly and cleverly changed the subject.
Mirage- Brilliant, seductive, pragmatic, and bitchy are great words to describe this Zebra scientist. She spent most of her time arguing with East Coast, then trying to sleep with him. She's a beauty with a brain and never answered why she was on this expedition.
Diamond Pick- A looney old cutter who led everyone in. There seemed nothing wrong with this tannish unicorn besides the way he didn't want to be anywhere near this place, and frequently talked about how many ponies came looking for this place and never returned.
Nero- A male unicorn cyberpony.
Lightning- A pegasus mare cyberpony.
Noria- An earth pony mare cyberpony, with cybernetics more advanced than any other.
Sleet Gray- A pegasus mare, who keeps her wings hidden under a coat sleeve.
Sky Lock- A changeling.
Whether brave or stupid, they found a guide who has found that old stable, hidden under a drift of snow, surrounded by a blanket of the finest crystalline armor ever seen.
It would be momentous really...
If the door wasn't already ajar.
They ventured inside and it isn't long before everyone became lost in the last, dark stable.
The only lights on are the emergency lights, the doors seem to open and close just to make you jump, and oddly enough, sometimes when you reach a deathly quiet area, you can hear the terrified echo of some impossibly distant scream.
The stable emergency lights are little yellow lights, providing very dim light. They are imbedded in the stable floors at spacious intervals. Every other room has a spinning red light, simply indicating the stable is in a state of emergency.
Did anypony bring a flashlight?
"Uhh, hello! Anypony there?" Nero's voice echoed along the long and dark vault hallways. It was one of those kinds of vaults; the ones that promised treasure, death, despair, and happiness all in one sitting. The hallway was eerily quiet as Nero trotted onward, trying to find anyone from the group, dead or alive.
"Damn it's dark here..." He said as he looked around, hoping to find any source of light. He spotted a small glow of yellow in the corner of the hallway, above a vault door. "An emergency light!" He shouted excitingly as he ran towards the only source of light he could see.
He sat leaning on the ancient door, resting and calming his mind. The rest of the hallways were dark and eerily creepy. He looked around, hoping to find someone in the group. "Hello! Anypo-" He was cut off by the sudden opening of the door he was leaning on, resulting in him falling in. "Celestia dammit!" He muttered as he stood back up and looked around the room.
He fell into a typical vault dormitory. The room was populated by two beds, two dressers, two desks, two medium sized refrigerators, and two trash cans. Two separate terminals hum, still having power. The door slid shut behind him.
"Fucking Hell." Nero says as he looks back at the door that just shut behind him. "Well, might as well loot this room if I'm gonna spend some time here." He says as he looked thoroughly around the room.
As he looked around, he spotted a few pre-war bits on the table and slid them into his saddlebags. "This'll get me a few caps." He says as he catches the gleam of something behind the fridge in his peripheral vision. "Hello, what's this?" He says slyly as he looks behind the pre-war fridge.
Before getting the chance to even touch the mysterious new item, he hears the sound of hoofsteps... And inevitably panics. "Oh Fuck, Oh Fuck, Oh Fuck." He nervously mumbles to himself as he looked for a hiding spot. He quickly ducks down into the shadows behind the two refrigerators, Enchanted Zebra sword drawn and ready to strike.
Lightning made her way along the dark, silent corridors of the stable. Everyone had entered together, but almost immediately, the path diverged in several directions and everyone split up to find their way around.
Lightning comes from the small settlement of Goodsprings. It is inhabited by unicorn and earth pony foals, and pegasus mares and stallions that were left homeless after the cloud curtain was destroyed. The town’s main source of income is its courier business, and with many pegasi, they are very fast and efficient. However, the pegasi still aren't very familiar with Equestria yet, so they still don't completely know their way around. Their main competitor is Absolutely Everything! and they are currently losing a lot of business to them.
When Lightning heard of an expedition to a mysterious stable up north, said to be filled with valuable treasurers, she decided to join to help her town.
A sniper rifle isn't much help in a stable, so she decided to leave it at home and just bring her hunting rifle, to conserve ammo. She wasn't wearing any type of armour or clothes, sacrificing defence for agility and speed. She regretted this almost immediately after coming, since that doesn't mean much in a stable, where she can't fly. Hopefully she'll either have no need for it, or find some sort of barding in here. She has her hunting rifle strapped over her back and her saddlebags resting on her flanks, covering up her cutie mark. Her saddlebags are mostly empty so that she can carry as much treasurer as she finds. The contents of her saddlebags includes 50 .308 shells for her hunting rifle, 100 caps and some food and water.
As she was walking along, she finally reached the end of the corridor and reached a door. The door was locked however, and she didn't have the required skills to pick the lock. She turned around and started walking back the way she came, when suddenly, the floor gave out beneath her. She was caught off guard so she wasn't able to react fast enough to fly.
After fifteen seconds of falling, she fell out of the trapdoor and into a small hallway below.
This hallway is notably thinner than the one she just promptly left. This hallway is not only narrower than the one above, but the walls are grated; wires behind these grates are thick as a filly's leg and hum loudly with power. It's dark down here, and the lights are spread further apart.
Lightning fell out of the trapdoor, landing on the hard metal floor of what appears to be the hallway below her. As she tumbled down, her fragile body wasn’t able to sustain the collision with the floor. She landed on her back, and the force of the fall crippled both of her wings. She screamed out in pain. After a long moment, she regained some of her strength and sat up on her haunches. She then looked back at her wings. She didn't have the supplies or medical know-how to treat her wings, but the pain wasn't as bad as if she had crippled a hoof, though she'll have to find at least a healing potion soon for the pain; for now, it's nothing she can't handle. She wouldn't be able to fly in this enclosed space anyway, so she just rested her wings at her side so they wouldn't move about and hurt more.
As she stood back up, she looked down and saw that she landed on a key. Realising that it will come in handy if she finds its locked door, she picked it up and placed it in her saddlebag.
She continued walking along the narrow corridor, carefully avoiding the grated walls. As she walks along, she looks around the corridor for anything to scavenge, but she can't find anything valuable.
As she makes her way along, she sees a worn sign just ahead of her. She squints her eyes and she can barely read a faded paint-on sign labelling this area MAINTENANCE TUNNEL B-3485. "Well, at least I know where I am."
She eventually reaches the door at the other end of the corridor. She tries her hoof at it and it opens. She then carefully steps into the next room.
"How in the name of Luna did I get myself into this mess?" Noria said as she walked down the silent corridors of the stable. It felt like something was most wrong in this place, as if she was being watched. It felt like death was all around her, along with sadness at its side. Something she knows all too well.
She wonders to herself where everyone could have gone as she comes across a door that was half open, with flickering lights inside. If that didn't say creepy, she could have sworn she saw a shadow go past in the room. "Noria, this is the last time you stay at a bar listing to merchants."
Eight days ago, Noria over heard some merchants talking about a hidden treasure stash with lots of goodies. She’s not one for passing down goods if no one is smart enough to go get them. She thought about the ponies who had gone there and never came back. She just shrugged it off as them getting killed by raiders or whatever. The wasteland has to throw. But after entering in here, she started to see why no one comes in here. She did not plan on going through that door, but she was not going back down the way she came. With no other choices, she walked over to the door, grabbing it with her metals hooves, and started to pull on the door, trying to get it open.
She then thought she heard hoofsteps coming up behind her fast. She turned around and pointed her left arm, that pulled out a rifle from a large slot in her cybernetic arm at whatever was behind her, but all she saw was nothing but the emergency lights. "..... This place is messing with my head. Just got to get what I need and get out of this place."
The emergency light swirls above her head. The light spins and disappears at regular intervals. As she stares at the nothingness of the black, she thinks she can hear a deep voice, chuckling a little.
The door is only semi functional. It remains open half way, pulls open sideways a little, then returns to being open only half way. It's enough to squeeze through, but there doesn't appear to be any light in the room.
“What the buck is that?" She said to herself as she looks at the shadow staying away from the light. Not wanting to stay and find out what this thing is, she started to punch on the door hard with her metal hoof. "Come on. For the love of Luna, open up please!"
She made dents in the door, hoping it would push open. The door made itself get stuck, now unable to open anymore. "Son of a gun." She looks back to see if that thing was getting closer.
The shadow only moves when the spinning emergency light faces the wall closest to her. She was never in darkness. The light hits the wall and the reflective properties of the material carry a dim refraction of that light in an odd circle around her, but it is still able to move closer. Like a child with the tide at the beach, the shadow draws near to her when the light is weakest, but retreats when the light spins outward.
She can hear the sounds of hooves and arguing from the other end of the hall. One voice is distinctly aggressive, while the other speaks matter-of-factly with a sense of calmness.
"Celestia's shining anus, D! I swear if I had known that-"
"Buck, old boy... Stop being so irate. Senseless rage won't keep us alive, yes?"
Hearing those other voices sort of made her want to run over to them, but still; what if they are some other forms of pony that aren't one for sharing the little treasure, but any place was better than here.
She needed a way to keep that show from moving any closer. Seeing as light was helping out, she needed to work fast on this. She pulled out her gun out of her metal arm, taking the clip out, shot where she then, emptied all of the bullets out of the clip and on to the metal floor. She then proceeded to take out each of the top of the bullets off, and pouring the gun powder out on to the floor in one big pile.
"Hope this works." She points at the black powder with her gun ready to shoot at it with the one bullet in the chamber. What she hopes is that the bullet will spark the gun powder making a fire for her to run at the door to the two other voices.
The bullet flies from the chamber but the results aren't as expected.
Instead of a blast, the spark creates a forceful, but small explosion for a brief moment, and plenty of noise, prompting the two voices to stop bickering, and move into a sprint towards the noise. They come into view as Noria hauls flank, the shadow momentarily scared by the freak explosion. It wouldn't have been able to give chase; the emergency light giving some security from the shadow, but the explosion manages to disturb the talisman that kept the light going, giving the shadow the chance to slowly spread out along the wall.
Noria started to back up into the door. She broke looking down at the shadow. "Note to self: think of the outcome before you do stupid stuff like that. Well, one last thing to do. Help, somepony help!!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping the voices she heard would help her out in this situation.
The duo arrive to an empty hallway. The only sign anyone had been here was a door that was beaten in. They look to each other a moment and shake their heads, dismissing the voice they had heard as an illusion, and keep walking and arguing.
"Thunder and lightning, I'm lost." Sleet Gray mutters to herself as she cautiously makes her way down the Stable corridor. The lighting is so poor that even her pegasus eyes are having trouble seeing. Everything is coming out a bit fuzzy. Ever since she'd entered the derelict facility several hours ago with that group of scavengers, the whole place had made her feathers itch. Now that she was alone, she was tempted to remove her wings from their concealed location under her greatcoat just to fly and find a way out faster.
Sleet shakes her head, reminding herself. "Can't leave, not yet." Heaving a sigh to calm herself, she continues forward, thinking. “Okay, first order of business, find everypony. Then, confirm presence of the Heart. If it’s not here, leave. If it is…”
A shudder runs up and down Sleet's spine as she senses something behind her. Whirling around, she draws Black Powder, her custom magical energy incineration pistol, and sweeps the corridor. Nothing, just shadows and weak lights. Putting the pistol away, she mutters, "If it is, leave and return with backup."
As soon as she levels her pistol, she sees something, barely, jump from a room down the hall to a room closer to her. There's a loud hiss from whatever it is, and a pony can be seen at the end of the hallway, looking around in a panicked fashion.
The thing is long gone before Sleet has a chance to fire Black Powder. "Damn!" She hisses around the grip of the pistol. That thing, it hadn't been... normal. At least nothing she had ever heard or read about before, and the speed it displayed was nerve-wracking. Keeping her pistol on the door the thing had gone through, she shoots a look to the pony, recognizing him as the fatalistic cutter who had lead the expedition to this place. "Do you have a light?" She calls to him.
Diamond looks around a bit; his senses aren't what they used to be, but he manages to hear her. He turns to face her, flashlight in his mouth, and he does his best to express relief to have found her from his end of the hall.
He begins to gallop toward her when he is intercepted by whatever creature was hiding in the room down the hall from Sleet. A tendril of oily darkness tears out from its hiding place and snags him by the hind leg. His flashlight spins from his mouth and rolls across the floor to the disguised pegasus’ hooves.
His mouth free, the elderly stallion is still strong enough to hold onto the frame of the door and yell to her for help. The shadows along the walls of the stable seem to be receding into the room, as if the ambient darkness is going to assist the struggle on behalf of that monster.
"SHIT!" Sleet exclaims as the thing grabs Diamond Pick. She takes an involuntary step back, stopping at his cries for help. Fuck, I can't leave him here. What do I do? I can't freeze it; I'll take his legs off with the frostbite. Can't shoot; I'll probably hit him. What can I... Her panicked gaze falls on the flashlight, and in an instant, she comes to a decision. With a quick kick, she rolls the light so the beam strikes the monster.
There is an unnatural screech as the tentacle withers under the beam before zipping back into the darkness. Sleet gallops over to Diamond Pick, flashlight in mouth. Shining the beam into the room, she roughly forces him to his hooves and shoves him down the corridor, yelling at him to run. The stallion doesn't bother to question the order, galloping away and keeping to the emergency lights. Sleet mashes the button to close the door, checking to make sure the old buck is far enough away. With the door closed, she extracts the wing on the side facing away from Diamond, and channelling her weather magic, freezes the door's operating motor. Her head starts to throb with the strain of using her power, but she is able to put the wing away and catch up with Diamond quickly enough.
Sky Lock looks carefully around the stable, quietly creeping through the halls. He really didn't want to be here, but orders were orders. This was most likely punishment for previous insubordination, and unexplained loss of personnel under his command. But he must obey his orders in the end, and so finds himself sneaking through a dimly-lit stable in the frozen north. 'I've been here only a short while, and I already hate this place.' He thought.
The hallways of this area of the stable are relatively well lit, at least compared to the places he was previously. He seemed to be at a lower area, from some nearby windows (made of crystals) he could see into what looks like a rec. room. From the window, he could see a trio of vending machines, a couple of billiard tables, one of which has an immaculate looking stick, made of polished crystal and what appears to be a diamond tip. There's also two refrigerators that he could see, along with a first aid box on the wall.
Sky Lock found the door easily enough, and oddly enough it opens. Now that he could see the entire room, there appeared to be a jukebox, a counter with a duo of cabinets behind it, and a trio of cash registers sitting along it. There is also a safe, built into the wall, and a terminal. He enters the room and begins looting immediately. Sky Lock opens the first aid box and takes the supplies, before moving to the refrigerator, and finally the vending machines. The refrigerators are locked. Once he has looted those, he turns to the stick, examining it closely before he chooses whether or not to pick it up.
The stick in question, upon closer observation is indeed made of a crystalline body. The hilt is made of exquisite ebony, jewelled along the bridge with rubies. Engraved in ye olde font reads "It ain't Gambling if it's Hustling".
Sky Lock takes the stick, before turning to the rest of the room. He loots all the containers, saving the locked box for last. He takes a crack at the lock.
Having cleared the room, Sky Lock exits the door, and sneaks deeper into the stable, moving carefully through the abandoned halls of Stable-tec's great wonder.
As the door in front of Lightning opens, it seems like it moves further away from her; the hallway elongates and grows narrower as the chuckle from before grows louder.
Ohhh nooo~ Your wings are broken~! How will you fly, little angel? How will you run? Muahaha!
The tunnel begins to grow darker; the sounds of giggling foals echo around her as the lights begin to flicker, casting the silhouettes of ponies butchering each other on the walls, while they leak an unholy pitch that begins to pool on the floor, avoiding the light.
Are you ok, little angel? Can you see? Can you see?! Muahahaha!
Lightning stared ahead at the new corridor in front of her. It stretched on for about a hundred feet. The hallway itself was rather narrow. There were several emergency lighting in the walls, though they were flickering from the centuries of constant use. The tunnel was dark, but the lights still gave enough visibility to see ahead. She was able to just make out a door at the other end of the room, identical to the one at this end.
The sounds of giggling foals echoing around her and silhouettes of ponies butchering each other was beginning to unnerve her; however, despite her fear, she quickly realised that it wasn't real. She noticed that the pitch was avoiding the light.
After a moment, she came up with a plan. She took her hunting rifle in her hoof, and then she quickly dashed ahead, into the tunnel, diagonally, running towards one of the flickering lights a few feet ahead. As soon as she had entered, the pitch pooling on the floor rushed in her direction. Just as it was about to touch her, she aimed her hunting rifle at the ground and fired. The bullet hitting the metal floor produced a spark, that was just bright enough to cause the pitch to back away slightly. She then turned back to the direction she was facing and continued running. She made it to the corner, near one of the flickering lights. The flickering proved to be enough light to keep the pitch away from her.
After taking a moment’s pause to catch her breath and review her plan, she then ran towards one of the flickering lights, a small bit diagonally ahead of her. She repeated the same process from before, with her hunting rifle and made it to her next checkpoint just fine. She repeated this method several times as she made her way towards the other end of the tunnel, reloading when she had to. The voices continued to taunt her, but she didn't listen to them. She was getting along just fine without her wings.
On the final stretch, she made it the door at the far end of the tunnel. After she fired at the floor one final time and made her way towards the door, she prayed to Luna that it wasn't locked. It seems that the Goddess was smiling on her because the door opened out just fine. As soon as the door opened wide enough, she quickly jumped into the next room. The pitch lunged at her again, but she managed to shut the door on it, stopping it from following her. The voices stopped as soon as the door was closed.
As soon as she had shut the door, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against it. She then released a breath she wasn't even aware she was holding and whispered to herself, "That was the scariest moment of my life."
There's slight movement in the room behind her, as a cerulean magical aura wraps around her body.
"I see you were clever enough to see past that illusion. Good, good... Hold still please. I can tell those wings aren't supposed to bend that way."
A thin white stallion, clad in a lightly armored lab coat, stepped closer to her, her body a little numb.
Lightning felt a bit scared after she felt an aura envelop her body and she heard a voice behind her. However, when she turned around to look at the source of the voice, she breathed a sigh of relief as she recognised it as one of the ponies that she came to the stable with.
"Numbness is normal; it's a magical anaesthetic. I'll have your wings better soon... I'm East Coast, and if you thought that was scary, don't take a look at the terminals."
The terminals in question were located on the floor just past the medic. This room had been lit up by small floodlights placed in the corners of the room. It seemed like a maintenance closet but bigger. The desks where the terminals had most likely rested before were in pieces, slammed up against where one could suspect vents would be.
"This stable was made to be a museum. Art, artefacts, technology, even the ponies in here... This place was designed to keep everything in here safely locked inside... Apparently most of them didn't know they were sharing this prison with... Something else. Feel free to read the terminals if you have a strong stomach... Has a handy map of these tunnels if you've got a good memory..."
The medic glanced briefly back at the green screened wonders.
"I got as much blood as I could off them, but some of the keys are still sticky..."
With everything that happened in the tunnel, she kind of forgot about her wings, but now that they were being treated, she felt much better. "Thanks."
When he was done treating her, and against his warnings, she walked over to the terminal to see what was written there. Despite the fact that she would be terrified based on what the unicorn said, she knew that she had to know what was going here if she was going to survive.
When she reached the terminal, she saw that it was indeed covered in blood. She gently tapped each of the buttons and brought up each entry. She then started reading.
Entry 1
I honestly can’t believe it! I'm sharing a stable with Princess Cadence. This is the most amazing thing! I mean, she was always in that castle and she mingled when she could but now she's the overmare! Literally, I could go see her right now! I couldn't be happier! Shame I'm stuck down here most of the time. Seems like this stable was built to hold plenty of old stuff, and whatever isn't exactly public friendly they're keeping way down deeper. Outta sight, outta mind I guess? I saw this big box though, couldn't get close though, too many security guards... Whatever they're keeping down there, I don't think anypony upstairs knows it's here. Guess if that's how the princess wants it, she's got a good reason!
Did I mention I could go see her? I could tooootally go see her!
Maintenance petty officer: Lemon Strudle
Entry 2
Things are getting weird. Turns out the lights down here are on the fritz and blackouts have been sweeping across the stable. It isn't such a big deal, seeing as Princess Cadence can just turn 'em all back on again but I guess this kind of thing shouldn't be happening. I bet I'll be tasked with looking into it... Bummer.
Maintenance senior officer: Lemon Strudle
Entry 3
I... I can't believe it... Strudle is... Strudle is dead... She was supposed to look into the lighting issues and she turned up dead the next morning! I mean, the lights are fine so I guess she solved the issue, but I mean... I guess she must have crossed the right pair, of the wrongs wires... There's a funeral prepared for tomorrow. The funny thing is though... I mean... I'm supposed to be the only one down here now... But I swear I can see another shadow sometimes! It's probably just the grief... I'll get some rest here tonight and I'll be fine, it's how I solved my fear of the dark when I was little. I guess I just need to readjust.
Acting senior maintenance officer: Tangerine Dreams
Entry 4
I... I think something's wrong with the princess. I mean... I don't know... She seems a little... Flirty? Maybe? I don't know. I mean, I guess I didn't notice till now but Shining Armor isn't here. I mean, she isn't flirting with me, I know that but... I mean she's in public way more than I expected she would be and she even goes to that night club that I'm pretty sure is only for the uhmm... Deviants... I mean... I don't know anymore, I guess we all need to blow off steam from time to time, right? Maybe I'll visit that club. Can't be all bad right?
Can't help but feel like I'm tempting fate though. All those flashing lights are just asking for another black out... Feels like spitting on a fresh grave though.
The messages read corrupted for a while. The next response seems to be dated three weeks after the first.
Entry 73
They're everywhere! They're everywhere! They're crawling inside me! I can feel them! I can feel them in my veins! I'll cut them out! I can cut them out with my teeth! Cadence, that sultry bitch gave me this disease! It's in her head! It's in my head! It's in allll our heads! Lemony kneeeeew! Lemonhjyoy nuuuuuu! ! She fed it! She fed it her body and her other parts! Eeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvveeeeeeerrrryyyyypoooonnnny neeeeds to feeeeeed it!
Senior meat caddle, fucktoy mcbleedbag
Entry 82
hkeowuiujerjnfgj euihbheebvioeg jwhfijh jeghqwb~!??
The latest legible entry is dated from two weeks earlier than their arrival.
Entry 90
This stable isn't right. I've been in plenty of these death traps but nothing like this. I boarded up the vents, those shadow things are crafty when they smell blood. I found a map of the maintenance tunnels on the hard drive of another terminal. I marked the surplus pipbuck room I just left for anypony who finds themselves in need of such a device. I'll also mark a few exits from here, rec room, atrium, and the armory. I couldn't get it open, but maybe you can. According to these entries, it seems like whatever caused this mess is deeper in the stable, so that's the one area I'll avoid at all costs but hey, I did find that big locked door to it, just down the hall. If you're the suicidal type... Well you're here aren't you?
Luna damn this place, the ponies who built it, and that fucking merchant.
PS: My last will and testament-
All my stuff to whoever can find my body. I doubt I'll make it out of here, so... Ya know... Whatever... Din't want to live forever anyhow.
As Lightning finished reading the terminal entries, her head was filled with new thoughts and plans of what to do now. The first thing she wondered was who this Princess Cadence was. Celestia and Luna were the only princesses she knew, and if a princess was secure in a vault, surely nothing short of a megaspell could kill her. Maybe this 'Cadence' wasn't an alicorn like the Goddesses; or maybe these shadow things were just that dangerous. This thought was enough to make her consider high tailing it out of here immediately, but she immediately decided against it. No matter what the danger, she wasn't leaving until she found at least one valuable treasure.
With that decided, she then thought about where she should go next. There were four doors at each side of the room. The door behind her was where she came in and there was no way that she was going back there. She could even tell from the map in front of her that that way leads to a dead end. The door in front of her led towards what the last pony to use the terminal described as what caused this. To the right was the pipbuck storage and to the left was the atrium, rec room, armory and eventually the exit.
After thinking to herself for several seconds, she finally decided on where to go. Whatever was down here was like a living shadow. Guns wouldn't be of any use against it; at least not directly. Light could keep it away. She decided to head for the pipbuck storage room. The pipbucks themselves were valuable treasures and a whole bunch of them would sell for thousands of caps. The light from them would also be enough to keep the shadows away, if she planned to go deeper in afterwards.
After she was done thinking over her plan, she turned to East Coast and told him her plan. "And that's my plan. So, should we go together or do you want to go somewhere else?"
East Coast nodded a bit, the unicorn stallion looking deeper in thought as if he were formulating a counter argument.
"Right... I see your logic... That helps me as well; better plan than mine for certain."
The pale unicorn withdrew a laser pistol from his saddle bags with a somewhat regretful sigh.
"Violence isn't my forte, but I figure if light is our best bet, this may be useful. You know how to use these properly?"
Coast didn't wait for her to answer and quickly explained how to more efficiently operate a laser fire arm.
"I can lead the way, if you've got me covered?"
The unicorn closed his eyes and his horn lit up a faint cerulean, casting its glow around the surrounding room.
"Shall we then?"
Lightning took the laser pistol in her hoof and shifted her hunting rifle on to her back. "I have a bit of practice using magical energy weapons, so I can use it just fine, and it will probably be more useful than my rifle against the things in here." She then nodded back to him. "Alright, let's go." She then turned to the door in the far right and pointed her hoof in that direction. "The pipbuck storage is this way. If we have enough of those then the light from them should be enough to keep these shadow things away from us." They then trotted over to the door and it opened up. Lightning placed her new laser pistol on to a slot in her cybernetics, so that she could operate it without holding it in her hoof, similar to power armor. "I'm right behind you."
East nodded an affirmative and moved to the door with a light canter. He took a deep breath and activated the control panel, opening the door.
He peeked into the narrow corridor, seemingly no different than the one she had just left.
"It's not an illusion... it's just the same design. Pipbucks should be down this hall, then to the left-"
He looks back to her for a moment, eyes widening as she docks the laser pistol. He blushes a little and hides his eyes behind his mane.
"You're a cyberpony... I... I didn't know. Alright, maybe later... Let's go."
With that, the scientist enters the hallway, keeping his eyes open as he moved deeper into the hallway.
Lightning followed after East as they made their way along the new corridor. It looked just like the one she was just in, except without the creepy voices and attacking shadows. However, she kept on guard just in case anything weird might happen. First sign of moving shadows that weren't theirs, she was going to rush to the nearest flickering lights in the corner. She kept her laser pistol aimed at the ground in case she needed a quick flash. Right now, she couldn't find those pipbucks fast enough.
Diamond was shaking a bit, but his righteous indignation would prevail over his fear.
"That two timin', yellah, mule! I'll tell you fwat, that no good snake in the grass mud pony oughta have listen! Y'alllll outta 'ave listened, but noooooo! I told y'all tit was danj'rus!"
The older pony was catching his breath, stamping his hooves and being generally indignant. He looked up at Sleet from his flustered tirade a moment though, breaking his momentum.
"But ya saved me. An' even though twouldnt have happened if y'all had listened... I'm eternally grateful..."
The pony moved his head around hers, peeking past her to look at the door.
"Whatt'ya reckon was that thing?"
"You don't look too well... Here."
Diamond reached into a small leather pouch on his leg and pulled out a bottle of buckout.
"I'll help whatever's got cha fer now... Better keep that light though. I thinks we'll need it..."
Sleet normally hated taking chems, preferring to go without their benefits if it meant avoiding their side-effects. Still, if things like that whatever-it-was were standard here, then she couldn't afford any handicaps. Taking a tablet and biting down, she nearly gagged at the taste but was pleased when the headache subsided. "I have some experience with shadow monsters." She said, looking over her shoulder at the sealed door. "But I've never seen something like that. Still, we know what we know, and if it hates the lights, then let's turn them up." She turns back to Diamond Pick, asking, "Do you have any idea where an electrical room or switching station might be? I may be able to get this place lit up if we find one."
The stallion dug into his saddle bags again, taking out a very old blueprint, eaten through by moths and with stains too old to tell what they were originally and spread it out on the floor with a satisfied grin, using his hoof to point at the various areas of interest.
"I found a safe with these here bluh'prints in 'em. This big 'ol death box is bid an' 'ol but I figures iffin they gots a power grid, we'll find it in them maintenance tunnels... But I reckon thems is full of that there darkness, and 'cordion ta this they's about as wide as a tooth pick... We might be able to find sumthin' there ifin wes the lucky sort? An' looks like they gots' a big 'ol atriums... Iffin I know mys history, an' I reckon I dos, them crystal ponies looooved to be round ech'otha... Maybe that's where we'll find that big 'ol heart."
He looks at Sleet, not much of a born leader, looking for guidance.
"Up to y'all whats we doin. I gots them dang 'ol flash bangs, three ov 'em. Figured maybes we'd run inta hell hounds... Ain't to happy twas wrong, but figgures it'll works the sames, yeah?"
There's a dull slamming noise from outside the door, as if someone were throwing themselves into a wall from down the hall, prompting Pick to look up worriedly at the door.
"Reckon... Reckon maybe that that critter ain't the tougher type?"
Sleet scans the blueprint as quickly as possible, ignoring the banging noises coming from the sealed room. Soon enough, she spots something that gives her an idea. "Alright, there's a maintenance supply closet on the way to both the tunnels and the atrium. We go there and try to find another light. If we do, we go to the tunnels and use the narrowness to our advantage. If not, we go to the atrium and hole up. It’s a big room; hopefully the others will find us there."
There is another loud bang accompanied by the sound of bending metal. "Now let’s get the Hell out of here!"
“You don't need to say it twice.” Diamond Pick is already chomping down on the flash light and backing up, eyes facing the way they came. He looks back to Sleet quickly and spits the flashlight at her, reaching into his saddlebags while backing up alongside her.
The sound of impacts fades a moment and there's a quiet stillness as the old buck retrieves a small grenade, painted to look like Celestia upside down, a look of lewdness on her face and her rear end up where the pin is. The colt thought it was a little clever, and he remained at her back, facing the way she came, deftly moving backwards as if he were moving frontwards.
Mirage continued down the hall, knowing full well she'd heard something in this direction. She stops short, looking between the doors of the hallway, her amulet of light producing a light that reaches under the doors.
"Fear is an expression of a lack of desire for pain... I'm indifferent to pain, so come out and stop being soooo dramatic."
She wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, but honestly, if some critter wanted to eat her, it would have by now, so whatever was around was sentient in some way.
Hearing the pony's voice, Nero's body immediately relaxed knowing he would be able to get out of the room. He slid his sword back into its sheathe and walked towards the locked vault door. "Um, hello?" He said as he loudly knocked on the pre-war door with his hoof, making several large CLANG noises. "I'm a little stuck here..." He said as he continued to knock, hoping that she would hear him.
Mirage rolled her eyes and moved closer to the door. Looking at it as if she were disappointed at it.
"Stuck? You're... Stuck? Are you challenged in the head?"
With a dainty jab, she pressed her hoof against the control panel common to stable doors, and the door hissed open once more. The slender, eyeful of sex appeal, locked in a zebra body stared at him with an air of superiority common among those who are too smart and too sexy to settle for less.
"Oh... I remember you. You're one of the thugs we dragged along. Stumble upon anything you couldn't possibly understand yet? I mean of course besides the door?"
She tapped her hoof methodically, awaiting an answer.
"Mentally challenged? No, not at all. I just haven't spent much time in a stable; don't really know how to operate the door." He said nervously as the metal door retracted, revealing the zebra.
"Well, yeah." Nero replied to Mirage's question. "There's something behind that fridge there." He gestured towards the refrigerator. "I didn't get a chance to examine it before you intruded. Also, I did find some old world bits if you want them." He said as he levitated out the dusty old coins from his saddlebags, offering them to Mirage.
Mirage looked at the bits with a quizzical expression on her face. She simply shook her head and walked past him, eying the device in question behind the fridge. She slips her hoof behind the fridge and touches the instrument and it falls backwards, revealing the stock of a polished, pink energy rifle.
"Ohhhh my~!"
Her voice is laced with a seductive coo as she pulls the metallic pink rifle from behind the appliance.
"Mmmmm, what have we got here? Pink? I've never seen a metal like this... It clearly isn't paint... Hahahehe~ I can't wait to get you alone~"
The zebra shamelessly fondles the device before adding it to her admittedly small saddle bags.
"You managed to find something I want. Remind me to kiss you later... Now let's go. I need to find a power generator."
Nero nodded indifferently as mirage walked past him, putting the pre-war coins back into his saddlebags.
As he saw the weapon, he was immediately astounded. He had seen impressive weaponry in his trips into enclave facilities to eliminate a target, but none as impressive as this. "I wish I brought Rain here. He would've known what that thing is." He thought in his mind. Knowing fully well that that thing would bring a lot of caps, the only way to get through this death maze is cooperation with other ponies.
He broke out a smile, seeing the zebra appreciate his work. He wanted that kiss, now. Resisting the urge, he just shook it off and nodded.
"Okay then." He said as with a hint of regret he trotted out the door and into the hallway. He looked around, dark, barely lit hallways, extending as far as the eye can see. "Umm, you got a light?"
Mirage looked back at Nero, pointing to her necklace with another quizzical expression.
"I see you aren't very bright... All the better really. I like the stupid sort."
She tapped the necklace and it stopped emitting the light that it had been before.
"I'll take this slow, for your own benefit... This is a light talisman. It creates a basic light spell for about six hours. I brought a few with me in case this place didn't have any power."
With another tap, the light returns and for a brief second it seems like the dark that surrounds them had fled from the light.
Mirage reaches into a container around her leg and removes another necklace and hangs it around his neck. With about 20% more intimate subtext than necessary.
"There! Perfect fit~!"
With a slightly manipulative giggle and smile, she turns away and begins walking down the hall, her defined hips giving a little twist with every step. She stops at the end of the hall and shakes her head, turning back to Nero, still at the door.
"Are you coming?"
Nero raised an eyebrow as Mirage's words rang around in his head. "I don't know if I should take that as an insult or a compliment." He said as he chuckled. "Light talisman, eh?" He said as the light seemed to stretch across the dark hallways as the darkness appeared to be retreating.
As Mirage puts the necklace on, Nero begins tinkering with it. "Uhh, yeah coming!" He said as he caught up with Mirage, trotting along by her side.
Sleet trotted forward at a brisk pace, making sure the flashlight covers the area in front of them completely. Even with Diamond Pick and his flashbangs watching her back, she feels a nervous itching in her wings. Literally every shadow was a potentially lethal threat, and she wouldn't feel secure until she had the whole Stable flooded with light.
They came up to the supply closet quickly enough. The door is set in along the top of a T-junction of corridors. Sleet tries to open it, but the door is locked. Remembering Diamond's mention of a safe, Sleet puts two and two together and motions for the old buck to pick the lock. As Diamond sets to work, Sleet stands with her back to him, sweeping the light across the three corridors.
Every second that passes with them standing still has Sleet's heart racing faster. Every time she moves the beam off a corridor, the shadows seem to creep further towards them. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon." She mutters around the flashlight as Diamond fiddles with and curses at the lock.
Pick's skill in lock picking had been built around cracking into safes or locked desks. Stable doors were very different. Of course, this wasn't an issue. He'd done it before, but his old eyes weren't typically the best at working under low light conditions.
The primal sound of some hideously angry beast echoed vividly through the corridors and it wasn’t long before the shadows begin to slowly move toward the opposite end of their tunnel, anticipating the creature that seemed hell bent on doing whatever it is that it would do to them.
Diamond doesn't so much as look back, the extra lighting provided by the retreating gloom giving him enough vision to get it right, and with an industrial hiss, the blast door begins to open.
Sleet starts to back up at the sound of the door opening, keeping the light firmly focused on the coalescing darkness. Once they're both inside, she tosses the light to Diamond Pick, telling him "Hold that on the door. Do not move it for anything."
With that taken care of, she starts to tear the room apart in search of another light. The closet is tiny, and with a set of metal shelves on each wall, there is barely large enough to fit the two of them back-to-back, though the room is at least decently lit. Sleet goes from one set of metal shelves to the next, tipping crates and tearing open boxes, scanning everything quickly as she could. She faintly heard Diamond Pick trying to say something, but paid him little heed.
A sick feeling started building in Sleet's gut as she comes up with nothing until the final shelf where, with a cry of happiness, she finds a flashlight. "Alright, please, please, please, work..." She mutters, hitting the switch.
The light turns on, shining brightly. "YES! Ha ha! Thank you, Celestia and Luna! Now finally we can dis-spell some of these..." Just then, something occurs to her. "There are no shadows in here..."
Diamond Pick finally gets her attention by kicking her with his rear hoof. Sleet turns to find the door frame completely filled with darkness; darkness that is slowly creeping into the beam of Diamond's flashlight. "Flashbang! Where's a flashbang?" Sleet asks. Diamond twitches the leg with the pouch storing the grenades. Sleet pulls one out, and with a cry of "close your eyes!" pulls the pin, covers her own eyes with a hoof and throws the flashbang into the darkness.
There is a loud bang and a demonic scream as the darkness is torn up by the sudden flash. The creature makes a limping retreat, allowing Sleet and Diamond to make a break for the maintenance tunnels, covering the area in front and back with their flashlights.
Noria couldn’t feel anything, or see anything. There was a feeling of profound nothingness that overcame her.
“What’s going on? I can't feel anything." She said in her head as she was unable to move her lips. She wanted to fall down but her body would not allow it.
Do not be alarmed, you're not dead. I need you to help me. Can you do this?"
Noria nodded in agreement.
Good. I knew I could count on you. The lower sanctum is where all the old world relics are kept. The only way to unlock it is through the overmare's office, and the only way there is through the atrium. Follow the shadows, they will lead you there. Go now, my dear. I have the utmost confidence that you won't fail me.
With that, her sight returned to her, the darkness leaving her vision as if she had just opened your eyes. Her senses slowly return and she found herself in a completely different hallway. The wall in front of her has faded paint across most of it.
The faded paint appeared to be a map. The atrium should be to her left, following the hallway down, then hanging a right, following that down, then taking a left, where a door to the rotunda should be.
She could also see that there's a pipbuck storage room two levels below her; the stairs to which are the opposite direction of the way to the atrium.
"Hmmm, a pipbuck would be nice. At least I could see if any friendly's or enemies are behind these doors. I could head down there first and make my way back up to where the rotunda should be." She starts to follow the directions on where the map is telling her to go.
“Okay, if I go down here, I should reach the pipbuck storage." She said to herself.
What are you doing?!
The shadows begin to shift around the way to the maintenance halls where she would need to go.
That isn't the right way... Get to the atrium, get to the overmare's office... It is not a difficult task. This stable is not hospital to ponies with wandering spirits... Please, get to the atrium... Now...
She backed away from that area seeing that shadow. "Great, I can't go where I want to." She said, heading back to the way it wanted her to go.
The darkness seems to explode outwards, like the picture of the inside of an entry wound. The unnatural tar drips to the floor, slowly converging in on itself, recovering in the absence of light.
That's the last thing Diamond sees before the two make it through the maintenance door.
The room they entered isn't much better than the room they left. Swirling red emergency lights seem to be on every corner of the dark metal stairwell. The beams of light slowly spin, spreading a dull sanguine at the fall furthest from that particular light.
Diamond dares to look over the rail and is greeted by a blackness he'd never seen, illuminated only by the fleeting lights attached to the walls that cast a weak red screen over the pitch. He swallows hard, as if he were trying to swallow the fear he felt. He shakes his head and slaps himself, snapping himself out of his stupor.
"Alrigh'. Jus' uh floor down now..."
An eery slithering sound permeates the staircase, the only echo coming from the pounding of their own hearts.
"Lest goes... Ain't keen on bein' stuck between dat thang an’ more dark'ess..."
Sleet puffs out a sigh. She had hopes for a temporary reprieve, but it looks like that wasn't to be. Still, this can work. She thinks, angling her light slightly so that is covers the edge of the stairs. That should hopefully keep the darkness to the side off their tails. She sets off down the stairs, her hooves clanking on the metal. The echo of Diamond's hooves joins as he follows close behind, though the unsettling slithering noise refused to be drowned out.
East skulked forward, eyes peeled. He hugged along the right wall, the dim lighting provided from the emergency lights offering the semblance of safety.
Lightning makes out a sign for the pipbuck storage area on a door just up ahead. "Look, there's the pipbuck storage area," she says to East as she points her hoof at the door. She and East make their way over to it, hugging the side of the corridor, trying to stay in as much light as possible. Lightning stays on guard the way there in case anything happens. They quickly make their way over to the storage area. Lightning then steps in front of him and opens the door.
The door folds open and several pipbucks roll out. They aren't powered, and a quick look inside reveals many more pipbucks stacked nicely on shelves. Boxes within most likely contain even more of the fore-leg mounted computers.
East Coast slides a pipbuck to himself and begins tinkering with the device. He smiles as the device comes alive with a very happy "brrlink".
"Got it. Easy enough to activate... But uhmm..."
The unicorn gave a hard tap to the underside of the legendary marvel.
"I'm not very good with locks..."
Upon closer inspection, every pipbuck in the closet is locked.
Lightning picks up one of the pipbucks on the ground. Fortunately for her, her small frame allowed her to simply slide the pipbuck on to her hoof. She then turns to East. "Unfortunately I can't do anything to unlock them to fit you, but do you think you could activate mine?" She said as she held out her hoof to him. "As for you, you could always levitate yours next to you."
East smiles awkwardly as he slips a couple of extra pipbucks into his saddlebags. He looks back to her, sorta... He seems to be hiding his face from her as he shyly lifts her hoof up and begins tinkering with the pipbuck.
"I, uhmmm... Yeah... I-I suppose that's true... Uhmm, you're cybernetics are uhmm... very nice..."
So eloquent East. You're really such a charmer.
It's only a moment before the pipbuck is online, displaying a very cheery pony in stable barding, giving you an update on all your vitals.
"If you uhm, if you give me a quick second, I could probably wire it into your cybernetics... If you wanted I mean.
"I suppose that would make things easier, so okay."
As East continued his work hooking up the pipbuck to her cybernetics, she lifted up her other front hoof and started picking up as many pipbucks as she could carry and placed them into her saddlebag. When she lifted up her other hoof, she started flapping her wings so that she wouldn't fall over.
East bites his lip, half out of determination and half out of a desire not to make it abundantly clear the revelation of her cybernetics has brought his mind to a different place. With a short happy chuckle, the device is successfully integrated into her leg.
"I never got to do that before. Should allow for easier use of the pipbuck, and you can access its features with a thought so you don't have to fiddle with it..."
The E.F.S lights up with a little blue blip, identifying a friendly on this floor, besides the two of them.
East finishes hooking up the pipbuck to her cybernetics. Lightning doesn't know how to use the more advanced functions on the hoof mounted computer, but she knows enough how to use the light and the Eyes-Forward-Sparkle.
With her saddlebag full of pipbucks, (She'd ask East to activate them later) she turned back to leave the room. As she was leaving, she glanced at her pipbuck, and she sees a little blue blip, identifying a friendly on this floor, besides the two of them. The blue bip is coming from down the hall, in the opposite direction to the room they just came from, with the path further in, towards the Crystal Heart. Halfway out the door, Lightning turned towards East and asked, "There's a friendly just over there," she said as she pointed her hoof in that direction. "I want to continue towards the source from that room with the terminal. Do you want to come with me, or do you want to see who it is?"
Right as she finished speaking, she then heard somepony yell, "NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!" from somewhere in the hall. She guessed that it came from the pony who was on her E.F.S.
East bites his lip, looking toward the direction of the scream, then to the direction that she would be going in. He frowns a bit and takes a few pipbucks into his own saddlebags.
"As stupid as is it to split up, you should go on. I'll go ahead and do what we followers do best; foolishly plunge into the dark to make sure nopony has a booboo."
He chuckles a bit, clear fatalistic sarcasm injected into it.
"Phew boy... Have fun, stay safe, and if a little blue marker disappears, and you hear my pained, foalish screams of terror, please tell Trinity to find a good necromancer."
The colt swallows hard, levitating the new light source slightly ahead of him, moving toward the sound of the scream.
"Hello?! Can you hear me?! Follow the sound of my voice!"
Lightning couldn't help but giggle slightly at East's joke. She then walked out of the pipbuck storage, back through the corridor they came through, in the opposite direction to East, and over to the room with the terminal that she had been in before.
When she got there, she first went over to the terminal and downloaded a map of the stable to her pipbuck. She looked at the map and then towards the door that the pony on the terminal had talked about. It did indeed lead into the deepest part of the stable. Lightning guessed that that was where the Crystal Heart would be. Once she was ready, she trotted over to the door and opened it.
When she opened the door, she was greeted by another dark corridor. The next corridor was the darkest one yet. She quickly turned on the light on her pipbuck. It didn't illuminate much, but it kept her surrounded in light of a radius of 85cm. This should be enough to keep the shadows away from her. She hoped.
Diamond kept the pace, staying in the light as best as he could.
The staircase ends on a modest ground floor, the back of which plunged in darkness, the kind of which so deep it seems like it goes on forever. No light seems to be able to reach this underside of the stairwell. The door to the maintenance tunnels appears to bent. So much so that it isn't likely to move without a little bit if help. Diamond spots this bend and begins searching his saddlebags.
"Ah gots a thing har. Maybe it'll halp pry thar door 'pen."
Sleet's ears twitch as the slithering noise draws nearer. That, and the sight of the blood on the door combined to give her the urgent desire to get the Hell out.
Sleet shoves her shoulder against the bend and pushes with all her chem-enchanced strength. "C'mon, push! We can bend it enough to squeeze through, just hurry! It's getting closer..."
Diamond wasn't quite aware of the danger until her urgency, seeming to borderline on panic, frightens him a bit. Though the fear doesn't last long.
A jaw, like that of an enormous radidile emerges from the dark, tendrils of blackness writhing out of its open maw. The tendrils grip Diamond by his limbs and quickly draw him into the disembodied jaws. They clamp down, and Sleet quickly sees how the blood stains got where they were.
An unholy, gruesome eruption of blood flies from the mangled, lifeless body of Pick; the force of the bite clearly too intense for the mortal frame of the old stallion.
Sleet was able to push through, a mix of adrenalin and the last of the drug bending the door just enough to allow her to squeeze through. But not without the blood from the aging stallion coating her plot.
The maw seems to be preoccupied gnawing on Diamond's corpse, and this area has a functioning overhead light, though it seems to be flickering about.
"Goddesses damn it all, no!" Sleet rages, stomping her hoof. "We should have ran! We should have just fucking ran!" She punches the wall and leans her head against it, feeling the weight of Pick's death on her shoulders. "Fuck..."
The sound of the flickering light and the eating monster snap her back to reality. "No time for this, Sleet. Turn those lights on before it gets you or somepony else." Now wasn't the time to worry about somepony knowing she was a pegasus; she needed to be fully armed and ready. Extracting her wings, she shoves the flashlight into the sleeve of her coat and holds it there with a hoof, allowing her to light up her path, fly, and shoot all at once. With Black Powder at the ready in her mouth, she flies down the maintenance tunnel, eyes peeled for the electrical room and any twitching shadows.
Mirage bit her lip, looking around a little.
"That idiot unicorn is most likely looking to turn on the power... I say we beat him to punch, and get to the vault. It'll likely have all the toys I came in here for, and plenty of gear to make this excursion worth your time."
She started to move, but stopped herself, and looked down the alternative path.
"Unless he is expecting someone else to turn on the power; that abomination of his... Hmmm... Then he'd be waiting at the vault. Hmm..."
She looked to the rifle at her side and quickly removed it, inspecting it thoroughly, without dismantling it.
"This rifle... I wonder..."
She gripped it daintfuly in her mouth and pulled the trigger. The front of the rifle opened up, exposing a barrel like battery, pink electricity jumping from it as a low hum came from the device.
Mirage's eyes widened before her eyes rolled back and she let off the trigger, the rifle returning to its "dormant" state. She set it on the ground by Nero's feet. Looking at him, her eyes carrying a sultry, flirty look.
"You're incredibly lucky, that's a high frequency laser cutter... Weaponized... Some very skilled pony got their hooves on an industrial lazer cutting tool and shoved it in a gun. Clearly a custom job... Keep it. You may need it."
Nero jumps up as Mirage activates the said energy weapon. Surprised by the sudden tone in the atmosphere, his magic instinctively activating and gripping on to all three of his swords, ready for a quick, clean strike, anticipating for the beautiful zebra he just met to turn on him.
Surprisingly, the rifle returns back to its calm state, Nero's magic and body relaxed, knowing that the threat was gone. As Mirage laid down the weapon at his hooves, he wondered what the zebra mare was trying to pull. The look in the Zebra's eyes was clearly turning him on. "Wow, I wonder what Rain could do with this." He says as he looks at the pink glowing energy rifle that looks like it was made in Pinkie's dungeon. He's always heard of stories of the notorious "Pinkamena Diane Pie" but he never knew if it was true or not.
Mirage reached quickly into her boot and pulled out a thin pad, tapping at it quickly.
"Take this too. It's an Echo Locator. It sends out sound waves to ping the nearby area, returning signals that display a map. This device acts like the local map function of a pipbuck, and provides an uncolored E.F.S update on living creatures in the area. Kinda like E.F.S, but not nearly as effective... You won't know if they are hostile, but you will know they are there. It can also automatically hack any terminal it's plugged into, given enough time…
“I want you to head up, down that hall there is where I came from, and follow the stored data in this to get to the atrium. It shouldn't be too hard, even for you... Get there and get to the overmare's office; also shouldn't be hard to find, and if you see that white unicorn mare, Trinity? If you see her, shoot her with that rifle. Should cut through that plating of hers like butter... Then, plug the Echo Locator into the overmare's terminal. It'll hack into it and download a map. Use that to find the vault room. I'll be there waiting for you..."
She hurriedly explained this all while traveling down a hall, leaving Nero behind as she trotted backwards.
"And if you hurry, we might have enough time to do a little more than kiss... You'll have earned it... I'm counting on you, alright? Be safe!"
With that she turns and takes off in at a gallop, leaving the equipment at his hooves.
As she explains the plan he wonders in his mind "Trinity?" Before he could ask any questions, the mare ran off in a gallop, leaving him utterly and morally confused. He picked up the Pink Laser Rifle using his magic and began to examine it. "Well, this'll definitely be useful!" He says as he squeed in delight as he tucked the rifle into his saddlebags. He picks up the Echo Locator and floats it to eye level and began to examine it. "Well, she said you can plug it into virtually anything. Hmm... I wonder..." He says as he commands his visor implant to activate.
The mechanical implant starts up and a visor shoots out of his mane and covers his left eye. "Now, if we plug this in here and..." He says as he plugs the Echo Locator into his visor's USB port.
There's a moment of static as the comparability occurs, but soon he’s able to get a full screen version of what the Echo Locator was displaying. Of course, the downside seems to be that it replaces your situational awareness with a reliance on the device, leaving you blind, or that is to say, restricted to what the Echo Locator is able to provide for you.
After the Echo Locator takes over his HUD, he looks around, seeing nothing but blackness, except the highlighted outline of Mirage running off further into the stable. "Well this could be useful." He says as he unplugs the Echo Locator from his visor and tucks it into his saddlebags.
"So... The way Mirage came huh?" He says as he looks back to where the vault door was. "Well, better talk to this Trinity pony." He says as he gallops forward, deeper into the stable, passing through several creepy dark hallways and locked Vault doors as he ran, taking a look at the Echo Locator at every junction.
Following the stored data in the Echo Locator, he eventually ends up in the atrium. "Well, seems like no pony's home." Sighing he examines the room.
On his way to the atrium, he hears the fighting as well. There's a great deal of shouting, and he notices that even his own shadow seems to be oriented toward the atrium... In fact, besides a wall of darkness that obstructs an entire corridor, these hallways are devoid of any wear, looking pristine and new.
Nero manages to reach what should be an entrance to the atrium, but the shifting opaque nothingness is blocking his way.
As he walks through the hallway, he hears the definite shouts and shots of what was definitely a shootout.
He plugs the Echo Locator back into his visor, to be prepared for anything or anypony that might be ahead.
"Well, this is creepy...." He says as he looks at the wall of darkness and probably imminent doom. "Well, it seems I've hit a wall." He mumbles on as he searches for a way through. Having no intention of actually touching the wall with his hooves, he pulls out the "Laser Phaser" and pulls the trigger once, causing the barrel to protract and the pinkish energy to run freely through the allowed areas of the gun.
"I guess this'll do the trick." He says as he aimed at the wall, dead center and pulled the trigger.
There's a happy hum from the rifle, and as the laser tears from the barrel, he swore he could hear a happy giggling.
Well he might have, if it weren't for the terrible screeching of the wall in front of him, tearing apart from the inside outwards, revealing a large rotunda, fortified as best as an average stable could fortify, and behind the makeshift barricades was a unicorn mare, shooting lasers from her hooves, and the occasional rocket from her foreleg, blowing apart what seemed to be the last of living shadow puppets.
She smiles and waves to him, looking around quickly once, just to be sure.
"Heya! Glad you found me!"
As Noria nears the atrium, she can hear gun fire, laser fire, and missile fire. It honestly sounds like a ranger raid is going on somewhere close by. An explosion hits the wall next to her, causing a large dent in it, but not nearly breaking it.
The fighting is coming from the atrium.
The dim halls are easily lit up by Sleet’s flash light, but there doesn't appear to be anyway to tell which way she’s going. Every corridor seems the same, down to the flickering light, and the sickening, ever increasing sound of Diamond's corpse being gnawed upon. Soon enough her flashlight seems to be running low on power, she grows heavy as the fatigue of the futility catches up with her. The walls begin to bleed pitch, and foals are heard laughing, while Diamond's death gurgle echoes through the halls.
"Dammit all, every way looks the same!" Sleet mutters, flying faster. She shoots around corners and takes erratic paths, trying to find something different but nothing changes. "What in Equestria is going on?"
You couldn't save him...
The voice is... Calm. Understanding even; but doesn't seem to have a source.
Sleet stops under the same flickering light, looking around for the source of the voice. "Hello? Anypony there?" Her voice echoes off the walls and comes back to her with new words.
There wasn't anything you could do. He was feeble and old. He slowed you down...
The voice is distinctly familiar.
Sleet starts to breathe faster, her heart racing as she tries to make sense of the situation. "That's...that's me. That can't be me." Can it?
He also had that terrible accent. It made you want to tear his tongue out through his teeth... Not that you would. You're really a good pony at heart...
She could hear a rhythmatic pounding. It isn't very loud, but it's persistent.
He would have gotten you killed if you waited for him to dig out whatever he was fishing for in that bag of tricks he had. If it had been you, he hardly seemed the type to stick his neck out to save anypony... Probably would have left you there... Not that you did much better. But you tried. That's all that matters.
There's a pounding noise matching the rhythm of her heart. Sleet lands, pressing her wing tips to her temples. "C'mon Sleet, snap out of it. This isn't happening..."
Voices echoed in her head; voices from her past, including Diamond's. Her wings are very heavy now and no sooner had she unleashed them, she is now too fatigued to fly. She stops at a familiar spot, under the flickering light. The flashlight weakening by the moment.
There are voices, whispering in her head. Voices she knows; her brothers taunting her boring appearance, her father's disappointed tone when he speaks of her useless Cutie Mark, her mother's sad attempts at trying to care...
But... You couldn't even save a feeble old pony like him? If your best try can't even keep him alive... How can you expect to keep yourself alive?
There's movement as the light flickers always at the edge of her peripheral vision. It seems as if her own shadow is missing.
Your light is dying. Just like Pick. You're surrounded by it, and your only shield is bound to give out...
Her shadow, casted upon the wall next to her stretches out, diagonally crossing what seems like the entire wall.
You were never worth much... But... Hey... At least now you have a chance to make something of yourself...
Her shadow keeps bending counter clockwise until it lines up, as if a light were at her back. The floor bubbles like a tar around where her shadow is cast.
Just close your eyes...
Her own shadow slowly rises up from the pool of tar, staring at her, without any facial features beyond a matte darkness. Its jaw unhinges and serrated rows of teeth drip a pitch to the ground.
And please try not to scream.
Her shadow lunges at her, teeth bared, pouncing onto her.
The image of her mother lying frozen and shattered on the Wasteland dirt flashes through Sleet's mind. "My mother is dead; I killed her, her and everypony else I ever knew. You will not use their voices against me!" By this point she's screaming, her actual voice cutting through the illusions around her. "NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!"
There is a deafening silence as the illusion breaks, leaving Sleet sitting under the light, breathing deeply as she gets herself under control. After a minute, she stands and with one last calming sigh, continues to her search.
As the wall seemed to tear itself apart, he brought the laser rifle's sights back up to his eyes, prepared to shoot anything that came out flying.
Seeing a strange, running, shadow-like monster after the wall finished "Melting", he aimed the reticule at its head, but before he could fire, the thing was blown to bits by what seemed to be a rocket. "Turrets." He thought in his head as he moved slowly through the hole, rifle at the ready.
What he saw was rather, unexpected. He saw a unicorn mare just standing on her hind legs with all the carnage right in front of her. If that sight wasn't strange I'm not sure what is. The mare was... Cute, very cute. He smiled back. "Glad I did." He said slyly.
The mare drops to all fours, rolling her shoulders and stretching out, high pitched, eliciting satisfied sighs from her tense body.
"Thanks a bunch! They were all coming from that breach you just breached and I didn't know how long it would've taken for me to get enough light on it to make it go away."
After she was done stretching out, she blinks a few times, her eyes adjusting as the light steadily returns to the room. She looks towards Nero after leaving the make shift barricades with an honest smile.
"Nice toy by the by. Souvenir?"
There was a short pause as she laughs a little at her own joke, as if just moments before she hadn't been having a one mare war of attrition.
"Iiii take it though, you didn't come all the way here just to save lil' ol me..."
She looks behind her, the large metal wall reaching high up, ending in a large heart shaped window that overlooks the whole of the room.
"That's the overmare's office. It's the only room that seems to have functioning power. Like, 100% functionality. I tried shooting that glass but it just uhmm... Well it's got this shield, pretty strong. There's doors on either side of this room that I think could possibly lead up there. They're missile proof at the very least, and they're locked..."
She turns around, smiling at him with half-hearted hope.
"You any good with locks?"
Nero chuckled a bit at the new mare's joke. "Yup, sure is." He proudly said as he returned the rifle to its dormant state and tucked it back into his saddlebags. His heart sprang up at her sarcasm. "Save you? Dear, who wouldn't come here to save you?" He said slyly as he walked to her side, looking at the heart shaped window. "It's shielded? Well, we're sure as hell not going through there." He said as he looked around the room.
His ears perk up at her question. "Yeah, I'm GREAT with locks." He boasted as he floated out three of his hair pins. "Just tell me which lock to pick and I'll pick it for you." He said confidently.
Trinity waves a hoof at him, an "oh you" gesture at his shameless, if not sly, flirting. Trinity perks up, though, ears standing at attention with a surprised grin on her face as he boasts about his proficiency in lockpicking.
"Really? Sweet! Uhmmm... Alright so let's start with the door on the left then..."
Trinity leads him to the average sized door. It's thicker than previous doors and has black scorch marks around the frame, as if someone had fired heavy ordinance at it. At the realization of this obviously incriminating evidence, Trinity blushes and rubs the back of her head, smiling awkwardly.
"Uhmm heh... Missile proof..."
Nero nodded awkwardly as he walked to the said door, lock-picks at the ready. He touched the door. It was still eerily warm, probably from the ordinance, but the Keyhole was easily located.
He floated one of his lock-picks in and gently inserted the screwdriver beside it. "Wow, this lock's a tuffy..." He said as the bobby-pin twisted and turned along with the screwdriver. He looked back at Trinity, noticing there are no weapons on her. He went back to work with a subject in mind.
"So, while I'm doing this, mind telling me how you killed all those monsters and did this much damage to this door without a single weapon?" He asked as he attempted to turn the lock.
Trinity smiled, innocently and fakely.
"Friendship? Uhmmm, love? Heh hehe... Uhmmm... Well you see it's kinda a long story... I've got that cybernetic swagger, but not like anything you've seen before, trust me..."
"Oh, cybernetics? I have my share of those. Just not like the ones of your caliber." He said as he turned the lock once more.
Invite him to examine you, girl! It'll be clever and flirty! Go on the offensive!
"I can show you later, once we have some time... I'm Trinity by the way. In case you forgot. Nero, right?"
At the mention of her name, he twitched, causing the bobby pin to break.
"Dammit!" He exclaimed in his thoughts. "She's Trinity? Why would Mirage want me to kill such a kind mare?" He asked himself in his thoughts, morals clashing inside his head.
She lazily, if not awkwardly swings a leg back and forth, trying to make small talk without seeming too taken by his very cheesy, but startlingly effective flirting.
"Lock giving you trouble? He's like that. Kinda aloof, doesn't like opening up (unlike me). Just makes you want him more though. Sure he treats me like shit and beats me, but it's only because he loves me. And I mean c'mon, I did overcook those snack cakes so I kinda had it coming..."
Trinity closed her eyes, nodding her head confidently.
"We're getting married. We'll have 8.7 kids all named after different foods, and hopefully one of them will make something of themselves... Like uhmm, I don't know... Farm rocks or something."
Trinity smiled and impatiently shifted her weight to look at the lock as he picked it.
"Do you ever think that doors with locks on them are the female versions of doors, and lockpicking them is like... Sex? But for doors..."
"Y-Yeah." He nervously said with a fake smile as he levitated out another bobby pin and slipped it inside the lock. "Heh, farm rocks." He chuckled as he turned the lock again, hoping not to break the pin. "What a strange subject to bring up." He smiled as he found the lock's "sweet spot." "Well, I guess if it worked like that...." He turned the screwdriver...
"Then I think I may have made her cum."
Click
The lock clicked open. He squeed in glee as he turned the knob and opened the door.
"Voilà!"
Trinity laughed a little, smirking smugly as he fumbled on the lock.
"Am I really that distracting? Should I go take a lap? Do you need some "you" time? I have some "material" of me if you're inter-"
Suddenly with a satisfying- clink- the lock yields and Trinity brightens up.
"Never mind, awesome job! Let's go see if we can get off!"
Trinity scoots past him, prancing eagerly ahead a moment before she pivots, quite worried.
"What! I meant what we can get off! Meaning the terminal!"
She lowered her flank a bit, a show of hip control. She flailed her hooves dismissively in front of her, blushing.
"I swear I'm not like that! I-I'm just friendly and enjoy physical contact!"
"Why thank you!" He bowed down as she admired his work.
"Finally, someone truly appreciates my work. Well, at least, someone who's not planning on stealing or killing." He said as he returned to his normal posture.
"Truth be told, I've been picking locks for as long as I can remember but this is the first time I've spent this much time on one lock in about 10 years." He lazily swept his hoof back and forth across the ground.
He blushed. "IF we can get off?" He chuckled, nervously. "Oh! You mean the terminal..." He said, disappointedly, with a touch of sadness.
"I also enjoy physical contact. We can be friends, if you have the benefits." He chuckled at his own joke as he walked past her, dragging his tail across her neck.
Trinity's eyes widen and she coughs awkwardly as she follows behind him, slightly embarrassed by the honestly unwarranted flirting... She didn't particularly mind it; however it was a little strange for her to have a stallion run his tail over her neck. That was such a flirty thing to do, and she knew it, because she had done that... Frequently!
She felt a little ashamed; she'd set her mind to finding East, but ended up getting trapped in the atrium, but now all she felt like doing was... well... Shameless, unabashed fornication. Her mind drifted between stored memories of "encounters" and reality. The drifts brought on simulated smells of various scents that pushed her ever closer to the edge. She wasn't entirely close to it yet, but she was easing her way there.
As the two of them carry on up the stairs, there's a wide corridor, well lit, looking like a waiting area. There's a couple of couches and tables, on which dozens of magazines are strewn about. A sign, built into the roof reads "Overmare's reception area."
Lightning continued walking along the dark tunnels. These tunnels are not lit up in any way. The only source of light is that coming from her pipbuck. The floor beneath her hooves is a downward ramp, tracks built into it at regular intervals.
As she continued downwards, she saw that the tunnels seem to have been compromised by crystals. Clusters of various sizes haphazardly jut into the tunnels.
Lightning slowly and quietly makes her way down the ramp. The downward path makes it easier to walk along, however, she notices that the crystals embedded in the walls are a different colour than the others that she saw on the surface. The deep black of the crystals, combined with the almost darkness around her was beginning to unnerve her, even though she didn't see any shadows following her; as if the crystals were evil. She kept her wings at the ready, just in case she needed to move quickly.
She continued deeper, unhindered but not without her reservations. It wasn’t long before she reached a dead end; a wall of reflective obsidian crystals stopping her advance.
Suddenly, without warning, the crystals behind her collapsed, sealing the tunnel. A deep voice laughs as they do, and she could hear the smug grin he must have on in every chuckle.
Welcome, said the spider to the fly. Please come closer. It's hard to get a good look at you, with all this light...
She begins to freak out, thinking that she might be trapped in here. "Damn it. Maybe I should have stayed with East." Suddenly, she was interrupted by deep, mysterious voice, that seemed to be coming from all around here. She quickly raised her pipbuck high, in case there were any shadows about to attack her.
With that, the wall in front of her opens up, revealing a short end to the downhill ramp. Several elevators are attached to the tracks, inactive it seems. The ramp then levels out, crates are stacked up, four ponies high in a warehouse design. Shelves that reach up to the ceiling hold more large crates.
Deeper, little angel. The treasure you seek lies deeper... In the bowels.
Lightning doesn't like the idea of going where this voice wants her to, but right now she doesn't have any other choice.
She saw several elevators in the corner. Though they were obviously out of power, they showed that there was another way out. She then unfurled her wings and started flying up in the air. As she flew, she waved the light from her pipbuck around, in case there were any more shadows around.
The voice echoes in her head, the shadows not seeming to flee from her light.
Now now... You're in my home now, little angel. Your light can't save you here... On the bright side, these particular shadows aren't malevolent... So you're as safe as a stray, weak little pegasus with not nearly enough flight room to escape can be... Ahehahehahaha~!
This large warehouse like storage area only seems to have one exit beyond the way she came, and the two possible lift entrances. Black crystals surround the opening of this route, looking like teeth in the mouth of a great beast, crackling with maroon and a sickly emerald lightning.
Lightning was scared. She had never been claustrophobic, but being stuck in here, in near total darkness with this mysterious entity was beginning to unnerve her. She flittered around in the air, quickly waving her pipbuck in every direction every few seconds, trying to keep the shadows away.
After a minute of this, her eyes widened and she slowly lowered her hoof. She then spoke to the darkness. "What do you want with me? If you wanted to kill me you would have done it by now, so clearly you want me for something; so what is it?"
Oh? What if I simply enjoy getting to know lunch? Muahahaheheha... You just need to keep going. If the Crystal Heart is what you seek, then you need to continue anyhow... Help me, to help you, little angel.
The shadows shift, dodging around the light, but never getting much closer. If they had sentience, they enjoyed clinging to the walls. Like a million bugs, clinging to a meal, the shadows shift and overlap each other, competing for space close to a surface.
Lightning was still panicking a bit. As she looked around, she saw that the shadows were everywhere, and that even the floor wasn't safe, so she decided to stay in the air. She also saw several skeletons on the ground, which made her even more afraid; however, she also saw that they all had flashlights, which still had a bit of power left, and the shadows were avoiding them. She shifted nervously in the air. "Well, where is the Crystal Heart? Which way do I go?" As she spoke, she quickly dashed to the ground and picked up one of the flashlights and quickly retreated back into the air. This would at least give her a little bit more light.
Keep looking... When the pit in your chest is on the verge of consuming whatever is left of your fragile mind... Then you'll know you are close. Ahahaheheha...
The voice fades as it laughs, the darkness ever-shifting about, black walls of crystal blocking her escapes. There doesn't seem to be any way to move on; it's simply too dark.
As the voice faded, Lightning started shining her lights all around the room, looking for a way out. The Crystal Heart would most likely be kept in the deepest level of the stable for safe keeping. She moves towards the ground, seeing that it's safe now. When the voice disappeared, so did the shadows. She starts poking at every crevice, looking for something. She is able, through the corner of her eye, to see a break in the darkness. She goes over to one of the elevators, and she notices a slight breeze coming from behind it. She forces the elevator door open and peers inside. The elevator is gone and there is an empty elevator shaft that seems to go down for quite a while. Not having any other choice, she whips out her wings and begins slowly flying down the shaft.
The walls bleed darkness as she slowly flies deeper. There's this ambient, faded scream as if it was the echo of some poor soul lost in time. The shaft, unlike the rest of the stable is very clearly in disrepair. The grooves in which the elevator wheels would have gone are rusted and the whole tunnel groans with some invisible weight or pressure. It seems like there may have been upper areas that could be accessed via this shaft, but there was nothing above her now but a wall of black so thick she couldn’t tell if it was the supernatural darkness around her, or simply very long and lacking any light.
About a quarter of the way down the elevator shaft, she hears some metal far above her grinding against metal. She looks up and she sees the elevator coming down, towards her. She then dashes off down the shaft again, as quickly as she can to exit the shaft before it reaches her. She is able to outrun(fly) the elevator before it crushes her. She flies out into the open elevator shaft door on the bottom floor and into the hallway, just before the elevator crashed down behind her. The wreckage from the crash now blocks her way back. When she was in the hallway, she landed on her hooves and released another breath she didn't realise she had been holding. "I'm really starting to hate this place."
The corridors were slimmer than those she'd left on the floor above. These tunnels were clearly made to inspire expeditious travel between point A and point B. The walls gradually break, creating t-sections and x-sections a plenty. Occasionally the walls have breaks in them, revealing wires thick as a pony's neck that hum with power.
Sleet examines the wires, listening to the hum of power. "So there is power, good. Means I can still get this place lit up." Her brow furrowed in thought as something occurred to her. "But where's it all going? It wasn't damage that turned off the lights, somepony did this on purpose; but why?"
"Hello?! Can you hear me?! Follow the sound of my voice!"
Sleet's ears twitch as she hears the last echoes of somepony's voice. Looking around, she tries to pinpoint where the voice came from, but the echoes make it near impossible. "That's not another illusion, is it?" Straining her ears, she hears another call. "Well, I can't stay down here alone forever..." She starts to walk slowly in the direction she thinks the voice may be coming from, calling out "Hello! Anypony there?"
East follows the sound of a weak echo, all the while he looks around nervously, trying to remain calm. He's aware of the constant assault on his mind, as if these tunnels were rigged with a perpetual illusion hex, but his will is too strong for it to affect him.
That said, it still doesn't stop him from being a little jumpy.
He stays within the radius of the light from the pipbuck. He'd have to download a map from that terminal the next chance he got. Between the concentration he needed to fight off the mental attacks and what he needed to keep the device levitated, he was forgetting some things about the map.
The voice was closer now, and sounded familiar. Perhaps it was another one of the ponies from the expedition after all! Still, after that last incident, Sleet wasn't about to let whatever was causing the illusion to get the better of her again. She calls out, "This place is full of illusions. How about a game of twenty questions while we find each other, just to prove you're real."
East Coast was a little taken aback by the request; a game to make sure he was real? It hardly seemed like a proper way to make sure somepony wasn't a figment of a twisted imagination, but what the hell. It would help him find the source of the return voice.
"Maybe we could try limericks instead? Dirty limericks, with lots of innuendo? No? Ok, twenty questions it is... You start."
"We'll start easy, what’s your name?"
"East Coast, yours?"
East Coast; he was that unicorn scientist. He could be helpful getting these lights on. "I'm Sleet Gray. Next question, what town did we all meet in?"
East bit his lip. He hadn’t met anypony in any town. There was a Follower’s outpost along the route, and rather than freeze out there, he figured he'd join this expedition to find a better place for an outpost.
"I don't know. I didn't join up with you in any town... What's my assistant's name? She was the other unicorn, also white coated... In case you’re like me and you do better with faces than names."
Sleet nods her head, though nopony can see her. He's two for two on being real so far. "Her name was..." Sleet raps a hoof against her forehead before remembering. "Trinity! It was Trinity!" They are very close by this point. East's voice is right around the upcoming corner. "Alright, one more question. What type of pony am I?"
East drew a total blank, stopping in his tracks. Their voices were close now; he knew she couldn't be beyond the next couple of turns, if that. She'd remembered Trinity, which meant that if she was indeed just a shadow, she was a very astute shadow.
But despite his fairly decent memory, he had completely forgotten what race this mare was.
Let's see... There were... Several unicorns, but none that were girls besides Trinity... A pegusus that I just parted with, and... An earth pony!
"If memory serves, you're the token earth pony, who made our group of soldiers, cyborgs and scientists a little more diverse... I could be wrong though. I admit I wasn't studying anypony in particular besides Trinity and that unscrupulous zebra, Mirage... And this hasn't nearly been twenty questions mind you... Just saying..."
Sleet grins, taking to the air. "I don't need twenty questions, because you're wrong." She flaps around the corner and alights before East Coast. "Which is how I know you're real." She takes note of the light around East and follows it to the pipbuck casting it. Upon spotting the little device, she lets out a loud gasp and darts over to it. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my GOSH! You have a pipbuck!" She flies a rapid circle around it, admiring the little arcano-tech marvel. "And it's not on your wrist; that means you found it! Oh!" She drops down close in front of East Coast and bounces excitedly. "Are there more? Tell me there's more!"
East recoils slightly, mildly surprised by the sudden outburst of enthusiasm, a very plane look of exasperation on his face.
He hated being wrong.
"Well I don't know. I can't say I'd give a pipbuck to a cheater... I would have won, if you hadn't been such a sneak..."
All the while he levitates the object of Sleet's desire teasingly about her, keeping it just outside of her wingspan. Chuckling playfully, honestly happy to have a light hearted moment finally.
East, having amused himself enough reaches into his saddlebags, retrieving one of the inactive pipbucks and begins to turn it on.
"Unless your good with locks, have small hooves, or are as strong as you are tricky, I'm afraid you'll have to carry this."
Sleet bounces excitedly next to East Coast while he turns the pipbuck on. She knows she'll have to carry it, but she's so happy to have a pipbuck that she doesn't care. East soon has the device active and hands it to Sleet, who snatches it up and flies a few circles over head in victory. "Yes! I've wanted one of these since I was a filly! Woohoo!" She is so excited that she darts back down to the floor and gives East a huge hug. "Thank you so much!"
Realizing what she's doing, she flushes slightly and lets him go. "Oh, and uh, sorry about, you know, these." She flaps her wings a few times without taking off. "I prefer to keep them hidden when I'm on the surface. But since we're down here and the situation we're in, I figured their more helpful like this."
East, not ever having been one for personal contact almost immediately recoils in abject terror.
A mare, no, a kinda pretty mare had breached his sacred personal bubble with reckless abandon.
He was certain she was going to do something dastardly or profane, but rather, she seemed warm, and her wings seemed to pull into this embrace, giving him a very strange feeling inside.
"Y-You are most certainly uhmm... You're welcome..."
He stammered and hoped those words were the right ones. He understood what a hug was at its core, but never having had one before made this a very peculiar moment. He didn't know what now to do. At least Sleet seemed slightly embarrassed by her outburst which made East feel slightly less alone in his own embarrassment. Soon the mare pulled away, carrying on with what she had to say.
East nodded as he went through a mental pros and cons list for keeping wings a secret.
"I can imagine. I only wish I'd known for my own purposes. Medicinal magic may have side effects if it's tailored to a certain species... I mean thankfully you weren't hurt, but if you had been, and I was in a rush and I cast a spell that I find extremely effective on earth ponies or something, I may have actually caused you irreparable damage to your entire body's functionality..."
The Unicorn rambled nervously, the hug having thrown him off. He was still uncertain what he should be doing, and after noticing his own pacing hooves, he stopped talking, and moving, took a breath and calmed down a bit.
"So... Unless you're in a hurry or don't particularly like me, I think we could both afford a map for these pipbucks to help us get around. I had planned on going that way regardless and I'd like to not have to split up for a fourth time today... Or, night as it were."
"Now, now. Need to focus. Can't let mares get in front of the goal." Nero mumbled to himself as he walked up the stairs. He looked back at Trinity. She seemed, embarrassed, awkwardly coughing and all. "Well, seems like that trick got her, Hehehe." He chuckled as he moved onwards.
As he arrived, he looked around the room, hoping to find something that will lead them to the Overmare's Office, so they can finally get this whole mission over with. He spots the sign. "Overmare's Reception Area.... We must be getting close." He said as he walked over to one of the tables and floated up one of the old magazines in hope that it was one of the old "Zebra Infiltration Tactics" magazines he has always wanted to read.
The magazine is not of a military minded sort. There's some magazines on medicine, science, speech deliveries, locks, and proper mundane maintenance. Most of the sciency ones are depicting cybernetics as the main articles. The rest of the magazines are vintage, primo condition magazines from around the time of the war. They mostly seem to be war centric articles that deliver stories from that time as approved by the Ministries of Moral and Image.
Trinity trots over, trying to push everything from her mind. She admires the magazines on cybernetics and floats them towards her, flipping through them with alarming speed. She yawns, as she looks at the advanced pre-war technology, a bored expression on her face.
"These are so primitive... I mean, not a single one of these prosthetics or implants seems relatively useful! It's like-Oh my..."
Her voice trails off. It seems some of these magazines are niche play colts, featuring some fairly attractive ponies in "heavy metal".
Trinity's haunches buckle and she slips the item behind her, sliding it into a storage compartment in her leg. She blushes and smiles as she slips past Nero, honestly surprised at this continuous stream of erogenous circumstances.
She stands in front of an ornate metal door, a heart emblazoned on its face. All traces of "friskiness" are aside now as she smiles up at the door, admiring it while she turns on a wall mounted terminal, plugging a small wire from her neck into the machine, her eyes turning into beacons of terminal screen green.
"Keep me company while I hack this terminal, would you please? I can't wait to see what's inside!"
Her voice is oddly robotic, making it sound like her voice was tuned automatically.
Nero quickly flipped through the lock-pick magazine, trying to get something interesting out of what was inside. "Yeah, none of these magazines looks to have anything usefu- "He stopped dead on a page. "Ten tricks on how to pick a tough lock" the page headliner read. "DAYUM!" He exclaimed loudly as his head recoiled a bit for emphasis. "This would've been useful a while ago." He said to Trinity as he read through the page.
He tucked the magazines into his saddlebags, fit and snug while still having enough room for the Lazer Phazer and more loot.
He smiled at Trinity as she slipped past him. She is so cute when she blushes, he squeed a bit inside. "Um, Y-Yeah." He awkwardly said as he slipped out of his small trance and trotted towards Trinity's side. "Why don't I use the Echo Locator instead?" He asked himself in his head. "Nahh, I'll let her have her fun."
"So, uhh, you mind teaching me how to hack terminals when you have the time?" He asked, trying to make some small-talk as she attempted to hack the terminal. He floated out the E-L to check if the area was safe.
Trinity doesn't answer him for a moment. There's a long pause between when he asks the question and when she answers.
"Oh, uhm, yeah. I'm not very much of a teacher. I'd ask East though; he's the egghead, not me. I just have this hacking suite. Kinda nifty. It works faster I devout more resources to it but I figure we're not in a huge rush..."
There's another long pause before she abruptly giggles, more like the laugh was supposed to come earlier but was delayed for some reason.
"Why? Do you want to access some private systems?"
She has a delayed giggle again before the terminal powers down and Trinity unplugs herself from it, her eyes returning to normal. She looks at the E-L, a little confused as the overmare's door begins to open.
"Cool toy. Does it have battle ship?"
Her voice seems normal now, as she smiles and nudges him with a little shove. The doors interlocking mechanism slowly grind against each other and pull apart, like a series of lesser doors that need to open before the main one does.
"Soooo... We got a little time... Wanna play scrabble?"
"Private systems?" He asked rhetorically. "Well, yeah. Mostly for target information, disabling or turning security systems or just unlocking doors I can't lock-pick. Part of my job." He explained and also slightly boasted. "I'm not too proud of my job; being an assassin has its ups and downs, but it's cold hard caps none the less." He said as he drifted on between the conversation.
"Toy? What, this? Nah, it's an Echo Locator. It's supposed to detect ponies and other creatures through walls, kinda like E.F.S. Not nearly as powerful though. Doesn't tell you whether they're hostile or not. Mirage gave it to me." His eye twitched as he mentioned Mirage's name. It reminded him that he had a job he had but did not have to do. "Make small talk!" His brain fired off.
"So, remind me, who's East Coast?"
Trinity giggled and gave him a feint look of skepticism, smirking a bit.
"White unicorn in a white lab coat? Kinda pretentious and uses big words wayyyy more than he needs to? I never really left his side? Because I'm his wife? Ring a bell?"
Trinity looked at the door quickly and sighed, turning back to himwith a bored expression.
"Just kidding, we're just good friends... I think... I mean, I call him my friend. But East isn't the kind of pony who ever actually had friends before so he doesn't get the concept, ya know? I'm sure he considers me a friend. I mean he's maybe the only pony who has seen my schematics. That's like... It'd be like my diary if I were one to keep a diary, ya know? Anyway... He's good with tech. One of them Followers. He's a good guy... Most of the time. I mean I heard he doesn't have a clean record... I mean, not like murdering rapist kind of bad spots but I heard he was affiliated with some preeeety nasty slavers for a while. He's a really good doc, in the sense that his special talent is scientific advancement and he's made new medical spells. That's pretty intense, but I don't think those spells had willing test subjects for one, and for two, I doubt he got them right on the first try... I've heard him talk about how important it is to listen to his instructions when he's doing his thing, because if anypony fucks up…"
She lifts her hooves and makes air quotes with them. Staring oddly at the table in front of her.
"'You could end up eating your skin till nothing but your muscles are showing, those will slowly disintegrate molecule by molecule until your bones are raw and exposed, they will become brittle over time and ultimately snap under the weight of gravity and through none of this will you so much as blink'... So I mean... Unless he just makes it up to scare ponies into following doctor’s orders? I'd think he had some experience with situations like that..."
She pauses for a bit. The silence is only broken by the door churning itself.
"So yeah! That's East Coast! Good guy, good guy..."
She makes circles in the ground with her hoof, tapping against the floor a bit as her tail runs down Nero's back.
"We should play scrabble..."
She murmurs just loud enough to be heard over the sound of the door.
Nero was absolutely aloft after hearing Trinity's explanation. He couldn't decide whether it was long or short. "Well tha-" He was cut off by the feeling of her tail, running down his back. Such a blissful and admittedly embarrassing for him. This was a firstie for him. Never really felt someone rub their tail across his back, apart from his mother of course. He started blushing a bright red glow, her voice only intensifying the feeling. He needed something to satisfy his urges, for now, at least until he got out of this Celestia dammed stable.
He pulled Trinity closer with a hoof and gently leaned in for a kiss. The feeling was amazing. He broke away after a few seconds. "Later. Let's get out of this damned stable first, sound good?" He said as he calmly gestured a hoof at the door.
Trinity paused, blinking, her breath baited and heavy. She shakes her head out of her stupor and smiles a little more romantically than expected.
"Yeah. I'd like that."
Sleet was too busy marvelling at her new pipbuck to notice East Coast's discomfort, though she spared enough brain space to note what he was saying. She winced at the mention of possible magical side effects. "Oh, yeah. That would be unfortunate. I don't know much about medicine, but I can guess what happens when you apply the wrong magic to the wrong pony."
Flipping through the pipbuck's various functions, she furrowed her brow in thought. "It's a little weird that these don't come with pre-installed maps though. I mean, don't they recycle pipbuck's when a pony dies? It's not like they had the capacity to produce new ones, and you'd think Stable pipbuck's would have Stable maps."
Shrugging, she took wing so she could hold her pipbuck and move at the same time. "Still, maps would be helpful. I was looking for an electrical room to see if I could get this place lit up again and get rid of these damned shadows. Hopefully we can do both at the same time."
East's eyes widened a bit, realising this mare had a point. He'd never thought about why exactly these ponies were left without maps on their pipbucks.
Unless...
"That would seem odd, wouldn't it? Unless of course, there was something in here that nopony was supposed to know about. If anypony became curious about areas that were unlabelled or labelled as something ambiguous were to discover this something, it could put the whole stable in jeopardy... If everypony simply was just told where to go when they needed to go someplace... Might explain the lack of remains around this floor. Doesn't seem like too many ponies worked in maintenance and even they didn't have a map... Some unfortunate soul hacked a terminal memory bank to get it... Maybe these ponies were meant to be, uhmm... kept in the dark... So to speak."
East moved to furrow his own brow. He obviously wasn't expecting somepony to be looking for a power way station, or if he had been, he hadn't expected they'd come down here. He shrugged it off and kept his travel speed at a brisk trot. He wasn't keen on staying down here, a shiver traveling up his spine as the realization began to dawn on him that this stable had no idea what they were living with.
The two make it back to the junction just fine and East does the honors of downloading the local map to both pipbucks. He looks around, concerned.
"Something feels off..."
He examines the room and notes that there seems to be only two doors; the one they came from, and the other door that made this room seem like an L junction. And it seems a lot dimmer than before. He could have sworn there had been four flood lights here, not just two.
They listen between themselves carefully, and they can hear a sound akin to that of an open door on a plane in flight. The sound of wind and pressure.
"Something is very wrong here..."
Looking around to try and find what unsettled East, Sleet notes two broken floodlights. "Very wrong indeed." She feels something flowing over her feathers; wind. But that's not possible. There can't be wind down here! Sleet checks her pipbuck map, looking between the diagram and the wall where the exits should be. "I think we might be under another illusion." Readying her flashlight, Sleet starts to back away from the blank walls. "Whatever is doing this seems to hate light. I'll shine a light on where the doors should be, but get ready to run if I piss it off." Pointing the flashlight, she mutters, "I don't want to lose anypony else" and turns the light on.
East shakes his head and looks to her, backing up a bit from sheer instinct.
"Both of us? At the same time? Having the same illusion? I doubt whoever is behind this is that... Mundane. From what I've gathered, the illusions are well crafted if not utterly terrible..."
He has a cadence in his voice of a person who is admiring the craftsmanship of a terrible weapon. Not seeming to be praising the purpose of it, but more so is he admiring the detail put into it.
As Sleet shines the light into the dark, it seems to steam, then comes to a boil. There's an ear piercing howl as the blanket of shadows covering the two walls begins to bubble and shift in what seems to be pain. Large boils of darkness erupt from the surface of its skin. Soon, the heads of ponies begin to press their way through the darkness wall, and they fall to the floor and pop, spreading splash zones of darkness on the floor. These zones bubble, and tendrils burst out of them, writhing and flailing.
The ceiling begins to leak, little drips of distilled night that hit the floor, sizzling on contact and slowly expanding into dark pools.
Sleet’s eyes widen at the boiling darkness, her heart seizing in fear. "Oh Goddesses, RUN!" As Sleet and East make a break for the exit, a drop of the boiling darkness falls from the ceiling and barely skims Sleet's leg.
But barely is enough, the spot of darkness sizzles on her skin, sending a shot of burning agony through her. Her knees buckle and she drops, clutching the spot with one hoof as the burning darkness boils and expands over her. She hears a cry of shock and pain, and looking up, she sees a tendril of darkness lash out and around East Coast's neck. "No, please, not again." She gasps in pain as he is dragged backwards towards the void, visions of the fountain of blood that Diamond Pick had become flashing before her mind's eye.
She looks at her arm; the darkness has expanded and consumed her upper arm and it's making its steady way towards her hoof and chest, burning as it goes. All around her the boiling darkness continues to fall, surrounding her with the void. "It burns..." She says scrunching into a ball, away from the abyss. Burns...
Without stopping to think, she makes one last desperate attempt to stop the boiling darkness. Flapping her wings with all her strength, Sleet calls upon her special talent to create a vortex of frozen winter air, rapidly dropping the temperature in hopes of freezing the horrid darkness. The strain is incredible, and a whole new darkness begins to consume Sleet's vision. As she feels the temperature plummet, she can only hope that if this works, she didn't just kill herself and East with the cold.
The shadows begin to freeze over as she falls unconscious due to the physical strain of her actions and the crippling toll the short exposure to the dark she had.
Lightning continued making her way down the new corridor before her, which was astonishingly well lit. It seems this level of the stable has complete power running through it. According to her pipbuck map, she was on an unlabelled floor.
After a while, she comes to a spot where the path splits into three. This hall is a cross section. According to the signs, to the left is the “Armory”, to the right is the “Relic Room” and straight ahead is the “Stable Heart”.
She hears an echoing banging to her right, that sounds like hoof on metal. Lightning stopped for a moment to decide where to go. While it would be nice to regroup with others from the group, right now, finding the Crystal Heart is my top priority. This stables dangers are mostly psychological attacks my mind, and as long as I stay focused, I should be alright. I have to stay alert and other ponies might slow me down. I also already have plenty of treasurers already.
After she had made up her mind, she made her way down the centre path.
Darkness.
An endless abyss stretching in all directions. Sleet Gray isn't exactly sure what her hooves are falling upon as she walks, but she doesn't feel the need to question it. "Hello?" She calls out, her voice being swallowed by the darkness. "Anypony? East Coast? Diamond Pick? Anyone!"
When Sleet woke up, the darkness was shifting around docily under a thick sheet of ice. Half of her body felt numb. When she looks to inspect why, she sees that she’s frozen the darkness that was on her too.
There is no response, save a spear of ice that erupts from the blackness and impales Sleet's right shoulder, pinning her to nothing. She screams in pain, trying to yank herself free, but cannot. The sound of hoofsteps interrupt her panic. "How does it feel?" A voice asks. A voice she knows.
Out of the darkness steps a figure clad head to hoof in Enclave power armor, all save his hind legs which are made of steel and wire. "Downpour..." Sleet gasps, but she is cut off when the stallion raises a hoof and presses against the icicle spear. As Sleet screams, thick black ooze bleeds from the wound.
"How does it feel, sister?"
Sleet awakes with a scream that echoes off the frozen walls. She throws a hoof over her right shoulder, feeling the layer of ice that covers it. "Ice..." Looking around, Sleet sees the frozen darkness all around her. "It...worked. Great Celestia and Luna it worked!"
A bit too well.
Sleet winces as a little whispering voice speaks in the back of her mind. "Just another illusion, Sleet. You haven't killed it, just slowed it down. Now, find East Coast and..." Before she can complete her sentence, her eyes fall on the white unicorn lying dead on the ice, the frozen tendril of darkness wrapped tight around his throat. "No..."
You killed another one, didn't you? It seems like all you've ever done is bring upon the untimely deaths of everypony you've ever met... But you're alive, and now you've got two pipbucks! Maybe you can give one to a frien- oh wait... They're all dead too..."
Tears streaming from her eyes, Sleet crawls over to East's corpse, dragging her ice-coated arm behind her. With her freed hoof, she closes his eyes before allowing herself a minute to cry. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
Apologizing to a corpse changes nothing. Hey, look on the bright side; you saved him from being dragged kicking and screaming into the darkness for all eternity. Though I'm certain that choking and freezing to death at the same time is equally terrifying.
"Shut up! I'm not in the mood for your fucking illusions!" Sleet screams.
You poor deluded filly, you haven't noticed yet. I'm no illusion, Sleet Gray. I'm a part of you now. Sleet, in wide eyed terror, slowly looks at her arm and the darkness that clings to it under the ice. And I have the feeling that you and I are going to become the best of friends...
Lightning continues down the path towards, where she hopes she'll find the Crystal Heart. She presses on toward a large door, pink, gold and purple in its coloration. It's large enough that a grown bison could fit through with no issues. It is also the only door in the stable that she’s encountered that was circular.
There is a large sign built into the door that simply displays EMERGENCY. It flashes to emphasize that this area of the stable is fully functional.
There is a monitor built into the wall, keypad below it. "Well, I could be at a dead end here. I can only pick or hack the most basic door, and considering how far in I am, I doubt that either are within my abilities." She suddenly remembers the key that she picked up earlier and tries to open the door with it. It doesn't work. She places the key back into her saddlebag and turns back to the terminal. "Well, I might as well try and guess the password. After all, it's not like being inexperienced in hacking makes it physically impossible to even try."
The password is "sun-shine".
The door opens with a happy tune, like a music box, and she stepped inside. Suddenly that tune slows down as her vision narrows and darkens, as if someone put blinders on her, but she keeps moving forward. All she can hear is the echoing, deep laughter that has haunted her at every junction. It fades after it's finished, just in time for her to hear a voice; the ambient sound of grain is enough to suggest it was recorded long before the bombs fell.
"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake! Ahehehe~!"
"Wow Cadence, is this your stable? It's amazing!"
"Well you can thank Rarity and my loyal subjects. They worked really hard to mine the crystals she wanted to use in its design. It still isn't finished... And I'm afraid that's why I called you here..."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Twilight... I need to ask something of you... I need a vault... I need a vault to protect the Crystal Heart..."
"I'm no architect, Cadence, I could-"
"Hehe, no, no... I meant a magical one... I need to know that if we need to use this... I need to know that even if... Even if this isn't enough..."
This voice, this Cadence... Her voice breaks as she seems to tear up.
"I need to know that the Crystal Heart is safe, Twilight... It... If there's still love than it could..."
"Cadence I-"
"Promise me, Twilight! Promise me you'll do whatever you can to keep this safe!"
A deep sigh comes from Twilight, but it seems like it's a happy one.
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye..."
There's a long pause as the weeping mare seems to calm down.
"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle..."
As the recording fades, Lightning takes in what it had been about. It seemed to be a discussion between the 'Princess Cadence' that she read about on the terminal earlier and... Twilight Sparkle; thee Twilight Sparkle. She had heard stories about her, and her great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather used to work with her at the MAS, but she never imagined that she would be able to hear her voice. While Lightning was busy fangasming at the message, she still took in everything that it said. As the door rolls open, another recording begins
"H-Hello? Is this thing-It is? Ok, uhmm... H-Hello... I-I guess... My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but please just call me Cadence... If you're hearing this... Then the worst possible thing has happened. I... I know it couldn't have been easy getting here for you. I'm sorry that I... That I can't be there to say this myself."
The door opens to a room of pure white. At the center is a small pod, dark glass is tinted a pleasant, regal purple. There's a figure inside, but Lightning can't tell who. The pod is attached to a large beam in the center of the room, half way up the beam lies the prize.
A heart made crystal, suspended in a powerful alicorn shield the likes of which are rarely ever seen.
"But I need you to destroy the Crystal Heart, and this stable... It's the only way... There's a darkness, locked in this place, and I've tried to keep it in check, but I can only keep it locked up, and it... It needs to be destroyed... Forever. On the side of my capsule is a module. It controls the flow of my shielding magic. I need you to set it to influx. This way the magic will build in upon itself and…"
Her voice breaks, sniffling as she tries to fight her tears... It's a losing battle.
"And destroy this facility... There's a failsafe spell that will teleport all non-tainted life from the stable, so you and whatever survivors will be safe, and the darkness that stalks these halls will be wiped from existence forever... I know in my heart, you'll do the right thing..."
There's a pause before she giggles a little, a hint of melancholy in her voice.
"I made a punny. Ohhh Cadence... You still got it..."
After she listened to Cadence’s second message, Lightning walked over to the terminal. The terminal in question has plenty of options regarding what to do about the power.
Redirect the power to the stable- This will restore power to the stable and make it safe to walk around in, but leave this floor exposed to the darkness.
Cut the power- This will plunge the stable into complete darkness.
Amplify the power- By pulling power from other sources (Stalliongrad, various mining towns) the shield can be amplified. This will purge the darkness from the stable but not kill it, and the failsafe will not activate (leaving you stuck in here).
Initiate power influx- This will cause a massive love powered explosion that will destroy the darkness, and teleport all untainted ponies to a safe distance away.
Compiled power influx-This will teleport all untainted beings in this room and the crystal heart to a safe distance and use the life force of all other beings in the stable to destroy the darkness.
Open capsule pod- Self-explanatory. This can be done without jeopardizing your other options.
After Lightning had read through her different choices, she reviewed her options. She certainly wasn't going to cut the power. That would just be stupid. She wasn't going to power up the stable if it meant her being trapped in the darkness. Being this close to the heart, the light from her pipbuck probably wouldn't be enough to keep the shadows away. She wasn't going to amplify the power if it meant she'd be stuck in here. She wasn't about to sacrifice her life for others. Choosing to die is something only an idiot does.
She then reviewed her last two options. She could either destroy the darkness completely and save everyone else, or she could destroy the darkness completely and save herself and the Crystal Heart, but kill everypony else in the stable to do it.
As she looked at her two remaining options, it was the toughest decision she ever had to make. She heard stories about the Crystal Heart and the wonderful things that it could do. Just imagine the good it could do for the wasteland. However, if she used it to destroy the darkness, then it would be lost forever, and the whole point of the expedition was to find it. The darkness in this place was bad, but it could be destroyed without losing the heart. She just had to kill the ponies that she had come here with to do it. Would it be right to use their lives like this when there was another way? However, they knew the risks when they came here and they knew that there was a possibility that they would die here. No one would ever know what she did here, and the heart could so much more for the wasteland if she saved it. It would also solve her money problems for her town. The positives all sounded good, but still, it involved using the lives of innocent ponies, and the overmare of this stable, a princess even, possibly a goddess, like Celestia and Luna, had decided against that. All the ethical ramifications of both choices were buzzing around in her head. Would a good pony save a few lives, or a lot of lives at the expense of a few?
She was so distracted by the choice in front of her that she completely forgot about the loot in the capsule.
She then thought about what Cadence had said. In her first message, she begged Twilight to protect the Crystal Heart, and that was the whole reason for this stable in the first place. Now, in her second message, she was asking to destroy it if it meant destroying the darkness. But if I could destroy the darkness and save the Crystal Heart, would she want me to do that no matter the cost? Everything was starting to build up in her head and it was just too much. She could save the heart, destroy the darkness and heal the wasteland, but kill innocent ponies. Would their life force be strong enough to do it? Would the darkness still be destroyed completely? "Ugghh... what would Cadence want me to do? Do I save the heart or save these ponies?" She then looked over at the capsule containing the Crystal Heart. "What should I do?"
After trying to decide what to do, she turned back to face the terminal, closed her eyes briefly and opened them again, sighed and whispered, "I pray to Celestia, Luna and Cadence that I'm doing the right thing here." She then lifted her hoof up to the terminal. "May Cadence have mercy on me. May she have mercy on us all."
She then pressed the button for Compiled power influx.
The needs of the many- When it came time to decide what would be done about the stable, you chose to sacrifice the lives of all living beings still in the stable to save the Crystal Heart, and yourself. No one will remember what happened in that place but you, and it is something you'll have to live with until the day you rest.
In the end, the needs of the many were placed above the needs of the few. The stable, and all life within it were destroyed for the sake of the future.
The darkness within the stable met a permanent end here, at least here that is. There will always be a darkness in the cold of night, but at least for now... The boogeyman is gone.
With the Crystal Heart in tow, history awaits your decision. What will be done about the heart, is a story for another day...
After Lightning had pressed the button, she was consumed in a blinding light. When she awoke, she found herself in the frozen tundra, where the stable had been. Lying next to her was the Crystal Heart and the loot that had been in the capsule with it: A statuette of Twilight Sparkle (Be smart), a set of four memory orbs, a diary and the key to it, and a regal looking laser pistol made of a treated star metal, which has only the finest crystals inside it, refracting the alicorn powered energy beam a hundred fold. There is an inscription on the laser pistol that reads ‘Cadences’ Kiss’. She gathered up everything and made her way back to Goodsprings, not daring to look back at the stable, or the ponies that she had killed.
When she returned home, she had brought more than enough treasures to ensure that her town would flourish for a long time to come. She returned to her old life, but she never forgot what she had done in that stable. It haunted her for the rest of her life. Fortunately she still had her virtue and many friends that helped her to find the strength to continue living, though she never spoke of what had happened in that Stable to anyone. It was her burden to bear and she could never forget it; she thought about it every time she looked upon the treasures that she had brought back with her. There were some things that she found that she couldn't bear to part with. She had grown particularly close to the laser pistol that she had found in the vault, treating it with love and preserving its pristine condition. She thought of Cadence every time she gazed upon it, and at times it seemed to whisper words of encouragement to her; or perhaps they are the hushes of a guilty conscience.
As much as she would like to, she didn't deserve to forget what she had done. She didn't deserve that luxury.
Your vision is consumed by white. A tingling sensation runs over your body and for a moment you feel a pain so intense you feel nothing at all. In this nothing you can hear a voice, soon joined by another, and another. You can't place where you've heard these voices, but you know them deep in your core being. You feel a deluge of emotions and weep without a sound. Now and forever...
Well, not entirely for you that is. You find yourself on the barely familiar outskirts of the tundra, your belongings by your side. Your shadow half screams as in the distance, a massive rainbow erupts from the ground, forcing the cool air into your face. You know that the darkness is gone. But your shadow still remains... It seems it will be stuck with you forever...
Sleet Gray was unsure why the Stable had expelled her when the purging blast was set off. Perhaps it was because only part of her was tainted and the systems didn't know what to do with her. Perhaps whoever had set it off had told it to remove her, or perhaps it was simple luck that saved her. Either way, she knew in her heart that the evil residing in the Stable had been destroyed, save the sliver of dark that had hitched a ride in her right arm.
After a bit of searching, Sleet found a Stable pony knowledgeable enough in pipbucks to attach the one East Coast had given her to her untainted arm. After that, she visited every doctor and healer she could find, none knew how to expel the demon that had taken up residence within her.
The shadow taunted Sleet every moment it could, whispering doubts and painful truths in her ear, she couldn't even escape the thing in sleep where it tormented her with endless nightmares. Still, she came to discover that, in a weird symbiotic way, the thing protected her. Maybe it was just looking out for itself, but that didn't stop Sleet from begrudgingly appreciating the moments where it saved her life, and in time she grew to tolerate its presence, side effects and all.
After all, in the Wasteland, what's one more nightmare?
