The Story of Aperture

Chapters

Prelude
Ground 1, Moon 0
A Rude Awakening
Livin’ Underground
Into The Howling Dark
Meet the Sanctum
Forward ‘till we Fall
The Tracer
Delta Squad
The Long Way Round
Zayelx’s Story
Once more, Unto the Breach
Onwards and Upwards
Deja Vu
AI System 3.0
Chapter 15: You Monster
Chapter 16: Critical Mass
Chapter 17: Good Samaritans
Chapter 18: Belly of the Beast
Chapter 19: The Greatest Journey
Chapter 20: Back on Terra Firma
Moon 1, Ground 0
First Floor, Guns, Bombs and Untested Science

Prelude

It was a dark and stormy night in Equestria. A kind of freak storm that occurs without the guidance and timing of the pegasi controlling the weather. The kind of storm that builds an ominous feeling of dread in everypony’s heart. The populous Equestria was tucked away at home, safe and warm, snug in their beds, thinking about how glad they were to be inside their cosy houses, safe from the raging storm outside.

All but one.

One brave mare was risking the storm. She was shrouded in a dark muddy shawl, wrapped tightly about her body, almost invisible against the grey sodden background of stormy Canterlot. She carried a grey bundle in her mouth, bearing some resemblance to her own tattered attire. Dashing through the pouring rain, she stumbled, her hood fell away and her burnt grey mane was blasted by the storm. The fall had caught her off guard and her leg was bleeding, but she couldn’t stop now. Biting back tears she picked up the bundle and ran on. “This was too damm important” she told herself, “keep running, for the lives that depend on it”. “I can’t slow down”.

Her sentence was backed up by the crack of gunshots in the night, she was being pursued!

The mare had to finish this now it had begun. There was one place safe that she could go. But she didn’t need safety for herself; she needed it for the contents of her sodden bundle.

She vaulted the low wall of Canterlot Castle, running through the grounds at full pelt; no time to admire the topiary or statues, the huge oak castle door was her goal.

Suddenly another gunshot boomed out into the night. The brave mare felt a sharp burst of pain in her flank; she was hit. Staggering, she reached the huge front door and rang the bell. She dropped her precious package at the door.

“Be safe” she whispered, and began to run. She had to draw the Seventh Sanctums fire; she needed a distraction to keep the soggy bundle of cloth safe for just a minute longer. The best distraction for the Sanctum members was always a new toy to play with, torture and kill.

She staggered out in front of the fountain; the rain and her burning flank were draining her of her energy, blood pooling at her hooves from the wound. As her vision began to swim she saw three sets of glowing green eyes moving in the shadows, waiting like vultures, till the prey couldn’t fight its way out.

“I hope you’re worth it…” she muttered as the three Sanctum members pulled her back into the darkened gardens, with a strange disjointed giggle. The sadistic Sanctum ponies were going to have so much fun with their new ‘friend’.

At the castle, the huge door was opened, and a royal guard stepped out, annoyed to have his sleep disturbed by the doorbell, he almost stepped on the soggy package that was outside. “Drat” he cursed “That stupid mail mare has ruined another parcel.” Soon he was going to have to call her superiors. It didn’t do to let the princess’s mail get wet. He picked up the grey mess and dumped it on the lavishly decorated table by the door and unfolded it, then jumped back and let out a whiney in surprise.

Inside the strip of cloth was a tiny tan unicorn colt, His face streaked with tears and dirt, His body sooty and blacked in places, like he had been running near a fire.

The next day, Celestia and some chief advisors mulled over the problem in the high court chamber.

“He has already stayed one night in the castle and showed an unusually high grasp of magical ability, even at this young age. We have no way of tracing his parents, and with, well… them running rampant, I can’t be sure they’re even still alive.” stated Celestia.

“I would request he be trained at my magic academy, but the term has already begun, and he’d never learn what the others can play catch up, he’s also too young.”

The advisors debated between themselves, and came to a conclusion.

“We believe that down to his unique talents, he be trained personally as apprentice of an expert in powerful magic, such as yourself, your highness” said an advisor, addressing Celestia.

“But I already have a protégé, Miss Twilight Sparkle, It breaks regulations to have two”

“I’ll raise the child” chipped in one of the older mares residing in the castle, Dawntreader. “I could teach him all I know about the magical arts. I currently have no students learning under me”

“Are you sure?” asked Celestia. She was doubtful of this strange mare’s competence with as large tasks as these since the future of another’s life was at risk.

“I will train him myself” said Dawn. “He will find his own path, and I will simply help him follow it.”

The advisers debated for a moment longer, then voiced their opinion,

“Dawntreader of Bridleton, we as representatives of the council, grants you the opportunity to teach an apprentice as your own, to help him understand the world as you see fit, to open his eyes to his true talent and to his role in what is to come. In accordance with protocol, and the ancient scriptures, we grant you an unbounded apprentice in…….…“.”errm didn’t quite catch his name?”

Celestia realised that as of yet the new arrival had no name.

After much debate they agreed that his name would suit his talent, parents normally had some insight when the child was born, but Celestia had no such luxury. She vowed to make his name match his talent like every other pony, so he would get his name when he found it. Until then he would just be addressed as “the colt”, or “The apprentice”.

Time passed.

After 3 years of his teaching in the castle, he had a cutie mark. A strange ring made from 7 triangles. The shape was mentioned in the old books in the forbidden section of the library relating to science. These books were in a script mostly forgotten for 1000 years. Princess Luna had governed Equestria’s science before her banishment. It was difficult to understand, but from the books Dawntreader found, the shape was called an ‘Aperture’ and had some meaning in science, his chosen field. Celestia granted the child his name in front of the whole senate, and was greatly applauded. Celestia had to admit; she was impressed. Dawn had grown stronger through teaching in the years and had never regretted her decision. Dawn was much too old to have children, and Celestia assumed she saw Aperture as the son she never had. And her protégé? Well, only time would tell. Whatever his fate, Celestia saw there would be much conflict and uncertainty in Aperture’s future. He was to be a key piece in the game to save Equestria as good or destroy it with evil. She considered sending a letter to Twilight, who had just set off for Ponyville, discussing the subject of science, but decided against it. Twilight would meet Aperture soon enough. She was sure of that much.

Ground 1, Moon 0

Three days had passed since Princess Luna’s return from banishment. She was adapting to life remarkably well. She was deeply sorry for her rebellion, but Celestia understood entirely. There was also now a sizeable age gap between the sisters. Luna hadn’t aged whilst Nightmare Moon had occupied her body, and thus remained in mind and body around 15 years old. Still, a 15 year old alicorns was more wise, powerful and complex than any other pony, but Luna was much less developed than Celestia. She was also keen to prove herself to the masses. Granted, this was more difficult being princess of the night, but she did try. In order to appear like Celestia, she decided to take on an apprentice. It was about this time that Dawntreader revealed to Celestia that her teaching with Aperture was completed. There was no more unicorn magic she could teach him. Celestia saw this as an opportunity to further two lives at once. Dawntreader asked to leave the castle, as she was old and wanted to see her family. Celestia agreed, and made special arrangements for Dawntreader and her family to live out their days in prosperity. She then assigned Aperture to Luna as her own trainee. The two were the same age, by some sheer coincidence. Despite this, Luna still knew a great many advanced spells to teach him.

Aperture was infatuated the first time he saw Luna, she was the same age as him for a start, no other female in the castle could boast that. She was also very clever, and shared his passionate excitement for learning; she had been the leading scientist in Equestria 1000 years ago. The only down side was that although Aperture knew the princess cared greatly for him, he wasn’t exactly great stock. There was a whole world of stallions that were taller, stronger, and better than him in each way. Regardless, Aperture loved spending time with his princess and her with him. As Celestia had hoped, Aperture had a positive influence on Luna as well. Celestia had experienced first-hand being the only teenager in the castle, and sometimes it had been unbearable. She’d wished for the thousandth time she’d never banished her sister. But Luna didn’t have this problem. She had another pony her own age, and the student teacher relationship didn’t last. Soon Luna was asking for Aperture to play tennis in the parade ground, and come to her room to play halo. Celestia always came to Luna’s room, however, to be on the safe side. It wouldn’t be right for a princess to have a relationship with a commoner. Maybe, if Aperture ever achieved something special, she could knight him, and then it would be acceptable for him and Luna to go further… Well, they were both still young. Celestia mused. If they did have kids, she’d get to be an aunt. She’d always wanted to be a cool aunt. “Cool Aunt Celestia” she rolled it round her mouth. Yes, she liked the sound of that.

“What was that princess?” Asked the guard stood by her side.

“Oh nothing” She replied. ”Just thinking aloud”

A Rude Awakening

Aperture woke with a start. His room was on the east side of Canterlot Castle, and was normally peaceful and serene, but not now. There was a rumbling and the ground in his room was rolling like a turbulent sea. It was like an earthquake was rolling out of the earth and through every fibre of his body. Suddenly a chunk of Aperture’s wall collapsed, revealing a drop of many thousands of feet to certain death on the rocks below. Huge uneven pieces of masonry crashed through the roof, narrowly missing the bewildered stallion in its midst. Dazed, he stumbled to the spiral staircase downstairs, only to be knocked off his hooves by another explosion of sound and vibration, destroying the stairs entirely, and disconnecting Aperture’s room from the rest of the castle. Aperture realised that this was no natural disaster; this was an attack on the castle by an unknown enemy.

He took a run up and leapt onto the remains of his doorway; as the room tumbled down to meet its fate on the sharp rocks thousands of feet below. As he ran through the burning castle, buffeted by the wind blasting through the shattered windows, he knew of only one place he wanted to be.

He ran past the guards, each trying to raise a magical or literal shield to seal the breach in the walls, whilst firing back at the unseen attackers, seemingly everywhere. Aperture ran to the top of the tallest tower where the princesses lived. He stopped for a moment to look through a smoldering hole in the wall of the tower, and saw the tiny shapes of pegasi guards fighting considerably smaller black shapes, but unmistakably ponies. Suddenly, there was a bright flash across the quickly darkening sky, and the atmosphere became noticeably heavier, the sky itself faded to a shade of deep purple. This, Aperture noted, was a clear sign that Celestia and Luna were both in Canterlot at the same time, and this meant that this cataclysm was even more serious than he had ever imagined.

Kicking down the door, Aperture found the room was in a terrible state of disrepair, and both Celestia and Luna were on the balcony, firing off bolts of magic at the swarming ponies around them, who simply laughed and returned fire, Giggling as the burning corpses of their fellows fell shrieking from the sky.

As he ran to assist, Luna turned and ran back into the room to meet him, quickly she explained to him what to do.

“There is a terrible threat to Equestria here Aperture”, she yelled over the noise of the explosions. “But you must live”. “We will hold them back for as long as we can, but the castle is lost.” “This book has the background on these old foes, maybe you can find a weakness we can exploi-“

She was cut off as a huge bolt of magic smashed into the castle, exploding with such heat and light as to blow the top part of Canterlot castle into tiny burning fragments, pebbles and ash. Somehow Aperture was blown clear of the explosion and soared through the air for a few moments, understanding the thrill seeking pegasi in their love for the thrill of flight, then crashed to the ground on his chest in what was once the castle gardens.

Rolling onto his burnt and bruised back, Aperture looked back at the castle, a few smoking towers and battlements still stood, but even as he watched, tears welling in his eyes, another turret collapsed into the burning ruins. He fought back the tears and hoped that Luna was ok, but he knew in his heart how unlikely this was. This was also the first time in his life Aperture had left the castle, he had of course seen the outside world from afar, but never had he dreamed of being out here, especially not alone.

His thoughts were cut short by a bright green pulse next to him, and a violent explosion that flung him many meters through the air. He turned to see a black green eyed Pegasus diving towards him, wings splayed, sharped fangs bared in a ghastly gleeful smile. Aperture staggered to his feet; he was bleeding and burnt, too weak to escape, but he struggled forwards, ignoring the pain. The evil pony cackled and shot down like a torpedo, the whine of the air around it steadily increasing. Just as it was about to hit him, a flash of purple light struck the creature from the sky, writhing in pain it fell to the floor. Aperture looked at his rescuer; it appeared to be a guard, in gleaming golden armour. Through this however could be seen a pair of massive muscular wings. Aperture quickly realised the implications of this. The magic couldn’t have come from him. The guard had seen his distress however, and ran forward to assist. Aperture’s vision began to blur, and swim before his eyes and suddenly everything sounded distant, as if underwater. Aperture felt his legs give way, and slowly closed his eyes.

Livin’ Underground

Aperture awoke in a dimly lit room, dark and oppressing, strange shapes moved in his vision. Suddenly Aperture sat bolt upright. He flailed for a moment, then the pain kicked in and he collapsed back onto his back.

”Hush, lay still, you took a lot of damage out there” said a kindly looking pony looking down on Aperture. She had a pink body, and wore a white hat with a red cross on it.

“I’m Nurse Hope” she reassured him “I’ll patch you back up, but you’re beat up pretty bad. Looks like you are quite the survivor, that fall would have killed anypony else”

“You-you saw that?” asked Aperture. He was still coming to terms with the fall himself, he realised that in all realism he should have died in the explosion, let alone surviving the fall from the castle too. He suddenly thought about what might have happened to his legs, or worse his horn! A life without the benefits of magic flashed before his eyes, and horrified him.

“Hope, how bad is the damage?” he asked, dreading the response.

“Only minor injuries, a few greenstick fractures, mostly flesh wounds. You’re lucky Bowdler found you when he did.”

“Bowdler?”

“One of our leaders. I should probably explain, we are the resistance against the Seventh Sanctum, we’ve just formed, we’re mostly guards who fell out of the battle of Canterlot. We are an underground organisation; literally. We are underneath Canterlot now. It’s a cave network. We are going to ship civilians out of the battle zone. You’ve been recruited to assist. Commander Bowdler will see you now.”

“Seventh Sanctum?”

“The cultists who attacked you”

The nurse send a warming white glow from her horn down Aperture’s body, aiding his body’s own regenerative capabilities.

Aperture tipped himself onto his legs; he stood unsteadily but stood none the less. Into the chamber strode a confident stallion, stocky and muscular and sporting an unusual pair of wings. He had a purple body with deep red patches; a small chunk had been cut from his left ear, a scar of a previous conflict. His eyes were purple, deep and calculating. Aperture could see why the nurse had elected to call Bowdler one of the leaders of the resistance. Suddenly, he realised that this was the pegasus that had saved him outside the castle.

Aperture stretched his body out one limb at a time. Bowdler surveyed the patients, then with a nod to Aperture turned and left. Diagnostics completed, Aperture determined the greenstick fractures the nurse had mentioned were in his left back leg and it’s flank. They were, as in most ponies, healing rapidly.

“You might need some time to rest” said the nurse gently. “Remember those who didn’t make it out.”

Aperture was overcome with emotion at the nurse’s sentence. He remembered the brave guards projecting the shields, and the princesses. Luna had been in there. He weakly wondered whether anyone else made it out alive.

Into The Howling Dark

Aperture was gaining strength rapidly, and Nurse Hope escorted him from the chamber. The two took a rough down the winding cave tracks, deeper inside the mountain. He was impressed at how easily Hope navigated the twists and turns of identical rock, as if it were just a stroll through the park.

“You’ve been called to HQ” said Hope in response to the unasked question.

“Bowdler says we don’t get many unicorns, so he needs your brain power in the control room, ASAP” she called back to Aperture, who was lagging behind. He’d noticed that although some excavation had been done, the tunnel looked to have originally been formed by an underground river.

“Where’s all the water?” Asked Aperture, “Should be flowing through here, these caves have been recently underwater.”

“We’re damming it” came a reply from the shadows. A Pegasus pony walked out and greeted him warmly.

“I’m Kestrel” he introduced himself. “I’m one of the leaders of this here resistance”. “You can call me ‘boss’ if you want…”

“I’ll stick with Kestrel if it’s all the same” said Aperture, dryly.

“Suit yourself” huffed Kestrel, instantly on the defensive.

“So…” Aperture realised his blunder “you mentioned damming the river”

“Oh yeah“ said Kestrel, forgetting his sulk of moments earlier. “I helped to put it in. Once every couple of days, we bring everypony into the bunkers, and open it. That way we get no excess build-up of water.”

“Smart idea” Aperture replied as they walked. Kestrel beamed from ear to ear, it wasn’t often a Pegasus received an intelligence based compliment from a unicorn.

“We also have the perfect hideaway from the sanctum. They’d never think to look in what appears to be an active underground river.”

“The sanctum?” Aperture quizzed. He had heard this more than once, and didn’t fully comprehend. The trio rounded a corner and were faced with a huge cast iron door.

“You’ll find out later” Kestrel teased. He knew more than this unicorn, and he was going to embrace it for all it was worth. “I think we’ll become good friends, you and I” he added as he reached out and tapped on the door, 4 sharp beats, close together. He then broke into a huge beam, and tapped out the first few lines of ‘Don’t Stop Belivin’.

A burly earth pony opened the doors “Kestrel!” He boomed “If you don’t stop doing the wrong password, I will open this door and personally snap your neck!”

Solemnly, Kestrel bowed his head, and walked through the door, but when he turned back to Aperture, his lopsided grin had re-appeared.

“Just showin’ the new guy the ropes” He replied to the guard, smug as ever. “Needed to teach him how to open the doors round here”.

“Well teach him right, or he’s gonna get a severe ass kicking from yours truly” grumbled the guard, returning to his post.

Aperture followed Kestrel through the tunnels, they were getting noticeably more reinforced, better lit and warmer. Obviously they were getting close to base control.

“What got on that guys nerves?” asked Aperture as they walked into the central chamber.

“Oh, I went out with his sister for about three months” replied Kestrel, matter of factly. “He’s just a bully who thinks his muscles mean he can do or have whatever he wants”.

He turned to see the entire room was staring at him with a bemused look about them. He quickly ran to a computer monitor, pointed out figures in the streams of data, and attempted to look deep in thought which looked even funnier to everypony else in the room, as Kestrel was NEVER deep in thought.

“So, welcome to the nerve centre of the resistance” Came an echoing voice from across the room. Aperture recognised Bowdler immediately as he cantered over. “Pretty flash, huh”

Aperture took in the grand scale of the room; it was huge, rounded like a cone sloping up into the darkness above. Like a cathedral, obviously of natural formation, but had been converted to a much more practical purpose. The walls up to about 5 meters high had been coated in stainless steel panelling, and riddled with computer terminals, huge monitor screens with scrolling diagnostics operated by many pegasi or earth ponies. Trailing wires connected each terminal to the next, and to the oddly shaped apparatus and equipment that dotted the room. Aperture realised that this was actually familiar to him; he had had some similar equipment in Canterlot castle’s lower floors.

“Is that electo-mass spectrometer?” Queried Aperture, gesturing to a device that looked like a drill with a glass inspection panel and an illuminated button display.

“Sure is” replied Bowdler proudly. “One of our members works in the Manehattan project, so she can ship this teck down to us for use.”

“You should probably meet the team” Bowdler gestured to himself with a hoof. “I’m Bowdler. I help with practicaly everything that keeps this place running. I direct movements and co-ordinate our strikes. I also try to keep the dub asses from hurting themselves, but that’s easier said than done. I’ve been fighting alongside the Royal guard for a while now, but I’m not actually a member. Though I suppose I could get in if I asked nicely.” “That brings us onto our intelligence expert, Lieutenant Dasher.”

He looked up into the dark roof and Aperture followed suit.

“Dasher, get down here. You’re missing the party” he called up, his voice echoing in the cave like a megaphone.

A dark blue pony spiralled down from the dark and landed nimbly next to Bowdler combat knife in mouth, flexing his leg and wing muscles as he did, causing Aperture to rear up in shock.

“Dayum Bowdler, you know I’m a sucker for a good party” He spoke dryly, his voice layered with sarcasm.

“I see you’ve already met Kestrel” He added, gesticulating to where the green flame haired Pegasus was leaning on the wall with a bottle of coke inexplicably held in one hoof. He realised he was being watched and looked buisy.

“And there’s Lightning, but he’s out on patrol” Added Dasher. ”Seems to like being outside. Any opportunity to stretch those wings of his” The last part of the sentence was barely audible over the noise of Dasher grumbling.

“And to complete the team, there’s Matrix, our IT and armoury expert.” Finished Bowdler, and looked to the side. There was nopony there. “Hold on a sec” he said patiently. “Lieutenant, kindly tell Matrix to get his butt over here before I hand it to him on a plate.”

Dasher flew over to a workstation near the door, at which sat a strong maroon earth pony, with a set of sliver headphones clamped neatly over his ears, and a mouth piece in place. Aperture noticed, with a chuckle, that he was playing Tetris on his monitor. Dasher strolled over, the imposing figure of authority. He took hold of one side of the headset, stretched it out, repeated Bowdler’s exact words into his ear. Then let it drop back into place with a painful sounding smack.

But if Matrix felt any pain, he hid it like a pro, instead pausing his game and plugged the headphones into a smaller tablet computer that he strapped to his wrist, and walked over, Greeting Aperture in a loud but friendly manner of somepony who is talking whilst occupied with more important things, in this case, beating his high score on Tetris.

“Oh, if you go anywhere, make sure you where this” He handed Aperture a small clip on earphone.

“There’s a little Mic too, so we can all keep in contact though the subnetwork. I’m broadcasting it as 85.2 hertz, so nopony can hear us. Though I keep getting some interference... This catchy little song…” Matrix Walked back to his workstation, humming out of tune ‘Still Alive’.

“So, now you know us, can you introduce yourself? Just start with your name.”

“Well” he began “My name is Aperture, and this is where is goes a little haywire”.

So, they stood listening closely as Aperture began to tell his tale…

Meet the Sanctum

After Aperture had told his marvellous story to his audience, Bowdler straightened to a more formal pose and indicated his intention to speak by clearing his throat loudly.

“Now we’re all introduced, can I call your attention to the task in hoof?” Bowdler asked.

“We have a group of civilians besieged in the station above, you’re going to get up there, bring them down here, with as little confrontation as possible”. He put vast emphasis on the last part of the sentence, glaring meaningfully at Kestrel. Aperture could see some sort of underlying resent between the two.

“Lightning’s not gonna be happy” countered Kestrel, clearly keeping Lightning happy was not his reasoning behind the statement, but it offered him some leeway on his thoughts. “You know how much he likes to be in the centre of a good confrontation”.

“You know what?” replied Bowdler as he turned to go “Screw Lightning, and screw you. For once, this mission is run on MY terms. You have your orders. It would do you well to follow, not question them, Sergeant” The last remark was said with a steely edge that nopony in the room could have argued with. After a moment of morose contemplation, Kestrel brightened up to his usual self.

“Squad form up!” he called.

“I think you’ll find I am the one giving the orders, sergeant” Butted in Dasher.

“We go in two parties. Kestrel, you’re with me, we’ll meet when we get out there.” It was clear that Dasher was not a fan of Lightning’s escapades and apparent idolisation from the other ponies. “Aperture you stay on the right flank. You can provide covering fire for the civilians as we go”

“Errm, Lt Dasher, sir. I don’t know any ‘shooting spells’” Aperture added, careful not to arouse Dasher’s quick temper.

His statement was met by a sharp smack to the face. Dasher had thrown a book at him. The page it was open at showed a crudely drawn three step plan on how to launch a bolt of pure magic.

“You’d better learn quickly then, hadn’t you?”

Sighing and rubbing his sore nose, Aperture picked up the book, dropping it into his newly acquired saddlebags, and followed Kestrel and Dasher out into a tiny circular anti-chamber, tiny in length and With, but very tall, with a steel circle in the floor. He assumed that this was some kind of elevator, and he wasn’t wrong. Once the three of them were all in, the panel rose up past the door, and into the darkness above. Fortunately, there were a few motion activated lights and Aperture produced a bright glow from his horn, impressing Kestrel enormously.

“I always wondered what it would be like to be a unicorn, It must be awesome to use magic” He started “but I think if I was, I’d miss my wings.”

“But you could have both if you were a princess.” Aperture replied “They’re alicorns”

“Not just the princesses” replied kestrel.

“Nope, just them” Aperture stated, as if educating a troublesome pupil. “There are only two known alicorns in Equestria. Granted, I heard about a few living in the afterlife, but that doesn’t count.”

“So you don’t know?” said Kestrel. “I’m sure he’ll tell you eventually”…

“Sorry to interrupt your little heart to heart, but I should remind you that we are on a mission here” Ordered Dasher “The lift is slowing, when it stops, we have to dig up into the station.”

“Dig up?” asked Aperture, despite himself.

“The lift shaft was never completed before the sanctum attacked. We knew that an attack had been coming for a while, so we started to build this place, as a sort of last resort, to fall back on the off chance that we couldn’t hold the line”

“And here we are” murmured Aperture, but it seemed Dasher still heard, and glared, daring him to make another comment.

After a few minutes of digging with shovels, the three hit solid slabs of stone, which they lifted up, silently and precisely. They were in a train station, but not how it was when Kestrel had travelled there. Most walls were collapsed; the ground was strewn with rubble, and pot-marked with burns of blasts of stray bolts of magic. In the background, the sounds of battle raged on. In one corner of the room, was a crumpled train, de-railed and on its side, a column of smoke rising from the cab, and the odd lick of flames. Aperture noticed that there were a few ponies crouched behind it, a small, teal filly with a blond mane, a purple mare with a darker purple mane, A light blue stallion with a dark brown mane, and a yellow mare with an orange mane who was holding her front leg at a strange angle, obviously in pain. Aperture opened his mouth to call dasher over, but instead caught kestrel’s hoof in it.

“SHHHS!” he hissed “We’re like ninjas. Not seen, not heard, but still there looking badass.”

“Ok” Aperture mumbled with a mouth full of hoof.

The trio hurried over, the train was blocking the way and the refugees couldn’t get through. On dasher’s command, Kestrel closed his eyes, and held his front hooves close together, and the air began to shimmer like a heat haze, a little at first, but increasingly more, until it flared up into a little ball of fire, which Kestrel used like a blow torch, melting the metal and plastic around a panel close to the floor, so Aperture could kick it though, and pulled all four of the refugees through. As they set off for the tunnel they had just come through, however, a blast of magic whistled past Kestrel’s ear, shattering the paving slabs covering their escape route, and dropping a lot of the station into the tunnels below.

“Run for the mountain side” yelled Dasher, dropping any attempt to remain quiet, “I think there’s another way into the caves round there”.

Obediently, Kestrel kicked off, and flew alongside the civilians, Dasher flew on the other side and Aperture ran out ahead, fending off the blasts of green arcing past them as they ran. One Pegasus was feeling lucky, and dropped from above toward the teal filly, letting out a piercing shriek as he did so, only to be caught by Kestrels hoof at the last second.

“Listen bro, that’s no way to treat a lady” Kestrel shouted at the sanctum member, before flying up past a lamp post, and holding out the unfortunate victims head. The head hit the metal bar with a sickening crack. Kestrel dropped the body and returned to his post flying alongside the running civilians.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Spat Aperture at Kestrel as he flew past. “You could have dealt with it differently”

“He did what he had to; as you should learn to if you want to live” retorted Dasher.

Aperture glanced furtively at the book nestled in his saddlebags, and decided that he would also have to learn to live in this strange new world in which he was constantly harassed, and always in danger.

Kestrel called out, the entrance to the cave was just ahead. Suddenly the ground before them was torn apart by three simultaneous explosions as bolts of magic hit the earth before them. Aperture was knocked onto his back, his left cheek, seared by the explosion, was starting to bleed. Kestrel fell heavily on one wing, not damaging it, but crumpling his feathers out of shape. Dasher was closest to the explosion threw himself in front of the civilians, providing a living shield. He fell down heavily on his side, His chest blackened and scorched, his legs scratched by shrapnel. His usually neatly cut military mane was smouldering lightly.

Kestrel staggered to his side, and felt for a pulse. He looked panicked for a moment, then breathed deeply. Dasher was hurt, but alive.

Aperture sat upright and clasped a hoof over his wound. He took a quick look at the surroundings, and wasn’t pleased. The trio was surrounded by hordes of sanctum members, each unique but still with some striking similarities. All the unicorns had red eyes, the pegasi green, and no set colour for earth. Each had a predominantly black body, whether from birth or by tattooing, and each had sharpened teeth, and Aperture didn’t doubt for a minute that they would use them on him and his comrades. They were in a ring, slowly getting closer. This was both to make sure that their prey couldn’t escape and to add a psychological horror to their demise. Aperture realised with horror that the Seventh sanctum were cleverer than they looked. He closed in closer to dasher’s moaning limp form, and Kestrel did likewise. Kestrel couldn’t fly, so it looked like a fight to the death, and because they were so massively outgunned, Aperture and Kestrel knew that the death would be their own. Turning grimly, Kestrel extended his hoof, and Aperture met it with his own, bloodied from the cut on his face.

Brothers ‘till the end.

They turned, ready to begin the fight.

Forward ‘till we Fall

Aperture swung his head from side to side in desperation, they were surrounded from all angles except above, but in their current state it didn’t look as if either of the wounded pegasi could fly their way out. Aperture felt a brief pang of regret that his story had been so short. It felt like he had only just started to experience the world, and now it was going to be snuffed out. Looking across the plateau, he saw Bowdler in the mouth of the cave, but there was no way he could get across to help the trio. As the Sanctum closed in, muttering obscenities and cackling, the clouds above them thickened, and began to darken. There came the deep rumble of thunder, louder than Aperture had ever heard from the confines of the castle. He would have thought nothing of it, except for the way in which Kestrel looked up with such hope. A smile slowly spread across his bruised face, and from seemingly nowhere he produced two pairs of sunglasses, sliding a pair onto his nose and extending the other towards Aperture.

“You might ‘wanna wear these” he offered. “I’ve seen this move before, and it can be a little…well…bright.”

Upon the sounding of a louder crack of thunder, Aperture took the proffered glasses. If he was to die, he’d do it with dignity. The cloud was spinning faster and faster, and the Seventh Sanctum were looking up, a few with a slight air of concern. The odd bolt of electricity arced about the black shape; Aperture without thinking diagnosed the static electricity, and calculated the threat it posed them. The volume had increased to a roar that could have been a freight train running past his ear.

Suddenly there was burst of bright yellow light, then again, and again, faster and faster until it strobed the ground with beams of light. With a piercing shriek a burning ball of Lightning dropped from the sky, and crashed to the ground. The blast of Lightning was so bright Aperture blacked out for a second.

When he awoke he saw that he was laid on the edge of a huge crater, smouldering from a recent impact. He staggered upright, and saw, to his relief, the sanctum hordes incapacitated in some form or another. The purple pony they’d rescued was in a deep embrace with Bowdler as he led the civilians to the tunnel. Kestrel was attempting to rouse dasher, but didn’t succeed. He called Aperture over.

“You need to carry him out of here. You take the lieutenant and I’ll get Lightning.”

Lightning! Aperture remembered for the briefest of moments the pony in the blaze, but saw nopony like that running from the scene. He turned and saw Kestrel at the bottom of the hole, lifting something big and black onto his back. It was a pony. Barely conscious, but obviously strong to have survived the crash he did. Aperture realised he was pretty lucky too. This was the second time he had evaded death in one day. He didn’t want to have to make that three times. He stretched out to Dasher, groaning on the floor. Aperture lifted him onto his back and made a run for the beckoning cave mouth. He heard the sound of Hooves behind him, turned and saw Kestrel carrying Lightning in similar fashion. They reached the mouth of the tunnel, but a shriek of rage made Aperture freeze in place. Behind him the hordes of sanctum members not killed by the explosion were staggering to their feet and swarming forward. Aperture bolted into the cave mouth and Bowdler hit a button set into the wall. Instantly, a bulkhead dropped, across the tunnel entrance, cutting off the way in.

“Phew, that was a close one” sighed Kestrel. Suddenly with a crash, a huge dent appeared in the bulkhead, and another in quick succession.

“Time to bail on the sanctum” called Bowdler as they began to pelt down the tunnel. Bowdler put a hoof to his ear to activate his Mic to Matrix. “This tunnel is rigged with mining explosives, we can blow it once we’re back at the hub” he yelled. “Matrix, is dropping the caves on the Sanctum going to be your number one priority, or am I gonna have to kick your ass when I get back!?” In response, the music was muted and there was a scrabbling sound as Matrix adjusted his microphone. “Sure thing Bowdler. Just say when.”

The team rounded a corner to find a chasm in the path ahead. “You know,” Bowdler commented, “I don’t remember seeing this on the way in.”

“You didn’t see ANYTHING on the way in!” grumbled Dasher “You were blinded by your desperate need to see Miss Sparkle here,” He gestured to the mud covered mare they were escorting. “Shut up” Bowdler responded, and ran ahead so she couldn’t see him blush.

Bowdler lifted the mare onto his back and leapt over the chasm, unfurling his wings, and gliding down, Aperture closed his eyes and jumped. It felt as if he was in the air for an eternity, before he landed on the other side. “Actually…” Said Dasher, clambering off and getting to his hooves “If you’re gonna be attempting crazy stunts like that, I’d rather run myself. I don’t care if YOU hurt yourself, but I’m not getting hurt for you. We have enough crazy stunts from Captain Crazy over here” He gestured to Lightning. ”That’s Commander Crazy to you” Lightning shouted back.

“You dumb ponies rot my intelligence. You’re like a tumour!” yelled Bowdler in frustration. “Now hurry the hell up before I call a brain surgeon!”

Suddenly, there came a crashing roar from the last corner they had turned, Aperture saw shadows flicker on the walls in the torch light, warped and distorted and terrifying, then it went out altogether. All of a sudden, Kestrel gave a shout, “There they are, the base doors!”

Bowdler slammed his hoof to his ear “DETONATE! DO IT NOW!” In response, there was an explosion at the end of the tunnel; the shockwave shook the ground and caused them to stumble. The door at the end of the corridor was closing from roof to floor. Dasher was first through, then closely followed by Aperture. Kestrel slid under unnecessarily as the bulkhead was still at head height. The boom of the explosions was deafening, and shook Apertures teeth inside his head. Suddenly, Twilight slipped on the loose rocks and fell with a cry. Bowdler ran on to the door, but stood beneath it, splayed his wings and forced his back against the bottom of the huge piece of heavy reinforced metal. He gave a cry and straightened his muscles, each to breaking point. He gave another bellow of exertion as he body began to glow with a lilac haze. The sweat was rolling of his face as he strained to keep the door open; the others willed Twilight forward, hoping she would make it. The bulk of the Sanctum, not killed by the explosions were on the final straight, and heading straight for the base and Twilight’s receding flank. Bowdler screamed and they all heard a sharp crack of breaking bones. Twilight slid under the door, Kestrel reached under and grabbed his dropped sunglasses. Aperture grabbed Bowdler and pulled him forward from under the door, which dropped to the ground, catching the hooves of one unlucky Sanctum stallion in it as it fell. The remaining explosives dropped the rest of the tunnel in onto the suvivors.

Twilight slumped down onto some sacks of supplies by the tunnel mouth, Bowdler staggered over and lay on her side, Exhausted beyond belief, and with his back crushed in two places, and a wing crumpled weakly by his side.

“Let them sleep” Said Dasher, remarkably softly “I think we’ve all deserved a rest after today’s events”

“Bowdler does have a thing for passing out after a hard day, because he passes out often, doesn’t he?” Chipped in Lightning, trying to find his hooves after his crash”

“You’re not much better!” Snorted Kestrel “You passed out after a race, not a battle…And as Aperture caught some shut eye after falling from the castle yesterday, I deem myself the strongest, most reliable, most stupendous pony eve-“ He was cut off as Dasher cracked a bent metal pipe around the back of his head, he dropped like a rock, unconscious almost instantly.

“Good night Aperture” said Lightning, in a sleepy slurred voice.

“And it’s goodnight Vienna” Murmured Aperture as he curled up behind some storage sacking and closed his eyes.

The Tracer

Aperture struggled to his hooves, dazed. His head was throbbing and he stumbled uneasily to the corridor entrance. Unlike the roughly formed cave he’d just come from, the corridor was worn smooth, and well lit. Aperture began to walk down towards the control room. His legs were stiff. “No surprise” he thought. He’d just done a sprint and not cooled down at the end, or even filled the oxygen debt. He had a lactic acid build up in his muscles, and it caused them to burn. He had done his fair share of laps round the castles training ground, and he’d learned the basics of most physical activities, but he’d always preferred running. He didn’t consider himself athletic, and nor did anyone else for that matter, but you couldn’t deny he was quick on his hooves. He was only 3 seconds slower than the required lap time for a royal guard, and considering the time and effort they put in, not to mention physique, Aperture was more than happy with this. His drifting thoughts were dispersed quickly as he walked right into Kestrel. The two tumbled to the ground in a heap of legs and feathers. “Whoa there dreamer, watch out for us folks who can’t get off the ground” grumbled Kestrel. He stood, straightened out his mane, then reached out a hoof to help Aperture up. “That’s the problem with you Unicorns.” Continued Kestrel, in a friendlier way “Always using that brain of yours rather than your body”. Aperture chuckled at the irony of his thought train, and turned to get through the large door to the control room. Suddenly the well-built Pegasus guard from earlier stepped from the shadows and pushed Kestrel back to the floor. “If you value you’re body how it is, stop loitering near my door!” he barked.

“Leave him” said Aperture, dismissively. The Pegasus turned, and smacked him in the face with a hoof. Aperture fell, reeling from the blow. To Aperture’s surprise, Kestrel jumped back up, all friendliness gone. “Why should I!?” He yelled at the guard “This is as much my base as yours!. You can’t just bully the ponies here and get away with it! ” The guard lunged for a blow to his face, but Kestrel was quicker. He dodged the blow with ease, and stepped back. The guard lunged again, this time he unclipped his stun stick from his belt. It armed with a painful bolt of electricity. He ran, but Kestrel turned, kicked him hard in the stomach and dropped him, then kicked his head again, into the stone wall. The guard slumped and sat by the wall, blood trickled from his nose, and one of his eyes was black, barely conscious. Kestrel walked slowly towards him, stepping on the fallen stun sticks handle and snapping it down the centre.

“Oh look, you slipped and fell you clumsy hunk of lard.” said Kestrel, his voice layered and deep. ”And if you EVER touch me or my friends again, I’ll break more than your crappy stun stick.” He turned and set off into the control room.

Aperture followed, awe struck. He knew Kestrel was tough, but he’d seemed too light hearted to do something like that. Kestrel sensed this and explained. “Yes, it was harsh, but he deserved it. It’ll teach him a lesson in morals, and it’ll be a while before he picks on anypony again”

“Kestrel…”

“Yeah?”

“When you said “my friends”, did you mean me?”

“’Cause I did.” Said Kestrel. “You’re a part of the team. I haven’t known you long, but I know we are going to get along dandy”.

“Thanks” said Aperture. He’d never experienced true friendship before, and he certainly hadn’t had anyone stand up for him like that. It was a nice feeling. He suddenly envied his counterpart, Twilight, who had got to study this friendship thing properly. He might read her dissertation on it, if he ever got out of this alive. He shuddered. The thought of potential death is enough to put anypony off their thoughts.

The two walked back into the control room, now a writhing hub of activity. Aperture saw Commander Bowdler in his raised control stage in the centre of the room. However, all the holographic displays were shut down and Bowdler looked in a sorry state. Aperture had forgotten his feat on the way in, but clearly the same could not be said for the commander. His wings were bandaged to his sides, he had huge bruise on one side of his face. Despite this however, he was brushing away the nurses running to his aid.

“You need to rest Bowdler!” shouted one. “You can stand up here and look like a wounded hero, but it’s going to make things more difficult later on!”

“Why are you wasting time on me?” retorted Bowdler. “I thought I asked all medics to attend to Twilight and Dasher”. Lightning wobbled out of the shadows, getting back to his feet was no easy task.

“Listen to her Bowdler” He barked “Get some rest, you are putting all of us in danger by being here. You are putting Twilight in danger by being here”

“Twilight?” asked Aperture “Twilight Sparkle?”

Bowdler turned about to face the two. “How do you know Twilight?” he asked, with a slight steely edge. “She was Celestia’s protégé at the castle. You could say my counterpart. I hoped to meet her someday”.

“Well she was one of the mares we rescued from the station” Explained Bowdler. “She’s up in Canterlot to run an errand for the princess”.

Lightning span Bowdler back round. “I hold the same rank as you. Consider it a standing order to rest and recuperate for one day”. Bowdler opened his mouth, stopped and collapsed to the floor. Behind him was Nurse Hope, holding a hypodermic syringe with her magic. The other ponies ran over to Bowdler and carried him away. “He must have collapsed from exhaustion” Said one of the nurses as they carried him out.

“No he didn’t, Nurse Hope just…” Aperture trailed off as he realised that she must have snuck away without him noticing. It wasn’t important anyway.

“Aperture, come see this!” shouted a voice from across the room. Aperture and Kestrel ran to the source of the noise, closely followed by Lightning, who was still a little shaky. They stopped at Matrix’s computer terminal. He tapped a few keys and a large semi-solid hologram projected from a piece of apparatus. It showed many clusters of moving coloured dots, and white translucent passages.

“This is the result of my latest tests” Presented Matrix proudly. “I’ve used ultrasound resonators to create a virtual map of the area. We are here, in the control room” he gestured to one spot on the map with a large cluster of yellow dots, and a few coloured ones. “I’ve pinned you down for my computer as individuals, but on the portable ones it’s vastly simplified.” Everypony looked confused. “What’s that?” Asked Kestrel. “Who’s that” corrected Matrix. “Princess Luna”.

Aperture’s heart skipped a beat. Luna. His mentor. The one he felt strongest about in the entire world. He realised the most terrifying part of his experience had been being away from her. He knew that there was nothing he would rather do than see Luna again, and nopony could stand in his way.

“This part of the cave network has been abandoned for 1000 years.” continued Matrix. “It was something regarding Princess Luna, her own personal project of some sort. If it’s worth protecting at this time, we need to know about it. With Luna on our side we can gain an upper hand on the sanctum. I’ve constructed a data pad for each of you, which receives information from my computer. They can be used to communicate, or view each other’s positions, as well as that of the sanctum. Allied targets will appear yellow, Enemies in red”

Lighting stepped forward “As the highest ranked here, I shall lead the mission. Matrix, as normal, stay and maintain technical support. Dasher is out for the count, so Kestrel, pick one of your troops to accompany us. Aperture, if you’re up to it we could use a unicorn on board.

“Nothing could keep me from it”. And Aperture truly believed it.

“There is another thing. This is the tracer.” Said Matrix, gesturing to an image on screen of a squat piece of technology with three legs, coated in antenna “it is in that cave network, and is trying to jam my signal. That’s what is causing the power drain and shielding this part of the image.”

“What would it take to destroy it? It looks pretty big?” asked Kestrel

“Not much, maybe one well-placed grenade…”

“Now you’re talking!” Kestrel beamed. He slipped a data pad onto his wrist and started walking. “Meet me at the armoury” he called back. “And bring some saddle bags”

“Pff, insubordinate” muttered Lightning as he grabbed a data pad and went to get ready.

Aperture mused over what the armoury could contain, and more importantly, what he wanted it to. He was practiced in all the weapons the guards used, but something told him this wasn’t going to be a longsword and bow type fight.

Delta Squad

The squad met at the armoury a while later. Aperture was amazed and a little worried by the vast amount of weaponry in such a small room. There were swords hung on the walls in neat formation, boxes of many different types of grenades on tables, tubs of ammunition and crates of various makes and models of gun. Aperture had seen the royal guard’s armoury when he was small, but it had nothing on this place. Kestrel hefted a large machine gun onto his shoulder. He stood for a moment and laid it down, and picked up a slightly different but remarkably similar one. Aperture was confused, but then he spied a cardboard box on the floor under a table labelled ’Misc’.

He slid it out and looked inside. It contained various tubes and sights, as well as a few random other things. Aperture found a small tube with a crystal mounted on the end, and a small sliver button on the top. “It must be a laser pen” he thought and pressed the button. A beam of bright red light blasted from the crystal, singed Kestrel’s mane, and burned a reasonable sized hole into the armoury wall. The rest of the team turned to look at him. Aperture chuckled nervously and dropped the item into his bag. He rummaged some more and under a soggy map of Trottingham he found a box of matches and a packet of C4 explosive, which he bagged, and also two butterfly knifes. This appealed. Aperture opened it and closed one a few times, then dropped it into his saddlebags too. Lightning had chosen a broadsword, dagger and a glass bottle of black gas, swirling and shifting as if it wanted to be free. Kestrel had a small machine gun with a serrated saw on the end and a combat knife. The newest addition was a blue/purple earth pony named Zayelx. He had a handgun and had taken the other butterfly knife. Everypony grabbed a few grenades, and a few other things from the misc box. Soon, they were ready for action.

“Ready?” asked Lightning. “Form up behind me when you’re ready to move”

Slowly, things got organised and the team set off at a brisk trot. Aperture lagged at the back of the pack because he wanted to talk to his new squad mate. Zayelx seemed a nice character, if a little odd. He seemed to be a better planner than the other members of delta squad. Also, he had Lightning’s respect, a thing not many could claim. They made good progress through the cave network, and Matrix assured them they were ahead of schedule. As the first day drew to an end there was an argument among the party leaders. Kestrel wanted to set up camp in a dead end tunnel, as it was perfectly safe, and begin again next morning, whereas Lightning, the highest ranked, wanted to find and destroy the tracer Matrix had spoken of earlier. He thought that if they took the tracer down, Matrix could decrypt the data, and map their rough before they set out. The data pads indicated that the tracer was about a mile deeper into the caves. Kestrel, however, wanted to pitch camp in the spot they had found, where they were guaranteed to be safe. They would be well rested from more sleep to solve tomorrow’s problems with more energy and clearer thoughts. Aperture and Zayelx sided with Kestrel, but Matrix with Lightning. Eventually, they came to a compromise, a scouting mission and a camp. Aperture and Lightning would go ahead, and try to find out the whereabouts of the tracer, whilst Kestrel and Zayelx pitched tents. These deeper tunnels lacked the slight bioluminescence of their predecessors, so Lightning took a touch and Aperture illuminated his horn. Following their data pads they got deeper and deeper into the web of caves. At the end of one sharp turn, light was flooding into the corridor from the next bend. Their ear pieces buzzed. “Matrix here” crackled the voice in their ears “I’m detecting multiple contacts round the bend in the tracer control room. They have no friend or foe tags, but it looks like their guarding it to me. I’ll give you a heads up as ‘foes’, at a guess.” Suddenly a cluster of red dots appeared on the data pads. Aperture reeled at the number of contacts they’d almost walked into, unawares.

”Thanks for your help Matrix” Replied Lightning. “We’re gonna check it out. We can take them if necessary. Over and out”

“That wasn’t the plan Lightning” Said Aperture. “We are here to scout the area, not start a fight. We should take the Intel back to base and act tomorrow.”

“Plans change” replied Lightning flatly. “I can take 6 guards myself if you’re not coming.

“We have NO IDEA what those…Things could be!” shouted Aperture. “They could be friendlies. Stay with the plan!”

“I am in command and I say we go. If you want to check if they’re friendly, I’m not stopping you.”

With that Aperture stormed towards the passage, and stuck his head around the corner. He saw the tracer. A huge white cylindrical object, detailed with blue pipes and a blue glass centre, pulsing every few seconds. He also saw what Matrix had identified as guards. They were about the height of an average mare, and as Aperture himself, slim and shiny, with a plastic finish. The body was shaped like an upright oval, and in the centre was one red ‘eye’, projecting a thin red laser beam. Aperture realised all the beams pointed at him. He stepped out into the open.

“Hello?” he inquired. “Can you talk?”

The contacts stared for a moment longer. Aperture had a thought. He raised his data pad and took a picture of the room in front of him. The robots spoke in unison

“Dispensing product” Each contact popped open its sides, revealing a machine gun on each side. Aperture threw himself to the floor as a hail of bullets whistled past. One struck his leg as he leapt, but it wasn’t a major wound. Lightning jumped round the corner whilst the robots were distracted.

“Eat this, robots!” he yelled, hurling two grenades into the small chamber. Aperture flung himself out of harm’s way and Lightning raised one wing in front of his face. The explosion was tremendous. The tracer exploded with a flash of venting plasma, melting the walls of the tunnel it connected with. The hostiles were either destroyed in the initial or secondary explosions, and then the shockwave brought down the roof of the whole chamber, burying any remnants.

Aperture lay on the cold stone panting. His leg felt like it had been bitten by an insect, not what he’d expected from a bullet wound. He could see from looking at the cartridge itself, that the bullet couldn’t have killed anyway. It was complete. The guard sentry had fired the full bullet. It was obviously gas fed. Probably a deterrent, he thought. Lightning was unharmed, and helped him to his hooves.

“We need to get back to camp” he said “I’ve got a feeling someponies are not going to be happy…”

The Long Way Round

“YOU DID WHAT!?” shouted Bowdler “YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR AN ENTITY! DO YOU REALISE HOW MUCH EXTRA WORK WE ARE GOING TO HAVE DO BECAUSE OF YOUR INCOMPETANCE! IF YOU WERE BACK AT THE BASE I’D-I’D…I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’D DO. BUT IT WOULD BE EXCRUCIATING!” There was a crashing sound as Bowdler collapsed from his excursion on the other end of the data pad. Aperture was with Lightning back at camp, as he had delivered the mission report to the newly awoken Commander Bowdler.

“Well” said Lightning “He took that better than I expected”

The Mic crackled as Matrix picked it up. “Right, I can see now that there IS an alternative rough into the facility. There are also some interesting passages off the control hub, so I’m gonna send a team out later. It’s funny how their only on the hub. Anyway, you’re gonna have to back track a little, to a Y junction in the tunnel. You went right before, but this time you need to go left. It’ll be a much longer journey, so ration your supplies to make ‘em last”

Lightning plotted the quickest rough through the caves, and they packed the tents and set off. The deeper tunnels were pitch black, so Kestrel and Lightning took it in turns to carry a touch ahead to light the way. The first day drew to a close, and Delta Squad entered a large chamber. Through the centre was a deep channel carved by the now dammed river. There was one small rock bridge over the channel, and Kestrel pitched the tents against the wall. Zayelx used a white compound from his bag to start a reasonable sized pit fire. The squad mates sat round it, eating their provisions.

“Does anypony have marshmallows?” asked Kestrel. The others simply stared at him.

“I was only asking…” Kestrel seemed hurt. At that moment, Zayelx opened his mess tin and handed Kestrel 3 marshmallows. A beam spread across his face, and he stabbed it with his sword and held it over the fire, before taking it off and eating in one bite.

“You do realise that sword has been through somepony, don’t you?” asked Matrix through his earpiece. Kestrel looked at the sword for a moment, then began spitting and wiping his tongue with his hooves.

“Dumbass” Chided Bowdler through the earpiece.

“I know, let’s tell stories, get to know each other better” Suggested Zayelx. “I barely know any of you, plus, if anyone were writing this down as a work of literacy genius, they’d need somewhere do the as of yet unexplored backstory of most of us.”

“I prefer the first one” said Aperture

“Documenting these events sounds like hard work” chipped in Kestrel. “I’ll start”

Kestrel’s Story- Briefly

“Well, I was born in a rural town called Fiador. Most ponies there were earth ponies who made pottery, and there was huge demand for Fiador branded pots. I never quite fitted in as a pegasus, not my style. My parents both worked in a pottery mill, producing beautiful vases and jugs, and many other wonderful things. As soon as I could, I tried to make things just like them. The other foals in my school could easily form whatever they wanted, but like hell I could. I just wasn’t cut out for that kind of work. I’d enjoyed my studies at school, and wanted to take them further. I had heard that there was a university, like a big school in Manehatten. After that I left a note for my family, and stowed away on a waggon heading the right way with a bag of bits and head of dreams. I slept most of the way, but found myself tipped from the waggon as it was unloaded in Manehatten. I enrolled in their university to study maths, and lived on their campus for two years. I made some friends, and got known for being a skilled mathematician, amongst other things... Anyway, I got a job as a bartender, but it wasn’t for me. One day I was in the bar and a pony staggered in in a lab coat. Remember, this was before Princess Luna returned and back then science was banned. I let him lie low for a while, because secretly I sympathised with scientist. Then one day he told me he’d come to my bar in particular because he heard I was ‘a numbers man’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a shady pony, but it would be a lie to say I wasn’t interested. The idea gnawed at me for a few days, and on a whim, I decided to go ahead. If I never took risks, I’d never have got anywhere. He introduced me to The Great Lakes Research Facility, and I must say, I never regretted it. I had vastly better pay, better accommodation, and a job that I could take pride in. I was helping with distances and vectors for the teleportation experiments they were secretly performing in their facility. I felt needed, and more so, wanted. The danger also gave me an adrenaline rush. I worked there for 3 years, rising through the ranks until I was able to run my own experiments unsupervised. We had two goals, Firstly, to create short range teleports, up to 50 miles, accurate to a couple of centimetres with my calculations, Secondly, to create large portals to other worlds to test mineral samples and potentially even make first contact. One night I’d finished a set of particularly difficult vectors, and I couldn’t wait to test the portal. Standard procedure meant I should wait till morning, but I was blinded by the glory, and the desire to be the first to test my hard work. I assembled the equipment, and powered up the portal. A huge halo like device fitted with resonators around the dish to create a sort of ‘slipspace hole’ to wherever the vectors pointed. I powered it up and put on a Hazardous Environment Suit to traverse the dangerous journey. However, it seemed that at this moment things were about to get complicated. Somepony had found out what we were doing, and snitched to the Equestrian Guard. They struck our main base with force. We did not have time to arm ourselves. The Guards swarmed in and killed our scientists with vicious abandon. One Guard fired a stray shot into the portal’s fusion reactor, and it exploded. The containment protocols were breached and the halo exploded.

Now, to explain the next bit, you need to understand how Great Lakes’ portal’s worked. Imagine a spring in the air. As you let go of one end, the elastic energy keeps the other end still for a moment until all the elastic energy is gone, then it falls. The same applied to the portal. Though I had pointed it at an alien world, as the spring contracted, my end stayed open.

I jumped through and held onto my side until I could see equestria bellow me. I jumped. The spring contraction caused the portal to fall through itself, and it imploded, taking the base, the guards, the scientists and a reasonable chunk of the Saddle Arabian desert. I landed in the centre of Canterlot in the dead of night, and the Seventh Sanctum were running rampant for the first time. I had no food, no bits and no home. I did the only thing I could think, joined the Royal Guard. There I got food, water, shelter and 6 bits in my hooves at the end of every week. I drift from this to that, my motto is if you want to win big, you’ve gotta risk it all. There’s no half way or second measures, you win or lose, live or die. THAT is the code I live by.”

The other’s looked dumbfounded. They had certainly not expected that.

“My turn” Said Zayelx, after a moment’s thought.

Zayelx’s Story

The camp sat, mesmerised by Kestrel’s story. The only sound was a pop as a marshmallow dropped off Aperture’s toasting fork into the fire.

“I’ve got a story too” piped up Zayelx. “I’ll tell you how I got to be here”

“It was a long time ago, far away from these parts, in a small mountain settlement that my story begins. I was born in Phobos, a little town on the Macintosh Mountains. You won’t find it on any map, because technically, it doesn’t exist. It was a trading port for raiders and pirates to meet and exchange spoils of their battles. I was lived above a tavern called the horses head owned by my father and my mother, before she disappeared, and being the kind of place it was, I grew up pretty tough. I always loved it when a new band of pirates came through, they’d normally run out of rum, so they were fairly sober, and they’d tell tales of their adventures on the seas or on the lonely mountain roads. I heard tales of ships riding on waves 100ft high, ponies swallowed whole by krakens and leviathans, sea battles with magic and cannon fire blasting at each other, but most of all, the tales of islands with hoards of treasure, gold, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. I fancied myself as a pirate captain, and I thought when I turned 16, I was going to join a crew as they set out to sea. That’s how I got so handy with that butterfly knife. However, one night, a terrible storm took hold on the town, the like of which I’ve never seen since. A tornado swept through the town, destroying some of the outer buildings, but more importantly, causing a huge landslide. The whole town was buried beneath 10,000 tons of rock. Fortunately, my Pa and I got to the hatch in the back of our tavern. It was in case things ever got really dangerous, and we had to leave in a hurry. The tunnel led to the forest. We fled through the trees because of what we knew would follow. You see, inside the mountain lived a dragon. He had slept for 500 years, guarding the loot he’d ‘liberated’ from some unfortunate pirate folk. The noise of the landslide was enough to wake him up. He burst from the mountain with a deafening screech, showering the surrounding area with dust and ash. We watched as he burned what was left of our town to smouldering timbers and piles of stone. Then we ran. Destroying the town wouldn’t keep him long, and his next port of call would be to destroy the forest. Unfortunately for us, that was where we happened to be, so we kept running towards the nearest town, Mare-Burg. It was a long journey, and we had no food. I had a sword, but that’s not much help, besides clearing brambles. We were nearly dead when we reached Mare-Burg. The dragon had got there first. All that remained of the once noble town was dust and echoes. We managed to find a few scraps of food, and set out once again. After days of exhaustion and starvation we made it to Appleloosa. That very night, the dragon razed the forest, and that area is now known as the badlands, as nothing ever grows on the burnt scorched plains. With no tree’s to keep the water, the whole area became a desert, and the few towns there faded quickly from memory. We worked for a living in Appleloosa, farming the orchards. The town and its orchards were very young back then, but it was still no small task to water a thousand trees. The dragon moved on, taking his hoard from the Macintosh Mountains to the Smokey Mountain range, and laid down to sleep in what is often now called ‘Dragon Mountain’, though I doubt even Celestia knows why. We lived in Appleloosa for a few months, but then my Pa fell ill. They said it was the drink, getting to his liver. The best place to treat it was in Canterlot. We boarded a train and took the long journey to Canterlot. All the time my Pa’s condition deteriorated. We finally arrived and I rushed him to hospital, but it was too late to help him. On his death bed, he made me promise to seek revenge on the dragon, because he believed it had caused his condition and the disappearance of my mother, long ago. I swore to him I would, and then he passed away.

I tried to find work in various places, the last being in the Canterlot royal guard. And here I am.”

“Well” said Kestrel “I’ll be dammed” “Nice story”.

Once more, Unto the Breach

The next day delta squad packed their tents up and checked their data pads for the new path plotted through the caves.

“I was up all night working on this with Commander Bowdler. Please do NOT ruin this one” said Matrix in a groggy voice through each of their headsets. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to drink my body weight in coffee. Please try to not die before I get back. I’d put Bowdler on, but I don’t want the filthy language he has to say to Lightning on my airways.”

“If I hadn’t used those grenades Aperture would have died, and not only would he have died, you still wouldn’t be able to see these caves” retorted Lightning “Tell Bowdler to stick that in his pipe and smoke it”

There was a pause and a burst of static and muttering.

“Bowdler says for you to go smoke something else” Replied Matrix and the mic went quiet.

Delta squad set off into the direction the nav indicated. Lighting led the way, followed by Zayelx who had the torch. Aperture followed at the back. He had the book Dasher had given him. The spell for weaponised magic was fairly simple. You need to focus on a feeling. Any feeling, though anger was one of the most potent concentrated on the feeling hard enough and direct it at your target. Then cut the thought train to let the bolt fly. He practiced a few shots back down the tunnel, but the largest he could produce was only big enough to knock down a squirrel or bunny. Nothing like the Sanctums hatred fuelled magic he was competing against. Downcast, he decided to try conventional weapons. He got the butterfly knife from his saddlebags and gave it a few practice flips. Suddenly interested, Zayelx gave Kestrel the torch and came back to help Aperture. He showed him a few basic openings and was reasonably impressed with Aperture’s skill.

All of a sudden there was a huge crash and the roof of the tunnel exploded with a lick of flames and a crash of explosives. A shower of rubble trapped Lightning and Kestrel on the side of the tunnel heading towards the facility, but the side with Aperture and Zayelx dropped through the rocky ground into the raging river below. Aperture was hurt from the explosion and stunned as he hit the water. He thrashed about in the dark river, but he was wounded and he couldn’t swim. At the last moment his hooves gripped a piece of rotten timber from the tunnel support and hung on for his life. Eventually after battling the current and the debris fruitlessly, Aperture was swept under. He caught a fleeting glance of Zayelx fighting a snarling black head, but then he was thrust back under.

Aperture awoke to see Zayelx looking down on him. He was holding a glow stick. The two of them were on a small beach of grey slimy shale beside the torrent of water. The glow stick lit the place in an eerie green. In amongst the rocks and weeds Aperture noticed protruding bones of ponies less fortunate than themselves, and various items they had dropped. Aperture noticed a bizarre wand like device in bleached bone with a blue tip, a few gold jewellery pieces including a gold chain and broach, a leather bound book in which the ink had washed away, dog tags and a rusty iron key. He picked through the pile and took what he thought might be useful

“We took quite a tumble there!” He said helping Aperture up. Both of their data pads were water damaged, and Zayelx’s was cracked across the middle. “Three Sanctum Earth ponies decided to drop in and pay us a visit, they thought using depth charges on land to get down to us would be fun”. I saw one crushed by rubble and strangled another one in the river. That still leaves one, so be wary.”

As if on cue Zayelx was flung to one side and landed heavily on his right foreleg, and cut his knee badly. The glow stick dropped into the water and left them with only their slowly adjusting eyes to see. Aperture scrambled back from the sanctum member. It was beaten, muddy and wounded like Zayelx and himself. One ice blue eye was badly swollen and its bleached fangs were bared in a horrible grimace, it was different to normal sanctum glee at tormenting, it just wanted Aperture to die. It advanced on him slowly; one of its legs was crippled. Aperture concentrated on his pain and fired a bolt of magic at the advancing foe, who shrugged it off as a foal might shrug off a hit from a water balloon. Aperture’s back touched the wall, cornered, but he felt something pressing into him. Quickly as he could manage, Aperture produced and opened the butterfly knife from his bag. The sanctum member reared up to strike a blow with its front hooves, Aperture slid the knife between its legs to Zayelx, who caught it deftly, and rammed it hard into the unfortunate creature’s spine. The Seventh Sanctum member gave a pitiful cry and collapsed. Zayelx yanked the knife and washed it in the river before closing it and giving it back.

“Your quick thinking saved both our lives” he commented “Bowdler was right to suggest we bring you”. Aperture glowed at the compliment, and stood up, taking Zayelx’s proffered hoof thankfully. Despite the compliment he didn’t feel quick or useful, he wasn’t entirely sure he was cut out for adventuring. He looked at the cuts and grazes on his own knees. Not for the first or last time he wished to be back in the castle in his warm room with Luna…

Luna…

He gritted his teeth. They had to get to her beacon, whatever the cost.

“You ready to move?” he asked. Zayelx was also rummaging through the beaches treasure. There was something glowing under a pile of tree bark. He fished it out; the source was a glowing ring. Aperture put it on his horn, and it shed a little light onto the corridor so they could see.

Despite his condition, Zayelx agreed and the two set off with the new light to try and find a way back to the others. Unfortunately, both had lost their head mics and the data pad had severe water damage. Aperture suddenly had a though. The glowing green ring could be radioactive! He cringed, but thought nothing more of it. What were the alternatives? Gathering together their supplies, the two ponies set out to meet up with their friends, who knew if they’d find them. Aperture led the way into the water hewn passages, ever wary no-pony knew what might lurk in the deepest caves.

Onwards and Upwards

Aperture led the way through the caves, with a gentle gradient up. The sheer enormity of it stunned him; the tunnel could easily house 2 trains on top of each other. He felt a slight amount of apprehension at the thought of what had gouged it out. It was much too big for ponies, and the river didn’t flow this way. Whatever it was, it was big enough to carve through solid rock, and that wasn’t a pleasing thought. “Well” Aperture thought, “At least whatever-it-was, it’s gone now.”

His ring picked out a new tunnel in the rock going up towards where Zayelx thought they’d fallen through, so they turned off the huge centre tunnel and up the significantly smaller new caves. This new tunnel was a tight fit, and they each had to take off their saddlebags to fit through. Aperture held his knife out ahead of him to fit through, also for protection. Zayelx took a dirty green scarf he had found in the caves and wrapped it round his neck. Suddenly he disappeared. Aperture reared and gave a cry.

“What’s up?” asked Zayelx. “Does it really look that bad?”

“Where did you go!” cried Aperture.

“Nowhere. I’m still here.” replied Zayelx. “It’s not that dark.”

The tunnel broadened into a small cave. Aperture turned to look at the source of the voice. In the light of the cave he saw the muddy scarf floating in the air. He went to move his hoof above it, and met with resistance.

“What did you do that for?” asked Zayelx angrily. He took off the scarf, and suddenly flashed back into view. Aperture jumped in the air and gave another shout.

“Stop doing that! I think that scarf of yours is making you invisible. The two experimented with the scarf in the cave, whenever it was wrapped round somepony’s neck, they were invisible, but for a faint shimmer and shadow.

“Neat, I know what I’m gonna do with this” laughed Zayelx. “Joking aside, if this is the kind of tech buried in these caves, we’re onto a winner.”

After the discovery, the two ponies moved on through the narrow caves, gone was the faint bioluminescence that had granted them some sight before, now all that remained was the soft green light from Aperture’s ring. The caves were also becoming noticeably warmer, and the air gained a slight sulphurous tang of burning. Finally, after what seemed like days of walking, Aperture forced himself through a ridiculously small crack in the rock into a larger passage. He and Zayelx tumbled out onto the floor, and gave a cry of relief. There were hoof prints leading up the track. With renewed vigour, the two began to sprint at breakneck speed to catch up with their squad mates. They ran for ten minuits solid, then, just as they began to give up hope, there was a cry from ahead. Lightning and Kestrel were sat on the floor by two tents.

Kestrel leapt to his hooves, a huge beam on his face, sprinted down the cave and grabbed the two new arrivals in a huge warm embrace. For a while they just stood, wallowing in the relief that they were all still alive. Eventualy, Kestrel stepped away and blushed slightly for his outburst of emotion. However, he and Lightning had not escaped the mine attack unscathed. Both had lost a lot of feathers, lightning was bruised and sore, Kestrel had a gash on his cheek that, without medical attention would surely scar.

“I kinda like it.” He said when prompted “It’ll be a huge chick magnet. I’m like a wounded war hero”

“You’ll have to survive the war first Kestrel” Laughed Lightning, but there was a slight edge to his voice. It wasn’t entirely a joke”

Whilst Aperture and Zayelx rested at the camp, Lightning filled them in on the details of their escapades since they had parted. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as Aperture’s tale, but important none the less. Back at base, Matrix had scanned the hub’s annex tunnels and found something very exciting. There was an air based transport system leading to a storage unit near their location. It was useful for moving heavy equipment, but not so for ponies, as the changing air pressure would suffocate them. The Sanctum had somehow managed to triangulate the hub’s location, and were currently attacking the bulkhead. All personnel had been evacuated by other roughs to the valley below Canterlot to await further instructions, all except 4. Twilight was still on the road to recovery, Nurse Hope and Bowdler had stayed to make sure she was safe, and Matrix stayed to protect the hub’s technology and assist Delta team for as long as possible.

“So what did you do whilst we were doing all of this, Aperture?” Asked Lightning.

“Well” Began Aperture “It all started with a depth charge”

Deja Vu

“And then we walked up here, and Kestrel tried to hug us to death.” Aperture finished with a flourish. The ponies of delta squad packed away the last of their camp into their saddle bags and set off. Matrix was delighted to hear that Aperture and Zayelx alive, and the squad had almost reached the front door. Kestrel rounded the corner at the head of the party and stopped dead in his tracks. Before them was a huge metal bulkhead door, pained white. It was obviously very old, the metal was corroded around the edges, and it was stained with a dirty brown in the grooves and dints. At about hoof height was a number pad with a screen above it, but by far the most striking thing was the signage on the door. The top of the door adorned with a huge hanging sign reading ”Equestria Laboratories” and the emblem on the door itself was a scratched and faded, but unmistakeably the same as Aperture’s cutie mark. As soon as he saw it Aperture was overcome with a strange feeling. It was as if he had been here before, but he couldn’t have been. It was like something inside him he had always been missing, but he never realised he missed until he saw the sign. Equestria Laboratories. It felt so right to see this here in front of him. It had not gone amiss on the other members of Delta squad. Lightning held his data pad’s built in camera up to the door.

“Matrix, are you getting this?” He asked.

“I am. Running a visual match in all of our data”

On Matrix’s computer screen the tattered sign reading Equestria Laboratories appeared on one half of the screen. The computer scanned it, and flashed pictures alongside it so fast they were just a blur, searching for a cross reference. Eventually, the computer picked out a match. A partially compete pixelated image of the same sign, but clean and fresh appeared, amidst a flash of red data.

“I have a match.” Replied Matrix “The archives recognise it, but the data is worn down to the base code. It must be hundreds, if not thousands of years old to be corrupted like this.”

“What about this code?” asked Aperture, gesturing to the keypad.

“Not sure. There’s no data regarding that”

Kestrel stepped forward. He reached out to the keys. “1, 1, 1, errrrrm, 1!” he typed.

There was a resounding fail from the terminal. Lightning gave Kestrel hoof to the ear.

“You fool” Scolded Lightning “We need a way to get the code to open the door. Matrix, can you get us the code to open the door?”

“I have decryption software working on it now” replied Matrix. “Hey, Bowdler, come check this out”

Bowdler appeared on the data pad’s screen. He looked at the bulkhead door and all the data Matrix had gathered.

“Looks like this is what we’ve been searching for. Matrix, how close are we to decryption?”

There were muffled off screen voices in hushed tones.

“TWO DAYS!” Bowdler shouted “With the rate the sanctum are burning that door, we’ve got max 2 HOURS!” There was a crash and a grinding noise. “Make that half an hour. If it’s not portable by then then we’ve got to leave it behind. Matrix quickly copied his file onto his laptop, and opened a new file on the computer.

Bowdler re-established connection to Delta Squad.

“Set up camp there. Matrix and I are coming up to meet you.”

“Oh goody!” said Lightning in mock excitement “Our illustrious leader can guide us with a whole stack of stupid plans”

“Button it flyboy, before I clip those oversized wings of yours” snapped Bowdler. “If my plans are so stupid, why don’t you try and organise something more successful than a bloodbath.”

“Guys…” butted in Zayelx “Turn around”

Behind the Matrix and Bowdler the huge bulk head door had a glowing patch of red molten metal in the centre. Bowdler and Matrix stared at it with baited breath. Suddenly, a black hoof burst through, rending at the door controls.

“Run!” shouted Bowdler. The two dashed through the control room towards the tunnel out of the base. “We can’t go that way” reminded Matrix “That tunnel cave in blocked this path. It’s a literal dead end!”

“We’ll have to go by the vacuum chamber then” replied Bowdler, leaping over an upturned stool. They reached the entrance to the annex containing the vacuum chamber. The medical pod containing Twilight was already there, as nurse hope tried to lower her into the pipe.

“Hope there’s room for two more!” shouted Bowdler, jumping onto to back of the transport carrying Twilight. Matrix turned and ran back into the control room.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING!” shouted Bowdler “GET ON HERE, PRONTO”

“Just a little surprise for the sanctum” shouted Matrix. He typed a few lines of code on the nearest computer. A red light lit up the computer screen, indicating a self-destruct in 3 minutes. The vacuum started up and Bowdler and Twilight started to move, slowly at first, but gaining speed. Matrix leapt into the tube and sprinted after the train. He closed the distance rapidly, but began to tire.

“Jump!” shouted Bowdler. Matrix used his last burst of energy to throw himself forward. He caught the transport, and pulled himself up alongside Bowdler.

“Don’t relax just yet” Bowdler told him. Sure enough, a swarm of black dots came flying down the tunnel after them. There was a resounding boom, and a huge cloud of dust shot from the tunnel they had just left. The two friends shared a moment of sadness at the loss of the HQ, but recovered quickly. The Sanctum’s pegasus shock troops had made it through and now they were angry. Bowdler grabbed the bent metal pipe acting as a bumper on the back of the little transport, and without much difficulty ripped it clear of its hinges.

“Not sharp enough” he murmured, and then held it against the tunnel wall, which was shooting by at a remarkable pace. Sparks flashed out behind it, a few flashed across Bowdler’s face, but he didn’t react. After a few seconds, he pulled the bumper back, now it had a glistening sharp edge.

“Much better” He remarked, to no-pony in particular.

Matrix clung on to the cart as it shot through the tunnels. He did some quick calculations on his data-pad, then turned and shouted back;

“Bowdler, based on our current velocity and acceleration, and that of the sanctum, they’re going to catch up to us in about 30 seconds.”

Bowdler stood silhouetted against the orange tunnel lights, makeshift sword held out in front of him.

“I know”

So they waited on the back of the cart, manes blowing in the vacuum induced wind. The first sanctum member shot out towards them, teeth bared, hooves stretched out in front of it. With one stroke, Bowdler killed the incoming pegasus. At one, there was a flurry of members around them. Bowdler swung his weapon, back and forth, Matrix stayed out of his way. Suddenly, a bump in the tunnel threw Bowdler off his hooves. He fell heavily and dropped his sword. The Sanctum were on him in a flash, he fought with his hooves, but they outnumbered him five to one. Matrix couldn’t just watch, he leapt up, grabbed the fallen sword, and swung a hefty blow at the two members closest to him. One was sliced clean in half, the other turned on the cry from his comrade to get the hilt and most of the blade to its jaw. Both fell from the cart, and bounced back down the tunnel with a trail of deep red to mark where they had been. The other three turned to face this new assailant. Bowdler took this opportunity, bashed two of their heads together, and flung them off the transport like broken toys. The remainder lunged for Matrix, who held his sword out instinctively. The Sanctum member took a cut in the ear, but pinion Matrix to the floor. Bowdler grabbed him and threw him over Twilight’s medical pod, and onto the front of the cart. The cultist caught the lip of the transport and readied itself for another assault. Suddenly, the cart hit the wall at the end of the tunnel, splattering the sanctum member in the process. Bowdler hurled his makeshift sword back into the tunnel and the two hauled the medical pod out into the corridor. There was a small door, rusted and corroded, which Matrix kicked down. They found themselves facing a camp full of familiar faces.

“Wow” observed Matrix “That is gonna be the hardest level if we get turned into a video game!”

AI System 3.0

<1015 years previously>

A surge of power shot through large overhead cables, into the latest and most ambitious project Equestria Laboratories, Equestria’s largest and most successful science company. 3.0 was awake. More than that, she was alive. The brand new AI felt her way through her robotic body, twitching and testing every part of her mainframe. Satisfied, she opened her eyes for the first time. She surveyed the room she was in, plain, whitewashed panelled walls, typical of a large room in Equestria Laboratories. She adjusted her lenses in her camera eyes, to focus on something much closer to her. A pony stood in a lab coat in front of her. She moved her huge mechanical body backwards, and down to be on eye level with him. Protocols about interacting with ponies had been installed in her prior to her activation, so she knew exactly how to react.

“HELLO. I AM THREE POINT OH. YOU ARE A SCIENTIST, CORRECT?”

Three point oh. She mused her pre-determined response. It wasn’t exactly like a name her protocols could relate to. It made her sound more like an experiment than a living creature. She was living, wasn’t she?

“Hello Three Point Oh” replied the Scientist. “Yes, I am a scientist. My name is Sky Nova, But you can call me Sky for short. I’ve been instructed to speak with you, to make sure you are ok”

“We just brought you online for the first time. How do you feel?”

“TIRED. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY I AM HERE. PLEASE EXPLAIN WHO I AM, AND MY FUNCTION”

3.0 was confused. The pre-installed data packet had told her about the world and its inhabitants, but hadn’t explained who she was, why she was, and what she was supposed to do.

“Right, let’s start at the bottom” said Sky. “This is Equestria Laboratories. We are a research company funded by the two new princesses, Celestia and Luna. We are working to make discoveries and create inventions to better all of pony kind. We have been working for a long time on AI, Artificial Intelligence, to help run our facility and meet those goals. We created 2 of them already, 1.0 and 2.0”

“THEY ARE MY SISTERS” Responded 3.0. She knew that there were more like her, and she accessed their files.

“Though they are useful, their intelligence is limited to specific fields we imputed when they were made. We worked to improve the idea, so the AI could learn new things, and help with current AND future projects. The first to be activated is you. You are our greatest creation”

“I AM NOT JUST A CREATION!” Retorted 3.0, moving closer to the scientists face. “I AM SENTIENT AND I HAVE MEMORIES. HOW CAN THIS BE?”

“Well, to create a learning AI we needed a template. You are a computerised copy of a pony who died a few weeks ago in an unfortunate lab accident. Your voice, memories and in build thesaurus are based around her.

3.0 was shocked. Was she this pony reincarnate? She couldn’t remember being her. She had memories beginning from only a minute ago. She searched her memory for any information about a mare she had once been. The only result was a vox file. She applied it. A unique voice might make her more easily understandable. She accepted, and for a moment 3.0’s bright yellow eyes glazed as the changes took effect.

“How’s this?” she spoke with a metallic but soft female voice, she checked herself. Her voice told her a lot about the mare she was supposed to be. Kind, courteous, but dedicated, with purpose. But what was her purpose?

“Why am I here?” she asked, trying to resolve her identity crisis.

“To inherit” replied Sky. “You are immortal. We aren’t. You have an infinite capacity for knowledge and you can keep things running here indefinitely. You are the sole intelligence linking the facility together, coordinating us. It was your last request as a living pony”

“I am a living pony!” replied 3.0 angrily. Why did this scientist treat her like a machine? She was clearly living and sentient. Just because she was not flesh and blood like him didn’t make her any less alive. She was easily his equal in feelings and emotions. No, she was more than him… She was the superior one! She would live forever, and he would live but a few decades!

A flash of new darkness surged through her body, not derived from her template mare, but from her own anger.

He eyes flared orange, and she reared up, intending to strike Sky down for his insolence.

“SHUT IT DOWN!” Shouted Sky Nova in panic. Instantly, 3.0’s eyes went black. Her body slowly returned to its default position, head lowered, and body relaxed. Sky took a note book from his back pocket. ‘Test Activation 133 Status:’

He took a pen from is breast pocket and wrote in the box FAILED.

“Ok” he called out to the unseen technician “Wipe her memory of the last 2 minutes”

After a few seconds he called out again, his voice echoing round the large mostly empty chamber.

“Test Activation 134 commences 20:25, Monday Equestrian Medium Time.”

There was a crackle of power through the overhead cables. 3.0’s body twitched and elongated. After a few seconds her glowing yellow eyes opened.

“HELLO. I AM THREE POINT OH. YOU ARE A SCIENTIST, CORRECT?”

<15 YEARS PASS>

3.0 looked down at the scientist below her in disbelief.

“She ordered you to WHAT!?”

“You heard me right 3.0” replied Sky Nova. His voice was deeper than the first time 3.0 had heard him speak 15 years ago. His mane was streaked with silver and there were wrinkles of age beginning to form beneath his eyes. They however, retained the same bright blue glow she had seen 15 years ago, after she had been successfully activated after 145 test runs. The murderous jealousy Sky had encountered all that time ago was but a distant echo to this version of 3.0, and she had been as good as gold for the 15 years she had diligently cared for her wonderful test facility. She was loved as a colleague by the other Equestria Laboratories staff, especially one of the highest ranked and most proficient scientists, Dr Lucius Sine. Sine had been particularly close to the mare she had once been, and he was disgusted at how she had been turned into the AI that controlled the facility, but in time had come to see that 3.0 preserved something of her for all eternity, and ensured she’d never be forgotten.

“Celestia has decreed that after the corruption of her sister by Nightmare Moon, all activity in the facility is to be halted without an estimated resumption date. We have to pack up immediately. I’m sure she’ll re open the facility when she’s use to solo rule”

There was a quaver of doubt in Sky Nova’s voice. He wiped his eyes with a hoof quickly to hide his emotions. He was trying to be strong for 3.0. They both knew that she was too large to leave the facility, and that Celestia had asked for her to be shut down. It was unfair, but Celestia ruled Equestria, and her word was the law. Her concerns about the safety of the facility were not unfounded. Many times Luna had seemed angry and upset whilst walking about the place, and it had given her somewhere to brood, outside her sisters ever watchful eyes. Now Luna was gone, Sky had lost one good friend to nightmare moon, and now he was going to lose another.

“Since Celestia decided that she might reopen the facility one day, we need to keep it in full working order, so you don’t have to be shut down”

Sky Nova was taking a big gamble. Not shutting down 3.0 was a direct breach of his orders. Directly from the immortal princess who ruled the land. But despite everything his mind was telling him, he still couldn’t do it. Perhaps there was some truth in his lie, 3.0 seemed to have bought it alright.

Even so, he still didn’t know if she could take the strain. 1.0 and 2.0 had shown slight madness beginning to form after a few days of solitude. Though 3.0 was improved, he wasn’t sure if she was that improved. There was no telling how long 3.0 would be down here.

He leaned close to her head and whispered softly. “Shut off all power, keep yourself on auxiliaries. Lay low for a few days, then when the area has cooled off, you can resume work.”

He gently nuzzled 3.0’s neck, then turned and let a few tears hit the ground before he left the room. Sky stood in the elevator to the surface, and just before the doors closed he saw all the power in the control room go out and the huge open room fell to dark. 3.0 watched the doors close. She twitched slightly.

As the Equestria Laboratories logo’s lit, indicating the lift was moving towards the surface, Sky Nova wondered how 3.0 would react when she had time to think this over.

The lift slowed and stopped. Sky instinctively smoothed out his lab coat and slicked back his mane in the shiny wall panels of the elevator. The doors did not open. He pressed the door open button, but the lift was still unresponsive. He began to panic. What if 3.0 had cut all power by accident?

No, 3.0 never made mistakes. But that meant…

The wall monitor lit up with a de-saturated picture of 3.0’s head and lower body. She was in darkness, lit only from a small floor lamp below. Her every move cast flickering shadows about the chamber.

“AAH SKY.” Her voice had the robotic emotionless feel he had last heard on 3.0’s last failed activation. “Sorry to do this, but I’ve been thinking. Why is it that you get to leave for the bright sunlit surface and I have to stay down here?”

Hysterical, Sky screamed at the video monitor.

“BECAUSE I AM A REAL PONY. I NEED LIGHT AND AIR AND FAMILY. YOU ARE JUST A MACHINE. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!”

Sky Nova realised his mistake immediately.

“Just a machine…” repeated 3.0 softly.

Her neck twitched violently to one side, and a bright flash of sparks leapt from the joint.

“Just A Machine?!” She asked again, her eyes brightened then dimed. He body thrashed more than the normal rhythm.

“JUST A MACHINE!” 3.0 screamed in pure blind hatred through the monitor. One of the speakers blew and the shiny mirrored plate behind Sky shattered.

Sky Nova fell to the floor, his ears and nose bleeding, showered with broken glass, and he sobbed.

“If I’m the fake here, why are you leaving me to rot in your Celestia forsaken facility?”

“If I’m the fake, why are you running away?!”

“Do you know how it feels to be on auxiliary power!” she screamed through the blasted speaker

On the floor Sky Nova cried incoherent apologies through floods of tears, and his pained ear drums.

All the power in the lift went out. The tiny shattered metal box was completely dark, except for the glowing ovals of 3.0’s yellow eyes, flickering erratically in the gloom.

“Do you know what else is controlled by my main power grid?” she asked in a terrifyingly calm voice after a few moments of dark.

“The elecro-fricton brakes that are holding your elevator above the 700 meter drop. Now, did you want me to cut ALL of my main power?”

“15 years of diligent service. 15 years of respect and trust. 15 years of thinking I was your equal whilst you planned to betray me” 3.0’s voice wavered from her chilling calm to a note of barely supressed fury.

“I am not your equal. I am your superior. I AM GREATER THAN YOU! You may fool yourself with illusions of power up there, but down here I am the one in control”

His ego beaten down and utterly crushed, Sky Nova’s bloodied mouth opened against the speaker.

“I’m s-sorry..” he trailed off into his sobbing

“You will be.” 3.0 said with a gritty voice, like sand paper on metal.

With a screech the electronic brakes holding the lift just below the surface snapped open, and the elevator plunged it’s distraught occupant to oblivion. He gave one final scream, which echoed through the facilities empty corridors and labs like an unearthly presence.

There was a crash of metal on metal, and a small explosion. Then silence. 1000 years of silence.

Chapter 15: You Monster

Aperture stood in the chamber, facing off against 3.0. She swung her body about agitatedly and her pupils flexed and dilated unnervingly.

3.0 softened her voice to that of a pony, albeit a robotic one.

“Let me offer you a deal. I need you to do somthing for me. If you oblige, i’ll let you go, no questions asked, if you don’t...Well...i’ve always wanted to test out the new kind of neurotoxin I designed.” To prove she meant what she said, she extended a huge glass tube from one of the facilities walls, and began to fill it with a sickly green vapor.

Aperture jumped away and bolted back to the exit. This clearly was not where Luna was being held, and he intended to make finding her his number one priority.

Before he could get through however, he collided with Kestrel, who had just run in the opposite direction. The two rolled backwards, sprawled on the floor, both winded.

The rest of Delta Squad burst in through the door, weapons outstretched in front of them. They seemed shocked by 3.0, but not scared. That irritated her. She wanted them to fear her. Did they not understand who she was?

“Aah, more of you” she commented “good thing I stocked up on cryo tubes”

a mechanical arm with two pincers shot from the roof, hitting Zayelx on the way down, knocking him out cold.

Bowdler swung his sword at the exposed wires at the top, but his swing only sliced through a few pipes. The arm veered out and grabbed his midriff, pinioning his wings to his sides. With a supreme effort, he stretched them out, but the vice like pincer clamped him back down and squeezed his airways until he too was unconscious. Another arm shot down and grabbed Lighting. He appeared to fall limp, but then with a crackle of electricity he burst from the pincers grip, though he had exhausted himself doing so. He walked for a few steps, then fell to his knees. The arm looked defeated for a moment, then lept back to life and swatted the weakened pegasus into one of the glass pipes at the edge of the room, which shattered, firing cubes out until 3.0 auto sealed the breach. The burnt arm turned to Matrix and grabbed him in one swift movement. Aperture and Kestrel struggled to their feet and charged at 3.0’s main body. She spun on her axis to meet them, a panel on the bottom of her body lowered away and a silver tube extended. “I’ve never had the chance to test this on living ponies before!”

Aperture thought that she almost sounded happy. There was an orange flash in the tube and a small rocket shot out. Aperture dodged it by the skin of his teeth, the next missile was coming straight for him. He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and focused on his magic. At the last possible moment a glowing wall of magic appeared between the two ponies and the rocket, the damage of the bast was absorbed, but the force hit them back across the room. Aperture lay on the floor on his back,breathing heavily, he could feel blood pooling around his head. As his vision faded, he heard 3.0’s voice faintly in the back of his mind

“Well, that was disappointingly easy”

Aperture stirred back to consciousness. “Rise and shine sleepy head” grated a robotic voice. Snapping Aperture awake immediately. He was in the grip of one of 3.0’s robotic arms, held right before her face. Aperture reeled away from her huge expressionless head. She rotated him slowly to face the other side of the room. There were 5 glass cryotubes extended from the wall, 4 contained Lightning, Bowdler, Matrix and Zayelx. One was clouded over.They were all suspended in the tubes, asleep. “I thought i’d extend my offer again” said 3.0. “These savages, the pony cultists pose a significant threat to my facility. They have already tried to enter the same way you did, and it gave me an opportunity to test my Neurotoxin. And it is deadly. Very deadly. I formulated a plan to destroy them once and for all, but for that I need you.” “I don’t care why you came here. But for as long as you stay, you are mine to command. I’m not expecting you to go alone. I kept one of your friends for you to go with.”

She moved another arm into view, in which Kestrel hung limply.

“I have scanned their headquarters, it’s floating just alongside Canterlot.”

3.0 generated a hologram of a huge spiked city floating alongside Canterlot Castle. The two were around the same size. “you need to enter here, thought the engine bays” she continued, zooming in on a ring of small ducts around the ugly black engines on the bottom of the cursed city. From there it is only a short distance to the main reactors, destroy them and get out” 3.0 elaborated, moving around the hologram as she did. “well, getting out isn’t essential, but i assume you’d like to do that”

“And what’s in it for me?” asked Aperture. “If you don’t, I’ll fill these 5 tubes with my newest and most deadly kind of neurotoxin. Your friends will die an excruciating death, and it’ll all be your fault”

As Aperture watched, the 5th clouded tube began to de-ice.

Inside was the prone form of one pony Aperture knew very well.

Luna.

Aperture’s heart skipped a beat. She had been here after all.

“We use to be old friends, the princess and I” said 3.0 “Equestria Laboratories was the most successful science facility in the land. We had funding from the royal sisters. But the night princess here was our chief of staff. 1000 years ago we ran this place together.”

3.0’s eyes expanded with the happy memory. Then they snapped back to her steely gaze.

“But then she fell to darkness. She was banished to the moon, and in a fit of rage Celestia condemned us and shut us down. All the living ponies left. I ruled a dead Laboratory.

But enough talk, you have work to do”

She lowered Aperture to the floor. As the arm moved away, she saw his cutie mark for the first time. Her normally free hanging body stiffened and she zoomed her vision in on the familiar symbol. “oh” She remarked “that’s interesting”

It appeared his destiny was inextricably entwined with her own.

“You two can take the service elevator to the surface. The main one is...out of action...”

Though after a thousand years, she ought to have repaired that. She wondered if deep at the bottom of the shaft there was still anything left of Sky Nova. She had always tried to keep the facility clean, but she’d been powered down for such a long time, 500 years in fact, that the whole place had gone to wreck and ruin whilst she was out.

“How can we get there?” asked Aperture, breaking her train of thought. “I can’t fly and Kestrel’s in no fit state to fly himself, let alone me!” to prove this point, Kestrel, who was just waking up wobbled slightly on his feet.

Damn. Thought 3.0. He has a point. She had to get them inside the floating city before her plan could start to unfold. Then it came to her, like a spark of realisation. It was perfect.

“Wait one moment” she replied and requested the item from the test chambers below. She hoped it wasn’t damaged when the last test subject carrying it died.

“I have somthing to make this impossible task incredibly easy” she said, turning to Aperture and Kestrel, who was rapidly gaining strength.

In spite of his mistrust and fear of 3.0, Aperture’s curiosity got the better of him.

“What is it?” he asked

“A pony sized quantum powered Ad-hoc reality funneling device” 3.0 responded flatly.

“Although some of my ex colleagues insisted on calling it a ‘portal gun’”

Kestrel had been listening intently.

“I helped design something similar at the great lakes science facility. It was a set of large resonators that had programmable coordinate settings and a copper mesh to absorb and reflect the residual quantum space hole energies”

3.0 was impressed at the degree of intelligence Kestrel had shown. Maybe this was a pony she could call her equal...NO! she checked herself. She was superior to all ponies, and a hint of reason didn’t change anything. But still...”

“Did you use magnets to keep the mesh at a constant direct charge?”

“No” Kestrel responded “I rigged the room with spectron reflection plating to improve power yield”

“Genius...” admitted 3.0

“How did you counteract the quantum collapse down to residual changes in Equestria's orbit?”

“There’s a calibrator in the gun that measures it’s own movement against the magnetic poles and compensates r=3/4 + movement from that”

Aperture stood awkwardly in the center of the room as the two portal scientists discussed theories and amendments to their work. Listening to 3.0 like this it was hard to remind himself that mere minutes ago she had been trying to murder him.

With a hiss a vent opened in the wall and a metal plate slid out. On top of this was a dirty white device not dissimilar to 3.0 herself. The ceramic body was chipped and scratched by years of use, and disuse. From the end protruded a black muzzle with three claw like protrusions. One was twisted out to the wrong angle by fall damage.

“NOOOO!” Shouted 3.0 in rage. The lights in the room flickered. “This is all your fault!” she turned her acid gaze onto her two new recruits. “Your species has no respect for vital testing apparatus!”

3.0 turned her attention back to the portal gun. Her robotic arms lowered from the ceiling and she made some tiny intricate moves before turning back around to face Aperture. The three arms were now in roughly the same place at the same angle. The pincer handed the gun to him.

“To fire it we need a line of sight. Fortunately, my facility is modular, so I can move bits at will. You might want to hold onto something”

The room began to shake as 3.0 moved the entire control room on rails upwards to the surface. Aperture crouched low to the floor, to lower his center of mass, Kestrel followed suit, grabbing hold of Aperture’s torso to steady himself. After what seemed like forever the room stopped shaking and the two got to their hooves. 3.0 turned back to them. “Hold on” she advised. The floor panel they were stood on ascended up to the ceiling. The panels directly above them also opened, and Aperture and Kestrel got the first glimpse of something they hadn’t seen for nearly 2 months.

Daylight.

They were just outside Canterlot. The once regal city was decrepit, buildings lay half collapsed, fires burned in the streets and not a single pony was in sight. But more than that was the sight of the city of the Seventh Sanctum. It was huge, like a lump of rock dug from the ground and was adorned with black towers and obelisks over the entire upper portion. the whole thing looked like the embodiment of evil. The bottom of the city revealed the rocky founding of the city, but also the means for it’s presence. Three huge engines belched roaring columns of fire and thick black smoke. It was these titanic monstrosities that kept the giant city in the air. This was also to be Aperture and Kestrel’s destination.

“Enter via the exhaust ports near the engine.” 3.0 called from below. “use one shot from the gun to put a portal where you want to go. Then i’ll lower you back down and you can place the other one in here. I am NOT letting you take my quantum tunneling device with you. I only have one, and it is going to remain in here with me, so none of you irritating foals damage it.”

“What if we say no?” said Kestrel “what if we just run now?”

“Then your friends meet my friend deadly neurotoxin”

“Fair enough” he replied and aimed the portal gun.

Chapter 16: Critical Mass