The Story of Aperture

Matrix’s laptop chimed. The red light on the bulk head’s controls flickered then flashed green. The door crunched, and slid open a notch. After some strained mechanical sounds, it slowly slid the rest of the way. The smell of decay hit delta squad like a brick. The corridors inside the door were radically different from those outside. They were made from a coated white material, not hewn from rock like the caves. The walls were interlaced with tiny hardy plants, making the most of the faint artificial light that filled the corridors. The placed looked ancient from its deteriorated state, but the craftsmanship was far beyond what the ponies could hope to create now.

“Is it alien?” Asked Kestrel, peering into the tunnel. “It’s like what we had back at Great Lakes, but on an enormous scale!”

“I don’t know.” Said Bowdler, “But it’d be in our best interests to find out. It’s not like any of the alien tech I’ve ever seen” “Let’s move up and see if we can find somewhere to set up shop, Twilight needs to recuperate a little longer before she can help us.”

The ponies set out into the tunnel, and followed the dim passages down a slight slope, clambering over roots and buttresses that had taken up home in the tunnels, dragging the makeshift sled containing Twilight. Aperture still felt a tingle down his spine when he noticed the emblems on the wall, of the Aperture logo. It unnerved him that this ancient place seemed to have more in common with him that anywhere else. He got the feeling that he was being kept in the dark by the facilities twisting corridors.

The team eventually found a large antechamber where growing plants had cracked the rusted door down the hinge side. A few strong kicks from Lightning brought it down and they found themselves in a wood panelled office type room. There were a few bulky computers on the desks, and piles of paper, damp and mouldy everywhere. Between them, Kestrel, Lightning and Bowdler shunted most of the desks and all the papers to one side, and the squad set up a small makeshift control room, with Matrix’s equipment on the desks, and tents facing the door. It was quite warm inside the facility, unlike the damp cold caves, but moisture still hung in the air, like a place that hasn’t felt a gust of breeze for centuries. The Equestria Laboratories logo was emblazed across the bottom of the bulky monitors, Matrix quickly disassembled one to look at its inner workings, and found they were tenfold more advanced than his laptop. If he could reverse engineer one of the worn out machines, he could build a much better computer from bits of it and his own.

Aperture was sharing a tent with Kestrel, and the two slept uneasily that night. Aperture’s dreams were filled with a horrible face, like a pony, but with blank unseeing eyes, and patchy red skin, like a swollen bruise. He was surrounded by a red mist, thick, like running through treacle. The creature hobbled after him wherever he ran, slow but purposeful.

Aperture woke with a start and sat up. His tent was empty. Matrix had worked through the night on his computer system, and as Aperture clambered out of the tent, Matrix turned from his work and greeted Aperture with a steaming mug of coffee.

“Rise and shine lazy bones” he joked. “Bowdler doesn’t want to see you sleeping on the job.”

He extended his hoof towards Aperture “Here, I had some hot water spare, thought I’d make you a coffee” he said.

“Coffee?”

“You never had coffee?!”

“Nope”

Matrix looked at Aperture as if he’d just told him the world was flat.

“It helps you wake up; I’d still be asleep at 9 if it weren’t for this”

“What time is it?” Asked Aperture.

“7:30, you’re up bright and early” Matrix replied “Kestrel’s already up though. He wanted to stretch his wings, and scout ahead a little.”

Aperture was a little jealous. Kestrel’s air of confidence and his brash nature made him a very agreeable pony, and to just dart off into the unknown alone was just too daunting for Aperture. He turned from his thoughts back to Matrix.

“Anything I can help with?” he asked

“Actually, If you wouldn’t mind moving these cables.” Matrix said, gesturing to a stack of tangled wires on his makeshift desk. “I’ve been meaning to loop them round the camp, so I can get some lights set up. If we’re lucky, there’ll be a wall socket over there, so I can siphon some extra battery. Running this program is draining it something chronic”

Aperture lifted the cables with his magic and walked to the darker side of the room. He laid some cable on the floor and continued around the tents, back to Matrix’s desk. He pluged the cables into various pieces of equipment, and walked over to the cables beginning.

“You might want to stand back” Matrix warned “This could get a little…Sparky” Aperture stood well back and watched as Matrix pulled the wall socket open and used his magic to connect up a few leads. He snapped on one last crocodile clip, and there was a flash from inside the wall socket, then the rooms lights flickered, then powered up from the dim light they had given out before to a full glow like day. Aperture had to shield his eyes from the brightness. It reminded him how long it had been since he’d been outside. The rest of Delta Squad crawled out of their tents, awoken by the sudden brightness.

“Sweet, we’ve got light” commented Lightning

“Have a gold star Captain Obvious” grunted Bowdler, then he walked over and congratulated Matrix personally.

“That’s Commander Obvious to you!” retorted Lightning.

Matrix tapped a few instructions on his laptop, and a hologram was projected into the centre of the room. It showed a 3d model of the facility. There was a glowing pinprick of light on in one small room at the top of the diagram.

“That” said Matrix, gesturing to the dot “is us”

On the same floor, one of the largest rooms at the other side of the vast facility, about a mile distant, also contained a glowing dot.

“That” Continued Matrix “is Princess Luna’s distress beacon”

Delta Squad packed light and left their camp pitched, as they planned to return after the rescue. Aperture led the way, balisong levitated at the ready, then Bowdler, Kestrel, Matrix, Zayelx and Lighting. The ancient corridors and walkways were improving in quality as Delta squad moved through the facility towards the room Matrix had indicated. After a short walk, Aperture was faced with an impressive sight. Through a shattered and warped door, he saw the room they were heading to. It was about 300 meters from them but struck an impressive sight. It was separated from Aperture by a steel gantry, not rusted and corroded like the other he’d seen, but shiny and safe. The room itself resembled a huge cylindrical column that reached as far as the eye could see, suspended above a huge drop to the lower floor, a kind of sphere produced from hexagonal pieces. Wires snaked from it to the walls, and high up to the roof. It was circumference by a network of the vacuum pipes Bowdler and Matrix had ridden in on, transporting goods and supplies in the blink of an eye. The whole setup was made of crisp clean glass, pearly white enamel and matte white panels. Above was the sign they had seen before, but shining like new, labelling this “Equestria Laboratories Core Control Unit”.

Aperture forced himself through the gap in the warped doors and onto the gantry. It seemed like the drop below was to infinity. He wished, not for the first time that he had wings as a backup.

Delta squad hurried along the gantry, the quest was nearing its conclusion, and the idea spurred them onwards to help restore some normality to their chaotic world. They hadn’t seen natural light for months, and didn’t dare to think what occupied Canterlot was like, just 500 meters or so above their heads.

Aperture ran towards the closed door at the entrance to the huge room, which began to open automatically as he bore down on it. Suddenly, Aperture tripped on his own hooves and fell forward, his balisong slid out in front of him and he rolled through the open door into the room.

Inside it was mostly vast and empty, but for a few of the transport tubes that snaked through, lit by apple green lights mounted on the floor and walls. The central part of the room was taken up by a huge machine, hanging from the ceiling. The top was matte black and grey, covered in wires and cables arcing up to the walls and panelled roof. That section curved inwards to a smaller, enamel and porcelain, but noticeably mechanical structure beneath. This was far more complex than the first one, with a complicated array of hydraulics, pistons, gears and motors, in part coated in while creamy enamelled sections, covering some of the more delicate sections. Attached to the end of this was a body, made in virtually the same way, but shaped like the torso and head of a pony.

The blank featureless head rotated in its body, and silently the monstrous machine turned to face him. It focused its huge yellow eyes onto Aperture’s prone stunned form.

A metallic voice emanated from slits on its cheeks and echoed around the vast room.

“HELLO. I AM THREE-POINT-OH. THIS IS MY FACILITY AND YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE. PROTOCAL DICTATES I KILL YOU IMMEDIATELY. YOU ARE FORTUNATE I HAVE CHOSEN TO IGNORE IT. BECAUSE I NEED YOU TO DO SOMETHING FOR ME. IF YOU ACCEPT THEN I WILL NOT TERMINATE YOU.”

“Well” sighed Aperture “This just throws another spanner in the works doesn’t it?”