Equestrian Alliance: Project Oblivion

After several minutes the door banged open again and Dr. Hardy barged in, carrying papers. "Sorry, that took me longer than I expected. I dropped these in the hallway and had to pick them all up again." He moved to approach the table, and dropped the stack of papers again. They scattered on the floor around him. "Crap!"

"Don't worry," Emmy said, sliding off her chair. She swept up the papers swiftly with her telekinetic field, sliding them gently back into his hands.

He blinked. "Ah, thank you so much. I've yet to get used to your magical abilities. You are all truly amazing!" Then he wrinkled his nose. "Uh, does anyone else smell something funny?"

"We showed the video. It, um, turned a few stomachs," Sanchez replied. "Trust me, you don't want to know more than that. I wish I didn't know more than that, but what has been seen cannot be unseen."

"I see," Dr. Hardy said uncertainly. "Anyway, is everyone ready? Were you waiting on my arrival?

"Sort of," Jeff replied, walking back to the table with Celestia. "But we still have a couple out of the room."

"Good, that will give me a minute to get set up."

Celestia and Jeff sat back at the table while Dr. Hardy busied himself with his notes, stacking them in piles and muttering to himself.
After several minutes, Fluttershy and Rarity returned and headed to their seats, looking much fresher. Fluttershy looked nervous, but she sat down quietly and took a deep breath.

Jeff addressed the room in general. "If everyone is ready to continue?" Nods of assent greeted him. He noted that Fluttershy and Rarity both nodded as well. "Good then. At this time, I'm handing the briefing over to our head researcher, Dr. Hardy."

"Thanks Jeff. We have received some additional information from employees who escaped the invasion of the island." Jeff touched a control and the lights dimmed again. A slideshow came up on the monitors. "Unfortunately, due to the energy pulse that went out from the gate before the attack, much of our equipment sustained damage and ceased to function properly. We have little video of anything that happened afterward."

An artist's rendition of something resembling a large spider appeared on the screen.

"According to reports, many of the enemies were protected by impenetrable force-fields. Our bullets and weapons did little to nothing against them."

He swept his hand, and an orb appeared around the spider.

"Unshielded enemies were damaged or killed by gunfire. However, enough were utilizing shielding that ProteC security could not slow their advance effectively with small arms fire, resulting in the rapid neutralization of our forces."

He clicked the slide again. Several sketches of bizarre and terrifying creatures appeared, some insectoid, some tentacled, and some completely unfamiliar.

"The enemies attacking our people were not uniform. Many different varieties were reported, most could not be adequately described by the survivors during debriefing. In fact, the mere act of trying to describe the lifeforms put some of them back into hysterics."

He left the slide up for a moment. "Although some of our people escaped by boat, over fifty are believed to be dead after the invasion. The creatures pursued to the docks, where they were held off barely long enough to launch a ship. Some of the survivors have experienced deep psychological trauma from the event, to the point where several have fallen into a catatonic state."

He glanced around the table. "It is our belief that the mere sight or presence of some of these beings has placed humans into a state of debilitating madness. As was evidenced in the first video where Spencer was driven mad and then killed by..." He trailed off for a moment, looked nervously at Jeff, who nodded impassively. Dr. Hardy swallowed and continued. "The... victim seemingly lost their sanity upon sight of the attacker."

There was a moment of silence.

"But what could do such a thing?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"In human lore, there has been talk of creatures so alien that any interaction with them is dangerous to the psyche. Creatures so fundamentally wrong that their appearance alone defies every semblance of logic and physics. Seeing them tears apart the base foundation of the brain's grasp on reality, leaving a person insane."

"That's a very scary thought," Fluttershy said softly. She put her chin on the table and folded her hooves over her eyes.

"What would you call this?" Rarity asked.

"An Eldritch Abomination," Chris interjected. "I know Lovecraftian lore.".

"A what now?" asked Applejack.

"An Eldritch Abomination is an ancient creature of immense power," Dr. Hardy explained. "I don't suppose any of you have ever read anything by H.P. Lovecraft, but he wrote stories of the concept over half a century ago. Only I'm starting to think it was more than just a concept, based up on the way the pieces of this event are coming together."

Pinkie scrunched up her face. "I'm confused. Can you say the whole thing from the start please?"

Chris took a breath. "Lovecraft was an author many years ago. He wrote stories about horrible, dark beings that held immense power. They were so far removed from humans as to be incomprehensible. They were called Eldritch Abominations, the Old Gods. The mere sight of one of these creatures could drive a human being insane."

Chris waved a hand at the twisted forms on the monitor. "That's what these things remind me of. Ghouls and lesser devils. They would be in the service of a stronger being. A being like Cthulhu."

There was a croaking noise from the table.

"Pinkie Pie, are you okay sugar cube?" Applejack's voice was concerned.

Pinkie Pie's face was a sickly green, as if she had suddenly gotten a severe stomach ache. "I.. I... I'll be okay, I just need some... water. I must have... eaten too many donuts." She tried to smile, and the effect was more disturbing than reassuring.

Rarity poured her a glass of water. "Darling, I think you need to relax a bit."

"Awww man," Rainbow Dash moaned. "You guys are dropping like flies and we haven't even started yet."

"Rainbow Dash! That's not a nice thing to say," Rarity chastised. "This is a hard time for everypony."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way. I'm just... worried about you guys. I mean, I'll be okay because I'm awesome, but..." Rainbow Dash sighed. "You guys are awesome too, and if something happened... I'm just worried, that's all."

Pinkie waved a hoof. "I'm okay. I'm okay." Her smile looked like a cardboard cutout, her eyes tense in a way her friends had never seen before.

"If you're okay, I'm a stallion in a top hat," Applejack said, suspiciously.

"I'll be back," Pinkie Pie said quietly. "I need to visit the bathroom."

She vanished under the table, and reappeared already at the door. She swung it open hurriedly and almost sprinted down the hallway as it swung closed behind her.

Twilight made a move to follow her friend. "Hold a moment," Dr. Hardy said, his eyes narrowed and riveted on the door Pinkie Pie had just left through. "That thing she just did. She glitched."

"That's just Pinkie Pie. She does things that don't always make sense."

"Hmmm. So she really can teleport."

"No, Unicorns teleport with our magic. Pinkie Pie does something else. It's not magic. We... honestly, we don't really think about it much. It's just something she does. We tend to take a lot of magical things for granted in Equestria."

Dr. Hardy put his thumb on his lip. "Fascinating. But I do not. Since you don't have a word for it, I'm going to say she shadowsteps."

"Shadow-what?" Applejack asked, confused.

"I'll be right back," Dr. Hardy said, headed for the door.

Twilight held out a hoof. "But..."

"Trust me. I'm a doctor."

"You're not THAT kind of doctor," Jeff said.

"I know more about psychology than you might think, and I think I need to talk to her. Alone."

"Well that's just too bad, because I'm going too," Fluttershy said, her tone of voice indicating that she would not be dissuaded.

"Oh, fine." He strode across the room, and Fluttershy followed him out.

"What's going on?" Celestia leaned over and whispered in Jeff's ear.

"I'm not sure, but it's obvious Pinkie knows something she's not telling."

"I gathered that much, which surprises me because she can barely keep a secret about anything."

Several uncomfortable minutes ticked by.

"So, this HP Lovecraft was an author?" Twilight asked finally. "Can I get his books to read? I think it may be a good idea."

"Certainly," Jeff said. "There is a reading tablet in your room, you should be able to download almost any book in the world on it if you aren't comfortable with the holographic library reader in your ARHUD. If you need any help using it just let me know."

Dr. Hardy reentered the room alone.

"Where's Pinkie and Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

"Pinkie is collecting her thoughts. I left her and Fluttershy in the atrium by the waterfall, it seemed to calm her down to sit in the sunlight. She said she will be okay, but she wanted some time to think." He walked to the table and stood by Jeff, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "She didn't say much, but I'm sure something about my briefing upset her more than I think it should have, even under the circumstances..."

"That's not like her at all, to get so seriously agitated," Applejack mused. Her friends nodded in agreement.

"This is some pretty heavy stuff," Marky said. "Maybe it finally got to her."

Twilight grimaced. "Most of the time it's not easy to upset her, although there was that one time she kind of lost it when she got the idea that we didn't care about her anymore..."

"I don't think this is anything like that," Applejack commented. "She looked terrified to me."

Emmy tapped her hoof on the table. "I'm sorry, but I think we should continue. It's not surprising that this subject matter is getting to some of us, but we have to see it through to the end."

"She's right," Chris added. "We need to come up with a plan quickly."

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment. "I agree. But I don't see much we can do besides going out and doing our best to clean up your island."

"I've already been preparing," Jeff said, looking up from the screen he had been tapping on. "I had security here on high alert, readying weapons and vehicles. But now, I have gone a step further and redirected all non-committed security forces in this theater. They will be bringing additional armored vehicles. I have also ordered the Leviathan command ship to travel here."

"What is the Leviathan?" Celestia asked.

"It is a large prototype amphibious carrier vessel, capable of launching both landing vehicles and a limited number of VTOL aircraft. ProteC has not had much opportunity to put it to use as of yet, so this can be somewhat advantageous for us as a combat test."

"That sounds promising indeed. But what is a VTOL?"

"Ah, please excuse me and my acronyms. Military habits die hard. VTOL stands for Vertical Takeoff and Landing. We have a loadout of nimble combat quadcopters that can be launched from Leviathan. It's coming down from the United States. It should not take long to arrive. It is being loaded with a compliment of armored beam tanks as we speak."

"Quadcopters...?"

"Uh, air vehicles. That's how we humans fly. We don't have wings."

"What about weapons?" Marky asked.

Jeff frowned. "Well, to be honest, that's what I'm most worried about. The security personnel at Gate 2 were armed mostly with standard rifles, but there were heavy weapons up to light machine guns and grenade launchers available. Reportedly, these had little to no effect against larger enemies thanks to their magical shielding."

"We need to combine our talents intelligently," Celestia said. "We have to pool our resources. You have many weapons and plenty of equipment. We have the knowledge to fight enemies using magic."

Emmy spoke up. "Your weapons are primarily projectile based, correct?"

Dr. Hardy nodded. "Mostly. We do have some directed energy weapons."

Emmy rubbed her cheek thoughtfully. "Projectile weapons... Perhaps we could modify them magically to increase their effectiveness? What do you think, Twilight?"

Twilight considered for a moment. "It seems to me that the greatest problem is your inability to penetrate shields. Magic barriers are strong against physical assault."

"We have a concept called armor piercing," Chris said. "Bullets and projectiles specifically designed to go through layers of armor. Is there some way we could do the same against a magic barrier?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes slightly. "Hmmmm. That may be possible. Perhaps a modified dissipation spell applied to a crystal, embedded in the tip of your projectiles? But it would require Equestrian gemstones. The crystals you have here are not craftable by our magic."

Rarity waved a hoof. "Darling, I can find you gemstones. It's a special ability of mine, after all. I just have to go back to Everfree Forest, and I'll need some help digging them out."

"I will provide you with any assistance you need," Jeff said.

Twilight leaned forward in her chair. "I will also need help from Celestia, Emmy, and your human weapons specialists and scientists. There may be other modifications we can help with once we understand more about your technology. This won't be easy. When can we start?"

Jeff grunted thoughtfully. "Well, we can send out a party to Equestria tomorrow. I don't want it to get dark on you guys. Also, I have some equipment you can deliver while you're at it. Who wants to go with Rarity?"

Sanchez raised his hand. "I'll go with you and provide security."

"Me too." Marky raised a hoof.

"Reckon I can lend a hoof with the digging," Applejack offered.

Hamilton shrugged. "I'll help dig too. I'd like to be back Equestria side again, even if only for a short while."

Twilight thought for a moment. "I should probably go also. I can show you exactly what crystals we need."

"We'll send a Gator through tomorrow then," Jeff said. He looked around the room. "I think we should wrap this meeting up for now. We've established a plan of action, and we need to head down to Medical and get you all scanned into the computers."

"I'll get Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy," Dr. Hardy said. "But I need to get back to my lab and start on these projects."

"I'll go with you and lead them to the bioscan room," Sanchez said, rising to follow Dr. Hardy out.

"Well, on we go," Jeff said. "Next stop, Medical."