3 Ponies and A Supercomputer

The air was thick. It felt as though the weight of the world began to bear upon us. Our room began to feel increasingly hot. GM wanted us out. Stepping into the tunnels we saw it. Big, grotesque and wondrous; six legged and four armed; colorful and vibrant; it was like a harlequin that bore two faces and two masks, though both unsettlingly delighted. This horror looked us down. We were easy quarry. A black residue slowly dripped from its body as it crawled towards us.

“Swift.. Lucky…” Lyra murmured. The creature halted its advance. It stood its ground watching our movements. We stood little chance of evading this creature.

“For the Goddesses sakes! Give us something to defend ourselves!” Lucky howled to the ceiling. Three crudely constructed spears began to materialize in front of us. Useless. We all grabbed one then circled around, drawing in closer to the beast. Fearlessly I stabbed my spear through torso of the beast with all the force a starved pony could manage. The spear disintegrated. Big mistake.

The Horror howled, it was as if a stallion was screaming at his most in fear, It thrashed about. I hit the wall right of it. My body ached from the immense trauma. It charged after Lyra and Lucky next; Lucky dashed out of its way. Lyra wasn't as fortunate… All that was left was her gored remains smashed into the wall.

“Shit!” Lucky scowled. He was flying a few feet above the ground behind the beast. Wrong place. In an instant before he could react the beast swung around bringing the full weight of its arms down on Lucky. His wings were all I could see of his crushed remains.

It slowly turned towards me. Huh.. I felt a warm sensation in my side. I am bleeding… I almost didn't notice. As it started towards me, my eyes slowly blacked out…

+---^--^--^----~----

Alive. I woke up, whole and intact. I was on a metal bed that barely reached my length. The room was dimly lit, but I could make out a hexagonal shape to it. There was a large metal cylinder rising from the middle of the room to the ceiling. There were other beds. One for each wall. Stepping onto the cool floor I fell, my side ached. There’s no mark… Nothing was left of the gash in my side. Pulling myself up, I limped around the room checking around every bed. One bed then two and so forth. four were empty. Then the final two came. And there they were, Lyra the unicorn and Lucky the pegasus. They almost seemed cute, peaceful even. Lying on the beds asleep, I kicked them both over.

“Hey!” Lucky barked. Lyra seemed to wake up red and in a daze.

“Get over it.” I wasn’t hanging around any longer than I had to.

When we all got around to leaving, we found ourselves in an unfamiliar place. Our hexagonal room exited into an underground warehouse of sorts. Always keeping us guessing GM? The room was large, huge actually, we could be wandering for hours before finding a way out. There were great stacks of cargo containers everywhere. And the wall and ceiling supports seemed to ache under pressure. Lyra feeling a sudden burst of courage decided to lead. A light glow from her horn soon became a bright light illuminating the way for us, she slowly walked forward.

There was an abundance of waste and debris in this warehouse, climbing all the way to the ceiling even. Many pathways either looked too treacherous cross or were blocked outright.

In different times this place would have been one of many warehouses stockpiling weapons, support equipment, and Goddesses knows what else the government had developed. In the end, places like these would have merely prolonged the world's survival from its impending destruction.

Crawling under a metal rafter that had fallen ages ago I joined with Lyra. She made a fire from the junk that was around. We had no food still, but the fire kept us warm and provided at least a small feeling of safety (not that safety mattered). Had we not been weakened crossing this place would have been easy. Still though, I had to climb and walk everywhere. Lyra when she had at least a little energy could float over most large obstacles. And Lucky could just fly everywhere, flying even in such extreme situations was manageable for most Pegasi. Unicorns and Pegasi have it easy…

The fire burned, flicking light in all directions. Lucky was away, He had left earlier to “scout”. Lucky, at least during the old days, was a scout for the Pegasi, or so he says...

The warehouse was completely dark except for our fire, though most of the time every place in the underground was. Many functions down here had long since ceased to function, much of this world mattered little to GM, it gave no thought of preserving most of what was left. GM gave us light every once in awhile, just to help keep time. Time, it never mattered for us, but for it, GM, time was almost everything. That light also was a rare commodity.

“Hey..” Lyra always had a kind of inquisitive look about her. The kind that made ponies think before they spoke to her. “Can I ask you something?” She always, even after so long, had a question to ask. It was her ability to constantly remain perceptive and inquiring that was lost on me.

“What?” I asked. Questions grew old.

“Can you tell me the story of how we met. All of us, you, me, Lucky? It's been so long... I just can’t remember everything like I once could.” We had been here for years, so long that I can’t remember how much time has past. With GM we are immortal. And even though our bodies stay preserved our minds are a different matter…

Feeling a bit willing I began to tell the story, as best as I could, there was no point in denying her in the end. “We all met during the end of the Great War. For years there had been stalemate, No force could cause a change in power, and even though towards the end the war favored us, the ponies of Equestria lived in constant fear of enemy attacks.

“The Manehattan metropolitan area had seen staggering growth during the war; Resources had to come in and out of the city easily. And so did the millions of ponies living there. Most of the growth was centered on the Manehattan subway system. This system eventually connected to all of the major cities of Equestria, excluding only Canterlot”.

“Why did it exclude Canterlot?” She asked.

“No one really has a clear answer as to why, some speculated it was for defense reasons to deny the enemy a clear way into the capital and a clear way to the Princesses, some say that those aristocrates didn’t want to be reminded that a war was going on to keep living out their lavish lives with their chateaux and the Grand Galloping Gala each year.

“So getting to our part of it now. When the final air raid sirens went off I was at the gym. I had been an aspiring runner during those days. Even though I never made it to the professionals, I still trained everyday. I don’t remember much of the details on what happened next, I remember going to the subway because it would have been the safest place in the city, and then something happened and I was alone…

“Lucky said that he was stationed back in the mainland during those times, having been given orders to escort something along with a team in Manehattan, that ‘something’ according to him naturally made its way underground.

“You told us that you lived in Ponyville, far from any major transit station. And that you worked as a musician there alongside a choir.”

“I played the lyre with the choir… yes. I remember a little now… It was the Ponyville choir. But that wasn’t just it, if I remember right…” She said, of the three of us I knew the least about Lyra. She’d rather most of the time be searching for something, anything really. Innocent in a way she had always seemed, but I’ve been around her too long to let myself believe that completely.

“Well if it ain’t the two lovebirds” a voice said from the shadows. Lucky was not back yet.

“Son of a…”