Prologue: Operation New Moon
“Blitz is locked, loaded, and ready to go.”
“Bull here is itching to get a move on.”
“Nitro is fit and ready to kick, ass. How about you Major?”
Cobra stepped forward and adjusted his weapon strap before fixing his chemical mask to his face. Voice muffled he looked at his three squadmates. “I’m just as eager as you boys are,” He said, his tone sounded ragged as if he’d inhaled plenty amount of smoke in his days.
Blitz, a large burly guy you’d probably wouldn’t want to fuck with, pulled a mag from his AR and checked it one last time before sliding it back into his rifle and wracking a round. “Heh,” His deep voice chuckled, “Who’d a thought we’d be entering the rift to abduct one of those things.” He smiled behind his mask.
“Yeah,” Nitro agreed, his smaller and slimmer body shifted his tactical vest a bit. “Makes me wonder about them old farmer stories about aliens abducting cattle,” He says before glancing over his shoulder. “Hey, Major, can you help tighten my pack.”
Cobra nodded, not really wanting to get involved with the chit chat, his mind more focused on the mission planning. He leaned forward a bit and pulled a couple straps till the lad in front of him cursed and told him, sarcastically, that he was crushing him.
“Strike Team, this is Central,” Came the deep voice of the Commanding Officer in each of their earpieces. “The Rift will be opening in E.T.A twenty seconds.”
“Nice,” Bull muttered quietly, like Cobra, he wasn’t much for chit chat.
“What’s the weather like on the other side?” Blitz asked, his finger on the ear piece.
“Cloudy with a twenty percent chance to rain, time of day is relative to our midnight. Not much has changed since briefing.”
“Damn.” Nitro muttered.
“Looks like you ain’t getting that afternoon tan,” Blitz snickered as the large metallic doors in front of the screeched open. A bright, navy blue light filling the dimly lit airlock the four men were in.
Nitro shrugged. “Hey man, one can hope.”
“Yeah and knowing your pale ass, we’ll be spotted the second we step foot into the rift,” Blitz laughed.
“And knowing your black ass you’d blend right into my kitchen,” Nitro retorts with a smirk, the larger man glanced back and laughed.
“Alright girls, focus!” Cobra ordered as he cracked his neck.
“Strike team, you’re now clear to enter the Rift. May the lord guide you through to the other side, Godspeed.”
:[-]:
Cobra and his men crouch ran out shortly after jumping through the rift towards what looked to be a pastel colored building. Shoulders making contact the wall, the four men hugged against it and glanced at one another to check if everyone made it. Taking a brief moment Cobra glanced about their surroundings, just as the egg heads predicted. The four operatives were right in the middle of what looked to be a town, waiting for a few silent moments as he listened, he finally worked the urge to peek around the corner. They were on the edge of what looked like a shopping district, further on he couldn’t really tell due the dim moonlight not revealing much to him.
Taking a deep breath, he took his NODs and lowered them over his eyes. Turning them on he adjusted the settings until he could just make out the silhouette of their targeted area, a distant castle. Suddenly, Cobra felt a light tap on his thigh. He turned back and saw Bull with his NODs holding up the number three before pointing towards their seven o’clock, in the distance he could make out three native civilians casually strolling down the street.
The sight of them made Cobra frown a bit, something about their anatomy made it so he just couldn’t take them seriously. In all other circumstances they resembled a small pony you’d find on a farm, except for the fact that these ones had larger eyes and appeared thicker and more rounded in some areas. Not only that there were different breeds, such as the ones that could fly or the ones that the horns that gave the psionic abilities. Yet, because of their physical features, they almost seemed relatively harmless and almost adorable in certain aspects.
But due to specific circumstances, his men were not meant to be seen. Therefore they needed to change positions immediately, glancing back at Bull he pointed to Blitz, who was covering their rear and gestured for them to proceed down the wall.
Bull nodded his head and tapped Nitro, who then tapped Blitz and transferred the orders. Within a few seconds the four men were moving down the wall away from the three natives. A few moments past and the four men came upon an alleyway, breaking formation briefly, Cobra kept his head low as he dashed up to Blitz.
“Alright what’s our position?” He whispers.
“From the aerial mapping we got from the drones, I can safely assure you we’re right here.” Blitz tapped the map, showing Cobra that the four of them were somewhere, if not exactly, in the center of town. “We’re about two clicks from our target destination.”
“How long do you think it’ll take for us to get there?” Cobra asked as he glanced at the map then down the alley way, there were a couple dumpsters and garbage they could take cover behind.
Blitz shrugged. “Depends on what we run into. If we can get there smoothly without any interruptions, I’d says about ten minutes or so.”
“Sounds good to me, though recommend we stick to the back streets and alleys.” Cobra pointed his route on the map. “May take a tad longer but it’s most likely the safest and covert path.”
“Agreed,” Blitz nodded, “I just hope we get this done so I can get back and get some extra Zs” He jokes.
Cobra lightly patted his back. “Believe me, we’ll be home before we know it.” He muttered before glancing back at the other two and gesturing for them to come up.
The two squadmates nodded and stepped towards the two. “So what are you two love birds talking about?” Nitro asked.
“We’re talking about what we’re gonna have for dinner.” Blitz replied, causing the other guy to smirk.
Cobra smiled a bit before glancing at the other two and briefly gives them a run down of the path they’ll be taking. “Bull, I need you to cover our ass, if anything seems out of the ordinary or we’re spotted, speak up. Nitro, you’ll assist Bull in keeping watch. Once we reach the walls I’ll need you to create an entry point for us.” Nitro nodded his head and gave a thumbs up. “Alright, remember, stay silent and invisible.”
“Y’know, I prefer the term, invisiblessed.” Nitro muttered.
“Man, shut the fuck up.” Blitz rolled his eyes.
“Both of you!” Cobra hissed and moved in behind Blitz. “Blitz, you have the map, therefore you’ll be point. Let’s go.”
:[-]:
With the night in their favor, the four men reach the exterior walls at their estimated time. Cobra gestured to Nitro who immediately unslung his bag and took out what looked to be a small crossbow with a cable and hook attached to it. Loading the hook, the man took a few moments to aim before squeezing the trigger and firing the hook and cable over the wall.
Taking the remainder of the cable in hand, he tests it to make sure it was secured properly before stabbing a stake into the ground and fastening it. “Just to be safe, I recommend we each go up one at a time. No telling if it’ll come loose or not if we’re all on it.”
“So if I fall, will you catch me?” Blitz asked.
“Man, fuck no. With your fat ass I’d rather try and catch a boulder,” Nitro said as he takes his belt hook and latches it to the cable. “Besides, I’ll go up first seeing that I most likely weigh less than all of you.”
Bull snorted. “Well be my guest, Sunshine. We’ll keep an eye out for any of the locals,” He said.
Cobra nodded and said, “Holler if you see anything, and if worse comes to worse, get back down here as soon as possible.” Nitro gave a thumbs up and finished strapping himself down, grabbing the cable, he started his ascend up the side of the wall.
Cobra gestured at the other two to take cover in the nearby shrubbery. As seconds counted a way into minutes, Cobra notices the faint light of Nitro’s lighter flickering from above as the man swayed it back and forth. Reaching into his own pocket, Cobra ignites but quickly extinguishes his own lighter as a response. He then glanced back at the other guys behind him. “Alright, I’m going up now, you two keep an eye out for my signal, Blitz you’ll go up next.”
Nodding, Cobra dashes out of the bushes and over to the cable, latching himself to it, he starts his ascend up the wall. Reaching out he takes Nitro’s hand and is assisted up onto the stony surface, overlooking what seemed to be a city and even more a valley in the distance.
“Holy shit,” Nitro muttered quietly as he adjusted the distance on his NODs. “We’re on top of a fucking mountain.”
Cobra took a few deep breaths. “No wonder the air’s so thin,” he says half tempted to take off his chemical mask, but knew that’d be the stupidest thing he could ever do. Fishing out his flashlight, he hangs it over the edge before quickly flashing it at the boys before. Within minutes Bull, and then Blitz, came clambering over the edge and onto the wall.
“Alright, good, we’re all here.” Cobra muttered quietly as the four men went back to back, giving themselves a three hundred and sixty degree view of their surroundings. From the look of it, no guards were in their a immediate vicinity, but off in the distance, handful of patrols could be seen being made. “Okay, Blitz. I need you to remind who we’re––” Cobra stops when he hears a faint sound.
Blitz blinked. “I’m sorry, Major, but wha––” Cobra shushed the man.
“Shut the fuck up, for a second,” He hissed and the four men fell deathly silent, the faint sound of clopping hooves and what sounded like a singing voice drifted to them on the midnight wind. “The singing voice. Do you three hear it?”
Most of them nodded. “Yeah, I can hear it.” Nitro pointed up towards a spiraling tower. “It seems it like it’s coming from up there.”
Cobra nodded and turned to face said tower, gazing up at it he adjusts the settings of his NODs, opting to use the binocular built within, it took a few moments but soon he could see their singing culprit. On top of the balcony was a dark colored figure, barely visible against the night time background, singing to itself. Blinking once more Cobra took note of its glistening and waving mane, which he only noticed to the faint light coming from the room behind it. Cobra switched his NODs back to its normal setting.
“Blitz, show me the target photo again,” Cobra instructed, the man beside him nodded a fished out a rather blurry, but still able to read, image they were given during briefing. He handed it over to Cobra who thanked him as he took it, gazing down the image he smirked. The picture displayed a similar, if not exact, image of the singing creature on the balcony.
:[-]:
Cobra pressed the edge of his gun against the creature’s throat, collapsing its windpipe, the horse animal bucked wildly, but he remained vigilant. Within a matter of a few moments, the creature soon became sluggish before collapsing onto the floor unconscious. Rolling off of it’s back he took a deep breath. “That was the last guard,” he said clambering onto his feet. “Who’d a known they were strong.”
Blitz chuckled. “Looks can be deceiving.”
“Yeah especially when you look at pictures of Blitz’s mother,” Nitro chuckled. “I swore she was your Dad.”
Blitz snorted and glanced at Nitro. “Y’know, having a mission of four and ending with three isn’t entirely bad.”
“Oh shut it, you love my shit,” Nitro grinned, “When I’m out of the service, believe me, that’s all you’re gonna miss.”
“Bullshit.” Blitz chuckled and glanced over at Cobra who was checking the unconscious guard’s pulse, double checking to see if he didn’t strangle the poor thing. Gazing past him, the four men were standing just outside the spiral tower where the singing was louder than before. Blitz couldn’t make out the words, hell none of them could if they tried. The creatures here spoke an entirely different language than they did, one that sounded rather cool and cute. If he had to compare it to something it was if the German language and nearly any Asian language had a literal love child.
“How are we going to get into the tower?” Bull asked, shattering the silence. “We can’t just walk through the front entrance, and there is no side door here.”
Nitro snickered. “Well I have another cable.” Cobra nodded and pointed at Nitro.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. There’s a window about thirty yards up, we’re gonna climb through it.”
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Bull chuckled lightly and rested against the side of the wall.
Nitro unslung his bag and grabbed his crossbow and cable once more. “I just pray to God that window doesn’t shatter.”
“Pray to God there is no window,” Blitz said as he took a kneel next to Nitro who finished loading the crossbow and took aim. After a few moments of adjustment, Nitro squeezes the trigger and fires the hook and cable towards their desired location. Holding his breath the hook flies through the window, not making a single noise when doing so.
“Ha, it was open!” Nitro grabs the cable and tests it before staking it to the ground and clipping himself on.
“Ladies first,” Blitz said as he gestures for Nitro to go.
“Eat my ass,” Nitro laughed and nodded to the man before climbing up rather speedily.
The men followed the same order as last time; Cobra went up, then Bull, and followed by Blitz.
“F-fuck my pack is stuck!” The larger man whispered as his bag was hooked against the edge of the stone window sill.
“Goddammit, I knew your fat ass was gonna hold us up.” Nitro muttered as he reached around to help the man inside.
“Shut it.” Blitz growled before finally popping through the window, to which the men carefully lowered him to the floor. “Alright...where are we?” He glanced about to see they were in a small corridor, on the far end was a stair well, the singing at this point was loud enough that it echoed through the hall. However, it wasn’t to the point of annoyance, matter of fact it was quite the opposite. The creature singing above, though they cannot make out her words, it sounded very beautiful.
“A damn shame we’re gonna have to put a cork in that thing’s mouth,” Bull mumbled, Nitro chuckled.
“A cork? Never heard that phrase,” Nitro smiled.
“Something my Pa used to say,” Bull replied before falling silent, past the singing he could hear faint clopping of hooves followed by seeing the gleam of a torch light. “There’s a patrol coming.”
“Pack your shit, Nitro, we’re going,” Cobra told him and the two other guys. Nitro nodded and took his hook and cable, quickly rolling it up, he stuffed it into his bag in the matter of a few seconds. Swinging his strap onto his shoulder the four men quickly dashed up the hallway just as the patrol reached their floor.
If there’s one thing Cobra had to thank humanity for, rubber shoes. Unlike those horse creatures and their hooves which clipped and clopped louder than a pop stand falling over in a store, the four operatives ran with complete silence. The four men took cover in what seemed to be a restroom.
“Alright lads, non lethals ready,” Cobra told them as he took out a small tranquilizer gun the shape of a handgun.
The four men rounded a corner of the restroom, just as the guards appeared. Placing their backs against the wall, Bull glanced around the doorway and spotted the three armored creatures. Turning back he looked Cobra and held up three fingers. Cobra took a breath and shook his head and motioned for them to keep going, there was just no way they could take out three guards without making too much noise. They would either have to let the guards pass, or keep moving ahead by always having one foot forward.
They couldn’t afford to waste more time, they were losing precious night light. Pointing to the three men, he gave the gesture to continue forward with the mission. The men nodded and held their non-lethals up just as Cobra turned and they silently exited the restroom without being spotted darted down the hall towards the sound.
:[-]:
With the lullaby her mother had always sang her before bed finally coming to an end, Princess Luna lowers head and smiles happily to herself as she gazes over Canterlot and her subjects. Humming softly she couldn’t help but feel good whenever she saw the remainder of her subjects wandering about to either attend to their night shifts, have fun, or even just arrive late to home. It was much different than how things used to be. Back in the day, some odd thousands of years ago, the night just meant everything came to a halt. Pony’s stopped what they were doing and then immediately retired to their homes.
Yet nowadays, the night meant nothing. Instead it opened up a whole new way to how ponies treated life. Yes the night did open up the bad side to pony’s more than what the day did, but that was to be expected when a good half of the population was asleep, and the darkness of the sky was there to cover your hoof tracks. But it also opened up for new ways for pony’s to play, or to go to work and get things done or finished before the next morning.
Everything about this new kind of night was just so different compared to how things used to be. Luna took in a deep breath and stretched her wings, the thought of opening them and catching the wind thrilled her slightly. She hadn’t gone for a fly around in quite some time? Matter of fact she couldn’t even believe the last time she––
Luna let off a short yelp when she felt something sting the side of her neck. Eyes widening a bit, she couldn’t help but think she had been stung by a bee. “But...that’s not right...it’s too late...in the...” She began to feel drowsy for some reason which didn’t quite make sense. She had only woken up about thirty minutes ago, why was she so tired.
Luna stepped back from her balcony, casting her magic, she goes to pull the bee’s stinger out. Yet what she found didn’t make even more sense, it wasn’t no bee stinger, it was a blue feathered syringe. “Wh-what in the world––” Before Luna could finish her sentence, fatigue struck her like a flying chariot and she pummeled the floor.
As her conscience drifted off into nothingness, she could hear the the faint, disfigured voices and the shadows of creatures she could not recognize. “Blitz, take its back legs, Bull you get its front!”
Nitro covered the door and glanced back at Cobra. “Sir, we have three more guards coming this way. I think we’ve been busted!”
Cobra had back pack on the floor as he rifled through its compartments, trying to find that strange device the lab coats handed them. “Take care of them, but for God’s sake stick to non-lethals!”
Nitro nodded his head and took out his tranquilizer gun once more. “Her Majesty’s room!” Came the shout of a guard who was quickly silenced by dart going into its throat, causing it to stumble back from shock and slowly fall into fatigue. Out of fear for their possible friend the other two guards immediately backed off and dragged their companion away.
“Alright I found it!” Cobra said as he cheered silently as he pulled out the device.
“The fuck is that? A Ham Radio?” Blitz blinked as he watched Cobra set the object on the ground.
“Like I fucking know what this is, the egg heads just told me this will be our ride home. Something along the lines of some kind of homing device.” Cobra briefly explained as he started flicking switches and turning knobs in some kind of pattern the others didn’t know.
Cobra flicked the large red switch on the side, and the metallic box whirred to life, it’s flashing blue screen humming as blocky words appeared saying, “Detecting.” Cobra looked over at Blitz and Bull and motioned for them to bring the creature over to him.
Blitz and Bull dragged the dark colored horse to Cobra and sat it down beside the machine. Cobra stood up and looked to his comrades. “Alright the device is set, if I’m right the boys back home should be able to to track our position.”
“How long?” Blitz asked before glancing over his shoulder when he heard the shouts of incoming guards.
“At least seventy-five seconds! Nitro, close that door!” Cobra ran over to a large dresser beside the door and took hold of it. “Bull I need you help me block the door with this!” He began to drag the dresser towards the door just as Nitro closed it, Bull ran up beside the major and picked up the other end. The shouts of the guards alerting them that they weren’t as far as they previously were, in the distance a loud copper bell rang loudly into the night.
“Fuck!” Blitz cursed as he ran towards the balcony and saw hundreds of lantern light coming on. “The whole fucking kingdom knows!”
Bull growled and jumped back when the door suddenly lurched as something kicked it from the other side. He took a step back and shouldered his gun up. “Where the fuck is our exit, Sir?!”
Cobra bit his lip and glanced back at the device and saw that the blocky letters had changed to: “Rosen Bridge Activated!” The top of the black box suddenly slid open and a pair of glowing prongs projected out of the device. Cobra’s attention was suddenly brought back to the lurching door, biting his lip he looked to his boys.
“Fall back to the device! Protect it all costs!” The men nodded and the squad retreated back towards the to black box.
“Permission to switch to lethal, Sir?” Nitro asked as he glanced towards Cobra.
“Denied,” Cobra said sternly, his breathing becoming ragged as the air suddenly grew thin around them. “We gotta stick to the plan.”
Bull coughed and took a deep breath. “Jesus, why the fuck is it so hard to breathe?” He wiped his mouth.
Blitz gulped and wiped the sweat off his brow. “Maybe if you hadn’t been sucking dick before the––” A white flash silenced the operative and the four jumped back as the door was blown off its hinges and was launched at the men along with the dresser. “Fuck!”
“Open fire!” Cobra shouted as the device began to buzz loudly and crackle with what sounded like electricity. “Protect the asset!” He ordered as he squeezed the trigger on his rifle and began to fire non-lethal darts into the blinding light, which seemed to move towards them.
The room was filled with the sharp retorts coming from the four soldier’s rifles as they fired their weapons into the now fading light. Cobra gritted his teeth and unloaded an entire magazine into what appeared to be a silhouette of another tall creature similar to the one they acquired, however, despite how many darts the men fired into this one. It just didn’t seem to go down, it was if each tranquilizer was disintegrated before it reached the intended target.
“Where the fuck is the exit!” Blitz practically screamed.
Stealing a quick glance over his shoulder, Cobra went to respond, but before he could, the four men were suddenly engulfed by another light.
:[-]:
Cobra’s vision immediately shot to darkness and his mind seemed to swim, he felt nauseous and weightless. It reminded him of the feeling he always got after jumping out of a plan, except he would be spinning on his way back to earth. Yet except he couldn’t see the earth during this fall, he couldn’t even make out the blue sky.
After a few moments of drifting through the black abyss, he could faintly make out something. It looked almost like water, except he was below it and swimming upwards. Yet it didn’t feel like he was swimming, instead he seemed like he was being pulled towards it. Though with no reference point, he was not able to tell how far it was or how fast he was being pulled towards it.
Few more minutes had past and now he could make out objects through the watery wall in which he was being dragged to. With a reference now he could tell he was moving fast, almost too fast for his liking, and as he got closer he realized past the watery barrier there were eggheads, and machines on the other side.
He was being dragged home.
Was he inside the device? Some kind of backpack wormhole the eggheads whipped out of the laboratory? Cobra couldn’t help but smirk as he moved closer to home, he had to give it to them. Pocket wormhole was kinda cool, but then something occurred to him.
Where were the others? The asset? Cobra glanced about, except all he could see behind him was darkness. There was no way in hell he could figure out if the others were behind him. Were they too far from the box? He knew he was practically standing over it, but the others were a few inches away from him. Is that all it took not to enter? Cobra bit his lip, he shouldn’t panic, hell he was trained not to worry yet for some reason he couldn’t help it.
Not only were those guys his squad mates, they were also his friends.
:[-]:
Cobra suddenly dropped to his knees, the air being sucked completely from his lungs and he vomited onto the floor. Dry heaving, he planted his hand onto the concrete in order to keep himself from falling despite his muscles feeling like jelly.
“Major!” He could faintly make out someone’s voice over the loud, mixed chattering of voices and the humming of machines.
The major tried opening his eyes but that only seemed to make his nausea worse as his vision was all soupy and spinning. Before he could close them, Cobra vomited once more onto the floor, adding to the puddle of bile.
Cobra felt someone grab his side and pull him to his feet. “Take him into quarantine with the others!” He heard before blacking out.
Author's Note
Something I wished to write for fun, feel free to leave a rating or a comment if you enjoyed or not, I'm of course down for some criticism!
Chapter 1: The Room with the Cube
Luna moaned quietly as her aching body alerts her to the hard, cool floor she had been laying on for quite some time. Her eyes clenching slightly before she slowly opened them despite only being met with blurriness. She groaned once more and shifted her body, and she grits her teeth as her muscles objected to her cautious movements.
After a few moments the Princess rolled her body onto her belly where she remained there for a minute or so. Her eyes closed once more before blinking rapidly in order to clear the blurriness from them. Twisting her neck sharply she pops a few joints before stretching her wings and humming softly as they also crack. She takes deep breath and finally opens her eyes to observe her surroundings.
She was in a small, square concrete room with a long mirror outlining the middle of the walls around her. The Night Princess blinked once more and pushed herself onto her hooves, groaning as the sore limbs pop as her knees straighten out. Taking a deep breath, Luna glanced about the room, taking in the reflection of herself from every angle. Was she in one of her dreams?
No. That couldn’t be.
Then what happened to her room?
Where was she?
“Hello?” Luna called out, only to have the echo over her voice reply back to her, she frowned and closed her eyes. Concentrating on her magic, she focused on teleporting back to her bedroom. Her horn hummed to life and she could feel her warmth emanating outwards, her heart beating steadily, mane drifting lightly. Focusing all of her attention onto her horn, she tries to imagine herself being transported to her room, the layout of what her environment would be; the position of her bed, her closet, dresser and even the small bits of her royal armor scattered about on her bed. She imagines herself standing at the foot of it, gazing down over the lightly crinkled sheets and how her room had smelt after she had stepped out of the bath, or how the wind breezes past her balcony door and ruffles her curtains.
Smiling lightly, she concentrates all of her energy on those thoughts. Taking one last breath, Luna opened her eyes and frowns once more when she realized she hadn’t gone anywhere. “Now this is quite odd,” The Princess muttered to herself, Luna glanced about the small, square room once more. “What is this––” Luna suddenly jolts when a high pitched horn caught her off guard which in turn causes her to step back and arch her wings upward a tad.
Yet as quickly as the horn sounded, it ceased, and Luna glanced about quickly for where the sound had originated. Looking upwards she spotted a black oval up on the ceiling of the chamber by a circle shaped light source. Luna blinked curiously at it but was then distracted by the sound of a lock coming undone. Her eyes then fell back down and over to a door she hadn’t recognized earlier before immediately taking notice of a table inside separate, white room.
Luna glanced around curiously, the sudden feeling of something watching her striking her in the chest hard. She gulped nervously and gazed at her reflection before glancing up at the black oval above her. “D-do I need to go in there––” Luna was interrupted by a highly painful ring coming from the oval above, the hideous sound striking her eardrums and eliciting a pain filled yelp from the alicorn. Her knees buckled and she dropped down onto the floor and used her wings to cover her ears.
After a few moments the sound ceased and Luna sat there for a few moments before finally regaining her composure and clambering back to her hooves. Taking a breath she wastes no time in proceeding to the next room, upon doing so the door closed behind her and before she could do anything she heard the deadbolts kick in.
Luna nervously looked away from the door and towards the table in front of her, on it, she noticed a multicolored cube with various different colored squares. Gazing at the small object, she gulped and then cautiously took a few steps towards it. A loud honk startled Luna and nearly caused her to jump out of her coat, her eyes darting immediately to the ceiling she noticed a pair of red symbols that seemed to change every second or so.
Curious she cocked an eyebrow and examined the symbols as he each one changed with every second before suddenly realizing what it was, it was a count down. Luna’s eyes widened when she noticed one of the two supposed ‘numbers’ disappear, leaving only one changing with each second. Just as the last digit vanished, a sharp, painful screech filled the room and Luna plummeted to the floor and covered her ears.
When the sound ceased, Luna opened her eyes and looked up to see the numbers were back and we're counting down once again. Panicking, the Princess shot to her hooves and began look around for a way to stop it. “It’s test, I’m in some kind of test!” She realized during her panic state, frantically going about the room and searching for what the ‘test’ was before crying out when the screeching sound struck her eardrums once more.
Panting frantically Luna immediately confirmed that sound was not good, not one bit at all, and she needed to figure out a way to stop it. But how? There was nothing in the room except for the table and the small multicolored cube...Luna stopped and took a deep breath. Her eyes then glanced over to the table, focusing on the cube she slowly walked over to it before clenching her yes and yelping loudly when the sharp sound smacked her again.
Biting her tongue she opened her eyes and examined the cube on the table, concentrating on it, she could see her magic enveloping the cube before levitating it off the table. Her mind aching within only a few moments of suspending the object in mid air, it was as if something was restricting her from using her complete power, yet she couldn’t figure out what, or why that forsaken sound kept trying to make her ears bleed. Luna brought the cube directly to her face before cursing loudly and dropping the thing when the ear wrenching noise burrowed into her brain.
Luna groaned loudly and let off a whimper before levitating the cube back up and taking a closer look at. Twirling it around she looked at it from all angles, however, she couldn’t find anything interesting except for the fact it had six colors and all of them were jumbled up. Now frustrated, Luna gritted her teeth and twisted the cube with intention of breaking it, however, something else happened.
The two bottom rows of colors shifted.
Luna’s thoughts were quickly thrown off course when the sharp noise startled her once more and caused her to wince. Though this time she was able to maintain her concentration and keep the cube suspended, taking a breath she focuses on the upper row and twists it just how she did the bottom rows. They also moved.
Quickly Luna realized, this was the puzzle. Some kind of puzzle device, whoever was watching her wanted to solve. Biting her lower lip, Luna began to shift rows around, quickly learning that she could also shift the rows upwards as well. After a few minutes of figuring it out, Luna realized what he point of it all was. She needed to match each side of the cube to one specific color!
By that point Luna was actually finding the puzzle to be quite enjoyable, not only that, the horrific sound had ceased! Spending more time on the puzzle, Luna finally finished the cube device after about ten minutes. Feeling satisfied, she placed the cube back on the table and hums.
Behind Luna, she heard heavy thud, followed by the shrill of metal rubbing against each other. Turning around she noticed another door had opened, behind that, a white room with a single table.
Author's Note
A chapter I wrote in one night, I assume that shows. Anyhow, I hope you guys like it, I might make later chapters longer, as of now I'm just writing for my own enjoyment. Leave a comment or a rating if you liked it or not, criticism really helps and good ratings motivate me!
Not wishing to hear the horrific screech from that horn, whistle, whatever it was; all she cared about was not suffering through it again, Luna entered the third white room. Unlike the previous room she entered, there was no cube on the table. Instead, there was a parchment thin object lying on the table with blue colored glass and a four by four grid displayed on it.
Luna blinked and leaned over the displayed grid, her eyes widening a bit when she sees a red X appear in the center box. Curious by the sudden appearance of the X she reached up and tapped it before yelping loudly when a sharp honk startled her. Afraid she fell back and kicked herself away from the table, she shook her head. “Enough with that horrendous sound!” She cupped her hooves over her ears but was quickly reduced to whimpering when the high pitched squeal tore past her hooves and drilled itself into her ear drums.
Luna shook her head and stumbled back onto her hooves, she gazed about the room. Like the other, there was nothing standing out aside from the table with the grid. Luna bit her lip and went back over to the table and gazed at the grid, the red was now flashing. She whimpered quietly and raised a shaking hoof, afraid of being subjected to the noise again, she tapped the square next to the X.
A white circle appeared.
Luna blinked as she a second X appear above the first, she blinked and scowled when she realized the noise wanted her to play “Xs and Os.” Luna glared up at the black oval in the ceiling.
“You expect me to play foalish games with you?” The Princess growled, her chest filling with anger. “You subjugate me to pain and force me to play with you after dragging me from my duties?! I shall have you know that I’ll partake in none of this!” Luna’s horn flared to life with a sudden surge of anger induced magic, to which she forced out on the desk, causing the metallic piece of furniture along with the parchment thin grid to fly to the other side of the room and smash against the mirror, thus cracking it.
A sharp, piercing whine filled the room and the light above suddenly cast a red light upon the room. Luna grimaced and cowered as she now began to feel scared. The once white room now glowed red and the ceiling panels above opened, a white, mist like gas billowed out of the open panels and Luna shook her head fearfully.
“I-I’m sorry! I change my mind, I’ll play, j-just please stop with the noise!” Luna covered her ears and clenched her eyes shut as the white mist filled the room. Taking deep breaths, Luna began to feel fatigued, her eyes refusing to open as she fell into unconsciousness.
:[-]:
“How’d it go, Doctor?” General Myer’s asked, his voice gruff and uninteresting.
Dr. Barry Heinrich took a deep breath and sat back in his chair, his eyes gazing at the computer screen displaying his tic tac toe game he tried to have with the asset. “Not good.” He shook his head and looked up at the General. “I told you guys if we keep inducing the creature to high frequency punishment, it’ll just get pissed off.” Henry glanced at the decorated general with a raised eyebrow.
The man shook his head and chuckled. “Well aren’t we supposed to be studying its behavioral patterns?”
Barry bit his lower lip and nodded. “Well yeah, but if we keep stressing it out our angering it, we aren’t really going to get anywhere. If I had to make a suggestion General, I’d say we should really do nothing and observe.”
Myer cocked an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Now what do you mean by that? We just sit here and look at the glass wall until that thing does something?”
“Well sorta, we’ll have to do some things to slightly nudge it forward, but hopefully we could study it’s brain’s behavioral patterns to certain situations in the most natural way possible. Well, as natural as a concrete cellar is of course,” Barry said as he nervously scratched the back of his head and gazed up at the general who was chuckling and shaking his head.
“Doctor, I understand what you’re saying but that would just certainly take too long. The United Global Nations are expecting us to hand over as much research as possible before the end of this month,” Myer’s uncrossed his arms and grabbed his coat from off a chair and pulled it on.
Barry stood up. “General, I know it isn’t my place but...why are you so interested in my research anyways?” He asked.
Myer stopped sliding his coat on and looked at Barry, his eyes steely and cold. His pupils tore deep into the scientist and he took a step forward, to which Barry took one back. “You’re right doctor,” Myer said in a deep hiss. “It isn’t your right to ask.” He turned away and began walking down the hall. “I have a few errands I need to run, you have twenty four hours to study that thing how you want! If I come back and you hadn’t learned anything new, we’ll revert back to my way!” With that Myer fell silent after he went up the steps and out the main laboratory’s door.
Barry turned and cursed loudly his mind instantly jumping to the troupe of spinning around and knocking over his stack of papers. Yet stopped himself when he knew that’d just be idiotic. “I really hate that man,” he muttered quietly and sat down to observe the tic tac toe game. He took a breath and looked back up at the observation window the room, the asset still laid there on the floor sprawled out. Taking a breath he muttered, “Twenty four hours, twenty four hours.” He got up and switched on the intercom.
“Nathan, prep the CT Scan, Lacey gather a team and round up the asset, I need this done as soon as possible,” He ordered and received a series of: ‘Alrights,’ and ‘Gotchas.’ from various different people.
Leaning forward Barry coiled his fingers together and took a breath, his eyes gazing over the sleeping asset. “Alright,” he muttered quietly to himself, he needed to stop talking to himself. “Let's see what’s going on in that head of yours.”
Author's Note
I'm sorry about such short chapters, this is more or less a side project for me. I'll try and put more effort into the next one (such as increasing word count) for those who really want me to do so.
“C’mon now, careful of the aurora,” Barry told the rest of his co-workers as they loaded the creature onto the stretcher. “We have no idea if it’s safe to touch.” He breathed heavily through his chemical mask and grunted as they placed the asset down, he stepped back and wished he could wipe the sweat off his brow, or better yet his whole body. He was sweating heavily inside his biohazard suit, taking a deep breath he pointed at his mates. “Push it to the CT room and get it ready, I’m going to go take a shower.” The rest of the men nodded and barry turned and waddled out of the room test chamber the creature had damaged during the last test.
On his way out, the crack in the one way window stopped Barry. He gazed at the large crevice in the glass pane, his eyes scrutinizing the damage, it was a wonder the thing had even cracked it, let alone rip the bolted down table out of the ground. “Gary,” Barry called to one of the scientist who were rolling the creature out.
“Yes, Doctor?” The man straightened out, his voice muffled by his mask as well.
Barry gestured towards the creature. “I want you to add another round of sedatives to that thing, I don’t want it waking up during the scan. A regular human dosage should do.” The other man bowed slightly before turning away and barking an order at the rest of the men to push the thing out of the room.
:[-]:
Barry hung the hazmat suit up for decontamination and stepped back just as the machine began spraying down the suit. Taking a breath he turned and also stepped into decontamination, opening his arms, the machine worked quickly in spraying him down, also washing off a good amount of sweat as well. Taking a deep breath once decontamination was complete, he stepped out of the chamber and into the main lab where a dozen or so of his team members ran about, going over the last test’s data and running simulations and what not. Stretching his arms he glanced at his digital watch and then the clock on the wall just to make sure before smiling softly, he began to head towards the exit doors. On his way out he tapped one of his teammates at a computer.
“Charlie, if anyone asks I’m just going on my lunch,” Barry told the man.
“Sure thing, Doc,” The man said from over his shoulder, his eyes glued to a matrix that was displayed on the monitor.
“What’s that?” Barry asked curiously as he turned to examine the matrix himself.
“It’s the data from the text before that thing went berserk. I’ve been checking most of the bio readings trying to figure out how that thing managed to rip that table from the floor,” Charlie muttered quietly and grabbed his water and took a sip. “But I’m not detecting any form of energy or disturbance from within the chamber, it’s as if the thing just magically flung the table as if it had the force or something.”
Barry blinked. “Keep looking it over, you might just be missing it, if not we’ll just have to run another test with different equipment.” He straightened himself out and exited the lab.
Charlie glanced over his shoulder sighed. “God, I hate this job,” he muttered before turning back to the computer.
:[-]:
Barry poured himself another cup and sipped it quietly inside the employee rec room. Taking a breath he ran over everything that had happened on the last test in his head along with what General Myer had told him.
“Twenty four hours and if nothing comes up we’re doing it my way!” He mentally paraphrased to himself.
“Guess I’ll be pulling another all nighter,” Barry muttered and sat his cup down before reaching back and rubbing his neck. A small tingle he hadn’t noticed before dissipating with the rubbing, he let his hand drop back down and he took a deep breath before reaching into his pocket for his cellphone, only to remember that it was locked away. “Damn restrictions...” he muttered quietly, reminding himself that cellphones weren’t permitted inside the facility.
Picking his mug up he went over to table and pulled out a chair, taking a seat he took another sip and began to think about home, but not the house the government was letting him stay in. No. His real home, the one he grew up in outside of Ranger City right on the coast of the great lakes in the midwestern portion of the United Northern Republic. Back when he remembered experiencing four seasons instead of what only felt like two; winter and spring.
Barry hated being up here in the north; he hated freezing his ass off or only being slightly chilled. If he could, he’d pack his shit and move to the Southern Union and continue his research in a nice, Brazilian house. Yet, no...he couldn’t, because apparently a nice, temperate environment would be a terrible place for a secret research project.
Instead, how about, we follow the troupe of putting the super secret base far north and deep inside some godforsaken mountains! Perfect!
Barry shivered. “Y’know...if they’d just turn up the heater it wouldn’t be so bad,” he grumbled and then jolted a bit when the mounted phone on the wall started to ring. He placed his cup on the table and went over and tapped the answer symbol on the phone pad.
“Is this Doctor Heinrich?” Came a distinct voice, the Eastern Federation accent confirmed for Barry that it was his friend Hiro on the other line.
“Yes, Hiro, it’s me,” Barry coughed into his fist. “I take it that everything’s set up for the neural check?”
“Hai, everyting is ‘eddy.” His heavy accent caused Barry to crack a smile and even though Hiro couldn’t see it, he was nodding.
“Alright, I’ll be down in a few minutes.” Barry went to hang up but stopped. “Have you guys injected any more sedatives into it?” He asked.
“No. But I wir get ight to it,” Hiro said and the transmission ended, taking a breath Barry went and finished his coffee before exiting the rec room.
:[-]:
“Subject’s heart rate is stable.”
“Neural detectors are functioning.”
“Neural patterns seem stable.”
“ So far there are no interferences.”
“Excellent,” Barry said as he finished the routine checklist before the experiment. “How are we for a clean procedure?” He asked as he took a seat beside his computer, his eyes scanning over the plexiglass displaying the asset laying comfortably inside the CT scan.
Doctor Hiro Hamada, who stood beside Barry, shrugged. “Wit the amount of sedatives we had injected, it is onry posibru––” He cleared his throat and took a second before speaking back up. “It is only possible, that the asset were to remain under.”
Barry chuckled lightly and nodded his head. “Alright then, Doctor, initiate the experiment.”
Hiro nodded before turning away. “Hai!” He gestured towards the men and woman by the machine. “Daremoga, shītīsukyan o kaishi!” His tone almost sounding threatening. Nodding their heads the men and women turn to activate the machine, a deep hum shortly filled the room and the lights dimmed.
“Say, Doctor, what if the asset were to wake up?” Barry asked as he turned to face Hiro who scoffed quietly.
“Doctor Heinrich, I can assure you, we had put enough sedatives in that thing to kill a man,” Hiro chuckled lightly. “And besides, if it would wake up, we have two armed guards and inch thick plexiglass to protect us.” He smiled.
Barry smiled a little and nodded. “Your optimism is refreshing, Doctor Hamada,” He said, “If only I could say the same for the rest of the U.G.N.”
“Agreed.” Hiro stepped forward and glanced at one of his people and tapped her on the shoulder, Barry raised an eyebrow to the two of them but couldn’t understand due to not knowing Japanese.
“Is something wrong?” Barry asked quietly as he stepped towards the two.
Hiro glanced back and nodded. “Yes everything is fine, we just detected some kind of anomaly.”
“Wait what? That’s not fine,” Barry stepped towards the monitor and glanced at the screen, it was displaying live footage of the creature's brain patterns. Yet something seemed to be interfering with the feed.
The woman working the computer mentioned something in Japanese and Hiro nodded his head, Barry blinked and looked at him. “What’d she say?”
“Could just be something with the hard or software, we might need to reboot the experiment,” Hiro let off a deep breath but was then stopped by a man on the other side of the room shouting something in Japanese.
Barry gritted his teeth, he never liked working with the foreign teams. “What’s he saying?” He asked Hiro who immediately rushed past Barry and ran towards the man.
Hiro gazes at the monitor before gasping, looking up he starts shouting in Japanese, suddenly an alarm from the machine started to go haywire, a red light flashing which signaled that something was moving within. Hiro moved away from the computer and jogged back over to Barry, his eyes filled with worry.
“Doctor Hamada, what the hell is going on?” Barry jammed a finger towards the machine. “Why is the movement light flashing?”
The man bit his lip and looked at Barry. “I can’t believe it but...it woke up.”
:[-]:
Luna groaned and rolled over, her head throbbing as if somepony had smacked her with a hammer. Ears twitching she bit her lip as this ringing sounded pounded against her aching head. It wasn’t as near as bad as the one she had experienced in her dream...yet...Luna stopped moving for a moment, though her ears rung and her head ached, she stopped and listened to the sound.
She hadn’t awoken from any dream. The surface she was laying on wasn't’ her bed, and the gods be damned she did not have an alarm that sounded anything as horrendous as what was blaring above her head. Oh no, she had not been dreaming.
Luna slowly opened her eyes and was greeted with darkness which was occasionally extinguished by a red light that flashed off and on, with each flash Luna could make out that she was inside some kind of metallic tube. Blinking she glanced upwards and saw a dead end; however, upon looking down saw another dead end. Her eyes widened as she began to panic, was she inside some kind of coffin? Had the being that wanted to play imprisoned her for breaking the table?
Luna began to breathe in and out heavily, she needed to get out, there was no way she could stay within this metal tomb. Weakly, she extended her leg out kicked the metal wall with hoof, only to his when she felt something prick her arm. The Princess bit her lip and looked at her arm to see a thin, string like bit connecting to a pad attached to right foreleg. Craning her head to look down at her body she hissed and realized her entire body had these string like connectors all over her, including bits of her face.
Fear immediately fell over the alicorn for she had not expected to find what she saw, for that the fear of the unknown kindled within her and was now finally starting to inch out of her. Shaking her head she muttered under her breath, “No, no, let me out!” Her voice rose as she started to buck the metal wall, all of her years of training to keep her composure now falling within a matter of what felt like minutes.
Luna began to growl and kick the wall harder, ignoring the prickling pain of the connectors attached to her body. Her anger and fear boiling, she felt the faint hum of magic in her chest. Concentrating all of her effort Luna let forth another blast of energy similar to the one she used in the white room. Suddenly, her ears were wracked with the terrible sound of shrieking metal being torn apart as light spilled out before her, blinding her retinas and forcing he to clench her eyelids shut.
Then something unexpected happened; as the sound of screeching metal disappeared, Luna was suddenly met with the sounds of terrified screams. Opening her eyes Luna noticed the faint outlines of bipedal creatures of all shapes and sizes scrambling frantically away from her. Blinking a few times to let her vision adjust, she began to make out the details of clothed beings nearly the same height of her running towards metallic entrance on the other side of the metal and concrete room she was in.
“Everyone get out, we have a containment breach!”
“Guards shoot it! Shoot the damn thing!”
Through the madness, Luna spotted two heavily clothed creatures charging towards her wielding what looked to be large, black clubs. Out of sheer panic of one of the creatures potentially hitting her, Luna lifted her magic and created a bubble shield around herself, a rather weak one from what she could feel. The sound around her muffled as the bubble took shape, though despite the distorted sounds, she flinched when a loud, sharp crack silenced everything around her.
Luna yelped loudly when extremely powerful object stuck her bubble at a small specific spot which literally forced her back into the now destroyed, metal tomb. The Alicorn let off a sharp cry when the back of her head thumped against the metal, her knees then buckled and she slumped forward, breathing heavily as her shield dissipated. Whatever had struck her defenses, it had been fast and strong, therefore completely draining her in the process.
Biting her lip, Luna let off a faint whine and kept her head down. Eyes closing she awaited the inevitable; for the final blow to come down on her. Yet nothing happened, the room she was in was completely silent save for the occasional sound of scrambling and sliding objects of creatures moving about.
“Hold your fire!” Came what sounded like a voice from the silent void. “Don’t shoot just yet!”
Luna cracked an eye open and gazed up at her attackers. The heavily clothed creatures with club like objects lowered their weapons when another white clothed being approached them from behind. Aside from the white clothes, Luna could make out its black mane and small, amber colored eyes, its skin was tanned, yellowish color and it also wore what looked like black pants. Luna let off another whine and tried to backpedal from the white coat creature that approached her.
“Doctor Hamada, it’s not safe!” Shouted another creature in similar white clothing, except this one had white colored skin and brown hair, its eyes were also a bit larger and blue.
“Doctor, please––” One of the club baring creatures raised a hand but the yellow skinned one waved a hand back to dismiss the other.
Luna, for the first time in centuries, cowered against the metal object as the white coat being approached her. “Look at it,” The creature began speaking in a tongue Luna could not understand, “It is afraid.”
“That’s exactly why we need you away from it!” The clubbed creature took a step forward and Luna yelped, her wings raising upwards to cover her face.
“Step back!” Hiro glared at the soldier behind him. “If you want me to remain safe you will stay exactly where you.” The doctor turned back towards the creature. “Violence will not teach us the ways of this creature in particular,” he chuckled lightly. “Unlike the others, this one holds great value in that it still possesses its psionic abilities.” His voice was low as to not startled the animal. “But yet it is not trying to use it to escape from us now, how interesting.”
Hamada raised his hand slowly towards the creature. “Hiro, what are you doing?” Barry took a step forward.
Doctor Hamada chuckled. “What does it look like?” He glanced back. “I am seeing if it understands comfort.” With that he looked back and gently rested a hand on Luna’s wing, causing the creature to flinch. Hamada smiled gently, the creature’s wings were soft and seemed well maintained. “Do not worry,” Hiro said as he switched over to speaking his native language. “I will not hurt you.” His voice was softer and calm.
Luna flinched once more and cautiously lowered her wings, her eyes opened and she eeped when she saw the face of the creature smiling at her softly from behind a pair of glasses.
