//-------------------------------------------------------// The Rise Of P.A.W.S. -by Wolf Head Brony- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// The Lone Wolf Headed Pony //-------------------------------------------------------// The Lone Wolf Headed Pony It was pitch black on the compound in distance. Nothing to determine any movement besides the tiny lights marching back and forth in different individual patterns. Paw was about 20 yards outside of the compound, keeping very low to the tall grass. Thanks to the scoop and infrared features in his wolf mask, he was able note that the compound was way to heavily armed with henchmen ponies to just come in and try and take them all out. Not only that but every henchmen pony seemed to be alike. Upon further investigation, it became clear to Paw that they alike in every way. Every single pony on the compound had a dark blue coat with a dark blue mane with light blue tips. In fact the only thing that told the difference between them is that not all of them wore the same thing. While some of them were obviously guards because they had combat gear on and either stood stationary in a few spots or loaded huge crates from trucks into the facility. There were a few who had on white lab coats and glasses and carried clipboards. They seemed to be giving orders to the henchmen ponies but giving the fact that they all seemed the same under the clothes was very unnerving to Paw. "Damnit Aura, what have you done now?" Paw said with a tired sigh under his mask. Paw has had a run in with Aura Skye before. But the last time he saw the dark blue pony, he thought he killed him ages ago. So it was pretty surprising to not only see that he was still alive, he also has dozens of twins apparently. Even as Paw was scouting the area, he didn't wanna stay idle too long. Aura was back and he was up to something sinister. He had to move. Now. It didn't take long for Paw to come up with a plan. Given the fact the compound was riddled with "Auras" going in straight "guns blazing" was probably the worst thing he could do. There wasn't that many warehouses either which didn't make sense compared to how many ponies were there. So Paw just came to the conclusion that the actual facility had to be underground. Which just made paw excited to try out one of the new additions to his arsenal. "Well at least I have an excuse to finally use this." Paw thought to himself. Paw reached into his black trench coat and pressed a small button on the interior. A moment later the trench coat rendered Paw invisible. He waved his paws in front of his mask and sure enough he couldn't see himself. "Yes! the cloaking works!" Not having time to celebrate, Paw moved immediately. Calmly trotting past the guards in the front and being careful to not bump into anypony, he made his way inside one of the warehouses to discover a elevator in the very back amongst a mix of science and combat Auras and pieces of technology that he didn't have time to try and identify. He stood by the elevator waiting for it to get to the same floor. When it did two Auras in lab coats came out leaving Paw to slip in the elevator after. The door closed and Paw began to think that maybe, just maybe, a mission he went on would go off without a hitch for once. He turned of the cloaking, pressed a button and started descending into the facility below. "Hmmm... No. Still no... No but this ones close..." Somewhere within the pit of the facility, a tan mare in a lab coat and glasses trotted back and forth looking at lab result papers that a group of other Auras handed her. "You guys haven't made any breakthroughs yet but this is still progress. So good job!" They were in a huge sleek room riddled with monitors and scientific equipment. Even though the tan mare didn't seem to reach the end result she wanted she still seemed pleased. She dismissed the other Auras and resumed her own work. But that was very short lived as one of the Auras monitoring one of the monitors spotted a problem. "Zee! We have a situation!" The tan mare trotted over to the Auras sitting at his station to see a video feed of a pony in an elevator wearing a wolf mask, wolf gloves and a trench coat. "Heh. I thought you would've found us a lot sooner Wolf Head. You're starting to disappoint me." The Mare said looking at the screen with a slight grin. The Mare turned to the Aura next to her with a much more serious tone in her voice. "Sound the alarm and tell the scientist to hurry to the escape tunnels and tell the others to go and ambush him at elevator! I'll go ready the project for escape as well!" There were no more words exchanged between the two. The lab Aura imminently went over to a near by panel, took a key from his lab coat pocket and then inserted it into the keyhole under the panel. The panel unhinged and swung open. Inside was a big red button. The lab Aura didn't bat an eye. He hit the button which set the entire facility into high alert due to the blaring red lights and the repeating warning announcement blasting over the loud speakers. Soon after that the lab Aura left the room not leaving anytime to do anything else. With the lab Aura gone, the tan lab mare took off in the other direction. Going into a smaller room across the narrow hall, she went up to a keypad on the metal wall. Pushing in a four digit code, the wall shifted inwards and then slid to the side to reveal a set of winding stairs that that went down into another small area. Inside was multiple over lappings of wires and thick life stabilizing tubes going into one machine with a large window that gave view into the contents within. The tan mare went down into the room. Strolling past all the wires and surrounding monitors to end up right in front of the window and began speaking. "It's almost time to go Aura..." She said peering trough the glass, her voice sounding sad and somber. She placed a hoof on the glass. "I told them all to evacuate... most of them will die in the process. But they're expendable. You're not." ATTENTION! WE HAVE BEEN BREACHED! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! The alarms sounded and the red lights flared through out the entire under ground complex. Combat ponies rushing down the web of narrow hallways as the Science Ponies scrambled to the escape tunnels in the other direction. As Paw stood their in the elevator patiently waiting for the it to reach the floor he expected, he was hit with the sudden realization of the compound being in high alert thanks to the sudden stop of the elevator, flashing red lights and loud wailing sirens ringing throughout the place. The elevator jerked but Paw regained his footing just as fast as he lost it. He exhaled a slightly annoyed sigh before turning to either side of the elevator in search of something that didn't take long to find. "I can kill a pony with my bare hooves. I'm smart enough to design some of the most amazing combat gear anypony has ever seen. But for some reason, I can never remember to check the elevators for cameras... Damnit!" Pulling himself from his mistake and returning to the task at hand, he turned on the heat signature in his mask to so he could look through the doors and get a better grasp of the situation he was in. According to the images that popped up, there stood about 5 to 7 ponies outside the door waiting to charge. "Really? That's the best they can do? Your slipping Aura." Paw turned to the button panel and held his hoof over it in an attempt to hack the doors open wirelessly. He was gonna take them out himself and make a beeline to wherever Aura was. But a moment after that thought and Paw turned his gaze right back to the door. What was once 7 ponies became 15. What was 15 became 30. So on and so forth. Stopping the hacking process, it became clearer and clearer that taking them on hoof to hoof was no longer as much as a plan as it was a self inflicted death sentence. "Heh. Ok Aura I take it back" Paw thought to himself. His original plan was a bust but didn't concern Paw all that much. He was always the kind of pony to not only have a backup plan, but he also had backup plans to back up his backup plans. Without wasting another moment, Paw took out another object form his trench coat. It was a small bottle containing a green liquid. Paw popped open the cork and poured the liquid on the elevator floor. When the bottle was empty, he tossed it aside and waited. Paw took this time to chuckle as he noticed that now was the time that the combat Auras had brought a battering ram around the corner. They ran it into the locked elevator doors once. Then another. And then again. Every time the did this the entire elevator shook dangerously. But Paw didn't budge. Because beneath his hooves, the floor started giving way like a sand castle during high tide. As if he could see the future, the floor disintegrated dropping Paw father down into the mysterious depths of the underground base below. Right before doors to the elevator were bashed in. Author's Note Aura is a pony OC that belongs to Bronymonster44.