Chapter 1: A Rough Day On the Job
Equestria - Unknown Location - Roughly 200 years ago...
The symbols always seemed alive to Keymold. Every time she looked upon them the complex script formed from too many right angles and strange, curved lines looked to her as if they were moving with a living will and intent. As opposed to just the simple arcane symbols of the Inner Gate’s complex magical matrix, which was juiced up with so much magic the entire twenty meter high edifice glowed with the symbols that Keymold stared at.
“You know you’re going to blind yourself doing that,” said Night Lock, flying up to the observation platform that Keymold stood on, the stale air stirring from the lazy flaps of the pegasus’ dark blue wings.
As he landed next to her, Keymold sighed and rubbed at her neon pink eyes, which were more sore than she realized. She stretched her limbs, a faded, dry red color beneath her Warden’s black and white uniform jacket.
“Yeah, I know. Can’t help it. This place has always creeped me out,” she said, raising a hoof to rub at her forehead, “Gives me a headache too.”
“And you’re not even a unicorn,” Night Lock joked with a sly half-grin and bumped her with a wing, “Kaleidoscope swears up and down he gets migraines if he stays in here too long. Hears voices too.”
“Wouldn’t scoff at that,” Keymold said, looking back at the Inner Gate and shivering slightly, “Some of the things in there might actually be able to do weird shit like that.”
“Well, they’re in there, and we’re out here,” Night Lock said, jostling her with his hoof this time, “C’mon, I’m here to relieve you anyway. Go grab some grub and shut eye. I don’t like seeing you grumpy.”
She sighed, then managed a small smile as she gathered him in a quick hug, running her hoof over his mane of sandy gold strands as the pair shared a brief but tender kiss. With a mutter she said, “Getting so tired of us being on opposite shifts. I swear the Director has it in for me!”
Night Lock patted her head, rustling her short cut white mane as he chuckled, “Come on now, I seriously doubt Director Dancer put us on double shifts just to get at you. Heh, even if you did make a bit of a mess of that experiment.”
“How was I supposed to know the setting was on ‘maximum power’!? It wasn’t properly labeled!” Keymold groused, then buried her muzzle into Night Lock’s neck, taking in a deep breath of his scent. “I miss having you to cuddle with.”
“Hey now, I miss having you cuddle me too, huh, but just remember...” he lifted her chin to meet his eyes, and he gave her another quick, warm kiss, “This too shall pass. The Director will cool her head, shifts will go back to normal, and you and me can get up to all kinds of fun again in the bunks. Just hang in there.”
“Your optimism disgusts me,” she said with a laugh and a wink, “But I guess one of us has to be the bright light in this dingey hole. I swear you’re the only good thing about taking this posting.”
“What, the honor of guarding Equestria’s most dangerous prison not good enough?”
Keymold made a loud ‘belch’ sound to indicate what she thought of that.
“Okay, okay, what about the exceedingly generous pay, benefits package, and the fact that we’re not getting our asses shot off by zebra in some Goddesses-forsaken warzone right now?” Night Lock said, patting his flanks, “I for one think it would be a terrible tragedy if this ass got shot off. I mean, just look at it. So toned. So firm. Asses like this just don’t come around every day, you know?”
“You certainly are a unique ass, Night,” Keymold said, “Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go drop into my bunk and take care of my frustrations the old fashioned way.”
“Ice cream and masterbating?”
“Sadly we don’t have any ice cream in Tartarus,” she replied with another heavy sigh, trotting off across the short metal bridge that connected the observation platform with the doors into the rest of the facility. Before she left she glanced back once more, just to take in the sight. It never once stopped feeling impressive, and chillingly ominous, even after two years of being stationed here as a Warden.
The cavern’s walls were ever cloaked in shadow, as if they drank in the light from the few fluorescent, arcane lamps that hung from the distant walls and ceiling. The rough hewn rock spread from the metal walls of the artificial facility Equestrian pony construction had built, and extend after a large slope into a flat, near hundred meter expanse to end in that tall stone gate. Dubbed the ‘Inner Gate’, and the original Gate of Tartarus.
Nopony knew how old it was. Thousands of years? Tens of thousands? It had stood and been ancient before even the Princesses had discovered it. A hole. A prison. A place where for the whole of time since Equestria’s founding the absolutely worst criminals and most dangerous beats were imprisoned within. The wards that kept the Inner Gate sealed shut were the strongest and most complex magics the immortal alicorn sisters had ever constructed, baffling even the efforts of the modern Ministry of Arcane Science to fully understand.
Nopony, no creature, could break those wards or hope to batter down that gate. Even if the tried there was a fierce beast who slept in this cavern, the ever vigilant Cerberus. Even now Keymold could see the massive three headed dog’s curled up body, snoozing away as he always did near the massive stone gates he guarded. The how’s and why’s of the seemingly eternal dog’s vigil was an equal mystery to the existence of Tartarus itself. The Princesses had found him the same time they discovered this prison, and Cerberus had happily become the alicorns’ loyal guard hound, almost as if he’d been waiting for them the whole time.
With such an impressive gate and equally impressive guard dog, it made Keymold wonder if there was any need at all for her or her fellow Wardens. Yet here they were, a single, small group of hired guards who numbered all of seven total. The lonely watchers in the dark. She saw Night Lock give her a parting smile and wave, and she smiled back.
Well, not always lonely.
“Warden Keymold, report to the central laboratory. Warden Keymold, report to the central laboratory...”
“S-sunuvafuckinbitch!” Keymold rolled out of her bunk. She’d just started to drift off to sleep after a semi-satisfying... personal health session. Now the obnoxious and droning voice of Director Moon Dancer was blaring over the facility PA system, and Keyold just knew if she took even a minute longer to reach the labs than was necessary then she’d be on the receiving end of one of the Director’s endless bitch-fests.
Perhaps, Keymold reflected, she was being a bit hard on the Director. It couldn’t have been easy running the M.A.S lab attached to the Tartarus Warden Facility. The Ministry of Arcane Science was, far as Keymold knew, a hotbed of whacko unicorns who had all the bits in Equestria and completely authorization from Princess Luna to spend those bits on any crazy project that they could dream up... as long as it might be help end the war.
Keymold didn’t know how much pressure Director Moon Dancer might have been under to fullfill her project goals, but it must have been pretty intense to produce a mare who always looked so damn frazzled and put upon. Or maybe that was just how Moon Dancer was normally. Keymold had no clue. She certainly wasn’t socializing with the Director at all, so she hardly knew her on a personal level.
The barracks for the Wardens was located in the west wing of the facility, consisting of two levels of individual rooms for both the Wardens themselves and the facility’s scientific and maintenance personnel; some two dozen ponies in total. Not a lot for guarding the world's most dangerous prison, but the facility’s automated systems, including sentry guns and robots that could be activated in an emergency, made up for the small number of actual ponies on site.
That and the ancient magical wards and towering three headed dog demon. That probably had something to do with the limited number of actual guards. The facility itself was far larger than it needed to be, in her opinion. The barracks were adjoined by a limited amount of cafeteria and recreational space, little more than a small kitchen, eating hall, and lounge/gym. The barracks were connected to a long set of hallways that were of somewhat maze-like construction. Not for any practical purpose, but to avoid interfering with the ‘flows of magic’ that helped form Tartarus’ wards or some arcane crap like that. Keymold didn’t understand it, she just knew it made for an annoying walk to get from one part of the facility to another, even though she’d memorized the entire layout as an requirment for her training.
She took a second to run a comb through her hair, tossing the comb aside and barely checking herself in her small room’s mirror before going to a metal cabinet to retrieve her gear. Her utility belt slipped over her frame comfortably, bearing a holster for her heavy duty service pistol, a walkie-talkie, flashlight, collapsable shock baton, and a trio of health potions in slim plastic vials for easy drinking.
Next she grabbed her pistol itself from its case, along with a pair of spre clips that joined it next to the holster. The pistol was a glossy black beauty, one of the Ministry of Wartime Technology’s best models from last year. Most standard issue pistols for military and police forces these days were the fast firing, 10mm variety. But the McColt Model 7 Special was chambered for the newly manufactured 14mm rounds, and came with a comfortable padded mouth grip for non-unicorns, shock absorbing and easy on the jaw, and a built in magic-laser sight targeter for accuracy.
Keymold adored it, but she’d never used it outside of a firing range, which to her was just as well. She slipped the hefty pistol into the holster on her left side and then opened up the locker beneath the cabinet. Inside was her Warden jacket, a button up gray and blue affair made of thick ballistic padding that went up to her collar and slipped down to her flanks, with long, skin hugging sleeves. On the back of the jacket was the symbol of the Tartarus Wardens; a white shield with a black keyhole imprinted upon it.
Dressed for work she left her room and quickly started to trot down the empty, steril lit hallways of the facility. She barely had to think about the path she took through the seemingly random turns and twists that became the norm once she was past the actual barracks. It only took about five minutes before she passed by the checkpoint leading to the main corridor and waved to one of her fellow Wardens there.
“Hey Lemon Pinch.”
A fellow earth pony was seated behind a thick pane of bullet proof glass, housing a security room with a bank of monitors on one wall and another a set of weapons lockers. Lemon Pinch was large, even by earth pony standards, and his sunny yellow coat matched his usual goofy grin as he waved at her behind a Playcolt magazine he held up with his other hoof.
“Yo Key, shouldn’t you be snoozing away by now?”
“I should be, but the Director needs me for some damn reason or another,” she said, yawning and blinking her still heavy, tired eyes, and she glanced at the magazine, “Anything good this month?”
“Got some juicy poses from that new gal Countess Colosomething.”
“Coloratura. I thought she was just a pop singer?”
“Guess she’s branching out to modling,” Lemon’s grin widened further, “I sure ain’t complaining.”
“Well let me borrow it when you’re done. Bet I could give Night some ideas with it,” she said, and Lemon Pinch burst out a short, deep bellied laugh as he flicked a button that buzzed her through the security gate. Thick metal mesh slide aside as the gate opened, giving Keymold access to the main passage.
It was a huge, yawning tunnel carved into the mountain rock. Pools of fluorescent light kept the area lit, save for where the tunnel took a sharp downward slope to Keymold’s right. There was the tram platform, where a simple roofed conveyance on a track would take passengers down to the depths where the Inner Gate awaited. Night Watch was down there now, and Keymold couldn’t help but shudder a bit as she looked longingly down the tunnel.
Every time she looked down that long, dark expanse she felt like she was staring down the hungry throat of some huge, unknowable beast. The small dots of light from the lighting system barely did more than make the tunnel seem all the more ominous. Keymold shook off the cold feeling in her spine and crossed the main hall. To her left the hall extended a few hundred feet to a flat wall with a guard station and heavy set of steel doors. That was the entrance to the Outer Gate, the most heavily sealed area of the facility besides the Inner Gate itself. She’d heard even the new Stables being built by Stable-Tech weren’t was thickly sealed as the Outer Gate’s triple thick layer of pressurized metal gates. Long as those were closed, nothing could escape Tartarus, even if the Inner Gates were somehow breached. It was the primary job of the Wardens to make sure the Outer Gate stayed closed.
The only way they even got supplies in and out, or received visitors, was through a special teleportation circle in the laboratory sector. No one and nothing physically left via the gates. Ever.
Ignoring the entrance to the Outer Gate, she crossed the hall to a smaller set of metal sliding doors on the opposite wall from the way to the barracks. There was no Warden here on guard, but Keymold knew at least two of her fellow Wardens would be on watch inside the lab security station and would see her on the cameras. She waved to the cameras as she approached the door, waited a few seconds, and when the doors didn’t open she sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Really Tombstone? Amber Mane? C’mon! We’ve done this hundreds of times! Just open the doors!”
More silence and she groaned.
“Fine, fine. Warden Keymold, security clearance code Charlie Omega Whiskey Bravo Echo Lambda Lambda Zero Zero Five. Happy now, guys?”
There was a click behind the doors and the metal slabs slid open silently, giving Keymold access. She stuck her tongue out at the cameras and trotted through. Beyond the doors was yet another criss-crossing maze of corridors and stairways, all built exactly like the one that led to the barracks. The way to the labs was shorter, admittedly, and Keymold didn’t know if that was just a coincidence of the magical ley lines needing less corridors in this part of the mountain, or if it was because the labcoats built it that way to make it easier on them. Either way it only took a couple minutes to navigate her way to the laboratory sector.
It was essentially one large cylinder broken off into lab sections. Three levels, each one with three or four labs, with several small offices and special testing chambers built into the walls of the cylinders circumference. Stairs or elevator lifts gave access to each level, and Keymold didn’t waste any time getting onto one of the elevators and hitting the switch to take her up to the third level, where Director Moon Dancer’s personal lab was.
Passing into the cylinder itself she trotted through some well lit, small halls. Doors on either side would lead to specific lab sections, with no windows to see inside at what might be taking place within. Not that she ever imagined the labcoats were ever doing much of interest. The M.A.S must have had much larger labs all across Equestria for the big stuff meant to end the war with the zebra. She couldn’t imagine much going on here that’d be all that groundbreaking.
The central lab took up the half of the top level and its doors were already open when Keymold arrived. Usually the lab was filled with unicorns in the stuffy white coats that gave them their nickname of ‘labcoats’ in Keymold’s mind. Today, however, the lab was empty save for only two ponies; Director Moon Dancer and her assistant Gem Smiles.
Moon Dancer, Keymold reflected, probably would’ve been a pretty mare if she took better care of herself. Her fur was already kind of a creamy beige, but it was paler and more pallid than it should have been. What might have been a cut face was hidden behind large glasses and often sported a constant look of irritation or a scowl of annoyance. Her mane and tail were a striking two tone of red streak with violet, but it was utterly unkempt, rarely washed, and sporting more split ends than normal strands, all done up into a tight bun.
Gem Smiles was actually cuter by Keymold’s estimation, in a very nerdy kind of way. She had a bony frame and a long snout, but it she had a constant bright smile, and her own glasses perched on her nose without hiding her face. Her coat and mane were also well groomed, a deep purple coat and striking orange mane and tail, both quite curly.
As Keymold entered she heard the pair of scientists talking excitedly.
“The first quartz already is showing readings beyond expectations, ma’am! If this works-” Gem was saying happily, while Moon Dancer raised a hoof, silencing her younger co worker.
“If it works, Gem. Let’s not rush ahead of ourselves. This prototype is going to need extensive testing before we even think of presenting this to Princess Luna. Just triple check the quartz again, and make sure they’re all set properly in the mechanism... oh, Warden Keymold, you’re here.”
Director Moon Dancer turned to Keymold as the Warden trotted up, and the unicorn frowned, “You took your time.”
Sucking in a breath to shout a wisecrack, Keymold thought better of it and instead let her breath out in a slow hiss before forcing a polite smile.
“Well, that maze is always hard to navigate ma’am. You know us poor Wardens just don’t have the memory you smarty pants types have.”
Okay, perhaps a little wisecracking. Director Moond Dancer’s eyes narrowed, but rather than let loose one of her usual tongue lashings, she instead turned to one of the nearby lab tables where a small metal case was set and placed a hoof on it. “I don’t have time for verbally sparring with you, so we’ll get straight to business. I want you to help us test a prototype device. Gem Smiles will be giving it one more check for safety purposes while I prep you in the test chamber.”
Peering at the metal box with curiosity and not a little trepidation, Keymold said, “What kind of device, exactly?”
“You’ll see soon enough, now follow me,” Moon Dancer said curtly, turning to leave the room and clearly expecting Keymold to follow. Gem Smiles gave Keymold an apologetic look, leaning in to whisper.
“Don’t worry, it’s completely safe. We wouldn’t be doing a live test otherwise.”
“If you say so,” Keymold said, wanting to trust that these science types wouldn’t just be throwing her into an unsafe experiment. She hadn’t signed up for anything like that! With a sigh she followed Moon Dancer down several more corridors and then down an elevator that took them to an enclosed walkway on the second level. This led to a room build into the exterior wall of the cylindrical lab areas. Inside the room was spacious, with reinforced steel walls, and consisted of largely empty area save for several platforms situated in the room’s center.
“We’ll be having you perform some basic trials on what I hope will be a revolutionary device,” Moon Dancer began to explain in a clipped and professional manner that barely covered an underlying current of near manic excitement, “If everything proves to work as we project then this could be a turning point in Equestrian history.”
Keymold raised her eyebrow skeptical, “That right? We talking something that’ll end the war?”
Moon Dancer snorted, making a hoof waving gesture, “This pointless spat with the zebras will end sooner or later anyway. I don’t care about that. I care about furthering our fundamental understanding of magic, and my research is about to take a huge step forward in that regard.”
The unicorn snorted and muttered something under her breath that sounded like, “...maybe then she’ll take notice of me.”
“Huh?” Keymold asked, but Moon Dancer blinked bleary eyes at her and waved the question off.
“Nothing. Now before we begin let me ask you, how much do you understand about why we built this facility in the maze like pattern we did?”
“Uhhhh...” Keymold’s eyes went a tad cross, “It has something to do with weird, magical ley lines or some crap like that, doesn’t it?”
Moon Dancer’s eyes were flat and deadpan as she slowly said, “Something like that. They’re not ley lines, exactly. We’ve purposely avoided tunneling through specific veins of crystal ores that permeate this entire mountain. Veins that stretch deeper and deeper underground, well beyond the depths of this facility, beyond even the Inner Gate to Tartarus.”
“Okay... what kind of crystals are we talking about? Like the magic gems the zebras want so damn bad?” Keymold tilted her head curiously. She didn’t know much about the politics, only that much of the reason the conflict between Equestria and its zebra neighbors began had to do with a scramble for resources, including the magical gems that were pretty common in Equestria, and that the zebras apparently had a lot of uses for.
“No, nothing of the sort,” Moon Dancer said, her voice building energy as she started to talk research, “When first discovered over a thousand years ago, the Equestrian mages of old thought the crystal veins specific to this mountain contained an unusual resonance of magic, quite unlike any found in any other magical gem in the land. It's only recently, however, with advances in our spectrum analysis technology that we’ve been able to learn much much more than those ancient mages ever could.”
The door to the test chamber opened and Gem Smiles trotted in, carrying the box from before on her back, “Final safety check finished Director ma’am! It’s ready!”
“Good, bring it here,” Moon Dancer commanded, and Gem Smiles came up, allowing Moon Dancer to take the box in her magical aura. As Gem Smiles stood back she gave Keymold an encouraging smile and then went to a terminal that was attached to a podum near the platforms in the center of the room.
Meanwhile Moon Dancer floated the box over to Keymold and opened it, “Behold, the world’s first Arcane Resonance Crystal User System. Or ARCUS for short.”
Keymold peered into the box, then gave Moon Dancer a flat stare.
“It looks like a pocket watch.”
Moon Dancer’s muzzle scrunched up, “Well, it isn’t. It’s an ARCUS.”
“But it really looks like a pocket watch.”
“Well it really isn’t.”
“I can see the gears-”
“IT’S NOT A POCKET WATCH!”
Keymold held up a hoof in a calming gesture at Moon Dancer’s red flushed, haggard, shouting visage, “Okay! Okay! You win, it’s not a pocket watch. It just happens to super resemble one.”
Which, to be fair, it really did. The ‘ARCUS’ was a fairly small device, admittedly about twice the size of a pocket watch, that was made from a silvery metal and round in shape, with a small chain extending down from the bottom of it. It was covered in arcane engravings and bore the symbol of Equestria itself, with its interlocked sun and moon. There were two clear glass portions where Keymold could see a complex array of internal gears within the device. She wasn’t at all sure what its purpose was, just by looking at it, and even its name didn’t give much clue as to what it did.
“So... uh, what do I...?”
“Pick it up,” Moon Dancer said, “Then just hold it in your hoof, face up, for a minute or two.”
“O...kay?” Keymold couldn’t keep the confusion off her face or out of her voice, nor a bit of irritation at Moon Dancer’s curt commands, but Moon Dancer signed Keymold’s paychecks so she listened to the aggravating unicorn and picked the device up.
It was surprisingly warm to the touch, as if it was radiating a steady, gentle heat. For some reason she felt oddly at ease, just holding it. After a few seconds she realized the warmth from the device wasn’t just warming her hoof, it was spreading through her whole body.
“What is it doing?” she asked, a tad fearful.
“Relax, it’s attuning to you. Calibrating itself to your personal magical field.”
“Uh, I’m an earth pony,” Keymold stated bluntly, “Only magic I have is a green hoof I didn’t inherit from mom and pop, and a bit of extra toughness.”
Moon Dancer scoffed, rolling her eyes, “Earth ponies, I swear you never grasp the nuances of magic. Even your particular race of ponies possess innate magic, which is equal to pegasi or unicorns. It merely manifests in a much more blunt and straightforward manner than spellcraft or weather control. The bottom line is that the magical fields that a personal to each pony more or less function the same, even if they generate different effects. The ARCUS is designed to key into that and attune its functions to that unique field. Now be quiet and wait, this might take a minute. Gem?”
“I’m reading her field, ma’am,” Gem Smiles said, eyes locked onto her terminal’s monitor, “We’ve got a steady rise in resonance activity. Each crystal is reading at 68% and climbing. Internal dampening chambers are operating at 98.3% efficiency. Even better than projections!”
“Good, good,” Moon Dancer actually rubbed her hooves together, licking her lips like a hungry child, “That’s even faster than we expected. I knew an earth pony was the right choice! Their innate connection to the land has to be making it easier for the crystals from Earth Element veins to attune! I bet if we called in Night Lock for a test and used crystals form the Air Element veins, then they’d attune just as fast!”
“Element what?” Keymold was getting rather uncomfortable with all the arcane babble, and the warmth spreading through her, while strangely calming in a way, was also rather disturbing. What the heck had this crazy labcoats roped her into!?
“Oh! Oh! Can I, ma’am?” Gem Smiles asked, and Moon Dancer huffed out a rare laugh.
“Sure, go ahead Gem, just try to keep it simple for our Warden friend.”
Gem Smiles kept half an eye on her monitor while smiling at Keymold, launching into a rapid, energetic speech. “You see the crystal ores located in this mountain are heavily laden with incredible magical energies that we believe are uniquely different from what we’re customarily used to as Equestrians. This magic we theorize stems from ley lines deep within the core of our world, that radiate out like veins. We’re not certain why we’ve only found these crystal ores in this mountain and nowhere else, but it's possibly that its one of the only places in the world these ley lines extend to the surface. Now what’s fascinating is that each crystal ore vein appears to be tied to a specific ‘Element’, and no I’m not talking about the Elements of Harmony, but rather more basic elements; Air, Earth, Fire, Water, ecterra.”
Keymold just stared blankly at the happily chirping Gem Smiles and dumbly nodded her head, “Uh, okay...”
If Gem Smiles noticed Keymold’s utter lack of understanding she didn’t show it, and continued to talk in an increasingly excited voice, bouncing on her hooves with her eyes lit up behind her thick glasses with nerdy glee.
“What’s really amazing is that once the ores are mined they don’t lose any of their magical potential, and in fact resonate strongly with other magical fields, like those we ponies exhibit naturally! It was almost as if the gems wanted to be used. Even without any device to act as an interface, refined gems would try to bind to nearby magical fields. Completely harmless, of course, but the gems almost felt alive sometimes, when held-”
Moon Dancer coughed pointedly, “Let’s not get too fanciful with our theories, Gem. They’re just highly magical rocks. Extraordinary, but hardly alive.”
Gem blushed sheepishly and nodded, “Y-yes, ma’am. Um, anyway, our research has been focused over the last year or two in creating a device to let a pony bond properly with a set of refined gems, which we call ‘Sepith Quartz’. Depending on the elemental types set into the ARCUS unit and in what quantities, the bonded pony can possibly access any number of different arcane effects. To differentiate these spells from the magic more commonly used by unicorns, we call these spells ‘Orbal Arts’. Heh, because the refined gems are tiny orbs.”
“The lexicon is less important than the effects,” Moon Dancer said, gesturing at the ARCUS in Keymold’s hoof, “It should be done bonding to you by now. How do you feel?”
Keymold had been so bewildered by Gem Smile’s magic babble that she’d been distracted from the fact that the warm tingle she’d been feeling throughout her body had settled down and aside from a still residual, faint warmth, the ARCUS just felt like a pocket watch in her hoof.
“Um, normal I guess? Kinda warm. Is that how I should feel?”
Moon Dancer glanced a Gem Smiles, who in turn looked at her terminal screen and smiled, “All readings are stable, Director. She bonded successfully.”
“Then, yes, that is how you should feel,” Moon Dancer told Keymold, nodding to the nearby platforms, “Please, step up to the platform. I’d like to begin a few basic tests.”
“This isn’t going to make me explode, is it?” Keymold asked, her tone turning grumpy as she trotted up onto the nearest circular platform, her ears sagging. She still held the ARCUS awkwardly in one hoof, but she saw it did have a chain coming off it, which she realized she could easily loop around her neck, turning the unit into basically an amulet.
“Don’t be foolish,” Moon Dancer said, “You’ll only explode if you do something other than what I tell you. Now, I want you to press the top button on the ARCUS.”
Keymold frowned, but did as she was told. The small button, much like what one would find on top of a pocket watch, opened up the face of the device. Within she saw that the interior consisted of several spherical inlays, connected by lines of silver metal. Each inlay held a space for a small orb, each one no larger than a marble. There were seven in total. Two were green, two red, one yellow, and one black. The seventh gem was in the very center, the others arranged around it in a simple circular pattern. This seventh gem was yellow, but subtly a deeper yellow than the other one, and slightly larger.
“The center gem is the Master Quartz, which controls the other Quartz and regulates the ARCUS. It also acts as a buffer between you and the Quartz, ensuring only the needed energy is drained for any given Art you cast.”
“Huhzzawah?” Keymold queried with expert articulation.
“The Quartz drain your own magic field to generate Arts,” Moon Dancer explained with an irritated sigh, “Just do as I say and you’ll understand. First say; ‘ARCUS activate’.”
“Whyyyy?”
“Ugh! Don’t be difficult!” Moon Dancer snapped, “We had to install a voice activation function, since unlike a unicorn, you don’t have a horn to act as a catalyst to begin a spell. Now say it!”
Keymold grumbled something under her breath that rhymed with ‘ditch’ and proceeded to say in a forced tone, “ARCUS activate.”
The effect was instantaneous. She felt a burst of both warmth and cold snap over her body for a second, and then several images appeared in her vision. One was a circular band that surrounded her, floating at chest height, formed from bright gold strands of light. It looked more or less like some kind of... menu screen? Second was some kind of arcane sigil in the shape of a triangle pattern that appeared on the wall where she’d been looking when she spoke the activation phrase, and as she moved her head she saw the triangle moved with her vision. It reminded her of a targeting reticule, the kind installed on some of the newer magic-imaging scopes used on the most recent models of sniper rifles.
“Whoa, okay, what the Tartarus is all of this!?”
“Calm down, what you’re seeing is the ARCUS interface overlay. Are you familiar with the Pip-Bucks?”
“Kinda...” Keymold replied. She wasn’t that familiar with Stable-Tech’s personal terminal devices, but she’d seen them in action and used one herself during her time before becoming a Warden. The Wardens didn’t use them, mostly because there wasn’t much need for the tech on a job this dull.
Moon Dancer nodded at the ARCUS, “Think of it like how the Eyes Forward Sparkle system works. The ARCUS is linked to your mind and is creating an overlay of images to allow you to interact with its systems. Nopony can see it but you, but you do see a menu and a targeting sigil, yes?”
“Uh, if you mean the triangle thingie and the circular thingie, then yes, I see both thingies,” Keymold said, much to Moon Dancer’s sigh of exasperation.
“Yes, well, the ‘thingies’ are how you activate and direct the ARCUS’ Orbal Arts. Each image on the menu represents a different Art available due to the combination of Quartz installed in your ARCUS, and your own personal magical field. Not all Arts will work with every pony’s magical field. Some ponies are just more naturally gifted than others in certain areas. However anypony, even a laypony such as yourself, should be able to utilize a number of Arts with no prior training required. Go ahead, just focus on the Arts on the menu and then use the targeting sigil to aim at one of the dummies.”
Moon Dancer gave Gem Smiles a cool nod, and the lab assistant touched a few buttons on her terminal. The wall opened on the far side of the test chamber, and a clanking, metallic form emerged. It was a Ponytron, a robust if simplistic magic-tech robot that had become fairly ubiquitous across Equestria in the last few years. It had a pony’s overall shape, albeit topped with a only vaguely equine head with a clear glass dome within which Keymold could see arcane machinery buzzing and sparking.
Still unsure of herself, Keymold looked at the Ponytron and the triangular sigil in her field of view alighted upon the robot. The sigl turned red, and the robot was outlined in a flickering red aura.
“You can target multiple things, or even areas, depending on the spell you use,” Gem Smiles provided happily, “The targeting sigil will change to reflect this, but most low level spells a beginner like you will have are often just single target.”
“Riiight, so... how do I do this? You said I just focus on the spell I want?” Keymold said, and before either Moon Dancer or Gem Smiles could answer she found herself looking at the menu. The targeting sigil moved with her vision, but the Ponytron stayed marked by a red aura. The sigil itself acted like a pointer, alighting upon the menu wheel and moving it as Keymold looked left or right.
She didn’t look very hard at the spells on the menu, as they all had ridiculous looking names in Old Poneish. Apparently somepony programming these ARCUS units had a thing for the Marey Potter series. What nerds. Probably spent their off hours writing fanfiction or something silly like that.
“Once you know the Art you want to cast, just say its name and the ARCUS will do the rest,” Gem Smiles said, much to Keymold’s immediate chagrin as she blinked at the smiling scientist.
“Wait, what? I’m supposed to say this nerd jargon? Out loud?” Keymold asked incredulously.
Gem Smiles blused fiercely, coughing, “W-well, you don’t have to say the full invocations in Old Poneish. There’s a simplified, translated phrase that you should be able to see noted under the invocation.”
“Oh,” Keymold said, glancing again to see that there was in fact a shorter, somewhat less dorky phrase under each spell’s name. Emphasis on somewhat less dorky. This still sounded stupid to her. “Do I really have to say this stuff? Isn’t there, like, a trigger or something I can pull?”
Moon Dancer groaned aloud, “A trigger system would be impractical. You need to keep your hooves free, and don’t even get me started on how unsanitary it is to keep things in your mouth to pull triggers with. Voice activation is fast and simple.”
“Yeah, unless I want to be stealthy and quiet. Or have a sore throat. Or am trying to use an actual gun at the same time as this magical doohickey.”
“Will you stop complaining and just conduct the test already!?” Moon Dancer near shouted, stamping a hoof.
“Okay, okay! Yeeeash. Alright, let’s see her... ugh, this is embarrassing. Um...” Keymold hold out a hoof dramatically towards the waiting Ponytron and with a grimace said, “Fire Bolt!”
The effect was nearly instant. A swirl of flames appeared from thin air and gathered into a compact sphere at the end of Keymold’s hoof, and then immediately fired off in a bolt of intense orange flame. The Fire Bolt struck the Ponytron squarely in the chest plate and burst, coating the robot in consuming flames.
Much to Keymold’s disturbed grimace the Ponytron flailed about in mockery of a real pony writhing in pain, making little robotic screams as its circuitry fizzled and popped, its thin metal armor melting under the surprisingly hot flames.
“Okay seriously, why is it screaming like that?” Keymold asked, and Moon Dancer grunted noncommittally.
“Some of the programmers have dark senses of humor I suppose. I certainly didn’t tell them to do it.”
Gem Smiles, looking about as disturbed as Keymold, adjusted her glasses nervously and said, “How are you feeling, Miss Keymold?”
Keymold frowned at the question, but realized she did feel different after casting the Art spell. “Uh, a little winded, I guess? Nothing bad, but I feel a bit more tired. Is that supposed to be normal?”
Gem Smiles pressed a few buttons on her terminal, and said, “Yup, totally normal. The Orbal Arts work by draining your magical field. It's no different than how a unicorn gets tired by casting spells. By my readings here you can probably pull off a dozen or so spells before you’d get too tired and the ARCUS’ automatic safety would kick in to keep you from knocking yourself unconscious.”
“...Neato,” Keymold said, yawning, “So, are we done here? I was already pretty beat and hadn’t really slept yet.”
“I’d like to run through several more tests,” Moon Dancer said, “But you’ve provided good data for us today, so I suppose we can call it here and let you get some slee-”
Before Moon Dancer could finish the sentence the room was filled with the ear bending blare of a wailing alarm, several red lights flashing along the walls of the room. Moon Dancer and Gem Smiles both looked around in confusion, but Keymold almost immediately hopped down from the test platform. She was familiar with only a small hoof full of things that’d warrant a red alarm, and all of them revolved around one problem; a threat to Tartarus’ Inner Gate.
Training and professionalism kicked in quickly, pushing aside a spike of fear that rose in her as she rushed to a communication console near the wall to the entry door. Pressing a button on the console she said, “Warden Keymold here, what’s the situation?”
Her query would have been broadcast straight to the facility’s command and control room, which was situated right outside the entry chamber to the Outer Gate. At least one of her fellow Wardens would be on watch duty there, and they’d be the most likely one to have activated the alarm. The voice that responded to her was a reedy, male voice, one strung high with sudden tension.
“The situation is that Cloudsdale and Manehattan both just went dark!” said Warden Ice Sheet, and Keymold could easily imagine the anxious look on the unicorn’s face, likely because it mirrored her own.
“Dark? What do you mean dark!?” she said, feeling a bit open up in her stomach, “Cities just don’t go ‘dark’, Ice!”
“You think I don’t know that!? We’ve lost all communication, like all the lines were just cut. We don’t even have a satellite signal. What’s worse is that I can’t raise anypony in the Canterlot hubs either, but I’m still getting signals from there, so I’m checking the radios and tv stations there and... oh... oh shit.”
“What? What’s happening up there, Ice!?”
There was a pop of static and a hesitant pause before Ice’s voice spoke, this time in a horrified whisper, “It’s happening. Holy shitballs, it’s actually happening. They’re dropping megaspells on us! The fucking zebra are hitting us with megaspells!”
Blood drained from Keymold’s face. Before she could respond she was shoved aside by Moon Dancer, who keyed the com herself and spoke in a sudden, firm voice, “Warden Ice Sheet, this is Director Moon Dancer. Execute lockdown protocols immediately and try to raise the M.A.S Canterlot Hub. We need to establish a teleport circle to them.”
Ice Sheet only paused a moment before responding, “Lockdown initiated, Director. I’ll try to get through to Canterlot, but I think they just got hit too. The lines are still up, but I’m not getting any response, even on our secure channel.”
Moon Dancers spat out a very unprofessional word under her breath, “Keep trying! With a lockdown on our only way out of here is that teleport circle, but we can’t activate it if the circle isn’t turned on from the other side.”
With a pale, horrified look on her face, Gem Smiles had come up beside Keymold, the young scientist’s eyes wide behind her glasses.
“W-What’s happening? Did I hear that Canterlot was hit? B-But my family is in Canterlot...”
“Gem, calm down,” Moon Dancer said, “I need you to go round up the rest of the research team and get to them to the secure shelter chamber. If our major cities are being struck it won’t be long before military installations, like ours, will be-”
The world heaved.
To Keymold it felt like the floor rushed up to bash her in the face. The earthquake rocked the entire facility with a ear rending boom and thunderous echo that shattered wall panels, broke ceiling lights, and rattled the entire test chamber like a beer can being tossed down a rocky slope. Keymold felt her head hit something hard, and then everything went dark.
Breathing heavy and slick with sweat, Keymold rolled off of Night Lock and cuddled up beside him, utterly satisfied.
“Whew, okay, forget what I said about pegasi. I think you just proved to me you guys got some stamina.”
Even in the small bunk, Night Lock somehow managed to turn to face her with a cocky grin on his face, giving her a wink, “Told ya these fliers’ bodies were built for endurance. Pegasi can fly for hours and hours.”
“Among other things,” Keymold said with a laugh, and nuzzled Night Lock’s toned, firm chest, “Mmm, and here I thought this post in Tartarus would be boring.”
He playfully ran a hoof over her mane, “Boring? Guarding an ancient magical prison filled with demons and monsters is your idea of boring? Key, I’m scared to find out what you’d consider exciting.”
“Heheh, maybe I’ll show you someday, big guy,” Keymold said, nibbling at one of Night Lock’s ears, “Wouldn’t want to scare you off just yet.”
With a warm chuckle he wrapped both his fore hooves and wings around her and pulled her into a tight embrace, his dark lips finding hers.
“Oh don’t worry about that, Key. I don’t think anything is gonna scare me away from you.”
Laughing happily as she enjoyed his warmth, Keymold straddled Night Lock once more, back in the mood and eager to keep testing the limits of pegasi endurance. However just as she was about to get to the good part, she felt something cold drip on the back of her head.
“Ugh, the hell? We got a leaky pipe or something?” she said, looking up, trying to find the source of the cold dripping wetness. Only she saw nothing above her but blackness.
Strange, where was the ceiling? Looking back at Night Lock, she felt a frozen chill claw through her as the warm, living pegasi stallion she’d been sharing a bunk with was now covered in blood, his eyes staring up at her lifelessly. A scream tore itself from her throat as darkness enshrouded her.
Keymold screamed, jerking awake in a pained daze. The nightmare faded, but her fear wasn’t lessened, but only had confusion added to it as she raised her head and tried to take in her darkened surroundings. A faint alarm still rang, and flashing red lights, irregular and too few to properly light the test chamber, bathed everything in alternating bloody reds and dark shadows.
The test chamber was wrecked. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed, metal beams spearing down, and chunks of concrete covering parts of the floor. To Keymold it looked as if they’d been hit by an earthquake. She flinched as a cold drip of water hit her face, and she looked up to see a broken pipe sticking out of the torn ceiling above her. Keymold suppressed a shudder, remembering the nightmare. There was no time to be scared by dreams. An unbelievable emergency had befallen the facility, and she had to do her job!
Grunting in pain, her head aching from what she surmised had to have been a nasty blow she’d gotten from the earthquake, Keymold forced herself to stand. With a quick glance she looked around for Moon Dancer and Gem Smiles, and when she spotted them she sucked in a sharp breath, grimacing.
“Shit...” she breathed.
Gem Smiles looked alright. Rattled and disheveled, but the young scientist didn’t have any obvious wounds besides a few small scrapes.
The same could not be said for Director Moon Dancer.
She lay on her side, her back to where Keymold stood. A pipe, not dissimilar to the one that had been dripping water on Keymold, impaled the mare through her side, pinning her to the floor. Blood formed a dark pool beneath Moon Dancer, and Keymold would have thought the mare already dead if not for the way her chest shallowly rose and fell.
Moon Dancer’s head was resting in Gem Smile’s hooves as the lab assistant gently cradled her mortally wounded senior. Gem Smiles was crying, her voice wracked with thick sobs, but it was Moon Dancer who spoke first. The mare’s voice was surprisingly strong for someone with a metal pipe stabbing through her body.
“Gem, I hear somepony moving. Is that Keymold?”
Gem Smiles, who clearly hadn’t heard Keymold standing up, gave a small start and looked up as Keymold trotted over. Coming around to Moon Dancer’s front Keymold could get a better look at the pipe impaling the mare and winced at the sight. Moon Dancer gave a weak huff, blood clear on her lips.
“I take it from your expression you know my time is short,” Moon Dancer said, her own face twisting with a twinge of pain as she looked up at Keymold, “So I won’t mince words. We’ve been hit by a megaspell.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured that,” Keymold said, her tone subdued but firm, “Look, if we can get you to the med-bay-”
“Don’t bother,” Moon Dancer said, “You’d have to remove the pipe to move me, and... and I’d bleed out in all of a minute. Just... just shut up and listen, Warden.”
Keymold closed her mouth and gave Moon Dancer a solemn nod. No matter how much the Director had grated on Keymold’s nerves due to her attitude, she had never wanted to see the mare die. Knowing that Moon Dancer had minutes to live left Keymold feeling a surreal sense of numb cold. The least she could do was not give the unicorn any guff and listen to her in her final moments.
“The... the teleportation circle won’t work without an identical circle being active on the other end. Canterlot... Canterlot is gone, or close enough to it that we can’t use the M.A.S Hub’s circle,” Moon Dancer sucked in a breath and proceeded to cough up an alarming amount of blood. Gem Smiles stroked the mare’s head.
“Director...”
Moon Dancer managed a wane smile, “It’s okay Gem... need you to focus. I... I set up a back up circle. Failsafe. In case of... something like this. Keymold, go to my room, find the safe beneath the bed. Passcode is...” A sobbing laugh escaped her lips, “Passcode is ‘Twilight’. Bunch of personal stuff inside, but has an amulet enchanted to connect our circle to the failsafe, even from our end. Get... get everypony out. Can’t unlock the Outer Gate. Can’t let the monsters out... so use the circle.”
Keymold found herself nodding. It made sense. They couldn’t afford to open the Outer Gate to leave the facility, because if the Inner Gate was breached then that Outer Gate would be the only thing keeping the prisoners of Tartarus inside the mountain. The teleportation circle was their only way out of here.
“I understand. I’ll round up all the survivors I can find and get them to safety, you have my word. Where does the failsafe circle take us?”
“S...small bunker, set up years ago... near Everfree Forest. Should be secure... has a few supplies. I don’t...” Moon Dancer made a pained wheezing sound, her breaths growing slower, her voice weakening, “Don’t know what... what surface conditions will be like. Radiation will be... b-bad. But... better odds than staying here.”
“D-Director, please, let us try to help you!” Gem Smiles suddenly burst out, tears moving in a silver stream down her cheeks, “Even if it's just a small chance, I have to try!”
Moon Dancer’s lips twitched in the last vestiges of a smile, a trembling hoof reaching up and resting on Gem Smiles cheek, “Gem... you’re such a... good hearted pony. Should’ve... been nicer to...”
Her words trailed off, and Moon Dancer’s hoof fell. No more breath came, and her eyes stared without seeing. Gem Smiles collapsed in on herself, wailing.
Keystood stood there for a second, the cold, numb feeling still gripping her. But soon it was replaced by an iron hard knot of resolve that was even colder than the fear and sadness. With a deep breath she reached out a hoof and set it on Gem Smiles’ shoulder. She had given her word to Moon Dancer to get as many ponies out of the Tartarus Facility as she could.
She had no idea who was still alive, either among the science team or her fellow Wardens. Either way, she had a job to do.
“Gem Smiles, we’ve got to go,” she said as gently as she was able to.
With another soft sob Gem Smiles wiped at her face, looking anguished as she turned to face Keymold while still giving a hesitant glance towards Moon Dancer’s body. “We... we can’t just leave her...”
Keymold closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she shook her head, “I know how you feel, but we can’t do anything for her now. There’s no time, and I can’t carry her body while protecting you and whoever else has survived. I’m sorry.”
Gem Smiles was quiet for a few seconds, staring at Moon Dancer. Then with a shuddering breath the scientist seemed to gather herself togethr and stood on shaking legs. She reached out and closed Moon Dancer’s eyes, “I’m so sorry Director. I...I swear I’ll get the others out safely. Please, rest easy and... goodbye.”
Keymold gave Gem Smiles another moment or two to collect herself, and in the meantime she went to the communications pad on the wall, which was shockingly still intact. Not sure what she’d find out she gingerly touched the button and said, “Warden Keymold to anypony else out there, please respond. I’m in Test Chamber One with Gem Smiles. Please, anypony respond.”
Night Lock, please be okay... she thought as she listened for any responding voice. For nearly a minute there was nothing but static. Then there was a popping noise, and Keymold frowned as she heard what she thought was a series of unusual sounds. Scraping noises, like something sharp tearing across metal. Was that a static pop or a gunshot? And was that a scream? No, it had to just be just a peal of harsh static. Her mind was just playing tricks on her.
Again she said, “This is Warden Keymold to anypony who’s still alive, say something dammit! Ice Sheet? Kaleidoscope? N...Night Lock? Anypony out there?”
For another frozen minute of time her unease shot up more and more. Then, finally...
“Keymold!?” the voice spoke hastily, barely heard between bits of static, “-hit girl, its good to...our voice! Where are y-”
It was Lemon Pinch’s voice, she recognized that much. Breathing a sigh of relief she hit the com button again, “Good to hear you too, Lemon. I’m with Gem Smiles in one of the test chambers. The... the Director is dead. I’m looking to gather everypony still alive and get them to the teleportation circle. Before she died Moon Dancer told me of a failsafe circle that’ll take us to a secure bunker instead of Canterlot. Have you heard from any of the other Wardens?”
For a moment she wasn’t sure if her voice had reached Lemon Pinch through the static, but soon enough he spoke back, loud and clear, “It's a mess, and I don’t know what’s going on. I got a hold of Ice Sheet briefly about a minute before you called, but I could barely hear anything he was saying and he was abruptly cut off by static and...”
“And? And what?” Keymold asked, hearing the nervousness in Lemon Pinch’s voice.
“I dunno. I thought I heard a... a roar and gunfire. Shit Keymold, I haven’t been able to get ahold of anypony else. I’m still at my post at the barracks watch station, but if you’re going to round up the labcoats then I’ll gear up and start looking for the other Wardens.”
Keymold nodded, then felt a bit stupid doing so since Lemon Pinch couldn’t see it and said, “Good idea. Once I get all the egg heads together I’ll meet you at the central passage. If coms are this messed up it's probably the others just can’t reach us. Do me a favor, if you can, and check on the Inner Gate post first.”
“NIght Lock’s there, right? Yeah, I’ll head there first. Need to make sure the Inner Gate wasn’t damaged from whatever hit us,” Lemon Pinch’s voice was high strung with obvious fear but he was controlling it now that he had a goal, “Meet you at the central passage.”
“Right. Be careful.”
“You too.”
Turning away from the com console, she saw Gem Smiles had taken a keycard off of Director Moon Dancer and was tucking it away in her lab coat. Seeing Keymold’s look Gem Smiles said, “We’ll need it to get into her room. The card will open every door in the facility, in case anything was locked down.”
That struck a chord with Keymold as she realized something, “Crap, I hope Ice Sheet was able to activate the lockdown before we got hit. If... if the Inner Gate did get damaged,” she shivered at the thought, “Then the Outer Gate could still be opened without the lockdown initiated.”
Gem Smiles blinked at her, eyes wide, “But... but nothing could break the Inner Gate. It’s impossible.”
“I would’ve thought megaspells were impossible too, but the impossible has a bad habit of becoming reality at really inconvenient times,” Keymold said, turning to the door out of the test chamber, which thankfully was intact and seemingly undamaged, “C’mon, we’ve got to get moving.”
Gem Smiles trotted up behind her and Keymold opened the door, which opened with a hiss of hydraulics. Beyond the opening stood a six foot tall horror of shadow and leathery bound muscle. Keymold had all of a second to see blazing orange eyes, gnashing fangs, and a fist of wicked seven inch claws flash towards her face. Instincts and training kicked in as she threw herself back and shoved Gem Smiles away. She felt a blow on her side that exploded pain through her whole body as she was hurled over a dozen paces to smack hard onto the floor.
She rolled with it, but her head spun. She heard Gem Smiles scream, a high pitched tone of wailing terror, and she rose to see the shadowy behemoth stalking into the test chamber. Its massive bulk had to duck low to clear the doorway, and as it stood to its full height Keymold was able to get a clear look at it amid the flashing red of emergency lights.
It was a monster, pure and simple. She’d never seen anything like it. Bipedal, vaguely, but with reverse jointed legs sporting long claws that tore into the floor as it walked. Its flesh was gnarled and warped like old leather, but bulging with muscle. Its face was a squashed in muzzle filled with rows of dripping fangs. It had six eyes, arranged in two rows, all blazing a luminous orange that was solid and lacked any pupil. Long arms, too long for its body, dragged claws across the ground in a shower of sparks. With a feral growl that rumbled the air it turned its head towards the helpless Gem Smiles, who was only a short distance away, and turned towards the screaming mare.
Before it took another step Keymold rose, drawing her pistol in one smooth motion.
The test chamber shook with repeated, hammer roars of gunfire. Keymold’s mouth shook with each pull of the trigger, the McColt Model 7’s 14mm rounds rattling her teeth even with the padded mouth grip. The heavy caliber rounds smacked into the... the demon like angry bees, creating wet smacking sounds. She could see the rounds penetrate that thick hide, creating bursts of black blood. But the damage didn’t seem to bother the creature very much, as it only turned to look at Keymold with a faintly annoyed look.
Then it smiled. Keymold felt her blood freeze. Then the creature spoke and she felt her bones turning to cold jelly.
“Pretty, pretty little pony. So many screams, so much blood. Does the little pony think its toy will save it? The Gates have fallen, our Lord shall rise, and the light of the surface be made dark by the blood we shall spill.”
Keymold didn’t respond to its taunts, and as her clip hit empty she ejected the magazine and quickly reloaded. However the demon beared down on her like a freight train, moving with shocking speed, and she had to roll away from a slash of claws that tore apart the ground where she’d just been standing. The roll hurt, her side still flaming with pain from the previous blow. At a glance she saw her jacket and armor had become torn, but she didn’t think she was bleeding. Yet.
Gem Smiles was hyperventilating in a corner of the chamber, but she still manage to shout, “A-ARCUS! Use it!”
Keymold had turned to gallop away from the demon, trying to get some distance from it, and at Gem Smile’s words she glanced down at the device that was still attached to her neck like a pendant. She’d all but forgotten about the ARCUS unit. She was hesitant to rely on the device, but given her bullets had only pissed the demon off, she supposed she didn’t have much to lose at this point.
She heard the demon’s grating footsteps as it gave chase to her, and she panted between breaths as she ran, “ARCUS activate!”
The ARCUS’ menu and targeting sigil appeared and she quickly chose a spell at random. The demon, much faster than her, caught up and grabbed her by the tail. She felt herself lifted off the ground, and could smell blood and rot on the demon’s breath as it let out a guttural growl at her.
“Little pony fights bravely. Little pony still dies screaming,” it said with a dark chuckle as it raised its other claws, ready to gut her.
Keymold planted the targeting sigll right between its infernal orange eyes and said, “Earth Lance!”
There was an instant rumble beneath her and demon, and a blade of pure rock shot up from the ground, seemingly transmuted from a magical circle that appeared on the floor. The blade of stone impacted into the demon’s stomach, penetrating in a spray of dark blood that coated Keymold. The blood smelled like rotten eggs. The demon howled and dropped her. As the monster was still stunned, she swung her pistol around and aimed it right at its face and pulled the trigger as fast a she could.
Roaring gunfire drowned out the demon’s screams, and the point blank shots managed to rip half of its skull off in a burst of black brain matter. The demon fell back like a dead tree, and as its body hit the ground flames started to consume it’s body like ashen embers, and within seconds its body was reduced to a skeletal corpse.
Breathing heavily, mind numb, Keymold just kept saying, “What the fuck.. What the fuck...”
After a few minutes Gem Smiles, shaking like a leaf, came over, eyes staring at the skeletal body. “I don’t believe it.”
Keymold let out a manic laugh that probably didn’t say much for her sanity, “Believe what? This shit’s totally normal, right?”
Gem Smiles glanced at her worriedly, but gestured at the skeleton, “We know very little about the prisoners in Tartarus. There’s famous ones like the demon-centaur Tirek, but there’s countless other beings imprisoned over the millennia that we couldn’t even begin to guess at the total number or what kind of creatures they even are. I never thought I’d see one, but this had to be an escaped prisoner.”
“Yeah, no shit!” Keymold was trying not to panic, but to maintain her professional calm. She wasn’t doing too hot at it. If this demon was here, then did that mean the Inner Gate was already broken open somehow? As if reading her thoughts, Keymold shook her head.
“I don’t think the Inner Gate is completely open, otherwise we’d be completely overrun already. They must be damaged, though. Damaged enough that some of these entities are slipping through.”
Keymold rubbed at her face, clearing some of the blood from it. Wincing she checked her side. Her Warden’s jacket and armor had been damaged, and her hide bruised, but otherwise she was okay. That struck her as odd. “Shit, I thought that thing’s first hit would have gutted me... guess I got lucky.”
“It’s the ARCUS,” Gem Smiles said, “The Quartz amplifies physical abilities as well as granting access to Arts. We put both Wind and Earth Element Quartz in your unit, so that should be boosting your agility and durability.”
“Seriously? Well, crap, guess I’m lucky I was wearing this thing...” Keymold was growing more focused by the moment. No less scared or horrified by what was happening, but her mind was shoving all that to the size, compartmentalizing it, so she could focus on her job. Taking a few rough breaths she composed herself.
“Okay, so, we’ve got a damaged facility that’s possibly filling with demons as we speak. We’re cut off from the other Wardens. There’s still survivors we have to find, then get them to the teleportation circle, while also getting to Moon Dancer’s room to get the amulet to activate the failsafe circle. On top of that, I have to check the command and control room to make sure the Outer Gate lockdown is active, otherwise the prisoners of Tartarus could escape to the surface, whatever’s left of it by now.”
Gem Smiles, her own eyes swimming with fear but also a moment of dark humor, said, “H-heh...y-yeah, that’s about the size of it.”
With an equally humorless laugh, Keymold checked her pistol, patted the ARCUS unit, and said, “Right. Guess it's time to earn my job title. Let’s get to it.”
Author's Note
This is the first half of a story idea prompted by a thread in the Fallout Equestria group, concerning writing a story about a part of Fallout Equestrias mythology and lore that was left mysterious or unexplained. For me, my first thought went to Tartarus. It's always left me curious, because as terrible as the Wasteland is, at least its not overrun by monsters or demons in the vein of Tirek. And really, we've never had any guarantee that Tirek is even the worst being imprisoned in Tartarus. So what might've happened there they day the zebras and ponies decided to unleashed the apocalypse? What kind of facility was there? Who was in charge of guarding Tartarus? And how did that day shake out for the people there that day?
That's what this story is meant to explore. We're probably looking at a fairly short tale, maybe just one or two more chapters at most. Hope you folks enjoy, and let me know what you think.
Quite sidenote: For those of you who are wondering about the ARCUS, the concept is lifted straight from the Trails series, specifically Trails of Cold Steel. What can I say, I love crossover ideas from other settings.
