A loud beeping filled the facility, echoing down the long and dark halls filled with red light, illuminating it, yet still making it seem dark at the same time, the lights going on through every room and hallway. Abruptly the beeping stopped and the lights switched to a more normal white, now replacing the previous light that had been filling the entire facility. All the material that made up the floors, roof, and walls, was a simple light grey metal, seeming like normal steel yet was reinforced ten times over to withstand any attack or disaster. The fact that the compound still stood was a testament to the metal's strength.

"Wakeup sequence initiated. All personnel please clear Cryo Chamber 1." A feminine voice suddenly rang out of the loud speakers in the Cryo Chamber.

In the Cryo Chamber itself it was quite a sight to behold. Hundreds of pods were formed in lines, with a large and clear walkway down the middle, splitting the lines in two. The room was also in freezing temperatures, a mist of frost slumbering on the metal floor, with some of the pods even having small icicles formed on them. A sudden hiss came from one of the pods as it depressurised, the door to the pod moving outwards before sliding to the side to reveal the occupant inside. A man stumbled out of the pod, a white jumpsuit specially designed so that the occupant could survive the long cryo sleep and not freeze to death, paired with gloves, boots, as well as extending into a hood with a filtration system, the whole outfit completely covering his body.

He immediately collapsed to the metal ground as he made contact with it, falling to his knees and managing to catch himself with his hands as he coughed violently into his mask, the sound echoing around the largely silent room. As he gave one final cough he simply knelt there, taking deep breaths through his filter. After about a minute of this he shakily got himself to his feet, flexing his fingers for the first time in over a million years. He then did some stretches, testing to see if his muscles still worked well, and sure enough, while they were still a little stiff, he could move them around.

He looked around, the cold of the room not reaching him due to his suit. Looking up at a nearby loudspeaker he asked, "Alpha, how long have we been asleep?" Silently hoping for the right answer as he crossed his fingers.

The room fell silent for a while, only to be once again broken by Alpha's voice, "Emergency Protocol 667 has been in place for approximately...6.7 million years." It replied cooly after taking a second to properly calculate it.

The man simply stood silent, looking at the loudspeaker, his expression hidden by the mask. His shoulders began to silently shake, the sound of faint chuckling following before breaking out into bellows of crazed laughing, as he jumped up and did a small dance. "It worked!" He yelled happily into the room, "We did it! It's a miracle!" This display continued on for about ten minutes before dying down, the happy man looking back to the loudspeaker.

"Alpha, begin reawakening process on the rest of the pods in Cryo Chamber 1." He said, walking up to a nearby pod.

"Yes Director. Would you like me to awaken the others as well?"

The Director shook his head at that, "No, not yet. I would rather have controlled chaos in here than uncontrolled chaos in the entire facility."

"Understood. Would you like me to begin the awakening process now Director?"

The Director walked up to a nearby pod, looking it up and down as he wiped away the frost from the small strip of glass that allowed one to look inside the pod from outside. "Yes Alpha. Awaken them."

Private O'Malley looked at the open locker before him, the all too familiar uniform he had practically lived in from the start of the apocalypse separated into all it's different items. He started with the suit, taking off his grey one to put on the yellow one, the symbol for NERO emblazoned on the right shoulder, a hood also covering the back half of his head. The suit itself was made from experimental fibres that could sometimes even stop assault rifle bullets. The monsters that had killed his friends didn't care about that though.

He shook his head to clear the bitter memory before putting on the black gloves and boots with similar protective qualities to the suit, yet were kept separate for better simplicity in putting on the uniform. He then moved on to the vest that was emblazoned with the words NERO at the top., like a regular bulletproof vest but much, much stronger. It was used, despite the suit already being bulletproof, for both extra protection, and the ability to carry multiple magazines of ammo into the battlefield, which had been a much needed necessity during the apocalypse.

With the vest fully on he reached for the black gas mask, however hesitated. Picking it up he examined it, the mask he had worn basically during the entire apocalypse and never even having a chance to take it off for more than an hour when he was awake. He wasn't sure if he hated it, or felt protected by it. During the whole apocalypse this uniform had been his only form of continuity. It was always a new thing every day. Washington has fallen. A horde needs to be investigated. There is a new mutation. Yet another chopper was lost. He brushed a gloved hand over the red tinted lens, before continuing the ritual, strapping the mask around his head, he took a deep breath of the filtered air.

Although the air in here was already filtered. Does that mean the air he was breathing was double filtered? As in twice as good? That didn't matter though as he reached for the final piece of his uniform, a helmet made of the same material of the vest, with a similar NERO word printed onto the front. He observed his gloved hands through the mask's lens', the colour of the world still being the same despite the red tint on the outside. They seriously had spent their time making the soldiers look more badass yet still able to see properly when they could have been working to stop the virus. Although, he didn't think anything could have stopped it.

Looking to his right and to the exit, he noticed the other soldiers were already beginning to leave, rifle's in hand. Grabbing his own assault rifle, he loaded it with a magazine, taking others as well to put in his vest. Even though every single one of those things had most likely died, some itching at the back of his mind wouldn't let him leave without a few extra mags.

Taking another deep breath he moved to join the rest of the soldiers, everyone lightly jogging down the hallway to their destination. After about a solid minute of jogging they funneled out into a medium sized room, an officer, if the series of stripes on his left shoulder were any indication, stood in front of a large elevator, hands held behind his back as he regarded all the soldiers moving into the room. About two dozen had moved into the room and lined up to stand at attention before the flow finally stopped, satisfying the officer.

"Alright men. As I am sure you know, the Protocol was a success. Welcome to the future boys." Came the gruff voice from the officer, bringing about a round of cheers. O'Malley didn't join in however, the hold on his rifle only tightening. "Now though, we have to make our way back to the surface. The drills should reach said surface soon, so we will be notified when that happens. Before that however, it is time for a debriefing.

"We are in a strange land, and a strange world, which will be very different from the one we know. There will be new fauna, new animals, hell, even new goddamn air. As such, we are on a cautionary mission. Once we get to the surface we will split into two survey teams led by both Jenkins, and Keyes. You will secure the perimeter around the elevator, and make sure nothing dangerous is about. And for the love of god, don't touch a goddamn thing that isn't the ground beneath your feet. Am I understood!"

"Yes sir!" Came the resounding response from the assembled soldiers.

The officer looked at the watch present on the outside of his suit as it began beeping before looking back at them, "And that's our cue ladies! Move! Move! Move!" He shouted springing the group into action as the made their way onto the elevator, the officer pressing a button on the inside panel as he walked in last.

Slowly the elevator began to ascend.

The ground beneath Dancing Melody shook violently, causing her to drop the basket of berries she had been carrying, sending both them and her sprawling across the grass. She let out a yelp of fear as she began to lightly bounce from the shear force of the shakes, only causing the berries to run further away. Finally, after what had seemed like hours but had only been a minute or two, the shaking stop. Holding a hand to her head, she attempted to stand only to fall back to the ground, dizziness overtaking her.

Looking around the forest she was in she scanned her surroundings, her gaze almost passing over something before flicking back at the shine of metal. Tilting her head curiously, she hesitantly got to her feet, flinching at the amount of dirt that had been smeared over her blue dress. Rarity would not be happy. Making sure the dizziness was fully gone before cautiously making her way over there. Hiding behind a tree, she looked on in awe at what lay before her. She was at the end of the forest right now, particularly on the end where Mount Meinhoof rested, a very small mountain, yet a mountain nonetheless. Yet that wasn't what caught her attention. Rather it was the giant metal cone suspended in the air by four metal beams, all spaced out evenly, standing between the forest and the mountain, with a large hole beneath it. There also seemed to be a large amount of grooves circling around the giant cone, as well as grooves on the inside of the metal beams, but not on the outside for some reason.

This definitely wasn't here this morning. This was further confirmed by the clumps of dirt and grass that lay haphazardly around it, as if someone had shot a particularly large fireball at the ground. Did this thing dig it's way up? If so then where did it come from?

And why did it decide to dig up.

She gulped at that last thought and decided it wasn't worth her life to see what was going on. She wasn't some adventurer or hero. That was left to those Elements of Harmony folk. In fact, she should go tell them this right now. Turning around in the direction of Ponyville, she moved out from behind the tree to begin walking back before stopping in her tracks as her ears picked up something, causing them to turn in it's direction. It was some sort of whirring. And it was behind her. Looking over her shoulder, the whirring slowly got louder before a tube appeared from the hole, moving up until it reached the beginning of the cone.

One of the sides of the tube opened.

They looked at her.

She looked back.

One of them took a step forward.

She had never run so fast in her life.

Author's Note

Bit of an experiment. Also here is what the soldiers look like, in case my over the top description wasn't enough.