And so, with those words from Hitch, we pressed on. The darkness of the building seemed to be all consuming as it floated around us, threatening to keep us enveloped in its shadow. My eyes continued to dart about to try and find some answers as to where I was going, but the darkness didn't make it easy. I blinked a few times to see if that helped clear the darkness from the area and help my eyes adjust, but it seemed to do little good. I had suddenly jumped from an area of very bright light to very dark light, which can play a right mess on your ability to read color temperature. This is why a bright light in a dark space can severely blind you, as your eyes have adjusted to extremely dark conditions and don't like the sudden change in the light conditions.

We continued to press on, however, and I kept on scanning the terrain as we went along. It was still far too dark for my liking, mind you, so I had to try something.

"If only there was a way of seeing in this darkness," I said, glancing about as I did so.

"There is," Hitch said. "You've got your night vision goggles up around your forehead and below your horn, remember?"

It was only then that I recalled that I, in fact, did have a set of night vision goggles on my forehead, and that these would help me see where I was going. I reached up and pulled them down, meaning the light problem was, at last fixed. I could properly see where I was going!

"Thanks for the reminder, Hitch!" I said, as we continued on. Truth be told I wasn't entirely sure how I'd forgotten that, but at least having the reminder of them being there meant I knew they were there now. Handy how that works, huh?

Anyway, we continued on our way, our eyes continuing to scan about and try to navigate the darkness ahead of us. I knew from the building plans I had been sent digitally that I was on the wrong level here. We had entered the building on the bottom floor, and the room we were going for was on the next floor. So, we had to find a way of getting upwards from one floor to another without flying. Which was something none of us could do. I couldn't cast a spell to levitate (and good luck casting anything higher than a basic telekinesis spell as a blank flank), Hitch had no capability to fly, and Pipp's wings didn't work without magic. So that settled that debate pretty quickly.

We also had to keep an eye out for other threats. Although it probably wasn't as heavily guarded as the palace, soldiers had been posted here, and I'd already run into a few when trying to get the doors open for my fellows. I suspected that there were more than two soldiers in this building based on all the marching.

We stopped to let a patrol past, their eyes not noticing us in the darkness. Probably a benefit of wearing dark colors. Turquoise isn't exactly the quietest of colors, wouldn't you agree?

They were gone in a few moments, and we could press forward. I led the others into the system again, and we trotted along another section of corridor, our hooves making minimal noise against the floor and bouncing back up at the odd rubbery texture of the tiles we were making our way down. It certainly was something to keep in mind, as I suspected trying to move any faster would cause us to go slipping and sliding about like toboggans on ice. And as fun as that sounded, hitting a wall at the end of it and being put out of commission did not sound fun at all. So we didn't go sliding, after all.

We dashed along again, stopping once more to let a patrol past, and I brought the map up again whilst I waited for more space to come available. The floor plan was laid out pretty logically considering the building's odd shape, and I was soon able to figure out where I was.

An elevator was only a short walk away, so we could use that to take it to get to the next floor and infiltrate the broadcast room. I looked about and noticed the patrol had moved on (these guys did not have the best perimeter detection to say the least), and then moved to the elevator.

Hitch raised a weapon to keep us covered, and I got to work with the elevator controls. The elevator controls had been reset to be connected to the hoofprint of a soldier in the building, but my studies of the schematics of the controls suggested to me that a keycard system had been installed as a backup should the hoofprint reader fail for whatever reason.

And it was just my luck that I had managed to swipe a keycard from another soldier on my way in. I studied it closely, and then looked back to the panel.

PLACE HOOFPRINT ON THE READER, OR SWIPE KEYCARD

PLACE HOOFPRINT

SWIPE KEYCARD

I selected the second option, and the text vanished, to be replaced with new text.

SWIPE KEYCARD IN SLOT, THE WAY UP SHOWN IN THE IMAGE

An image appeared on screen, showing that the card had to be held a certain way up. Good thing I had night vision on. I popped the card into the reader and swiped it down.

There was a moment of silence, and then the display flashed what appeared to be green. Then again, most colors appear as green through night vision goggles.

KEYCARD ACCEPTED. PRIVATE SKYTRAIL. ACCESS TO UPPER LEVELS GRANTED. HAVE A NICE DAY.

The door to the elevator suddenly opened, and we stepped inside.

"This keycard network doesn't exactly seem like the most secure of security systems," Hitch said, as he stepped aboard with Pipp at his side. I'd noticed he was being pretty protective of her, but considering the crazy things that had been happening, I didn't really blame him.

"I can only assume it was how ZBS moved its employees about, and they retained it as a backup safety system in case the reader failed," I said.

"It's certainly handy, though," Pipp said, yawning briefly. "Beats having to punch loads of number combinations into a keypad! Imagine how long that would take with hooves!"

I sighed. Buttons in this world were bigger to allow ponies to manipulate them more accurately. This was presumably how texting without fingers worked, for example, and being able to pick things up without any apparent grip. Not that I was complaining about how tools and objects just stick to our hooves. If anything it was easier than having to manipulate them with our mouths.

Finally, the elevator arrived, and the doors opened with a ding. We stepped out and immediately dropped into a side corridor to let another patrol past. I held my breath until they had passed completely, then led the others out.

"It'll probably be pretty busy in the broadcast room," Hitch said. "No doubt this Gulfstream lunatic wants tight and total control over the broadcast of his brain rot to the populace."

We stopped outside the room and looked inside. Unfortunately, Hitch was right. The room was flooded with soldiers, all of whom were looking at the machinery inside the room to ensure it was working properly. The desk, where no doubt on normal days those two news anchors (I forget their names right now) greeted the morning, chatted about the upcoming day, and revealed the news. Not to mention hosted guests on their show to find out what they were thinking.

Why do despots always get rid of anything that's fun?

"No way we're getting in there," Pipp said. "Far too many ponies. We'd be spotted and look like Swiss cheese before we could say 'rise and shine'."

"Rise and shine?" Hitch asked. "That's oddly specific."

It was then I had a brilliant idea. "I'll get them off your tail," I said, and popped away from the group. They went into hiding whilst I made my way stealthily along the tunnel. I knew from the building plans that there was something I could use to tip the scales.

I looked for the dividing line that split two different sectors of the building apart. The ZBS Building was divided into sectors, with isolated alarm systems and controls for the use of the emergency services. That way, they could isolate where trouble was happening and stop it from happening pretty quickly.

It was also a critical part of my plan.

I snuck underneath the box and hid for a moment, then slipped out and up to the box. I removed the outer glass panel, and then placed my hoof on the handle.

No turning back now. I gritted my teeth and pulled down on the fire alarm handle with all my might.

Author's Note

Through the dungeons we go...