M.A.G.I.C.

There were many miles to go before reaching the Tower of Babyl, or the ‘Sky Needle’ as the ponies called it.  Many miles while ascending a few thousand feet too, this was going to be a trip over an two hours long.  Even with the help of four, strong pegasi.

    “So, I guess this is where we really get to know you.” Said Twilight.

    “Yeah, those scientists, back in Canterlot already asked pretty much everything about me, though, they probably could have asked a lot more.  It isn’t exactly possible to get to fully understand another race in one night...  They didn’t tell you anything about me, did they?”

    “No, they didn’t, even though I trusted them..  So let’s begin some questioning of our own, starting with...” Twilight began

    “What do you eat?”  Asked Pinkie Pie

    “We all have been wondering that, really!” Rarity chimed in.

    “Eeyup” Applejack said, trying to imitate her older brother (Minus the baritone voice).

    The group shared a short chuckle, all but Stoic, who was confused.

    “Well, have a look at my teeth, all the evidence is there.” He said after a his confusion faded.

    He bore his teeth, letting the ponies lean in to have a look.

    “Whoa, he’s got incisors, molars, and canines... ”  Twilight began

    “He must be an...” Pinkie cut off.

“A gem eater!” Rainbow dash yelled, cutting Pinky off.

“What?” everypony around said, even the pilot pegasi, who had to defy their harnesses in order to turn, and simultaneously deliver the ಠ_ಠ face with enough intensity to be hazardous to ones health.

    “No Dash, I get why you'd think that, but canines are for tearing flesh.” Twilight said flatly.

    “That’s absolutely correct, Twilight.  I can eat almost anything, minus a few, obvious exceptions, like wood, or grass.  This means I can eat meat.”  Stoic said. “Though, I might want to give gems a try sometime.  Back in our era, pretty much all gems were a lot harder than anyone’s teeth by a long shot.  But if dragons can eat them, I think that may have changed.”

    “I don't get how you can live with being a meat-eater.” Rarity sais, who was quite disgusted.

    “Well, I can be, and might resort to, should I be on the brink of starvation, but that doesn't mean I am.  Our race sort of got past that stage.  After we formed a Utopia, it became unnecessary, and impractical to raise animals for slaughter.  I guess that's one of our nice achievements.”

    “Wow, were ponies around then?” Twilight asked.  “Did humans ever eat ponies??!!”

    “Well, yes, and no, there were ponies around, though they couldn’t speak, fly, use magic, or come in vibrant colours, nor were they more intelligent than a baby.  And no, ponies weren’t ever a target for farming to slaughter.  We sometimes bred them, and rode them around like horses, but the greatest impact ponies had on our society was unrelated to physical ponies.”

    “Wait, horses were there too?”

    “Yes, and people rode them all of the time before the age of automobiles.  We would breed them in masses, and tame entire herds.  Horses, and humans, were quite inseparable for a long time, in an amazingly strong symbiosis.”

“Oh, and not forgetting the subject of food, did you ponies bring any?  It’s been almost a full day since I’ve eaten.  I need some water too, but not so badly, the princess supplied some just a few hours ago.”

“I brought some cupcakes, cornbread, cake,  and cookies!” Pinkie Pie exclamed.

“I brought some apples” Said Applejack

“I brought a couple heads of lettuce, and some grass.” Said Twilight

Rarity, brought clothing mostly, and a few essential objects, like a compass, a firestarter, and some tools, but no food.

Fluttershy brought a heavy quantity of medical supplies, no food either.

Rainbow dash didn’t bring anything, but promised that she could get water on demand.

“Oh, great, that all falls within my range of ‘edible’, all but the grass that is.  Humans were originally hunter-gatherers, not grazers.”

“Hunter-gatherer... Oh, that reminds me of a bear I know.” Said Fluttershy, as Pinkie was hoofing the biped a size-able chunk of sweetened cornbread.

“Thanks...”

“...How can you be around a bear for long enough to know him, without getting mauled to death?”  Asked Stoic.  Happily taking a bite of bread afterwards, unaware of how he accidentally offended her.

“What?  He would never do such a thing!” Replied Fluttershy, who didn’t know how dangerous bears used to be.

“Stoic, are these enders really evil?  I’ve seen forest animals be violent, but none have ever really been evil.” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh, that’s a good point.  I don’t know if they just hate being looked directly at, but they have been the causes of some of the most brutal, and mutilative deaths since our pre-utopian era!  They don’t even eat what they kill, or draw any kind of observable energy from them, their killings are pointless!  Oh... I forgot to mention, they have a tendency to negate magic, so if you are going to use magic to fight them, use it indirectly... throw something at them, don’t try to throw them.”

“Now, I only have two Light-rods on me, but I can defend pretty well from them anyhow. You ponies shouldn't get too worried about it, fear only makes you act irrationally, and because we’re going to be facing some extremely unpredictable, violent monsters, being irrational could quite easily be the loss of a good friends’, or your own life.”

“Ok, ok, I don’t want to talk about the enders, it makes this trip a heck of a lot more grim....  Did you have a family?”  Twilight asked, changing the subject.

“Ooh, the scientists never asked me that one...  I never had a family of my own, I stayed very distant from other people, including the girls.  Though, my parents, and siblings were well, and alive before FATE-S decided it didn’t need us around any more.  Not much of a dark backstory here.”

“So, you are male!.....Umm, just been wondering.” Twilight inferred, wearing a slightly blushing, bad poker face.

“Well.... I guess you never got a clue other than my voice.  So yes, I am male.”  He replied

“Can I see your claws?” Dash asked, changing the subject.

“They’re called hands, and they aren’t even that sharp.”

Dash felt around the bony structure of the fairly alien, bony extremity.  Pushing around fingers, pressing the tendons to observe how the fingers responded.

“It reminds me of a spider... Kinda.” Dash said.

“Hey, wasn’t Lyra always babbling about hands?” asked Pinky.

“I don’t think so, Pinky.  Lyra probably doesn’t even know what hands are, let alone want a pair.”

Stoic clenched his hand around Dash’s hoof while she was pressing at the palms.

“I’d still prefer wings” Dash concluded.

Stoic released his soft grip.

“You could build wings with these.  Don’t underestimate the potential these tools have.  Hands were easily one of the biggest reasons humans dominated the world for fifty-thousand years, and had immense technological resources to show for it!”

“Whoa, how the hay are you supposed to build wings?  Don’t they grow?” Applejack asked.

“Wings of metal.  It’s really easy to grasp, and make tools of hard material with hands...  Haven’t you listened when I spoke of aeroplanes back in the debriefing room?”

Dash was pressing on the sides of Stoic’s hands, bringing the thumb, index, and pinky near.

“Haha, that’s kinda cool!”

“Will you stop playing with his hands, Dearest?  It’s a little disturbing.  Besides, I don’t think he likes it.”  Rarity interfered.

“Buzzkill.” Dash muttered.

“I don’t mind, I kinda enjoy it.  It’s not every day you get to explore the details of a sentience so radically different from yourself!  Quite frankly, I think we all need to get to know each other better, I will stress myself to death if I don’t get any friends to rely on to forget my old life.”

“Whoa, you can stress yourself to death?!” Quizzed a somewhat horrified Pinkie.

“Yes, definitely yes,  although, seeing what FATE-S has done to this place, that probably never happens.”

“How is that possible?” Asked Twilight.

“Well, when someone would go through a lot of trauma in their life, or get highly overworked, the chemical/hormone balance of his/her body would often go way out of the safe zone.  This would result in his/her immune system becoming extremely alert, to almost anything, because the body is evidently in trouble.  The immune system would try to find the source of the imbalance, and attack it, anything really, from food, to other certain cells, to pollen, to dander.  Anyhow, this would result in a huge array of resulting sicknesses, from allergies to everything, to cancer, to starvation because of the inability to hold food down.”

“Whoa, that’s gruesome!” Dash said.

A wild pause appears.

Twilight uses Revive.

“So.... you’ve lightened up, a lot, but you’re still so... stoic.” Twilight said.

It’s super effective!!!

“Hey, is Stoic your real name?  I haven’t met anyone who only has one name, especially one like ‘Stoic’.” Said Pinkie

“Pinkie, please.” Rarity whined.

“No, seriously, I’m ok with it, you don’t need to speak up for me.”

“Alright... Sorry” Rarity said, a little embarrassed, and exasperated.

“My name is Stoic because I was named under the effect of FATE-S, like you all.  One of its functions was ensuring people were named after who they will become.  Or really, they become what they are named.  Stoic is my full name, and at the time, very few people had more than one name.  I think it’s fairly obvious, though, that I stay true to my name.”

“Ok, don’t mind if I ask, but, how old are you?”

“Well, not counting my time in stasis, I am eighty five years old.”

Everyone looked stunned, ponies lived to be around seventy most of the time, and rarely made it to age eighty five.  That, and he had no signs of age whatsoever (at least as the ponies could tell).

“Whoa, you are older than I thought.  How old do humans live?” Dash said.

“Around two hundred, two hundred fifty maybe... on average.”

“Whoa, whoa whoa, that’s positively ancient!” Rarity remarked.

“What....? You ponies haven’t.....? OOHH, ok, I see, you’re still around the seventy year limit, assuming your lifespan is as long as ours naturally.  We humans have advanced our medical science to the point of extreme longevity.  We genetically modified our population, injecting various ‘free radical protection’ genes from many different animals into our population.  It started with the transplant of the mitochondria of parrots, which could already outlive humans.  That action alone boosted our average lifespan as a globe to about 135 years.” Stoic explained.

“Holy moly!!  You could so bored after two hundred years!!  I sure hope you humans knew how to throw great parties!!” Pinkie said.

“Wait, how come you don’t have a family of your own after eighty five years?  It’s usually only twenty years before a pony has his, or her own family!”

“As I said, I was always very distant from people.  That, and I am elven.”

“Elven?”

“Oh, gee, I have a lot of explaining to do.  The elves were an emerging race of humans, who had another set of genes implanted into them, though, this gene did quite a bit more than just make a person last longer.  we elves lived quite a bit longer, as expected, but also were taller, thinner, and more angular.  The hair on our heads was usually white, if not jet black, otherwise we were quite hairless, we stereotypically had our own way of speaking, pointed ears, and unique formalities.  There was both a lot of respect, and contempt for the elves.”

“How old did they get to live?” Applejack asked.

“Three hundred-fifty.”

The group stared again, as another huge number just dropped from the mouth of Stoic.

“You’re going to live to be three hundred-fifty?!” Twilight shrieked.

“No way!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Well, maybe, I might just die today, in the tower, I might die during ponification, and I might not get to keep my elven genes when I get ponified, and die of old age immediately after ponification, I might die of old age fifty years after the transformation, I might keep my genes, and live to be three hundred-fifty, or I might even become immortal like Celestia, and Luna.  See why there needs to be a lot of planning before a spell like ponification, especially for something like me?”

“Yes” Was the answer from the mane six, that was quoted by all of them, but not in unison.

“Anyhow, I was only about one fourth the way through my life, and when it comes to issues like children, being bound to the wrong person by one is a very bad thing.  So, I basically decided to wait for the right person to drop into my life, I had another hundred years to go before my extended prime runs out, and I begin to slowly deteriorate.  So, I felt that patience was the best option.”

He brushed some of his hair away, exposing a pointed ear.

“See.” He said, pointing to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The carriage ride was quite long, and despite the fact that they conversed until they were nearly out of questions, they spent the last half of the trip discussing the plan to infiltrate Babyl Tower, fight off any enders they met, reactivate the Babyl Reactor, climb to the top floor, retrieve a good quantity of Pullus ferrum, get back down, and escape.  The consequences for failure to properly execute this plan were dire.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The tower was visible in the distance, sticking out behind the foothills of a nearby mountain to the east.  The wind began to pick up.

    “Knowing the Babyl Tower, we’re going to have to start flying low soon, and afterwards, land, and walk another quarter mile to the tower.”

    “Why?” Asked Rainbow Dash.

    “The wind picks up as you get closer, Babyl Tower has air spiralling around it reaching an excess of 600 Mph at its direct surface, and, strangely enough, much faster than sound near the top.  The two-hundred feet around the tower maintain constant hurricane speeds.  Approaching the tower, even on foot, will be a daunting task.”

    “Yeah, We have that detail written in many books, the Sky Needle always had mysterious winds.  Though, nopony could get inside, They could get close enough to make some good observations.”

The tower was veiled white, and its surface was rapidly shifting, occasionally revealing black spots underneath it. the upper section of the tower wasn’t visible at all, because there was a thick, dense layer of wind, completely solid white, and spinning so fast it was now audible to the ponies as a subtle buzzing noise, from nearly three quarters a mile away.

The carriages silently continued, lowering in altitude slowly, not much was spoken until they landed, nearly a quarter of a mile from the tower.

The Ponies got out, thanking the pegasi for their long, persistent labour.  They fetched their armor from the second carriage, and spent the next few minutes fitting it on.  The human sat precariously on the edge of the carriage, staring up at the tower, taking in the refreshing, cool winds.

“Don’t you need any armor?”  Applejack asked.

“Ha, no, not really.  My Dark Iron-weave is the ultimate coat, though I will truly miss it once I’m ponified...  It repels blows from anything more than 30 PSI an inch from its surface, and spreads the impact into the ground I stand on, and the air nearby, not to mention, it does a lot more than just that.  It’s absolutely frictionless to liquids, nothing sticks, ever, it can’t be torn, it’s extremely flexible, and not to mention, it has built in medical systems in the case that I am irradiated, poisoned, or somehow broken.” Stoic answered, fiddling with the various black plates that were joined into the tough, metallic fabric.

“Though, that can make it very hard to swim...”

“Whoa, I could sure use something like that around the farm.....  A pair of boots that mud never sticks too, and that survive more than a month of applebuckin’.” the orange pony giddily said.

“Anyhow...” Twilight began, but paused.

“How did you get into this building every day?  And why on earth is this wind present in the first place?” Twilight asked, a little frustrated that they were going to walk into the most blindingly powerful winds they had ever experienced.

“One, shuttle cars, and two, to protect the building from time, extreme winds did an amazing job at keeping away damaging elements, be it water, or animals, or vandals, or even projectiles.  Not to mention, it looks beautiful!”

He picked up his field manipulator from the carriage.

The earth had been stripped away of light sands, and soil, leaving only smooth, dark, round stones behind.  The mass of the stones required to stay where they sat grew much higher, as distance to the tower shortened.  The ground was smooth gravel several feet down, no plant-life was present whatsoever.  Closer towards the tower, only the most smooth, dense, and large pieces of stone remained, having been agitated by the winds over hundreds of thousands of years to a smooth polish.

Right around the tower foundation, for about twenty yards, the rocky ground was replaced with a single, huge sheet of polished granite, in a perfect circle around the tower.  Probably buried hundreds of feet into the ground past the surface.

“Whoa, there used to be tons of soft dirt here, now there’s nothing but rocks!” Stoic exclaimed.

“Well, enough of this, we are prepared to move on, so let’s do so.” Stoic cut off the jabber.

They marched towards the tower, sharp veins of air coating it almost entirely, the once quiet buzz sounding from the upper section, now a monstrous, almost unbearable roar.

At first, the wind was only strong, but after approaching closer, no one could hold their eyes open without getting a swift, tear-inducing serving of air.  The winds were rotating clockwise, so the ponies were getting blasted from the right, facing the tower.

“Geez, this is terrible!” Dash said.

“Oh god, don’t open your wings, whatever you do.” Stoic screamed, getting a mouthful of wind.

“Are you kidding me?  I did a sonic rainboom with these!”

Pinkie pie was lolling her tongue out, and forcing her eyes open.  She was enjoying this.

“UGH, this will totally ruin my mane!” rarity screamed over the cacaphony of wind.

As they got closer, the wind transformed from chilling, hindering, and loud, to a frost-bite inducing, deafening wall of air.

Stoic loosened a stone from its precarious perch, surrendering it to the violent grasp of the wind, hurling it with frightening speeds, zipping it past Rainbow Dash’s face, who flinched, and was almost flipped by the sudden increase of surface area exposed to the winds.

They were almost onto the granite platform, everypony was leaning into the wind, but pinkie pie, who was remained completely unfazed.

“ACTIVATE THE SPELL, STOIC!” Twilight screamed, almost inaudible compared to the winds blasting her.

He held his manipulator out, a familiar black aura pulsed around him, a hemisphere of absence roughly twelve feet across began to fade in, around the group, barely visible at all, but acting as a sanctuary from the artificial tornado.  The ponies’ manes, and tails fell back into their ordinary places, everypony smiled.

“Oh, ah sure am glad to get out of that blasted wind.” Applejack said.

Pinky Pie stuck her head out of the radius of the bubble, lolling her tongue out again.

“Pinky, will you quit that?”  Said Rainbow Dash, who was getting irritated with her friends refusal to be serious.

Pinky couldn’t hear her, she was getting blasted by winds over one hundred miles an hour.

Stoic tapped her on the back, mildly entertained.

Pinky pulled her head back in.  At least her mane didn’t change much.

“We have to move on, Pinky, besides, we’ll get even more amazing wind speeds just stepping onto that granite!”

“Okey dokie loki!”

The whole group followed stoic in a crowd, closely packed together, a few feet more onto the granite.  Pinky Pie immediately stuck her head out of the bubble, her facial expression of curiosity, excitement, and uncalled for bliss became completely unreadable as her eye sockets, cheeks, nostrils, and ears filled with air, and flapped in the wind.

Everypony chuckled at the odd sight.

She pulled her head back in after a full five seconds.

“Whoa, that was totally fun, you guys should try it!”

“I dunno Pinky, I don’t think we’ll enjoy it as much as you do.” Twilight said.

“You’re right, those wind speeds made a jump from one hundred-twenty, to two hundred miles per hour, you’d probably get dry eyes instantly...” Stoic stopped for a second.

“Pinky, you don’t have a horn at all, but you are packing some serious magic, unusual magic at that...  It’s like you are an out of place cartoon character, really!  Why do you defy logic?  you even sometimes talk at nothing, and stare off into space wearing an out of place, goofy grin!”

“Because it’s funny!!  ….Well... at least I think it’s funny!” Pinky answered

Stoic was not really satisfied with the answer, but didn’t feel like interrogating her.

They got closer to the tower, only about ten yards from it now, Pinky decided it was time to run an experiment.

First she stuck her hoof out of the bubble.

Immediately a loud blasting could be heard, as three hundred fifty mile an hour winds slammed into it.

She yanked her hoof back in, almost frightened at her results.

Next, she reached into her saddlebag, and removed from it, a small sack of flour.  This, she partially held into the wind to see what would happen.

The bag of fluffy powder was ripped out of Pinkies hooves in no time at all, and after a second, exploded into a cloud of flour, and pulled into a white, smoky ring, around the tower, bending its path around the sphere.

“Whoa, that’s amazing!” She cried.  The surrounding ponies also appeared amused.

they walked another five yards, now they were so close to the tower that they could see, in great detail, the air currents forming the skin of the tower.  The thin layer of air began to part where the sphere contacted the wall, making the bubble seem much more tangible.

“Now, do not let anything outside of this bubble past here, the winds around the tower are far more than strong enough to cut flesh!”

The group moved on, getting close enough to touch the tower, its now revealed surface a shiny, smooth, sturdy, black metal.

“Now, there should be a keyhole somewhere around here...”

Walking around the tower revealed three, small, round holes in the outer wall, grouped closely, at about Stoic’s chest level, veiled beneath the thin layer of white wind.

Stoic pushed his three ‘key’ orbitors into them, one after another.

The wind stopped.

The whole tower, from top to bottom, was revealed, appearing to be a gargantuan, black cylinder, seamless, and windowless, with no visible sloped ceiling, though the top was revealed to be made of glass.

The wall in front of them hummed a bit, and a huge, straight split appeared in its surface, twenty feet tall, at least.  The split widened, going straight up, being the crack between two, enormous doors.

Rainbow Dash moved up to the crack, to peer inside.

Stoic yanked her back by her tail after he realized what she was doing.

The doors pushed out of the tower, highlighting their curved shape.  They floated out on their own accord, and sideways slid onto the surface of the tower, coming to a rest, and nestling against it with nearly congruent curve.

The inside of the tower was momentarily black, a pair of tiny, violet spots were visible, deep in its depths, for a few milliseconds, before vanishing completely at the sunlight rushing in.  An immaterial orb of light, floating thrice stoic’s height, brightened in the middle of the room, illuminating a wide, clean, polished granite floor, in the back-middle of which protruded a great tube of metal, with windows into a black interior, all reaching up to the ceiling, twenty feet up.  Many empty desks were surrounding the object, with soft, moving, chairs tucked into them, surprisingly dust-less.

“Here it is, the Babyl reactor, in Babyl Tower!”

A notepad flew out of Twilight’s saddlebag, which met up with a pen in mid air, and began frantically scrawling details, and drawings of the rooms contents.

“I saw some purple dots in here, I don’t see them any more though.”

“You didn’t look directly at them, did you?” Stoic asked, losing his composure a bit.

“No, you stopped me before I could do that.” Dash answered, becoming a bit worried.

“those were the eyes of an ender, be glad you didn’t look into them directly, oh, thank god, we could have risked a surprise attack if you did.  Let this be a lesson, dark rooms are dangerous, do not, under any circumstances, walk into one until you light it up.” Stoic declared.

“WE FOUND ONE ALREADY?!” Dash screamed in response, rearing up onto her back two hooves.

“Hey, the first floor is a big, open place, it was quite fortunate there weren’t two in here.”

“Now, we need to reactivate this generator, like... now....  We can’t go anywhere here if we don’t have a containment room to push those enders into, c’mon.”  Stoic said, gravitating to the huge, metal pillar, erected out of the polished, granite floor.

“This shouldn’t be too hard...”  He was fiddling with another panel of switches, and buttons.

“Aha, the GUI should be active now...” He said, softly tapping a large, translucent, prismatic, green square, on the control panel.

A holographic screen popped into existence, emitted from a black lens above the screen, which glowed green for a moment, before a billion images exploded across it, flashing and disappearing in front of the panel.

“Haha, such old technology, they never upgraded this stuff, still using the old auxiliary processor connection, no direct mind contact, and a sleepy AI if you ask me.”

“Auxiliary connection?”  Twilight asked.

“a highly direct, sensory-aided data connection with the auxiliary processor, one such device being in my skull, right now.” He answered.

“This isn’t the time for questions, Twilight.” Dash said.

“Yes it is, we have a few minutes for this reactor to start up again...  Though, in those few minutes, the lights will flash on, and off, the fields required to start this thing interfere with the other, smaller, more stable reactors...  So, blindfold yourselves, don’t risk attack if you don’t have to.”

He removed his two lights from his armor-like suit, and along with them, a long strip of black cloth, similar to tho the material he was wearing, but with thicker threads, and about as wide as his hand, from wrist to fingertip.

Curiously, he broke the ferro-weave off at intervals, forming sections of cloth about three feet long, the ends of the cloth, where broken, began to morph slightly, the torn threads’ ends shriveled back into fat beads.

“Put these over your eyes, to prevent visual contact with them, those few, dark minutes in this room could be your last if you overestimate your self-control.  I, however, will not put any on, I must assure they haven’t changed their habits about being looked at, and get this reactor running, and let’s not forget what happens if we all blindfold here.”

He broke off the last piece of cloth, which he handed to twilight.  He proceeded to distribute the black strips, until everypony had some.

“This stuff is surprisingly soft” Said Rarity.

“I’m surprised you could tie those using only your hooves.”

“I can’t help but feel queasy about this.”  Said twilight.

Pinky was abnormally quiet, and tense.

Fluttershy didn’t even move as dash tied hers on for her.

Dash refused to put on her blindfold.

“I gotta see this, I’m sure I’m brave enough.”

“Oh, are you serious Rainbow?  If you really want to do this, then..... you know what, you might be helpful, umm....  You know what, since you think you’re so brave, I’ll let you see through a couple mirrors, they don’t seem to care if you use a mirror.  Though, it may be the most frightening experience you’ve ever had.” Stoic said.

“Oh, we’ll see about that, I am the bravest of the brave!” Dash gloated.

“I almost want to see your pride fall, but I don’t want to see you crushed either.” Stoic said, reattaching the piece of cloth to his original length.  The cloth curiously crackled as the threads rejoined, beads immediately snapping together, and becoming thread, to rejoin the threads they were previously attached to.

He formed a couple of his orbiting globules into a flat sheet, darkly reflective, but perfect.

“Hold on, I don’t normally use anything but black, so I’ll have to change this so it is more visibly reflective...” Stoic said, staring intently at the mirrors.

The two sheets brightened up, from their oil-ish, pitch black to a perfectly clear, non-interfering mirror.  Both of the sheets floated parallel to each other, and levitated to the rose eyes of Rainbow Dash, turning upwards, and separating, so that dash, while looking into the mirror in front of her nose, saw a reflection of the mirror now hanging above her head.

“This reminds me of a parascope.” Dash said.

“That’s essentially what it is, now, we got to seal off your peripherals...”

the two sheets’ side ends folded to meet each other, effectively boxing off Dashie’s side-vision, which, considering that she was a pony, was a lot.

“Geez, I can barely see anything....  is this what it’s like to have your eyes on the front of your face?” She complained.

“Almost, now sit down, and don’t freak out, those enders will be trying hard to get somepony to look, flinch, or fight.”

Stoic fiddled some more with the machine in front of him.  The reactor began to hum, and loudly at that.

The massive doors began to slide back into place.

“Now what?” Twilight asked.

“We wait.” Stoic answered.

“The things I will do for science...” Twilight complained, as the doors quietly sealed, killing the last glimmer of outside light.

The lights flickered momentarily, the building began to vibrate lightly from the winds turning back on.

“I’m.... scared.” Fluttershy said.

“Great, fear is the proper response.” Stoic said.

“You’re not helping...  Wait, why don’t we all wear these?” Dash criticized, looking quite odd wearing the periscope-goggles.

“They tend to define “Eye contact” on their own terms.  If no one is able to make eye contact normally, they loosen the definition some, to bypass whatever mechanism they consider 'unfair'.  I don’t know if it’s some kind of code of honor, or some sort of game, but fortunately they have to follow its rules.  Oh, and try not to touch them, if you so much as brush against them, they will probably find it excuse enough to disembowel you.”

The lights shut off right after he finished, leaving everypony feeling for eachother.

“Oh, Celestia, there’s one already!”  Said Dash, pointing a hoof at a pair of violet eyes, mere seconds after the lights shut off.

Stoic didn’t look, he simply readied his lights, turning their brightness up to where he could see, and operate the panel in front of him.

“If you see anything odd, or if it starts charging, instead of creeping, give me a yell.  There are no containment rooms on the bottom floor, so every possible second to slow them down counts!”

“Oh, there’s another, and another!”

The monsters creeped in closer, and closer to the group.  Their audible, gargly whispers to each other raising the atmosphere to a choking ozone, everypony tensed, sitting tightly together.

The group of monsters were pitch black, blending in perfectly with the surroundings, all but their violet eyes were nothing more than a blacker-than-black silhouette hidden in a sea of blackness.

“Again, don’t make any sudden movements.” Stoic yelled to Dash, hearing her hind quarters plop against the granite.

“Ohmygosh look!”  Rainbow Dash yelled, pointing a hoof.

“Wish I could, Dashie, tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s so close to her, this is creeping me out.”

Rainbow dash saw, through her periscope that one of the enders had crouched down, and begun to hover its fingers over Fluttershy, leaving streaks of frost on the surface of her armor.  The pegasus froze.

“There’s something above me, it’s so cold, it isn’t even touching, and I feel it.”

“Fluttershy, don’t move, it’s trying to invoke a reaction.”

It made a loud, warbly grunt, right behind Fluttershy’s head.

The yellow pony jerked, and squirmed over to a nearby Rarity, making a squeak in the process, entirely blindfolded.

The whole group of nearby enders stopped, abruptly, and snapped their heads towards the shrill sound.

“I gotta help her!” yelled Dash.

“No you don’t, you’ll only ensure everypony’s death here if you so much as brush against one.” Stoic said.

The enders unfocused from Fluttershy.

The rest of the enders were joining in, soundlessly stroking frigid, slender, bony fingers, just millimeters away from the fur, and armor of the ponies, who, in turn, quivered, and eeped, squirming away from the slightest sense of cold.

One of the enders had begun to tug at the blindfold on Fluttershy.

Another ender turned its attention towards Dash, and began to approach her.  Dash backed away two steps for every one the ender took.

It soon stopped pursuing, and turned its attention to the human.

“Hey, one’s coming for you, Stoic!!”

“I can feel it, Dash, these things are driving my auxiliary processor nuts, it’s like they are physically unable to attack, unless provoked, and they are looking for the slightest excuse to call ‘provocation’.”

Fluttershy's blindfold was coming loose.

“Stoic... DO SOMETHING!” Dash said.

The ender behind Stoic crept up to a mere inch away, breathing down his neck.

“Geez, that’s cold!”  He said, leaning away from the noxious, icy winds, and vigorously throwing a switch.

The lights zapped on a moment later, brighter than ever.

The enders waited a moment, squarked in unison, and vanished into thin puffs of black, noxious vapor.

“Are... Are they gone?” Fluttershy asked, beginning to release the immense pressure she was forcing into Rarity’s side.

“Yes, but we’ll see them again, but maybe not so up close, and personal.  They never tried so hard to kill us like this, perhaps they fear re-imprisonment.” Stoic answered, lowering the brightness

“Now, the lights shouldn’t do this again, but the containment fields will take another few minutes to warm up, and, let’s not forget, we have a mission to do, that slick is not going to acquire its self.”

They headed up some stairs that were lining the wall farthest from the door, curving up the side of the tower many feet into another, round floor above.

“How many floors are there, again?” Dash asked

“Twenty one, the ones after the first aren’t quite so tall.  I thought we went over this.”

“Oh, ok, I just forgot....”

“‘Forget’.... That isn’t a word I’m used to hearing..... of course, you don’t have brain implants... that might poke a hole in my plan.”

They came upon, yet another heavy, metal door, at the top of the stairs, with a nearby nearby square of blackish material, protruding from a panel at the doors side, above which was printed ‘EMPLOYEE ACCESS ONLY’.

Stoic lightly pressed his finger against the black square.

An audible beep resounded.

A clear, robotic, female voice sounded from an unidentifiable direction.  “Welcome back, Stoic!  We hope remain unharmed throughout your duties as our chief logician.”

“Logician?  What kind of job is that?” Twilight asked.

“Me... A logician...  Oh, it meant me, and my following group of nearly four-hundred comrades worked as thinkers, scientists, and dark iron folders.  I was good at what I did, Really good, so I got the title “Chief”  as a sort of monument to it, allowing my opinion to be more loudly heard among my work kin.” Stoic said, leading through the door.

    “Now, during that last hour of preparations, and planning, I retrieved from my cabinet, the last few of my devices.”  Stoic said, reaching behind his back to grab an object that softly clicked as he detached it from his back.

“What is that thing?” Asked pinky

“Is that... Is that supposed to be a weapon?” Asked Twilight.

“It’s the best work could buy, an arbalest.... errr... a crossbow, made mostly with pullus ferrum.  It has over six-hundred, seperate folds, and about about seventy different types of folded dark iron!  Doc told me i should get one before I go in stasis, and now I know why.” Stoic said.

“You had a weapon the whole time?!” Rarity shrieked.

“What?  What’s wrong?  It’s only a crossbow, in the hands of someone who would never use it against you.”  Stoic replied, snapping a thin, cyan-glowing, transparent hose, made out of some transparent, rubbery material, from another object mounted to his back, into his crossbow.

Upon the nubbed end of the line connecting, parallel to the stock, and into a socket next to the latch, the weapon emitted a beep, the bow bent back, and the string stretched back in a V, and slipped into the latching mechanism.  This all happened silently, and in about a second, until, audibly, the pressure of the bow was re-released onto the string, causing it to twing, and screech a bit.

“Ugh, this whole encounter has been nothing but a drove of uncomfortable.  Just...  Just try not to kill any of us with it” Applejack complained.

“You're all flying off your handlebars, I don't know if you've been exposed to a ton of social propaganda, or not, but..."

"I know, dearie, but it's just so....  Look, let me put it this way.  The princess keeps the heads on her own guards' spears dull, we sort of... Shun weaponry." Rarity cut off.

“I’m sorry, really, I am, I hope you can put up with it."  He said, loading seven more spikes into the thin box, before slamming it into the body of his crossbow with a click.  "Wait...  What's the point of having spears in the first place?"

"Look, the spears are more of a symbol than a tool."

"Speaking of spears, I feel really barbaric, using a crossbow.  It's laughable compared to what we had before the Utopia.  It's all I could find that was practical, though.  I don't think any standard will-weapons work on enders, energy weapons don't do jack for stopping power, and..."

"Let's just... move on." Rainbow Dash said.

They walked/trotted into a hallway, with several doors lining both sides, one of which had a bright red X taped onto it, leading up to a thick, shiny, steel double door, that was presumably attached to an elevator.

“No doubt that thing doesn’t work any more, it broke at least once a year, even when not in service!  Trying to use it would probably result in our entrapment, and/or our immediate, violent, fear-filled deaths.” Stoic said.

“Ain’t there any stairs ‘round here?” Applejack asked.

“Yes, there are, you can find ‘em.... just behind the elevator, though they don’t go all the way to the top.”

“...Why on earth not?” Asked Applejack.

“Oh, it’s just the architecture of the building, had no idea that we would be regretting it though...  There are more stairs from the fifteenth floor, to the twentieth, and another from the twentieth to the twenty-first.”

The group advanced a bit, shying away from the slightly tarnished doors as they passed them by.

Stoic halted, and the group did likewise, in front of the door marked with a red X

“This is a containment room, there are sixteen of them, one for each ender, and a spare, in case one happens to fail, or another one shows up through the portal.  We took a few precautions, but never expected to have a 7 versus 15 scenario.  So, don’t forget where you see a red ‘X’.”

The group looked up at him, nodding.  Fluttershy, who was at the back was not immediately recognizing her surroundings, and failed to respond.

Stoic slammed the butt of his crossbow into the elevator door, a snapping was heard from the inside of the shaft, and a moment later, a crash below, from the first floor.

“Haha, I had a feeling that those cheap, steel cables wouldn’t last long, imagine if we got on that thing.  All I had to do was vibrate the jig slightly!!” Stoic said, pushing a button on the elevator door’s side.

The button beeped, and a red light flashed.  A familiar robotic voice sounded.

“The main elevator is out of commission, unless you are of a repair crew, please refrain from entering this doorway, at the expense of possible death.”

The doors shot open with a pneumatic hiss.

Stoic looked down the shaft, expecting to have a sight to show to the ponies.  A pair of violet eyes stared him back instead, standing on top of the rusty wreckage, a cube of heavily oxidized metal floating in front of it.

Stoic instinctively jumped back from the doorway, raising his crossbow.

“Did you see one?” Dash asked, a bit of fear audible in her voice.

“I shouldn’t have looked away.  We only have a couple seconds!!”

The group backed into the hallway, distancing themselves from the elevator.

A ductilated, knobby, shade materialized in the doorway, noxious, translucent, violet fumes flowing in tendrils all over the place, and across the floor.  It was gripping the frames.

It screamed, a shrill siren of pure malice, leaning towards the group as it did so.  Frigid spittle, flew everywhere, hissing, and leaving marks of frost where it landed.  The violet vapour shifted into a deep, angry, dark red, along with its eyes.

The monster hurled the cube of steel it held.  The massive projectile was perfectly aimed, and made a trajectory straight for the middle of Stoic's chest.  An aura of blue surrounded the cube of junk, and redirected it a few degrees upwards.  The hunk of steel whizzed over Stoic's head, very nearly combing a protrudance of steel through his hair, though leaving him unscathed.  The massive block finished its arc of travel to the back of the room, smashing violently into the steel wall..

"Thanks Rares."

Stoic hit a lever on his crossbow, a fat spike jumped up in front of the string, which stood straight, and at attention, like a soldier, until he took aim, and fired it into the face of the ender.

The mechanism worked beautifully, a nearly silent *twung* resounded, the bolt buried its self deep, to the synthetic feathers.  Before the beast could even react, another spike popped up, hovering over its channel, situating in front of a now re-tensed string.

The hideous beast shrieked again, but not a shriek rage, but a shriek of pain.  It clutched with its fingers, each almost a foot long, around its face, and the buried bolt, and fell to its spindly knees howling in agony.

A spurt of black liquid shot from its partially concealed visage, spattering against the ground in front of Stoic.  The ground where it landed hissed, and bubbled, as the liquid boiled, and evaporated, leaving a streak of frost where it used to be.

The group backed away, re-approaching the marked door.

The group looked in awe, as the ender removed its hands, and the bolt slid out of its face, dropping to the floor with a clink.

An inaudible, invisible energy of complete, and utter malice, and hatred filled the hallway, the ender picked up the spike again, and held it high like a dagger, poised to strike.

It did not rush, but simply walked, again, the ponies retreating two paces for every stride it advanced.  The human did likewise.

Just a few feet from the door, Stoic tripped on a misplaced hoof and fell.  No-pony caught him, and he landed on his backside.

The whole group froze, as did the ender, who faltered momentarily, and then leapt.

The ponies cleared a path for it to fly, but Stoic had neither the freedom of motion, or the reflex to move.

It landed atop him, driving its knee into his belly, which the armor redirected the force of.  The building vibrated, indicating that it had taken most of the shock.  The ender, a moment later reassured Stoic’s fate by pinning Stoic’s shoulder, and arm to the cold granite with a single, elongated, clawlike hand.

The ender howled again, raising its clutched spike high in the air, ready to drive it straight through the armor Stoic wore, which wasn’t nearly so strong now that the ender was interfering with it’s magic-circuitry.

Stoic wheezed as the immense pressure the ender put on him with its knee began to sink in, and squeeze all of the air out of him.  He felt his flesh begin to freeze, his head throb, and his vision tunnel.

The spike began to plunge down, Stoic fainted to the sound of a hiss, and a meaty thump.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Take another break, go grab a snack,.  You have a while to go.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wake up.”

“Huh?” Stoic groaned, as a capsule of smelling salts was held to his nose.

“Wake up, there might be more!”

Stoic jerked away from Fluttershy, yelping a bit as the powerful fumes of the smelling salts were beginning to render.

Fluttershy flinched at the sudden movement..

“Argh..... why am I.... alive?”

“Twilight figured out how to open that door, and applejack bucked that thing in the blink of an eye.”  Fluttershy said, in her ever-soft voice.

“Applejack, I owe you big, ‘twas a hell of a thing you did there, I won’t forget that when I am crafting something for you, same goes for you, Twilight.” Stoic said, glancing at the heavy, marked door, which now bore a set of four, deep gashes in its steel frame.  From which behind, muffled screaming was audible.

Applejack was sitting on her haunches, looking at her hind hooves, which were now wrapped with gauze.

“What’s happened to your feet...... err.. hooves?” Stoic asked.

“That thing was cold, so cold it numbed my hooves on the first buck, the second I think caused a sprain... How am I s’posed to buck right if I can’t feel what I’m buckin at?!” She replied.

“I did my best to fix her.” Fluttershy commented.

Stoic tried to stand, but fell to an unexpected shock of pain coming from his abdomen.

“Your skin was frozen when I looked, you got some serious frostbite from that creature.  You mentioned that your suit has medicine in it already?” Fluttershy said.

“It does... And it certainly will heal this wound, but it will take a few minutes or so... But for now, I think Applejack needs these more than I do.” Stoic said, yanking off one of his boots.

He handed her the boot, and then the other.

“Gee, I ‘preciate the offer, but I don’t think these’ll fit.” Applejack said.

“You’d be right, but I don’t think I told you, these boots were designed to fit anyone, anything, anypony that put them on, including people with lost sections of their feet (who eventually regain them because of the boots’ properties), this shouldn’t be too different.  Just try to put them on, and give me a minute to configure them.”

“Alright, thanks, I was starting to worry that this sprain would be the death of me.”  Applejack said, as she stuffed her first hind-hoof into a boot, wincing as she did.

“Ow, just gotta...”  Applejack said, stuffing her other hoof into the second boot.  This time, the whole group winced, imagining doing the same with an injured hoof.

“Can you hurry up, this hurts like the dickens.” She complained.

“Applejack, you are tough!” Stoic chuckled, focusing on the boots, until they began to change shape.

“That’s better” She said, halfway through the process.

“Now, those should get to accelerating the healing process by a factor of about a thousand as soon as I....” Stoic stopped.

“What?  As soon as you what?” Applejack asked.

Stoic’s eyes rolled up into his skull, and he fell to his knees.

“What the... What in tarnation is goin’ on?”

Stoic snapped back into attention.

“Sorry, I just had to compensate for the fact that you are hoofed, you wouldn’t want to start growing toes, now would you?  Anyhow, that was a huge mental piece of work, but I finished it, and simulated it about a hundred times, you should be good to go.” Stoic said.

Applejack simply stared, she didn’t quite know what to think of what she just heard.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear more about that when we’ve got the chance.” Twilight said.

Applejack got onto her hooves, and immediately jolted.

“Oh my gosh, I aint’ feelin’ no pressure on mah hooves... it’s like I’m walking on air.”

“It’s an effect of the boot, one I modified to suit you better.  It takes the pressure off of your hooves, and spreads it over your entire body, this will be especially beneficial since you’re healing right now.” Stoic said.

“Oh, I could get used to this.” Applejack said.

“Hey” Twilight interrupted.

“What is it Sparky?” Stoic replied.

“Shouldn’t we get a move on?  The less time we spend in this dreadful tower, the better.” She answered.

“Right, let’s get going.” Stoic said, bearing the pain as he stood up again, onto his bare feet, picking up his crossbow, and throwing a switch somewhere on it.

The visible spike fell back into the body of the arbalest, leaving the channel empty.

“Are those hands on yer hind legs as useful as those on your front?” Applejack asked.

“Umm... no, those are feet, and those toes aren’t nearly as useful as fingers.” Stoic said.

“Wow, humans are so weird.” Dash replied.

“Oh, hey, that bolt is still here!” Stoic said, picking up the fat spike that was covered in black blood a moment ago, and loading it into his crossbow through a hole in the bottom of the clip.

The group reproached the elevator, and instead of looking down it again, went ‘round it’s side, where a circular staircase spiraled up for hundreds of feet, but only visibly for about ten.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The climb to the fifteenth floor went uninterrupted, and wordless, minus Stoic’s comment on the ponies ability to efficiently climb stairs at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ugh, what a workout, I don’t want to become all burly, and muscly......  No offense Applejack.” Rarity complained.

“I don’t even know how Pinkie hopped all the way up” Twilight said, obviously out of breath.

“it was easy, just a hop, skip, and jump!” The pink one shouted in reply.

Twilight looked even more confused than before.

“Uh-oh, I don’t see the stairs at the end of this hallway.  I reckon we’ll have to find some way around.” Applejack said, who was barely tired at all.

Rainbow dash wasn’t nearly as tired as the rest of the group, mostly because she weighed very little, and was an athlete by any standards.

“Right, this point, and up, no-one but the roughest employees saw often, really, so they didn’t keep the place looking so nice, or so simple, not to mention, this place, and up has its own, independent energy system.  But if I’m not mistaken, all room-lights should be off up here, because it’s a standard for the lights to be off when everyone leaves at night, and if I’m not mistaken, humanity’s dooming hour came ‘round during the late night, but since no-one was thinking straight the night before, it’s all too likely that at least some will be left on.”

“Oh, you got to be kidding me, we have to explore dark rooms now?”  Applejack complained.

“Umm, you’ve already planned this out, so let’s just follow you.” Said Fluttershy.

“Alright, settled, but keep away from the doors, especially if they’re open.” Stoic said.

They advanced down a shorter hallway, with similar, metal doors, that presumably were meant to fall into their frames somehow..  A single door was left open, a window into blackness, a potentially deadly gate.

The group pressed into the opposite wall, staring straight ahead, having as little to do with that door as possible, until Stoic killed the tension by pushing a button to shut it.  The door followed the command, a thick sheet of marked, and riveted steel shot up into the frame, from the floor underneath.

“Hopefully, the door we need to take doesn’t lead into a dark room.”  Stoic said, pointing to a frame on the right side, near the end of the hallway.

They neared the door, which was closed, and marked

“ENGINEERING FACILITIES; LACKS NEWER SAFETY FEATURES; ENTER AT OWN RISK”

“Alright, let’s review, there is basically a maze of metal catwalks, and steel grill, exposed piping, and electrical wires past this point.  Much of this place should have deteriorated, because the place wasn’t very strongly protected with slick coatings, so navigating may be difficult, or impossible.” Stoic recited.

“You’re telling me that we may have gone all the way up here for nothing?” Applejack said.

“Well, don’t forget we have a huge resource of magical energy, and horns to put that to use.” Said Stoic, pointing to the flat, black device latched onto his back near his now re-attached crossbow, which several shimmering, blue tubes sprouted from, and reattached to.

Stoic fingered the button connected to the door, letting the tension in the atmosphere build.

“Alright, shut your eyes.” He said, before hitting the button.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door was heard slam open, and after a hesitation a few seconds long, they walked in, the lanterns following, floating through the air as if they sat on waves of water.

“Dear Celestia, I don’t think I can take much more of this!” Rarity said.

“I feel for you, but right now, sentiments can’t help.”  Stoic said, cracking his eyes open to a squint.  The room was indeed dark.  Stoic stared high, near the ceiling, searching his peripherals for that vile sign of an ender, the telltale pair of violet oculi, straining his conscience to suppress his fight, or flight, which was prone to cause visual connection.

Stoic spun around a few times, lowering his gaze on every rotation.

“We’re safe, you can stop treading blind.” Stoic finally said.

The ponies opened their eyes, not very surprised to see the room they stood in, to be plain, made of a grey metal, with a solid, metal floor, sporting few furnishings, but a box of mechanical tools leaned on a wall, and a control panel against another.

The room its self was lit only by Stoic’s lanterns, causing the long shadows of everypony to bob, up and down on the walls they were cast against.

Stoic hit a switch on the control panel.

The room’s own light shined, an immaterial point of light, not nearly as bright as that of the first floor, floating an inch under the ceiling, in the precise center of the square room.

“You have to tell me about those lights, because so far, I am quite baffled as to how they work.” Said a curious, purple pony.

“Later.  Sorry, but now is not the time to give lessons on theoretical physics, and self-managing enchantments.”

“Next room, we go.” Stoic said, hitting a button, on the only other door present in the room.

The whole group shut their eyes again, all but stoic, who began to stare at the ceiling once more, but stopped, as he realized, that the lights in the next room were on.

“Haha, these lights were left on for over four-hundred-fifty thousand years!” he said.

Everypony opened their eyes, but Fluttershy.

“That means you can open your eyes.” Stoic said , slightly bemused..

“Oh!  Sorry, I didn’t mean not to catch your hint to...”

“Nonsense, it’s adorable, keep being Fluttershy, Fluttershy.” Stoic said with a grin.

Fluttershy blushed slightly.  Despite the fact that she was, in fact, adorable, not many called her so to her face.

Another plain room, but with two other doors, and a map pinned to the wall.

Stoic looked briefly at the map, which depicted the top ten floors of the building, sliced apart, and colour coded into a rainbow.  A red dot in the middle, marked *YOU ARE HERE*.

“Alright, it should be... this one.” Stoic said, almost hitting the button on the door across from their entry.

“Wait... wait a minute, our dash back may not allow us to study each map as we leave, let’s just...” Stoic said, pulling a stick of dark iron out of a compartment in his clothing.

It was about six inches long, about half an inch thick, and had a cap.

Stoic removed the cap, revealing a bright, red tip that tapered into a round point.  He walked back to the door they came from, and marked a red O on it, which was transferred from the tip.

They walked back to the far door, taking their blindness routine, before opening it.

They were, again, pleasantly surprised to hear Stoic say, again “LIGHT!”.  But were met with a unique, strange scent, slightly pungent, faintly of ferment.

The group opened their eyes, to an ugly sight, all over the walls, was scrawled in red, increasingly sloppy handwriting, eventually trailing off to a curved line to the floor, pointing to where a device similar to Stoic’s own marker sat, on it’s side, on the edge of a thin pile of fine, grey dust, which also harbored in one of it’s oddly shaped protrusions, a small, flat silvery box, about the size of a quarter, sprouting from which were millions of fragile-looking, thin, hair-like structures, that reached out to form a roughly spherical shape, insides filled with billions of branches, in a tree-like pattern.  Though some were crushed against the floor, .

“Oh my gosh, what is this?!” Twilight quizzed, taking in the disturbing scene, beginning to read the writing on the walls.  While Stoic turned his body, but not head, to draw an ‘O’ on the door, just as it shut.

Stoic stared, hard, intently at the words, taking in their meaning. “this is someone’s death-scene, these are his death-notes!!”

The writing began cleanly, in slightly sloppy print, making coherent sentences, and ending, after about a paragraph, in illegible symbols, before forming a curved line to the floor.

“This is engineer Vigour.  I think, that, like our networks have been coming to a conclusion to, we are about to all die.  This is now confirmed      I might just be losing my mind but everything falls faster    I must to breathe harder...       hard to stand up I fall too fast for my reflexes to...” It read, before ending in a line that traveled downward, and terminated.  But written at about thigh level, was another section of lettering.

“I’m running out of time        Cant stand    eyes not focus       arms obey  %^&    @!#    -!+/**-

(*&@#   @(*(*^#        <>+_ΞξΞξ

n

THE END IS NEIGH

ot*$&%@#help!

@$&2#$<:{::no think””#*@&     λ    Ϙ

Σ mind    Ω     ω        Ξ  ξ    ς

    μ    Δ  φ

gone.._____~~~\”

The line after gone trailed to the floor.  The scene obviously depicted Vigour’s death, and his travel to insanity on the way.  It became a lot more apparent what that ashy powder was, exactly.

“Vigour.... I knew Vigour... well too!  There was no harder worker in this whole DAMN facility.  and this is his DAMN grave now, thanks to him working overtime!” Stoic shouted, clenching his teeth, and breathing hard.

A long silence formed.

“At least somebody found him...” Stoic said, breaking the silence, looking down at his bare feet.

Everypony noticed, finally, that Fluttershy was backed into a doorway, repulsing from the ancient remains.  Which Stoic leaned over, to pick up the tiny, silver box, breaking off the tree of threads at it’s trunk.

“This is his auxiliary processor, it contains all of the important moments of his life, and anything he ever thought noteworthy, which means that if we can build something to read it, then from it we can extract knowledge of the arts of magic, some of which not even I have learned, for he took a different course of education, than I.” Stoic said, carefully pocketing the device.

Nopony was about to question the morality of such an action.  They didn’t want to cause Stoic to break down, or cause a very long discussion about beliefs.  Such an action would result in tons of undue stress.

“Well.......  Stoic, I don’t exactly know what it’s like to lose a friend, but we need to get goin’.” Applejack said, killing a new silence.

Fluttershy was still backed into the doorway, staring, wide-eyed at the far decayed remains of Vigour.

The door opened.

Fluttershy fell in backwards, hitting something cold on her way down.

The whole group turned to see an ender, a finger on the button, standing over little Fluttershy, it’s eyes turning red, as everyone, stared at, and Fluttershy stared up, to it.

“There aren’t any containment rooms on this floor.”  Stoic said, a tear blurring his eye.

Everyone stood frozen, in apprehension.

The ender opened its mouth, and sprayed forth a shower of burning cold ichor.

Everyone flinched at once, occasional drops of sputum bouncing, and sizzling off of the metal armour they wore.

The ender took that opportunity, snatching Fluttershy by her forehooves, and retreating into the dark room from whence it came.

“HELP, HELP!  CELESTIA, NO!!” She screamed, before all else said was muffled by the door, slamming shut when the cruel monster hit the button controlling it.

“No, no, NOT FLUTTERSHY, NO!” Screamed Dash, as she pounded her hooves against the metal door.

More screaming could be heard, muffled, and shrill.

Stoic lifted his crossbow.

“Open the door, Dash!” He shouted

Dash slammed the button with her hoof.  The door hissed, and strained, but stuck fast.  The ender had damaged the frame after the door closed, jamming it shut.

“OH NO YOU’RE NOT!”She screamed, before slamming the button again, and again.

The door strained, and scraped, for a full ten seconds, with dash abusing its control panel, before ripping open, sending little bits of scrap metal flying off from the door scraping the warped frame.

The scene that was just obscured by the big metal door now became the greatest subject of attention.

“Wha....What?” Rarity quizzed.

The whole room was a festival of dropped jaws, it was an unbelievable miracle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “HELP, HELP, CELESTIA, NO!!” she screamed, fingers cold as liquid nitrogen wrapped around her hooves, beginning to crumple the armor in its way.

The door slammed shut, and she was turned against her struggling to meet the red glare of her imprisoner’s eyes.  They stared her, like icy pits of hatred, and spite.  Fluttershy stared back, harder, even though her hooves were beginning to numb, and sting. The surprising intensity of her glare caused the ender to falter.  The ender stepped it up, hoping to crush the soul of its’ victim..  Fluttershy did likewise, but tenfold.  Her eyes burnt like hot smoke to look into.  The ender was beginning to shudder, leaning away from the pony it held like it was toxic.

The ender broke eye contact, glancing away, Fluttershy worked the very most furious of her expressions possible,

It dropped her, and shrieked, finally releasing its sub-zero grip.  Falling to the ground on its behind, crawling away, backwards, making indeterminable, though undeniably vocal sounds as it did so.

The door opened, a crowd of ponies who were moments ago ready to fight, and die for their friend, now stood flabbergasted at the pathetic sight.

Fluttershy didn’t stop because of the distraction.  The pair of eyes went blue as the light from the near room fell onto its’ face in the farthest corner of the room.  The ender made the hopeless whines of a convicted child who knew what he did wrong.

Fluttershy approached.  A cruel, maternal scolding followed, every word thumped into the head of the ender like a lobbed anvil, despite that it could not discern their meaning.  It put its hands up, between it, and her, and uselessly swiped its feet against the floor as an attempt to back further into the corner, shrieking, and bawling.

Fluttershy paused for a moment.

From the enders own mouth, words flowed, but not in any known language, not vowels, or consonants, but short, strangled syllables, stuttered sounds, squawking, and various clicking, and popping noises.  It was pleading, pleading in its own language for Fluttershy to relent her horrid, menacing stare.

Any pride this creature previously had, was now void.  It lost, playing its own game, to a yellow pony, and was bawling, begging, and pleading for the pony to stop.

The yellow pony had no mercy for it, continuing her berating until the ender began to smoke, tendrils of familiar black smog branching away from it, floating up to the ceiling, instead of down to the ground.

A tear colored black rolled down its cheek, splattering against the floor.  Followed by black particles of ash to the cold, granite floor, and collecting at its feet.

More ash followed, the rate of falling rapidly accelerating.  The ender was disintegrating at the hands of an invisible flame.  In no longer than five seconds, the monster had burned into a small pile of soot, stinking up the whole room with the smell of brimstone.

Fluttershy snapped out of her trance realizing what she had done, and backed away from the dead beast.  She turned to meet the faces of her astonished friends, with not an expression of victory, but of horror.

“What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.

“I.... I killed it.”  She sputtered,

Stoic had lowered his crossbow long ago, and was staring off into the distance, not hearing a word said, the apparent signs of his ‘Processing Mode’.

“I KILLED IT!” She screamed, rushing towards her friends.

Twilight sparkle caught her in a hug, letting Fluttershy sob into her shoulder.

“There there... you had to, it was either you, or it.” Twilight tried to console.

“I KILLED IT AND IT HAD A GOOD SIDE!!” She screamed into Twilight’s shoulder.

Stoic snapped out of his own trance, and spoke up.

“Fluttershy, why are you...”  He broke off midsentence, putting together the puzzle in his head.

“You didn’t kill it.”  He said.

“It’s still alive?!!” Dash yelled in response.

“No, it’s dead alright, Fluttershy just didn’t kill it, it committed suicide.”

“What.... can... Are you saying these enders are capable of suicide?” Dash replied.

“Look, I barely understand those things, and no human ever has much, but my auxiliary processor was  picking up billions of extremely complex spells, I had to spend a lot of thought to figure them out.  Fluttershy was basically teaching it, forcing our own system of morals onto it, talking sense into it.  Apparently, not many creatures can live with being brutal mass murderers while holding a morality like Fluttershy’s.  No, Fluttershy didn’t kill it, Fluttershy made it feel guilty, the rest was its’ own choice.” Stoic said, killing some of the emotional controversy, but adding more in the process.

The room broke into argument, but Twilight and Fluttershy stood together, Fluttershy too busy grieving, and Twilight too busy comforting.

Stoic stood processing for another moment, trying to emotionally package his words.

“It never had a good side, but you gave it one.  Before it died, it finally knew how to care, and it did.  Fluttershy, you created something beautiful, it just didn’t last.  We need to move on, forget what happened in this room, and survive.  No amount of crying, or fighting could possibly help us, or bring back that ender, and it would only commit suicide again should we succeed.”  Stoic said, surprised that he managed to say it right.  (He was quite bad at giving emotional speeches)

Fluttershy looked up from where she had her head buried,  Red marks showing where tears ran through her coat, from her eyes.  Giving Stoic a look which made him question whether he believed his own words.

Stoic hated things like this, almost every point in his life he had to be emotional for someone, he turned up short, failed to give the right reaction, acted too slowly, or hurt someone.  That was the real reason he was always so alone in life, and he avoided moments like this like a plague.

He decided again, hoping that he wasn’t doing the wrong thing.  Kneeling down to Fluttershy’s level, and hugging her around the neck.

It worked, she calmed down, lost tenseness, sniffed a few times,whispered into his ear “Thanks”, and hugged him back, upon which stoic had to fight her weight, which wasn't as high as he expected.

The hug relented, and they both got back onto their feet.  Stoic removed a white, cotton cloth from a pocket, and wiped away her tears.

“Now let’s move on.”  Stoic said, breaking a long silence

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The next few rooms were without event.  Whatever happened to the slain ender, the live ones feared the ponies greatly for it.

Stoic also found himself using a couple orbiters to uncrumple the armor Fluttershy wore, because it was digging into her hooves

“A ladder...  I didn’t think this through well enough, did I?”  Stoic said, pointing at what he had previously called a staircase when discussing the plan.

“Can ponies climb ladders?” He asked the group.

“Uuuh.. no, if that thing is a ladder.”  Answered Applejack.

“Is that a ladder?” Rarity asked, pointing to the runged pair of metal bars, traveling eight feet into the ceiling, topped with a hatch.

“Well, yes, and I am going to have to figure out how to get you all up there...”  Stoic replied, stopping to think.

“... And maybe also how to get you down.” He finished

He hefted his manipulator, which he was just carting around with a couple orbiters a minute ago, and opened the hatch with its magic.  He proceeded to pick up each pony, and lift them through, though Rainbow Dash refused its grip, and flew through the hatch on her own.

Soon they were all standing over the hatch, in a great, round room of glass, which was protecting them from the milky layer of winds going much faster than the speed of sound, accelerated, and tethered by unseen forces generated somewhere in the building.  The whole room vibrated softly, as the air stumbled over its self in its haste, hitting the single, round wall millions of times per second with tiny vortexes.

The inside of the room is what was interesting though, there were two dozen pipes, about a foot wide, emerging from the floor and facing the wall.  Stoic discussed those pipes before, they were meant to carry canisters of slick to all parts of the building, one of which leading to the lobby of the first floor.  Aside from these pipes were shelves, and shelves, just full of canisters harboring a dense, black material.  Hundreds of them.

“Well, we made it... halfway.”  Let’s throw these down into the lobby, and get out of here alive, sound good?” Twilight said.

“Alive sounds good” Applejack said

Stoic located the pipe labeled “Lobby”  and hefted the first canister into it, the glass, and metal of the great jar fitting tightly into it.

The container sat in the mouth of the pipe for a second, and then was violently tugged down  by a massive vacuum force, accelerating out of view, and audibly scraping down the pipe.

Twilight brought one, complaining.  “It feels weird carrying this, it still has lots of inertia, but feels much lighter than it should be!” after leaving it in the pipe like Stoic did.

Twenty containers later, they sat down together to take a short break.  Letting their wired nerves calm, and sharing some warmth.  The wind against the glass was doing a great job of making the room very cold.

A black hand emerged from one of the pipes, clutching against its rim to pull the owners body out.

“What the hay?!” Yelled Applejack, pointing a hoof to the intruder.

An ender was now in the room, head peeking outwards from the impossibly small pipe.  Several more began emerging from different pipes, in near unison

The group was soon trapped, forced against the glass wall, closed off from escape.  Thirteen enders, the whole of the survivors, all seeking revenge for their fallen brethren.

The attempted stares to hold the enders in place only stopped seven of thirteen from advancing at once, the eyes of the group grew frantic as they tried to stop their advance.  The ones closest got the staring first, but their peers soon shuffled past them.

Ten feet away was the nearest.  none of them broke into a run, savoring the intense, mind numbing fear their soon-to-be victims felt.

Stoic lifted his lantern, which after a second blasted light so brightly that even the black enders were appearing a dazzling white.

The enders shrieked, and hissed, and burned, but fought against the light anyhow, continuing their grueling advance.

Five feet away, arms outstretched, ready to inflict mortal wounds.

“Worst possible thing” Rarity squeaked.

The group of enders froze abruptly to the que of an odd buzzing noise, arms mere inches away from the group.  The collective cold of their bodies was unbelievably chilling.

The group stood in apprehension for about fifteen seconds, waiting for the creatures to spring back to life.

“Are you going to come out from there, or not?” An accented British voice sounded from behind the enders.

“DOC?!” Stoic yelled, rushing out of his cramped position, knocking over a frozen ender in the process.

“Doc, you made it!!”

“Who... what?”  Twilight asked.

The rest of the group slipped between the gaps between the enders to find a brown earth pony, with a darker brown mane that stood up in short, frizzy, back-pointing spikes, and an hour-glass for his mark.  He held a device with a glowing blue tip on his hoof that was emitting the buzzing.

“Bloody great timing there, any later and you’d be mince meat.” The doctor said.

“Friends, let me introduce you to Doctor Whooves.  He didn’t tell me much about himself, because he was far too intent on rushing me into a suspended animation capsule prototype he built, and had “other things” to do.  But was one of the greatest, and only true friends I had in my life.”

“You were THAT lonely?” exclaimed Dash.

“Wow, eighty years and y...” Rarity was about to say.

“You’re forgetting what’s important.  Somehow this pony was around four hundred thousand years ago, and unless he’s immortal, that’s not possible.”  Twilight said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End of Part 3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~