“Approaching designated floor.”
The mechanical-sounding words came from the recorded voice of a mare being emitted from speakers hidden somewhere on the surface of the cold, steel elevator. Applejack watched solemnly as arrows formed by orange lights on the monitor before her passed slowly on and off the screen, signaling that the machine was, indeed, moving downward. The orange-coated pony took a look around the small lift, seeing herself encompassed by a dark gray all around, broken only by wires and fuses that might have been powering the elevator, or some other, unseen, entity and the elevator was merely serving as passage, or more an obstruction, to that goal. It only exemplified the dull restlessness the rest of the facility exuded.
Finally, the lift came to a halt, and the doors in front, or perhaps the back depending on perspective, began to open with what seemed a great effort, stopping a few moments later when they had reached their boundary. Heaving a great sigh, she took an unwilling step forward, onto the floor. She stopped suddenly at a soft groan that sounded strikingly similar to the sound previously emanated by the elevator's doors when they had opened, and looked down, in the direction the noise had come from. Noticing her mechanical leg, the obvious source of the noise, she shook her head. It was new, so she still hadn't had time to get used to it. She made a mental note of the sound and willed herself to no longer be startled by it.
She stood for a moment, listening as the elevator’s doors closed once again, and then as it made the climb once again to it’s origin. It offered a soft whine as it was propelled upward by its suspension cord, yet another unseen force. One that reminded Applejack why she was here--she didn't know. She didn’t know, and nopony had thought it appropriate to inform her, or had made an effort to keep it a secret. All she knew was that somepony, some pony unbeknownst to her, some unseen pony had issued her here, and that she hadn’t a say in the matter. That was what she knew, and what she assumed was that it was on the grounds of some entirely undesirable and undoubtedly dangerous task that was so terribly important, but not important enough for her to know why it was so important, or why she was the one to do it in the stead of the pony who wanted it done and had relegated the doing unto her.
After another strained sigh, Applejack finally set off, guided only by the signs that adorned the walls. An arrow pointing right that said ‘Restricted’ and another left that said ‘Classified’. She was about to go the ‘Restricted’ route, on a wild guess a bit of gumption, when a small, hovering robot about the size of a basketball meandered up to her (or at least preformed the best approximation of a ‘meander’ a hovering robot was able) and uttered, in a much more mechanical voice than that emitted form the elevator’s elusive speakers, “This way,” without the slightest bit of explanation or even confirmation that this was, in-fact, the pony it should be speaking to, or even that there was a pony there at all, as it didn’t seem to have functioning visual receptors. With yet another sigh and some resignation, Applejack followed, seeing as she was lacking another option.
The halls of the facility were barren, save for the occasional official-looking, high-ranking, uniformed pony, each of which seemed to be engrossed in some, official-looking and, no doubt, high-ranking document, displayed on monitors that were either being floating with magic, in the case of the unicorns, or placed on odd stands that jutted out from attachments that found grip on the pegasi and earth ponies’ necks. Applejack reflected on the changes she noticed had been made to headquarters since she’d resigned from her post in the Equestrian Royal Army.
At the end of this particularly long corridor, the robot took a sharp turn to the right at an intersection that branched in three directions. She had prepared herself mentally for yet another mind-numbing stretch of hallway when the bot halted abruptly at what seemed to be their destination. In front of the pair lay a duplex of doors above which was a plaque reading ‘Confidential’.
Applejack let loose an especially exasperated sigh and waited for the robot to interface with the intercom positioned to the left of the doors. After a few seconds, the door opened abruptly issuing forth a rather powerful gust of wind. Applejack, forgoing the sigh this time, took a few short steps inward and stopped, as if waiting for some confirmation. She looked back for the robot, but it seemed that it had achieved the task it had set out to do and had moved on to greener, or grayer, as was the tone of this facility, pastures.
With a bit of hesitation, Applejack began walking again, seeing nothing else she could reasonably do. She noticed at once how very dark and, inherent from the previous trait, foreboding the room was. She’d only been walking for a number of seconds when a blinding light issued forth from the ceiling, or at least that general direction, resulting in her pausing abruptly. She panicked for a moment as her eyes adjusted to the not entirely unwelcome light. When it was finally possible for her to her hoof in front of her face again, she saw yet another door, and made the observation that she was in a very narrow, very cramped hall leading from the door she had just entered from, to the one that stood before her now. Holding her breath and bracing for whatever or whoever it was through the door, Applejack lowered her head and shoved it open. Stepping in the routinely dull, yet surprisingly well lit room, she looked up and saw…
“Twilight?”
The familiar, purple-colored pony stood before her, clad in a white lab coat that cut off about mid leg toward the front and almost reached the ground near her flank. Before her was one of the important-looking documents that were quite the norm among ponies who resided here, surrounded by a purple glow that also enveloped her horn. Twilight Sparkle, floating it magically, placed the papers near a terminal on a panel behind her that was completely engulfed by buttons, monitors, and other terminals, identical to the one aforementioned. Immediately adjacent to the instrument panel was a large window overlooking a barren room which was full of wires, all finding there way to the same point in one wall, disappearing there.
Applejack, not knowing what to say or how to say it, merely stood her ground staring intently at the pony that had been such a big part of her life in the past. In an attempt to break the awkward barrier that had very easily managed to find it's way in between them, Twilight cleared her throat and proceeded to say, in a nonchalant, but still slightly authoritative, voice, "Applejack."
Applejack's demeanor suddenly turned sour, and she abandoned all of her former conversational caution, as she practically shouted, "You got a lot ah nerve draggin' me here Twilight. After what you did to me..." she looked down at her mechanical leg for a moment or two and then continued, "...after what you did tah all five ah us!"
Twilight seemed taken aback, and she hardened a bit, "Look Applejack, I'm sorry. I've been saying sorry ever since it happened, just when are you going to let it go?"
Applejack was furious now, "Let it go? LET IT GO?! We were trapped down there, and you coulda saved us, but you decided it best to listen to some big shot who'd never seen action before, and just leave us tah die?"
"I would have been court martialed! I would have been dishonorably discharged and thrown in prison! What could I do?"
"We coulda lost our lives, Twilight!" She sighed and shook her head, "You've changed Twilight, you've changed so much. I remember ah time when you woulda willingly given up your life to save one ah us, but you wouldn't risk prison tah save all five?"
The two ponies stood in silence, neither mustering the courage to look the other in the eye, both staring intently at the floor beneath their feet. They stood for what seemed to them like ages, neither saying a word. After an eternity of this, the silence was broken by a door opening and closing, and both looked up to see the pony that had just entered the room. It was a mare, a unicorn mare, whose coat was gray, a few shades lighter than the walls surrounding them. She had a jet black mane that just reached her back, and ended jaggedly. Her cutie mark was strikingly similar to the ERA's Robotics Department's logo; an upside down triangle adorned with a pair of eyes dead center. Applejack found it quite eerie. She was wearing a lab coat identical to Twilight's. She walked into the room and stopped just short of the two ponies standing in the room before her.
"Has she been briefed?" she said shortly, looking at Twilight with a blank expression.
Twilight inhaled and turned her attention back to Applejack, "You've been chosen by the Council for this task due to your past experience in the war, and your outstanding record. You'll be confined to this base throughout, and will not be permitted contact to the outside world, due to the confidentiality of this project."
"Not tah rush you or anythin', but what exactly is it I'm gonna be doin'?" Applejack questioned, patience dwindling. She'd never liked being told what to do.
Twilight walked over to one of the monitors positioned on the instrument panel and began typing intently. After she had finished, she pressed a button near her on the panel and directed Applejack's attention to the window, or rather what was occurring outside it, in front of her.
The wall where the countless wires and cords were amassed shuddered, as red lights began to flash all around, and a siren began to wail. There was a hiss of steam as the wall began to part. They slowly moved further apart, they revealed a shocking sight.
Inside the wall there was a gigantic robot that looked to Applejack to be armed to the teeth. There were turrets stationed all around, though hidden from view, Applejack could still tell they were there. In addition there was also a giant gun, just the right size for the robot to hold, strapped to it's back. There was even what looked like a sword in a holster on it's hip. Awestruck, Applejack could do nothing but stare.
"This," Twilight began, "is the Mechanized Combat Apparatus, Codename: Menoitios. You will be piloting it."