Chronicles of Luna: Future Past Equation

by Pony of Science

Chapter 6: Isolation

Chapter 6: Isolation

Meanwhile, as the drama unfolded in the warded off part of the facility, the whole of the EST staff had heard what had happened at the previously sealed off area over the past hour, and the news of the RCSC’s approach was spreading.

Less interesting news involved a silly pink pony that was visiting the facility, currently in the applied physics wing, rather concerned about finding a gift shop.

The news of the old labs and testing tracks finally out of lockdown got many of the older ponies buzzing with an equally old rumor.

The name of the long missing facility director hadn’t been uttered above a whisper for close to 30 years, and now, while the tone hadn’t rose much in volume, the amount of it being said had increased exponentially.

The fact that one of the royal sisters was now trapped within one of the testing tracks along side several staff members, including the acting director, did sour the news considerably.

Another, more baffling fact, was despite having some the best minds in Equestria communications, no pony was able to get in touch with them, not for an extended period of time anyway.

The bits and pieces that did come through were confusing and unsettling.

Things about Platinum Gladiola’s return, her sisters, their issues, and the long unsolved mystery of her disappearance.

This ongoing drama, despite being played out just out of sight, was one of the most entertaining things to happen in the facility in years.

Everypony seemed more interested in the drama than their work, which left the custodial staff to ensure nothing hazardous developed.

The computer security techs had been working on disengaging the lockdown and reestablishing communications with individuals trapped inside. They were having considerable trouble in this task, as if somepony had a firmer grasp of advanced security protocols than they did.

This added speculation among the senior staff members, first with who saw what was happening with the security, and quietly spread.

As bizarre as the whole situation was, nopony was that concerned for their safety. As far as anypony knew, the only ones in any danger were inside the lockdown; also was the fact that due to the scientific equipment and experiments conducted within the EST walls, safety took on a very different meaning.

Security had been running routine check of the intranet when something strange happened; they lost communications to the main office, followed shortly by all departments and wings.

As the security officers exited their office, several maintenance personnel had been looking over the facility schematic, and looked very concern as several areas had gone black.

Following this, the lights began to go out, section by section, along with the lab equipment shutting down in each and every sector and wing. Emergency lighting came on shortly afterward, along side a recorded message.

“Attention all personnel, Class 3 power failure. All non- essential facility areas, non-ventilation systems shutting down. Switching to emergency power. Remain calm and evacuate in an orderly fashion. All emergency exits active, all ramps, slides, and ladders active, all elevators deactivated. Please proceed to the closest emergency exit.”

The message repeated over the whole of EST through the loud speaker, relayed through an automated voice replicating Celestia’s own.

“Hell, the Main reactor is shutting down. The replacement of the PGR 6 cables three months ago were properly embedded, and fully operational. Plus the reactor itself was working within low point tolerance range, what is going on? “ Gladiola thought.

She had to work furiously to get as much info as she could, to make sure the reactor wasn’t headed toward a meltdown.

“Venting; fully operational. Auxiliary power lines: viable for switch over, begining process. Main core; power at 10%, 90% shut down, 2% chance of meltdown. Running at emergency capacity, following to Class F power output until repairs are made. More than enough for what I need. Now, if emergency protocol is running properly, the lockdown should be overridden, releasing all doors, and the emergency exits should be activating right about, now. ”

Her attention then turned to her other captive, Quark, being held in a Plexiglas cell on the observation deck along the face of the facility.

“ Are we comfortable?” she asked over the intercom installed in the cell.

”Don’t care much for the view.” Quark responded nervously. Unfortunately for him, he had issues with heights. “

“Oh? But I thought you enjoyed looking down on everypony.” Gladiola answered.

Quark did see, in the brief glimpses downward, that everypony was evacuating the facility due to the power failure.

” But, since things have taken a turn, you’re going to have to be moved down.” Gladiola continued

Quark briefly felt hopeful due to this prospect, then he saw two of the claws that had delivered him into his cage clasp the metal handles along the sides as the cargo doors on the floor opened. As his cell moved along the railing to the cargo door, Quark suddenly had a distressing thought “ Uh, you did recalibrate these for lowering fragile materials, right?”

“And why would I need to do that?” Gladiola answered shortly before the cell plummeted down the cargo chute, Quark’s surprised cry following on the way down.

Sunflower had been quite surprised when the lights went out.

She took a moment to make sure she hadn’t had something horrible happened to her.

After a brief check that she wasn’t hurt, she saw a green sign to her left, along with a small row of lights leading through the now revealed exit.

A long pause and a look around assured Sunflower that this wasn’t a ploy by Gladiola to prove her wrong about her previous statement.

Her behavior alone had been enough to get her into trouble, but no, she had to add the cherry on top with ‘the name’.

She was fairly certain for a moment, after the power went out, that Gladiola had terminated her existence in some incredibly quick but horrible manner.

But no, in that moments passing, no audio, no movement from the test track, just the sound of the ventilation system quietly pouring air into the room.

It was almost as if Gladiola had vanished completely.

Sunflower did have to take her time initially making her way out; going from a near over lit test track to small emergency lights to a fair amount of adjustment.

“Once Ah get out of here, Ah am moving to someplace Gladiola ain’t evah gonna find me. Ah heah Dodge Junction is nice, and there’s a cherry farm that seems to need help on a regular basis. “ Sunflower thought out loud.

The prospect of spending the rest of her life toiling on a farm, as opposed to facing her baby sister’s wrath one more minute was looking pretty good.

Luna wasn’t sure what the best path to back track to reunite the other ponies in the observation room.

Luna was numerous floors lower than the point when she started, but would the point where she could exit be near that they would be, was an estimate at best.

It was possible too, that Mobius and the other staff members had already evacuated.

Another concern was that Sunflower would be trying to escape as well, and Gladiola would do everything in her power to prevent that.

Even with the power out, it was likely that Gladiola still had quite a few options; she did apparently have the entire facility at her disposal at the time.

“ I must remember to speak with my sister after this. It can’t be coincidence that everything shuts off shortly after Sunflower utters a name clearly meant to hurt her sister.” Luna thought as she slowly flew upward.

Steadily, the floor numbers that had been labeled with the ‘sub’ prefix climbed to 1, then a rather important pair of doors marked ‘ground floor’ presented themselves to Luna.

It was strange; Velvet had never seen the facility like this. No staff, no work labs active, very few lights.

No staff, no labs active, little sound, few lights. Mobius might have seen it this way, long ago during the construction, but now, this was different, as if a disaster had happened and no pony told them.

Inkie and Rose had simply followed Velvet and Mobius through the emergency exit, neither one having any knowledge of where to egress in the most timely fashion.

No pony really wanted to talk about the fact that everything just shut down the second Sunflower uttered a name that probably should have gotten her sent to the great beyond.

Velvet’s thoughts shifted to Inkie; she had a family member somewhere in the facility.

“ Inkabeth, Do you think your sister was evacuated safely?” Velvet asked, genuinely curious, al least as far as Inkie’s response.

“ Pinkamena is capable of handling herself. She has a tendency to… achieve the unexplainable. Additionally, as she is one of the Elements of Harmony, Pinkamena has been in far more perilous situations.”

Velvet was satisfied with Inkie’s answer, she had wondered if the it was the same Pinkie Pie she had heard about in recent years.

“Lost communications?” Lead Balloon asked, rather surprised.

“Yes sir, we’re receiving a message about a facility wide power failure, the staff is being evacuated. No word about the possibility of a meltdown, fire or other dangerous situation.”

“Curious. Will we still be able to land?” Lead Balloon inquired. The pilot answered

” We’ll get there fine, but the landing’s going to be a little rough without landing lights or platforms.”

“ If that’s we have to worry about, we’re doing pretty good. Alright, everypony make sure to buckle in; things are about to get bumpy.”

Luna had quite a surprise when she opened the ground floor doors.

The chances of the two of them meeting after the evacuation of the whole facility were improbable, but then again; Pinkie Pie had a talent of altering laws of probability, and at times, physics.

And, there she was, practically waiting for Luna.

Luna wasn’t about to complain; after the previous events of the evening, seeing the perpetually smiling face of the silliest pony she had met was a welcome change.

“Hiiiieee, Princess Luna, Have you been looking for the gift shop too? No pony seems to be around to show me where it was, not that they seemed all that eager to show me where it was before all the lights went out. I mean I know that the voice on the intercom said it was a power failure, but why would everyone need to leave the place without alarms sounding.” Pinkie continued on her ever-altering train of thought, but Luna had stopped listening upon Pinkie’s off-hoofed remark concerning the current circumstances.

She was even more assured of the possibility that her Sister had planned for a reunion like this happening, and acted without the staffs’ knowledge to cause a situation such as the shutdown.

“I shall inquire to her on this matter, but later.” Luna thought, right now she had to ensure the safety on the ponies that had been caught along with her in the old, previously sealed facility area.

“Heah we ah, Ground Flooah.” Sunflower said, relieved that this insanity was almost over.

“Just follow the laights, that awll ah have to do, just keep followin’ the laights.” Sunflower wasn’t concerned about Luna or the other staff members, not even her other sister Rose.

The only thing that worried her was getting out of the facility and as far away as possible, ensuring that she didn’t attract the attention of Gladiola ever again.

Velvet kept an eye on her aunt, Silver Rose, as she rested.

Mobius had been concerned that Rose wasn’t up for this much physical exertion, and it appeared that now that concern was founded.

True, He and Rose had passed their youths, but that wasn’t the issue. He was easily over two decades older than her, so he knew that wasn’t it.

No, her problem had been a long time an unfortunate development.

The reason why her face wore such a sad expression when she thought no one was looking.

Slowly, Silver Rose got back up; Velvet in turn offered if She needed more time.

“Thank ya’ll kindly, but Ah’ve taken long enough. Ah have what ah need to know; Platinum Gladiola is alaive, but clearly now isn’t the taime to talk. Ah imagine, between Princess Luna and both Ya’ll, that she and Ah can set up an accord to discuss the mattuh latuh. Now please, enough with the invalid routine. Ah still have plenty ah taime before all that, and we still need to leave this now.”

“So that is why she’s here.” Mobius thought as they continued making their exit.

Inkie had been keeping point ahead of the trio, but it was hard not to hear the conversation.

She hazarded a guess that whatever was the matter with Silver Rose was most likely a private matter, and prying wouldn’t be appreciated.

“ Ah thank ya’ll for bein’ patient Ms. Pie, it’s been a long taime since ah’ve had to handle sumthin’ as stressful as this. And as ya’ll can guess, my health ain’t the best eithuh.” Rose said, clarifying any questions Inkie might have. Inkie simply nodded before the foursome continued.