Lily - 2nd of Midsummer ‘15 EoH - Midnight
The party wound down just before midnight. Once I got into the swing of things, the actually rather pleasant party managed to make me completely forget about Lyra and our possible Windigo.
It wasn’t until Scoots gave me a goodnight kiss and flew off with a happy grin, leaving me alone on the massive deck-roof next to my new home that I remembered there was quite possibly a very rare and dangerous creature below me right now.
I’d heard legends of Windigos. They are real creatures, everypony who study’s magic or monsters knows that. They are largely mythical due to being more rare than an architect and an engineer agreeing on how to design a building, but they exist.
Windigo are something of a puzzle for the Thaumaturgists. A living ball of magical energy, constantly draining heat from the world to sustain itself. That’s all I really knew about them. I had a friend who knew more, her thesis paper ‘Legends, Lore, and Truth: Postulations on Windigo Ergonology’ proved she knew way more about it then me.
Or was at least able to get away with being pretentious as all hell. It's hard to say. The field of Ergonology is not very big. It’s hard to study energy based life when your one known example seems to be almost always hostile and too rare to easily find.
She found one once. Managed to collect the data for her thesis. She doesn't have front legs anymore. Not flesh and blood ones at least.
If I had been one year more advanced in my studies I could have regrown them for her. But that’s not how the cards fell. She found a Windigo, it quote ‘froze them off’ unquote, she wrote her thesis, got automail, and then graduated before me and vanished.
Leaving me at the present, sitting on my roof, afraid of losing a limb via what had to be the most painful way possible, and considering begging Twilight for absolutely anyplace else.
But there was a problem with that line of thinking. It felt cowardly. I like to think I’m a sensible pony. Not the fool who rushes in, nor the coward who never makes a move, a sensible pony who does the right thing. If I fled, then somepony else would have to deal with this.
Even worse, this was a good building! Large, spacious, I could run more than a clinic here. I could make a proper hospital! Not a big one, but this was large enough where I could have a few apprentices one day who also worked as Biomancers here. There was room to build, to grow, to thrive!
I couldn’t run with that on the line! That would be cowardly beyond measure.
“Two minutes thirty three seconds!” Lyra’s voice exclaimed eagerly from just over my shoulder.
“Ahh!” I yelped, turning in a mini-panic to find the minty mare standing a few feet behind me, dressed in a light armor of some sort.
It was based around a simple black undersuit, fur tight, like a diver’s suit. The armored portions were a minty green, her own color but darker. It sort of looked like she was dressed in half of a changeling’s exoskeleton, with saddlebags tossed over her back.
“Sorry. This suit’s stealth enchanted, and has sound dampening materials for the hoof-caps.” Lyra apologized.
“Horse apples!” I objected. “You teleported!”
Lyra giggled. “Oh man I wish I could teleport! I can’t wrap my head around that spell though… It’s a bit complex for me.”
“Ah… Well, at least you came prepared.” I said pointing to her armor. “What is that, exactly?”
Lyra grinned and nodded towards the courtyard with an expression that indicated we should go to it. “What, this old thing? It’s my pre-Luna’s friend armor. Unfortunately Luna keeps our good gear in her personal armory, so I keep this around for my um… Personal utility.”
I nodded and started to descend the spiral staircase. “Ja, but what exactly is it?”
“Oh. It’s a diver’s suit enchanted to be self-repairing with an old exoskeleton my changeling friend molted. I got her to shift to match my size just before a molt and turn her exoskeleton into a super-tough polycarbonate and ceramic… Um… It’s super tough ultra light plating. And I also packed some gadgets into it.” Lyra explained finishing as we arrived in the courtyard.
Well, that was... Interesting.
“So um, she’s okay with you wearing her old ‘skin’ so to speak?” I asked morbidly.
Lyra rolled her eyes. “This is a mare who when we and some other friends were stuck up in the tundra, realized we had infinite food because we cared for her enough to regenerate every day. So she shifted parts of herself into plants and then just cut them off so we could eat. Meep’s super utilitarian.
“Heck, using one of her exoskeletons was her idea. I was going to get Steel to forge me something. Uh, back on topic though; that tundra trip, that’s where my Windigo knowledge comes from. It’s also why I’ve got armor on, for stealth reasons. How good are you at sneaking?”
I winced. That was all the answer she needed.
“Good thing I brought some spare hoofcaps.” Lyra said to herself a she levitated four black boot-like bits of cloth from her bags. “Stick them on. They will prevent your hooves from making sound.”
I nodded and slipped the small hoof only coverings on. Just before I was about to ask how they would stay on, I felt each cap magically adhere to my hooves. “I take it you have to intentionally take these off?” I asked.
Lyra nodded.
“What about if we need to talk?” I asked curiously.
“No worries. I have a spell for that.” Lyra said with a dismissive hoof wave. “Right, so you’re a healer type. Do you have anything that can heal injuries quickly or does everything take you a month or so?”
Ah I see, she was wondering what good I would be in a fight. Good for her.
“I served as a city guard briefly. I may not have much mana, und I’m not too good with weapons, but I can fight.” I informed. “Not well mind, but I can protect myself.”
“That’s good, but I am more interested in your levels in cleric, not fighter.” Lyra said in a way to serious tone for something that nerdy.
I hadn't played Oubliettes and Ogres since freshmare year! The hay was a mare in her early prime doing playing a filly’s game?
“I can heal simple injures quickly, ja.” I said blankly.
Lyra frowned a bit. “Sorry if that sounded insulting… Right so here’s the plan, Cole takes point, I back her up, you stay on our plots and zap the cuts and bruises away. Sound okay?”
“I’ll be honest, it would sound better if you hadn’t just treated it like a Oubliettes and Ogres game.” I admitted, rubbing the back of my head with a hoof.
Lyra rolled her eyes. “You sound just like a Royal Guard. ‘Ma’am you can’t possibly have learned anything from a game,’ they say, ignoring the fact they use wargames for training exercises, and that Oh and Oh is literally a small unit tactics simulator.”
“Er- well, be that as it may, it feels...wrong, to make a parallel between a real dangerous situation, und a game.” I said defensively.
“You’ll change your mind in a while.” Lyra smirked. “Trust me, with Vi as your DM, the game is basically a simulator, not a game. Which is awesome! Satisfies the adventuring urge nicely. Now, while we wait…”
Lyra hopped over to my side and sat down. Incredibly weirdly at that. She sat with her plot touching the ground, her spine vertical, and her legs in front of her crossed into a sort of x with her hooves on opposite sides.
“That, can’t be comfortable...” I remarked instinctively.
Lyra blushed a little. “Um, actually at this point, it kinda hurts to sit pony-style. Anyways-”
She levitated a small black leather book out of her saddlebag. “Here she is!” Lyra informed passing it to me to inspect.
I took the book with my magic and levitated it in front of me, turning it to inspe- Oh.
If this was pony-made, it was certainly one of a kind, and very expensive to make. The leather wasn’t leather. It looked like leather, felt like leather, but it was definitely not made of dead cells. This was some sort of synthetic material, perhaps a superfine plastic thread woven into a ultra-tight mesh and then laminated. Or maybe some sort of latex.
Whatever it was, it was some of the best synthetic leather I’ve ever seen. It beat the faux leather dress I’d gotten as a gift in college by miles!
It also was not a paper book. But well, Lyra had said it was a device so I should have expected it not to be parchment. Though it wouldn’t have been the first enchanted animated book I’d ever seen. On the inside, the ‘book’ had two brushed metal panels that had that sort of silvery brushed look of aluminum, except for the center of each ‘page’ which was a jet black pane of glass, like an empty photo frame that had been polished into almost a mirror.
“Well, this isn’t like anything I’ve seen before.” I admitted honestly.
“Don’t believe it’s not pony made though?” Lyra asked. “That’s fine. Take your hoof and chip or scratch the glass.”
I blinked and turned to look at her. Her face looked completely serious.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Lyra rolled her eyes, then suddenly drew back her hoof and punched the left screen dead center! The glass spiderwebbed into a thousands seperate pieces, shattering and- and… not leaving the frame.
Instead it quickly melted, flowed back together and reformed into a single sheet of material again. Completely new looking. As if it had never broken. Without a single trace of thaumaturgic current.
“Huh…” I said with a frown, leaning to inspect the pane closely.
“Now, could ponies make that?” Lyra asked.
“Nein.” I concluded. “If that had radiated some mana, ja, but… I don’t think our tech is that good.”
“It’s not.” Lyra confirmed. “I’ve seen glass that can fix tiny scratches that was ponymade when you leave it in the sun, but that’s it. You can snap that entire tablet in two, hold the bits together and it’s good as new. She always fixes herself.”
“Alright, I‘m inclined to believe you. As far as this is not a pony-made device.” I said acceptingly. “But as for your idea about ‘humans’, show me what you got.”
Lyra smiled, took a stylus out of her bags and gently tapped the glass with it. “Hooves won’t work. It’s gotta be something conductive. Because she was designed for fingers.” Lyra said as the black screens suddenly brightened to a still black, but glowing faintly sort of black.
A moment later a blue circular logo flickered into existence on the righthoof page. The logo was sort of like a letter o inside of another letter o with little tick marks at odd angles around each o that rotated around the center point of both o’s.
“Good evening, Ms. Heartstrings.” A odd female voice said, coming from the device itself.
“Hey Spice!” Lyra greeted, “Could you-”
“Wait! hold it! Are you a person?” I asked, leaning forward to inspect the ‘book’ much much more closely.
“No, unknown equine, I am Terran Systems Inc’s Simple Personality Interface, Civilian Edition, or S.P.I.C.E. I serve to facilitate the operation of this Terran Systems Inc Mark Seven Personal Media Device.” Spice replied. “Please remain quiet while my owner, Ms. heartstrings, utilises my functions.”
“Yeah, don’t interrupt. She gets confused very easily… Human tech and Twilight’s translation spells don’t get along well.” Lyra said insistently. “Spice, can you tell me my current location?”
“You are currently standing eighty six point three five kilometers bearing two hundred and eight point one three degrees from the Imperial Palace on Terra. WARNING: This is a restricted zone. For your safety, please leave the Palace defensive zone.” Spice warned.
I raised an eyebrow and looked at Lyra. She winked back.
“Spice, what is Terra?” Lyra asked.
“Terra is the homeworld of Terrans, also known as Humans in some more traditional circles. Terra is the center of the Terran Empire. It is also known by the following unofficial names: Earth, Monde, and Erde due to linguistic differences. NOTICE: Using any name other than Terra on official documents is punishable by a five thousand credit fine.” Spice informed.
Lyra nodded, “See? This girl thinks she’s on another world entirely. An older one. One I dug her up from.”
“This unit is functioning properly, Ms. Heartstrings. Your insistence as to this planet not being Terra are worrying. Please seek psychiatric help. Xeno friendly clinics are within three hundred kilometers of your location.” Spice informed as Lyra closed her and slipped her back into the bag.
“So, how about now?” Lyra asked smugly.
“I’m inclined to believe you.” I replied.
There was more to that however… “That said, if you are right, I do not see it impacting my life much if at all.” I admitted.
Lyra looked a bit hurt, but nodded and gave me a sigh. “Yeah that’s the problem… All the truth does in this case is change our cultural narrative. Which is why nopony cares…”
“I care.” Another pony’s voice said from in front of us!
My ears stood up in alarm, my heartbeat sped up, and I readied my magic, horn blazing as I calculated whether to fire blind or throw up a shield.
Then the air in front of me faded into the shape of a blue mare with a blue and white mane.
“Hey Cole!” Lyra said happily.
I took a deep, relieved breath. “Oh thank Faust! Why would you do that?” I begged.
“Do what?” Cole asked with a look of serious confusion.
“Uh, you didn’t intend to be invisible?” Lyra asked, one ear drooping.
Cole facehooved. “Ugh! Sorry! I can’t believe it’s taking me this long to remember I have to remember to be visible…”
“Um, what?” I asked.
Ponyville was apparently a land of pure confusion. Oh no! That’s why Scoots warned me to ‘forget it Lily, it’s Ponyville.’ The town was a weirdness magnet!
Cole blushed lightly. “Uh, well… I’m half windigo. After I figured out how my powers worked well… It- It’s not like unicorn magic. Like at all. So some things are hard. Like staying visible after I know how to turn invisible.”
“At least you’re not falling through floors anymore.” Lyra giggled.
“Yeah, thank Celestia for that.” She said with a pained smile.
“Half?” I asked. “Didn’t you say that she was a windigo? How do you even become half an energy based lifeform?”
Cole’s ears drooped. “Um… Well, you don’t. But most ponies don’t know that about us so you know they think we have normal flesh bodies. I say I’m half windigo because then I’m not instantly a monster. I’m the child of some poor mare who well, encountered a windigo. So instead of grabbing torches and pitchforks I’m treated kindly.
“Also uh… I literally didn’t know myself till a month ago. I- I‘m a pony. Inside, you know? I don’t act like they do. At all.”
Lyra nodded. “One hundred and twenty percent true right there.” She shuddered. “Ugh! Your birth mom was horrifying.”
Cole winced and then turned to look at the doors. “Yeah so, this is the place huh?”
I took a second to compose myself and nodded. “Ja. Scootaloo and I encountered, um, whatever we encountered just inside the doors. Right in front of a grand staircase in the lobby.”
I turned to face the doors, bolstered a bit by the fact that I had two famous adventurers interested in checking it out.
Still, there was the major question of, “how safe is it to go in there blind?”
“Not at all safe,” Lyra answered with a grin. “That’s why I called Cole over. So she can scope it out first.”
Admittedly, that was a professional response, but... “Okay, but how safe is that? Und also how do we know whatever it is can’t hide from her?”
Cole chuckled. “This isn’t the first time we’ve done this. It’ll be fine.”
“I just don’t want to have to regenerate somepony’s legs.” I nervously explained.
“I lost my left hoof once.” Lyra remarked. “I can tell you from experience that I’ll be okay if that happens to me. I reacted in the proper manner to the injury.”
“The hay you did!” Cole said, face stretching into a huge grin.
A huge grin full of literally perfect teeth! Holy cow! She had to be obsessed with oral hygiene to a-
Right! Lyra said her day job was dentistry. Duh. Wait, if she was tangible energy, she could just will her teeth to look perfect… Her body was basically an illusion spell, I think?
There is never a library when and where you need one.
Hold on, she’d said something. What was it? Oh yes!
“How did she react?” I asked wanting to know for the sake of me being the closest pony to provide medical attention. “Also, who healed your hoof?”
“I did.” Lyra said nonchalantly. “I poured a healing potion on both stumps and stitched it back on. Good as new! Also Bonbon likes the scar. Say’s it’s totally badflank.”
I turned to look at Cole, searching for the story. She gave me a knowing nod.
“We were investigating the Everfree back when the Timberwolf population started to skyrocket.” Cole began. “One bit off her hoof just above the joint in an ambush, so we fell back to a nearby logger’s cabin-”
“Hey! This is my story!” Lyra objected.
Cole rolled her eyes, “Go ahead.”
“Anyways, I couldn’t let that alder-nosed colonoscopy bag keep my hoof.” Lyra said resuming the story. “It was a matter of pride, principal, and really not wanting a prosthetic limb because no doctor alive would let me have a hand.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m talking about you, Sky!”
Her normal face popped back into existence as she continued. “Now, there are two normal reactions to being grievously injured. Panic, which is the bad one, and seek medical attention, which is the Good one. I chose the Lyra one, and wrapped my stump with an old shirt from the cabin to staunch the bleeding, applied a tourniquet, modded a chainsaw, attached it to the stump, went back out into the woods, cut that Timberwolf open, got my hoof back, and rubbed its nose it’s own mulchy intestines!” She finished with a serious, and also crazy gleam in her amber eyes.
“W-I… Really?” I asked, ears laying flat.
“Yep.” Cole confirmed.
“Best day of my life!” Lyra insisted. “I even got to use a bucket list one-liner.”
“So um, I take it you’re not afraid of the potential danger?” I asked, hoping to get back on topic, my apprehensions being almost completely allayed.
“Not one bit!” Lyra announced, taking a look towards the upper floors. “So Cole, how about you go through the wall about there and-”
“Wait, what was the one-liner?” Cole asked with a confused face.
“It was ‘Groovy’.” Lyra replied, looking a little annoyed at having been interrupted.
“How is groovy a one-liner?” Cole and I demanded together.
Lyra sighed and facehooved. “It’s… I… Bonnie got it! Look, let’s just get on with this. There’s something interesting in there!”
Cole nodded and gave the two of us a grin as she faded back to nothingness. This time I could see a few flickers of thaumaturgic current as she vanished, but only while she faded. Once she was gone there was nothing to be seen. Not even with a unicorns extra senses.
“She’s good.” I mused optimistically.
Something thumped into the hotel's door!
“Ow! Damnit!” Cole cursed. “I guess I forgot to go intangible… My bad.”
A second thump echoed through the courtyard.
“Um… I’ll try the wall.” Cole announced. Then a split second later. “Nope. This building is phase-proof. Somehow.”
“Thought so.” Lyra said with a sage nod as she trotted over to the wall. “Right, I’m going to chip a small hole in the wall and you squeeze through that.”
Lyra’s horn blazed gold for a few minutes as she attempted to use a few different spells on the wall a foot to the left of the left hoof door. As I waited for anything to happen, her face grew more and more irritated until suddenly with a blast of magic she vaporized a chunk of brick!
“Oh.” Lyra and Cole exclaimed an instant after shard of stone stopped flying dangerously close to everypony’s eyes.
“Some warning next time would be great!” I grumbled, blinking stone dust from my eyes.
“Sorry!” Lyra apologized.
“That’s a solid wall of steel in layed with quartz spell circuits, isn’t it?” Cole asked with a sigh.
“Yep.” Lyra confirmed. “Who built this place? Thestrals?”
“Nah,” Cole disagreed, “this isn’t nearly that overbuilt. Have you seen Pattern Steel’s house?”
“Point.” Lyra grunted.
“Wait, the walls are metal?” I asked curiously.
“Yeah!” Lyra exclaimed. “Good metal too. This isn’t steel. It’s too blue and silvery. Judging by how far I am from the doorframe and the apparent thickness of the doorway… We have a half-pony’s length of solid metal behind a veneer of rock. This is overkill even for an old Guard defense post… That’s what it was before a Hotel, right?”
Cole nodded. “That’s what I heard too. But yeah, warded alloy steel walls… That can keep me out. Could be an old Tribunal base?” She mused.
“Eh, maybe… But they supposedly told the EUP all of their bases locations when they were defeated wayback when. This is their style though. Especially with how much mana these wards must burn every day and how long it’s been empty… That efficiency rating is on par with their advanced Thaumaturgy.” Lyra said, debating herself internally. “Well… If a few Ruby changelings could run this place as a hotel for twenty years, any traps the Tribunal set in it must be gone. It’s likely a fallback position somepony forgot to demolish or appropriate.”
I couldn’t help but feel like I needed to read more local history. “Could somepony give me the short version of what the Tribunal is?”
“A supremacist group left over from pre-Celestia times.” Cole answered. “They were some sort of shadow government until around nine hundred years ago when they were exposed. If I’m remembering my history right Celestia took them down, executed the leaders, but let their troops change sides if they wanted.”
Lyra nodded. “Yeah… Basically they were dark magic types who wanted to put unicorns back in charge of everypony. The modern Equestrian black ops force called Trident is descended from their members who defected. Because you don’t waste excellent spies and stuff.”
“Thanks, I should read some local history.” I decided. “But for now, do we have a plan b?”
Lyra nodded. Her horn flashed gold for a moment. “Okay, everypony, for the next twenty minutes only the three of us can hear each other. They can still hear things we do, so keep quiet. Lily did you lock the door when you ran out?”
Oh. My. Faust. I hadn’t! I didn’t even close the door! I just sprinted like mad, and now here I was, door closed…
“Your face says no… And that you left the door open.” Lyra said in concord.
She reached over and tried the door, then shook her head. “Locked. Hopefully a security feature. Lily, open her up. Cole, you head in first… If you can.”
I stepped forwards to unlock the door, reaching for the key with my magic and stepped directly into a patch of the most intense icy cold to ever exist on Equis!
“Oops, sorry, let me step out of you.” Cole said as the coldness went away.
“T-t-t-thh-thanks.” I stammered, deciding to just tough through it.
“Upside, you know what it feels like if a windigo touches you now.” Lyra said. “You’ll be able to warn us.”
I nodded and unlocked the door, pushing it open and stepping out of the way so I wouldn’t have my spine suddenly soaked in liquid nitrogen again!
The door creaked open. A cold draft blew out of the dark, dusty interior. By the dim light of the dying lightgems I could make out the still dropped box of cereal, sitting in the half-hoof deep dust.
A odd silhouette shape glowed briefly in the doorway. Cole hissed in pain. “Ah! Okay. No. I can’t go through that… Ow…”
Lyra’s eyes widened slightly, “Are you actually hurt?”
“Maybe… Felt like getting my nose sandpapered.” She muttered. “I… I don’t like this. You go in. I’m waiting here for one hour. If you’re not back by then, I’m getting everypony to go in after you.”
That was an excellent plan! I was happy to be a part of it.
“Gut!” I exclaimed. “ Here, take the key so-”
“No, keep it. You may need it for inside doors.” Cole said urgently. “It will be fine. Octavia can pick locks.”
Lyra nodded and stepped into the entryway, then slowly passed through the door, frowning as she moved. “Oh yeah, it’s unnaturally cold in here… Come on Lily, watch my back.”
“You girls be careful.” Cole warned as I walked inside just behind Lyra.
The entryway was exactly as I remembered it. Dark oak floors, grand staircase heading up to the wrap around balcony. Gray stone walls with the top halves covered in white marble. Dark orangish wood floors covered in an age’s worth of dust.
Lyra gently stepped over to the box of cereal and bent down to look at it. Inspecting it in a critical manner before nodding to herself. “No strings attached… And nopony picked it up. Ah, see this?”
I stepped forwards to see what Lyra was pointing too. A hooffull of cereal was scattered around the box, looking as if it had crumbled partially to dust.
“Yes. Somepony stepped on this.” I said then blinked. “Wait, there’s no hoofprints in the dust!”
“Mhm.” Lyra sighed. “It’s a windigo. It drained heat from the cereal, which made it shatter. This confirms it, they only ‘eat’ matter when hungry. Odd that it chose food though. Instead of say, that door handle.”
“They could eat that?” I asked as Lyra stood up and headed for a set of open double doors to our right.
“Yeah. Or at least, Cole can. I get why she still eats normal food pony style. I mean, she did it that way for her whole life. But I have seen her turn a table to frost and wood dust.” Lyra mused, carefully peeking around the corner before heading in. “There’s a chance that this one may be visible. It’s hungry, so it may not want to burn the energy to stay invisible.”
I nodded, if they did take more energy to remain unseen than seen, that was reasonable. Also good for us.
The room Lyra and I stepped into was a large dining room. The floor dipped down leaving a raised portion all the way around the room with a fireplace at one end. Two tables covered in the dry rotted remains of pink tablecloths and dust formed the place where ponies must have once sat and dined.
“If there is a windigo trapped in here, how did the hotel function?” I asked, the thought occurring to me.
Lyra paused, then turned to face me with a grim smile. “Lily, you’re a genius! But your point makes this a million times worse…”
“How?” I asked, a sneaking suspicion forming in my mind.
“Because it means there is either a hidden room where it was trapped for years… Or it’s been trapped here recently. Meaning um…” Lyra gave me a hurt look. “If someone brought a windigo into Ponyville, we have a huge problem. Hopefully it’s not that. If there isn’t a hidden room where one has been trapped because of the crazy wards… Lily, somepony died in here.”
I took a step back in shock.
“Windigoes can’t enter, or leave due to the wards.” Lyra clarified. “Meaning somepony would have to intentionally have let one in. Making one getting trapped here unlikely. So there’s either a hidden room in an old Tribunal base, a very very bad thing… Or Somepony got in here, became trapped and… There’s no pleasant way to say this…” Lyra groaned. “Windigos are born when a pony is cannibalized… Whether by themselves, or by another… And um… Sometimes the pony can live. Assuming the windigo that forms in their body, and then possesses the corpse doesn't drain all of their body heat in their first hunger… Or that the pony doesn't bleed out…”
“Uhhhh… So that means that Cole-”
Lyra threw up a hoof to cut me off. “She refuses to tell me. Her adoptive parents are monster hunters, they raised her from a young filly… To see if they could civilize one. We are not talking about my best friend’s origins. Skip it!”
I nodded. “Okay. Dropped.”
That wasn’t a topic to push, even if I wanted to actually know myself...
“My point is, a tragedy happened here… If we don’t find a skeleton or bone dust in here, we need to look for a hidden room. Windigoes may be, horrific, and they are predators, but they in some cases can be people. I can’t imagine being trapped and hungry for… Oh Luna, the thing could have been stuck in a hidden cupboard for almost a thousand years.”
I winced. That was very uncomfortable… The thought of being trapped in one small space for multiple lifetimes. I couldn’t stay sane.
“You sure you want this building?” Lyra asked as she started to inspect the room.
“It’s not the building’s fault bad things happened in it.” I answered, peering under the tables.
“Odd way to handle things. Most ponies I know would tear down a house a murder happened in.” Lyra mused.
“Ja, well, if Germanes thought that way, we would have to rebuild almost every public building.” I answered, seeking conversation to distract me from the creeping horror.
Oh Faust! What if somepony got trapped in a hidden cupboard and grew so hungry that-
“Uh, we need to talk about absolutely anything. Please! “ I begged, giving Lyra my most pleading of pleading looks.
Lyra winced, “Ack… Sad Bon-bon face! You don’t need to do that, I’d like to not think about the details too. Uh, oh hey, so back in oh-two, my friends and I wanted to get Meep and Cole to hook up.
“You see, Cole had been crushing on the bug for, like, literally her whole teen and adult life. At the time we didn’t know that Meep was a Changeling, and we also thought Cole was a pony. This was about oh… Thirteen years ago. Long time.
“But anyways we worked out a plot where I rigged it so we won the contest to be Princess Cadence’s Bridesmaids. We thought we could use the romantic backdrop to do some good old fashioned relationshipping.”
Lyra kept talking for the entire time we searched the old building. She told the story expertly, only pausing when we had to take a moment to slowly peek our heads into each room to check it over for well, a body.
It was nice to have the distraction. I didn’t know much Equestrian history, and apparently their plan to make their friends hook up was interrupted by Queen Chrysalis’s first invasion of Equestria. I was stunned at how incompetent Lyra described her as. The Demon Queen of the Swarm definitely had gotten more cruel and effective over the years, though I still wasn’t sure sure how I felt about my part in Chrysalis’s demise.
The next few minutes were a mix of Lyra’s story, my wishing I had done more in the actual fight instead of just healing ponies afterwards, and briefly letting Cole know we were fine when we had to go to the outer balcony to check the hotel rooms, just incase they were where… it was.
Nothing.
Each room was empty.
No body. No windigo. Just eery silence, dark rooms, a few old dresses, and dying light gems.
Lyra and I trotted back into the lobby. “-after that, Meep managed to prove her real identities to Twilight, who got a letter to Celestia who in turn got her Equestrian citizenship as her real Changeling self. Just in time before the anti-changeling witch hunts started up.
“I’m glad the lovebugs are welcomed in Equestria now. Took a good four years before they could be seen in public without being attacked, regardless of hive… But now, well, equality for all really means all.”
“I suppose that includes this windigo then?” I asked through morbid curiosity.
“Yes. If she’s not hostile. Under the most recent Sapient Species Act, regardless of species, any thinking creature who is not a danger can live here.” Lyra said casually, then sighed. “Though there are still plenty of ponies who don’t care about the laws… Like the Tribunal did, lots of ponies out there would like to change things.
“Man I hate exploring their old ruins…” Lyra lamented.
“Ja…” I nodded.
We had checked every room. There was nothing here. Nothing obvious. There had to be a hidden room someplace.
“All the dimensions add up…” Lyra groaned. “Length, width, height… No possible hidden room bigger than a dish cupboard. Meaning we have one of my least favorite things.”
“What’s that?” I asked, frowning in concern.
“A building this big and heavy has to have a substructure to help hold it up. There’s got to be a basement. Seen a stairwell going down in here?” Lyra asked bitterly.
Oh… Oh this did not bode well. Not at all. Not one bit.
When I had been twelve, I got lost in my family’s basement…
“Oh… Yay…” I fearfully moaned.
“Well, let’s do this.” Lyra sighed walking off towards the door which led to the kitchen.
“Why the kitchen?” I asked, following after a moment’s hesitation.
“Not kitchen, pantry.” Lyra muttered. “You don’t hide a stairway or ladder someplace just anypony could stumble across it. Ever wonder why bookcase doors aren’t really a serious thing? Ponies casually pick up books. We put coats and hats on pegs… If you have a hidden entrance it goes someplace few ponies will go.”
That made perfect sense. I wished it didn’t. Nothing good could come of a hidden basement. All of the horror movies with creepy sex-maniac killers have hidden basements!
Lyra walked through the kitchen and opened the small door to enter the pantry. The dust still bore our prints from walking through it last time. I nervously eyed the rows of shelves and cabinets that filled the small room, checking to see if any of the scattered boxes, bags, and bottles had moved. Checking to see if there was some sign the windigo was stalking us.
Nothing.
At this point, the nothing was getting more terrifying than any something could ever be. I wanted a monster to leap out of a wall! I wanted plates to fly across the room in an explosion of pottery! Give me something I can see! Let me know where it is!
Lyra started to check the walls near the door. Wanting to move out of her way, but still have a clear line of sight to the door so I could bolt, I backed into the corner of the room directly opposite the doorway, pressing myself firmly against the wall so Lyra could have room to wor-
A sharp click split the air as my rear left knee depressed a patch of wall.
Hidden machinery beneath the floor groaned, shaking off the sleep of the ages to whir to life. The center of the room dropped down a few hooves, smoothly sliding into a recess in the floor beside it, opening a one pony wide hole the length of the floor, with just the doorway wide strip to use as a landing.
White stone steps slid upwards, grinding slightly as they moved, forming stairs that plunged down into the inky black depths, until with a click and a humm the stairwell was illuminated by a large lightgem at the bottom, flickering, dying white light flooding the newly revealed oak wall paneled stairwell.
Lyra hissed. “Luna’s mane… If it didn’t know we were here before, it does now… We better move.”
“Out of here?” I asked, voice just a little squeaky.
“No, down. We’re here to scout. This is a very expensive way to hide your basement… We need to know.” Lyra said as she took a piece of chalk from her bag, marked the button with an x and wrote 'press for basement, Lyra', then quickly started to descend the stairs.
I hesitated a moment, bit my lip, did my best to push fear aside, then followed her down the stairs.
The steps descended maybe fifty feet in a straight line then came to a sharp righthoof turn. I noticed a button on the wall at the bottom of the stairs as we turned the corner and let out a relieved sigh. At least we wouldn’t be trapped here.
The floor underhoof was made of steel. An odd choice, especially since it was burnished to a dull shine, and the dim flickering lights reflected off the floor. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the lights were not flicking like they were on the last dregs of mana…
We came quickly to another right hoof turn, where the one pony wide path became a two pony wide steel stepped staircase… And the walls oak paneling stopped and some odd green ceramic tile covering began to replace it.
Lyra and I descended the ‘cut out as if by a chisel steps. The staircase seemed to go on forever. One straight line. No bends.
“So… One deep basement…” I nervously joked.
“I see floor.” Lyra announced with an urgent ‘stay ready for anything’ tone.
Forty five seconds of stairs. To get to the basement. With every single step, the temperature fell noticeably, I could see my breath midway down the stairs. This so did not bode well…
We stepped out into the dark, only barely lit room at the base of the stairs. Whatever other details and features the room had instantly became irrelevant. You’d never see them. Not with what sat recessed in the far wall.
“Well…” Lyra said, ears drooping fearfully. “Buck…”
“Ja,” I agreed, “buck…”
There sat in the wall, a three pony wide circular, magically reinforced, pure steel, frost covered, vault door.
"SHHHHUSHA, SHUSH! You dont know I am watching though his watch via its laser matrix scanner..."
They failed to mark the secret panel's activation mechanism, as well as mark directions to the hidden room in a common location.
If the door which remained hidden for 1000 years automatically closes behind them they could be trapped, and either getting out or being found would be problematic.
Lyra would know better, so you might want to fix that. Since they're not going to suffer death-by-old-refrigerator fixing it shouldn't create any problems down the line.
6965060 Fair point... I'll just add a sentence. Thank you.
Truth be told book case doors are a thing. You just don't use a book to open said door most are switches,pressure plates or free floating.
cdn.architecturendesign.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/5-secret-door.jpg
and here
cdn.instructables.com/FXC/8S3Z/HTIWDS4S/FXC8S3ZHTIWDS4S.MEDIUM.jpg
Finally
stashvault.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/rotating-bookcase-door-secret-room.jpg
6965092 Yeah, but they are still FAR more rare than a sliding mirror, or a fake closet.
6965098 Agreed but they always had guilty pleasure to me harking back to old black and white murder mysterious and horror movies. Those movies are literally littered with them.
6965110 Same here. I always have at least one bookcase door in any minecraft build for that exact reason ^.^
I feel some Fallout referencing here, also if one Windigo makes the air very cold then... how many would it take to frost over an entire steel door? I have a feeling this will end with somepony as a pony-ice cube
6965115 Depends on how much time's elapsed.
Looks like some unfortunate found the secret basement and managed to get into the vault, but it sealed behind them. With the wards on the building, I think it was some unfortunate treasure hunter found the vault before the rubies turned the building into a love hotel. S/He got trapped in the vault and ate part of their own body, trying to survive long enough for a rescue or to find a way out. That really would be one of the most terrifying and despairing ways to go.
Also, I would not be surprised at all if Lyra tries to use her comm-stone down here and finds that the wards are blocking communication and teleportation magics as well, which would likely be deliberately blocking what most treasure hunters would have as their emergency resorts.
Very nice chapter though how did the Wendigo escape if the door was sealed is my question. Icing the door thats not hard to see. Also as long as the basement isn't too close to the surface or underground it would readily hold temp.
6965154 All it would need would be to get a crack big enough for air to pass, then a windigo can slip through, assuming the material is phase-proof.
6965156 or possibility I didn't consider till reading through the comments suggested a treasure hunter entering the basement. Maybe they entered and cracked the safe before realizing they were trapped, not all treasure hunters will be experienced or patient. Of course there is a darker possiblities. Crack the vault get scared and pushed it closed before it was too late or so they think. Crack in the vault itself seems unlikely not impossible considering the attention put into the rest of the building . Pure steel tends to become brittle at fifty below zero
Evil Dead. Hah! At least, Lyra's hoof didn't get possessed by evil, then turn into an evil version of herself.
"What the buck are you?"
"Your good Lyra, I'm bad Lyra. You're a goody-goody two hooves," Bop, "Goody-goody two hooves," Bop, "Goody-goody two-" Click.
"Good, bad, I'm the mare with the gun."
BOOM!
Heh, sorry, got a little carried away there. XD
Also, is it weird whenever you describe this building I keep imagining the mansion from the Resident Evil game?
Anypony else get that image in their heads?
Especially when describing the dining hall, but eh, smaller I think, and no balcony level 2, or old Grandfather clock.
6965270 No idea, I never played Resident Evil.
/me checks out the resident evil mansion.
/me checks the version of the old hotel she built in Minecraft to help keep descriptions consistent.
Oh... Um... huh. Neat!
As a PS not Lilly has a proper basement/ dungeon necessary for every mad scientist needs
6965297 I know right? You know, Provided it's not a dark magic site tainted beyond the habitability of mortal ponies.
6965300 This hotel at least at the moment ooozes mad scientist creepy fortress interior/ exterior hidden passage and basement/ dungeon. Hope it doesn't prove too contaminated as the hotel above is likely to become contaminated over time
6965312 I could go into the metaphysics of magic in the comments here if you are very intrested, but that will be covered in story soon... Suffice to say that yes, dark magic infection is a thing... But it's not always a bad or evil thing. I did magic up as a very Taoist sort of thing.
6965320 I'll wait just saying if its too contaminated the most likely place to spread is into the hotel from the wards containing things
6965342 THat's quite true.
6965296 Coincidence, or soon to be leader of the real Umbrella?
Is it illegal to offer myself a s a test subject?
6965320 Cool minecraft pic, qick question in your World are there any natural beings that literal run on dark magic? Like the Twili from Zelda?
northcastle.co.uk/guild/art/stella_b/midnazant1.jpg
Huh. You would think that a creature that literally eats heat would roam around more, especially if they are as hungry as this one claims to be. Staying in one place long enough to draw enough heat out of a single area to put frost on things sounds like a good way to starve. That indicates a few possible of things to me about that vault. One could be that there used to be a device or something in there that generated heat that is no longer functional and the windigo is desperately trying to fix it. Could be that there is something sentimental in there that makes them feel better (emotionally) or helps them retain/maintain their sanity. Or it could simply be that there is some kind of something that is literally drawing the windigo back into the vault...
6965190 Here have a metal version to one of the most awesome movie songs ever. video is corny but i like the cover.
Need more always more MOOOORE!
You're never going to write meep & friends' adventures beyond what is there already, are you? Shame, all those discoveries and developments would be helluva fun to read about.
Also, creepy mad doctor's creepy fortress gonna be creepy.
Well, that was interesting. Hey Meep, did anyone write a story about the downfall of the Tribunal? Because for some reason I feel like I did read a story about them at some point.
6965473 Well only Meep can confirm this but the entire building is warded preventing the Wendigo from leaving. Colgate tried phasing between rooms and couldn't because of it. little surprised teh basement isn't warded on all sides but from comments by Meeps, it wouldn't need much of a gap to escape and doorwats readily provide such
6965771 Ok! Thanks for telling me!
6965270 That's Army of Darkness. I'll give you a pass though cause its the same in-universe Ash.
That it is, that it is.
Very nice chapter, loved the creepy vibe it gave, good work.
6966013 I know it is, but it is of the series start of the Evil Dead Franchise. As well, Bruce Campbell has recently brought this skit back with a TV series, Ash Vs. Evil Dead, and he does the whole evil dead hand and evil clone of himself again. Season 1 of it is already done, and I guess there is supposed to be a season 2.
Sorry for the spoilers.
6966180 It's just a reference, sheesh, relax... You know why the Emerald hive revealed itself in Beta? Cause its water replication circuit failed and they needed to expose themselves for aid. Sound familiar?
6965472 Yeah. Lyra and Lily are currently hunting one. Note that I take a Taoist approch to dark and light magic. Good and Evil are not inherent properties of Dark and Light magic. Dark magic is more potant and easier to use, making it the source most evil people tend to go for, while light magic is more lasting but harder to use, making it something good people will generaly go for. Howeaver, there are plenty of good people who can and do use dark, and some evil people who use light.
Metaphysically, as magic is described in my AU as a current, think of Dark magic as DC and light magic as AC.
6965473 Well, you're half right. It's clear that the windigo in question was able to break out of the vault, which probably has it's own wards on it. However it's stuck around the house. Meaning it ether can't break out of there, or won't.
6966180 No. Fallout docent have a monopoly on huge bunker doors.
6965638 No no one has yet. ANd my AU is an open world sooo...
nice, you actually got me to feel slightly anxious that I'm sitting with my back facing a dark open basement for
6966767
Well, more specifically I meant more around the hotel. I knew it had escaped the vault and yet was still trapped in the hotel. I was trying to come up with a reason that the vault still had so much frost on it. A creature that needs to eat and is mobile after a fashion will try and find another source of nourishment if their source runs low or out.
In a limited area a windigo would probably have to move around even more if it wanted to stay fed. Which would just drop the temperature more evenly. Assuming that windigo's need sleep returning to one area to do so in would let the 'hunting grounds' return to normal...
I started these comments trying to figure out why the former hotel wasn't colder and why instead only the vault was still covered in ice and frost. Instead it looks like I may have figured it out on my own.
6967780 Except they don't sleep... DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN (Dramatic pause)!
Bad news, Lyra, Lily. It isn't a windego. You two have taken it upon yourselves to clean out the Forgotten-Millenium Refrigerator. Gird yourselves.
6967884 That's the same theroy that my Girlfriend has XD. "They just found the walk in freezer didn't they?"
6967860
That makes me wonder what Colgates adoptive parents told her foalsitter's and teachers about why they couldn't put her down for naps... Also makes me wonder what they told her about why they lay down and don't move for about eight hours every day and why she doesn't.
That brings something else to mind. How mentally developed are 'newborn' windigos based on the age of the creature that was cannibalized? Would their cognitive functions be based on the age at which they were eaten? I mean, would an adult pony produce a 'baby' windigo or would a fully mature windigo be the result? Would a foal only be able to produce a foal windigo?
Ugh. I really need to go to bed if I am actually contemplating the age ratio of creatures that are born out of a pony getting eaten or at least a bite taken out of...
6968098 That would be because Cole's a special case. Her adoptive folks hexed her to she basically trances for 8 hours a night.
Grim topic, but a necessary one. The persona of a windigo starts out at animal intelligence, and slowly develops to an equivalent of an adult human over about 5 years. This means a young windigo is about as intelligent as a wolf or racoon, smart enough to survive, but not exactly capable of comprehending more than their environment and instinctive urges. The longer they survive, the more they develop. (Cole was simply pegged as 'smart for her age')
THe reason for the animal grade intellect is simple. It's not like you could just have a friend take a bite out of your arm to spawn one. It's the combination of the pony's innate magic, and the extreme emotional distress of a situation so horrifying that cannabilisum is occurring. What happens is the pony's subconcious basically is ejected from their mind and takes whatever mana that pony has at the time with it, forming a sapient creature with nothing more to it than fragmented memories, terror, and survival instances, that slowly develops into a person over time.
I should have brought this up before, but how does the tablet track locations? The planet is tectonicly active, so in 250million years we're going to have radically different continent positions, as well as different shapes due to processes like subduction.
Is it tracking locations as they move?
Going by a fixed coordinate system? (In which case the coordinates for, say, Utah would be in the middle of the now much larger Atlantic ocean)
If she asks it for a map, how wrong is the map?
6966759
Kinda like how healing magics fall under the domain of necromancy - power over life and death.
6967919
So she and I share some tastes in humor? Neat.
6968308 It's working of a grid system based on distance from the north pole, and degrees arround the north pole. It is utilizing the self repairing satalight network to give it a GPS style reading. The points are fixed because no one has manually updated the network, because A stealthed satalights are stealthed, B space craft that can reach beyond the upper atmosphere's edge are not a thing, C you can't hack the data remotely as the storage system is optical and uses write once silica disks to store information. By chance, Canterlot occupies the same grid location that the old Imperial Palace used to, though that geographic location has long since been destroyed due to the formation of mountain ranges. (Intact Human ruins are rare due to this, but some exist still.)
She can get an accurate surface picture of the globe as it is right now, but all the places marked on it are well... probably not there. Like if someone randomly scrambled all of Google earth's points around the entire planet. The sats are not intelligent, they are just info relays, and need to be manually updated (this prevented enemy hackers from messing with navagation systems). The more usefull and still accurate information she can get that's also a map is stellar maps showing trade routs, safe FTL paths, and other data for most of the Orion arm.
6968317
So it thinks facilities are where they were a quarter billion years ago, not where they are now?
She could get it to translate the old map coordinates into current map coordinates if she can express the problem in terms that the crude AI understands.
In this case, the simplest way to do that would be to have it generate a graph of how the globe has changed since the tab let's previous owner, and apply that graph to all known locations. Kinda like tweening keyframes.
6968333 Yep! She could... If she had access to a human. Xenos are only allowed to use Terran tech in read-only mode. If Lyra could trick the device into thinking she was human, or find a human who could then tell the device to disengage that security feature, then Lyra could input new data.
6968337
Pity that reincarnated humans don't count. (Unless his name, rank, and serial number are acceptable ID for it.)
Also, that Phoenix is still comatose in this timeline.
Oh, well. Another human will probably crop up sooner or later; time exists to keep everything from happening at once, but it can be shockingly bad at its job.