The Chronicles of a Lost Angel [Refined Edition]

by Nova Borealis

[23] Ascending Darkness

Serena

Necra fallows me to the hanger. I do not wish to see that Shining Armor after what he did, but I think it would put salt on the wound if I were to fly over them aggressively...although it would as they say...set the record straight. I jump atop a crate, Necra floats behind me as I scan the cluster of ponies on the other side of the large room.

"What are you doing?" she asked me.

"Just asserting myself as the Alpha to that pitiful pony...there you are. You know how to get to the lab, I'll set a waypoint on your HUD." I say to her. Before she could reply I launch myself forward directly into the cluster of ponies. As I fly into the group the ponies jump out of the way, all except Shining Armor, who puts up a shield in an attempt to stop me. I do not attempt to dodge, I collide with his shield, it shatters upon contact with my shields that disrupt the flow of magic like an EMP. Before I hit him head on I fly just over him and grab him by the horn and continue to fly up and stop 30 feet in the air, much to everypony's dismay.

"This traider tried to stop me from conducting research in fixing YOUR weather problem. Reports show that the Crystal Empire is overrun with shadow creatures that wanted the crystal heart. I need it to study so I can repair your weather control tower/castle." I say to the ponies below. I pull Shining up to my face so I can look at him in the eyes with my disapproving soul piercing glare.

"If you betray me again, I will rip out your spine, feed it to the demons of Tartarus, and throw your bloody corpse into the sun only to give your soul to Epsilon to feed on deep within the core of Jupiter." I say in an intimidating tone as to strike fear into his heart to be more obedient next time. I toss him down to the group of ponies below for Cadence to catch him...strange...I detected a spark of dark magic with in him...perhaps I should send a few stealth sentinels to observe him. Necra catches up to me with a nervous expression on her face holding the crystal heart with her magic. After I let her catch up we fly to the watch tower and descend into the Aperture Labs. We stand before the office building at the entrance.

"Well that was...certainly something." said Necra.

"I detected a spark of dark magic inside of him." I inform her.

"Something must have happened back at the ruins..." said Necra as she trails off in thought.

"I sent a stealth sentinel to keep an eye on him and keep me updated on any changes." I say.

"Will he know he's being watched?" asked Necra a bit worried.

"Not even I can locate a stealth sentinel with it's cloak on. Given that information I don't think he'll know." I say to reassure her as we approach the lobby.

"You seem confident." said Necra.

"If you think of it that way, yes." I say as we approach the door, it opens revealing the dark empty chamber with an erie blue and white light in the center that leads down into the darkness below. White panels fold into place in our path as we walk off the edge.

"...beautiful..." said Necra as she notices the dim blue lighting makes my white streaks of hair sparkle as my eyes glow dimly as to compensate for the low light levels.

"Yes...I suppose the gravity pillar dose look aesthetically pleasing." I say as I look at the silver gravity pillar off in the distance covered with blue and white lights as to keep the ceiling from collapsing.

"I wasn't talking about the lab." said Necra as she looks at me. I begin to realize she must be talking about me.

"O-oh...you...really think so?" I say as I unwittingly blush a little at the complement.

"Yes." said Necra passionately as she holds the heart by her side, it faintly glows blue.

"...Cadence said that the heart gives off love magic...how do you know your emotions are real?" I say as I recall the few data files I have on the crystal heart. Necra looks at it for a moment and brushes her hoof against it to feel its smooth, glassy yet slightly warm surface.

"Like I said, your the only one who ever showed a single shred of love felt directly towards me. You may not be aware of it but I'm still alive because of you." said Necra to hold her logic from earlier. She walks past me with the heart in her grasp as she brushes her tail up against my body and up to my face. Necra jumps off the platforms to take a free fall to the magic research center down below. I jump down after her. She falls peacefully through the air as we pass through the cubic network of railings that fill the seemingly empty room. The heart falls next to her and firmly in her grasp. It should take us a little over 7 minutes of falling to reach the bottom of the 15 mile deep chamber. Because of the chamber's vast empty space it has in door weather as well as a weak wind cycle that encircles the gravity pillar in the center of the cylindrical chamber. To the anyone in her position, falling through darkness drenched an an erie blue light a few miles away through a cubic network of rails, they would be terrified of getting hit by one of the rails as they approach terminal velocity. To me they are candles that could be put out with the slightest force as to them getting hit in the head at terminal velocity would kill them. But for Necra, she seems to be enjoying the sensation of falling into the apparent unknown as she have never been down this far before. The wind brushes past us at whizzing speeds as we fell into darkness. I fly next to her as I block out the sound of the wind, making it easier to talk to her.

"Your not scared?" I say as Necra reacts to this by smiling. She must have done the same to her headset already.

"No, I have wings. How far down do we need to fall?" said Necra.

"15 miles. We should be reaching the objective in 32 seconds, if I were you I'd slow down unless you wanna continue falling for 6 minutes or so." I say to her. I flare my wings and fire my gravity jets to make me stop with the combined power of air resistance and gravity. Below me is a what would appear to be a floating island when in reality it is built into the cubic frame that fills the chamber. On the island is a large artistic white castle on it surrounded by towers and a forrest, yet strangely an observatory. Necra slows to a halt as I let my self into a controlled fall to be next to her once more.

"This is Vanilla Castle, I found the schematic in the data archives back on the Sirus." I say as we slowly descend to the ground below.

"Why would the Sirus have schematics for a luxury castle in it's computers?" asked Necra unaware of the true nature of this place.

"It's also a fortress and a laboratory. I made some modifications to it when it was built." I explain.

"Yeah that makes sense." said Necra. To her surprise get close enough to the the ground the darkness above us fades to a dim twilight sky with the edge of the island turning into a vast ocean, but the gravity pillar remains, only for it to glow in the part of the sky that is in between the darker and lighter parts of the dimming sky. We land in a small meadow, soon after Necra notices the night sky even shows stars, though these stars are not those of the equestrian sky, but a different planet.

"Woah..." was all she could say.

"This is generated by a highly precise bubble shield that surrounds the island. Life forms and sentinels can pass through it with no trouble but projectiles would get deflected, as a bonus the shield displays the sky of Eden Prime with out the installations." I say just as we spot a spectacular band of countless clusters of nebulae and stars. The band of light reaches across the sky vertical to the ground. The band itself is mostly white but all colors of the spectrum can be seen in a breath taking display of cosmic mastery. It's beauty is unmatched by anything Necra has ever seen. She can't even tell she's not actually outside because it's so realistic.

"W-wait...so this is the sky of a real planet some where?" said Necra, utterly dumbfounded that something like this actually exists in reality and not a computer.

"Indeed, this is only a recreation of that sky, though in reality, I've heard it's much more luminous." I say as Necra notices that the galactic band across the sky actually eclipses that of the gravity pillar and even blankets us in a dim white light.

"The Grand Capital Galaxy can even be seen during the day." I say as to surprise her even more.

"Wow...you know if I didn't know any better I'd say you were trying to impress me." said Necra with a playful tone.

"I-incorrect, this is just where the new lab is..." I say with a hint of nervousness, though I imagine Necra could easily tell. Necra giggles at this.

"Well you certainly know how to set the mood." said Necra with a bit of lust in her words.

"Lets just go to the lab..." I say plainly to get us back on track. With that said we silently walk to the castle with Necra holding the crystal heart. After a few minutes of walking we approach the front door. It is a large black door inside an archway etched into the castle. We stand on a red brick courtyard. A fountain with a 10 winged angel is in the center of the large courtyard. We enter the castle to find our selves inside a large ballroom with the floors made from marble tiles and the walls detailed with obsidian and polished granite. At the other end of the room are two stairways that arch up into the center of the wall to form a balcony that leads to the upper floors of the castle. Under the stairs is an arch that leads to a large circular room with what looks like a holographic display of all the castle mainframe, as well as being connected to the aperture lab and Alpha Base mainframes. Under the holographic projection is a black ring etched into the floor that is in reality the elevator to the research facility. Me and Necra walk into this room.

"This must be the mainframe room." said Necra as she assumes correct.

"It also acts as a live feed map of the entire facility and a personal computer with a 3 dimensional interface." I say to a still impressed Necra who notices the gothic style arches in the walls of this room. Inside theses arches are monitors who display the schematics of various ship mounted weapons. The ceiling arches up into the center of the room with various sensors and projectors arranged inside the arches to be not as noticeable but also stylish.

"Are computers like this common?" asked Necra.

"No, a 3 dimensional interface computer can usually be found in high end advanced starships, luxury homes," I inform her.

"Is this what the average millionaire lives in in the Harmonic Empire?" asked Necra.

"More like trillionare, depending on where you live. Their is a large array of different cultures in the Empire and I don't have much data on them." I say as I step in the center of the black ring and step on to a white light on the floor called the control platform. Upon stepping on the holographic displaying the facility disappears, in its place a display of icons that open various functions appear floating all around me.

"Down." I say as in response to Necra's surprise the floor starts to move down.

"This is an elevator too!?" she said. Soon after this the floor starts to move down faster, slowly letting gravity take control. We slowly fall atop the platform into a large room.

"Welcome to the central research center." I say as the gray walls and white doors come in to view, each door is built into the wall with a walkway that encircles the room. No visible way is seen to get up to these walkways, as if only a being who can fly can actually get to these labs.

Author's Note:

3 Dimensional interface Supercomputer (3DISP or simply DISP)
Control Platfrom:

Use the Archive to learn more about the words above.

=======================================================

Comments

[dyedquartz]

I wonder how they would act to a 90s computer