Twilight - September 19th, 2028Twilight - September 19th, 2028
Rainbow Falls - Mirror Equestria
“Well? Come on, time’s wasting!” Pine said as the rest of us stared at him in a mixture of surprise and shock.
He stood there, in an adventurer’s get up, looking for all the world like a male Daring Do about to do battle with a hoard of River Tribe warriors. To me, his age made him even more scary. It said ‘I’m experienced enough to see any trick you pull coming a dozen kilometers away’.
But to Sunset…
“Uh, s-sir,” she said as politely as she could manage. “Don’t you think you’re a little old for-”
“Oh, this is young people only? Cool, I’ll stay here with Grandpa Badass,” Chrysalis interrupted sarcastically.
“You don’t count! You don’t age like we do,” Sunset countered immediately. “He’s what, sixty five? Seventy? That’s ancient for a human, Twilight. Like, that’s a Pony’s two-eighty.”
I felt my eyes widen in horror. They live less than a century!? How they hay do they ever get anything done?
“How old are you, then?” Pine asked Chrysalis's, crossing his arms critically. “I’d guess but you bugs have an unfair advantage, don’t you, nineteen seventy nine era. So- No, uh, Si… Lead actress from Alien.”
I turned to look at Chrysalis in time to see her beam Pine a huge grin. “Not as old as you, old timer. But close. And it’s Chrysalis,” she replied.
Sunset frowned sharply. “He’s still really old and-”
“Will lay you out cold if you tell me I can’t save my grandkid from sadists,” Pine threatened, eyes narrowing into a death glare.
It worked. Sunset gulped and stood up. “Um, o-okay then, s-sir!”
“That’s right, Sun. Don’t fuck with old folks,” Chrysalis laughed before nodding to Pine and pointing to Sunset and Nova in turn. “That’s Sunset, and that’s her mate Nova. Sun’s our DPS, Nova’s our shield wall, I’m our tank. What can you do?”
“Shield wall?” Pine asked in unison with me.
“I‘ve got a ton of shield projecting items,” Nova informed with a nervous demeanor. “I provide cover and ‘armor’.”
Pine nodded. “Right so then, pardon the old here, Chrys carries the big guns and draws all the fire, you provide protection, and Sun attacks targets of opportunity. You’ve got a second opportunist now. What can Twilight and Jade do?”
“Um, I can’t cast spells… So I guess I can help carry Megan out?” I answered with an uncertain frown.
“I’ve got a little adventuring experience, but last time I went on an adventure, she died,” Jade said pointing to Chrysalis.
To my surprise the mirror queen nodded in satisfaction. “You kick her ass?”
“Uh, briefly…” Jade replied with an embarrassed tilt of her head.
I cleared my throat. “She um.. She did pretty well until she got a hole punched into her side.”
“Belly,” Jade corrected reflexively, wincing at the memory. “I- I’m not experienced. Twilight and I should hang back and help Megan out. I don’t imagine she’s capable of sprinting long distances.”
That was likely the truth. Celestia knew what the poor girl had experienced in there…
“What equipment did you bring?” I asked hoping to push the planning stage along into full gear. “Jade and I have some gadgets but I didn’t think to bring any real weapons. I um, I presumed this would be a peaceful mission. Maybe some light adventuring things but you know, combat free.”
Sunset shook her head slowly. “You know, I never got why Equestrians are mostly like you. You should always bring a weapon. Even if you’re just camping. What if a dire boar decided to eat you while you were camping?”
“I’d telekinetically throw it away from me,” I replied flatly.
Sunset blinked. “Oh yeah… Magic. Right.”
“Chrys is our gear girl too,” Nova said with a smirk. “She’s got the BEST spell for that!”
“I do!” She cackled in response. “I invented this as a young bug. At a time when the best it could do was make a stick work like a spear. But now? Oh man… A spell which makes a thing which resembles something else work like the thing it resembles is the fucking best!”
Chrysalis swept a duffle bag off her shoulder and set it down, opening it before taking two plastic guns from her bag. The only way I could tell that they were guns through their extreme sci-fi appearance was thanks to having seen Sky’s hoof held weapon designs.
“Those are plastic toys…” Pine said slowly.
Chrysalis nodded, her eyes burning green for a moment as her magic’s glow engulfed the two toy guns, sinking into them like water into a sponge. The spell itself looked rather interesting visually, I’d never seen that aura effect before. I frowned, wishing I had my arcane senses so I could analyze the spell itself.
My train of thought derailed as Chrys fired a shot from each weapon into the dirt beside her. The twin blue-white plumes of fire and spray of each seeming to happen the very instant each weapon unleashed an ear shattering boom.
“Sure are! Magic, am I right?” Chrys laughed, holding out one of the two guns to Jade, and one to me. “Now then, you get an N7-Eagle, and you get an N7-Eagle! Don't fire too often or it will overheat, aside from that there is no ammo limits or reloading. That’s why I love Mass Effect cosplay weapons. The spell wears off in three hours. So um, let’s not take three hours.”
I took the weapon uneasily, not really wanting to have to use it. But I would. When I had to.
“That sort of spell has to take a lot of energy to cast,” I said as I inspected the still plastic but now working weapon before trying to find a place to put it, and discovering it sort of magnetized to my non-magnetic belt then folded up into a compact form for storage. “Woah! Yeah, um, a lot, a lot!”
“It does. I’ll be dry by the end of this fight,” Chrys grunted as she reached back into the bag, pulling out weapon after weapon. “Best thing about plastic, it’s super lightweight. I can carry a ton of ordinance. Let’s see… M-6 Carnifex, Auto Nine-”
“Where do you even get that many replicas of science fiction weapons? Some hollywood prop-shop?” Pine asked in astonishment as she took out some sort of multi-barreled thing with a motor on it.
“-gatling laser-” Chrysalis continued.
“I bought her a three-dee printer for Christmas,” Nova laughed. “I seriously don’t know why she never thought about that before.”
“Cuz I’m old and that shit is brand new,” Chrys grunted. “Where was I? Oh yeah! Compression phaser rifle, bandoleer of Siphon Grenades-”
“Are you going to use all of that by yourself?” Jade asked, her jaw dropping incredulously at the pile of weapons which was admittedly almost as large as Chrysalis herself.”
“No,” the changeling replied, pulling one more item from the bag. “And one psionic spirit blade.”
The ‘blade’ was more of a mace. Or a club. A short flanged metal tube with bits and bobs stuck to it in an artistic way. With no actual blade to be seen. At all.
What?
“Uh, kid, even I know that one,” Pine said pointing at the tube. “Just call it a Lightsaber.”
Chrysalis venomously shook her head. “Sir, I do not see a lightsaber. That would be copyright infringement. This, is a psionic spirit blade. Totally different.”
Pine gave Chrysalis a baffled look, trying to piece through the oddity of her statement. “But how would they ever-”
“Disney has an arcane legal department,” Sunset answered bitterly. “We’ve had… Incidents.”
I wanted to question that, but Chrysalis cast her spell again, animating each of the models into weapons and passing them out between her group. Nova took the normal looking pistol, Sunset got the compression rifle (which looked very sleek and yet also oddly bulky. The curved design of most of its surfaces giving it that weirdness), while Chrysalis took the ‘spirit blade’, gatling laser, grenades, and the other scifi-looking pistol.
“Okay! So, before I get our ride ready… Can we all agree on a plan of attack?” Chrysalis asked after quickly checking her equipment.
“I know nothing about the facility or the enemy. I’m not qualified to help plan this,” Pine acknowledged.
“I um, I suppose that goes for me too,” I added. “Do you three have a plan? We can follow along.”
Sunset nodded in response. “Yeah. My plan for hitting the place is simple. If we sneak in, we die, because this isn’t a videogame and you won't fool the sensors. If we just attack we get mowed down by the security forces. The plan is we knock the power out with an EMP, blast our way in, and make a beeline for the holding cell. If we stay long, we die. But with the power out, there will be more than enough chaos to get in, get Megan, get out.”
Nova and Chrysalis nodded in agreement.
“Okay,” Pine said with a sage nod. “So… Can your spell make a working nuclear bomb? You’re not doing much more than just flipping the breakers and messing with screens if you are not detonating a nuke. With you know, an EMP range that’s usually smaller than the blast range...”
“Uh, no. That’s a bit too much of an energy release,” Chrysalis admitted with a sad sigh. “I ALMOST got a Fatman to work but a true nuclear explosion is beyond the spell’s limits.”
“Then how are you making an EMP that will affect more than say, a few feet of space? They are not the ‘instant all tech on the planet is off now’ buttons that most people think they are,” Pine grumbled irritably. “Stupid conspiracy crap…”
Sunset blinked. “Um, sir… Magic,” she answered, doing her best to hold in a laugh.
“Right. You’re talking to a wizard, you know,” Chrysalis replied as she set down the other bag and opened it. “Annnd here goes the rest of my magic for a day or so.”
Inside the bag was a little metal model truck. It was ugly as sin.
The front was bulbous, rounded, and made of sleek curves. The back was flat, squarish, blocky, and screamed military. Like someone had accidentally driven a designer car Rarity made into the front of a big military truck. It had narrow slits for windows, a big grill on the front along with about eight different headlights, six tires, and a odd cylindrical thing on top which jutted up out of nowhere.
“... Ew,” I exclaimed with a wince.
“You hush your mouth! That’s a goddamn Herkimer Battle Jitney, THE finest military vehicle ever made!” Pine exclaimed, honestly upset with me. “Can your magic make it work? Actually work?”
“Yep! It’s sort of the vehicle we use for this kinda thing, I can even make it full sized,” Chrys said proudly.
“That includes the prototype EMP generator which was never actually finished in reality,” Sunset added with a wink.
“Yes! I haven’t gotten to ride in one of these girls since nineteen seventy four. That’s going to be our in and out, isn’t it? You know these babies can plow right through a reinforced concrete wall?” Pine exclaimed with an almost geeky grin plastered on his face.
“That’s the plan,” Chrysalis said as her eyes once more began to glow as she drew upon her magic.
I didn’t like that plan…
“Um, we’re going to hit a wall at high speed, that seems like a bad idea,” I pointed out, my lips pulling into a nervous frown.
“It’s fine, trust me,” Pine, Sunset, and Nova said in unison.
“I, um, I’m kinda with Twilight on this one,” Jade said worriedly.
Chrysalis picked up the truck, casting her animation spell on it before suddenly throwing the thing away from herself, and tossing a bolt of magic after it. The bolt slammed home into the truck, which grew midair, hitting the ground at four times its original size before swelling to the size of a small house.
“Oh. Nevermind! That looks like it could take out a wall,” Jade said with a decisive nod.
Yeah, but you could still be thrown around INSIDE a vehicle…
“You look worried, Twilight,” Sunset said, looking at me with an apologetic frown.
“I am. Quite a bit, actually,” I admitted, returning her look with one of my own, pleading for her to do or say anything to help.
“Twilight, it will be fine,” Sunset replied, giving me one of her big smiles. “Little raids like this have become kinda routine. We’ve got this.”
The Herkimer’s three diesel engines roared like three dragons fighting over a mate made out of solid gold. The seat dug into my back. Sunset continued to pull back the odd stick-throttle-thing. I could just barely see the asylum up ahead through the slit window. We seemed to be racing straight down a row of other vehicles towards a small structure next to the main building… Some kind of dowards ramp. An underground parking area perhaps?
“Nova, thirty seconds. Hoist the colors,” Sunset said, not taking her eyes off the parking lot ahead.
Hoist the colors? Why would raising a flag help?
Nova reached up above his seat and flicked a switch. Even over the engine’s roar I could hear loud, big band music, start blaring, a triumphant militaristic tune which reminded me a lot of the Wonderbolts anthem.
“Really?” Pine asked Nova flatly.
“Hey, we’re basically the same thing,” Nova objected. “Besides, it’s psychological warfare.”
The truck lurched, tipping as it moved down the ramp and was plunged into darkness. The dimly lit area below was most certainly a parking structure of some kind, but I didn’t get a chance to examine it in any detail as we lumbered across the chamber towards a super strong looking concrete wall.
I gripped my seat’s armrests, knuckles turning white as I ducked my head down to avoid smashing it open on any one of a dozen protruding boxy consoles. My frightened whimper lost amongst the screaming roar of the engines.
“Should we knock, or just let ourselves in?" Chrys asked sarcastically with a hearty guffaw.
In one single motion, we exploded into and through the wall. The sound of shattering concrete and creaking metal echoed over the blaring music and even the engine’s screams. My body shook with a single sharp jolt, as if I’d flopped out of bed and onto the floor.
That was it. No deadly punch to the guts. No cabin crumpling in like a packet of hay fries underhoof.
“Oh,” I said in shocked relief, peaking out from my curled up position.
“It’s a military troop transport, Twilight,” Sunset said supportingly. “It was always okay… But outside is not okay at all now. Chry-”
“Done!” The changeling exclaimed as she flipped another switch.
I’d expected a hum, a crackle, a pulse of light. Instead, nothing. Absolutely nothing. She flicked a switch. The seconds ticked by.
“Uh, does it take time to warm up?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yep. Just wait for it, it’ll happen before those security guys get back up,” Nova said as he squinted out of the front view-slit.
“When do you put the shields up?” Pine asked as he got up and walked for the back of the vehicle, to it’s sole entrance.
Which was a ramp. For some reason. This thing was so stupid looking!
But I have to admit, it did work.
“Soon as-” Nova began, only to be interrupted by a loud click and slight static buzzing as every last light outside of the truck was snuffed out.
“-now!” He corrected, turning around and rushing to the back of the truck, touching each of us along the way with a pale purple glowing hand.
I felt the spell take hold. It was crude, but very robust and durable. My own shield spells protected against almost everything, and as such were intricately designed with layers and layers. This thing would only stop physical attacks, but could take a real beating.
“Nice shield,” I complemnted.
“You’re welcome, don’t get shot. It’s just protection, not invulnerability,” Nova said firmly as he pulled the lever to drop the ramp down, immediately making a gesture with his hand and conjuring a flat, hardlight panel in front of the ramp.
Chrysalis hopped out of her seat, snatched up her bulky weapon and edged her way around Pine. “I’ve got point, old timer,” she said in a surprisingly polite way for her word choice.
“Chrys, stop it. You said you knew Alexander the Great. You’re WAY older than he is,” Sunset mumbled irritably.
“Um, no. I WAS Alexander the Great. That was a fun century,” Chrys rebutted with a wistful smile.
“Yeah, right. You may be that old but there’s no way you were him,” Nova laughed. “Come on girls, focus on the mission. We can playfully joke about who Chrys has been later.”
“Have you been anyone relevant to helping us out here?” Pine asked as Nova pushed his shield wall out and slipped into the room.
I got up, letting Jade go first as we took a position behind their group.
“Well, I was able to prove to these two that I was Jack Churchill,” Chrysalis commented.
“Okay, now THAT I call bull on,” Pine laughed good naturedly. “But I think you know how you can prove it.”
Chrys laughed, nodded, and then hefted her bulky weapon and vanished around the corner of the truck. A rapid flurry of shrieking thuds and red glow lit the parking lot up brightly for half a second.
“Oi! You two! Fuck off or die!” Chrys ordered.
I slipped out of the truck just as two unarmed guys in cloth security guard uniforms went sprinting out through the hole in the wall towards the dim moonlit ramp.
Sunset waited for them to leave then aimed her weapon down at the floor, tapping a few little buttons on the top then firing a bright orange ray of light in a cone shape into the floor. The weapon screeched, quickly melting a hole through the floor big enough to drop through.
“What the hay!?” I exclaimed eyes widening. “Why didn’t you just arm everypony with those?”
“She uses it because it’s similar to a spellbolt and can replicate attack spells. I use this because it is cool,” Chrys explained hefting her weapon up before dropping through the hole.
I blinked, completely stunned. What do you even say to that?
“It’s a gatling gun that shoots lasers, Twilight,” Nova said gently resting a hand on my shoulder. “Chryssie there is more like a human than any one of you, is all.”
Sunset and Nova dropped through the hole as Pine spoke. A moment later, another flurry of screeching thuds broke out, the hold flashed red like a tartarian fire burned within it.
“Clear!” Chrys called, the room lighting up a dim white from what I guessed was a single flashlight.
“No it’s not, they ran off,” Nova countered.
“They saw their buddy. They are not coming back,” she grunted. “Come on you three! Speed is key!”
Pine walked over to the hole and lowered himself down slowly, dropping down with a slightly pained grunt. Jade dropped down next, leaving me up at the top. It occurred to me that somepony should stay and make sure the truck was useful for an escape.
But we could all be needed down below…
“Hold on!” I called reaching into my own bag and rummaging around for a warding plate. Taking the small brass plate from my bag I brushed a finger along the etched in runes, making sure they began to glow white, then set the plate down on the truck’s ramp.
There! Now anyone but me who set foot near the truck’s entrance would fall asleep.
“Okay, I trapped the truck ramp so they can’t take it from us. I have to be the first one back on it!” I warned as I dropped through the hatch.
“Good thinking, Twi!” Sunset praised as I dropped into a pile of white ash. “Oh right! Don’t shoot at anyone not in black body armor unless they attack you. That gun you have doesn't have a stun setting like this thing.”
I blinked as I noticed Sunset was stooped over, rummaging through the ash pile. How had this happened? Wouldn’t someone have swept up? Did a gust come down a fireplace or someone knock over a document disposal bin?
“Wait, we’re using less than lethal ordnance?” Pine asked in surprise as the group headed for the door on the far side of this small office we’d dropped into.
“She is,” Chrys grunted leaning out into the hallway, looking both ways. “I prefer to never have the same problem twice.”
“The third one had an ID,” Sunset said standing up with a small plastic card held in one hand. “Annnd…. Yes! We have clearance for the holding cells.”
I raised an eyebrow subconsciously, Sunset noticed my look and smiled. “Yeah yeah, convenience, probably a trap. It’s a Level 3 clearance card. Holding cells need a Level 3 clearance rating, meaning this accesses them in addition to other things.”
“Oh,” I said with a relieved nod. “It would have been really weird to just happen on a card someone dropped specifically for-”
“Moving on, speed, elevator is forty meters,” Chrysalis said as she and Nova slipped into the hallway, the light moving with them making me notice that the flashlight was attached just under Chrys’s weapon’s barrels.
“No, fifty meters,” Sunset corrected.
“Eh, not much of a problem. Twilight, watch our backs,” Chrys ordered.
I moved out into the hall, doing my best to peer into the dark hallway behind us. Pine joined me, walking backwards oddly enough, keeping his shotgun in his hands as he backed down the hall.
“You’ve done this before, haven't you?” I asked nervously.
“Yes. I’ve gone through a lot to get the recipes I have. If I was more of an egotist, I could likely do the Daring Doo thing and publish my adventures as fiction,” he said slowing down at the end before stopping and cupping a hand to his ear.
“Hey,” Pine asked. “Do you hear metal crumpling?”
“No,” Sunset replied. “Wh-”
“Freeze!” Someone shouted from behind me.
I froze. The hallway blazed red as Chrysalis fired.
“Laser beats ice,” she quipped casually.
I didn’t especially like killing. But sometimes it was necessary. The real question was how justified had this particular-
The BUCK was I thinking!? Twilight, you’re on a life or death mission inside a facility containing an evil, anti-mage army. It’s justified.
“Elevator ahead,” Sunset called. “Left side.”
We moved forwards at a fast walk, arriving at a pair of steel sliding doors just as the hallway lit up with a dim red light, and an intercom system crackled.
“Backup power to the sub facility has been restored,” the voice informed. “All B-class personnel are to begin a full inventory of currently contained subjects. Security teams, begin a full sweep for the intrud-
“Security! Belay the sweep! X-Ninety Eight has broken containment, repeat, X-Ninety Eight has broken containment! All security teams to floor S-Eight, ignore the intruders unless they move to floor S-Eight. Return X-Ninety Eight to her dampening chamber immediately. Deadly force is authorised… If that’s possible.”
“Yep,” Pine said to himself with a knowing look in his eyes. “Not the magic button everyone hopes for. They’ll likely finish power cycling the main system soon.”
Chrysalis nodded. “Mhm, but smaller stuff could be permanently fried. And more importantly it will take them a while to get the real security systems back up and running.”
Nova flashed the old man a grin. “We know it’s not a ‘magic no tech anymore button’. We’ve used it before. There’s going to be a lot of business at the apple store tomorrow, but that’s about it. It’s really just the twenty minutes or so it takes to get the power back on that we need.”
Sunset quickly swiped the ID card in a small reader next to the elevators. After a moment they hissed open.
“So um, that could be Megan,” Jade pointed out.
“Mhm,” Nova agreed. “As I recall, that floor is the holding cells. Is that right Sunset?”
“Yeah,” she agreed as she stepped into the elevator. “Too bad we’re not going after the talisman anymore. With security on that floor, getting it would be cake.”
The elevator doors hissed shut behind me as I stepped inside. Sunset quickly swiped the card again and hit one of the buttons, the car shook slightly, beginning to slowly descend.
“How many places like this have you broken into?” Pine asked suspiciously.
“Six,” Nova answered. “We’ve also had some skirmishes with their field agents while trying to retrieve things.”
“All their bases have a standard layout and security clearance system,” Chrysalis sighed. “Honestly, if there weren't so many god damn troopers in these places, I could likely do a little raid like this by myself.”
“They are correct. Sunset’s Crew has breached six of our facilities,” a voice crackled over the intercom.
“Shit!” Chrysalis swore, reaching down for the blade on her belt. “I’ll cut a hole out for us!”
“No need for that,” the voice urged. “The director has asked me to negotiate with you. If we wanted you dead, I could have detonated the car the moment I saw you walk into it on the cameras.”
“Then what do you want?” Sunset asked, eyes narrowing in disgust.
“You are very skilled agents. That’s all which is keeping you alive, the hopes you can one day understand that our organization is a necessary evil,” the voice informed flatly. “You have never broken into one of our containment facilities before. You don’t know what we imprison here.”
“I know you’re imprisoning my granddaughter! What did she ever do to you?” Pine demanded angrily.
“... Ah! Pine WIlliams. Fairly shocking someone as old as you has a Facebook page,” the voice mused. “Ah, Megan Williams. X-Four Seven Six. Is that who you’re after?”
“What’s it to you, murderer?” Chrysalis snapped.
I flinched. They were willing to negotiate! I gave Chrysalis a pleading look, begging her not to mess this up with my gaze.
“You are heading down to floor S-Eight,” the voice resumed. “One of the most dangerous things on this planet has broken free of their containment. If they get loose, thousands, if not millions, will die. Their escape will most certainly allow other things located here to break containment.
“Some items housed within this facility are capable of causing mass destruction on a continental scale. One item is capable of causing mass destruction on a global scale. Presuming that ‘Ripply’ there is a Changeling, you may be interested to know that a blood sacrifice of five hundred of your people was necessary to prevent X-Two from boiling the atmosphere off the planet. That is the kind of things we secure and contain.”
“If I had any reason to believe you, your words might affect me,” Chrysalis spat. “You and your fuckstains ripped out my mother’s eyes in front of me.”
“I’m certain you would do the same thing to my mother if it was the only way to appease a literal diabolus ex machina which can not be destroyed by currently known means,” the voice said adamantly. “And unlike you, I would thank you for the five hundred years of time I’d just bought the entire planet. Honestly, what else can you do when a misanthropic, unregistered enchanter creates a living doomsday device that you can’t take apart or destroy safely, but can only keep it happy until it can be destroyed?
“As for our offer, since a full breach of containment would be catastrophic, this facility has primed its self destruct. The device in question is nuclear to ensure nothing short of Omega Class threats survive. Detonating it is an absolute last resort, we do not want a nuclear detonation on this nation’s soil. Especially not with the current President.
“If you do not interfere with our security personnel's attempts to recapture X-Ninety Eight, we are willing to allow you to leave unharmed and provide a cash payment of seventeen million dollars.”
Sunset laughed. “Hey, that sounds great and if we were on our own, we’d take it. Thing is, see, this old guy’s hired us to get his granddaughter away from you guys. Sorry. But a deal is a deal.”
“Yeah,” Nova agreed. “Unlike you assholes, we actually KEEP promises.”
“Standby,” the voice instructed.
“We’re not taking that deal. We can get out of here on our own, and they know it,” Chrysalis said in satisfaction. “Whoever they are trying to contain has them scared… Maybe we can walk out of here with your toy too, Sun.”
“Let's not push our luck,” Sunset urged.
I nodded twice. “There’s no room for error here, Celestia needs Megan’s help. There’s no other option,” I reminded everyone.
“Wait, you need her help?” Pine asked in surprise. “With what?”
Oh. Um… Crap!
I thought I’d explained it to him.
The intercom crackled again. “The director has authorized the release of X-Four Seven Six, should you assist in destroying or capturing X-Ninety Eight. It would be a small price to pay since X-Four Seven Six isn’t hostile-”
I felt something snap in my heart. “You admit that somepony isn’t a threat and yet you’re keeping them imprisoned underground forever!?! You really ARE monsters!” I shouted.
“Subject X-Four Seven Six is capable of lucid dreaming and altering reality itself. If she so desired, she could potentially replace every president of every nation with identical bonobo chimps and no one alive would notice the change. She could easily cause mass chaos on a global scale and therefore must be contained,” the voice sighed wearily. “Do you guys have any idea how many things are out there that could end civilization, destroy all life, or otherwise cause massive and serious damage to us all?
“I do. Thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty seven, as of this morning. Our methods are cruel sometimes, and even evil other times, but you’re alive in a non-apocalyptic hellscape because of us. Eight times over, in fact. Now will you take our offer or do I detonate your car?”
Oh. Right. He’d said they could do that…
Take a deal with an apparently untrustworthy person, and gain time to escape, or die now? The choice seemed fairly obvious. But given how hostile Sunset and her friends were to these people...
I looked around the car at everyone, searching for some kind of clue as to how they might react.
Pine’s experienced eyes were scanning over the interior of the still descending car, searching for something. Sunset’s hands were behind her back, likely moving to activate a spell stored in her enchanted gloves. Nova seemed ready to put a shield around everyone. Chrysalis… She was unreadable.
It seemed likely we could escape this elevator. But I remembered one small thing.
Nukes. Are. Terrifying.
Someone who would sacrifice changelings to appease a god would use one of those bombs for certain. There was no question. We had to try and stop the thing.
“We accept!” I said as quickly as I could.
Everyone turned to look at me in shock.
“Twilight! Why?” Sunset demanded.
“Because even a small nuke will kill everyone in this town and poison a huge section of your world for decades,” I answered in my best imitation of Dash’s ‘no shit’ tone of voice. “I stopped Tirek, I can stop this thing.”
“You did that when you had magic!” Jade countered immediately. “You don’t have any magic here. And didn’t you have the full power of the other Princesses at the time too?”
I nodded. “Yes, I did. But I actually am more powerful on my own now then I was then. I kinda grew into power… Still am too. But that makes sense as, you know, I’m the alicorn Princess of Magic.”
“I thought it was friendship,” Nova said with a confused frown. “Sun, didn’t you say-”
“Friendship is magic. Equivalence Principle. It’s a Thaumaturgical Physics thing,” I interrupted, moving to the next phase of my plan. “Hey, mister mysterious voice, man? I’ve had magic here before, specifically in Ponyville. I know it’s possible, and I know that Sunset believes you can control who has magic here. If you want us to stop the thing, give me my magic. It won't have to be for long, five minutes will be plenty.”
“Standby,” the voice replied after a moment’s hesitation.
“What are you doing?” Sunset hissed urgently.
“Solving a problem. Saving lives. My job, really,” I replied with a slight grin.
Nova smirked. “Hon, you did describe Twilight to me by saying, ‘She’s basically fantasy Commander Shepard’. This is a total paragon move,” he quipped.
I noticed that while joking, he moved slightly, flicking a few copper studs on his belt, which caused a little ark of magical energy to race around the buckle. Good, he was still working on getting a shield spell working.
The intercom crackled again, this time, a different deeper voice spoke. “I am this facility’s director. Our systems indicate that you are a wizard of extreme power. Enough to where we would under normal circumstances, be monitoring you to ascertain your threat level. But under these circumstances, you can prove yourself to not be hostile here and now.
“We are not capable of lowering the dampening field. We don’t house the local generator. We can provide you with one of the rings our spellcasters use to get around the thaumaturgic dampening field. You may have it on the condition that if you use magic in any respect other than to stop X-Ninety Eight and leave this facility, we will attack you immediately. The ring is capable of being remotely used to destroy the user.
“The ring is also tracked. You are to bury it as soon as you leave, should you accept. If not, you will have to try and take X-Ninety Eight down with your mundane equipment.”
“How fast can I get one of these rings?” I asked carefully.
“One of our mages on the floor will give you theirs. Or you can pick one off a corpse. There’s quite a few down there to choose from,” the director remarked in a hollow voice.
“Oh, so you guys care about your own lives but not my people’s? We can live in harmony, you know. We’re more symbiotic than parasitic,” she snapped.
“Morality and ethics are not as simple as you seem to think they are, Chrysalis of Sapphire,” the director said coldly. “Unknown mage, do you accept the offer or not?”
“I accept,” I answered quickly.
I need to get away from here. I had to get away from here. If it was a trick, everyone else could save me, if it wasn’t, I could finish this whole mission and go home now.
“Excellent. Good luck,” the director replied as the intercom buzzed once more.
The elevator doors dinged open. The flat gray, steel corridor outside looked dark, dismal, and smelled bad. REALLY bad. Gunfire echoed maddeningly in the corridor, so much that you could smell the burnt powder as well as a really disgusting coppery-ironish scent that made your nose just burn.
Pine took a reflexive step backwards. “Something spilled a LOT of blood!” He exclaimed worriedly.
“That would be X-Ninety Eight,” the director informed over the intercom. “She is exceptionally violent, needlessly brutal, and has been comatose for six decades. You can understand why she's even more enraged than her baseline state… Ah yes, here comes your ring now.”
I blinked in surprise. “You kept her contained by keeping her asleep?”
“Yes,” he replied. “We’ve tried extermination, but even if totally incinerated, she revives and respawns at the site of her death. This is the only means of removing her from the world.
“The power failure you orchestrated interrupted a routine medical examination, resulting in a nurse jabbing her with a syringe of adrenaline in fright. X-Ninety Eight is immune to projectiles, short of overwhelming firepower, hence our inability to tranquilize-”
“Thank you. I just needed to know if that approach worked or not,” I interrupted.
Plan formed. This was going to be easier than I thought.
“It might be best to give you something of a strategy,” the director decided. “If you get within thirty meters of her person, she will rip you to pieces. This makes melee attacks unadvisable. Utilizing spellcraft, I would imagine you could shield yourself and approach close enough to strangle her into unconsciousness.
“We originally captured her using a similar method, only we ambushed her during a rest period. She has been able to resist magical attacks by swatting away arcane projectiles with a ve-”
A short man, or maybe woman, in a set of black robes sprinted around a nearby corner, panting uncontrollably. Before I could even hope to say anything the robed person ripped a small silver signet ring off their finger, and threw it at me while forcing their way into the elevator.
I eeped and fumbled for the ring, barely catching it before it fell down between the crack in the elevator doors.
“GET OUT SO I CAN GO UP!” The mage demanded in almost total panic.
I nodded and stepped out of the Elevator. I immediately regretted it.
To my right I could see down the corridor the mage had come from. A solid line of black armored guards were pouring continuous fire from their rifles down the corridor. Two of their barrels were actually glowing red hot, a thing I was very certain barrels were not supposed to do. The terrifying volume of fire was made possible by two lines of guards behind the first row who were doing nothing but passing large drums containing what had to be more bullets forwards to the shooters every time they ran out of bullets.
You could see an almost solid carpet of used shells going all the way down the hallway. A carpet on which a pale white, emaciated, naked woman slowly shambled, dull pink hair sticking out from a helmet I assumed was meant to blind her, but had a chunk of metal simply ripped away to form an eyehole.
Just one eye hole. Through which starred a red eye, it’s pinprick pupal expressing an extreme hatred of all which lived. The same look Tirek had given me.
I hesitated, fear flashing through my mind as I looked into her eye and realized that the bullets fired at her were simply stopping in the air, collecting into a small ball of lead, and then dropping to the ground.
She suddenly screamed, her rage muffled by the remaining bits of helmet as she launched forwards. One of the shooters screamed in pain even though she’d only lept a few meters. I gasped in horror as the soldier's left arm ripped free from his body to go flying down the corridor… While the rest of him flew in different directions.
My stomach churned, only fear of my own death preventing me from vomiting at the sight of someone literally exploding into a pink mist.
I nervously jammed the ring onto my finger as our team exploded into chaos. Chrysalis fired her weapon down the corridor, Nova erected a shield in front of the shoulders, his jacket catching fire as the enchanted components almost immediately overheated from stress. Pine added his shotgun pellets to the wall of lead.
I felt magic rush into me. I’d never noticed the feeling of it being gone before. Not as a human. Not here.
The shadows dimmed, colors popped, smells became more intense. I could feel the layers of magical protection which the woman had wrapped herself with in a primal, animalistic fashion. I could feel the power at my fingertips. A weird sensation for somepony who normally cast through their horn. I could also feel that this body was NOT meant to contain this much power.
I was literally so powerful that I was burning up. I had better expend some of that power.
A lot of it, in fact.
I looked back at the raging monster of a woman as she screamed, telekinetic blows smashing against Nova’s crumbling forcefield. I gathered all the power I felt would fit into one spell, focused my mind on that one single action of pushing the magic into my hand, pointed at her and released the spell with a cry of, “Sleep!”
My spell engulfed her in a blaze of of lavender magic as my spell clashed with her protective wards. If I couldn’t over power her-
My eyes widened as I felt the arcane protections around her crumble to nothing under my spell’s assault, and she simply fell to the ground like a sack of bricks, completely comatose.
Huh… Well, looks like humans had inherently less magical strength than a pony. Good to know.
While I stood there dumbfounded that the monster had gone down that easily the wall of soldiers spun around, clearly terrified of whatever lurked behind them. Realizing I was still in danger I raised one hand to wave.
“Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle. We’re here to take Megan Williams home,” I said with a friendly but shaky smile.
I could still see that poor man explode in my mind’s eye…
That was going to be there for a while.
“You guys know her as Subject X-Four Seven Six,” Pine added, staring down the group, shotgun held ready.
“U-Um…” One of the soldiers stammered, his worried frown visible behind his riot helmet’s tinted visor.
Chrysalis reached down to her belt and stanched the saber off of it, a bright crimson energy blade springing to life with a snap-hiss as she sneered. “These assholes never follow through on a bargain… But they could start with this one. If they were smart,” she growled angrily.
The nervous soldier let go of his rifle, letting it swing on the strap to rest at his side.
“Let me just get that for you,” he said holding up one hand nervously.
I’d expected a gentleman in distress scenario, storm the castle, break into the room, collect the poor stallion and escape together on hoof. Uh, foot.
No. That wasn’t remotely what we got. Five minutes after the guard left to collect Megan, we had been handed a blanket wrapped bundle. The poor girl had been drugged to prevent her from dreaming, for a long long time.
She needed real medical care to recover at this point in time. She was conscious, we could tell since her eyes would focus on things, but she couldn’t move. Her ‘cell’ had apparently been a room big enough for one bed.
Pine held Megan’s limp form in his arms. You could see her pale, diseased looking face and a lock of blond hair through the coarse woolen blanket trap. I think it was the only thing keeping him from breaking the neck every last person in the building. I wasn’t even a changeling and yet I could feel the hatred boiling off him. A father's hatred.
He may not be her biological father, but it didn’t matter. Not in the slightest.
“You’re going to tell me exactly how to undo what you’ve done ot her. In the highest level of detail possible,” Pine said to the soldier who had handed her to him, eyes narrowed with deadly intent.
“I-I’m just a soldier! I don’t even know what they give them, it’s classified!” He yelped.
“Then who does know?” Pine asked. “And where can they be found at present?”
I took a deep breath. My body REALLY didn’t like having this much magic in it… I’d take off the ring, but i needed to ensure our escape. Which gave me one option.
“Pine, sir? Everyone else here wants to go with Jade and I. And we need to take Megan with us too, just for a little bit,” I informed as politely as I could. “Princess Celestia needs her help fixing a thing Megan made for us a long time ago. It’s very important. My hometown has one of the best doctors anywhere I know of.
“Do you want to have these people try and cure her, or would you rather you and I take Megan to a clinic ran by a doctor who is literally magic?”
Pine nodded slowly, turning to me. “That’s a far better option, Twilight. I trust you’ll get us home once she’s better?”
I nodded. “Yes. If you want to leave. You might like to stay and hey, if an android replica of one of my friends gets to stay, why can a nice old man who will die in another decade or so here but um… In Equestria, well, my brother is almost Seventy two. He’s almost a third of the average life expectancy… So, since species transformations occur through the portals you could become more physically able, due to ponies of your age being towards the end of their prime.”
“Kid, you had me at ‘My little girl isn’t dying’, I don’t also need a fountain of youth. Let's go before I decide to help Chrys here bring heaven’s wrath down on these sadists,” Pine said bitterly.
“I like you, old timer! We’ll get along just fine,” Chrysalis laughed.
I reached into my pocket and dug out the moonstone, holding it ready to plant in the earth on the other side of the teleport. I REALLY couldn’t stay here for much longer!
“Everyone hold onto my shoulder please. I need to teleport us to some place with moonlight,” I informed with a weary sigh.
I was so glad to be headed home.