Introductions
Cerberus’ enthusiasm was part of the reason Twilight never wanted a dog herself. There was nothing wrong with them in particular, but canines were such a high-maintenance pet, she would never have the time for them along with her own interests. Owlowiscious was a hunter that could take care of himself, but owning a dog came with a set of needs that couldn’t be met without making certain sacrifices.
Cerberus was affectionate, but gigantic. Even if he were normal sized, she wouldn’t adopt him as a pet. It might be selfish to look after her own needs and wants first, but that was where she drew the line; he’d cut into her research and experimentation time. Despite her thoughts, she made sure to give the pup a good petting during the few times where she caught up to him. He leaned his slobbering head heavily into her magical grasp as she gave him a firm rub and her grip buckled under his massive weight.
“Easy, pup. I won’t be able to get you back home if you squish me.” She tossed the ball again and Cerberus scampered off in pursuit, his claws digging gouts into the baked earth. “At least he’s easy to distract.”
Cerberus halted and looked up. Twilight blinked; could he understand her? He didn’t seem to have the intelligence of Fluttershy’s animals, or even Owlowiscious’ ambiguous sentience. “Um, sorry? I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I just thought you going after the ball was enough to stop the disaster...”
He wasn’t looking at her. She’d never seen Cerberus before he stomped into Ponyville, but she knew Winona enough to recognize a few canine facial ticks. Ears erect, stance tensed, and nose sampling the air. He detected something. She turned to look in the same direction.
“Who in the world is that?”
A pony was on approach, not quite galloping but making sure they were running at a good clip. Upon being spotted, the interloper waved before sticking a hoof in their mouth. A loud, shrill whistle ran across the scraggly wastes. Twilight winced, but Cerberus seemed delighted. All three of his heads gave that dopey smile and one responded with a happy bark.
“Hey!” she called out as Cerberus bounded towards the newcomer. They altered course to go further west, a path Cerberus followed without even questioning his new chauffeur.
Twilight shook her momentary stupor off and ran after the pair. Who was that, and why was Cerberus so trusting of them after so much as a whistle?
Her thoughts were immediately cut off as she saw the incoming trio of ponies cresting the hill to her left. She squinted her eyes against the assault of the sun; with it blinding her, their shadows were the only things that alerted her to their sudden appearance. She wasn’t sure how she missed them, or at least didn’t hear them, but the trio were upon her before she could so much as get ten paces on Cerberus. The first two used their wings and glided, while the last looked like an earth pony, but she couldn’t be sure with the face-consuming helmet. The two fliers kicked up a fine layer of dirt and dust as they beat their wings upon landing, with one stepping up front. Hold on. No, one of them was a griffon.
The three of them were decked out as soldiers. Her time spent in Canterlot made her accustomed to the Royal Guard, even if she wasn’t one to spend too much time with them. The Guardsmen were given identical armor to promote camaraderie; no matter their background, everypony was equal.
These three weren’t dressed as Guardsmen at all. Twilight took a step back as the pegasus approached her. They were covered in desert fatigues to help them blend in with the more arid environment, but what caught her attention was all the gear squirreled away in various bags and packs. She recognized an emergency field surgery kit, bedroll, and a combat knife before her eyes were drawn to the large pack strapped to his back. The remaining two had similar gear.
‘They are all equipped like survivalists.’ They were still in Equestrian territory, so logically soldiers would be part of the Royal Guard. Sticking out like a sore hoof was no quartermaster. This squad looked like they were on the move, so where were the rest of the soldiers? A standing army or even a platoon wasn’t that hard to catch, so why hadn’t she seen or heard of a military company until now?
Even more confusing was the griffon in their ranks. Her wings weren’t covered, so Twilight could tell by the pinfeathers that she was female, despite her mask. Equestrian griffons did have a regiment in the army, but never in her life had she actually seen them, and she had never heard of them working side-by-side with the standing army.
The pony that stepped forward spoke to her. “Ma’am, apologies if we startled you,” came the gruff male voice. His mask was similar to the griffon’s, large enough to cover the whole face except for the reflective lenses for eyes. He brought both hooves to his neck and it hissed before he peeled it off.
He was a fairly handsome pegasus despite his age. At somewhere around fifty, he bore his years with an enviable dignity. She counted a few scars across his light gray fur that ran into his cut all-too-short electric blue mane. She knew a soldier’s mane cut at a glance.
“My name is Captain Talos, ma’am. This here is Tubalcain,” he gestured to the other pony, “and Bertha.” The griffon nodded at her. “We’ve been instructed to take charge of Cerberus’ retrieval and containment. Your work on getting him this far is appreciated.”
“Um... okay,” came her lame answer. There was something odd about the situation that her mind was trying to wrap around.
Talos must have sensed her stuttering mind. “You’re a long ways away from home, miss. You escort Cerberus all the way here yourself?”
“Yeah. Yeah! He was stomping around Ponyville and I’ve been ferrying him back.” Something clicked. Something still felt wrong about the situation, but she felt like a bit of the puzzle fell into place. “Wait, Talos? That’s your name?”
Talos nodded. “Indeed. Can I get yours?”
Oops. Twilight flushed before falling back onto her Canterlot manners. “Oh, sorry! I forget these things sometimes.” She gave him a little bow. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I come from Ponyville.” He gave her a polite nod. “Anyway, Talos is a Griffon name.”
Talos chuckled and shuffled his helmet from one leg to the other. “Yes, it is. I had griffon foster parents. I was young enough that I asked to take their name.”
Wow. It wasn’t often she heard of something like that. Interspecies adoption was rare no matter which country was studied. Twilight reigned herself in before her mind had a chance to wander. More important things were going on at the moment.
“I take it the one that led Cerberus off is under your command, captain?”
“Affirmative. I didn’t have all the details of the situation, so it was my order to separate the two of you until we could speak. Ensuring your safety was my primary concern.”
Jeez, he was just like Shining. She could take care of herself! She led Cerberus this far. That should prove her competence. Regardless, protecting civilians was the primary concern of the armed forces, even if Talos didn’t know who she was.
Speaking of, where was the remainder of his squad? “So are you with some kind of military company? What are you doing out here?” she asked.
“Can’t answer that, ma’am.”
That wasn’t something she expected. By law, it was Equestrian military standard to identify themselves as such when asked.
‘They aren’t equipped like the Royal Guard, no segregation, Cerberus seems somewhat familiar with them, and no military standard. Now that I think about it, Tubalcain is a Zebrican name. Special forces?’
It wasn’t unheard of to have “quiet” military operations. Celestia confessed as much during one of their private moments, but a mixed-race squad suggested they weren’t Equestrian Special Forces. What was a spec ops team doing in the middle of nowhere? Well, she was in the middle of nowhere escorting Cerberus to avoid a disaster. Was that alone their mission?
Talos interrupted her thoughts. “Ma’am, we have been instructed to escort you back to our base of operations for a debrief.”
Twilight looked around. The world around them was still fighting to survive, but there was still a chance that there were monsters in the area. She seriously doubted any creature would be a match for Cerberus, let alone her own considerable magical skills, but there was safety in numbers and her herd instincts welcomed the company.
“I don’t see why not.”
He gave a satisfied smile as he relaxed slightly. “That’s good. Excuse me for a moment.”
Talos drifted from the group and held a hoof to his head. There was some kind of device clipped into his ear.
“This is Red...” The rest was lost on her as he walked away.
“What is that little thing? Some kind of radio? I’ve never seen one so small.” She’d set up a small ham radio station in her lab, but that thing looked like a brick and weighed upwards of thirty pounds. If Talos was speaking with someone, it had to be a radio or some kind of arcanotech equipment, but there wasn’t anything in the world that small.
“Can’t answer that, ma’am, until we get back to base,” said the one Talos identified as Tubalcain. If he was a zebra, he spoke perfect Equestrian. Talos was on his way back and looked at the three of them, eyebrow raised.
Wait.
Waaaaaait a moment.
“Base? You have a base nearby?”
“We do, ma’am,” Talos said.
She shook her head. “That can’t be. The only thing nearby is...” Talos was completely impassive as this piece of information fell into place. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Really? The Gates of Tartarus is your base?”
“I said no such thing, ma’am.”
“But you said–”
“I said nothing of the sorts, ma’am.”
“Ugh!” Twilight threw her hooves up in frustration. She was obviously being stonewalled, but she wasn’t sure why. Cerberus wasn’t at his post. Was this team here to fetch him? Did they know why he left? Did something get out!?
“Lead the way, captain.”
She wondered if she was supposed to see them, or perhaps not, but she saw the minute trail of clouds behind two pegasi drifting between clouds.
Curious...
There was still a piece of the puzzle missing, and there was nothing she hated more than a puzzle left unsolved.
The land was dying off. Dry earth gave way to rocky crags and harsh scrublands. Only the most tenacious of life could live here. The flora was withered and tough, with most possessing thorns and bark-like tendrils to help dissuade wandering animals. She saw only one lizard beneath a small stone overhang and resting now that it found haven from the heat, literally the only animals she had seen. There still seemed to be some moisture in the air, and yet the land felt like it was dying. Twilight made a mental note to take some samples when she made her return trip.
Her entourage was polite, but quiet. Only Talos seemed somewhat willing to answer her questions, but most were met with the usual stonewalling. The other two in his squad were silent.
‘Not squad of three. Squad of six.’
She only had eyes on one pegasus now; the other one vanished. She half thought she was mistaken, but her gut told her to trust her instincts. She had stumbled into something out here, and she intended to find out what.
Between receiving the circular routine from Talos, she took the time to analyze their gear a little bit better. Each soldier had a custom-fitted helmet that hid their features. A little device with a shining lens was on top of each, its function lost on her. All it seemed to do was add a little extra weight to an already sturdy helmet that looked capable of taking as much beating as a Guardsman's helm. Talos had fixed his to his pack, choosing instead to put up a head wrap for the heat. Twilight was grateful. Looking into the cold lenses of Bertha and Tubalcain made her feel uncomfortable.
The cloth that made up their uniform looked tough and coarse enough to remove paint from a wall. Rarity would have had a seizure just looking at it, but they all wore it as if born in it. The way it flexed and moved across Talos’ barrel revealed that he was wearing some kind of rigid suit under it. For a brief, embarrassing moment, she wanted to ask him to remove his uniform to see what was underneath.
The chest and barrel of each was dotted with pockets, with Bertha having her own unique design due to her different stature. Twilight couldn’t tell what was in any of them save for a few obvious ones, like flashlights and field rations. What interested her most were the items blatantly outside of such confines. A large iron or steel device slung over Talos’ back and ran almost the full length of his body. It possessed a shoulder mount, and extending away from it were two prongs that resembled a large tuning fork. She couldn’t make heads or tails of the device’s usage.
“I don’t have the clearance to tell you that, ma’am,” he said after the umpteenth question. “I was told to escort you back to base where everything would be explained to you by someone with some pull.
That was more than she got out of him for the last half hour of on and off again questions. “Can I at least have their name?”
“I don’t know who’s coming to meet you, ma’am. All I’ve been told is to escort you to the hanger.”
“What hanger?”
She’d been huffing and puffing for a while now. Mercifully, Talos allowed her several breaks.
“This one.”
Twilight watched as Talos approached a rocky crag with an overhang twenty paces long. It looked exactly like the weathered stone from the rest of the wastes. Talos removed his headscarf and pulled out a pair of dog tags. He slipped both steel tags into a crack in the stone. She must have blinked, because in an instant they were gone.
“What...?”
“You just never stop with the questions, do you?” Talos chuckled lightly. “You remind me of a few ponies I know. Always asking why and how.”
“K-knowledge is a very important aspect of pony culture and learning as a whole!”
Talos gave another throaty chuckle, but didn’t add anything else. A rocky node flipped open and inside was something akin to a visor. Twilight leaned forward to see what it was, but Talos leaned his head into it and waited.
The rocky hatch closed as he pulled away. “What is that? Some kind of arcanotech?”
“More questions. You’re like a kid during Hearth’s Warming.”
“Compared to you, I am a kid. I’m only twenty three,” she huffed. “Wait, I didn’t mean to call you old in a bad way or anything.”
Twilight jumped as something in the rocked crunched and hissed, and like it was being pulled open by a great pair of bank vault doors, the wall under the overhang sunk into the earth. Talos and his soldiers didn’t even flinch, and he only grabbed his dog tags as they expelled themselves from the wall and cantered towards the door.
“You ain’t wrong, ma’am. I’m old, and that’s a good thing. It’s hard to get old in my line of work.”
Before she could ask about his cryptic statement, he gestured for her to follow as he cantered inside. Rocky steps gave way to a massive, iron vault door with a single designation emblazoned in a ring of black and yellow hazard tape.
SITE 16
This was no ordinary base.
“...What is this place?” Bertha prodded her forward. Twilight didn’t even realize that she had stopped walking. “I thought we were going to Tartarus...”
No one touched the vault door, but it opened on its own as the group approached. With a loud, mechanical hiss, the door opened.
“What is...?”
Replacing the dead, dry, and dusty rock of the steps was a shining steel hanger capable of holding a small company of fliers. She had to blink her eyes to the sudden shift in color. It wasn’t her eyes clouding; the floors and walls were indeed plated with polished metal over slabs of concrete. Lockers dotted the walls on both sides of the hanger, and despite the sheer size of the place and the fact they were underground, it was no less bright for it. No candles or windows haunted this place. In their place and hanging from the ceiling were dozens of long, flat light bulbs.
“Welcome home, beta four.”
Twilight jumped. In her study of this place, she had completely overlooked the room’s singular occupant. Twilight’s first impression was an old nanny, but no nanny wore a lab coat and an ID. She was a disgruntled-looking brown unicorn with a sleek black mane. She was putting away her watch now that the blast door open. How long was the mare waiting here?
Talos peeked over Twilight’s shoulder. “Greetings, Doctor Willows. Here for the handoff?”
“I wasn’t given much of an option.”
“The suits playing hot potato with responsibility?”
“Something like that.” Doctor Willows checked her watch again. With a breath and some straightening of her shoulders, the veneer was gone and in its place was cold professionalism. “Thank you for your assistance, captain; I will be taking care of our guest from here. You are to continue with your tasks as ordered. Miss Sparkle? If you will follow me, there is someone who wishes to speak with you.”
Talos, Tubalcain, and Bertha didn’t question her. “Yes ma’am,” Talos said, and they began to disarm and disrobe.
“Miss Sparkle?” Willows was almost at the door at the other end of the hanger. “If you please?”
“Um, okay,” she said and cantered forward.
The door opened at their mere presence and hisses loudly, and Twilight’s ears flattened against her skull. The noise was much louder now they were indoors. Her trip with Talos hadn’t been too informative, but it had certainly been interesting. Her hopes were high when the door opened. All sorts of childish whimsy danced through her head, all sorts of answers and different people she could meet on the other side of the door.
It was a grated walkway in the middle of a circular corridor that led to another door.
They’d dug this entire complex out. It’d be easiest to use a circular drill to do so when wanting to keep a place like this hidden. No use making the corridors any more elaborate then they’d have to be, so stick with a circular drill and make a corridor around that. Just how big was this place? And the designation sixteen? There were more places like this out there?
“If you’re going to squeal, please keep it to yourself,” Willows droned.
Twilight blushed sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little excited.”
“I’m taking you to one of the Directors. You can squeal there and ask him all the questions you want.”
“Who is it?”
“Salizar, Director of Resources.”
This place was big enough to require some kind of logistics manager? Just what was going on down here?
The next door opened and grated her ears just like the previous. They had come to a T-junction and the doctor immediately headed right. Twilight took a moment to scan the sign stuck to the far wall before moving on.
HANGER H
↓
OFFICE BLOCK 3
→
ARMORY
←
It was a seemingly labyrinthian complex with twists and turns, all connected by boring circular corridors. The next door hissed open. It seemed to be some kind of break room with a water jug and a few chairs, but the room was currently unoccupied. Next came more junctions, and the bland decour was almost enough to get her hopelessly lost if she didn’t have her impeccable memory. Willows was seemingly intent on getting them to, judging by the signs, office block three and to this Salizar, whom would answer for both this complex and the impending disaster.
“Talos said you were a doctor. What are you a doctor of?” Twilight walked until she was in step with Willows and peeked at her ID. It showed her picture, name, and identified her as someone in the “Entity Containment Division”. At the very bottom in bright, bold red was some kind of security clearance rating, with hers being set to Level 3.
“I have a masters in xenobiology. It’s my job to study what’s down here when no one else knows what it is.”
Canterlot University had no such field of study. Twilight scrolled through her mental list of prefixes. ‘Xeno’ meant strange or unusual, and biology was a given. So, she studied fake or unknown lifeforms, and coupled with her division nomenclature, Twilight came to the horrible conclusion.
“So you... capture whatever comes out of the Gates of Tartarus?” she said breathily. What kind of pony would willingly do that?
Willows just looked at her as if she were bored. “Oh, they’re not even the worst ones we have in here.”
The next door hissed open and Twilight gaped. Before her lay a room large enough to swallow her tree library and then some. Stairs led to a second level that overlooked rows upon rows of office cubicles. All Twilight could hear was a racket as ponies, griffons, zebras, and a half dozen other races all intermingled and shared notes. She watched a minotaur in a lab coat pass of a manilla folder to a griffon, who then bumped fists with him and began studying the contents in earnest. This place was home to all races under the sun, and this grid-like section of paperwork, cubicles, and bureaucracy was still going on. All under Equestria’s nose! This room had to be at least a hundred paces wide! How did the dig all of this out!? And then build down here!? In the middle of nowhere!?
“I was surprised my first time, too,” Willows said, finally cracking a slight smirk.
As her eye began to twitch, Twilight spotted a glass door open on the second level and a charcoal grey unicorn stepped out the door. Twilight wouldn’t have paid him any mind, but he was looking directly at her as if expecting her arrival, and printed across his door was his title.
Doctor Salizar
Director of Resources
He walked down the steps towards her, their gaze never breaking. There was something off about how the stallion looked at her, like she was a bug under examination. Twilight couldn’t rationalize her unease.
“Dear Miss Sparkle, welcome to the Foundation.”