Lyra lead the way to a wide tunnel at the back of the cave. She made me hop on the right side of a weird, four-wheeled black cart, while she hopped on the left side.
Her half side had a wheel right in front of her seat. How asimmetric. Lyra pressed a button behind the wheel and the whole vehicle began to growl, starting to move by itself soon after that, traversing the tunnel at a fairly high speed.
"Listen, right now we're headed to the portal to Earth's hall. There are a few humans there but don't worry, they are all in pony shape because the passage transforms the passer-through, so they have the body of we ponies" she explained, holding the steering wheel in place "however, humans have quite... different habits compared to ours, so please don't mind them. All of them are mercenaries, some more some less dangerous, and some of them have quite the attitude. Just in case, don't kid around with them: those few who can get a joke may take it personally. got that?"
"Y-yeah... I mean, I guess so..." I answered, overwhelmed by the amount of information the Neo-Alicorn was spewing out carelessly.
"Staying under the Corporation's big roof also has its own advantages: the 'magical' land of Equestria didn't even develop an advanced enough technology to achieve an industrial boom, whereas humans did, oh they did, more than you could ever even hope to learn about. And guess what they use these wonders for? Fighting against eachother! in a mere tenful of thousands of years they built a true art of war, not to mention bipedal walking. We can and want to bring these changes to Equestria, but, and this is a big but, as you might understand for yourself, such a change has to enter bit by bit in the lives of everypony. An instance would be gem-powered household appliances, introduced by the Corporation. You now have the opportunity and most importantly the duty as a contract executor to learn all about these wonders, to use them at best. You following me so far?"
"I-i guess... I mean, yes" I stuttered, less and less sure of my choice of having showed up that day.
"Now, you'll have a unicorn's frontal bone implanted in place of your current forehead, allowing you to perform unicorn-like magic yourself. It won't exactly be like being an Alicorn as myself, but it's always better than terminating your coma after your retirement age, dont'ya think? All you'll have will be an additional headache at the end of each day. Now isn't that convenient?" the azure mare explained, her golden eyes shimmering from the bright ceiling lights quickly passing above our heads.
"H-hold on a second! Didn't you say it was a dangerous surgery?" I gasped, petrified in place in my seat.
"Of course... not. I mean, sure, a bit, but what isn't dangerous in this world after all? Besides, we here have the best equipment and personnel in both Equestria and Earth; now hold on to your butt, because what I'm about to tell you will rock your wings off! Your surgeon's name is actually Medic, and it's not even his title! I mean, how professional is that, to be THAT dedicated to your cause? He even has a great staff of nurses, abdu- er, recruited from the best hospitals in Hoofington and Menphillys. Just sign the contract, and then you'll be all ours" she turned to me to give me a misterious smirk, taking her eyes off the road.
When her look turned back to the path, the end of the tunnel could be seen in the distance, a couple of kilometers away.
"Oh great, we're there. Welcome to the RED base" the azure mare announced. She pressed another button to the side of the wheel, which made a popup screen come out between the wheel itself and the dashboard. Inside of the screen appeared a handsome black stallion, a long dark blue mane with light blue stripes. He had a small horn, all crooked and twisted in the Changeling way, fading to a green-ish shade towards its tip.
with a smart and sexy voice, he greeted us through the intercom.
"Welcome to Mann Co's contact center! Here's Moonlight Morning, what can I- heyheyhey, look what whe got here... what's your name, little filly?" he asked me in an interested tone, his bright blue eyes staring in my direction. My wings on my back got erect.
"Cut that out, sugarcube: we need you to open that gate for us. Oh and leave little Fluttershy be; she's with me" ordered Lyra in a quizzical and weirdly sensual voice.
Wait what?
"Ohh, it's all clear now! the languid look, that drooling mouth... our new friend must be one of 'them', ain't she? I wonder where your hoof might be to make her face be THAT red..."
Oh curses, he noticed
"...oh well, I'll open you the gate right away, beauties" he gladly said, cutting the communication channel. The NeoAlicorn next to me chuckled.
"Ahhh, Moonlight Morning. He was the first changeling we 'experimented' on. We basically took a completely common changeling from the hives, and we took it out. then we recovered what was left of the corpse of Shining Armor from the tomb, with another couple of ponies'; we then tore them all apart, and put back together what was still good to make of it the perfect soldier. Well yeah we did achieve our goal, but what also came out of it was also the perfect studhorse, fortunately for him. He's like a pony succubus, so mind yourself when you're around him. By the way, I don't think Twilight Sparkle would like to know that she almost got pregnant from somepony who's her brother by a lung and two hoofs, so please don't tell her" Lyra whispered, looking around carefully. I didn't even process that last bit of information, due to how fast my new friend was spewing words out.
"Oh and for the record: he TOTALLY couldn't possibly see your swollen wings from the screen, but don't fret; if my wings were actually mine, they'd have gotten swollen as well" she reassured me. I could feel my face burning in embarassment.
When we got about twenty meters from the end of the tunnel, the big metal grid that served as a gate automatically slided to the right, letting us into an even bigger cave than the one we were in before.
The inside was actually immense, the actual roof of the underground ravine being so tall to even be out of sight, dark, way up in the distance.
The floor was instead well-lit with levitating flamegems. They made the environment quite warm and humid.
Right in the middle of the cave there was a small, perfectly circular hill, on top of which towered the supposed portal to earth: a big crystal arch encasing a liquid, pink-ish screen. All around it there was a whole array of electronic machinery and crates, and there were nine stallions working all around those.
Once Lyra got closer to them with the vehicle I could distinguish each of them a bit better: all of them had a coat in a different shade of red, and they wore a few distinctive features, unique for each of them.
The Neo-Alicorn parked the jeep in between some white lines painted on the floor, and she gave me a look and a gesture that must have signified something about staying where I was, and so I did, while she jumped off and went to get greeted by the weird stallions.
She stood to attention in front of a tall, black-maned unicorn with a particularly square chin. He was wearing a pair of small round glasses, and his coat was the color of strawberry milkshake.
They talked a bunch under their breaths, not loud enough for me to hear whatever they were saying, but as they talked, all nine pair of eyes of the stallions slowly turned to me. I shivered to see in all of their eyes the same penetrating look, and the same shade of blue, staring right into my soul. I flattened myself against the syntetic cloth of the car seat.
After they were done talking they all ended up in a loud group laugh, and Lyra and the unicorn trotted back to the vehicle, still chit-chatting. I reached out with my head from the car's door, eager to hear what the mare would tell me. I saw the unicorn behind her trotting on TWO HOOFS, whispering something about a 'ride' that the Neo-Alicorn promised him.
"Alright Fluttershy, this is Medic, the mercenary I told you about" she said.
"Guten tag, little pony. Tell me meine lieblich, how are you today?" the mercenary asked, in a tone that seemed... nice, but almost forced, I'd say.
"I... f-fine mister, I guess" I whispered, my eyes pointed at my hoofs.
"Shy huh? lucky me my ears still serve me well" he commented to Lyra, who giggled at his joke covering her muzzle not to show it. "No matter. Now we'll bring you to the surgery room; then you'll sign your contract, and we'll be all set to begin, verstanden sie, Flatterzei?" Medic asked me, messing up my name with his weird accent.
"I uhm... okay Medic... if that's fine with you, that is" I timidly nodded.
"Ach, wunderbar, meine keine pony! Lyra, bring us to the surgery room, bitte!" he exclaimed while jumping on the back of the vehicle, clearly more content than before our conversation.
Lyra got back behind the wheel and, starting up he engine, we set off to another part of the base, the weird eyes of the other mercenaries keeping track of us while we moved in front of them. They were probably very interested in us, if not suspicious, as they were confabulating about us under their breath.
A couple of hundred meters from the portal zone we reached a massive concrete wall, that must have hugged the sides of the ravine all around. It hid the high-security zone and the medbay, as shown by the signs overtop of the only door leading through that wall. 'Intelligence', 'Supplies', 'Medbay', and a few others all along those lines.
We left the jeep there, trotting through the small gate on hoof. We quickly traversed through the long corridor behind the door, red stripes painted on the lower side of the walls and wraps of gray cables stuck to the ceiling.
Soon enough we reached the medbay, stopping in front of a heavy metal door with the sign 'surgery' placed overtop of it.
"In you go, meine lieblichen. The surgery room is behind this door" he said, opening us the door. The inside wasn't actually that different from the corridor, but there were plenty of closets on the wall, full to the brim with medical contraptions and suspicious metal boxes.
In the center of the room there was an impressive steel table, towering over what looked like a pool of blood, thick and still liquid; my knees felt week, my head spinning at the sight of the red fluid. Trying not to focus my eyes on that, I looked at the tool racks all over the walls of the room, which made it look more like a torture room rather than a surgery room: cleavers, machetes, claymores, spades, shovels, even a few oversized candy canes, all hung up on the racks on the walls.
"W-wait a second, you said that this operation won't be dangerous!" I whispered to Lyra, my look tumbling over a big array of knives and syringes just laying on an alluminum table, right next to where Medic was browsing among a pile of papers, looking for something supposedly important.
"Of course it won't! Doc doesn't use most of these weapons to operate. Most of the time, at least" she answered, in a weird tone of voice. Finally the mercenary came back to us, levitating a particular document by his side.
"Hier little pony, this is the contract that all your friends must have already signed by now; you put your signature here, and then we can begin, verstanden sie?" He lifted the page up to my face, letting me give it a quick look.
"I... I don't think I want to do that..." I tried to speak up. I really wasn't sure about the whole situation, and something in my guts was telling me that I was putting myself in a really awful dead end. But Medic wouldn't let me develop my thoughts.
"What, you'd really leave your friends to this new challenge? I thought you were the element of kindness or something" he said disappointed, turning to Lyra.
"Yeah, but-" I tried to explain myself, before lyra bumped right into the middle of my sentence.
"Yeah she is! Don't worry, she is going to join us" the NeoAlicorn giggled nervously, patting me on the wings with a hoof "right, Fluttershy?"
I swallowed my words, looking down at my own hoofs. On second thoughts, I really couldn't let my friends down, especially since my feelings were telling me that there was a horrible, horrible future in front of me. I never liked responsibility troubles, I wrongfully thought that it was clear.
"Y-yes... I guess I have to help them..." I said, signing the paper with a trembling hoof.
Just as soon as the pen detatched from the paper though, my whole body got immediately encased in a powerful, red-misted magic field.
I immediately got lifted up from the ground, while a duet of horrifying laughs mocked my every struggling move. What had I done?
"Finally! I almost thought she'd have never signed it, Doc!" Lyra laughed, turning to Medic with an evil grin on her face. The horn of the red-coated mercenary was sparking and glowing, leaking it's magic mist in the air around it, his muzzle contorted in an insane chuckle as he slowly trotted close to the operating table.
"Ach, ja, ja, imagine if she said she wanted to 'think about it'!" Medic agreed, magically raising my helpless body in the air and lowering it back onto the operating table.
"Los, los! let's get to work, I have a tight schedule you know!" he sentenced in a melodramatic tone as he was strapping me to the table tight enough to scratch my hoofs' skin.
All my struggles to kick, fly or crawl my way out of that trap were to no avail, as the leather straps for my limbs were just too tight and strong for my weak body.
From the ceiling a metal frame got lowered onto my head to keep it from turning while a loud hiss signified the start of various pieces of machinery all around the room. The magic field had dissolved in the meantime but I still was stuck to the table, unable to move nor my head or my limbs. Suddenly, Medic's face invaded my field of view.
"Ach, almost forgot: this surgery acts on a neural level, so there is a possibility... quite a big one in all honesty, that some things may, how to say... get lost in the process, so if you have something to ask before you, well, forget it, you better ask it now" he whispered to my ear.
"W-well actually, there is one thing..." I said to my executioner.
"Sehr gut, you'll tell me later!" he exclaimed, cheerful. My eyes widened in response, as I started to sweat ice "Just kidding, dumnesfohlen! Speak up, schnell, we don't have all day" he finally reassured me with a chuckle.
"Oh... okay, so... there are a small filly and a bunny living with me... are they going to be okay? I-if that's fine by the Corporation, that is" I started to pant, the effect of the adrenaline in my body starting to wear off and my heart starting to pulsate more strongly.
"But of course, meine keine pony, we'll see what we can do about this wish of yours" he reassured me, with the nicest tone I had heard him speak in yet "If that's all, I shall inject the anestetic. That is if I haven't forgotten some neurotoxin in here again" he commented, leaving my field of view. After a short while, I felt something stinging me in the neck before a strong numbness started propagating from there, irradiating quite quickly all over my body through my veins.
"O-one last thing Medic... Please!" I begged, while keeping my eyes open was getting more and more difficult by the second. I could feel my own consciousness slowly drift away from me.
"Ya, Flatterzei?" I heard Meidc's voice as if it was coming from the end of a tunnel.
"Whaf wii muh hob we awouh?" I could barely hear my voice, murdered by the powerful anestetic; the mercenary couldn't have possibly gotten what I really meant to say, and I couldn't hear his answer anyway. An instant later, everything disappeared, and I fell into a deep sleep.