//------------------------------// // Harvested // Story: Consequences // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "Let's see if we can get some light on this situation." Lieutenant Vigil says as he observes his escorts cautiously moving in a utility room, staring at walls of panels through the lanterns they carried with wingtips. "Over here, sir - this lightning generator is what runs the artifical lights here. It doesn't seem to have been sabotaged, just turned off." one of the escorts comments, he and his partner staring at the large circular machine in puzzlement. "If the machine's in good condition, it should be safe to turn back on. Let's see what happens." Vigil orders. "Yes, sir." an escort replies, looking over a panel on the machine in the lantern light and using a foreleg to press a few buttons and then move a lever. There is a hopeful hum, then a combination of whirring and sparking as the machine revs back up to speed. Some artificial lights come on around the search party, illuminating the utility room, and Vigil is briefly hopeful they're getting closer to an answer to what was going on in the Final Act Retirement Community... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This hope is quickly crushed when the three pony search team hears sparking and banging coming from their right. They turn in synchrony to see a panel spewing sparks and a few licks of flame, and the pegasus Lieutenant quickly jumps into action: "GET AN EXTINGUISHER ON THAT THING, PUT THAT FIRE OUT!" One of the escorts wrestles a small fire extinguisher out of his saddlepack using his wings, pulling the pin out with his teeth as he hustles over to the sparking panel and then squeezes the handle in his mouth while facing the panel to discharge the extinguisher. A cold fog envelopes the panel, and in a few seconds the flames and sparking stop. Vigil hurries over to observe the ruined panel, now covered in a cold foam. He squints at what he can see of the wiring in the panel, then states his alarmed conclusion: "The wiring looks like it was deliberately crossed. This thing may have been a trap, it was designed to blow as soon as we activated the generator." "What did that panel control, sir?" the escort that had been using the extinguisher asked as he put away the device back in his saddlebag again. "I think the door... yes, it says something on here... 'Main Resident Circuits'." Vigil comments as he stares at the outside of the door that had been covering the panel - this door had been blasted open by the short circuits also responsible for the sparks and fire. "Does that mean all the resident rooms, sir?" the other escort asks worryingly. "Not just all the resident rooms, but any medical equipment inside them. We just destroyed a bunch of very expensive hardware without even knowing it!" Vigil exclaims, smashing the door with a forehoof in frustration, only for it to rebound and smash his snout in the process! As Vigil rubs his snout with an indignant glare in the panel's direction, an escort makes a helpful comment: "The power was probably off long enough that it shouldn't have mattered whether the ponies depended on the equipment or not - this jury-rigging must've been some kind of failsafe just in case something didn't work out." "Yes, but this still doesn't answer what's going on here!" Vigil exclaims. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that 'Lord Zedd' or somepony working with him did this. But we still don't know why, or even what the intended purpose was in the first place." "Sir, the power should be restored in the cafeteria, it wouldn't have been affected by that panel. We should go there now." the escort suggests in reply. "I suppose, I don't see any other leads to anything else..." Vigil sighs out in resignation as he realizes his investigation won't get anywhere unless he sees what's going on in the cafeteria. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The cafeteria happened to be on the second floor, but climbing the stairs was no longer so daunting with the "movie theater" lighting back on. As the party starts climbing the stairs, they ominously note the automatic lift that assisted disabled ponies going up and down the stairs had been sabotaged - tools had been jammed into the running track and the lift pushed until the mechanical resistance from the jammed tools caused the lift to break and fall off its mount, the broken lift tumbling back down the stairs to lay on its side at the bottom. "They wanted this thing unusable - but why?" Vigil comments. "I fear, sir, the answers can only be found at the top, and they may not be what we hope they would be." an escort sadly answers. The climb is cautious, the escorts close beside their Lieutenant on each side in the tight confines of the stairwell. At the top, another ominous sign - two pegasi, both wearing black shirts with a nametag pinned to it, slumping in front of a double door off to the left covered with nailed-on planks of wood. The three searchers rush over to the pair, seeing that the two were employees of the retirement community. "Cold, sir. These ponies have been dead for some time." one of the escorts comments to the Lieutenant sadly, shaking his head as he looks up from his examination. "They're the first ponies we've seen in here. And I've got a sinking feeling everypony else is behind those doors. Get at those boards." Vigil answers, pointing to the nailed-over double doors. As the word "Cafeteria" could be partly seen between the covering boards, the search party knew they had to break down the boards to get into the room. "Yes, sir!" both escorts reply in synchrony, each one taking station in front of a door as Lieutenant Vigil moves the two dead pegasi out of the way. The feelings of dread and horror resurface in full force as the escort stallions begin smashing at the boards barricading the double doors, alternating between foreleg and hindleg smashing as they do so. Vigil notes in dismay that there is no response to the battering at the doors, not even a quiet sob or cry for help... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eventually the boards are damaged enough that the pegasi escorts can push against the doors directly, leaning in with their weight instead of simply bashing the boards with hooves. Individual pushes do nothing, so the escorts back up and go at ramming the doors in sync with each other. The first ram produces a shuddering, confirming that the doors had been locked in addition to covered over, and the second ram breaks the lock, allowing the doors leading into the cafeteria to be pushed open. Lieutenant Vigil and his two escorts had believed anything could be behind those doors, but were not prepared for the sight they faced as they pushed past splintered boards and other debris into the lit cafeteria. The space in the middle had been cleared of tables - quite violently considering the broken tables and chairs piled in the corners - and on the floor lay rows of pegasi, all neatly arranged and positioned in the same pose: placed laying flat on the back, with the wings tucked in and the forehooves crossed over the exposed belly. The pegasi did not miss the signifcance of this arrangement, and each one rushed to the head of a row, feeling the pony at its head, getting nothing but cold claminess. They each moved on, getting the same cold feeling from the second and third ponies in the row. Finally, one of the escorts looks up, seeing the shock was shared with his Lieutenant and also his fellow escort, and utters the words Lieutenant Vigil hoped above all else he would not hear on this mission: "They're dead, sir... all of them." The pegasus Lieutenant could do nothing in response but stand and stare in slack-jawed shock. The residents of the Final Act Retirement Community included many retired Wonderbolts and parents of Wonderbolts - some he recognized with surreal clarity from memories of Wonderbolt shows he had seen as a young colt - as well as several former members of the Equestrian Congress, and now they were all dead. Cut down all at once in a "harvest" by a force of malevolence Vigil couldn't even begin to understand... He didn't know how long he stared there at the quiet horror of this bloodless massacre of both residents and staff of the retirement community before one of the escorts called out to him. He didn't hear the words at first, but did when they were repeated more urgently: "Sir, up here on the stage, I want you to see this!" It took a moment for Lieutenant Vigil to be snapped out of his shocked trance and turn to see both his escorts on the stage at the far end of the room. This stage, befitting the theme of the whole building, was dressed up like a typical stage used for live-action stage plays, with a painted background and a podium in the middle of the stage area. Vigil could see a pegasus sprawled out on this podium, but had to get closer before he could see anything more. Reluctantly, Vigil carefully steps between the rows of posed dead ponies, trying not to let his memories of past Wonderbolt performances rivet him down in place over any particular victim of the "harvest", and uses a wing boost to get up onto the stage. Once on the stage, Vigil cautiously approaches the podium, where he sees the older pegasus sprawled out on it was wearing an elaborate uniform and a nametag reading "Ringmaster". "He must've been the last to die, sir. No one was left to arrange his body the same way as the others." an escort concludes grimly. "There's a note here." Vigil comments, noticing a piece of parchment half-hidden under the dead pegasus stallion. He carefully moved the dead pony aside, then picks up the parchment using wing-fingers, the two escorts staring in rapt attention. The side of the parchment Vigil first saw was blank, but when he flipped the parchment over he saw writing in the same blood-red ink previously encountered in the resident rooms he had checked. The words written on that parchment would haunt him for the rest of his life, their contents seemingly to be beyond belief of being true at all: "If you are reading this, then the harvest is complete and you will not be able to help any pony reaped in the harvest. My name is Lord Zedd, former leader of the Agents of Chaos. As a colt, I was rejected by the Wonderbolts and Canterlot Guard in turn, and in response I embraced the hidden chaos I learned about at that time. Hidden from even the eyes of the sun princess I seeded wide the number and strength of the Agents of Chaos, and in turn teached my colt, the Snake in the Grass, to do the same as my heir when he came of age. He was able to attempt to summon the Chaotic One, a chance I never got, and I intended to turn this place into a fortress in support of his rule. Now though, it is obvious my son has failed in this attempt, and I have nothing more to live for. I will die, but I will harvest as many ponies as I can in the name of the Chaotic One before I do so. Every pony in this building will die with me, only two will be spared as 'witnesses'. The rest will have their bodies and souls delivered as a pleasing sacrifice to the Chaotic One, including my own. Glory to the Chaotic One and death to the rule of the alicorns! - Ringmaster Lord Zedd" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was nothing but stunned silence and the shuffling of hooves for a long minute after seeing the suicide note, none of the three pegasi in the search party able to come up with words for the sight of death so purposely delivered and cleanly presented for such a perverse purpose. Finally though, one of the escorts breaks the silence: "...Who? Who could behave like this? Who could hate so much as to do everything they claimed to do - turning ponies against Princess Celestia, corrupting their own colt into a monster, and killing like this without mercy or remorse?!" Lieutenant Vigil looks at his escort with a very grim expression, and makes his reply very straightforward: "Where there is no love or appreciation, hate will grow to fill in the void that is left behind. Soon, there is nothing left but the hatred. The magic of friendship can stop and reverse this course, as what happened with Princess Luna, but at some point even friendship will no longer work. And I fear there's a lot more absence of love and appreciation that these monsters have exploited than we will ever know..."