//------------------------------// // Enter The Mask // Story: Heart Of The Guardians // by BodhiBRO100 //------------------------------// "Where are we supposed to go anyway?" Spike asked. Webber points to a bunker, not far from where they are. "Over there." he said. "I have noticed a lot of dark magic circling around that bunker when I first saw it on the cutie map." Rarity gives a disgusted face. "The outside of that dome looks so ghastly! I certainly hope its not that way on the inside." she said. "Well, let's find out." Twilight replied. Inside the bunker, the 7 ponies and dragon look around, and the entire entrance path is green and white, smelling like gummy bears. "Not very nice colors, but at least it's not terrible in here." Rarity said. Pinkie smiles. "I smell gummy bears!" she said enthusiastically. "That's probably the wallpaper, it's scented." Webber replied. "Ooh, scented wallpaper!" Pinkie squealed, and went up to the wallpaper, starting to sniff it all. Twilight looked at the pink mare, who is literally climbing on the walls and smelling them. "Pinkie, calm down, we're not here to be smelling wallpaper all day." Pinkie smiles. "You know I can't help it when it comes to sweetness." she said and giggled. Suddenly, a clank is heard in the distance, which makes the group jump in shock, Fluttershy hides behind Applejack's tail. "Wh...What w..was that?" Fluttershy asked, shaking nervously. "Sounded like something fell." Applejack replied. The group goes through the bunker, noticing pipes around the walls as they transverse through. "Hmm, maybe one of these pipes fell somewhere." Rainbow Dash said. "No, it couldn't have been." Twilight replied. "The noise sounded louder. More booming than a normal pipe clanking." Then in the distance, footstep sounds are heard echoing throughout the bunker. "Oooh, somepony else is here!" Pinkie Pie said happily. Twilight grinned abit. "I thought we weren't alone in here." she said. The Mane Six follow the sound of the footsteps, until suddenly, a dark grey stallion, not noticing the six ponies and dragon, appears coming from another hallway, and walks down the hallway that the Mane Six are in. "Hey, another pony! Let's go say hi." Pinkie suggested and started to walk towards the stallion. Twilight stopped her friend. "Pinkie, no." she said seriously. "For all we know, that stallion could be evil and/or dangerous." "She's right. Even I can't tell whether he's good or bad." Webber replied. Applejack intervened. "Hun, we can at least follow him, see where he's going." Twilight nodded. "Agreed, let's go." she replied. The Mane Six, Webber, and Spike followed the grey stallion, through a couple dark, long hallways, until he entered through an office door and slammed it shut. Spike raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? He HAD to slam the door?" he asked. Twilight tried to open the door with her magic, but failed. It was sealed shut. "Darn it, it's locked like a safe!" she exclaimed. Rarity notices a large vent in the wall near the door. "Darlings, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but why don't we go through that yucky, rusty vent over there?" she suggested, with a disgusted look on her face. Applejack covers her mouth and sniggers. "Ya'd really go inside there without being grossed out?" she asked, smiling mischievously. "No, darling, but if we want to hear what that stallion is doing, I advise we go through there. Even if it's simply ghastly!" Rarity replied, making a grossed out yelp. "That's a brave move on your part, Rarity. Let's get in there then." Twilight said. She then opens the vent with her magic, and then six mares and baby dragon start to crawl in there, one at a time. The grey stallion's voice is then heard, becoming more and more audible. He has abit of a southern accent in voice. "Acorn, this is no time to get all emotional." the grey stallion said. Another voice is heard, this time a British female, sounding erratic. "But, Gelatin, the Dark Lord grows impatient." she said. "We might be the only hope he has of returning to destroy Equestria!" Twilight gasps quietly. "I don't think that they're nice ponies." she said to her friends. "Always need a backup plan, my friend. And I got one." the grey stallion said. Suddenly, another door closes, which makes the Mane Six, Webber, and Spike curious, as they move further through the vents. They then notice a thin, wide glass window on the vent, revealing what appears to be an interrogation room. A siren is seen in a chair, while the grey stallion sits on the opposite end. The stallion's face is revealed, with a grey and white striped mane and tail, a grey face and horn, and green eyes. "Yeah, Gray Gelatin, I know what you want from me, but you're not gonna get it." the siren said. "Taking me out of the water was weak sauce on your part, cause you have no idea how long I can stay on land." Applejack's eyes widen, and she whispers. "Ain't that a siren?" Twilight nods in surprise. "I've never seen a siren from this close before." she said. "Only from what I've read in books." "I've seen them before. Wonder why these ponies captured a siren." Webber said. Gray Gelatin sighs. "What will it take?" he asked the siren. "Nothing, but your acquaintanceship." the creature replied. "That's all you wanted? Then why aren't you telling me anything?" the grey stallion asked. The siren scoffed. "Because I'm a creature of many personalities. You never know if I'm telling the truth. But I just want to serve under the Dark Lord, cause it might be the only chance I have at making sure Queen Novo and the rest of the Hippogriffs are silenced." The Mane Six gasped. "Not the Hippogriffs, my friends!" Pinkie exclaimed quietly. "Well, if that's your only concern, the Dark Lord isn't only targeting Seaquestria, he'll be going for the rest of the world." Gelatin said. "Why should you trust us when you don't have any right to tell him what you want?" he then asked. The siren scoffed again. "Cause you are all the epitome of complete evil." he replied. "You know that, don't you?" Gelatin sighed again, as he lifted up a suitcase from out of nowhere. "I've got a question: You want to see my mask?" he asked the siren. "It's a gift that the Dark Lord gave me." he said, opening the suitcase. Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion. "His mask?" What does that mean?" she asked. "I don't know, darling, but I don't like it." Rarity replied. Gelatin reaches into the suitcase, and pulls out a plastic, white muzzle shaped mask. "You know, many have been afraid of what I did with this thing, but with you, I'm hoping for the same result." he told the siren and put the little mask over his nose and mouth. "Is this your way of saying that I'm recruited for the Dark Lord himself?" the siren asked seriously. Webber's eyes widened. "Uh oh." Suddenly, Gelatin pushes a button inside his suitcase, which makes a yellow light flash in the siren's face, and the Mane Six gasp. The siren looks at Gelatin, and starts screaming in terror, while distorting between a Hippogriff, a red dragon, Big Mac, Noteworthy, Princess Luna, Capper, and even the Pony of Shadows. "No, this is my way of making you scream in fear." Gelatin said in a lower, echoing voice, and in the siren's first person perspective, Gelatin's face is deformed with scars, green bat-like eyes, and all his teeth are completely sharp. "Looks like it's working now." Gelatin said, with a grin. The Mane Six, Webber, and Spike look at the scene in horror. Fluttershy hides behind her tail, and the rest of the mares, stallion, and dragon cover their eyes. Suddenly, the siren stops screaming, and a loud thud is heard. The Mane Six look back up, to see the siren twitching in fear, but Gelatin is gone. "Where'd the grey pony go?" Twilight asked in alarm. Gelatin's voice is heard in the other room. "Well, it's interior is tough, but it's in." he said. The British mare's voice is then heard. "Mask, I don't know how I feel about this, I feel like Twilight and her friends have followed us for weeks." she said worryingly. "If they were, they'd stop us by now." Gelatin replied. "Go to Equestria, Nuthead. See what those nimrodic girls are up to. The Dark Lord must be kept secret till the opportune moment." he said, walking away. Buttertail stuttered nervously. "Okay then. Hope...Hopefully t..t..they no nothing about any of this." she said, until she didn't make another sound for the Mane Six, Webber, and Spike to hear. "That's weird." Webber said. "She's silent all of a sudden." The door to the room that Buttertail was in, slammed shut. "Darn it, now we can't get in there and save that poor siren feller!" Applejack exclaimed. "Can we at least get out of this ghastly vent now?" Rarity pleaded in disgust. Twilight nodded. "I agree, let's get out of this, those ponies are gone." she said. The ponies and baby dragon crawl out of the vent, back into the hallway they were at earlier. "So, what do we do now?" Spike asked. "Since we can't get into that room." Webber tries to open the door with his magic, but fails. "Magic proof, darn it!" he exclaimed. "At least now we know what some of the Dark Lord's followers are up to." Twilight replied. "We need to find them." Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Try telling that to Princess Celestia." she said. Webber smiles. "She doesn't have to know what we're doing." "Umm, Webber, she ALWAYS knows what everypony in Equestria is doing." Fluttershy replied. Webber shook his head. "Thanks to my....powers....I can block Celestia from us." he explained. Applejack raised an eyebrow. "What powers?" she asked. Pinkie smiled. "Oh, Webber is an al..." she started to say, until a zipper goes across her mouth, thanks to Twilight. "Pinkie, we can't tell them what Webber is." Twilight said sternly. "But Twilight, darling, you and Pinkie seem to know what's going with Webber." Rarity said. "What could he possibly be other than an alicorn, such as yourself?" she then asked. Webber intervened. "Twilight, it's okay, I think it's time that these three know what I actually am." he replied to Twi. "But I can't show them here. All of you, come with me." he instructed, as the Mane Six and Spike follow Webber out of the bunker. Elsewhere, at night, Zeeby is seen in the water, near the Manehattan coast, and he climbs up onto Hopper's boat. As he sneaks onboard, in a wetsuit, he takes the engraved changeling's horn, from earlier, out of his pocket, and comes out of the shadows to meet Hopper, Bling, and Octopi at the front of the boat.