//------------------------------// // Consequences // Story: Road to Tartarus // by DashEight //------------------------------// Yoke Mountain Repository was not your typical Royal Guard garrison. In fact, most ponies had no idea it even existed. The sprawling underground base had begun life long ago as a simple mountain, one of many among the ranges crisscrossing the EUP’s desolate Neighvada Test Site. The local guardsponies noticed the mountain’s isolated nature and cool, dry caverns made it a perfect spot to store surplus field guns and ammunition during peacetime. Ponies were a peace-loving species, but they were also painfully aware of their place on the food chain. Nopony wanted a return to the bad old days when any one of a half-dozen sapient species would equivocate the word ‘pony’ with ‘snack.’ Thus, the Guard needed a place to keep all variety of things that went boom on the off chance they became necessary in the future. Over the years, what started as a few simple bunkers expanded into a subterranean complex extending deep within the mountain bedrock. The base’s mission expanded as it grew, as it occurred to important ponies that a hole in the middle of a desert a hundred miles from the faintest glimmer of civilization is useful for holding more than a few cannon shells. Nothing changed on paper, of course, and the Royal Guards assigned to Yoke Mountain were under strict orders not to ask questions. There were the occasional rumors. Ponies in black arriving to deliver sealed crates marked for the secure vault would raise eyebrows anywhere, but guards who saw something curious tended to brush it off, choosing not to burden themselves with the secrets of scary ponies. Nosiness had consequences, after all, and most everypony wanted to simply do their time at this hardship assignment and transfer somewhere more pleasant. The ponies assigned to the base simply did their jobs and kept their mouths shut while the brass in Canterlot quietly scratched Yoke Mountain off every map and registry they could find. Time marched on, and the installation soon faded from Equestria's collective consciousness. The EUP's efforts to hide the Yoke Mountain Repository were very thorough, but they were not perfect. Somepony, somewhere, will always remember. The air inside the cavernous main chamber hung thick with the smell of cordite and a faint tang of copper. The hallways echoed with sporadic weapons fire as the invaders swept the facility of the last few stragglers. The attack came in the early predawn hours, most of the guardsponies caught sleeping peacefully in their bunks as the gas pumped in. The few guards working the swing shift sounded the alarms, but by the time the klaxons blared to life it was too late. Nopony was coming to help them. Still, they bravely stood their posts and fought to the last stallion, a fate which the intruders were all too happy to grant. Lieutenant Swift Shield struggled uselessly against his bonds as the invaders bustled about around him. He'd been one of the lucky few that were both awake and near their gas masks when the attack started, but he'd only managed to hold them off for a little while before they surrounded him and stuck him down. Injured and bleeding, he'd been unable to fight or flee and the invaders quickly bandaged him and trussed him up before pressing onwards with their assault. A large harpy sat in a nearby chair, keeping half an eye on him as she sharpened a wicked-looking knife. Now that the air was clear and she was no longer needed in the fight, her rifle and mask sat leaning against a nearby wall next to his own shock spear. Swift glared at the despicable bird. "How could you do this!? You MONSTERS!" He shouted at her with unbridled rage. "Nothin' personal, kid. Well, not for me. Girl's gotta make a living somehow." "You'll never get away with this!" The harpy paused and directed her full attention at her captive. "Really?" she asked with a touch of bemusement. "You're going with that one? Look around you, buddy. We are getting away with this! If you're wondering what 'getting away with this' looks like, well I got news for ya," she set down her whetstone and gestured with the knife in a theatrical fashion. "This is it!" "My friends will come, and they'll stop you!" "Yuh huh," she nodded sarcastically. "Which friends would those be? The ones down in the tunnels?" She paused and put a claw to her ear opening. A few distant reports could still be heard, but the fighting was clearly dying out. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think they'll be around for much longer. I wouldn't put too much faith in your buddies from Las Pegasus either, we'll be long gone by the time reinforcements get here. And as for you, well, that's up to the bossmare." As if on cue, yellow warning lights lit up around the vault entrance and the massive metal doors creaked open. A troupe of creatures marched out from the darkened secure vault. Their faces were all concealed by gas masks and to Swift's horrified realization not one wore the golden armor of his comrades. The leader, a pale yellow unicorn, lit her horn and levitated the mask off her muzzle to reveal the ordinary features of a mare in her mid-thirties beset by a look of iron-willed determination. She shook red and purple curls free and tossed the garment aside. "Listen up, party ponies! I want us packed up and ready to move in fifteen! We're leaving as soon as the crates are loaded so if you don't want to be left behind get your tails in motion! You idiots!" She pointed to a posse of harpies, griffons, and two fish creatures behind her. "get those boxes on the chariot! Posey!?" "Um, y-yes, Boss?" The earth pony on her left replied hesitantly. "I need you to gather up anypony still in contact with the stragglers." She said in a somewhat softer tone. "We don't have time to clear out every single guard here. If there's any left, have our ponies fall back, close the blast doors and seal them in." "O-okay. I can do that." "Good girl. Jester?" "Yuppers?" The pegasus on her right bounced in excitement. She cocked her head and lifted one ear in the air like an eager puppy. "Everything's set? You double checked?" Jester nodded happily. "Sure diddd!!!" "I need you to be positive,..." "Honest! Even triple-checked!!" "Okay. Got the remote?" A flick of Jester's tail sent a small plastic square sailing through the air before the unicorn caught it with her magic. "Faust, Jes! Be careful!" "Oops, sorry boss!" The lighthearted pegasus shrugged. "Just go help with the crates!" the leader snapped. She trotted over to the harpy guarding Swift. "How's our guest, Hera?" "Bit mouthy," the bird replied, "but otherwise no problems, Boss." The unicorn nodded and turned to Swift. "Congratulations, soldier. It's your lucky day," She said in a tone that suggested he was not lucky in the slightest. "First Lieutenant Swift Shield," Swift growled. "Equestrian Royal Guard, serial number four two three nine nine six zero zero four. And that's all you're getting out of me!" "Riight, I already have everything I need from here." The leader rolled her eyes. "Don't need you to talk, just to do one thing for me." "I'll never help you!!" Swift cried. "You can do whatever you want, you can kill me, but the Royal Guard won't rest until they've found you and stopped you! Even Princess Celestia herself--" WHACK "Oh buck, now you've done it," Hera whispered under her breath. Swift blinked away the stars from his eyes. The left side of his muzzle stung harshly from the hoofstrike. He looked back up at the unicorn, her expression now one of righteous fury. "Princess Celestia!? You think Princess Celestia gives one bit about you, about any of you!?!?" She screamed at Swift. "Let me tell you something about your precious Princess... "Princess Celestia uses you. All of you, from the everyday ponies to you idiot Royal Guards to her advisors and... and the ponies she keeps the closest! You can follow her, you can jump when she calls, you can dedicate your life to her and bow down and give her your everlasting loyalty and you know what she'll do!?" Swift said nothing as the mare continued to seethe. "She'll lead you along, tell you what you want to hear, what you need to hear, and when she's done with you she'll crumple you up and throw you out without a second thought. So don't tell me that she'll save you, or avenge you, or stop me or whatever it is you think she'll do because she does not care about you... She paused for a moment to regain her composure. "The good news for you is I'm not quite so heartless. I'm going to give you a chance to live and maybe even save your friends! That is, if you're tough enough... "Cut his foreleg loose," She ordered. Hera shrugged and looped the knife through Swift's bonds, slicing just enough to free his right fetlock. He flailed at her but she quickly pulled back as the leader swatted his hoof away. "Ah-ah-ah! No touching!" She levitated the plastic square she'd received from her lackey earlier and shoved it into his hoof, squeezing his fetlock around a spring-loaded lever. A small crystal on the top of the box glowed green. "This is a deadmare's switch. It takes a bit of muscle to keep that lever pressed down, but as long as you do then you're safe. As soon as you let go it sends a signal to a reciever hooked up to... well, I trust you're familiar with the rumors about what your favorite Princess keeps down here?" Swift Shield gave her a single silent nod from behind his angry glower. "Good, then I'll leave the consequences for failure up to your imagination. Point is, as long as you don't let go then you, your friends, and anypony else left in this base get to live to fight another day. Based on average response times from the Las Pegasus garrison, you have about forty-five minutes until help arrives. I sincerely hope you haven't been skipping out on your workouts, soldier." She turned and trotted towards the chariots, leaving Swift to strain uselessly against his bonds one more as he squeezed the remote tightly to his barrel. "How can you do something like this!?" He shouted at her retreating form. "All those innocent ponies!! You're EVIL! YOU'RE ALL EVIL!!" "I'm not," the mare said over her shoulder. She leaped into the back of the chariot and smacked one of the ubiquitous crates with a hoof. "This is evil. And your Princess kept it locked up underneath your hooves until everypony forgot about it. I'm just the pony who's going to remind her that nothing stays buried forever." She turned to the chariot's pullers. "Everypony on? Good, let's go!" As Swift continued to shout, the chariots lifted off and stole away into the cool desert night. The leader of the band of thieves clambered over her take and into the chariot's forward compartment with her lackeys. Posey whimpered at the sight of her boss while Jester squeed happily. "Jes, you set the secondary tripwire?" "Yesseroonie!" Jester nodded enthusiastically. "As soon as somepony opens the vault door, then SURPRISE!!!" She shouted, causing the others to wince. "Good. When help arrives, they'll go through the upper levels first. Should be plenty of ponies around for the show." Posey spoke up, barely able to raise her voice above a whisper. "Um, that seems kind of cruel. You told that poor pony he'd be okay..." The leader sighed. "Sorry Pose, but it had to be done. By the time they're done clearing the dust to even begin to figure out what we stole, it'll be too late for them to do anything. Besides, he should've guessed we were never going to let him go. If he wants to cling to his false hope, then let him." She turned away to stare at the beautiful crescent moon above them. "At some point everypony has to realize what a broken promise can do..."