Some time ago
Intercepted radio broadcast
Goldenrod City, Johto transmission
"That's it for this week's Buena's Password. Up next, it's your favorite conspiracy theorists, Barro and Michael in the morning to talk about all the crazy mysteries of both Johto and Kanto. After that, it's call-in time with Captain Mike where we'll be taking all your college sports calls. Keep it rockin' on Goldenrod Radio, you're tuned in to satellite channel ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-nine, 'The Shine.' Back after this."
Unable to encrypt transmission
Reception by other sources likely
...
End playback.
The two Poke-cronies had vanished. Dan, Rarity and Doctor all followed where they went but they had seemed to have disappeared. Past the lobby of the clocktower was a garage for wagons and stagecoaches. Instead of stagecoaches though, there were vehicles of a different sort- criminal ones.
Team Rocket, Team Flare, but mostly Team Galactic's buggies filled the interior garage space. They didn't appear to have been used recently.
Dan decided to investigate one.
"Well?"
"Keys aren't in the ignition and I don't exactly know how to hot-wire... whatever these are," Dan said. "Friggin space car." Team Galactic's vehicles all were spherical and had bubble tops. Supported by four tires, they looked like something designed for Flash Gordon or the Jetsons rather than Sinnoh's resident criminal organization. Still, weird, buggy and spacey definitely described Team Galactic.
They followed the trail to the back of the garage. Rather than the exit, there were two doorways that seemed to lead out. But instead, they lead nowhere.
"What now?" Rarity asked. She shined a light from her horn.
"Wait! What's this?" The Doctor pointed to something just as the illumination spell glanced over it. "It's a switch!" Without hesitation, he pressed it. If Rarity or Dan had any objection of reckless, impulsive action of pressing a random switch with no knowledge of what it does, that objection was not quick enough formed to be expressed. Their next instinct was of course, to wait.
And nothing happened. So, the Doctor pressed the other five switches at random. To no avail.
"I don't think they're even powering anything," Dan said. "Or if they did to begin with. It's like they were trying to build an elevator and just stopped."
"A service elevator for the clock tower, perhaps," Rarity surmised. "Maybe they were in the process of building it before... well, you know. Rice happened."
"No," the Doctor shook his head. "No no no no. This, you see, THIS is a puzzle. It's a puzzle of some kind." The Doctor pressed his face against the wall in a cartoony fashion, large unblinking eyes examining every facet of the switch. "Or maybe this! Look, look at this handle!" He grabbed a handle on the other side of the door and turned it. He turned it back and forth. "This, yes! You see, it's working! It's working and it's... it's... doing exactly nothing. Why? Why is it doing nothing?!"
"It's a service elevator, right? Well, they must've built the shaft for it."
"What are you doing?"
Dan got into a charging stance. "Stand back, Doctor!"
"No. NO! This is a puzzle! If you would just wait- if you would just gimme a minute!" Dan charged into the doorway. The closet-sized space could barely fit the Doctor, let alone the Doctor plus Dan. The human slammed into the bow-tied pony and then into the back of the wall. Apart from pain, nothing happened.
"I hate... humanity... sometimes."
"That makes one of us. I hate humanity all the time," Dan said. "And folks like you don't help things."
"For the third time, I am NOT a human."
"Did not say you were."
"Oh, like you were implying any other thing. ANY OTHER THING, DAN."
"Okay, Mr. I'm-not-a-human-lime, whatever you want to call yourself, you can-"
Rarity carefully levitated the two bickering males out of the elevator shaft and looked inward. She turned on one switch, then knocked at the wall with her hoof. The sound it made was solid. Carefully, she pressed the next one. Also solid. Up the board, she pressed each switch until finally, it sounded dull and echo-y. She turned the handle to the side and the doors opened.
"Boys! I think I've-"
Underneath her.
"AAAEEE!"
"RARITY!" they both exclaimed. Trapdoors opened beneath Rarity, dropping her down a tunnel.
"What do we- AAAHG!" The Doctor yelped as Dan picked him up and dove right after Rarity.
They fell down the chute for the better part of a minute. When they finally hit the bottom, Rarity was there to catch them. Or, more precisely, ladylike-ness prevented them from falling precisely on Rarity as she recomposed herself. Meaning she caught them with her magic while dusting herself off and gently laid them down.
"Where are we now?" Doctor Whooves asked.
"Doctor, you were wanting to solve a puzzle?" Rarity asked. She gestured over her shoulder at a massive, cog-shaped door behind her. "I believe we've found it."
Directly in front of them, covering an entire wall of the small, below-ground room they were in was the gear-shaped door. Emblazoned in the center of the massive cog's frame was the number four painted in faded yellow. Stable 4.
"It's another Stable," Dan said. "Another Stable-Tec Stable."
"I thought that Stable-Tec wasn't around any more," Rarity said.
Dan nodded. "They're not. Vice Grip's company bought them out. Before they went under, they built all these Stables. The Director's little projects," he said, bristling at the mention of his hated foes. "Me and Nicky found one near the train tunnel near Canterlot when the CMC went missing. That was Stable Three... this must be Stable Four."
"Derpy and I tried to infiltrate Stable Five," the Doctor said. Rarity and Dan both turned to him. "While you both were away."
"Where'd you find Stable Five?" Dan asked.
"North. Near Mount Prosperity. It's Rice's main base, or it was. Very heavily fortified."
Dan rubbed his chin. "I've heard about it before. You. You are drawing me a map there once we get done with all this. And finding our friends, yes."
"The townsfolk might be inside this Stable."
"Yes! Yes, the Director was obsessed with kidnapping ponies, collecting them or something. Creepy stuff, but it means they might be inside!" Dan exclaimed.
"Exactly. Exactly, Dan," the Doctor said, smiling. "So, all we need to do is... find a way to open the door."
"Right. And let's both agree not to do what we just did a minute ago upstairs."
"Agreed."
A few seconds later, Doctor Whooves was randomly pressing buttons and turning handles and dials at the seemingly non-functional Stable door controls while Dan repeatedly charged into the door itself, to no avail. Rarity rubbed the side of her forehead, doing her best to maintain her composure.