Lyra watched her best friend, Bon Bon, load a washing machine. She noted how efficiently the earth pony was able to balance the multiple baskets and soap while still loading the machine. She couldn’t do something like that and she had magic.
She shifted her gaze to the day happening outside. It was a warm peaceful kind of morning. The air was warm but pleasant. The cicadas buzzed merrily as they always did. It felt like a different world than the one her and Bon Bon normally shared.
“It’s nice to get out and about,” the aqua unicorn finally said. ”We’ve been cooped up in that control room forever. It’s nice to finally have some free time.”
“It would be, Lyra,” responded Bon Bon coldly,” if I wasn’t doing all the work.”
“Umm right.” Lyra sat up and hurriedly tried to fold the clothes she had scattered all over the table. She tried to be as neat with her magic as Bon Bon was with just her hooves. She found it wasn’t as easy as the earth pony made it look. The clothes looked more like a mangled heap rather than a nice clean square.
“Argh, never mind,” Bon Bon sighed in exasperation. “All the creases will be in the wrong places. Perhaps you should just play your lyre.”
“Ok.” Lyra knew she could do that. Household chores always seemed to go wrong around her whenever she tried. She almost felt like her magic was faulty sometimes. How could a unicorn be so klutzy with magic? She tried to dispel the thought in case she hit a wrong note. She didn’t want to upset Bon Bon further. She continued to play while Bon Bon’s work automatically matched the rhythm.
Bon Bon could always get into the swing of menial chores when Lyra played. She did appreciate the unicorn’s attempts to help but didn’t mind the work so long as she played. Of course she couldn’t let Lyra believe that. Lyra was lazy enough as it was. It felt like time sped up as Lyra played and within no time their work was done.
The couple wrapped up their chore and headed to the train to work.
“It’s such a nice day, Bon Bon,” chirped Lyra, as they boarded the train,”we should call out of work and enjoy it.”
Bon Bon sighed.”Our job is protecting Equestria. We can’t just run off cause it’s a nice day.”
“Oh c’mon no pony’s even going to notice.”
“Ahem,” called out a small cough from behind them. They both turned to find their boss, Twilight Sparkle, smiling at them. Next to her was Twilight’s boss, Mud Briar. Bon Bon stiffed.
“Good morning,” said Lyra enthusiastically as if she never suggested a thing.
“Oh, good morning girls,” Twilight answered as if she didn't hear a thing.
“Good Morning, Ma’am and Sir” Bon Bon smartly said to the bosses.
“Technically it is a morning but nothing quantifies it as good compared to any other morning,” Mud Briar clarified.
The mares stared at him in amusement.
“So you are running a test on Unit-00 today, Twilight?,” Mud Briar asked, keeping any trace of emotion from his voice.
“Yes Unit-00 was heavily damaged during the ‘Wonderbluss’ mission,” Twilight explained. “Today we’re ensuring it’s up to operational parameters.”
“That is good. Will Maud be included in more Eva activities then?”
“Yes, with her Eva ready, she should be good to go.”
“Good,” nodded Mud Briar. “Maud will be ecstatic.”
Lyra was momentarily stunned by picturing an ecstatic Maud. Then a question flew into her mind that had been bothering her. She avoided Bon Bon’s intense gaze in case she could see it in her mind and stop her from asking.
“Is there something between you two?,” she quickly blurted.
Bon Bon turned her most fearsome of gazes at Lyra who stood completely still and pretended not to notice.
“Well that depends,” began Mud Briar. “If you are referring to me and Twilight I would have to say yes.”
“What?” gasped Twilight.
“There is approximately 3 cubic feet of air between us. Any other pony will have a greater distance and have various other substances instead. Such as between me and Maud there would be quite a few different..”
“Umm, that isn’t what I meant,” Lyra said, shaking her head in confusion. Bon Bon tapped her roughly with her hoof before she could continue.
“Ok,” responded Mud Briar. He continued to stare out the window in silence.
“Umm, I heard you have some city official meeting to attend today,” Twilight blurted to break the silence and direct away from any further Lyra questions.
“Yes but they’re inconsequential. The city is actually run by the Spike system,” stated Mud Briar.
“You mean the magic based computer that we work on everyday runs the city?” gasped Lyra.
“Yes,” affirmed Mud Briar.
“The city lets the Spike system make all their decisions?” asked Bon Bon in disbelief.
“Yes.”
“It’s amazing what modern magic and science can do when working together!” exclaimed Twilight.
The train finally reached its destination and the coworkers disembarked.
“Well bosses,” announced Lyra, “it looks like it’s time to get to it.”
***
“Like an angel with cruel and merciless intent, go forth, young colt and you’ll become a legend,” Pinkie sang. She loved the catchy theme song she just heard. The parts she couldn’t remember she hummed as the elevator descended down the 30 floors to the control room. The doors opened as she hummed merrily.
She stopped short as she saw Cheese trying to get in the elevator before it closed. She quickly pressed the close door button. The doors obeyed the command and almost shut if a rubber chicken hadn’t launched itself between them.
“Whew, thanks Boneles 3,”Cheese gasped. “I almost missed the highlight of my day.”
“Don’t try anything this time, Cheese,” demanded Pinkie. “I’m wearing my official hat this time. My mane won’t say anything.”
She adjusted her official CAKE barrette that covered her mane and gave him a smug self satisfied look.
“What about your tail?”
“Don’t you even think about it tail,” threatened Pinkie, but it was too late. The tail had twisted its normal bulbous form into a shape of a heart. “Not you too.”
Pinkie felt like screaming and crying while her body conspired against her. Suddenly the elevator stopped and darkness filled the small metal box. Seconds later the emergency lights turned on coating everything in a yellowed light.
“Oh no! Oh no! Noo!” shouted Pinkie. “This has to be Twilight’s fault. Or cake burglars.”
****
Lyra and Bon Bon watched in disbelief as both their computers turned off. They looked to Twilight for guidance.
“We didn’t do this, did we?” asked Twilight.
Lyra shrugged and leaned far back in her chair.
***
The crew room fridge suddenly turned off.
“We didn’t do this, did we?” asked the dread Cake Burglar.
His partner shrugged and placed another piece of birthday cake into his muzzle. It wasn’t his.
***
“This is not supposed to happen,” stated Discord, highly annoyed. He strutted out his darkened office in a huff.
“No, it’s not,” agreed Mud Briar and slowly followed after him.
***
The Eva pilots trotted to the entrance of headquarters just as the power failed. Fluttershy didn’t notice the regular lights were out as they approached. She and her new girlfriend had walked from class together while Maud slowly followed along.
It was an odd, awkward, yet wonderful feeling that Fluttershy had while walking next to Rainbow Dash. She hadn’t been able to tell her best friends yet. Applejack had been griping about Rainbow Dash all morning and Fluttershy didn’t know how to broach the subject. Something about only the two of them knowing made it feel more special.
She cheerily swiped her ID card through the reader with her wing only to find nothing happened. She swiped again to be sure but the door refused to open.
“Oh dear,” pouted Fluttershy.
“Move over, I’ll get us through,” demanded Rainbow Dash. She swiped her own card but nothing happened.
“The power is out,” said Maud without looking up at them. She had found a nice piece of jet to inspect.
“How do you know that?” asked Rainbow suspiciously.
“That light on the top of the reader is out.”
“Oh”
“So what do we do?” asked Fluttershy.
“We get inside, of course. Look! There's a regular door over there,” pointed Rainbow Dash. The blue speedster found the handle and twisted it.
“Look!” she beamed. “I found the way in.”
“It looks awfully dark,” mumbled Fluttershy.
“Nothing too scary for us. We fight angels for breakfast. I’ll protect you anyway so you should be fine.”
The awesome leader led the way into the darkness. The others blindly followed.
“You can always hold onto me,” snickered Rainbow to Fluttershy.
“We should check the emergency protocols,” suggested Maud.
“Oh yeah, right,” Rainbow said and began to fish around in her dress. Her hooves kept coming up empty. “Umm I think I left mine in my other dress.”
“You can look at mine,” offered Fluttershy.
Rainbow quickly glanced at the outstretched manual in Fluttershy hooves and got frustrated.
“This is egghead stuff,” whined Rainbow Dash as she turned away in disgust. “Summarize it for me.”
“First you have to establish whether this a true emergency,” summarized Maud. “Then you have to establish..”
“A chain of command,” finished Rainbow in excitement.
“That’s not what it says,” Maud began.
“There’s always a leader in those survival situations. I nominate the most awesome pony should lead. Naturally that’s me.”
“It’s not a survival situation,” explained Maud coldly. “And the protocol clearly dictates..”
“Boring,” yawned Rainbow in pantomime. “The best course in these scenarios is action. C’mon follow me.”
***
Shining Armor felt bored. He was in charge of defense of the kingdom but he rarely had anything to do. Every major threat lately was an angel and CAKE handled those.
The ground surrounding Canterlot began to shake.
“What is that?” he asked and looked out the window.
A large spider the size of Canterlot tower crept by. Its body was the size of a train car and it was covered in eyes. Its long legs extended out almost a mile with each step.
“Looks like another angel,” he yawned as it walked by towards Ponyville 3.
“Better call CAKE,” suggested a bored Flash Sentry.
“They don’t seem to be speaking to me,” informed Spearhead.
“Strange,” observed Shining.
“They are headed by a being of chaos,” pointed out Flash.
“That is true,” Shining said now alert and uncomfortable. It was not like Twilight to not answer her big brother’s call. “Keep trying anyway.” He shifted more forward in his seat. Something didn’t feel right.
****
Lyra had collapsed onto her keyboard. The heat and sweat drained her of all motivation to sit upright. There was no point. Nothing to be done. Her mane stuck to her face and in between the keys. She panted. The end was coming soon. She could no longer contain herself.
“The air is getting too hot,”she finally bemoaned.
“That’s because the vent system doesn’t work,” explained Bon Bon.
“My mane is sticking to my horn and my face and this keyboard I’m trying to sleep on.”
“It’ll be ok. You can’t die from a sticky mane.”
“How about boredom? Can you die of boredom?”
“No you can’t. But if you continue to whine the rest of the room might kill you. “
“You won’t protect me?”the collapsed unicorn wondered.
“If you continue I will lead the charge myself.”
“But we’re just sitting here in this hot air not doing anything. Why?”
“This is our job to help protect ponykind,” Bon Bon informed. “If the power returns or an Angel attacks we’ll be right here.”
“Ehh what are the chances of that? Unless this is the attack now. They’re trying to kill us through heat and boredom.”
“Maybe,” pondered Bon Bon. “It is unusual for all the power to fail through the entire city at once.”
Twilight heard her coworkers complaints and wondered about their validity. She found her superiors in their desks in the control room. “What do you think sirs? Is this a kind of angel attack?”
“Technically it is not an attack at all as no pony has gotten physically wounded,” assured Mud Briar. “However I don’t believe this to be angel related. It could be a saboteur.”
“Why would anyone want to sabotage us, ponykind’s last defense against the angels?” bemoaned a wounded Discord.
“I don’t know,” admitted Twilight.
***
“Still no response from CAKE,” informed Spearhead gravely. “This is, like, looking really bad, sir.”
“Get my chariot ready,” commanded Shining Armor with grim determination. “I’ll go warn them myself.”
***
“We are lost again,” declared Maud as she inspected the wall.
“Heh heh, I totally meant to go this way,” dismissed Rainbow Dash.
“Why?”,asked Maud, staring around her blankly.
“To spend more time with Fluttershy?”
“You two hang out all the time and live together, why would you need more time with her?”
“Umm”
“Do you know the way Maud?”asked Fluttershy and pulled Rainbow out of Maud’s stare.
“Yes.”
“Wait, hold on. I’m the leader here,” insisted Rainbow Dash.
“I know,” responded Fluttershy, “and a good leader listens to her friends to help get through obstacles.”
“You’re totally right,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “Which is why, as a good leader, I say we follow Maud.”
“It’s this way,” Maud said, quickly turning around and walking in the opposite direction.
“See Fluttershy, I am a good leader after all,” boasted Rainbow puffing her chest out.
“Uh huh,” agreed Fluttershy with a slight smile. She noticed Maud’s strange backward glance. She felt bad they talked so little to her. Fluttershy built herself up and began to talk. “So how do you know which way to go Maud?”
“I memorized the rock patterns in the walls construction. The walls are lined with trace amounts of tourmaline to help dampen magical interference,” explained Maud. “If you look at the walls closely you can see a small glint of them.”
“Your right,” gasped Fluttershy as she took in the intricacy of the wall pattern. She was impressed at Maud’s sharp eyes.
“Each wall has a distinctive pattern,” she continued, “I just merely memorized it.”
“That’s amazing,”gushed Fluttershy. She had never found a pony that could see the wonderful in something that seemed so mundane.
“Hello. Amazing girlfriend behind you,” reminded Rainbow Dash.” All that egghead stuff is not useful against an angel anyway.”
“Just what are the angels?,” asked Fluttershy. “Why do they want to hurt us?”
“How should I know? Again with the egghead stuff,” huffed the bored pegasus. “It really doesn’t matter what they are. If they mess with us we take them down.”
“Just seems a shame we can’t all just get along,” mused the yellow mare.
****
Shining Armor’s chariot flew over the massive spider. He felt dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of this foe. He directed his pegasi friends around the monstrosity.
“That thing is huge,” he noted. “It’s a giant bug covered with eyes. Twilly is not going to like this.”
He turned his voice to his companions. “Ponyville 3 is close. Let’s speed up and give them plenty of warning.”
The small team sped up and found a very quiet city before them. The automated cars and trains were stopped. The few ponies out looked shocked at Shining’s galant arrival.
“It looks like all the power is out,” observed Spearhead. “That could be why they didn’t speak to us.”
Shining nodded. He pointed at the large metal complex built from the nearby mountain.
“There,” he commanded. “That’s CAKE’s headquarters. We have to warn them.”
As they approached headquarters Shining found a large entrance and had his team fly in. He found a mass of turns and twists inside that led off of the main road. Luckily the routes were labeled and it didn’t take him long to find the main control room.
“Twilly,” Shining Armor shouted as he got close to the control room, “an Angel is coming. Repeat Twilly there is an angel here in Ponyville 3.”
***
“Did you hear that?”, asked Fluttershy as a loud booming voice announced the angel’s presence to somepony named Twilly.
“An angel is here,” nodded Rainbow. “We need to get to central dogma fast.”
“The quickest way would be to use the air vents,” Maud stated as she pointed to the air vent in the ceiling. “There are no door hatches in there.”
The pegasus looked up at the vent then at Maud.
“I guess I could fly you up,” offered Rainbow to Maud.
“Why?” the grey mare asked. Before Rainbow could explain Maud leapt into the air and bucked the air vent open. In a millisecond she landed and sprang easily through the hole and pulled herself in. The pegasi stared at her in amazement.
“Are you coming?” the earth pony monotonously asked.
***
Twilight and the others were moping around. Lyra had collapsed and even Twilight looked bored.
Both Discord and Mud Briar were sweating profusely. Discord stood in a bucket of melted ice cream.
“It’s hot ,” observed Mud Briar.
“Ooo, this is infuriating,” whined Discord.
“Twilly! An angel is in Ponyville 3!” shouted Shining Armor from down the large corridor near the control room.”You have to fight it! Umm..Just try not to look at it.”
“That sounds like my brother!” Twilight gasped as she sat up. “What’s he doing here?”
“Twilly! An angel is approaching!”
“An angel?! The power is out. What are going to do?” demanded Twilight hopping on her hooves.
“We need to launch the Evas,” responded Mud Briar flatly.
“Without any power?”
“Yes,”
“Is that even possible?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“We can use our manual overrides and individual unicorn magic to get the Evas ready for their pilots.”
“But the pilots aren’t here,” mentioned Lyra.
“In the case of an angel threat,” explained Mud Briar, “protocol dictates that the pilots get to their Evas immediately.”
“How do we know they are going to follow it?” asked Lyra, lifting her head from her keyboard.
“Maud is there,” explained the dry stallion. “She will get them all here.”
***
“Argh! These vents are too narrow for me to fly,” complained Rainbow Dash. “I wanna be there now.” She hated confined spaces. It made her feel vulnerable. Something she never wanted to feel again.
“We just have to crawl this way,” reassured Fluttershy from behind Maud. “It’s not much further is it, Maud?”
Maud glanced back at Fluttershy. “It’s just a few feet forward”.
“You know if you wore skirts, Fluttershy,” teased Rainbow Dash in the back.”I could have totally looked up it, ha ha.”
“That’s exactly why I don’t wear dresses,” Fluttershy cried, feeling her face turning red. “Just the thought of somepony looking up there makes my skin crawl. And what if I fell over.”
“But the skin crawl thing doesn’t apply to me right?” Rainbow Dash desperately inquired. Fluttershy remained quiet. “Hey! I’m not somepony that makes your skin crawl right? Right?” She tentatively placed her hoof on Fluttershy’s flank.
Fluttershy froze instantly. She could feel every nerve on her body. She tried to run but found no room to go either way. Suddenly the vent buckled from her weight shift. It split underneath her and she fell on the control room floor with Rainbow tumbling after. Maud hopped out the other half and landed cleanly next to the pegasi pile.
“Observe,” remarked Mud Briar to Lyra. “Maud led them here.”
“Oh my goodness,” gasped Fluttershy looking around. She winced as Rainbow climbed off of her. “What is all this?”
“My brother told us of the angel attack,” explained Twilight. “Everypony else manually used their magic and muscle to get the Evas ready for you.”
“Really?” gushed Rainbow. “Yes! No more vents!”
“Now we aren’t going to be able to launch them as we usually do,” explained Twilight. “You’re going to have to walk them into battle.”
“Walk them? Where?,” asked a hesitant cyan pegasus.
“Well there are large vents you can climb to the top through.”
“Aww, horseapples.”
***
The pilots were able to fly or climb into their entry plugs. Before long the Evanstallions were up and moving.
“Ready girls,” asked Rainbow, taking the lead as their robots scrapped along the huge shafts. “It might take us a while to..yargh!”
The robot stopped short as the vertical shaft next to Unit-02 filled with sizzling yellow liquid. Rainbow noticed the edge where her hooves had been melted and bubbled in the liquid’s wake. She tried to poke her head into the shaft and looked up. She caught a glimpse of something black with eyes but quickly ducked out of the way of another cascade of fluid.
“Yuck! What is that stuff?” demanded Rainbow.
“Magic Acid,” stated Maud. “You can tell by the way it dissolves the different layers of sediment.”
“Magic acid, huh,” pondered Rainbow. “Do we have to worry about it flying or chasing us or something?”
“No, it’s just acid.”
“Well it sounds radical but if it drops on us it would hurt.”
Rainbow glanced down the shaft and spied the bottom a little ways down.
“I got it!” Rainbow exclaimed. “The shaft ends a little farther down. Maud, you and Fluttershy jump down there. I will block the acid with my wings. Then, when I give the signal, you throw Fluttershy like a spear and that should drive her horn right through that thing.”
“You’re jumping into its acid!” gasped Fluttershy. “Didn’t you say it would hurt? And this is magic acid who knows if it will produce some sort of effect. Your tongue could swell up or wings turn upside down.”
“It’s just the acid’s name,” clarified Maud.
“We don’t have time to worry about what sort of effect it would have on me,” Rainbow declared, ignoring Maud. “We must stop this angel. That is our purpose. If it means I have to battle magic acid that could turn me inside out for all I know, it’s what I’ll do.”
“It’s really just its name,” stated Maud again.
“Ok, is everypony ready?” the self sacrificing pegasus exclaimed.
The others nodded with their Evas.
“Then move out.”
Unit-02 leapt into the shaft and Rainbow Dash placed its hooves into the sides of the vent. She opened its wings to completely block the shaft. Immediately she felt the acid pour over her Eva’s body. Shearing pain erupted across her back. She felt her right knee begin to retract from the intensity. Then she remembered the pain Fluttershy had placed herself in when she jumped into the volcano. She gritted her teeth and kept her squeaks to a minimum.
“Oh Rainbow, are you ok?” gasped Fluttershy.
“Don’t worry about me, just go!” Rainbow growled through gritted teeth.
The other two units jumped to the bottom of the shaft. Unit-00 stood on its hind legs and placed its forelegs on Unit-01’s torso.
“Ready?” asked Maud.
“Ready,” responded Fluttershy,”but are you sure you can...”
Unit-02 weakly flew out of the way as Unit-00 threw Unit-01 towards the angel. Fluttershy screamed as her body rocked back in the chair from the sudden acceleration. Unit-01 sped through the air and Fluttershy adjusted it so that her Eva’s horn became a spear head. The horn pierced right through one of the angel’s acid weeping eyes. The angel shuddered once then collapsed.
“We did it,” panted Rainbow Dash as she squinted through her pain.
“Yay,” stated Maud flatly.
“Umm, it would be nice if someone could get me down from here,” suggested Fluttershy. Her Eva hung limply, its horn still embedded in the angel’s eye. She tried to pull free but the Eva had run out of power.
***
After a short eternity the power returned. All the computers set about their normal humming business. Monitors bathed the mares in their comforting green glow.
Twilight and the command mares wearily made their way to the elevator. It had been a long day and Lyra thought of nothing but curling up in a nice cool bath. She watched Twilight press the button to the elevator and waited as the elevator opened.
They found Pinkie Pie inside as she stood on Cheese’s back. She flashed a smile as Cheese collapsed underneath her. They felt together in an uncomfortable heap. Lyra couldn’t help but think of scandalous thoughts. A stern look from Bon Bon told her to stop. Twilight merely lifted an eyebrow with a small smile.
“What were you two doing?” the purple unicorn asked.
“Playing 3D twister, duh,” Pinkie answered. “I win.”
Then she pronged off. Twilight glanced at Cheese who shrugged.
“She won,” he admitted.
“Did she?” Twilight asked.
“Umm, can I go home now?” whined Trixie behind them.
***
The victorious pilots walked back to their homes. Fluttershy watched Rainbow limp painfully. She had taken a lot of damage vicariously through her Eva. She tried to brush it off but Fluttershy could see the sprained expression and slowness in the way she usually walked. It hurt to watch it but the third filly didn’t want to affect Rainbow’s pride.
“I still don’t understand why the angels want to hurt us,” she wondered out loud, changing her thoughts.
“You’re still on that?,” grunted Rainbow. “The angels attacked us. They don’t have to have motives. It could be they’re just mean.”
“Just seems strange to be mean for the sake of meanness,” Fluttershy mused. “Normally meanness is a sign that something is hurting. I wonder what is strong enough to hurt an angel.”
The three continued to walk in uncomfortable silence.
***
“The angel looked like what?!” shouted Twilight at Shining Armor. “Sooo creepy!”