Alright, so it was simple. All Vinyl and I had to do was sneak around a heavily-guarded facility with loads of hostile forces on the lookout for us both while we looked for our weapons. Simple, I suppose. Though part of me was indeed curious as to what kind of weapon a ‘bass gun’ could be. But that was besides the point. As of that moment, I was entirely riding off my adrenaline, and could only think of how much I desired to punish those who committed such vile acts.
They will pay. They will…
“Let’s see...” Vinyl quietly judged the scene before us. We had snuck past the other interrogation rooms, and found ourselves coming up to an office at the end of a hallway to our left--just around a corner. There were two pony guards stationed there, their eyes steeled for a fight. “Okay...I’ll distract ‘em with a bit of musical flair. Think ya can take ‘em both?” she asked me as she peeked out.
I didn’t give a verbal response. All I did was give a scathing look in the direction of the hallway, and grimace with a cold stare. “Hmph.”
“...I’ll take that as a yes?” the white unicorn responded with a nervous whisper, “You okay bud? You seem...way more intense than when I met you at that antique shop.”
“Just go,” I replied sternly.
The look of concern changed to that of a confident smirk. “Heh, alrighty then. Just watch me.” From her horn, she cast a simple, soundwave spell that played a few electronic notes out in the middle of the hallway.
Right after that, we could hear both guards move. Hoofsteps clopped against the frigid, stone floor as they got closer and closer. Then…
“Begone.”
I tackled the first one and slammed her head into the wall, which knocked her out instantly. The next one, another mare, tried to tackle me to the floor, but I stopped her with a punch to the gut followed by a roundhouse kick that probably knocked some of her teeth out, and sent her flying into the wall near the door.
Vinyl gave a sharp, impressed sort of whistle. “Pheew…wouldn’t wanna be on your bad side…” she walked up to the door, and groaned. “Aw, dammit! We need a card or something.” Apparently there was a slitted redear device that required a labeled card to access it.
I looked at the guard that I had kicked into the wall, and grabbed her uniform. She had the card around her neck, so I ripped it off by force, and slid it on through before I tossed the unconscious pony aside like the trash she was.
BEEP! ACCESS GRANTED!
Vinyl slowly pushed the door open with her magic, and took a look around. There were swords, bows, axes, and a few ballistic weapons here and there all lining the walls. Even a few magical tomes with symbols that I could barely recognize. This was their weapon cache. But for the moment, I was concerned only with my lever-based blaster, and Vinyl’s…
“There it is!” she cried out. With her magic, she levitated what appeared to be a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. Although, the main difference was that it was white to match her coat color with loads of beeping lights and even a few piano keys. The barrel was a long piece of metal that was surrounded by a bowl-shaped piece that controlled which way the sound went. “Alright, now we’re armored up. Now we can fight back. You ready?”
I smashed open a glass panel, and retrieved the wooden/brass air launcher that I cherished deeply. “Time to kill.”
“Ooh...that looks pretty cool. Similar to my own baby here. What’s its source?” she peered over at it, but I had no time for that.
“You’ll find out,” was all I said as I stepped out of the room. I made a mental note of all of these weapons, and would have the rest of my crew come and confiscate them as soon as we busted this case open. For now, our focus was escaping.
As we walked, Vinyl even brought up something that I had been thinking about. “Hey, Pale Vestige, right?”
“Yeah?”
“You think anypony’s gonna come looking for us?” she asked with her weapon how holstered across her back, “I mean, we’re pretty far out here, and I’m not sure if anypony’s even realized that we’ve gone.”
I chuckled as we made our way through the asylum. “Heh. Don’t worry. Even if we have to kill our way through, I’m getting us out of here,” I replied with quite the sinister snicker. At that moment, I had no qualms about killing anyone who was involved with this situation. Svengallop especially. I did not intend to let him survive this encounter. The world would suffer from his existence no longer.
“I see...strangely comforting despite being mega-ominous. But I’m with ya,” Vinyl insisted. I guess she wasn’t exactly opposed to the idea either. I could respect it, I suppose, but I was surprised to say the least.
We worked our way through the halls, and could hear chatter from a room up ahead.
“Shh,” I whispered. We both knelt down to the floor, and listened in on the conversation that happened from around the next corner.
“...find them immediately! They’re too valuable to let loose at this point!” a voice said.
“This time, we’ll tie them down, and take their magic by force!” another called out.
So that was their aim, huh? Given the situation, it made sense. But that begged the question: Just how many other ponies were being held here? How vexing. This would need some strategy. Once the individuals were finished speaking, we heard thunderous hooves stampede across the halls. Thankfully, they didn’t notice us hide in the dark shadow of the corner.
“Hot damn,” Vinyl muttered under her breath once they disappeared from earshot, “So they’re running a magical thievery operation? Freaking wack, yo. I dunno about you, but I’m not about to let that happen to anypony. What should we do?”
I took a deep breath. “Free any hostages we find, and then…”
All the sudden, we heard a loud, screechy noise followed by an explosion that came from outside.
PHEEEEEEW…
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Was that fireworks? No. An emergency flare. But who in the devil could have done that?
RIIIIIING!
Right afterwards, an extremely loud alarm bell went off.
Vinyl panicked, and nearly lost her balance when the floor started to rumble. “What the freaking--woah!”
As soon as the flare went off, dozens upon dozens of voices and rumbling steps came from above us. It was as if a riot had broken out and the flare was the signal. The DJ unicorn and I had no clue what was going on, so we had to investigate.
“...Let’s get up there,” I said to her, and ran towards the nearest staircase down the hall.
“Heh...I knew it. I bet Tavi’s already found us--hey wait up!”
A Few Minutes Earlier…
So here it was. A giant, bleak gray, stony building with an eerie black gate that surrounded it on all sides. It was awfully creepy to see such a place in the midst of an empty reddish-orange landscape that was essentially uninhabitable. And yet..ponies actually had a base here? Just what was it for? Gah, stay focused, Cozy. This was not the time to get overrun by emotion and lose your cool.
Now that we found the place, we had to enact...whatever the heck Flurry Heart was planning.
“First, we need to take out those guards that are stationed at the entrance,” the alicorn said. “Anypony wanna try their hoof at it?”
“Ah gots an idea,” Applebloom stepped forward, “Step aside, ya’ll.” She trotted down the hill we were on, and took shelter behind a rocky formation. Once there, she crept alongside it until she got close to the right corner of the outer wall--just a few yards away from the main gate itself.
What came next would haunt me forever.
Applebloom reached into her saddlebag, and retrieved what looked like a sickly green potion bottle. She removed the cork with her teeth, and spat it aside. “Ptew!” Then she reeled back, and gave a hefty chuck! The potion bottle flew through the air, and shattered near the hooves of the guards.
They stopped to inspect the liquid, only to find themselves fast asleep. Out like a light in an instant! After that, she beckoned us to come over as she trotted over to check out the results of her little liquid. “Heh, easy.”
“Wow, AB!” Scootaloo looked down, the residue had disappeared completely so we wouldn’t be on the receiving end of its effects. “I completely forgot that you were into potions! Where’d you come up with that one.”
“Ya’ll know Mage Meadowbrook, right? Well, it’s a simple ol’ sleepin’ potion to help ya relax when yer sick. They’re gonna be havin’ sweet dreams for hours. No matter how much we scream or holler,” she replied with a smug expression as she reveled in how much of success it was. I for one, was so in awe that I couldn’t think of anything to say.
Sweetie Belle used her magic to move the pair of guards out of our way. “That’s pretty cool, Applebloom. You’ll have to show me that later. Now...how do we get past the gate?” she said, which caused all of us to look up at it.
Flurry Heart tried to use magic on it but she got repelled. “Yikes. No good. It’s electrified with a supercharged lightning bolt from a pegasus that likely enchanted it with a cloud. This is gonna take me a minute to break through…”
Scootaloo scoffed. “We don’t have time for that!” Then she looked at me, “Cozy. Can ya fly up, and grab me some thunder clouds real quick? Preferably some negative-charged ones?”
“Oh...sure!” I flapped my wings, and headed into the sky. As a fellow pegasus, I knew exactly what Scoots was trying to pull off. Whether or not it would work out...was another matter entirely.
But I grabbed some gray, crackling thunder clouds, and swooped back down. I handed the puffs off to Scoots, and she...affixed them to the bottom of her skateboard?
“Thanks,” she replied, and walked back up the hill we just came from, “Stand back, everypony!”
We all stood out of the way, and Scootaloo rolled down the hill on her board. At full speed, she performed a kick-flip, and jumped.
BZZZ!
Electrical zaps went off, but Scootaloo wasn’t affected! She kicked her board against the gate, and used the clouds I had gathered to short out the electrical magic that had enchanted the gate!
“Ahhh!” the orange pegasus yelped as she was flung backwards.
“I got you!” I flew up, and caught her in my hooves. “Whew…”
“Thanks, Cozy...somepony check the gate!” she called out as I set her down.
Flurry touched the bars with her bare hoof, and pushed it open. “...We’re in, guys.”
“Nice one, Scootsy!” Applebloom cheered as she walked in.
“Heh. Never thought your obsession with extreme sports would help us out with bad guys,” Sweetie commented, “and yet here we are.”
Scootaloo snickered as she grabbed her board. “Kyeh heh heh...that better be a compliment, ya know!”
The five of us all walked into the gate, and were met with a pair of gross, old wooden doors that led to the inside of this...asylum-base, thingy. Now that we were in, I wondered what we should do next.
After we all discussed it for a moment, Sweetie Belle spoke up. “Alright, guys. Listen. Sneaking in is pointless since we’re trying to save Doc and Vinyl Scratch.”
“Then what should we do?” Scoots asked.
The white unicorn’s horn lit up with her powerful green aura. “Heh...let’s cause some chaos...that way, we’ll be able to let everypony know where this place is...and make them scared. Who’s with me?” she said with an evil grin. This mare had grown to be a very crafty one compared to the cute little filly I knew from years back.
“Okay, I’m in,” Applebloom replied, “But just how ya’ll gonna do that?”
Sweetie chuckled, and put on a fake Trottingham accent. “Ohoho. Elementary, darlings--” she paused, and cleared her throat. After that, she spoke normally. “Ahem, sorry. I used to love seeing Rarity play detective, and I’ve been reading her mystery novels, so I’ve always wanted to say that. Anyway! Watch this, everypony…” She smirked at us, and stood with her hooves firmly planted in the cracked, scorched earth. Her horn lit up even greater than before.
We all took a step back.
After a few seconds of charging, the unicorn’s horn activated a flare-like magic spell from her horn, and it flew into the sky with a shrill whistle. It was so loud that we all had to cover our ears.
PHEEEEEEW…
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Moments after that, we heard an alarm bell go off, followed by lots of screaming and shouting from inside the building.
“And now...we wait for Flurry’s side of the plan,” said Sweetie. The rest of us still had our ears covered as we waited for...wait, what?!
Meanwhile…
“...Hun! Look! There’s a weird green light over there!”
“...Just what we’ve been waiting on. Let’s head down immediately!”