If there was something that Sunny and her friends wished they had known ahead of time before they had set out on their expedition, it was where exactly they were headed. While Phyllis’ letter had stated that what they were going to investigate happened at a CanterLogic testing facility outside the city, it didn't really help them. All they had was a general idea of where it was. The three of them didn’t even have a clue as to what the place looked like or if there was anypony even there.
Luckily, when Sunny checked in with Ms. Cloverleaf and told her that she and her friends were going to look into what happened, Phyllis was kind enough in order to provide an address for them and also inform anypony that happened to be there to be expecting them. So, with GPS directions on her phone and Zipp flying above them every so often to see what was ahead, Sunny felt that they were on the right track.
Of course, when they got there, it was a whole different story.
“Prrrrivattt… Properta…” Izzy said aloud as she stared at a sign on a chain linked fence, “Pri… Priva… Prorreity… The hay does that mean?”
“Izzy, that’s ‘Private Property’,” Zipp replied, “You know, like if somepony really wanted privacy and would fine you for trespassing?”
“Really? That’s a thing?” the curious unicorn asked, “We don’t really have anything like that in Bridlewood. Ponies just walk in whenever they want to come by and say hi.”
“That… explains a lot,” the pegasus muttered, before she looked over towards Sunny as the earth pony was trying to look past the front gate and towards what looked like an enclosed two story building, “So, uh Sunny? Is somepony supposed to be here to let us in? Because this place looks kind of empty.”
“Well, Phyllis told us that she would have somepony waiting for us when we got here,” Sunny replied as she turned around to look at her friends, “But I don’t really see anypony inside.”
“Well, it doesn’t really look like the kind of place that you would just abandon. Maybe this pony is on their lunch break or something-?”
“Hi, new friend!”
When Sunny and Zipp turned around to look at Izzy, they had found that the curious unicorn was no longer stuck on trying to understand a sign. Instead, they were trying to get the attention of a security camera that was around the edge of the building. “Can you please let my friends and I inside? We were asked to help with something rather important, but we didn’t want to step on your Prorreity without permission.”
Zipp couldn’t help but facehoof herself at that while Sunny was really nervous, “There’s no way that is actually going to work-”
Much to the surprise of everypony that was present, the doors to the facility actually opened and the front gate began to part as well. Leaving both the pegasus and the earth pony baffled by what transpired. For whatever Izzy did actually worked and got the attention of somepony that was inside.
Not a few moments after that did the trio see a new figure step out from behind the doors of the building. One with light blue fur, short navy mane to match his eyes and wore a standard security officer unicorn. “Sorry for not letting you in sooner. I just got off my lunch break,” he replied, before looking at each one of them, “Do you have an appointment?”
“A-Actually, we were asked to help investigate something that happened here,” Sunny replied as she pulled the letter out from her saddlebag and gave it to the stallion. “I know it’s not much, but-”
Before she could even finish speaking, the stallion gave them a warm and welcoming smile as he gave the parchment back to her, “Well, you must be the guests that Ms. Cloverleaf told us about. We’ve actually been expecting you.”
“You have-?”
“Well, of course. Though, to be fair, when Ms. Cloverleaf told us that she was going to have somepony help investigate what happened, I honestly did not expect her to call upon the ponies responsible for bringing magic back to Equestria,” he replied, before leading the three of them inside the facility, “My name’s Castle. I’m one of the ponies in charge of security here. Though, right now, we’re the only ones here since Ms. Cloverleaf wanted to make sure that the facility was safe before anypony else could come back here.”
“And what is it that ponies do here exactly?” Zipp asked.
“From what I’ve been told, most of the work that’s done here involves conducting experiments that can’t exactly be done in an enclosed environment. Most of the time though, it’s field testing new inventions,” Castle told them as he led the girls down through a corridor before opening one of the doors on the right. As he did, Sunny noticed that there was a name plaque on the door. One that had the name ‘Trial Run’ on it. “This here was where Dr. Run was stationed. Despite being back home and recovering from his ordeal, most of his research is still here.”
“Do you happen to know what he was working on?” Sunny asked, before noticing that Izzy was fixated on a collection of metal parts that were left on a workbench.
At this, Castle couldn’t help but shrug, “Bits and pieces. Dr. Run and I are friends, though he has a tendency to either explain too little or too much when I ask about his work,” As the stallion spoke, he trotted over to the desk in the back corner and opened the drawer. “The general summary though was that he was working on technology that could help us see and read magic.”
“Uh, don’t we already see magic?” Izzy interrupted, before she gave a demonstrate as magic began to shimmer around her horn and she began to levitate the pieces of metal in front of her, “I mean, my horn glows when I cast magic and-”
“Not in that kind of sense,” he politely interjected, “He meant the magic of Equestria as a whole. Dr. Run had a bunch of theories on magic, but his main one was that magic flowed throughout the realm, such as in the ground we walk on and in the air we breathe. Not only that, he also theorized that if this was the case, whenever we used magic, we’re drawing upon magic from the land itself. So, he was trying to make some kind of camera that allowed him to see and read magic to see how much was either in a particular creature or given place, and if successful, he could use that for any future research.”
“Did it work?”
“Oh, it did… a little too well,” As he said that, Castle brought out what looked like a copy of the map of Equestria that Sunny and the girls were familiar with. However, there were four different red spots with different sizes on it as he placed a hoof at the top of the page, “To give you an idea of what he found, he gave each of the three cities up here a numerical value based on the readings from original tests.”
When all three of the girls looked, they could see that the circles were in fact their hometowns. Maretime Bay had the number twenty next to it, Zephyr Heights had a twenty five and Bridlewood was listed at thirty five. Of course, that had Sunny look back down to where they were at and the fourth circle on the map. “And what number is this one?”
That had the stallion move his hoof off the table and look back towards Sunny, “That is the concerning part. The area behind us, which we call the Backyard, has a higher magical density than all three cities combined… and it’s growing. I have no idea what’s causing it, but I can tell you for sure that these developments have been rather troubling. Especially since we have no idea what it is.”
That had Zipp look around the room for a moment as a new question began to surface “Sunny’s letter mentioned that he claimed to have found something in there. What do you think of that?”
“Personally, I’m a bit unsure if I have to be honest,” Castle replied, “On one hoof, Dr. Run isn’t one to be a liar, especially to his colleagues. On the other hoof, it’s hard to take his claims seriously when you can’t exactly see anything to support it. Security footage showed him walking outside one moment, only to completely disappear and not show up again until much later.”
If Sunny were honest, that left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t much to go off on, especially if they were trying to get to the bottom of what happened. They needed more information before coming to any solid conclusions. “What were some of the things that he said? Anything aside from the ‘ruins of a giant city’ part?”
“Well, when we shortly found him, it seemed like a bunch of nonsense at the time,” the earth pony told them, “Yet, there was one thing he always kept repeating anytime we tried to ask what happened. Dr. Run kept saying something that he found that was the ‘heart’ of that place he stumbled into. He kept on calling it an ‘magical engine’. I’m not sure if this is a lot of help, but it’s all there is to go on unfortunately. The other researchers just think he’s hallucinating.”
That had the earth pony raise an eyebrow. It might not have been much, but what Castle just said seemed rather… specific. If Trial Run was specifically talking about it so much, maybe it was because it seemed like something that was rather important.
Then… something dawned on her. So much so that she had to have her train of thought interrupted by a very familiar violet hoof and friendship bracelet entered her field of vision, “Sunny? Hello? Equestria to Sunny, are you there?”
Sunny couldn’t help but blink as she looked back towards Izzy and Zipp. “Oh, sorry. I was just a bit lost in thought.”
“What were you thinking about?” Zipp spoke up, “Something having to do with our current dilemma?”
At that point, the earth pony thought it would be better to not keep what she was thinking to herself and share with everypony else, “Actually, yes. Though, I will admit, it’s more of a theory than anything else.”
“So, you think that Dr. Run was not exaggerating and that the ‘Engine’ he claims to have seen is actually real.”
“It’s only a theory, but that’s what makes sense to me,” Sunny replied back, “This researcher was studying how magic flowed through Equestria, right? Well, I think during his tests, he noticed that something was wrong when he was doing his tests in the backyard. When they went to go get a closer look, he ended up getting pulled into what’s happening back there.”
“Okay, but what about what our new friend said?” Izzy asked, “About how it’s growing?”
“Well, I think there’s a common similarity between it and the devices we have.”
“Seriously,” Zipp shrugged, “I’m not exactly an engineer or anything, but that seems-”
“I think I get it.”
Both Zipp and Izzy looked back at the security pony that was in the room with them, both of them asking the same exact question that came to mind. “You do?”
“Well, many devices in this facility as well as the devices that you happen to keep with you require a source of power to work properly,” Castle replied, “Like, you can’t exactly use your phone if the battery for it is out of juice and needs to recharge.”
“Okay, but how does that-” As Zipp was going to ask, a realization soon hit her. One that made her eyes widen, “Wait a minute… you don’t think-”
That had Sunny nod her head as she looked back at everypony in the room, “Unfortunately, I believe that’s the case of what we’re dealing with here. If this is some kind of magical engine and if we go by Trial Run’s theories, this device is actively pulling magic from the land and absorbing it. If it continues… then it may try to drain all the magic we worked so hard to return back to Equestria.”
“That’s horrible!!” Izzy cried. “Why would it do such a thing?!”
“I don’t know, Izzy,” Sunny said, before she looked out through an open window and into the Backyard itself. She watched as a piece of paper was flying out farther into the backyard. Then, it vanished as if it never existed, “But I think there’s only one way that we’re going to find out for sure-”
“Sunny, slow down a moment,” Zipp interjected, “You’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting now… are you?”
While it wasn’t exactly the most ideal of situations to be in, with everything that Sunny and their friends had learned so far, one thing became abundantly clear. There was no way for them to know for certain about anything from the safety of the CanterLogic Testing Facility. If they wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery and find a way to prevent this situation from getting worse, the three of them would have to venture out into the unknown.
However, one pony in the room wasn’t entirely on board with it. “Ms. Starscout, I hate to be ‘that pony’, but is this really the only option?” Castle asked, “While I do agree that there is a lot that we don’t know, there is a lot of risk with the plan you’re proposing-”
“I know this sounds a bit excessive, Mr. Castle,” Sunny told the guard that had been helping them so far, “But we can’t know for sure what we’re dealing with or what’s going on unless we go in and see for ourselves. Right now, all we have is theories and we wait too long, it’s only going to get worse.”
“Yes, but when Dr. Run returned, he wasn’t the same as he was before. Many thought that he had gone mad,” the earth pony replied, “I know Ms. Cloverleaf brought you in to investigate, but the safety of everypony here is my responsibility. I don’t want to see what happened to my colleague happen to anypony else.”
It was about then that Zipp thought of something, “What if we tried to send something else first?”
At that, both of the Earth Ponies looked over at the pegasus as Sunny raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, Zipp?”
“I don’t know. This is supposed to be a CanterLogic facility, right? Surely, there should be something we could use before we try throwing ourselves at the problem,” Zipp asked, before she looked over at Castle, “Do you have something we could try?”
Castle placed his hoof on his chin and began to ponder for a moment or two, before he looked back at the pegasus, “If I remember correctly, R&D was testing some an RC unit not long ago, but couldn’t take them with them when everypony had to leave the facility.”
“Ar… Dee? Ar… Cee?” Izzy asked, tilting her puzzled head in the process, “Who’s that? Are they twins?”
“No, it’s not a who,” he clarified, “RC is short for Remote Controlled. If my understanding of it is correct, whatever the contraption is can be controlled remotely as long as there isn’t any interference,” when he saw that the unicorn was still a bit confused by what he was talking about, the stallion sighed, “Follow me and I’ll show you.”
The four of them soon made their way over from the small office that they were in over to the other side of the building and into an indoor workshop. While it looked almost the same as the room they were in, this one was twice in size and had a wooden hardboard with a numerous collection of tools run along the walls. In the far corner, there looked to be a four wheeled contraption that was about the same size as one of the pomeranians that Hitch somehow happened to be friends with. There was also some kind of dock next to it that had what looked like battery packs plugged into the wall.
“This is what I mean,” Castle replied, “The eggheads at Research and Development were creating what they called a ‘Remote Observation Vehicle for Emergency Response’ or R.O.V.E.R. for short. Ideally, it’s meant to get into places that we can’t in order to rescue anypony in danger during an emergency. However, given the circumstances, we might find a way to use this.”
“Um… how does it work?”
“Well, how it works is that the pony operating it would control it from a safe distance and send it in,” Castle explained, trotting over and motioning a hoof to what looked like an oversized joystick from the arcade in Bridlewood, “As long as there isn’t any interference between the control unit here and the R.O.V.E.R, it can go anywhere and the camera on the R.O.V.E.R. can be used to see what the pony operating it can’t.”
That was when a realization hit the group as Zipp spoke up, “Oh, I get it now. You want to see if we can be able to use that first to see if there’s anything there?”
“Ideally, yes,” the stallion nodded, before he asked for some assistance in placing the batteries inside the R.O.V.E.R, “I used to be in search and rescue and in that line of work, rushing in without taking note of everything around you is just asking for trouble. I will admit that Ms. Starscout is right in the fact that the only way to grasp the full situation we’re facing is to actually go inside. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be careful.”
Once the contraption was prepared and the battery was in place, all four of them left the workshop and trotted towards the back of the facility and stepped outside. While the land that stretched farther away from them looked normal in appearance, they could tell that something was off. Anything that flew into the direction where they were facing would just immediately disappear when they went too far. As if they were there one moment and then blinked out of existence the next.
Of course, what sent a shiver down the spines of Sunny and her friends was that this phenomenon wasn’t just limited to objects. For as Castle was setting everything up, they watched in horror as a small bird was flying one moment… and then immediately disappeared the next. A sight that, if Pipp were there with them, she would’ve fainted on the spot.
“Well, that’s… creepy,” Zipp remarked. While hearing about the disappearances that happened here was one thing, witnessing one happen right in front of you was something else.
When Sunny noticed that the pegasus looked a bit uncomfortable, that was when she tried to comfort her, “Zipp, if this seems a bit too much to handle, you don’t have to-”
“No, no,” her friend quickly denied, “I agree to come along and help you. I would be going back on my word if I tried to back out now. It’s just… well-”
“Nervous?”
“Well, considering that we don’t know what’s going to happen and what awaits us inside that… thing,” the pegasus motioned a wing in the direction of the phenomenon in the backyard, “Then yeah, I’m quite nervous.”
“To be honest, I think we all are,” Sunny reassured her friend as she tried her best to sound hopeful. “But-”
“There we go. That should do it,” both of them were interrupted by the sound of Castle as they turned to see that the stallion had the R.O.V.E.R. prepared and was looking towards them. “I’m just about ready. Come over here and we’ll see what our little friend here can find for us.”
Izzy was the first one to hurry over to Castle’s side, with Sunny and Zipp following close behind afterwards. Once all three of them were nearby, the stallion pushed his forehoof on the controls and began to operate the R.O.V.E.R. As it left the safety of the facility and slowly moved farther away, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong at first glance. Nothing was affecting it in any strange way and the camera feed that they were watching was working perfectly fine.
Well, perfectly fine at first.
“How in-?”
The moment that she heard that, Sunny turned back around with a look of concern, “Is something wrong?”
“Not exactly,” Castle retorted as he motioned his chin towards the screen, “However, just now, the camera feed’s acting fuzzy.”
“Are we at the point where everything started going… well, poof?” Izzy followed up, moving her hooves with the last part to emphasize what she meant.
“Not yet, actually. But it should be getting close-”
As soon as he said that, the screen began to flicker rapidly as the quality of the footage was becoming rather choppy. From the point of view of the R.O.V.E.R, everything around it was covered in a thick fog like smoke that made it difficult to tell what exactly they were seeing. Not only that, but any attempts from Castle to try and fix the quality of the camera feed somehow ended up not improving it at all.
Then, without warning, the camera cut to black and there sounded like a small fizzle at the controls. “What? Are you kidding me?”
“Has… something like this happened before?” Sunny asked, which led to Castle quickly shaking his head.
“When we tested this before, the only time that we would have distortion like this would be if we sent it in an area where there was a lot of electrical interference, like downed power lines and that sort of thing. However, we don’t have anything of the sort all the way out here. Especially in the Backyard-”
Immediately, a sudden and loud ‘CRACK!’ was heard from farther away. All four of them immediately lifted their heads to see what it was. Yet, before they could contemplate what they heard, they realized that something was coming back towards them.
“Look out!!”
Zipp was quick to tackle both Sunny and Castle on the ground as something flew overhead, while Izzy’s horn sparked to life as a thin sheet of magic took the form of a shield and stopped whatever was coming at them in their tracks. “I-is everypony alright?”
“I-I think so,” Sunny said as she slowly rose back onto her hooves, “Just what even was that just now?”
That had the pegasus look back towards the wall where the debris had struck as well as where Izzy was standing. On the ground were some rather familiar looking parts to a contraption they had only seen a few seconds ago. Pieces of the R.O.V.E.R. that now looked to be twisted and beyond repair as Zipp looked back at her friend.
“I… think that thing in the backyard did not like us trying to poke around inside,” the pegasus tried her best to explain, yet everything had happened so fast that she did not have time to contemplate everything.
“C-Can we try to fix it?” Izzy asked as she tried to get a closer look. Only to be held back by Sunny as Castle was inspecting the burned out remains of the contraption that had been working until just now.
“I don’t think there’s anything that we can actually do here,” he shook his head, “This looks beyond repair. And even if it could be fixed, I wouldn’t know how. I’m just a security pony, not an engineer.”
Then, Castle looked back at Sunny as he let out a deep breath, “It would seem like there’s only one other thing we can do now. But if you three are still considering going inside… whatever that is, at least take this with you.”
As he moved a hoof to his vest, the stallion fiddled with a couple of the straps on it and pulled out what looked to be a hoof-held radio as he clipped it to the strap of Sunny’s bag. “I’m not entirely sure if this will work considering what just happened, but if it does, that could at least let me keep in contact with you,” As Castle looked back, he then said one last thing, “And please, make sure you come back safe.”
“We will,” Sunny assured him, before she turned to look back at both of her friends, “So, girls… are you ready?”
A pair of nods from both Izzy and Zipp were all she needed to see as the three of them trotted forth.
When the three ponies reached the edge of the Backyard and ventured forth, everything around them was immediately shrouded in a gray mist that was thick enough to block out the sun. A loud crackling noise akin to that of lightning echoed endlessly around them served as the only guide for the three friends as they tried to navigate through the unknown using sound instead of sight. With each moment, the crackling grew louder and louder with each step forward as they tried to push forward.
Then, when they thought that the way forward could not be found, the buzzing stopped. All grew quiet around them as Sunny opened her eyes… and was startled by the sight. “Oh, my stars.”
To the shock of all three of them, they were no longer in the outskirts of a dry wasteland, but in the crumbled heap of a fallen city. The sky above their heads looked to be a colorless void and the buildings looked vastly different from any of the three cities.
“Sunny, where are we?” Izzy asked. Yet, the earth pony herself was too shocked to reply. What they stood in must’ve been a city from the Age of Harmony, but could this place really be what she thought it was? Everything here looked and felt… wrong, in a sense. Like a disaster of unknown proportions had swept through a proud civilization and left nothing behind for them.
Once more, her thoughts had to be put on hold when she and Izzy heard Zipp speak, “Uh girls? I… think you might want to see this.”
Not far from where Zipp was standing, there was a broken wooden sign that laid on the cobblestone. Pieces of it were missing… but the message written on it was clear as day and when Sunny looked at it, her heart nearly skipped a beat.
‘Welcome to Cloudsdale, the city of dreams. Here to lead Equestria towards a brighter tomorrow!’