//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Not Alone // Story: Ascendants // by TechieBrony //------------------------------// My improvised lantern shone brightly, but even with it I felt apprehensive about entering the darkness. What if I ran out of power? would I be able to find another live wire in the dark without hurting myself? I shook my head, tossing the hair away from my eyes and stepping forward. There was no other place to go. My light revealed the corridor, roots springing from holes in the ceiling and walls. The walls themselves were warped and cracked, making the corridor feel eerily off-kilter. Maybe the floor was also a bit unlevel, or maybe I was still unsteady on my hooves. The halls were labyrinthine, many of them caved in and filled with more dirt and roots. I simply avoided those areas: there were plenty of other paths to choose from. Sometimes I found myself in wider rooms with chairs and tables. The tables were all attached to the floor, and the chairs attached to the tables. anything not similarly attached looked like it hade been caught in a tornado. A rack of what I could only assume were test tubes had been thrown against the wall, the frame mangled and the tubes shattered. In another room there appeared to be some sort of machine shop with the remnants of welding torches and fine-toothed power saws. I dug through the scraps for a minute, but decided I'd better move on before my light ran out. At the edge of my hearing was a steady, rhythmic beating. I wasn't sure when it had started, but I could hear it clearly now. Thump, thump, thump, thump... It came from above, passing over me and fading a little as it got farther. Could it be another pony? It sounded a little loud for that, but maybe they were on the heavy side. I hurried to follow as best as I could, stumbling a little as I trotted to catch up with the noise. Passing through an open door, I found myself in a stairwell. The thumping stopped. I looked up the stairs: the next landing up had a sliding door, but it seemed to be sealed shut. A panel next to the door lit up and made a chirping sound. I pressed the glowing button and a speaker came to life. "Please don't open that door," said a bland, mechanical voice. I blinked a few times. "Hello?" I asked. "Who is this?" The door shuddered as something on the other side hit it. "I'm here to help, and right now, that door is the only thing between you and a painful death." In contrast to the evocative words, the voice was still in a perfect monotone. I looked at the door. It was creaking and swelling under some new strain. "What is-" A metallic hoof burst through the door, letting a crimson light through and almost hitting me square in the muzzle. Instinctively, I decided it was time to leave, and found myself rolling down the stairs. I scrambled to my feet a the bottom of the flight and started running. I heard sounds of tearing metal behind me: Whatever it was had started opening up the stairwell door like a tin can, and I didn't want to be the beans inside. Several more panels with speakers lit up as I ran past, but I Ignored them: now was not the time for a chat. I ran until I found a room that seemed out of the way and paused to catch my breath. Another panel chirped, this one above a kitchen counter. After a few seconds of letting it beep, I decided I'd better push the button. The same monotone voice greeted me. "Good instincts. You will need some distance between you if you want to survive, but the sentry will eventually be able to track you here." "What is it?" I could hear my own fear in the question. "It's a construct. It's trying to kill you." "no kidding. What do I do about it?" A brief pause. "You'll need to keep moving. I'll direct you to a functional earpiece so we can maintain contact." There was a series of beeps that seemed to indicate a computer was busy. "Use the other doorway. Left, right, left, left. No stairs." I ran to the doorway opposite the one I entered and veered left into a corridor. As I turned right, I saw a red light illuminate the corridor behind me. I scrambled to get out of sight, stumbling but quickly catching myself. Now was not the time to be clumsy. The directions led me through what seemed to be a command center, My hoof bumped against something hollow. I looked down and screamed involuntarily. A pony skull. I put a hoof in my own mouth, willing myself to keep quiet and stay upright on my wobbly legs. Looking around, there were several skeletons scattered around the room, some strapped into chairs, others looking like they'd been tossed against the walls. Most were ponies, but there was also what looked like a dragon and griffon among them. I decided to keep moving, taking a door in the back. The room dead-ended in a pile of skeletons of various species, half-buried in a mass of dirt and roots. a blue light within the pile flickered on and chirped. Bracing myself, I shoved aside a large dragon skeleton to reveal the remains of an earpiece on The side of a unicorn skull. correction: Alicorn. The horn was longer than a unicorn's, and I could just barely see wing bones popping up from beneath the dirt. I grabbed the earpeice and put it on. "Hello?" "Good. Now keep moving. It's almost to you." The mild tone of voice belied the dire news. I suppressed a shudder as I ran back through the command center, taking a new way out. The voice called out new directions as I reached intersections, and I ran as fast as my legs would allow. "...left, right, right, left, stop." I skidded to a stop in a room not unlike the one I'd woken up in, lined with pods. "Here? why?" I really hoped she wasn't going to ask me to get in one of these. "There's life signs in a pod to your left. if we leave them, the sentry will find them." I turned to look. one of the pods had a red light blinking near the top. "Is there time?" "If we hurry, yes." I hesitated. I really didn't like those pods, but if there was a life to save, I had little choice. I hooked a hoof on the latch and pulled it open, and a vaguely equine figure fell onto me. coat rubbed against Chitin. "Er... wha?-" The changeling said, His compound eyes blinking to adjust to my light. "We don't have a lot of time. can you walk?" "err, Yeah, of course-" He pushed himself off her, only to land on his face. "Nevermind." I ducked under him, getting him distributed across my back for easy carry. "where to now?" The changeling shifted his weight. "Why are you asking-" "not you. Earpeice." I held a hoof to my ear as the voice began to speak. "Back into the corridor." I continued following the voice's directions, a lot slower now that I had a passenger. I could hear the thumping footsteps getting closer, but my legs could only do so much. "Whoever you are, please tell me you have a plan," I said into the earpiece. "we're nearly there." I turned a corner and was blinded by sunlight pouring from a hatch in the ceiling onto a narrow spiral staircase. "Up the stairs," said the earpeice. I could see a red light behind us. Climbing the stairs was confoundedly awkward with a changeling across my back. He tried his best to help, but his movements mostly just made his position more precarious. I had a good view as the thing that had been pursuing us stepped into the room. It's eyes were what bathed the room in red, shining from inside a metal pony-shaped shell with a jagged horn. Rust covered it from head to hoof, and on it's back, the rust seemed to form two skeletal wings. It's mouth opened and revealed rusty fangs, but no sound came out. Instead, The horn on it's head started glowing the same color as it's eyes. I yelped and ducked as a beam of crimson light shot over my head, The changeling fell onto the stairs behind me. I shouted. "Run!" We both scrambled up the stairs, The changeling moving suprisingly fast. Another Beam flashed by, and we struggled to keep going as the whole spiral shuddered. Another beam. I pulled myself out of the hatch and turned to help the changeling. He took my hoof just as the stairs beneath him collapsed, his full weight now in my grasp. I couldn't pull him up. "Fly!" I said to the changeling, seeing the sentry in the corner of my eye. The changeling looked at me like I was insane, and the sentry fired. Adrenaline surged through me and I pulled with all my might. This was not how this was going to end. The changeling was thrown clear over me, and the hatch closed as a beam cut through where he'd been a millisecond before.