//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Into the dark // Story: The Equestrian Enrichment Project // by GandhoofOfManyColours //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Into the dark Earth, Aperture Laboratories, ? AD “Cryogenic specimen suspension system emergency backup power depleted. Life sign retention success, thirty three point three per cent. Enacting emergency revival procedure” the computerised male voice rang out in the stillness of the room, breaking the silence that had been complete for so very long. The room was then filled with the sound of ancient machinery groaning into life to perform one final task; the remains of each of the glass cases slid down into the floor with an escape of gas. Rainbow Dash awoke slowly from a dreamless sleep. Her body ached all over and it took her a while to remember who, and where she was. When she finally regained her composure she was angry, she was going to get the creatures that had done this to her and her friends! She opened her eyes expecting to see the room she was imprisoned in before, but what greeted her eyes was enough to make her forget all thoughts of vengeance. She was still in the same room and the cases were open, but the once gleaming room was dark, dingy and badly damaged. The once white wall panels where dirty and in many places had moss growing on them. Vines snaked their way up the walls and through the gaps in the celling. The glass in the cases that had contained her and her friends was cracked and most of the cases were broken, the creatures that had been in those cases had gone, however their age yellowed skeletons remained in the positions they had been sleeping. At some point in the past a light fixture had become unattached from the roof and had fallen through the top glass and then the pony with the red coat that had been in a case across from her, its empty eye sockets left staring blankly into the room for all eternity. She looked around the room in panic for her friends and was relieved to see the forms of the five other ponies, stirring from their slumbers. Rainbow slowly got to her hooves and walked shakily out of her case. “Is everyone ok?” She asked with obvious concern for her friends. “Uhg” came the response from twilight Sparkle without opening her eyes “how long were we out for this time?” she asked. Rainbow Dash didn’t quite know how to answer this for a moment and eventually said “I’d say… well looking at this room… several decades, at least” Twilight shot to her hooves suddenly fully awake “What?!” she exclaimed looking around the room in abject horror, her eyes scanned across the desolation, the bones of the other creatures, then quickly across to her other friends. “By Celesta… how… I don’t even… Oh Celesta is it just us, out of all these creatures?” she walked over to the case that had held the red pony “I didn’t even know his name” she hung her head and shed a single tear for those lost. By this point the other ponies had fully awoken too. Applejack was standing silently, just surveying the scene, her mouth slightly open. Pinkie Pie, normally one to be cheerful in all situations, looked very disheartened. Her pink coloration seemed almost muted in the dingy surroundings and her mane was hanging limp at the side of her head. Rarity was torn between sadness and disgust at the dirty room and Fluttershy was crying silently for the animals that had been in the other cases. Twilight was wandering along the room aimlessly when she noticed something, or rather the absence of something. The case that had once held the Diamond Dog was empty, not even bones. Then she saw it, a trail of paw prints left in the debris on the floor, recent enough that no dust had settled back in them. “Looks like we weren’t the only ones to survive” she said. The other ponies looked up in confusion. “But Twi… there’s no one else here” Applejack answered uncertainly. Twilight remembered Applejack hadn’t woken up since being captured. “when we were in this room just after we were captured, there was a Diamond Dog in this case” she indicated the case she was standing in front of ”but now it’s empty, and look” she motioned towards the floor with a hoof “paw prints in the dust, he must have left before we woke” “Why us? Why did we live and they die?” asked a distraught Fluttershy tears in her eyes. Rainbow Dash went over and nuzzled up to Fluttershy in an effort to comfort her. “Probably just chance” Rainbow said, still trying to comfort Fluttershy. “Actually, it’s most likely our size” Twilight countered, still thinking “we were the smallest of the creatures captured and in the smallest cases therefor a smaller area and a lower chance of damage” She walked over to the machine in the centre and examined it for the first time. Much of the once gleaming metal was tarnished and corroded and most of it was dark and lifeless, except for a rectangular area on one side, which was still glowing though mostly obscured from Twilights vision by the remains of one of the bipedal creatures. “That creature probably saved our lives” she said sadly looking at the bones of the creature. “Whatever happened here killed him, maybe if he had left us and ran like the others he would have survived” she didn’t know what to think of this, after all these creatures brought them here in the first place but this one gave its life to save them? To Twilight it didn’t add up but due to the sheer amount of time that had passed she was sure she would never know these answers. “What’s a Cryogenic specimen suspension system?” Pinkie asked, obviously still shaken but beginning to regain her usual composure. Pinkie’s voice brought Twilight back to reality. Pinkie had moved over to the machine and was looking into the glass rectangle that was still glowing. Intrigued by this Twilight walked over to where Pinkie was standing and took a look at the glass rectangle for herself, what she had taken for just a glow was actually glowing orange letters. Looking further this display answered some of her questions. The letters on the display were all capital and various pieces of punctuation had been used to show an almost graphic interface. “Everypony had better have a look at this” Twilight said after reading the information displayed on the panel. “Looks like we’ve been here an awfully long time” Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy picked their way through the derbies and looked at the display. It read:- ---APETURE SCIENCE COMPUTER AIDED CRYOGENIC SPECIMEN SUSPENSION SYSTEM--- TIME: 21:13:33 DATE: 17/09/2247 SYSTEM LOG: 16/05/2003 - ERROR: GLaDOS UPLINK TERMINATED, CONTINUING FROM LOCAL BACKUPS. 16/05/2003 - EMERGENCY SYSTEM ACTIVATED – LIFE SIGNS: 21 22/01/2086 - WARNING: CRYOGENIC SPECIMEN CONTAINER #506F DEPRESSURISED. - LIFE SIGNS: 20 02/09/2125 - WARNING: LOST COMMUNICATION WITH CRYOGENIC SPECIMEN CONTAINERS #6E69, #6573, #2072 - #756C, #652C, #2042, #726F. - LIFE SIGNS: 13 02/09/2219 - WARNING: POWER LOSS IN CRYOGENIC SPECIMEN CONTAINERS #6E79, #2034, #2065, #7665, #7221 - #2121. - LIFE SIGNS: 7 17/09/2247 - WARNING: CRYOGENIC SPECIMEN SUSPENSION SYSTEM EMERGENCY BACKUP POWER DEPLETED. - EMERGENCY REVIVAL PROCEDURE ACTIVATED. - EMERGENCY REVIVAL PROCEDURE COMPLETE LIFE SIGN RETENTION SUCCESS, THIRTY THREE POINT - THREE PER CENT. ---LOG END--- “So what does all this mean?” Asked Rarity, confused as to what much of the text had meant. Twilight looked up from the display to face her. “For us? Not much, it means we’ve been asleep for a long time, two hundred and forty four years, four months and one day to be exact. But what does that mean? We’re in a different universe on a different planet, who knows how long a year is here? It’s almost certainly not the same as it is in Equestria. A year is the length of time it takes a planet to revolve once around its sun and that won’t be the same anywhere else so the numbers mean little to us all we know is it’s been a long time and, by the look of it, most likely none of the creatures that brought us here are still alive. Even if they survived what ever happened here they would be long dead by now so where does that leave us? Celestia knows and unfortunately, she’s not here” she answered. “And what do we do now?” Applejack asked, trying to be matter of fact in the situation. “It’s obvious” Rainbow Dash answered, taking charge of the situation. ”we get out of here. We leave this room, find a way home and kick the flank of anything in our way!” She seemed almost back to her old self. “Do we have to kick things?” Fluttershy asked quietly, not really asking the question but more showing her displeasure at the idea of violence in a way not to offend anyone, unfortunately too quiet for the others to hear. During this discourse Rarity had trotted over to the door, avoiding the larger pieces of dirt as best she could and she chose this moment to speak. “Hate to break it to you ponies, but I don’t think we can get out, there’s no handle on this door” Twilight stiffened, this was not the news she had wanted to hear. She walked toward the door, not wanting Rarity’s words to be true however, no such luck. The door was round and made from metal. It had once had been completely smooth with a round segmented symbol emblazed on the centre and the words, TEST LAB 103 across the top. Originally there had been glowing strips around the rim lighting up the door. Now it was rusted and pot marked, the words and symbol barely recognisable the lights dark. She remembered from when the creatures had first come in that the door had not opened like a normal door, instead it had split along the middle and the two half’s had slid back into the wall. She placed her hooves on the door and tried to slide it but to no avail, the door would not budge. “There must be a way to open this, there must! That dog got out somehow” Twilight said trying again to push the door open, her hooves not finding any grip to pull against. “Could this have something to do with it?” the voice of Pinkie Pie came from right behind Twilight’s left ear, making her jump into the air. She spun around to see Pinkie Pie standing behind her pointing up to a panel on the wall to the left of the door. It had once been attached to the wall but was now hanging from a hole by some thin strands of metal with colourful cases, a bunch of these strands were also hanging of the bottom of the panel ending in a white block which had the strands lined up in neat rows with holes on the other side. Twilight looked up at the hole where the panel had once been attached to the wall and saw a similar white point, now dirty with age, with a set of metal pins protruding out in the same arrangement as the holes on the white box attached to the strands. It looked like it had been disturbed recently as much of the dust had been shaken off. “Could it really be that simple?” she said, more to herself than the other ponies. She concentrated hard on the strands, the magic was much harder here but the levitation spell took and with a bit of effort she managed to maneuver the strands directly in front of the corresponding block on the wall. Once positioned she moved them together. There was a loud bang and a shower of sparks emitted from the panel, the lights around the door flickered into life, two of them instantly failed leaving an uneven ring of light around the door. The ponies jumped back as one from the shock. “All that and all it did was turn on the lights?!” Rainbow Dash said incredulously and with a hint of anger. “right that’s it” she lifted into the air and flew directly towards the door as fast as she could with her fore hooves stretched out in front of her. Just as she approached the door, the two half’s slid apart with a grinding sound causing Rainbow to cannon through the open door into the darkness beyond; there was a series of loud crashes and some untranslatable Equestrian phrases uttered by Rainbow before silence. The five ponies still in the room rushed toward the door. “Rainbow, are you ok?” Twilight shouted worriedly into the darkness beyond the door. “I’m fine, just perfect” came a sarcastic reply from the darkness. Twilight and the others took the sarcasm to mean that she was in fact, ok and slowly and nervously proceeded in to the darkness, afraid as to what they might find.