//------------------------------// // squink // Story: Foggy Overcast // by Cake Sparkle //------------------------------// The trio was making good time, Cake was pushing ahead and lighting up the path with her horn as her subordinates kept lock step behind her. The snow was now up to three inches, it wouldn't be a big problem, if they were wearing boots and not trekking up and down hills, through bushes, and in the dark with the howling wind coming straight at them.  “It's just up ahead! Once we are inside, we need to start the process immediately!” Cake said with chattering teeth, her eyes were bloodshot, her head was pounding, the only thing keeping her going was how smug she felt stealing a kiss from Twilight. It felt like a small victory to her, a trophy still resting on her face even if her lips were chapped. One last blow to Celestia, even if she had obviously abandoned them a long, long time ago.  “There!” Yellow shouted, pointing to the bright glowing light coming through the falling snow. “Cake, the lights on!”  “Fuck!” That was not a good sign. Cake picked up her pace and approached the large silo doors. She walked over to the keypad as it glowed at her, she opened her saddle bags to look for the keycard “I don't have it! I don't have it!” She exclaimed in a panic.  Yellow pushed her out of the way and slid her own into the slot, the doors slowly began to part and reveal the well-lit interior of site zero. Cake focused her horn to reveal the large lettering on the sign past the huge steel doors. SOLAR INVICTUS, in that old font that the nobles of the past loved so much. “Come on, inside now!” Yellow shouted.  Cake drew out her sharpened makeshift javelins and held a few in her magic as she stepped inside. Tide Turner stumbled in behind her and shook the snow off himself as Yellow worked on the internal keypad to close the door behind them. As the doors closed, the 3 looked at each other and nodded. Cake threw one of her bigger sticks to Tide Turner who tied it to a belt on his side. Yellow shook her head at him as she took a pistol from her pack and pulled back the slide with her teeth. Then placed it into her mouth. “Take no prisoners.” Cake whispered.  Cake walked quickly through the nuclear silo, the place wasn't made for missiles, they hadn't been out of the prototype phase just yet, but for a less sinister purpose. The constant hum of the lights made Cake feel uneasy as she began to check out the reception area first. The desk was empty and the computer in front of it had been smashed. She walked over to it and signaled for Yellow to hit a button under the desk to open the security door on the far side of the room leading deeper into the facility. Yellow nodded and got into position. The pegasus tapped the button and quickly put up a shield spell as she charged the door slowly pulling itself up from the ground. Already there was shouting from the other side. Cake used her small frame to slide under it on her back, she could worry about the friction burns on her flanks later. Ahead of her was a young cow, his face went from confusion to fear as the stoic pony came into his line of sight, then a blissful peace as the makeshift javelin catapulted out of Cake’s magic and through his eye. Cake knew all good soldiers had a battle buddy and used her momentum to jump up and land on her hooves, finishing the slide at the end of the hallway and bringing her adrenaline down onto the cow who stood horrified at the sight of his friend still standing with the sharpened stick sticking out of his head. She ended him the same way as his peer, dropping him in an instant since they weren't wearing any helmets. She debated hitting him in the leg, forcing him to draw out his comrades to come help him as he cried out in pain. She figured she wouldn't, not in front of Tide Turner anyways, who was very loud announcing his arrival behind her as he galloped down the hallway. “Is that all of them, Ma’am?” He asked, wheezing a little.  “No. be quiet.” Cake whispered, she grabbed the rifle from the dead bovine and tossed it to him with her magic, then stepped over the corpse as she ‘reloaded’ her available javelins from her makeshift quiver. Yellow Diamond flew over the earth pony, keeping her pistol aimed to their flank to cover them as Cake continued her charge. The bunker was silent now, they kept moving. Another set of empty hallways, down flights of stairs, and through the concrete crypt.    “Are… we still doing this, Brew?” Tool Belt asked as he looked at the wrench that he had tied a saw blade to on the table.  “Of course, we are, I know you said we would need Twinkle and her magic, but I insist. Whatever they have planned for us… It can't be good.” Brew replied in a huff as she cut out a piece of cardboard and duct taped it to a sheet of metal and tied it to her foreleg with fishing string.  The door behind Minty pushed open and cold air pushed into the house, Tool Belt scrambled to place the wrench into his mouth as the dark figure in front of him stood menacingly in the doorway. “You two are going to get yourself hurt or lost without my help.” Twinkle said as she stepped into the candlelight and slammed the door behind her. “I’m sorry about earlier, you caught me at a… let's say very, very bad time. But whatever is going on needs to end, nothing good can come from C- Santa Claus lording over our lives.” Twinkle adjusted her scarf and looked out the window. “It's still snowing? It's almost eight in the morning and there isn't a ray of sunshine outside.” Twinkle shivered as she turned over to face the group, Minty looked away from her and crossed her front legs.  “Why do you even care, don't you have something to be painting?” Minty said with a snort. Still bitter and not ready to let her grudge go. “Minty. I am sorry for how I treated you two earlier but that snow out there is getting worse. We have to do something.” Twinkle turned her head over at Tool Belt who looked at her sheepishly and spat out his wrench onto the table. “Leave that behind, it won't do us any good. And you should be wearing something warmer than cardboard Minty, the river outside is frozen!”  “Frozen? Should we be going out in the woods in this kind of weather, maybe we should wait a few days?” Tool Belt suggested.  “No, the longer we wait the worse it's going to get. But I have some good news, I know where Santa is, I found hoof prints in the snow, if we leave now, they might still be out there.” Twinkle looked over at Minty who had seemed to relax and was more open to the idea of working with her.  Minty sighed and stood up, sliding off her chair and looking at Tool Belt for him to follow her lead. “I've got some coats and blankets we can use to not freeze out there. I’ll go grab them.” he got up and then stopped, turning back to the group. “Should we tell some pony where we are going, or… get a few extra hooves?”  “No time, hurry and grab the clothes, the faster we start the sooner this can all end.” Twilight said, her magic grabbing onto Mintys cup of tea and downing what was left of it for her.    Cake was leaving behind a trial of bloody hoof prints on the concrete floor as she made her way through the silo. “I am not mopping that up…” Yellow mumbled, her pistol still being held in her mouth as she hovered above her commander.  Cake stopped and raised a hoof, her ears perked as she heard the sound of running water ahead. “Flooding, they must have planned to fill this place with water!” She exclaimed, turning her once calculated approach into a bull rush as she charged down to the next level.  She galloped through the halls as fast as her short legs could carry her. Her chest felt tight as exhaustion was taking its toll on her, still she pushed on regardless.  Yellow was keeping her pace behind her, her pistol ready to fire at the first sign of life. Then they heard it, the sound of large metal hoof steps. Cake slid to a stop and brought up her magical shield as the sound of bullets echoed off the twisting hallway walls. She watched with a look of satisfaction as the little shards of shrapnel plinked against her magic and fell onto the floor. The buffalo in front of them emptied his magazine at them while Cake reached out to him with her magic, feeling over his equipment and armor before settling on a frag grenade in his pouch, pulling the pin she began to laugh maniacally as the buffalo, none the wiser, took cover to reload. With one large bang his metal helmet and parts of his skull and legs flew from over the stairs he had retreated back too. The roof above him quaked for a moment, then collapsed. Yellow stared at the mess of gore in front of her before shaking her head back into the moment. “What the FUCK Cake, what the hell are you thinking!?” Yellow rasped; Cake just laughed in response.  “Come on, that was fun! Remember when we used to do stuff like that in the old days?” Cake trotted over to survey the damage of the staircase while Tide Turner looked down out at the glass observation window that led down to the core of the silo.  “Girls, um, I'm looking at about ten feet of water down there!” He said, Yellow flew over to look. The pegasus spat her pistol into her hooves. “Mother fucker!” Yellow began to scream in a rage. “We need to get down there and turn on the pumps and get that water out now, if that equipment is damaged, we won't have any way to replace any of it!”  Cake looked at the scene she had painted, the buffalo was in a few pieces under some concrete and rock. She could easily squeeze through it and keep going, but she knew her friends were not going to be able to. “Yellow, find a way to get those pumps on from the admin room on the level below us from up here, even if you have to find a way to break through that window. I’m guessing the leader is on the lowest level, they would want to loot what we have themselves. Watch out for more cows, or buffalo.” Cake didn't turn to face them as she began to squeeze herself through the blood and rock to the other side. She needed to focus, she knew she was slipping heavily, what she just did was dumb, very dumb. But it did make her feel good, a kind of freedom she hasn't felt in a while. She didn't even notice how her posture had changed to a happy, almost show pony gallop as she hummed a tune that soon became a whistle and finally just singing. “The yanks are coming; the yanks are coming! Their drum, drum, drumming around the bend!” She kept her head up high and her sticks ready.  Twinkle looked over at Tide Turner with a confused frown as they both heard the singing echoing down the hall. “Well… let's find something heavy to break this window with.” Yellow flew over to a janitor's closet and opened it up. It was larger than she expected with the inside having the usual mop and bucket, along with a large metal cart filled with cleaning supplies. “You grab one end; I'll get the other!” Yellow said as she landed down and dragged the cart out. Tide shook his head at her. “I got it, stand back and watch for glass shards.” The large earth pony quickly positioned the cart in front of the glass and stood behind it while yellow took cover. With one powerful kick, the metal cart flew right through the window and down into the water below.  Yellow smiled and took flight. “Hey, why didn't you just kick the glass?” “Why? So I could get a shard of glass through my hoof?” He asked, looking at her confused. “Eh, good point.” Yellow stuffed her pistol back into her mouth before flying through the now shattered window into the interior of the silo, scanning for any signs of danger. After surveying through the other windows, she landed on the metal scaffolding to the lower level and waved to Tide Turner to follow her down. Tide jumped through the window and out onto the rusted metal platform, climbing down a ladder to join the pegasus who was waiting for him. “Hey, I’ll do you one better, why didn't we just use the door?” Tide asked, pointing to the very visible door on the top level that would have led them onto the scaffolding.  Yellow shrugged and kept moving, she positioned herself beside the door to the admin room and signaled for Tide to prepare a breach. The earth pony nodded and got into position, with one swift kick the cheap metal door flew off its hinges and Yellow stormed inside. A single buffalo was hunched over a computer screen, he turned in surprise at the noise trying to grab his rifle that was propped up beside him. Yellow fired a burst of bullets into his back, leaving him hunched over the terminals and his blood dripping onto the floor. Yellow looked around the room for anymore and then threw him off the chair and onto the floor.  “What are these old rifles they have, are these muskets?” Tide said as he walked over and compared his looted rifle to the one against the table.  “Mmhm.” Yellow nodded, she looked over the terminals and began to punch inputs onto the keyboard. Tide tried to decipher some meaning from the long list of code and spill that was rapidly pouring out of the four screens.  “Can you actually read all that, Yellow?” He asked, looking at the pegasus.  The pegasus removed the gun from her mouth and laid it onto the desk. “You see, Royal Guards usually have groups of four assigned to areas they would need to be needed in. Cake was good at killing, Dafodilly was great at communication… espionage… I was always good with technology. I know you wouldn't guess it by looking at me, but it's the truth.” She sighed and withdrew her hooves from the computer and stared at the screens with a hoof to her mouth. “It's not entirely bad… but none of it looks good.”    “We have been walking for at least an hour now! Nothing is out here…” Minty protested, still trying to keep up with the two unicorns in front of her.  Twilight was leading the trio, using her magic to clear out a path in front of them while Tool Belt kept the lantern raised above his head.  “The place it's- Santa’s workshop is just up ahead! We have to keep moving!” Twilight shouted, trying to keep Minty from falling behind them into the howling winds.  “What's this place going to look like?” Asked Tool Belt as he struggled to keep his eyes forward “Metal doors! Yellow light!” Twilight responded. “There, up ahead!” She began to trot quickly through the snow towards the light. The three huddled against the large doors as Twilight tapped on the keypad. “It’s locked! I don't know what to do!” Twinkle covered her face with her hooves as she looked up at the yellow lights attached to either side of the door. She debated on knocking, somepony had to be home.  Tool Belt walked over to the keypad and looked at it, tilting his head to get a few different angles. Then running his hoof over the little screen. “What kind of key does this thing take?” He asked.  “It takes a card, like a small bit of plastic!” Twilight responded as she watched Minty shaking next to the door, her teeth chattering as she looked over at Twinkle for some kind of help.  Tool Belt removed his hat and produced a small plastic card from under an inner fold, he slid it into the keypad and grinned as a little sun appeared on the keypads screen. The metal doors began to grind and whine as they opened, the trio hurried inside to escape the cold.  “I… I hate winter…” Minty whispered through chattering teeth as she laid on the concrete floor. Twinkle took off her scarf and placed it onto her.  “Stay here Minty, I’ll… I should go on ahead alone from here.” Twinkle looked over at Tool Belt who was in a trance as he looked around at the posters on the walls of rising suns and a burning alicorn princess.  “Is… is that Santa on those posters?” He asked, approaching one of them and staring at it.   Twilight knew there wasn't time to explain to them what those posters were, she had to keep moving. Twinkle didn't want to send them down that spiral, staring at old memories that needed to be forgotten.  “Uh… Yes, yes, it is, come with me now Tool Belt, I’ll need you to help me with Santa. Minty, you should stay here and warm up!”  Minty shook her head as she walked over and stood beside Twinkle. “I didn't come to stay behind halfway; I’m staying with you Twinkie!”  Twilight shook her head. “You shouldn't Minty, it's going to be dangerous. You could get hurt.”  “I know, and you could too. I’m with you.” Minty gave her a reassuring smile.  Tool Belt broke away from his trance and fixed his hat. “I’m coming too, there might be more doors that need to be opened.”  Twilight looked at both of her unlikely companions and sighed. “Stay behind me. And stay quiet, the element of surprise is our only advantage right now.”