//------------------------------//
// Office Colt-plex 
// Story: Half-Life: Equestria 
// by Ganymede 
//------------------------------//

Twilight's consciousness sifted, scattering widely, darkness penetrated every corner, every wall, every panel, closing in to a tightening grip that crushes unceasingly. Colors swirled, jeering, taunting, jumping just out of reach, pushing everything back into the blackness. Green condensed into a spherical form as legs sprouted, threatening to spring, only to seep back into the swirl as it reached its apex.

A bright light emerged in the center of the darkness, dim and intimidating, turning into the imposing form of a massive alicorn with powerful flowing mane and massive wings, staring down in dissappointment at a weak purple form on the ground.

Twilight, it whispered, a voice penetrating every corner of existence, inescapable and dark. What have you done?

The alicorn disintegrated into a headstone, taller than life, blank, dull, rough. An inscription carved itself at the bottom, spraying dust into the eyes, irritating them.

Here lies Spike, mark of purity in Equestria, murdered at the hooves of Twilight Sparkle

The words separated from the stone, breaking into letters, each unraveling into faces—dozens of faces—hundreds of faces: silhouettes peering dead-eyed, curious, enraged, shocked. Towers sprung up, the remains of a castle, sinking backwards, consumed by the numerous countenances all pushing, protecting, hiding away their home from the deadly threat in front of them.

Twilight woke up with a jolt, bolting her head up and looked around.

The hide on her face was crusted over from the remnants of tears, and her eyes were red and swollen. The dim scene of the arched brown tunnel lay before her. Concrete. Rough. Punishing. The weak smell of fecal matter wafted dully from the flowing stream tinkling lightly just down the tunnel.

Beneath her, she could feel a cold body of scales, like a large doll she had been carrying with her since before she could remember. She kept her head up, eyes forward, not looking at it. It wasn't like the other corpses in the facility. It wasn't just another grim decoration in a corridor. It was different.

It was special.

It required recognition.

Twilight stood up, reminded immediately of how weak she was. Her muscles were sore and stiff, begging her to lie back down. Twilight pushed passed them, no longer caring about feeling pain. Whatever life wanted to hit her with now was simply punishment: the ticking clock of Celestia's world simply balancing out the horrible crimes she had committed. If anything, she welcomed the pain. It was a relief the find that the world still sought some form of balance, even if that balance came in the form of physical torrents of discomfort. It was better than having to face the emptiness she was trying so hard to ignore inside.

Twilight walked in front of the elevator and turned to face it.

The elevator stared back.

She watched as the light reflected off the surface of the doors, wondering how something so cold and indifferent could have meant so much to her just a moment ago. It was just a gray square in the wall to her now. Just another decoration in the dull cave of the facility. Meaningless. Leading nowhere.

The surface, she thought, the surface...

What surface? Why have a surface? Was there supposed to be something up there?

Minutes rolled by with her staring blankly at that steel door. It seemed like hours, but she wished it could be years. She never wanted to leave. She felt just as empty as the body of scales on the floor. Hopeless. Void. Numb.

Perhaps it was stiffness in her muscles from standing too long; Perhaps it was her eyes going black from staring at the same spot for too long; Perhaps it was just an unconscious instinct; Somehow, though, she felt her body move. She was walking, lifting a hoof, pressing it lightly—very lightly—into the button on the side, pressing harder—just a little harder—until finally, it lit up.

The doors swung open immediately, revealing the inside of the large cargo elevator. There was a brightness and warmth to it that might have been inviting much earlier. The doors opening had no affect on her. She wouldn't have cared if they had swung open or not. She would have gladly continued staring at them for as long as she could stand.

But now there was a choice to be made. The brightness of the inside of the elevator beckoned for a body to fill it. A living body! A requirement Twilight did not feel she met right now. She neither felt fit nor deserving of being presented with such a reward. Accepting it would mean accepting something much more: accepting a loss that she wasn't quite ready to explore.

And yet, something in her body was telling her it was time to move forward. Physically. Against the current holding her back.

And hold back it did! She couldn't move forward alone. Her role down here wasn't finished yet. There was still closure to fulfill. It was the only thing she had left in her: the last purpose in her life before fate pushed her beyond into the darkness.

She barely felt her hooves moving as she hovered towards the form on the ground. She forced herself to look at it: so small against the expanse of the floor. She heard the elevator doors close gently behind her as she walked up and decided the most careful way to move him without disturbing any aspect of his physicality. She refused to use magic. She would fulfill this through her own physical exertion, pouring in her own energy and sweat to withhold the honor of the symbol before her.

She moved around in silence, using her hoof to gently shut the lids of the eyes, move the jaw closed, and finally place her mouth gently around the scales at the top of the head. She lifted it slowly, so as to cause the least amount of sliding against the surface. She would worry about cleaning the scales later. Cosmetics could be performed on the surface, once she found a suitable memorial ground.

Gliding back to the elevator, careful not to let the form in her mouth swing too much, she pushed the button on the elevator again and walked carefully through the doors, setting the form respectably in the exact center of the compartment. Every movement was automatic, unfeeling—simply another step which just happened to have another one right after it.

She turned away from the small form lying at peace on the floor and stared at the buttons available to her next to the doors. There were a number of them. Twilight noted two columns, a center row—two rows above two below—five total rows, times two columns: ten buttons.

All of this happened subconsciously as Twilight stared at the rectangular array of buttons. It was simply the way her mind worked. Of course, there was no surface button, but then, no elevator would have a "surface" button. It was all just different levels.

Her hoof hit the top floor—floor ten—feeling the glossy-clear button depress.

Nothing happened.

Twilight waited a moment, hoping the light was simply out, hearing the doors close quietly, but the elevator never moved or made a sound.

She pushed it again, in case it didn't work simply because the doors needed to be closed when you depressed it.

Again, nothing.

She felt her hoof move automatically to the next button, pushing firmly on 9.

Nothing.

Pushing on 8...

Nothing.

7...

Nothing.

6... 5... 4... 3—

A light! A force beneath her hooves! A weak hum as the elevator's motor kicked into gear!

Perhaps not as near the surface as she had wanted, but she was willing to walk as far as was necessary to reach the surface.

The floor dropped out slightly from under her as the elevator slowed, the light on the button going on. There was a moment's pause, and then—

The doors slid open, revealing black-and-white checkered tiles on the floor, clean, marble, with natural cracks and grooves reflecting the light cast from the elevator.

Twilight reached a hoof around to hold the doors open, moving around to see what lay ahead. As she rounded the corner, a brick wall came into view opposite the doors, as well as a dropped ceiling with acoustic tiles, one of which was damaged, revealing the dark void of the plenum space above it.

Twilight stepped out onto the marble floor, looking both ways. It might have been somewhat cozy had it been lit better. Too many of the fluorescent lights had been damaged. One of them had been knocked entirely off its support beams, sitting precariously in the middle of the floor arcing small electrical bolts from its exposed and damaged circuitry.

Twilight turned her head away from this site, and looked instead to her right at a set of red doors peering at her with wire-mesh glass windows. The room behind them was almost darker than the hallway!

True, this was no good for a final resting place, but perhaps it would lead someplace better. Another elevator? Stairs? Even a door outside, if she was lucky.

She moved softly back to the form in the center of the elevator, letting the doors close behind her, carefully positioning her mouth around his spines and lifting the body once again. She pressed the "open doors" button and stepped out into the hallway to explore.

She avoided the sparking light fixture at first, setting the body down carefully in front of the red doors to the right and tried the handle.

Locked.

She tried the other handle.

Also locked.

Leaning forward, she peered in the window, trying to see the best she could if it led anywhere. A tiny light shined dimly, reflecting off the floor. It wasn't in the ceiling, and Twilight guessed it was probably some sort of desk lamp. A table, perhaps? In the back? And something else—a figure—moving slightly. A creature? No! It had a mane.

Twilight hesitated. She wasn't sure she was ready to talk to another pony just yet. She wanted to finish her duty to Spike first: to put a cap on the wound. It was still too fresh now.

And yet, she wasn't sure she would ever find a proper place for the body without some other pony's help! Thoughts fought with each other tearing silently back and forth and practicality finally won. Lifting her hoof, she tapped lightly on the door.

The resting head of the silhouette bolted up like a deer in the woods, turning slightly to search for the sound, letting her dangling mane swing playfully. She didn't get up from her resting place.

Twilight gave another soft knock, hoping to and succeeding at prompting the pony to a standing position. It happened much quicker than Twilight had expected. The shadow didn't so much stand as disappear. Twilight could barely make out the darting whiff of smoke as it ran off into a corner of the room Twilight couldn't see.

Twilight kept waiting, hoping the pony was simply preparing something before answering the door, but no one ever came. The room now looked deserted, as if the pony inside had simply left through another door that Twilight couldn't see.

Curiosity leeched through her as questions raced through her head.

Perhaps there was another path in there? Another way to the surface? A separate hallway?

Twilight focused on the silver crash-bar on the other side of the door and focused her magic on it. She reached out with her crippled horn and felt for the other side, and was met halfway at the window. Something solid was in the way. Her magic couldn't sense anything beyond the glass.

A magic barrier, she thought sarcastically. Of course.

For a moment she considered simply smashing the glass! But then she remembered about wire mesh, and the thought of getting her hooves sliced up like a celery stock in a blender coerced her away from the idea. Even a crowbar couldn't break through that stuff, and she was out of bullets.

Turning around again, she felt her increased awareness radiating into the hallway, and started picking up on small details she had missed the first time. She noticed the subtle difference difference in color of the bricks that split the walls horizontally, the bottom darker than the top. She noticed a sign on the right-hand wall a few feet down, brass and bolted at the corners, with an arrow pointing away from her to "Admin offices", and another arrow pointing to the "Executive lounge" which the ghost of the other pony inhabited. She noticed a few dark bulbous forms with legs scattered dimly around the sparking entrails of the fluorescent body in the center of the passage. And she noticed a patch of black on the wall: a shadow just next to the corpse of the lighting fixture, cleanly and perfectly square, as if someone had drawn it, rather than cast it. It rested against the ground, and couldn't be much more than a couple feet on all sides.

Twilight crept towards the opening, turning so often as to keep the vestige of her deceased assistant in peripheral view. Reaching her hoof out, she felt the rough solid brick surface, running her hoof down to the edge of the shadow, feeling it run around a corner and through an opening.

A passage? she thought.

She considered lighting her horn, but remembered Dr. Yursa mentioning the flashlight. Wincing away the sudden rush of memories from that experience, she found the switch they had shown her in the Hazard Course, feeling it with the tip of her left hoof, and switched it on.

Ohhh! she thought, shining it on the square hole and blinking at the gray shining reflection from the interior. A vent!

The light from the flashlight played off the walls and wreckage cluttering the hallway, casting long irregular shadows as she moved around. Twilight bent down and poked her head inside, noticing two passages: one to the left, one to the right.

She wasn't entirely keen on traversing a ventilation system, but if this passage could lead her to a helping hoof, it would be worth the effort. Lighting her horn, she magicked the small remains of her dragon companion in front of her, not wanting to leave him behind in the hallway, and placed him carefully through the opening before climbing in herself.

Twilight remembered as a filly slipping into small compartments and crevices to hide when it was needed. She had never had friends to play with: they were never a priority in her life. The only times she found herself in tight spaces was when she was ensconcing herself from harriers. The claustrophobia of the ventilation walls around her burned her with memories of taunts and derision. Images of the Canterlot towers in the background of her denouncing peers flashed in her head, a view from beneath one of the balconies, watching as the ponies in front of her tried desperately to coax her from her hiding place.

She pushed back the memory, trying to forget the tear-filled conversations she had with her parents. They had loved her—they had tried to help—but they never seemed to understand that in the end, she just wanted to be alone. Too many pushes to make friends. Too many lectures on how to talk to the other ponies. To reason with them. They never seemed to understand that maybe Twilight didn't want to reason with them. She just wanted them to leave her alone! And every late-night conversation with her parents always ended the same way: with her giving in, telling them she would "try", only to retreat to her room and escape tearfully into a book until she fell asleep.

These thoughts flashed before her and vanished within a few seconds as she pushed them back into the confines of her subconscious. She wasn't in Canterlot anymore. And ponies here don't treat her like that.

Things are different, she told herself, trying to pull herself back to the present.

At last, she reached the end of the passage. She had climbed slightly as the vent had angled up, and she imagined being a few feet above the ground by now.

Struggling to see around Spike's large form in front of her, she noticed a grate covering which she hastily unbolted with her horn. She levitated both grate and body carefully in front of her until she reached the opening at the end. Placing her hooves through first, she placed them against the walls and hoisted her head out for a look around.

She was in the Executive Lounge now! She recognized the doors behind her to the right! She had come out over top of a couple vending machines which, if she was careful, she could step out onto before dropping onto the floor.

Carefully setting both the grate and the body on the floor, she stepped a hoof onto the thin plastic top of the first machine, feeling it give way with a *POP* as it indented downward slightly. Slowly putting the rest of her weight on it, she slid her body snake-like out of the vent until her hind-hooves touched down. And suddenly, with all her weight resting on the machine, it wobbled unsteadily. Placing her hooves towards the edge, Twilight prepared to jump off only to find herself overbalancing the machine as it leaned forward and past its delicate center of gravity.

Twilight's stomach fluttered as the ground dropped out from under her, slamming her harshly into the ground, the machine landing with a crash behind her loud enough to wake the dead, scattering glass over the floor. Getting up slowly, relieved to find nothing broken or fractured, Twilight shook herself out and looked behind her.

The wires on the black wall of the back of the machine shown glistening, with glass particles shining like diamonds on the floor. They were lit by the colorful glow of the machine still standing next to it. She looked over at Spike, relieved to find his body undamaged.

Turning around to look back into the room, she caught a glimpse of something purple and glowing, but it was gone a moment later. Twilight wanted to say something—to shout out—but her voice didn't seem to be working at the moment. Instead, she simply wandered curiously into the room, open-mouthed.

The room was quite dark, the only lights coming from the vending machine behind her, and a small desk lamp on a coffee table sitting in front of a green cloth couch. She squinted her eyes, taking in the same walls, the ceiling, the floor, all the same as the hallway, just shaped differently.

Walking further into the room, she caught a small purple haze in her peripheral vision, and turned rapidly to find a massive object hurling towards her.

"HUH?!" she shouted.

A strike! A shock of pain! And everything went black.

=========================================================

Light shown from above, casting shadows on the dim sand below. A few rocks scattered around on the uneven ground that Twilight felt beneath her bare hooves. She couldn't look up. The sky was bright above her, but there was no sun, and no clouds. There was only the empty sky above her, for which she could not see.

The surface...

She had longed for this moment. The ground felt triumphant beneath her feet. And yet, now that she had made it here, she couldn't quite see what was so special. This wasn't what she had in mind as a final resting place, was it? A memorial should be more than dust or sand, rock or dry vegetation. It should be someplace deserving: someplace for her to look back and remember fondly.

Twilight looked around as the wind picked up, blowing dust around her hooves, baring the rocky blood-red surface as the grains shifted through the cracks in the earth. Barren. Deserted. Empty. A place unfit to house a part of herself for eternity.

The scene brightened, condensing into a large ball of light, making Twilight's eyes strain. She couldn't see the sand or the ground anymore, and an overwhelming fatigue enveloped her as she was sucked out of the desert.

"That's it, dear."

A voice from above her—her eyes were closed—she could feel a soft material beneath her as she moved around on her side. The bright light was now flashing in and out: a redness against the lids of her eyes. She swatted her hoof at it blindly.

"That's it! You're okay now."

The voice sounded less distant now as Twilight became more conscious. The light went out as Twilight blinked her eyes open, trying to focus on what was in front of her.

"Who..." Twilight spoke, croaking out the first words since the elevator.

The white coat of a mare shown dimly in the darkened room. She couldn't quite make out the color of her mane, but its texture was thick and wavy, dangling all around her face.

"You," Twilight said, peering up meekly at the shadow in front of her as her memory started to come back, "I... I saw you!"

The mare was now stroking her hoof lightly through Twilight's mane, straightening out the tangles that had formed from her fall, very much how a mother would stroke the mane of a foal.

"Indeed, yes," she whispered quietly, sounding slightly embarrassed. "You, er, gave me quite a fright, I should say. You know, there are much better ways of entering a room than sneaking through an air duct."

"You... did this?" Twilight asked, referring to her attack.

The mare sat back slightly, continue to stroke gently.

"And I'm terribly sorry for it, dear! I just... well, I thought you might be one of them."

Twilight looked around, taking in the room more thoroughly now that she was not longer under threat. It was surprisingly clean! The coffee table with the desk lamp had been pushed slightly back so the mare could stand in its place in front of the couch. The light from the desk lamp showed dimly behind her, making her silhouette contrast even more against the lit background. The vending machine had been pushed back up, and there was no glass on the floor anymore. In fact, the floors around her were practically glowing with colorful reflections! There was very little on the floor at all! The grate had been placed back in the wall, and the place where she had set Spike—

"Wait," Twilight cried out softly, looking all around the room as she sat up slightly. "Where's Spike?"

The mare continued to stroke her mane.

"Spike... who, now? What... what's a Spike? What are you talking about dear?"

Twilight hoisted her body up against Rarity's hoof so she could look her in the eye.

"Spike!" Twilight said more clearly. "I left him right over there!" she pointed her hoof towards the vending machines. "Where is he?"

The shadow of the mare glanced back to the light of the machines, and then back to Twilight.

"I'm afraid I still don't... can you clarify dear?"

Twilight put a hoof to her face, trying to wipe the fatigue out of her face so she could think clearly.

"My dragon," she said now, starting the panic when she couldn't see him anywhere in the room, "My baby dragon. Over there!"

The mare brought her hoof away from Twilight's mane, as she stood up. Twilight couldn't see the mare's eyes very well in the dark, but judging from her stature she was coming to some kind of realization.

"Oh," she started, backing up a bit. Twilight stopped talking as the mare continued to think.

"Oh!" she said again, "Oh, my! That was... you mean he..."

The mare turned to look towards the machines, and in the colorful glow wafting on her face, Twilight could see a truly horrified expression dawning upon her. Twilight felt sick, nausea dripping through her as she fought to say the next words.

"What... what did you do to him?"

The mare was now stock still, a hoof raised to her open mouth, eyes wide. Twilight sat up, leaning forward to project her words again.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Him?" she asked more clearly.

The mare's voice was very shrill now, shaking as she walked towards Twilight. She averted her eyes from her as she spoke.

"I didn't know. I didn't! I really didn't! I thought he was just a... just another..."

"Where is he!?" Twilight shouted out, much louder now, hoping to dear Celestia she had simply placed him somewhere retrievable.

"Y-you must understand! There were these... these things! In the ceiling! And they, well, traps, you see! Traps! I didn't... they hang down, and they catch things. Ponies! I needed something... well, I thought if maybe they had something else to occupy them—"

Twilight felt a flood of nausea crinkle her stomach as she started to realize where this was going.

Twilight watched the shadow of the mare grab the desk lamp from the table just in front of her and turned it hastily to shine straight up at the ceiling before immediately shrinking into a corner, wincing.

Twilight raised her head against her will and stared in pure horrified awe at the putrid site above her!

A few of the ceiling tiles had been damaged, revealing the crawlspace above them. And attached at the top was a stump of blood, like a carved-up torso: a living organism contracting and pulsing like a stomach during digestion. The site was was like glue to Twilight's eyes, repulsive to the degree that everything else around it was too banal to garner interest anymore.

But what really twisted her insides were the feet sticking out at the bottom. Two small, green, scaly feet dangling from the inside of the organism perched on the ceiling. A heat climbed through her like a fever, glowing in waves as she suppressed the urge to rip apart the furniture she was sitting on with her bare hooves. To climb up to that ceiling and rip apart that stump until the room was splattered with blood!

The tiniest squeak emanated from the corner of the room.

"I'm sorry!"

Twilight brought her head slowly back down to the cowering shadow in the corner of the room. A shaking, burning rage was building from the pit of her stomach, reaching up to her chest.

"You're.... s-s--ss-s-sorry," she quivered, unable to keep her voice steady.

Twilight got up, almost collapsing onto the floor from her shaking hooves and incredible fatigue.

"You're s-s-sorry!"

The mare could be heard sobbing weekly as Twilight approached her quietly, face scrunched from the exorbitant amount of energy that had built up inside her! There was a pressure down inside now, pressing against the walls of her insides, fighting to get out.

"You're... YOU'RE. SORRY!" She burst out, almost surprised at where such a voice had come from! She lifted a hoof at the poor cowering form in the corner, making her wince into a ball, hooves over her face—

—and slammed it into the wall next to her, screaming out as she did so. Fighting wasn't enough. Hitting and drawing blood wasn't enough. She wanted something hurt! She wanted pain! And she wanted it at the tips of her hooves!

She reached back and grabbed her crowbar.

"NOO!" shouted the voice next to her, but Twilight ignored her. She looked at the form on the ground for a moment, imagining the site of her bloodied and torn like the scientists in the Test Anti-chamber. And when this didn't satisfy her, she turned around the room, finally marching quickly up to one of the machines near the entrance doors, bringing back her crowbar—

—and slammed it satisfyingly into the machine, watching an image of the dragon-scaled feet flash before her eyes. Another swing as she felt the bar whip through the air and crash through the plastic of the machine.

Each blow brought with it more energy, more damage, more satisfaction. More images flashed before her as she tore into the machine. An image of Dr. Yursa telling her about the infection. An image of the nurse telling her there was still hope. An image of Celestia advising against her taking Spike with her. Twilight was hardly even aware of her hoof batting wildly in the air anymore!

Eventually her energy dwindled as she realized how hard she was breathing. The large box for dispensing canned drinks stood irreparably pulverized before her, the plastic on the front torn up with shreds and tears. Twilight hardly even took in the site as she stared blankly, feeling her lungs fight in huge gasping waves for air.

She walked quickly back to the couch, where she collapsed in a heap, every muscle utterly worn out. She even let her limbs droop over the sides as she lay on her stomach, totally defeated, not wanting to get up.

She lay there for ages, resting her head, every thought gone, every ounce of energy exerted, every shriveling of motivation extinguished. It wasn't until she felt a hoof stroke her back that she realized she was still laying there on the couch! And as the pony next to her spoke, she felt herself suddenly whisked away back to a time she could scarcely remember: a filly, sitting on her bed, her mother stroking her back in that same way, comforting her after a terrible derisive chiding from her peers. And a warmth spread, almost against her will, as that hoof glided down her, feeling it through the suit as if there was nothing between it and her own hide. A voice rolled over her ears, serene and comforting.

"You... you poor thing," she whispered, and Twilight could hear the mare's voice cracking slightly as she tried to hold back the sobs of fright she had let out during Twilight's outburst. "He... really meant that much to you, did he?"

Twilight didn't say anything, continuing to feel the soothing hoof press lightly against the her muscles.

"I've also lost people I love," she continued, and Twilight knew she was trying desperately to relate to her. She knew this was just a small attempted of comfort. But Twilight didn't care anymore. She let the gesture roll over her, hearing the words but not listening. "I left my sister to come over here," she continued, "and I haven't seen her in years now."

The body of the mare next to her shifted, and Twilight sensed she was looking down at her rather than at the wall.

"I know it's not a real loss," she said, her voice more directed with her head turned, "but that doesn't mean I don't feel a longing to be with her. I can only imagine what that feeling would be like if I knew I would never see her again."

Twilight continued sitting there, feeling a peace like she had never felt since she was a filly. Her body was so relaxed and so warm with that body so close to hers, she could have nearly fallen asleep!

"You know," she continued, "I used to tell her a story every night before she went to bed." She turned her head down at Twilight. "Always the same one. Maybe you've heard it. It's called Philogo Monahikois: The Lonely Mare. I read it in a book of old pony's tales when I was a filly."

Twilight didn't say anything, but shifted her shoulders as if to say she'd never heard of it.

"Perhaps you'd like to hear it? You might find it fitting."

Again, Twilight shrugged, hardly caring what she did or did not hear at this point. Rarity took this as an opportunity, and suddenly Twilight found herself being pushed a bit further into the couch as Rarity dug her own flank into the soft cushions, pulling up the coffee table to rest her tired rear hooves. Rarity's back was now leaning into Twilight's side, as Rarity's hoof rubbed the top of Twilight's head lightly around her horn.

"Well, let's see," thought Rarity, remembering how the story went. "I think the words are coming back to me now."

She leaned in just a bit more, closing her eyes as she let the words roll down her tongue.

"In the seas before Equestria, on an aboriginal island, there lived a Kelpie whose name was Aquanifur. She was an aged pony who had risen the island from the sea many ages ago, and was nearing the end of her life. The island was deserted, and Aquanifur had one wish she wanted to fulfill before she passed beyond the mortal world. She wanted someone to look after the island while she was gone. In her final days, she sent a request to the other three Great Islands in the sea to send each of their greatest, wisest, and most compassionate ponies so they could be trained to lead the future populace of the island.

"When each of the ponies arrived on the shores, Aquanifur summoned them to the center of the island, instructing her new followers as her own creator had before her. When the instructions had passed, Aquanifur offered each of them a gift based on their most cherished virtue, as a memory of Aquanifur after she had passed.

"The first mare was Agaretè, and cherished beyond all else the persistence of culture, knowledge, and understanding. And so, Aquanifur gifted her a foal, whom Agaretè named Neumagoìs, and whom she embraced and nurtured as though she had born the foal herself, promising to teach the foal all the lessons of her own life, as well as the instruction she had been taught by Aquanifur. Aquanifur acknowledged her, and showed her gratitude before turning to the next mare.

"Aropàtos stood before Aquanifur now, showing her respect before pronouncing her own beliefs in dedication, loyalty, and fidelity. And so, Aquanifur gifted her a Stallion named Equeros, whom Aropàtos fell in love with in that instant, and whose mutual affection would only grow as the years passed. Aropàtos stood thanking Aquanifur next to her new lover as Aquanifur again acknowledged the gratitude before turning to the third and final mare.

"Philogos was the youngest of the mares, and stood greatly humbled before the majestic presence of the Kelpie. When asked what values she held most dear, she merely shook her mane, saying she had only spent her life in books and training, and knew only of the cold facts of life from her scholastic teachings. She desired nothing except an understanding of these strange traits the others had spoken of.

"Aquanifur smiled upon Philogos, expressing a deepest regret that she could not bestow any gift upon her, saying that true understanding can only come with time. And as Aquanifur explained this, an idea manifested itself, for which Aquanifur acted upon in that moment. Time, as it turned out, just so happened to be a gift she could give.

"Aquanifur turned to the three mares, and gave one final gift to them all: The gift of long life! All three mares would continue to grow and learn for as long as the Great Alicorns of the ages to come, and would ascend to the passage beyond to join with Aquanifur when at last their long lives had passed. All three mares expressed their appreciation and elation upon such a wondrous gift, with only Philogos still feeling hollow and incomplete, having only one gift where the others had two.

"Aquanifur bid them farewell, passing before them beyond the mortal world, never to be seen on that island or any of the others for the remainder of their existence. Years passed as the three mares set about their own ways, establishing the island as a habitable location. The three ruled separately, establishing their own laws on different parts of the island. Neumagoìs grew to be a filly, and then a young mare, with Agaretè growing proud at what her daughter had learned and achieved.  Aropàtos stayed loyal to Equeros for all these years, cherishing him with her affection even in his old age.

"Philogos grew resentful over these years, still wounded by the prejudiced rewards to her peers. Her reign grew from calculated, to stern, to disdainful, watching as her own people learned to express the same values as the two mares, despite Philogos's continued lack of understanding. More than once, she had considered outlawing marriage just to spite them, but always concluded it to be logically impractical if the land was to maintain its population.

"Years turned to decades as the people under Philogos's rule grew restless. Her rule had been sustainable, but her people found her distanced personal relationship with the populace to be deficient. Many travelling beyond the boundaries of Philogos's commonwealth, discovering the lands of her peers.

"It wasn't until another decade had passed that Philogos heard of problems arising beyond her own land. Aropàtos was in grief, her mind deteriorating under the weight of the her loss. Equeros had been grown old for many years, but his passing was no easier to accept. He had been a lover and companion to Aropàtos since the beginning of her rule, but Aquanifur had not gifted him with the long life that Aropàtos herself had been granted. Neither of them had any children, having no desire except to be with each other.

"Word had reached Philogos that Aropàtos could be seen mourning at the stallion's grave for many hours each day, her heart crushed under the gravity of his passing. Over time, her population suffered as Aropàtos lost the will to rule. Her country had begun to die.

"Philogos understood nothing of the grievances Aropàtos was suffering from. However, as a dedicated and logical ruler, she could not allow Aropàtos to let an entire land fall to ruin, even under the weight of death. Summoning her second, she ordered him temporary ruler as she bid Aropàtos a visit in her own land.

"Aropàtos had not laid eyes on Philogos since Aquanifur had granted them their gifts. A familiarity rose inside them when their eyes met as they remembered their last meeting thogether. A brief spell overtook Aropàtos as she recalled Philogos being free of any gift, believing Aquanifur to favor Philogos by sparing her of this terrible feeling of grief. However, the spell passed as she saw a sadness and longing in Philogos's eyes that had been growing since last they had met. They embraced in hospitality and understanding, and for a moment, Philogos felt a warmth spread from her heart.

"Aropàtos and Philogos spoke closely for the next year as Philogos undertook the ruling of the populace, providing a shoulder for Aropàtos to lean on until she had recovered. As Philogos at last returned to her own country, Aropàtos continued to stay in contact, sending letters of thanks and updates on recent events. Philogos continued to respond with advice, finding herself subconsciously planning future visits. More years passed as the two exchanged experience, sharing methods and techniques in leadership until word got around of another tragedy.

"Agaretè had been desperate to continue her lineage, aiding Neumagoìs in her quest to find a mate. Many suitors presented themselves, to which Agaretè had insisted her daughter partake in marriage, but Neumagoìs would not hear it. She wanted her own choice, and she sensed neither companionship nor infatuation with any of the potentials. With Neumagoìs's eventual loss of fertility with age, Agaretè resigned beseeching his daughter for a suitor, retreating to a role of comfort and sympathy as she watched her daughter continue to age.

"Neumagoìs's death brought unimaginable pain, both to Agaretè and her people. So many stallions had desired her hand in matrimony. So many mares had idolized her throughout their lives. Agaretè suffered worse than even Aropàtos as she struggled to come to terms with her loss. Once again, Philogos called upon her second to hold the fort, inviting a willing Aropàtos to join her in her visit to Agaretè's land.

"Agaretè greeted her companions with surprise and relief, like Aropàtos, not having seen or contacted either since first they met with Aquanifur. Neither Philogos nor Aropàtos could relate to the misery Agaretè endured now. Aropàtos had lost a lover of the present, but Agaretè had lost a potential lineage of the future: an eternal deprivation, void of the evanescent hope that had filled her many years ago.

"Both companions lent her their support, taking it in turns to rule and console. A number of years went by before the bereavement had passed, and Aropàtos and Philogos continued to lend support in writing. Over time, the three grew close, shaping their empires similarly as they shared their experiences in rule. Boundaries became muddled as the once-distinct lands merged. Nearly a generation later, the three rulers could be seen frequently visiting each other in their separate private dwellings, or walking in stride through the public streets. The populace learned slowly of Philogos as she warmed up to the people she had governed for so many years, embracing them at last as she had done with her own peers for so long now.

"The three lived the remainder of their lives in harmony. As death presented herself at their door, each of the three prepared a successor, honoring the land that Aquanifur had bestowed upon them, and placing their teachings in written scrolls to be passed down the lines.

"When at last Aquanifur greeted the three mares, being gracious enough to pass each companion proximally, she expressed her acclamation of their accomplishment, offering a place beside her in the eternal realm. Before she parted, she asked each one in turn how each of the gifts she had bestowed had inspired them during their venture into sovereignty.

"Both Agaretè and Aropàtos expressed their humbled gratitude to the Kelpie, reminiscing upon the motivation and excitement they had experienced during their initial years. Aquanifur listened politely as they recalled experiences and sensations that brought them joy and pride, staying quiet so they could cherish the moment uninterrupted. However, the sorrow and grief marked so deeply within them was as conspicuous to the Kelpie as a scar on their hide, and Philogos couldn't help but notice a shade of dissappointment in her eyes.

"When at last the Kelpie turned to Philogos, a surprise overtook them all as she asked how her own gift had served her. Philogos didn't understand, merely pointing out that she had not been gifted anything, expecting the Kelpie to simply recall this aspect and acknowledge it as she turned away.

"Instead, however, the dissappointment in her eyes shown deeper than before, and Philogos struggled with what to say. Had the Kelpie granted her a gift she had not remembered? Begging the Kelpie for sympathy, she expressed her confusion, explaining how she could not comprehend the question she was being asked.

"And now the Kelpie spoke, emphasizing each word with both grace and potency. And she said to Philogos.

"The gift bestowed upon you was the greatest of the three, my dear Philogos. Whereas my gifts of lover and offspring were fleeting to your long-lived companions, your gift is eternal. You experienced it as it fought and countered the suffering of your peers, and fed your own heart and desires in a mutual emotional enrichment. You see young Philogos, your gift was before you even as you first entered the island.

"And as Aquanifur turned away from Philogos, she saw before her the two companions whom she had befriended, and realized with a surge of compassion and memory just how much she had learned. And as Philogos tried to put into words the closeness she felt with her companions, Aquanifur put a hoof up to silence her, merely smiling in understanding as she saw the connection through Philogos's eyes.

"Philogos always remembered that day, as did Agaretè and Aropàtos as they sat together next to Aquanifur in the immortal realm. Their kinship lasts to this day, and can be seen sometimes at night. The stars show three ponies raising hooves together, laughing brilliantly in merriment as they celebrate their commune over the sea."

The mare continued to stroke Twilight's mane as she finished the story. Twilight's lifted her eye lids a bit just to be sure there wasn't anything more to the story.

"That... that was beautiful!" she said softly, swallowing to get a better grip on the words. "You recited all that from memory?"

She looked down at Twilight and smiled. Twilight lifted her chin and looked up into her eyes.

"Every night," she whispered. "Every. Single. Night."

She looked back up to stare at the wall with Twilight.

"You read something enough times and it just sorta sticks. I remember Sweetie Bell always asking me about it when I finished. She would always ask me why Aquanifur didn't simply gift Philogos a friend to play with. I remember always struggling to give her an answer."

The mare shifted on the couch as she turned to face the table.

"We... we used to go out at night sometimes. Just the two of us," she continued, "and Sweetie Bell would always look up at the sky, and try to find the constellation of Philogos. She would always ask me to help her find it, and I would always point to some random set of stars and joke with her about how they looked like laughing ponies, and—"

Twilight listened as she droned out. When Twilight finally looked up, the white mare was seen leaning towards into her hooves, stifling tiny sobs.

"Are you alright?" Twilight asked. And she noticed that this was not simply out of courtesy, she was actually genuinely concerned.

"I'm... fine," she let out softly with a tiny hiccough. She turned a bit, her eyes glossy from the reflection of the moisture. "I guess it's just, it's been so long."

Twilight wasn't sure she felt comfortable about this conversation anymore, but the mare continued anyway.

"My first job was not administrative, by the way," she said, subtly changing topics. "I used to be a designer! Fashion," she put  in, turning towards Twilight. "But, alas, ponies just didn't want that. I loved it! Don't get me wrong! It was... wonderful! It was just, no pony was all that interested in my designs. They only wanted famous designer clothes."

She let out a long sigh.

"In the end, I had to close shop. It was harsh, but it had to be done."

Twilight let her shoulders droop in dissapointment as the mare got off the couch, feeling her gentle stroking come to an end. She stood up and faced Twilight, shaking the sadness out from under her.

"I'm Rarity," she said, holding a hoof out.

Twilight turned her head slowly, almost smiling as the shadow of the face came into view. She was about to simply lift her hoof lazily in the air, but then thought she may as well do this proper. Forcing herself all the way up, she got off the couch and slipped uneasily onto the floor, her legs feeling like jelly. She stabilized a bit before introducing herself. Holding out her own hoof, she felt them connect as they shook and embraced together.

"Twilight Sparkle," she said softly.

=========================================================

"So how long have you been here?" Twilight asked. The back of her mind was still eating at her for not thinking about Spike, but her curiosity with her new companion was driving her mind forward.

Rarity thought for a moment, her head at the ceiling and her hoof to her chin.

"Five years, maybe," she said.

"No," Twilight said, "that's not what I meant. I mean, how long have you been here?" she said, pointing her hoof at the floor. "Like, in this room?"

"Oh!" Rarity said. "Not too long. I've been hiding here ever since... well, you know." Twilight watched as she trotted lightly to the door and peered out the window. "I've been keeping a lookout for things. Creatures have been pouring in lately. Such strange things! And not just the ones in the ceiling either. Moving creatures!"

"Yeah, I know," Twilight said, jumping into the conversation. "I've seen them."

Rarity turned to look at her more closely, taking in the suit, the gauze on her face, the gun on her shoulder, and finally the crowbar on her side.

"I can imagine!" Rarity said at last. "It looks like you've been on quite a trek." Then, looking closer, "And... is that a Mark IV Hazardous Environment Suit?!"

Rarity looked closely in the dark room, trying to make out the model number.

"How do you know about that?" Twilight asked. "Did you ever work in the labs?"

"Oh, no dear! I know nothing about science. I leave that to the egghe—er, true professionals! Like yourself."

She made a small gesture as she caught herself, but continued as if it never happened.

"No, dear. I only know about it because I've had to file some things related to it. I file reports on all sorts of equipment. It's just, this particular thing just so happened to be one of our most expensive items. It stuck, I guess you could say."

Twilight watched as she turned and muttered to herself. "Still quite hideous, though. And those colors, my Celestia!"

"So where do we go now?" Twilight said.

Rarity turned, confused.

"Go?!"

She tilted her head, one eye cocked.

"Well, yeah! Obviously we're not staying in this room forever, are we?"

Rarity walked up, sputtering a small laugh as she realized what she was asking.

"Twilight, darling, you can't be serious! I mean, you've seen what's out there, right?"

She put a hoof up on Twilight's shoulder, patting the nonsense out of her with what she believed to be an understanding smile.

"Uh, yeah! I have seen what's out there. And I know that what's out there will come in here if we wait long enough!"

Rarity was fidgeting now, unconsciously tapping a hoof nervously on the floor as her head swayed back and forth.

"Now, now. There's no need to jump to conclusions. I'm sure there's someone that'll be coming down here any time now. Disasters happen. They just do. That's why there's enforcement, security, constables, military."

She swallowed hard, fighting back the growing nervousness before looking pleafully up at Twilight.

"Right?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes sarcastically at her, letting out a low sigh.

"Look," she said, "there's a broken light out in the hallway, but I can't get past it with my horn the way it is. I'm thinking that together—"

"What happened to your horn?" Rarity interrupted.

"It... kinda got cut in half," she said. "Accident with a laser."

Twilight winced as Rarity let in a horrendous intake of breath, pulling back as if looking at an open wound.

"Does it... does it grow back?" she asked.

"Don't know." Twilight said. "Didn't think to ask."

She walked past Rarity towards the doors.

"Anyway, come on out here with me. We'll see if we can get past this."

Twilight pushed against the crash bar, feeling it give way easily as the door swung open. It was almost refreshing to be on her feet again, moving forward and away from the torturous path she had trodden on thus far.

She heard a clunk behind her as she approached the light, and turned to see Rarity propping the door open, apprehension flooding her face.

"Come on, Rarity!" Twilight said. "There's nothing out here."

Rarity just stood there, watching intensely, but not moving.

"Look, it's not gonna hurt. See?"

Twilight lit her horn, feeling the metal lighting fixture shift slightly but still perfectly safe from the coursing electrical currents. Twilight turned to look at Rarity as she did this, but Rarity was already creeping back into the room.

"Ugh!" Twilight exasperated, dropping the slightly floating metal onto the ground. "Come on, Rarity. I can't do this alone!"

Trotting back before Rarity closed the door the rest of the way, Twilight propped it back open and grabbed Rarity's front hoof, pulling her roughly out into the hallway.

"AH! NO! I DON'T WANT—"

Twilight half-walked half-dragged Rarity right up to the wreckage in the hallway, watching her face grow more anxious with each step.

"There!" Twilight said, putting her hoof back on the floor. "See? Nothing wrong!"

Rarity was now stomping nervously, her teeth showing as she grimaced in agitation..

"Well, no," she said, almost stuttering, "not right here, at least. But—"

Twilight took a deep breath, waiting for the impending explanation that, sure enough, came pouring out volume upon volume.

"It's just... well, you're all protected and armed and everything—and that's great and all—and you've already encountered lots of stuff and everything. I trust you to go your merry way. But me? I'm just some... some fashion designer! I don't... I'm not... You can't honestly expect me to—"

Twilight put a hoof up, getting tired of this by now. A moment ago, she may have been suffering from the weight of her tragic occurrence at the bottom of the elevator. But somehow, seeing her new companion so worked up about something Twilight was already familiar with was driving a new feeling into her. She wanted to teach her! She wanted to show her what Twilight herself had learned down her winding path so far.

"Look," she finally said. "Just stick with me. If we get in trouble, I'll deal with it. We'll find some ammunition, and then I'll be as good as any security officer around here."

Rarity calmed down, but was still showing signs of shaky compulsive after-shock.

"Y-y-you're familiar with firearms?"

Twilight almost laughed as she remembered her complete disbelief at being dragged through a firing range during her training. Oh, how things had changed.

"You could say that," she said.

She raised a hoof and rested it against the dark silhouette of the white mare on the floor.

"Look. I wish I could say that everything will just roll over. I wish I could say that some... some... authority is sending over troops or trained unicorns or rescue teams. I wish that was true, I really do. But right now, the only way I know we'll be safe for sure is to get out of here," she explained. "I came up here in an elevator. We're still a number of floors underground, but there's a chance we could find another elevator. Once we're out, we can make a break for it back to Canterlot and see if the Princess can help us."

"The first place I'm going," said Rarity, "is Ponyville. I'm not leaving Sweetie Bell there any longer than I have to. We'll take her to Canterlot with us," she mused for a moment. "Canterlot." She shook her mane, still shaken, but now with a strange smile. "To think, I had always dreamed of the place back when I ran my Boutique." She let out a sigh as she leaned into the floor.

"Fine," she finally said. "I'll come with you. But you have to promise me we'll pick up my sister first thing after we get out!"

Twilight and Rarity looked at each other, determination on purple, hardened concern on white.

"It's a deal," said Twilight.

=========================================================

Glass chips flew into the next room with a tinkling crash as Twilight smashed the glass window at the end of the hallway. Running the crowbar around the edge of the opening, she pushed the remaining shards out, holstering the bar before jumping recklessly through.

Twilight's belly scraped against the bottom of the opening as she hoisted herself into the painfully bright office foyer, closing her eyes from the sting of the lights as she fell over and landed on her side on top of the mess of glass shards.

Shaking and brushing the glistening glass crystals off the suit, Twilight turned to let Rarity in, only to see a purple haze surrounding the crash bar on the adjacent door. Rarity stepped through as the door opened out into the hall, and stared revoltingly at the mess Twilight had created on the floor.

"What?!" Twilight yelled out. "You didn't tell me you could open these doors!"

"Well, you didn't ask, darling!" she said, swishing her mane around. "You know, you really should communicate more before you jump into things. It might just make you look a bit smarter."

As Rarity carefully tread through the swarm of shining saws sparkling on the floor, Twilight's eyes adjusted to the light. And there before her, walking out into the open, was the most stunningly gorgeous mare Twilight had laid eyes on!

She hadn't really gotten a chance to see Rarity in full back in that dark room. But now that they were both in the light of the foyer, Twilight almost couldn't take her eyes off her! There was a fullness to her: a depth to her body. There were no pudges or pockets of unnecessary fat rolling around, but her figure was not as diminutive and streamlined as Twilight's. It was as if her brilliantly white coat had been fluffed to give her that staged operatic look of dignity so often depicted in formal performances. Her mane was also uniquely fashionable, split into two long purple waves that splashed around her face, coiling and uncoiling as they sprung under their own weight. Their hue looked so much cleaner than Twilight's coat, which looked filthy in comparison, and each time she swerved her head (which she did often, simply to feel mane's movement), each follicle shined as the light reflected off it. Twilight could almost feel the slew of conditioners lining each strand.

She watched as Rarity traveled towards the center of the foyer, and realized the nexus they had just entered. So many choices!

"Which way do we go?" Twilight asked Rarity, hoping she knew her way around a bit. "Do you know where we might find an elevator?"

"Stairs, more like, dear," she said, turning around to let that magnificent mane spring and shine. "And this place really isn't that complicated. Most of these choices are just dead-ends. So, for example—"

She walked to the right-hand wall and peered through the broken window.

"That room is completely flooded! I mean, it's a wreck! And even if it wasn't, there wouldn't be anywhere to go."

"What about that vent over to the left?" Twilight asked. The flooded room was torn apart, but just as brightly lit, showing an assortment of cabinets and counter-tops of what likely used to be a break room. Twilight had picked out the metallic fins of the vent covering quickly against the brown tiled bricks.

"A vent?" she said, moving over to take a better look. "That... why would you even mention that? It just leads to the crawlspaces above!"

"Not necessarily," Twilight added. "I got into the room you were hiding in through a vent. They've turned out to be pretty useful!"

"Well," Rarity said, turning to walk further down the hallway, "you won't be needing to take such uncomfortable and filthy paths, dear. Not while you're with me, at least."

Twilight was surprised to find Rarity's nervousness dissipate and diminish in this bright area devoid of life. There were still small twitches here and there, and Twilight was sure a hoof to her chest would evince a host of heated activity that she hid behind her impassive demeanor. However, the familiarity of environment had calmed her enough to think clearly.

"Now, over here," she said, leading Twilight around a corner, "there's a corridor that leads to the packaging and storage sections. I would imagine that's where we would find the stairs, most likely."

"What's down that way?" Twilight asked, pointing further down the passage, seeing some of the lights dimming just before it rounded another corner.

"That?" Rarity said, wrinkling her muzzle. "That's nothing. Just some security depot of some sort. None of us really went there ourselves. We just saw security go back there sometimes."

Twilight trotted quickly down that way. "Let's check it out then!" she said, Rarity looking around quickly before hurriedly coming up behind. "We might find some ammunition."

"Twilight, Twilight, Twilight," Rarity whispered as she caught up. "Twilight, please, I really don't feel comfortable—"

As Twilight rounded a few corners, surpassing a number of wooden crates propped precariously around the passage, Rarity caught some more words amid her rambling. None of them were reassuring.

As they finally rounded the corner into the actual storehouse, Rarity was practically nipping at Twilight's tail to pull her back!

"What is your problem?" Twilight whispered agitatedly, pulling her flank around so Rarity couldn't reach it. "Look, this place is just as empty as back there!"

This was a lie, or course. Twilight had noticed the security pony sitting behind the gate at the end of the room. They had entered on top of a long platform suspended above the main storage room below, all lit by fluorescent lights above. The guard's annex contained a door frame leading to another area. She wondered where it might lead. Perhaps she could convince the guard to let her in.

"Hey!" Twilight shouted out. "We're looking for ammo. You wouldn't happen to have any in here, would you?"

The guard sat up, revealing his black coat and mane. He would have been a shadow had the light not shined off his hide like glass.

"You're not... one of them?" he looked out. He was slightly shaken, but hid it well among his authoritative disposition.

"No," Twilight said with a flicker of a smile. "They haven't got us yet. I haven't seen any of those head things around here. They're probably all further down."

"Did you come up here from below?" he asked.

"Well, I did. But Rarity here works up in these offices."

"Who?" he said, looking around.

Twilight turned around to see the room she was in vacant. Rarity was nowhere to be seen.

"Ugh," she said quietly to herself. "I finally find another nice pony, and she has to just—"

She ignored her absence, trotting straight up to the gate so she could peer through.

"That suit you're wearing," he said, his eyes moving over the light orange armor covering her hide. "You wouldn't happen to have been around ground zero, would you?"

A small brick struck her in the stomach at these words, which she tried and failed to hide in the redness of her face. A stupid smile crested her face, accompanied with a nervous laugh.

"Hehe... uh, why do you ask?"

The guard smiled, as if showing success at a clever joke. "No reason," he said slyly as he walked up to the gate.

His hoof passed over a large lever, swinging the gate open with a squeak that made Twilight's brain hurt.

"I think I got just what you need," the guard said, inviting her in and showing her through the door way in the back.

Twilight followed him down a short expanse of more industrial architecture, much like walking into the "employee's only" section of a large supermarket. The floor was metallic now, and there was a musty smell accompanied by loud fans running in the back. The passage ended in a small room lined with firearms and ammunition.

Twilight found her eyes widening uncontrollably at the stock! The guard must have noticed, because he gave her a look that said "Don't get too excited."

"Now, let's see... AH! Here we are! Just what I had in mind!"

The guard dismounted a gun larger than Twilight had see even in pictures!

"SPAS-12 Deul Mode Shotgun," he said proudly. "This thing is probably what you really want."

Twilight's mind was fighting between awe and intimidation, remembering the feel of the pistol's bullet striking the dog-like creatures, and imagining what kind of impact this new gun might have. Would there be any remains at all after it hit a creature that small?

"That seems a little much, don't you think?" she asked. "I mean, the gun I have right now got the job done pretty well so far!"

"So far!," he emphasized. "You obviously haven't seen some of the other creatures," he added, sending a tingling chill through Twilight's hide. She swallowed hard.

"Others?"

The guard handed the gun up to her, offering her to magic it into place.

"Trust me," he said, "you're gonna need this."

=========================================================

"NO!" Rarity shouted out, stomping her hoof solidly on the marble tiled floor. "NO! No, no, no, no, nonononono, I REFUSE!"

Twilight stood back in the foyer, magically holding out a security vest and pistol for Rarity. Had Twilight only come out wielding the shotgun on her shoulder, Rarity may have simply fainted! But this insistence upon Twilight for her to have protection kept her conscious. She would have no part in any of it.

"Come on, Rarity. I'll teach you how it's done, alright? Just... we need to be prepared."

Rarity spat—or rather, she let a small raspberry out the side of her mouth. She was simply too proper for actual spitting.

"If we're really going into territory like that, I'll just go back to my little hiding place, thank you very much!"

Twilight scowled.

"You know, that brings me to another thing. It's very rude to go hiding around the corner when your friend finds another pony."

"Hmmm? What?"

Rarity's pupils rose as she thought.

"Oh, that," she said, backing up slightly flustered. "That was... really nothing. I just... sorry."

"Is something wrong?" Twilight inquired.

"Wrong?" she said, shifting her eyes. "No. Nothing's wrong. Why would you say something's wrong? I just—"

She looked at Twilight a moment as Twilight's lids closed in sarcasm.

"Okay, fine," Rarity said, moving back up to Twilight, "how about I just... slip these on, yes? Yes, I'll just—"

Rarity magicked the security vest hastily away from Twilight, grimacing as she slipped it over herself (no doubt it didn't match her coat), and adjusted it to her fit.

"Now," she said, magically dangling the pistol in front of her, as if it was a wad of tissue paper containing a dead cockroach. "how exactly—"

"There's a place on the shoulder," Twilight said, magicking it away from her. "Let me get that for you."

=========================================================

Rarity was very quiet as she led Twilight down the hallways. Twilight kept trying to pry into Rarity's sudden anxiety, but Rarity just kept her mouth shut and pretended nothing was wrong.

"Can you at least tell me where we're going?!" Twilight finally said, as they turned at the end of the hallway.

Based on what was through the door, Twilight guessed that Rarity was trying to find a place to "hide the body". It was a large, dark room that served mostly as an ammunitions store. Twilight tried hard not to curse under her breath for going out of her way to find ammunition, seeing how abundant it was now turning out to be.

"Stairs, Twilight, dear. We're going to find stairs," was all she said.

Twilight looked over at one of the shelves. "Well, I guess we can at least take some of this with us," she said more to herself than anything. She reached out with a hoof and grabbed some of the 9 mm for Rarity, and slipping it into the ammo hold on the side of her security vest.

Rarity gave Twilight a look, but didn't say anything as she rounded the corner. "Now," she started, "there should be some stairs right around the corner here. This should take us to the second floor. If I remember right, there should be an elevator on the fourth floor that will take us just below the surface." She led Twilight through an open doorway, devoid of any actual door, that led out of the ammo room and into a small, brightly lit storage depot. "If we can manage to navigate the offices upstairs, we—GET DOWN!"

Twilight jumped at Rarity's exclamation, moving around in a panic as she watched Rarity duck behind a large wooden crate just in front of them.

"Down! DOWN!"

Twilight looked in the direction of the beeps just as they stopped and felt her entire body freeze up. There, attached to the ceiling, were six long barrels, all starting to rotate.

"Rarity! Is that a—"

Her next words were cut off by the echoing thunder of the sentry turret. Twilight wasn't entirely sure how she managed to get behind cover in time. All she knew was the rush of adrenaline, the harsh bruises caused by a dozen bullets slamming into her suit, the sudden urge to cry as she huddled up close to the crate, breathing in quick gasps, closing her eyes and plowing her hooves into her ears as she felt the storm of metal fly over her.

The sound stopped.

Twilight removed her hooves from her ears very slowly, and looked up at Rarity, now shaking almost uncontrollably in front of her.

"Wha... how—"

Twilight was at a loss for words. All she could do is wave her hooves around at Rarity, trying to communicate her complete lack of comprehension. Rarity didn't seem to be able to move, let alone speak. After finally determining that the turret wasn't going to shoot at them while they were behind the crate, Twilight decided to explore their situation.

"Okay," she thought out loud. "We're hiding from a big gun. It stopped when we got behind these boxes, so it might have a motion sensor."

"You THINK?!"

Twilight recoiled at Rarity's sudden remark.

"I'm just trying to figure out how to get out of here," Twilight said, as if she was simply running another experiment back at Canterlot.

"Yes. You do that," Rarity said shakily. "In the mean time, I'm going to stay behind this box, where that thing can't see me."

Twilight rolled her eyes, trying to think of a way to observe the room without getting out from behind cover.

"Do you have a mirror?" she asked Rarity.

Rarity gave her a surprised look that quickly turned into what Twilight could only describe as "insane". "Why, Twilight! If you want to know how horrid you look right now, all you need to do is ASK!" Her voice quickly went from facetious to downright angry as she spoke.

"No, no, no! I mean to look around the room! I want to know if there's some way to shut the turret down!"

Now it was Rarity's turn to roll her eyes. "Oh! Well, not from here, darling. The only thing that we can turn off from where we are is our hearts when WE DIE!"

"You're not helping, Rarity!"

Twilight put a testing hoof out from behind cover and waved it around, hearing another couple thunder claps just as she pulled it away.

"Yep! Still under fire."

Rarity gave a really deep sigh of irritation. "There's a switch to turn it off in this room, but it's beneath the gun itself." She waved a hoof. "Good luck getting to it."

Twilight gritted her teeth, almost feeling sorry for the ponies who had to work with Rarity before the facility decided to vomit all over itself.

She rose up until her mane was just about to crest over the crate and took a deep breath. As an initial test, Twilight sprung her head up for an instant before pulling it back. A few bullets exploded over her, ripping a few hairs off her mane as she hid it once again behind the box.

"What are you doing?" Rarity asked as Twilight repeated the process.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm playing gopher!"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Yes, dear. I can see that."

Twilight ignored Rarity's comment as she continued to peak out from over the box. "Just... a little bit... more..."

"Okay!" she said upon narrowly avoiding the last of the bullets. "From what I've seen, the switch seems to be under some kind of scaffolding. If we can manage to get under it, we should be safe from the line of fire."

"Oh, bravo," Rarity said. "Now if only there wasn't a field of death in the way."

Twilight grimaced, but managed not to drive her hoof into her face. Leaning back, she braced herself before plowing her entire body into the crate, pressing it against the wood as hard as she could. Rarity simply stared at her now, at a complete loss for words. Twilight could only pray that her plan would work, but the box didn't seem to want to move.

As her muscles started to give out, Twilight concentrated with her horn and added a small burst of magic to her efforts. She let out a stifled cry as her damaged horn protested, but she didn't let up. The box still didn't want to move, but there wasn't much else she could do.

Closing her eyes and driving her hooves full force into the wood, she forced away all her other senses, and drowned herself in the task, feeling a dull pain flow down her legs, gasping for enough air to keep her going.

And slowly, the box started to move.

In fact, once the box was in motion, everything became much easier! She almost didn't need her magic anymore to make the crate pick up speed, and soon she found herself taking step after step, walking steadily as she pushed. She looked up as she walked until she saw part of the scaffolding loom overhead, covering them from fire, before completely collapsing onto the ground. She opened her eyes, her lids still partly closed, slightly blurry-visioned from all the effort as she felt a dull pain course through her legs.

"Well, dear, you should have just told me that you wanted to push the box in the first place!"

Twilight sat up, rubbing her hooves against her head as she looked into the eyes of Rarity, now standing under the scaffolding with her.

"You—" Twilight started. "You helped me push!"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Well, of course dear! You didn't expect me to just watch you struggle against a great idea all alone, did you?"

Twilight gave her a look, but Rarity didn't see it. She was already walking up to the wall to where the turret switch was.

"You know, you really need to communicate more, dear," she said as she magicked the switch down.

"Wait," Twilight really did slam her hoof into her face this time. "Why didn't you just use your magic to flip the switch from back there?"

Twilight and Rarity both waited until they heard the turret above them fully retreat into the ceiling and power down before Rarity continued.

"You really think they made it that easy?" she said. "And what if there was a rouge unicorn running around? This turret wouldn't be a very good defense against them if they could simply turn it off with their magic from a distance!"

"So it's like... like those doors that I couldn't open."

"Exactly."

Twilight wanted to ask why Rarity could open doors with her magic, but couldn't turn off the security turrets, but decided it wasn't worth pressing the issue. "What exactly are in these crates that's worth protecting with such heavy fire?" she asked, walking up to one of them and prodding it with her hoof a few times.

"Probably more ammunition," Rarity said, rolling her eyes. "Come on. The stairs are through here."

=========================================================

"So, what other kind of security measures should I know about?"

Twilight was walking carefully up the stairs wide staircase they had just found, which took up the entire hallway and wound around a U-Turn as it went.

"Well, the only other one that I know about are the guards," Rarity answered. "Not that you need to sorry about them, of course," she continued, giving Twilight a look. "Pretty much everyone fled to the surface as soon as all this happened."

Twilight noticed Rarity's subtle flare in her eyes as she said this, as if these words gave her some spark of comfort. Twilight didn't bother mentioning the guards she had met along the way, and decided to simply go with whatever Rarity said for now. Every time she had tried to pry into Rarity's strange shyness around other ponies, she had simply gone quiet, and Twilight didn't see the point anymore.

"So this should at least get us to the second floor," Rarity said as they neared the top. "Once we get there, it should be a short path to the next few staircases." She let out a loud sigh. "Honestly, I can't wait to get to the surface. Hopefully there will be some kind of map to show us how to get out of here."

Twilight amused herself with the thought of a mall-style map stand sitting in the middle of the desert. She really wasn't too concerned about finding her way once she was outside. She knew they were somewhere west. She could use the sun to help guide her at that point.

"How are you feeling, by the way?"

Rarity's question caught Twilight off-guard.

"About?" she prompted, but Rarity's shot her a look that said all-too-clearly what she really meant. "Oh. I'm, uh, fine! Really."

This wasn't entirely true. She had forced all thoughts of Spike out of her mind, afraid to confront them until they had fully escaped. It had managed to reduce itself to a dull pain in the back of her head, and every so often she found herself holding back a lump in her throat, but mostly she was trying to keep her head straight enough to navigate the labyrinth of the facility.

Now that she thought about it, however, she sympathized with Rarity. She, too, was separated, and Twilight found some comfort in helping Rarity find her way back. She wasn't entirely sure whether Rarity was aware of any of this, but she didn't press the question any further.

"There are some offices right around the corner, here," she said as she rounded the corner. "The stairs should be close."

Twilight peered through another doorless entrance, trimmed with red just like the last one, and noticed an expansive hallway similar to the bright ones she had found after smashing the window open.

"I don't like the sound of that," Rarity said, pulling in a bit close to Twilight. The ceiling was emitting some sounds that Twilight had heard before, back in the room with Dr. Whooves. They were the same sounds that the headcrabs made when they were curious.

"Just stay close," Twilight said, leaning her front hoof forward so it was resting on the trigger. "I've killed some of these creatures before. I know how to handle myself."

Twilight peered through a window in the wall just as a light went out on the other side. Rarity backed up, and pressed herself against the wall. "Is someone in there?" she asked Twilight.

Twilight was too curious to answer right away, and pressed her face up against the window to try and see in. "If there is, I can't see them." She went to a metal door opposide, and peered into the small office, looking around at the large desk and furniture around it. "Nothing in here, either," she said. At the last moment, her eyes slid across some kind of large piece of meat resting on the floor and nearly retched when she realized it was the severed limb of a pony. Twilight staggered out of the door, looking sick.

"What?! What is it?!" Rarity said frantically upon seeing Twilight's face. "Is it—"

"It's nothing," Twilight assured her. "Just keep your eyes open." The last thing she needed right now was a panicked Rarity running and screaming around the complex: especially considering what might be crawling around this very hallway.

Twilight and Rarity were no longer walking down the hallway. They were creeping down the hallway, almost tiptoeing as they slipped quietly along the wall. The hallway split into a large, complicated common area, slitting and winding: a maze of brick walls, red doorways, and glass windows. Twilight's ears perked up upon hearing a different sound: like some sickly pony was clearing a fountain of phlem out of their throat. Both of them froze to listen, and realized they had merely heard the closest one. At first, Twilight thought it was simply a biological sound, like coughing, or retching. However, the more she listened to it, the more it started to sound like a language: as if the creatures all around them were communicating with each other using some disgusting set of phonics.

"Maaaaaybe we shouldn't go this way," Twilight said quietly. Rarity was close to agreeing, but she looked too petrified to respond. As the sounds got louder, Twilight looked straight ahead again, expecting something to round the corner at any moment. She could tell just from listening that one of them was just around the corner, and another was to the right, a ways down the hallway. If she wasn't careful, she would have both of them to deal with at the same time, plus any others further away that she couldn't locate right away.

She looked over at Rarity, and stole her attention by softly clearing her throat. "Stay back while I poke around. If one of them comes around, shoot low. My suit can absorb a few stray bullets, but if you get me in the head, it's over. Just lean forward so it's pointing down, and use your hoof just like I showed you."

"Twilight, I—"

"If you fire and miss, it will at least get my attention so I can—"

"Twilight—"
"—come back and try myself."
"Twilight, I really don't think—"
"But, of course, that's assuming you don't hit me in the process, and distract me by—"
"TWILIGHT, WATCH OUT!"

"Wha—AHH!"

A shot rang out as something rounded the corner, echoing around the hallway and making Twilight's ears ring painfully. She had not been expecting the recoil, and found herself staggering backwards.

"WHA—IS—" Rarity let out a scream that almost sounded like a laugh, gasping right off the ground as she saw the body of the creature. "Is it de—"

"Stay here!" Twilight ordered, keeping her gun pointed in the direction to the nearest noise to the right.

The creature on the ground was larger than she was! Its brown scales made its body almost resemble a dragon, except that its snout was too short. Even stranger, its feet had hooves, much like a pony's, with single large nails protruding for balance. Twilight noted the claws at the end of its front limbs. This creature was bipedal.

She rounded the corner, feeling the blood rushing back to her limbs, her front hoof tensed on the floor against the trigger.

"Twilight!" Rarity didn't bother to stick around, retreating back down the hallway and away from the danger. Twilight didn't think twice about it, already piercing the area around her for movement. She already knew where the first one was. She could hear it.

She rounded the corner, not even giving it a chance to attack. She was ready for the recoil this time, leaning forward as she hit the trigger. She held her ears down, but that didn't make the noise any less painful. Even with her leaning forward, she still staggered back a step or two as she watched the creature collapse to the ground, becoming a heap just like the first one.

The ringing persisted, and she lost track of where the others were. She retreated back down the hallway, hoping to buy some time before the rest of them saw her. Rarity was nowhere in sight.

She peered around the corner, hoping to see without being seen. She could tell there was another one, hiding around a support pillar, but she couldn't get a shot in without charging around at it.

In the corner of her eye, she caught something green, glowing bright, filling the area, and causing her to turn her head just in time to catch one of them, clearly in front of her, just a few yards away. Its insectisoid body was engulfed in an orb of green magic, sparks shooting from its arms.

Twilight barely had enough time to react. She bent her knees as if to jump, and ended up rolling onto the floor just as the creature directed the magic towards her. She could feel the heat of the ray as it shot over her, travelling the length of the hall and striking the wall behind it, She could hear some of the brick break off the wall behind her as it struck, and instinctively reached a hoof to her head to make sure there wasn't any damage.

She rose to her feet and charged in towards the creature, her blood on fire, and slammed on her trigger hoof before she was even halfway, feeling the gun slam against her shoulder and watching the wounded creature clutch its wounded body before collapsing onto the floor.

She spun around a few times, trying to gather a 360 degree peripheral. She couldn't see what was behind every pillar, and her ears were ringing so badly she could barely hear any of the alien chatter. She jumped as one of the lights went out above her, plunging the once-bright offices into a dull yellow glow. She could catch a glimmer of green from time to time, but every time she looked closely, it was gone.

She looked back down the hallway.

"Rarity?" she called.

The hallway was empty. All she saw was a scattering of brick at the end where the first magic burst had struck. She took a few steps, wondering whether she could make it to the end and hide around the corner. Perhaps she could lure them one-at-a-time.

It was a plan that was short-lived. She felt, rather than heard them. She could sense one of them right behind her without even turning around. Had it been another pony, she would have claimed to have felt their breath on the back of her neck, but that would be assuming these things had a breath.

She felt her hoof on her trigger, feeling her own breath quicken, her mind swimming, making it difficult to focus. In one swift move, she turned—

—and fell over, forced by the creature in front of her onto her back. She felt herself slide an inch, and stared up at—not one—not two—

"S-s-so... many..."

They were around her now, dragging her down the hallway. They weren't attacking. She would have already been dead had they wanted her to be. She couldn't read their expressions. Just a single read eye, blinking from the sides, complex and spider-like. Their heads were bowed, and they were concentrating on their claws, which they were motioning around in a circle, summoning green orbs of magic as though they were holding unicorn horns.

She flipped over, feeling their magic flow through her body, surrounding her, drowning her in a glow of green. She moved her hooves, clawing at the ground, but they simply slipped. Her stomach dropped as she was hoisted into the air, forced to turn around and face the dozen creatures now completely surrounding her. The room around them was dimming, as though every light was slowly going out, leaving only a purple haze of light glowing around their insectisoid forms.

"R-Rarity..." Her voice had almost given out. Every one of the creatures were manipulating their claws, summoning a powerful magic that was dragging her away with them. She could feel her body going numb, her mind going blank, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

The world bent, flexing around her as though it was made of paper. Colors flashed and changed. And she—

—suddenly grew more conscious! She could hear them again, chanting, as the world became clear again. She could almost free herself, struggling and flailing her legs again.

A shot rang out, slamming against her ears and sending a shockwave through her body. The hallway became bright again almost instantly, and she felt herself slam into the ground. She looked up at the creatures, now disoriented as they looked around the for source of the shot. One of them was collapsing to the ground.

Another shot, closer this time. Twilight put her hooves over her head, and listened to the creatures' calls become more aggravated. A third shot rang out, and some of the creatures started summoning sparks of green magic: the same they shot at her before.

Twilight seized her opportunity, jumping to her feet and slamming down on her trigger hoof, feeling her gun explode into the creature just in front of her before it could fire its magic. More shots rang out behind her, and Twilight felt a few bullets strike her flank. The suit absorbed the damage, but Twilight still cried out from the impact.

Creature after creature fell, until the hallway was littered with bodies. Twilight didn't stop until she had put a few more rounds in the pile.

"Twilight!"

Twilight turned to see a thoroughly shaken Rarity, still wearing her security vest as tidy as if she had just put it on. She walked right up to Twilight and made a face, as though she was trying not to vomit.

"D-don't... don't ever..."

"Rarity!"

"Don't you ever make me—"

"Rarity!" Twilight launched herself forward and wrapped her hooves around her. She could feel Rarity still shaking under her hooves, but she seemed to calm down a bit.

"You... if..." she took a deep breath as Twilight let go, beaming. Rarity groaned loudly, lifting her hooves into the air in exasperation. "I should have never left that room!"

"Rarity! I wouldn't be alive without you!"

"Then you should never have left the room!"

"Rarity, let's—" She took a deep breath. Both of them were practically hyperventilating. "Let's just calm down."

Twilight turned around to look at the pile of bodies on the floor. She grimaced as she lit her horn, moving them out of the way to the best of her ability.

"What... are those things?!" Rarity looked at the pile that Twilight was magicking down the hallway, grimaced, and turned away, retching.

"Whatever they were, they're dead now," Twilight said. "Hopefully we won't have to deal with many more of these things."

Rarity turned back to her, still looking sick. "W-we?! What do you mean we?!" She waltzed right up to Twilight until they were face to face. "I'm going back to my hiding place! You can stay here and deal with these... things." She waved her hoof in the alien pile that Twilight had just set down inside one of the offices, turning her head in disapproval.

Twilight turned to stop her as Rarity stormed down the hallway. "Rarity, wait—"

"I won't be part of such violence! It's just... uncivil!"

Twilight galloped down the hallway until she was in front of her. "And what exactly are you going to do if they get inside your little office room? Are you going to sit down to tea with them and negotiate a peace treaty?"

"Don't get smart with me!" She stopped and pointed a hoof at Twilight. "Hiding in an office building might not be the best plan, but it's certainly better than wandering right into their nest!"

Twilight grimaced. "This wasn't a nest," she retorted. "These things are all over! For all you know, your little office hideout could be covered in these things by now!"

Rarity looked offended. "You don't know that!"

"And you don't know that they aren't." Twilight put a hoof to her face. "Look. Didn't we just have this conversation back in the office? We can't count on anypony finding us down here! The only ponies we can count on to get us out of here are ourselves." She put her hoof down and walked back past Rarity down the hall. "Now do you want to see your sister again or not?"

Rarity sputtered. "You leave Sweetie Belle out of this!"

"That's what we're doing this for, isn't it?" Twilight asked. "So you can see Sweetie Belle, and I can see the Princess again?"

Rarity's face glowed a shade of red, her mouth hanging open, eyes narrowed. Twilight turned to look at her, watching the gears turn. Slowly, Rarity walked up to Twilight, one step at a time, until they were inches away. She was fuming.

"You," she said. "You had better be damn sure we make it out of here alive."

Twilight just looked back at her. "No promises."

Rarity turned and bared down, letting out a muffled scream in aggravation. "FINE!" she yelled. "Fine! I'll come with you!" She turned and glared back at Twilight. "But I am not going to act the "soldier" for this mission. That's your job." She "hmmphed", throwing her head into the air as she trotted past Twilight. "I'm just tagging along."

Twilight rolled her eyes, and followed Rarity through the complex, and to the next set of stairs.

=========================================================

Twilight peered around the corner, trying to stay out of sight. They had finally gotten to the top of the second staircase, and Twilight was starting to get anxious to get to the elevator Rarity had been talking about. This floor was darker, looking more like a concrete warehouse than an office building. A few pipes stuck out along the ceiling above them, and the area echoed softly around them.

"I can hear them," she whispered. "There are two of them just around the corner. We can take them pretty easily."

"We?!" Rarity made a small  stomp with her front hoof. "You're the one with the big scary shotgun on your shoulder!"

Twilight refrained from rolling her eyes. "If we take them on together, they'll go down faster. It's less risky." She peered around the corner again. "This one's pretty simple," she said. "You take the one of the left, I'll take the one on the right."

Rarity stuck her lips out and pouted at Twilight, not saying anything.

"Look, just do it," Twilight said. "Would you rather risk one of them rounding the corner and attacking you?"

Rarity just kept staring. Twilight ignored her. "On three," she said. "One..."

Twilight didn't bother counting all the way to three. Her nerves got the best of her, and her hoof was already on the trigger. She had already run around the corner and slammed on the trigger before either of the creatures knew they were there.

"Rarity! Now!"

She prepared herself in case Rarity didn't make it, half-expecting to fire the second shot. She could see the second creature right next to her, already summoning its green magic.

"Rari—"

Her voice was cut off by a set of shots from around the corner. Round after round pummeled the creature, knocking it back before it collapsed to the ground.

Twilight turned back towards Rarity, who was still fuming. Twilight beamed, satisfied. "See? It's not too bad once you get used to it."

Rarity just scowled and walked past Twilight.

"Oh, come on," Twilight said, following behind her with a smile. "You know you liked it."

Rarity opened a door at the end of the hallway, leading Twilight through a small room to a door on the other side.

"Hang on," Twilight said, turning towards a metal ramp leading down a passage in the back of the room. "There's probably some supplies down here. I'm gonna go take a look."

"And leave me here?" Rarity said,

"You'll be fine," Twilight said with a sigh. "I just need someone to keep watch, in case anything tries to sneak down here with me." Then, seeing Rarity's terrified face, added, "If anything attacks you, just scream out my name."

Twilight wasn't entirely sure this made Rarity feel any better, but it at least shocked her enough that she didn't retort. She walked lightly down the ramp, hearing her hooves clang against the metal each time, until she reached the dark concrete room below.

This was the first time she had been truly alone since—

No, she thought. Don't think about him right now.

She distracted herself by looking around the room. She was in luck! It looked like it used to be some sort of security storage room.

"Let's see here... 12 gauge... where is the 12 gauge?" She looked around at the various boxes sitting around the room, using as little magic as she could to open them. Luckily, most of the wooden crates were already open, revealing so many different kinds of ammunition it made her head spin.

"Banana clips, 22 mm, 357, tranquilizer darts?!" Twilight stared at the sheer variety. After a few minutes of sorting it out, she finally magicked a few boxes of 12 gauge, and some 9 mm for Rarity. She was about to leave when she something else caught her attention.

"Are those... grenades?!" she said out loud.

Twilight walked up to the egg-shaped devices sitting inside one of the crates. It looked like they were already attacked to a long belt, which Twilight levitated into the air so she could get a better look. She detached one of them and brought it up close so she could inspect it, noting the rough tiled texture, and studying the way the pin sat precariously inside.

I wonder how they work.

Before she could investigate any further, though, she was interrupted by a loud scream.

"RARITY!" she shouted, throwing the belt around her shoulder and reattaching the loose grenade. She bolted up the ramp as a second scream shouted out her name.

"I'm coming, Rarity!"

Twilight's eyes blurred as the rush flowed through her, compelling her to run faster. Her hoof was already on the trigger, ready to fire when a second voice struck her ears.

"STOP!"

Twilight leaned back and slid to a halt, feeling all the blood rush to her head. She was starring into the barrel of another 9 mm, sitting on the shoulder of a brown earth pony. Both his eyes were set on Twilight, and beneath him, his hooves dug into the body of Rarity, pinning her to the ground.

A moment passed where they just looked at each other. Then the guard pony spoke.

"Are you working with her?" He gestured at Rarity with his head.

"We're together, yes," Twilight said, trying to work out why this was a problem.

The guard looked at her, a gleam of triumph in his eyes. "I've been looking forward to this," he said. "I knew she couldn't have been working alone."

Twilight's face stayed blank. "Uh, yeah. This place is kind of dangerous to walk around alone," she said. "Two guns are better than one, you could say."

"Don't play smart with me," he said. "What exactly are you two planning? Why did you set this up?"

Now Twilight cocked her eyes. "Set... what?" She looked down at Rarity, watching a few beads of sweat run down the side of her head. "Rarity, wha—"

"You leave her out of this!" the guard yelled. "You look at me, not at her! Tell me. What are you planning? Why did you sabotage that experiment?"

Twilight gasped now. "Sabotage?! What are you—"

"Don't play stupid," he said. "You think I don't know? Hazardous Environment Suit, SPAS-12 shotgun, grenades." He gave her a look. "You were prepared for this," he said. "And as if there was any doubt, I happen to find you working with her!" He dug his hoof into Rarity's coat, making her whimper beneath him.

"What?!" Twilight said. "She's just an office worker!"

"Ooooh! Just an office worker!" he scoffed. "You tell me. Is she just an office worker?"

Twilight felt her body run cold, looking down at Rarity, who was now breathing very fast.

"What's going on, Rarity?"

The guard cocked his head, his expression dimming. "Oh?" he said. "You mean you don't know?" He looked down at Rarity. "You've been working with this grunt-of-a-scientist, and you never told her your master plan?"

"I DON'T HAVE A PLAN!" Rarity shouted.

The guard leaned down, putting his face right up against hers. "That's not what the records show," he said.

"I had no choice!"

"Rarity! What is going on?!" Twilight said.

The guard stood up as Rarity turned her head, shutting her eyes tight. "This little office worker went and sabotaged the whole thing!" he said. "Went and messed up a bunch of files related to the experiment." He brought his head back down to hers. "And then," he shook his head, taking a deep breath, "she uploaded a virus, crashing the whole system right before it happened."

Twilight looked down at Rarity, looking for some sign. She could hear Rarity whimpering beneath the guard, even so much as sobbing.

"Why did you do it?" he whispered. "What were you planning?"

"I t-t-told you," she sobbed. "I d-d-didn't want—"

"Leave her alone," Twilight said.

The guard looked up. "Why? So you can pick up where you left off?" He dug his hoof in even deeper. "This ends now!"

Twilight took a deep breath and calmed down. "What do you want with us?"

The guard just looked at her. "I want you to turn yourselves in," he said. "Put an end to all this. The Equesrtian military is on its way. Tell them everything you know, and turn yourselves in." He lightened his grip. "If you're lucky, they'll let you live."

Twilight scowled. "I'm not turning myself in for something I didn't do."

The guard lost his temper. "You have no argument!" he yelled. "You were at ground zero! Everypony knows it! Now turn yourself in, or I'll end this here and now!"

Twilight leaned forward onto her front hoof. "We're trying to get out of here! Just like you!" she lowered her voice and almost whispered. "Now let her go, or I'll make you let her go."

The guard scoffed. "And what are you gonna do, Twilight Sparkle?!" he said. "You gonna shoot me?"

A shot rang out, making Twilight's ears bleed as it echoed around the room. She had not meant to fire, but she had leaned forward in anger too far.

"Y-y-y-y-you... y-you shot a guard!" Rarity trembled on the ground, looking at the heap on the ground next to her. "You just... shot an actual pony!"

Even Twilight was close to tears as she looked at the body on the ground. "I didn't mean—" She took a deep breath, shaking violently.

"Y-y-y-you just... just..."

"I know!" Twilight said, leaning forward and putting her hooves to her ears. "Don't say it!" She closed her eyes tight, feeling moisture slide down her cheeks. She fought against the thought. It had been blasted so firmly into her mind.

"T-T-Twilight—"

Twilight breathed deep, keeping her eyes closed as she wept into her hooves. She couldn't speak against the lump in her throat.

"T-Twilight—"

"I... c-can't..." she squeaked.

"Twilight, it's... just... calm down."

Twilight couldn't see it, but Rarity's face was just as drenched as Twilight's. Twilight could feel Rarity's hoof against her face, and knew she had gotten off the floor to stand next to her.

"H-how do I c-calm down?!"

"I," Rarity swallowed hard. "don't know. Just... we should get out of here."

Twilight wanted to sit there on the ground, crying into her hooves for hours, but Rarity had a point. They had to keep moving, and Twilight picked herself up against her own will. Her whole body ached from the pain of killing another pony. "We should h-h-hide the body," she said, whispering the last words. She turned her head away from the body, wishing she didn't need to think about it. Rarity also fought back tears, quivering visibly.

"T-together?" Twilight said, reaching out with her magic with her eyes averted.

As a response, Tilight heard Rarity's own magic start up, and sensed it next to her own. Rarity let out a small scream of disgust as she felt it rise into the air, its limbs swinging freely. Twilight forced the image of a floating corpse out of her mind.

"We'll hide it behind some boxes down here. Hopefully it will look like one of the creatures killed him."

Rarity's face was still mortified. "Oh, believe me, Twilight. Nobody is going to look at this thing long enough to see it has bullet holes in it."

They worked their way down the ramp until they were amongst the crates.

"You know," Twilight thought out loud, "this wouldn't be a problem if the aliens had shotguns." She elaborated upon seeing Rarity's face. "You know, because everyone would just assume the aliens shot him." Rarity stood there as Twilight took the corpse and dropped it hastily behind one of the crates, making a face as though she was dropping a used tissue.

"Let's just not do this again," Rarity said. "I'd like to get out of here without being charged with murder in the royal courts."

Twilight led Rarity back up the ramp. "Speaking of crimes," she started, giving Rarity a knowing look.

Rarity looked at Twilight curiously before she caught on to Twilight's implications. She didn't bother to wait for Twilight to clarify. She simply threw her head into the air and walked past Twilight. "I'm simply not ready to talk about it yet," she said.

Twilight closed her eyes and trotted after her. "You sabotaged the entire experiment?!"

"I said I'm not ready to talk about it!" Rarity repeated. "Now we have an elevator to reach—"

Twilight galloped in front of her before she could walk any further. "We're talking about this," she said. "Now!" She narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, daring Rarity to go around her.

Rarity cocked her eye. "There really isn't much to talk about, dear," she said. "What's done is done. And besides! It's not like I had a choice."

"Didn't have a choice?! What did they do? Hold a gun to your head?"

"I SAID," Rarity put a hoof to her forehead, closing her eyes and trying to calm down. "Look," she finally said. "I don't like to talk about it, okay? It's a... difficult topic for me."

Twilight just stared at her. "I can imagine."

The two of them stood there in the dark room, Rarity looking at the ground and taking deep breaths, Twilight staring straight ahead at her. A soft wind could be heard through the pipes, and an occasional drop of water landed from a leak in the ceiling. The wait seemed to take forever.

"Fine," Rarity said. "Fine, I'll tell you."

She walked around the room and finally collapsed onto the ground, burying her head in her hooves. When she looked back up, she started:

"You have to understand, Twilight. Our records have never exactly been "clean". My parents kept me out of most of it, but when I finally got here, they couldn't hide me from it anymore. I had access to all the background reports of everyone who ever worked for or was associated with the company."

"You're saying your parents were criminals?" Twilight asked, not sure how much of this was true.

Rarity grimaced. "It's not like they were just common thieves or anymore," she said. "They... well, they just weren't fond of the system, that's all. They found ways of living that weren't as... "conventional" as most. They never liked my idea of finding work to pay for my life. They said it was a waste of time. They said I could have all sorts of freedom I didn't have if I would just learn the system like they did."

"System?" Twilight cocked an eye.

"Yes, darling. The government. They knew how to get around things. The idea was to have Equestria take care of them, instead of having to work."

The idea dawned on Twilight. "You mean they committed fraud," she said bluntly.

Rarity grimaced. "They wouldn't have put it quite that way," she said slowly. "But yes, that was the idea." She sighed as she continued.

"My sister, Sweetie Belle, was also involved. Not directly, of course, but she was part of the paperwork. The entire setup was complicated, and I didn't look into it enough to know what everything meant. That would require a pretty thorough attorney to work all of that out. But, I did read enough to come to the conclusion that, if the contracts were manipulated they could be made to have some rather substantial consequences."

"Like what?" Twilight asked.

Rarity took a deep breath. "Like the disownership of my sister," she said softly. "Like the banishment of my family, and my own exile." She closed her eyes. "I had no way to undo what my parents had setup. I'm not entire sure they were aware of these implications."

"Anyway," she continued, "I hid this away as best I could, as you can imagine. I didn't have much trouble keeping it quiet until—" She stopped, taking another deep breath.

"I dont know who he was, or where he came from," she said, shaking her head. "He didn't tell me his name. All he did was give me a roll of parchment with instructions on it, and told me if I didn't follow them, I would never see my family again. He showed me a document after that, which I recognized as one of the forms my parents had signed fraudulently. He didn't have to explain anything for me to understand."

Rarity looked up, a few tears threatening to crest over her eyelids. "I didn't have a choice, Twilight! It was either this facility, or my family."

Twilight walked right up to Rarity, who backed up against one of the walls, afraid of what Twilight might do. Twilight leaned back so Rarity knew she wasn't any threat, and reached a hoof out to help Rarity up.

"Tell me everything he had you do," she said.

=========================================================

Thankfully, the last staircase wasn't difficult to find. There was a small area that Rarity said used to lead to a breakroom, but it was sealed off a few years ago. Rarity simply bypassed this by going through a high security door on the side.

Unfortunately, Rarity didn't remember much about what she had done with the computer. Technology had never been one of her strong points. She had mostly been hired to keep track of spreadsheets, and other basic functions. However, she did remember a few crucial steps, such as the removal of any backup files concerning information about the experiment, as well as disabling all of the fail-safe measures around the equipment. As it turns out, she did not directly upload the virus. She had merely taken down the firewall, which allowed someone from the outside to upload it to the company servers.

"What I'm interested in is who this business pony is," Twilight said as they walked up the stairs. "From the way you describe him, he sounds a lot like somepony I've seen around here."

"Again, he didn't tell me his name," Rarity said. "And he kind of talked funny, as if he had a speech impediment."

"You think he's with the Equestrian government?" Twilight asked, reaching the top of the stairs. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's—"

She stopped. In front of her was a large hallway expanse, once again picking up the tiled floor and brick walls from earlier. At the end of it was an elevator shaft, but this wasn't what had caught her attention. To her right, just before the red-trimmed entrance to the hallway, was a door—and through the window was pony, staring straight at her: a pony wearing a business suit.

"R-Rarity," she said. "I think you'd better see this," she said.

Twilight looked back at the pony on the other side of the glass, who gave her a small nod... and smiled! As he did so, he turned and walked away from view.

"What is it, dear?" Rarity said, looking off in Twilight's direction. "Did you see another security pony?"

Twilight walked right up the door, peering closely through the window, trying to see around.

"Can you open this door?" she asked Rarity.

Rarity lit her horn and opened the door, revealing a long hallway that didn't have any path to the right.

"Where did he go?" Twilight asked, walking through the door, trying to find some secret entrance in the wall that the pony could have escaped through.

"Where did who go?" Rarity asked. "Twilight," she said, when Twilight didn't answer, "are you all right?"

Twilight just starred at the wall, as if it would suddenly open to reveal some secret lair that the business pony always hid inside.

"I..." she turned, "let's just get out of here," she finished.

Rarity nodded. "I highly agree!" she said. "I'm getting mighty tired of these offices! The elevator should be just down here."

"Do you think what he said was true?" Twilight asked. "About the military coming here?"

Rarity shook her head. "We'll know before we get out of here," she said. "Honestly, I'm hoping so. I am not looking forward to walking all the way to Ponyville."

Twilight walked to the end of the hallway with Rarity, looking through a few of the windows around her, and observing a short walkway overhead.

"Well!" Rarity exclaimed. "Isn't this interesting!" She gestured at the elevator shaft, completely devoid of an elevator—or doors—or a working button.

"Yeah, I had to deal with this before," Twilight said. "It wasn't exactly pleasant." She backed down the hallway with Rarity. "Just be glad you have your entire horn," she said, "and that you don't have to carry anything except yourself."

"What are you suggesting, Twilight? That we simply levitate ourselves to the top?"

Twilight gave her a look that told her that's exactly what she intended.

"I'm not sure I have that kind of power. I can only levitate small items."

Twilight stuck a hoof out at Rarity. "That's why we work together!" she said triumphantly. "I read about this back in Canterlot. Unicorns can combine their powers and magnify them! If we tried to use levitation spells on ourselves or on each other alone, we'd both be fighting an uphill battle."

She turned towards the elevator, a small spark igniting on her horn. "But! If we both focus our magic on both of us, then the magic will combine, and make it much easier!"

Rarity looked confused. "Have you... done this?" she asked.

"I wrote a thesis on it back in Canterlot," she said. This didn't seem to comfort Rarity much. "Just try levitating both of us," she said. "I'll do the rest."

Twilight lit her horn and grimaced as she floated a cloud of magic around herself and Rarity. Rarity closed her eyes and took a deep breath, floating her own cloud forward. The pink cloud of Twilight's met up with the white cloud of Rarity's, and their tint began to change.

"Think levitation!" Twilight said, pushing against their bodies with her magic. She saw Rarity do the same, and suddenly the cloud lit up a magnificent cyan! The glow lit up the entire hallway, and without much of a thought, both ponies felt their hooves leave the ground.

Rarity let out a surprised scream, more like a laugh than anything. "Twilight! We're flying!"

"Try to get to the elevator," she said. "We need to fit through the doorway."

What followed was one of the most awkward things Twilight had ever done. The magic did not like fighting itself. Every time Rarity tried to go somewhere Twilight didn't expect, the magic lost some of its power, and they both nearly fell more than once. It was like a running a six-legged race. Every time they disagreed about where their center hooves should go, the ropes threatened to trip them.

"Maybe if you just—"
"We need to go this way—"
"—move your flank over there—"
"—if you could back up a bit more—"
"—you're too far to the right—"
"—hang on! You're slipping!"

It seemed to go on forever, but they finally floated themselves inside the elevator shaft. They both looked up, seeing the elevator stuck at the top.

"On the count of three," Twilight said. "One—"

"Oh, and Twilight?" Rarity interrupted, "Do actually count to three this time."

Twilight blushed, but continued to concentrate on the orb of magic. "On the count of three. One..."

She grimaced from the light tinge of pain against her horn.

"... Two..."

She looked up at Rarity, who nodded.

"THREE!"

Forcing a bit more magic into their spells, they felt their bodies quickly ascend the shaft. The cyan cloud became brighter, drowning the entire shaft in a beautiful haze of sparkles and mist. The elevator came much sooner than they had expected, and both of them lowered their magic until they landed, side-by-side, on top of it. The both looked at each other as the magic wore off, looking down at a small opening in the top of the elevator where a vent used to be. Some other ponies must have crawled out through the top at some point.

"Let's do this," Twilight said.

She dropped down into the elevator, helping Rarity down with her, and faced the elevator doors, ready for her next great adventure.