//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The Long Road Home // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 2 Vinyl Scratch and Twilight Sparkle stood in the opening of the large metal door, just staring. The way was open, but they were afraid to step through. It wasn’t the first time in their lives that they were on the edge of the unknown, but it sure felt like it. Vinyl took a deep breath, and turned to her friend, giving her a small smile. “Can’t go back now,” Vinyl said, she opened her saddlebags and levitated two Revolvers out, gliding Twilight’s over to her. “Can I trust you not to misuse this?” “No, probably not,” Twilight said, swallowing hard. “But what we’re doing is important enough for me to put my feelings aside. I can’t be selfish right now.” Twilight enveloped her magic around the revolver. Vinyl released it, allowing the lavender unicorn to take it, and without another word, the two mares took their first step inside. Once inside, the alarms went off again, the metal door rolled back into place, sliding back shut with the deafening grinding of metal on metal. Both mares watched as it closed. There was another control panel identical to the one that they found outside, except this one was much cleaner looking, and better maintained. They could open the door back up and leave at any time, but for some odd reason, that didn’t comfort them at all. Twilight and Vinyl continued out of the entrance room and into a hallway, a very long, well lit hallway. The floors were metal, the walls were metal. Light fixtures hung overhead. They kept their eyes forward and kept their ears open for any signs of trouble. They jumped when one of the lights above them burned out with a small snap. “We’re too jumpy,” Twilight said. “We’re going to hurt somepony if we keep these out... most likely ourselves.” Twilight slid her revolver into her saddlebag, Vinyl did the same. They stopped here for a moment to process what was around them. Vinyl Scratch sat under the burned out light, thinking. She looked up at Twilight and spoke her mind. “Something isn’t right here. Somepony built this place, but nopony knows it’s here except us. Which means that it needed to have been built a really long time ago, I wouldn’t surprised if this place predates the reign of Celestia. It would have to! There’s next to no information about what Equestria was like before then... which leads us to a problem. Look at this place! It’s spotless! Not even a speck of dust in the air.” “Where are you going with this Vinyl?” Twilight asked, looking at her friend in confusion. “This place is clean, which means that somepony has been cleaning it... which means...” “...That there is somepony still here,” Twilight finished. Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Twilight and Vinyl both pulled out their revolvers upon hearing this new sound. This was completely foreign to them, metal against metal, slow, deliberate, and coming right towards them. “Vinyl? I don’t think I like it when you’re brilliant,” Twilight said. “Me neither, it does me nothing but trouble,” Vinyl said, flashing the first real grin she’d been able to muster in what felt like years. Around the corner, walked what was making the noise, but what it was surprised them. It was a metal pony with two manipulator arms jaunting out of the flanks, carrying a light fixture. It continued to walk up to them in a slow, deliberate, yet unthreatening manner. The metal pony walked up to them, where it stopped right in front of them. “Hello.” Twilight and Vinyl nearly jumped when it spoke. The metal pony had no mouth to speak of, and its voice sounded tinny and artificial. One of its long manipulator arms reached up to the burned out light fixture that was above Vinyl and pulled it out, the other one reached up and put the new one in, causing light to be restored. The metal pony, its task complete, turned around and began to walk away. “Um, excuse me?” Twilight said, hoping to get the metal pony’s attention. The metal pony stopped. However it did not turn around, instead, its head slowly rotated 180 degrees to face back towards them, which was frankly very creepy. “State query,” the metal pony said. “Could you tell us where we are?” Twilight asked. “You are currently located at: Sublevel 3, secondary entrance. You are standing on: floor panel 896308-AB,” the metal pony said. That wasn’t exactly helpful. “No, I mean, this hole place! What is this place?” Twilight asked. The metal pony made several clicking and whirring noises before answering. “This is the Everfree Plains Ballistic Research and Development Facility. EPMB.” “What does EPMB stand for?” Twilight asked. “Everfree Plains Ballistic Research and Development Facility,” the metal pony answered. “The acronym doesn’t match...” Twilight said with a confused look on her face. “I’m sorry. I did not understand your query. Please consult helpdesk with further queries,” the metal pony said. Its head turned back around the right way, and trotted off to its next task. Twilight and Vinyl looked at each other in confusion, but decided to press on. The only way they were going to get answers was if they kept looking. They continued down the hallway, taking it through several twists and turns until they found themselves rounding a corner, and nearly running headlong into another metal pony. This one was holding a bucket of red paint in one manipulator, and a paint brush in the other, it was painting a door that it was standing in front of. No, not painting, not exactly. More like writing. The metal pony was writing a message on the door. The metal pony finished his task, and moved on without a word to either of them. Twilight and Vinyl looked at the door. Painted on in large red letters was a message: “Visitors! Please come in here!” Twilight and Vinyl looked at it for a minute, and then at each other, with a small shrug, they made their way inside. Inside the room was a large rectangle shaped machine, behind glass panes, spools of magnetic tape were rolling through the complex machine. There was a control console in front of it, a small display screen sitting on top of it, flashing slightly with an eerie green light. One the console itself, however, there was a small flashing red light. Twilight and Vinyl Scratch approached it; next to the flashing light was a button. What was interesting about the button was that it had the words “Press Me” etched into them. With a shrug, Twilight pushed it. “Head Researcher’s Log, This is Doctor Emerald Sparkle reporting... if you’re listening to this... well then that means that this was all for something. By Gaia, I can only imagine how long it’s been for you... This probably doesn’t help you at all, but the date I’m recording this message is February 14th, year 4005 of Gaia’s reign. So... uh, welcome to EPMB, I guess...” There was a sigh and a long pause on the recording, Twilight and Vinyl Scratch waited patiently for it to continue. “Sorry... there’s just so much I want to say, but I don’t know where to start... Yes Doppler, you’re right I should have made an outline... Well here’s a good spot, there’s going to be more than one roll of data tape that you’ll have to listen to. I’ve got a lot to say. When I’m done, I’ll be sure to put this one back into the mainframe so that you’ll get the message in the right order. I’d hate for you to start out hearing instructions of what to do with the missile before you even know what that is. Well I’m getting ahead of myself, so I guess I should give you a little about me. I’m Emerald Sparkle. I’m the head researcher here at EPMB; I oversee... or well, oversaw, got to remember: past tense, every project that goes on here... I personally designed the Crusader IX Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, and worked on the development team for the Sunburst project... Gaia, that was almost 10 years ago... What? What do you mean Doppler? Oh right, you don’t know what either of those are! Okay, well... I’m really hoping you have some idea what an atom is, because my explanation hinges on it. Have you ever wondered what would happen if an atom were to split? Well I’ll tell you, it releases a lot of energy. The Sunburst project was to develop this concept into a weapon. It worked beyond our wildest dreams! We tested several prototype warheads in the Hoofson bay, and the resulting explosion was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The mushroom cloud lasted for days... and I’m running out of tape. Listen. I’ve got to hide the tapes, because if I don’t those stupid robots will pick them up and recycle them. I’m going to hide the next tape underneath the bottom drawer of the desk at the opposite end of the room. Listen to it, and you’ll get the next part of the message. I’m also going to reprogram one of the maintenance robots to paint a message on the door to this room... You’ll have already found your way in here by then, but in case you were wondering why it was doing that, well now you know the reason why it was doing it... one final request. Please don’t break anything, be gentle with the equipment! Who knows how old it will be by the time somepony actually listens to it.” The message ended after that. Twilight and Vinyl looked at each other in confusion. They’d been hoping for answers. Now all they had were more questions.