The Art of Magic II: Secrecy of the Facility

by Rarity Belle

Chapter 3

 
“Hey Swindle! Did you finally figured out just how those bloody terminals work!?” shouted Crankcase over the humming engines. His brown eyes were fixed on the yellow rimmed stallion who worked like crazy. The triplets had been for in the engine room for two days by then as both Keeton and Rarity had been growing impatient for their deeds. Keeton just did it for the laughs he would get by discouraging them but Rarity was more serious. For she wanted to go to the unicorn city and with the opportunity given to her, she just desired to get there as soon as possible.

The yellow rims of Swindle glared over the many arcane symbols from the monitors while he tried to decipher just what the Ancient Unicorn language could even mean. “If you just shut up, Crank, then I may figure it out! Keep hammering on those switches, one of them has to turn these things on! Hatchet! Need a little hoof here, pull that lever over there again!” he shouted in return.

The blue rimmed stallion left his post by Crankcase with haste. He made his way over to the lever pointed out by Swindle. He yanked it back before his brown eyed brother pushed on a button he didn't even knew what it would do. Everything within the massive engines fell shut all of the sudden. The humming died ever so slowly as the flow of corrupted magic stopped. All three brothers stared at each other. One released a loud gulp while Hatchet dared to speak up. “We, are dead...”

It was when none of the three expected it that there was a bright red light. A light that made its way through the room. The corrupted magic flew even more freely through the pipes and pumped itself into the engines, which turned them on once again. But instead of hearing the soft humming they were used to, the engines gave a roar of pure and primal power. A roar that scared the three at first before they just erupted out in laughter. Something told them that they had done it.. They managed to get the five hundred year old engine to run as they did in the glory days of the Facility.

Without a warning given and above the roaring came the sound of pistons that dropped themselves down upon metal. Another sound was added soon enough as well. The screeching sound of drive shafts that turned again made their way into the ears. The three stallions grinned from ear to ear as they knew they managed to do it. The request of a mad mare had become a reality.

 
The pounding sounds of the engines were heard all over the Facility. The many captive unworthy unicorns crawled up against each other in their cells. Each of them was frightened that there was a machine even worse than the device they would met their fate in. All of the guards on each of the three holding floors looked at each other with a glaze of uncertainty. None knew just where the sound came from. If they didn’t know any better themselves, they too got a little scared.

Both Twilight and Trixie pulled the brakes of the Maker after the sounds did their turn in their ears. They stared at each other for a moment and then to the guards. “You all make sure those things do not escape, we need to look over at things upstairs,” spoke Twilight in a cold tone while her eyes laid down on each of the guards. But before the guards could react she and her mare were simply gone. They were off to the thirteenth floor to where the manager glared over the many monitors at once. She tried to figure everything out herself.

The both of them stormed into the office without a word. The eyes of Rarity were shooting all over the place. They went from monitor to monitor as her forehooves were stretched upon the desk. “Where does it come from, where does it bloody come from!?” she muttered to herself.

“Uhm, Rarity?” Twilight spoke up in a soft tone.

“Tell me you two have good news for me, please,” answered Rarity in her coldest tone.

“We, don’t... We hoped you would know it,” replied the unicorn even softer.

“Well, I can safely say... Hold on... N-No way,” she spoke up. Rarity let her mind to collect for the first time after the pounding sounds began. She then turned herself around on her chair. Her red rimmed eyes glared over to Twilight and Trixie with a big grin on her face. But the entire look on her face was more than enough to send a shiver down the spines of the other two officials.

“Does Rarity desire to tell both Trixie and Twilight what she has found?” Trixie asked with care. But only after she had recovered from the shiver and managed to look passed the maniac.

“I, I think I do. The engines, they are running again!”

“Impossible!” shouted Twilight without a warning and in an instant.

“It is true my dears. Finally, the Facility shall return to its place in Tol Ret Nac. Time for us, to go home, leave this roaming nature behind us... Time has come, finally come!” replied Rarity in utter joy. She leaned back in her chair and continued to smile like a fool. The same smile appeared on both the faces of Trixie and Twilight before they turned themselves back and left the office. The mares returned to their duties with an even greater pleasure.

 
Back down in the office of the moving department, Keeton and Mush found themselves in a discussion about the plans for the upcoming day as the events occurred. They stared at each other for a little bit while they tried to figure out just what may have happened as the pounding sounds entered their ears. The more Keeton stared into the eyes of Mush, the more a shock of realization came into him as he almost shouted his words in her face. “Sons of...!”

“W-What?” replied Mush in a confused yelp. The mare blinked a couple times after she had jumped out of her chair. She didn't receive a response as the stallion was gone almost in an instant. He made his way over to the door that separated the engine room from the rest of the building and placed his ear against it.

The more he listened to the sounds that came from behind it, the more he began to boil in pure anger. After a minute of listening had Keeton removed his body away from the door. Around his horn there was the signature purple aura formed itself while the humming sounds of power did their turns. Though they were almost inaudible by the crushing sounds of the pistons above their heads.

The head of Mush hung out the doorway and thus it gave her a perfect sight at the events that occurred. The deep purple coloring around his horn kept becoming stronger with each step he took. Many of the employees who were working on the floor quickly left as they knew what was going to happen and they didn't had the desire to be in the line of fire.

And then came the time that Keeton rose up on his hind legs and stood there for a couple seconds before he just dropped himself to the ground under a roar of mixed emotions. Emotions that couldn't be described by simple words. All the power that he could call upon got released into the free world. It formed one powerful beam that got sent towards a solid, metal wall. Once the metal and the magic made contact with each other, there was a deep corrosion that took place. Within seconds had the magic made its way through the wall. It only left a perfect, round hole behind. A hole that had to be sealed by somepony.

Mush gulped loud while she watched the events that happened. Yet she remained in the office, for the near rampaging stallion came back down the hallways. He discharged his horn in the progress before he walked through the opening and plopped back down on his seat.

“W-What is it?” the mare asked him ever so carefully and truly being afraid of another outburst. “Where was that even good for?!”

“Those three idiots, managed to let the engine run, that is what happened!” he snarled towards her. “Leave me alone, Mush, we have discussed what we needed, just get out!” The mare couldn't do much then that what was asked from her and she left his office quietly. She closed the door behind her and allowed him to boil in his anger. But she grew only more curious and thus went to inspect on the hole that was created. Mush gave her eyes the time to look at it, the devastating power of Keeton's magic was indeed more than worthy of his gotten name by gossip. She glared over the damage that was done and knew that Corron and herself had to repair it soon enough.

 
Inside the office on the thirteenth floor, there was a Rarity who could be found in her chair where she chuckled in herself. The time would be there soon enough that the very Facility would move once again under its own produced power. In order to watch the event happening, she left her office and walked down the staircase until she reached the –soon to be– ground floor. There she found herself before standing a heavy metal door.

With a light charge of her horn that coated itself in the red magic, was the door opened by itself. Rarity then stared right into the bright light of the sun that shone through the glass, front doors. She placed a hoof before her eyes to see for at least a little bit. After that, she progressed through the empty room. The room that every unworthy unicorn went through when they came to the Facility to meet their end. The path that would lead to death alone.

“The time has come,” Rarity spoke to herself just before she walked through the doors. Months of isolation within the Facility had made her forget just how pleasant it felt to have the sun meet her coat. With the soft wind that blew softly through her mane as it also served as some pleasant refreshment. Behind her was the cage she dared to call home for a long time. In front of her laid the land of Equestria, which had a wonderful day once again.

Rarity walked up to the edge of the cloud and sat down on her flanks. She just stared down upon the green plates of land before her eyes went up to the blue, cloudless skies. Times long lost boiled back up in her mind, times before the place she could be found in by then. But the memories were quickly crushed by her twisted mind.

Eventually it came to her ears. The loudest steam whistle she had ever heard, rang in her ears. All while more pistons had begun to sing their song. The drive shafts spun faster and faster with every passing second. Though the shafts had to connect to something and that they did. It was on the back of the Facility that there were three massive propellers. Propellers which slowly started to turn the more the shafts turned around.

The more she sat on the spot, the more the wind didn't only came from the side, but also from the front. All while the cloud drifted gently over the land on its own power. The cold, red rims of the unicorn glared at the event and once again erupted out in a maniacal laughter. The time had come, the Facility was moving on its own again. “Finally! Finally we can return to the city!” she shouted while she returned to the doors, only to disappear once more through them.

 
The Magic Facility had been drifting through the skies for nearly a week while Rarity had heard some rather disturbing news from the engine room. The very vapors from the corrupted magic took its toll on the triplets as they became sicker and sicker. The first solution was to give them the same suit that the workers of the processing department wore. But it wouldn't help either. Corron galloped to the door where he prayed that Keeton could be found behind. He entered the office of the stallion with a pant for his life and managed to rest his eyes upon the stallion. “K-Keeton, c-come quickly!”

The purple rimmed stallion just glared up from the many maps. “Corron, what is the matter?” he answered in a curious, but serious tone.
“E-Engine, casualties... J-Just come and see! No time to explain!” panted Corron out.

“For the love of,” was the only thing Keeton said. After that, he removed himself from the chair and passed the red coated, bald stallion in order to see just where the hype was about.

When he came into the boiler room, he saw just what had happened. On the floor could the bodies of three stallions be found. Each wore the classic white hazard suits and the door to the engine was still wide open. The purple eyes went back and forth between the two things before a shock of realization went through them and quicker than ever charged up his horn in order to close the door. After the shock of the door did its turn through the room, a glaze of rage that was irradiated from the eyes of Keeton went over everypony who had been gathering around. “Which one of you idiotic foals left that door open!” he shouted to everypony present.

A green coated stallion carefully rose his hoof under a gulp. “I, I sir.”

The enraged eyes of Keeton got fixed over to the stallion as a loud huff left through his nose. “And just, why?” he then almost wheezed through his mouth.

“I, I bring them their meals after my own shift, but when I didn't hear anything, I entered the room and found them like that, d-dead...” he stumbled.

“That is all fine and such, just why did you left that door open after that?”

“I thought it couldn't do much harm,” the poor stallion said in his defense.

As he heard the words in his ears, there were a couple wires that snapped in the head of Keeton. Before the stallion knew it he found himself smashed against the steel door of the engine room as the blue coated stallion discharged his horn. “And do you know just how bucking dangerous the liquids in that room are!?” he shouted to the other stallion.

“N-No sir, I do not!” the stallion shouted while he tried to fight of some tears. The hit had not broken any bones in his body, but the bruises would be unavoidable. Keeton wouldn't show him any mercy and charged up his horn again. The second time he levitated the green coated stallion and threw him against the hot metal on top of one of the boilers. The hissing sound of the flesh could be heard. The right side of his face was burned while he screamed in utter agony. It didn’t took Keeton before he dumped him on the ground once more. The poor soul hid his face from all the others. He wanted to ease the pain, but also don't show the other how he looked like.

“This is your first and only warning!” Keeton growled in a dead serious voice. “That goes for all of you!” He turned around and seemed ready to tell the news to his superiors. “And clean those bodies! Same treatment as the unworthies!” he barked as a last order. Some of the terrified employees managed to carry the bodies away as some others brought the burned stallion over to the medical office on the ninth floor which happened to be run by a stallion. A stallion considered to be even crazier than most of the others within the walls of the building.

A scientist –or that is what he called himself– that lived simply under the name of Medic. His manners of work were crazy and unlike any other doctor ever seen. But somehow he always managed to get things right. Everpony feared him deeply and thus they did their utmost best not to end up there. A thing which worked in most cases.

The green coated stallion was brought over and placed on a bedchair in the middle of the small medical office. The office where he just waited in pain as his body shocked and twitched every now and then while he moaned.

Eventually the white coated stallion appeared out of the backroom and only smirked at the sight that was caught in his eyes. “Ach, I knows whas zu tun. Just hold still.” A deadly grin took form just below his snout and before anypony could know it, the horrible screams of agony did their turn once again.

 
Keeton tried to keep the screams he heard from the unworthy's out of his own mind. Yet they echoed through the whole upper part of the building. With some difficult trains of thought did he found himself once again by that cursed, metal door. The stallion let a deep sigh pass through his nose and then opened the door without a knock. He looked inside and found Rarity glaring over to the insides of the chimney, where she watched the fresh magic that went up every now and then. “Boss, I have bad news...” he dared to speak.

“Bad news on the trip home?” her deadly gaze turned over to him as her breathing was deep and never heard before. “This better be terrible then...”

“It, quite is. The engineers in the engine room, died this day. They fell from the vapors that room is filled with. And just for yar information, I can’t spare a single soul anymore. With that thing running, I need every set of forehooves and horn I can get,” he spoke and pleaded his defense.

“So they passed away then,” she spoke while a soft grumble of utter discouragement left her mouth. Rarity fell back down in her chair and began to watch through the other window. The window that looked over to the processing department as in her own mind the many gears turned and twisted. She wondered herself gently just what to exactly do in the situation. “Leave me alone for the time being, Keeton, and thank you sharing this with me, return to your duty,” said Rarity after a few seconds had passed. It was clear that she needed to take some time for herself.

“Yes ma’am.” And with those words said he simply left the office and made his return all the way back down the stairs. Keeton made it back to his own office in the bowels of the beast without much problems. But one thought never left him as he ventured down, the discouragement in her voice. He never heard something like that in it. Many things began to spin in his head, many theories made up and revelations fantasized before he simply shook them off and worked further on his charting job. Even though they were on their way home, his skills were still needed.

 
“So they are truly dead now?” a female voice swiftly echoed through the room.

“Yes Mush, what do ya want this time? We just had our discussion of work just yet, remember?” the stallion replied without looking up.

“I require nothing from you right now, just that little word to confirm my thoughts. Just how do you think you will tell their parents?” Mush replied to him with a serious stare.

Keeton’s gaze finally turned up to the mare. One of his eyebrows rose up. “Nopony in this hole has parents left, remember,” he said in return to her, watching her ever motion.

“Watch out what you are saying, you will be throwing your own windows in like that.”

“Mush! Remove yarself from my office, and do it now!” A little shocked at the sudden outrage, Mush huffed loud and placed her belt buckle a bit more comfortable around her waist. After that did she just under some under breath muttering.

 
The stallion glared over Medic with a tear in his unburned eye. “D-Doc, how bad is it?” he managed to say in a high class sounding voice. The doctor had a look over him while a smirk came to his face. He plunged into a deep insanity and brought the burned pony over to a makeshift operating room and closed the door behind him. It would block off  some of the sounds that would come from the room. But not all by far.

“Shh, shh, would you be quiet please? This procedure requires, concentration,” he spoke in a Germaney accent while he stroked the unburned cheek. The stallion couldn't do all that much else then just accept that what would happen and he tried to lay still on his back. The burning feeling of his skin connected to the metal still rushed through him. The poor soul prayed for an easy operation.

Medic took out a bonesaw with his red magical aura and started to hum a little in himself. As the stallion began to fear even more by then and simply closed his eyes. He was not even willing to see where it would be going to end.

Though everything was too late as many screams left the poor, burned stallion. Screams of utter agony had faintly made their way through the door. One other worker who happened to be walking by, he carefully placed his ear against the door and kept listening for a little while before he shook his head. “Poor fella,” he spoke before he went back to his original station. The dreadful holding department. The stallion made his way up some stairs to a locker room where he went over to a locker and opened it with his magic in order to pull on his bloodstained suit and hazard mask. A terrifying sight to behold and one many unworthy’s would see as their final sight.

Once being fully locked and loaded, he released a deep yet muffled sigh through the breathing apparatus and made his way over to a heavy metal door which opened with a simple charge of his horn. On the other side of the door was a metal catwalk. The catwalk that stood above the various holding cells. He was the first of the group to arrive and took place near the middle of it and waited. His eyes glared over to the terrified young mares and stallions below him. The more fear he saw in their eyes, the greater his sick joy became.

Time didn't had to progress that long before three other ponies –all of them wore the same suit design– made their way onto the catwalk and took their respectable places as well. Then it was the waiting game that began. The waiting for the under-managers to come and do their job.

Not a single word was spoken by either parties. Yet a young stallion looked up with teary eyes. He dared to let his mind grind over just why they did such a thing to them. His dull green eyes lowered themselves from the catwalk shortly afterwards.  He dropped his eyes and let them fall upon his co-captives in the dark, grim and bloodstained cell.

Many of them were too scared to even look up and could be found curled up together as a final support. But the young stallion had accepted the fact of what came next. He had heard the rumors and words spoken by the guards from time to time, not to mention the first glimpse of the place when he was brought there. He knew he was not coming back from it all. It was a one way trip to the great unknown.

A deep sigh left through his nose before his eyes closed themselves from the world. It would let him drift off into realms unknown to anypony, realms only he could enters. Realms of freedom and peace as he softly started to sing a song from his foalhood. “The King and his man, lifted the Queen from her bed...and bound her in her bones. The skies be ours and by the powers, where we will, we’ll roam.”

More he couldn't sing as the banging sound of pistons that got into motion was heard even louder and the door flung open again. Instead of stallion shaped guards, there were two mare shaped figures which walked onto the catwalk and stopped in the very middle.

Their breathing was heavy while their eyes pierced into the soul of any unlucky enough to see them. Some of the curled up ponies began to glare up to the catwalk while others only began to shake in the purest fear they had ever experienced. Their time to become magic itself had come.

 
Rarity was still watched over the chimney as many thoughts rushed through her mind on just how to keep the engine room running without the loss of more precious workers. Many crazy ideas crossed her mind, but all ended up in losing workers. Both of her forehooves jammed on the desk as a highly annoyed growl left her. “For the sake of Nightmare Moon herself, am I that stupid that I am not seeing it, or it is just an unsolvable matter to begin with!?” the mare muttered to herself.

Hatred had begun to flow through her eyes. It made the red coloring even more dangerously looking than it normally did. The deep red color nopony ever wanted to see. It was when she turned her head over to the window of the processing department, when she stared deep into her own eyes which got reflected off of the glass, that a spark hit her. A spark of both insanity and ingenuity. For her eyes looked like rubies by that point in time. Little gemstones she always loved and liked. Stones she could summon and bend to her own will. “Yes, yes!” she yelled out to herself and leaned back in her chair and let it spin around a little bit. “One part of the plan can be put into motion, I just pray those two know what they are up for.”

A deadly smirk took form on her face and she simply left her chair. The mad mare walked up to the window that overlooked the entire department and her eyes fell on the just teleported group of unworthy unicorns. Rarity continued to watch with sadistic glee how they would be processed into Equestria’s greatest power.

The countless screams fell in her ears with pure evil delight as her eyes couldn't be hold off of them. The pure power of the device was simply mouthwatering and promising. Rarity loved it, every single inch of that horrible device she cherished like a child of her own. It was her destiny, her true potential. She provided the land with magic at the cost of the weaklings of the unicorn race.

                    
The stallion who sang the song in the holding cell not even ten minutes ago, found himself on the belt leading into the mouth of the Maker. Its gaping, steaming hole of darkness and death was waiting for the next one to enter. He glared over to the ponies who had undone their masks before they rested on Twilight, who pulled a lever. The lever which set the conveyor belt he was hooked on, in motion. His attention turned back towards the gap and all he could do was something he did a long time ago, accepting his end.

His body got consumed by the darkness of the device and it didn't took long before the deadly syringes were crammed into his body and his tear tubes penetrated. All of his body liquids got sucked out of him faster than anything could imagine and a loud scream of pure agony left through his mouth. A scream which indulged even more fear into the ones behind him.

Then his screams stopped while the sound of bones snapped and broken could be heard before the eerie silence began to dominate the surrounding area for a few seconds. Afterwards, there were a couple of ‘thuds’ that echoed through a metal pipe. He was broken, dried and made his way to be consumed by the raging fires of the devil’s boilers.

 
Rarity turned herself back around and began to charge up her own horn. Her very own plan would be set into motion as the last of them were being processed. The more her horn began to store with power, the greater its humming became. Unknown amounts of power found themselves in the horn, amounts Rarity only used once in a year. Cracks would have emerged within the metal floor before it turned it into a gaping hole of ground and earth. Whatever she was doing, she was summoning something to their realm. Something that was possibly, terrible.

With a simple raising motion of her head did hundreds of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, mountain crystals, amethysts and diamonds rose up from the hole. All of the gems swirled around each other like a vortex before the hole itself got closed up again. Rarity let her eyes fell shut while she took some deep breaths and brought shapes in the many gems. Some of them got even brought to their melting point before being put into the right place.

Within ten minutes of intense work were four figures placed on the ground. The mare opened her eyes again and let them fall over the simple designed, crystallized ponies. “Soon, very soon,” she spoke under a devilish grin as her ears perked up in excitement.

 
And just when she spoke those words, both Twilight and Trixie walked into her office. They had done their deeds for the day. Though the both of them rose an eyebrow when they saw the ponies made out of the gems. Both Twilight and Trixie turned their heads to the other and back, almost if they checked that if their eyes weren't lying to them.

“Uhm, Rarity... Just what are, those?” Twilight asked a little anxiously.

“These little beauties, my dear Twilight Sparkle, shall be the workers of the engine room,” answered Rarity in a tone of madness.

“And how does that work? Trixie does not fully understand that,” added Trixie.

“That is quite the easy part,” said Rarity while she turned herself around and her glance of utter insanity fell upon the both of them. “You two, will animate them. Pull on their strings, giving them life!”

Both of the mares looked at each other again and but deep in their eyes they spoke the same words. They knew just what Rarity wanted and couldn't do much else then accept the will of the manager. Luckily for the white mare, they both knew the spell she mentioned and they charged up their horns to perform the casting of it.

“Yes, yes! Release it when ready!” yelled Rarity in sick joy while she took a step aside.

“Nragh!” was just one of the sounds released by them both before two beams of a red magical aura left their horns and surrounded the crystal ponies. Soon enough begun the aura to fade away and Rarity's eyes glared over everything in the room. First to her under managers, then over to the crystal puppets.

“Come on, come on,” Twilight mumbled in herself. Within a few seconds did the ponies began to move on their own. At first a little bit wooden, but then they got the hang of it. All four of the crystal bodies lined up behind each other and started to march towards the door opening it and just left like that. As if they knew where they would be going to.

Rarity began to fill herself with rage at the sight playing out before her. “And just why are my new employees leaving this room without me having spoken a word!?” she growled to Twilight.

“Because,” Twilight replied cold before she blew the steam off of her horn, “I imprinted where they needed to go, what they would be doing. You said they were going into the engine room, that is where they are heading as we speak. Any more questions, manager?”
“No, no I do not, return to your posts and don’t make me leave this office again.”

Both mares gave a nod of understanding before they turned back around and left the unicorn to cook in her own soap. Trixie gave a small kiss on the cheek of Twilight before she spoke up after the door had fallen shut. “You are so deliciously evil.”

“No Trixie, I am Twilightlicious,” she replied under a soft wink while she opened the door of her quarters. Her tone had changed into a much more loving one. “Come right in.”

“Hmhmhm, you know you don’t have to say that twice to Trixie,” her love replied and went inside under a soft chuckle. Twilight closed the door behind her for everypony and it would only be her love and herself.