“Eugh…I hate this place. I came here once…got so spooked that I ended up breaking my leg…” Vinyl comments.
I don’t blame her for despising this place. I still feel like there’s going to be one of those timberwolf things and it’s going to jump out of nowhere and eat me. Well, nothing like fear to keep you moving…Celestia, I can hardly see anything this deep into the forest. The setting sun isn’t helping, either. We’re losing light fast, and we didn’t bring any light source. Vinyl’s using her horn to give us light, but that light source only goes as far as a few meters. If we don’t find anything before too long, we’ll have to wait till tomorrow to continue searching, and I don’t think that we have time to wait.
“Keep looking for anything out of the ordinary.” I say to Vinyl.
“I would if we could see more than a few meters away.” She grumbles.
I try to look around us, but all I’m seeing is darkness. I walk forward a little…EW EW EW WHAT DID I STEP IN?!?!?
I quickly lift up my hoof to see a puddle of a red, sticky, liquid. I notice that there is some of the liquid on my hoof. Against all better judgment, I lick the substance off of my hoof. It tastes irony.
“I think we may have found a clue. I just stepped in a puddle of blood.” I say, grimacing.
“Great, just great.” Vinyl grumbles. “And that helps us how?”
“We came in from that way.” I explain, pointing my hoof southward. “This must have been the way that the “thing” came from. If that’s the case, the place it came from may be around here somewhere.”
“So you’re saying it came from somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Well, that’s one mystery solved.” Vinyl jokes.
A boom comes from above us. We both look up. Dark, foreboding clouds begin forming over the forest. It begins to downpour on us. Lightning and thunder deafen any other sounds made by the forest. The whole storm was accompanied by ungodly whipping winds.
“Well, this is just fan-bucking-tastic!!” Vinyl shouts over the storm.
I look around for anything to help us wait out the storm. With the help of the multiple lightning strikes, there is enough light that I am able make out an entrance to a cave.
“This way!” I shout, motioning to Vinyl to follow me.
We strain to move in the tornado-like winds. Bit-sized hail begins to fall, pelting us with ice. I hear Vinyl curse, to which I look back and notice that the hail hit her in the face, smashing her glasses. We eventually we both make it into the cave.
“Damn it! I just had these fixed a few days ago!” She growls, taking her glasses off, and tossing them to the ground.
I look outside the cave. The hail begins to grow to the size of apples, and the wind grows to hurricane force winds.
“Looks like were not leaving for a while.” I say.
“Damn it to Tartarus! Great, just great, so now we’re stuck here in the middle of the Everfree forest and no one knows where we are! Great plan, D-Pad.” She growls at me with discontent.
…She’s right. I was far too headstrong to just run off to the forest without telling anyone. I was stupid for not getting a light source. Now we’re trapped here because of me.
“I’m sorry.” I apologize. “But something doesn’t feel right. Call it a gut instinct, but something seems amiss. I know the creature mentioned Everfree, I just know it. There is something here.”
“You went to all this just because the…thing…mentioned it?” Vinyl asked, still perturbed about the whole situation.
“Well, kinda. There’s also the factor of ponies going missing. According to the assistant of the alicorn that lives in the library, ponies have been getting foalnapped and then returned with no recollection of who foalnapped them or where they were taken. I think that these incidences may link up somehow.” I explain.
Vinyl raises an eyebrow.
“That…sounded more reasonable in my head.” I admit.
Vinyl lies down on the ground. “Well nothing to do now but wait out the storm.” She grumbles.
I lie down and close my eyes. Maybe I can get a nap in while the storm rages on.
…D-PAD! HELP! HELP ME!!...
I see Octavia tied up by her hooves to two carriages. The back hooves to one carriage, and the front hoofs to the other. They begin to roll away in opposite directions. They jerk backwards as they hit the ends of their ropes. I hear Octavia scream as they begin to roll again, this time continuing to move forward as they reach the ends of their ropes. I try to take a step forward to help her, but I can’t feel anything. My body feels like it doesn’t exist! I can’t move! I watch helplessly as Octavia’s limbs begin to tear away from her body. I watch as her fur and skin is torn from her body, exposing muscle and bone. Her back legs snap off of her body, and she is dragged along by her front hooves, her body being torn up by the ground. The carriages stop moving after a good minute. Octavia is bleeding profusely out of her body and limbs.
“D-PAD! WHY DID YOU JUST STAND THERE?! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAVE ME?!” She screams.
“OCTAVIA!!!”
I snap awake. I begin to breathe heavily. I swallow a couple of times. I look over at Vinyl, who is staring at me in shock.
“D-Pad, are you okay?! You were thrashing about wildly, I almost thought you were having a seizure!” she says, worried.
I look around. We’re still in the cave. I look outside the cave to see the storm still raging on. I start to calm down and lighten my breathing.
“Yeah…just…just a bad dream…” I reply, rubbing my face with my hooves.
I walk around the cave. I begin to worry about Octavia. Please Celestia…please let her be okay. I don’t know what I do if she-AAAH!!
A jet of hot air hits me in the face. I jump back in aversion. I put my hoof up to feel where the air is coming from. I trace it to the wall beside me. I put my ear up to the wall, and knock on it. It sounds hollow!
“Vinyl, come over here!” I shout. Vinyl walks over to me. “This wall is hollow! There’s something behind it! Quick, get a big rock and help me break it down.”
We both grab a rock. We begin to slam them into the wall. After a few minutes the wall begins to crack and crumble. We make a hole in the wall big enough for us to fit in. Behind the wall is a pitch black tunnel. Heat is radiating from the tunnel.
“Well, that’s interesting…not very helpful, but interesting.” Vinyl comments.
“Come on, let’s check it out.” I say, climbing over the rubble into the tunnel.
“No way! I’m not going in there! There could be some creature in there that will tear our faces off! We don’t even know where it leads!” Vinyl complains.
“Well, were stuck here until the storm passes. It’s not like we have anything better to do.” I retort.
Vinyl growls and climbs over the rubble. Her horn glows again, giving us some light to work with. We start our trek into the tunnel. We walk for a few minutes. We then come across a large paper sprawled and taped to the tunnel wall.
“Hey hold up, let me look at this.” I say, raising a hoof to stop Vinyl. I begin to examine the paper. There’s a bunch of thick lines of altering lengths heading toward a very large circle in the middle. The far ends of the lines all have names of cities and some land marks… Maneyapolis…Baltimare…Chicoltgo…Everfree Forest…wait…is this?...
“Vinyl, I think this is a map of a tunnel system!” I exclaim. “Look, these entire systems link up in one area, and look at all the system entrances.”
“There are entrances all over Equestria! But why? What purpose do these caves have that most of Equestria is linked to them?” Vinyl asks.
“Only one way to find out. Let’s keep moving.” I say, motioning to Vinyl to follow me.
We continue our trek forwards. Geez, it’s getting hot. I start sweating up a storm. Seems like the further we press on, the hotter it gets. That could either be good…or very, very bad. We walk for what I guess to be about a half an hour. Suddenly, I see a glowing green light.
“Hey, there’s light up ahead!” I exclaim. “Maybe somepony is down here! Come on!”
We both run towards the light. As we run closer, I feel the ground change. What was once a gritty, earthy surface is now a smooth, metallic surface. The walls and ceiling begin to take this surface change as well. The glowing light is now very bright and coming from a larger opening. We both enter the new opening.
The room we enter is massive. Metal multi-leveled buildings are everywhere. Heck, everything is made of metal. The floors, the walls, the ceiling, even some of the decorations are made of metal. I look around the room. The metal walls are glowing green. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not…I hope it’s not radioactive down here. I walk closer to the wall and notice that all the green glowing is coming from millions and millions of some weird metal cylindrical structures with green glowing liquid. They're radiating so much heat that it feels like my skin is going to melt. I take a closer look at what’s in the…Mother of Celestia…
There is a horribly disfigured colt with needles penetrating his skin inside the structure. Its body is inflated like a party balloon. Its head is devoid of eyes, and has eight legs growing out of its body. It is twitching and writhing in pain. Vinyl walks over to me and looks in the tube. She puts a hoof to her mouth and as she looks into the structure, the both of us looking at the colt in disgust, pity, and complete horror.
“What kind of monster would do this to a foal?” She gasps.
We both look in some of the other tubes. There a bunch of other ponies and foals mangled in various horrific ways. Celestia…how many ponies are there? I look around at all the glowing structures. When we get out of here, I am going straight to the princess about this.
All of the sudden, I see some movement from inside one of the buildings. “Vinyl! There’s something in that building! Come on!” I shout. We run over to the single story, metal building in question. The door is open. I creep in to the house as quietly as I can. I see a grey mare with a dark gray tail tied together by its hooves and a brown bag over its head. It has a purple treble clef cutie…OCTAVIA!!
I yank the bag off of her head. She has a cloth gag in her mouth. She looks at me gloomily, then immediately brightens up, smiling with her gag. I untied her and take the gag off.
“D-Pad! Thank Celestia! I knew you would find me, I just knew it!!” She shouts, hugging and kissing me.
Octavia and I hold each other close for a minute or two. “I was so scared. I don’t know where I am or what’s going on, but it’s horrifying. I’ve seen what’s in the glowing tubes. I thought the worst was going to happen, and they would turn me into one of those…things.” She cries.
“Octavia, I would never let anypony do anything to harm you, I promise.” I state, trying to cheer her up. She smiles again and hugs me tighter.
“What the heck are you doing down here, Tavi?” Vinyl asks.
“I don’t know.” Octavia replies. “One minute I’m getting ready for the concert, and the next thing I knew, I was in this big metal prison. Then a stallion came over to me and put this gag on me and…D-PAD BEHIND YOU!!
I swing around. There is a grey unicorn stallion standing right in front of me. He is wearing a leather mask and a full-body suit. His horn is glowing red. A red aura is levitating an empty syringe in the air.
“Back off! I won’t let you hurt my friends, and I will hurt you if I have to!” I shout at the stallion, taking a defensive stance
“Who says I need your friends.” He growls.
The syringe flies through the air right into-OW! DAMN IT! Right into my shoulder. The plunger pulls back and blood from my body fills up the syringe. The unicorn uses his magic to yank the syringe out, to which he levitates the syringe into his suit pocket. Ohohoh, if you think you’re getting my blood without a fight, you’ve got another thing coming.
I lunge at the unicorn. He dodges backward, and a fall flat on my face. He laughs at me. Yeah, just keep laughing, that’s it. I carefully position myself, and spring headfirst into the unicorn. My head collides with his body, knocking him over. I pounce on him and pin him to the ground. I grab his mask with my teeth and yank it off.
“Why am I not surprised?” I growl.
“Father?!...No! NO!” Octavia shouts in disbelief.
“Mr. Melody?!” Vinyl shouts in confusion.
Celestia, the resmblince between him and Octavia is still uncanny. He flings me off of him with his magic. I fly across the room-ARGH!-and slam into a wall.
“…Filthy pegasus…” He growls as he stands back up.
“Nice to see you too.” I wittily retort. I get back up and take my defensive stance. Blood is trickling out of my shoulder. “Novel work with the weather outside. You are very impressive.”
“Oh, so you figured that one out! Bravo! You have far surpassed my expectations!” He says, clapping his hooves.
…to be honest, I just guessed that…Well, If the villain admits to it, there is no need to state further…
“Father…all these ponies…you didn’t…” Octavia whimpered. I sense that she’s still trying to comprehend that her dad did this. I don’t think she wanted to believe that her father could do this.
He laughs. “My dear, I would not be that stupid. Honestly, foalnapping thousands of ponies and destroying their genes in the process? I couldn’t possibly bring myself to stoop that low.” He snapped.
“Well, what the Tartarus is all of this! What the buck are you doing down here?!” I shout.
He takes a few steps forward. He begins to laugh again. “Really?!” He laughs. “The one pony that I knew was going to cause me trouble, and you haven’t pieced my plan together yet?! Oh my Celestia!” He brings his hoof to his head. “And here I thought the project that got away would be a dead giveaway!”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “What are you getting at?” I growl.
“Think!” He shouts. “Use that pathetic brain of yours! Why would I capture thousands of ponies, put them back and create all these abominations?!”
I brainstorm as I watch Concerto Melody closely. Think, D-Pad! He must have a reason for all these creatures.
“You’re building an army!” I blurt.
He begins laughing as hard as he can. He ends up having a coughing fit over it. I think it’s safe to say that I’m wrong.
“Good idea once I get them to obey me!” He laughs. “Completely useless as they are right now. They’d rather kill themselves than anything else. Can’t tell you how much foal blood I had to clean up after the first dozen foal clones jumped off one of the roofs…”
“SHUT UP!!” Vinyl screamed.
“Oooooh. Touched a nerve did I?” He cackles at her.
“Eyes to me, asshole!” I shout at him. “You mentioned clones. I presume that’s what’s in the…whatever the Tartarus those things are. How in Equestria did you make them?”
“isn’t it obvious?” He scoffs. “I’m a unicorn, and if you haven’t figured it out by now…”
He pulls of his full body suit. I look at his cutie mark for the first time in my life. It is a double helix with multi-colored rungs. I saw one of those things in a Biology book I found. I think it’s something called DNA.
“…I’m damn good at Genetics.”
Genetics…I hate genetics…
“So you used your magic to make DNA copies of all the ponies you captured, and are now using them as your test subjects...” I growl.
“Now you’re getting it. Keep going. You’ll unveil my plan sometime.” He laughs.
Celestia I cannot wait to beat the buck out of his cocky face….RRRRGH! I can’t figure it out! Why would he go to all this trouble to make test subjects to do…eugh…genetic things with them? Think! Grrr…
“…Go ahead and gloat, I can’t figure it out…” I growl.
“I figured as much…” He laughs.
“Father! Just tell us what you are doing!” Octavia shouts.
He levitates a vial of black liquid with a cork in the top out of his coat on the floor along with the syringe full of my blood. He uncorks the vial and empties the syringe into the black liquid.
“I remember a time when I was a foal.” He speaks to us. “I wanted to be a powerful alicorn. I had a horn but I was missing wings.” He starts to laugh. “I remember making a pair of wings from some old newspapers. I would give anything to be an alicorn. Then, Princess Celestia came to my town for a celebration. I got to see the princess face to face. “She’s the most powerful thing there is in Equestria, maybe she can grant my request” I thought to myself. I asked if she could make me an alicorn. She told me that what I was asking for was inconsiderate and dangerous. I was enraged. Inconsiderate!? How DARE she! I put my life into becoming an alicorn, and she has the audacity to crush my hopes and dreams. I remember the following day I was reading a genetics book. I learned about genes and DNA. I learned that you could change yourself with this amazing stuff. “If she won’t turn me into an alicorn, I will do it myself.” I thought to myself. As I grew older, the thought of being an alicorn seemed too small. I wanted to be better than an alicorn. Faster, stronger, more magical power.”
He fills the syringe up with the black liquid.
“This…” He says, holding the syringe and pushing the plunger just enough to empty the air out of it. “…is five years of experimentation. The liquid breaks down genes and when injected into a host, will alter the genes of the host. With your genes and all the genes I have collected, I will become unstoppable.”
“Hold up. There’s still one thing I don’t understand!” I exclaim. “Why all the bad weather? What purpose does it serve?”
“Well, everypony needs a means of escape. These caves all connect to this massive cave…right under Ponyville. I was not going to risk walking through Ponyville even in the dead of night. After all, the princess has eyes everywhere. So, what better distraction then a storm to end all storms.” He explains.
That’s…pretty impressive thinking right there…
“Why…why are you doing this?” Octavia asks.
“Because I hate everypony…” he growls. “They called me a monster for what I did to my test rats. They laughed at my discoveries. They turned me away when I offered to change what they were. I was kicked out of universities for my use on these new discoveries.”
He then glares at Octavia.
“And you…” He growls. “Do you know how much work I put into making sure you were a unicorn? I planned everything to the mark. I looked at everything I could on breeding. I gave your mother some unicorn genes that I thought would be sure to make you were a unicorn. And yet…there you stand. A mistake…a mixup…a filthy, damned earth pony. It seems like sort of sick joke. I almost think I’m being punished…I don’t know where I went wrong.”
“SHUT THE TARTARUS UP!” I shout.
Everypony stares at me. I’m trying so hard not to go into a frenzied rage. He may be her father, but how dare you talk about your daughter like that.
“Do not call her a mistake! She is the greatest mare I have ever met! How can you be so uncaring?! She’s your daughter for Celestia’s sake!” I shout. I try my best to compose myself. “I swear to Celestia that you be punished; by my hand or the hand of the system.”
He laughs at me. “I can hardly wait for the system to try to take me down.” He sticks the syringe into his hip. “The next time you see me, I WILL BE A GOD!” He pushes the plunger down, injecting himself with the black liquid. His eyes start uncontrollably twitching. He begins to yell in pain and begins thrashing about. He slams into one of the walls and falls over. He begins to convulse and twitch like he was having an epileptic seizure. His yelps of pains are turning to guttural roars. He suddenly stops moving. His eyes go to the back of his head, and he stops breathing. Against better judgment, I poke him. He does not move.
I look back at Octavia. She is just staring at her now deceased dad. She drops to her knees and begins to sob. I walk over to her and pet her back.
“I-I am so sorry, Octavia.” I whisper to her.
“Tavi…are you going to be okay?” Vinyl asks.
Octavia doesn’t say a word. She stands back up, still crying. She tries her best not to look at her father as she walks out of the metal building.
“Come on; let’s get her back to Ponyville. Then we can go to Canterlot and tell Princess Celestia about this place.” I say to Vinyl.
“What do you think they’re going to do to everything in here?” Vinyl asks.
I look back over at the body of Octavia’s dad. I then remember what the foal in the machine looked like.
“I don’t want to know…” I reply glumly.