//------------------------------// // Something Under the Bed Is Drooling // Story: White Rabbit Object // by L0rd0f7hund3r //------------------------------// I dunno what's worse: the truth or a homicidal psycho jungle cat! Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Research and Development Lab, Lake Ontario Site; Nanomechanical Weapons Ontogeny; Project: White Rabbit Object Ana'Ra/Sol stared at the sign for several minutes; it could have hours and he wouldn't have noticed. The sign, though seemingly new, was aged and several deep cracks in the plastic told him that at one time, this place was hermetically sealed. Only recently did the elements invade here. The smell, though, was the worst of it. An iron-rich odor permeated the chamber, suggesting either this was a mining facility or worse, there was plenty of blood spilled here. He didn't want to look around; he feared he would see the most horrific of scenes he could imagine. So he continued to stare at the malediction printed in Nerf green letters on the wall. For all anypony looking at the scene could tell, Sol was looking at the jelly-filled Center of the Universe. Dad, you have to get out of there! Something terrible has happened. Something about an experiment… Aggh! The pain- What is white rabbit object? "And what did I say? 'I'm goin' for a looksee?' By the hands of the nailed up CHRIST!" I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it. "Ana'Ra, are you all right? Where are you?" The feminine voice originated from the surface. It was still some distance away. His friends must have just discovered he was missing. Sol/Ana'Ra was afraid… He didn't want to be in this place. Everything in here was- wrong. He also didn't want Twilight or anypony else in here. This tribute to human hubris had to sealed away again, locked up tight and buried deep in the earth to cover up the stain… What light Sol was getting from the hole he made was now diminished. One of the mares had found his not-so-brilliant hidey-hole. ""Sol, are okay? We saw you fall through this hole and-" Fluttershy's words come up short, for she sees what Sol is now adamant to not gaze upon. "Fluttershy, what's wrong?" Twilight's helpful tenor comes through from the hole in the ceiling and Sol has a hard time keeping the thought of Ceiling Cat out of his head. If only he wasn't trembling so much… "Ana'Ra, what's up? Are y- HOLY MOTHER OF CELESTIA!" Twilight's exclamation draws Sol from his contemplation of the Universal Jelly Roll. He looks up and instantly regrets it. Crowding the opening in the ceiling are Twilight, Flutters, and Pinkie Pie. They are horror-struck because they have seen what Sol has been trying to avoid seeing. Situated below the opening, a grotesque reminder of more barbaric times, is the skeletal remains of a human. Or at least, it was human… part of the right leg has been altered to resemble a pig's leg, replete with with cloven hoof. The left arm has been twisted into a shape the H.R. Geiger would find pleasing. Beneath this monstrous corpse is an ichor stain. Sol imagines that the poor fellow must have coughed up blood as his body was wrenched from a sapient form into- that. "Sol- Sol, w-what is this- this p-place?" Sol doesn't answer. He has found more that will soon fuel his nightmares. Littered between lab benches and dead computer terminals are the bodies of those who once worked here. In the far corner, a female whose torso and head appear normal but whose arms terminate in a hand with elongated fingers. A membranous materiel stretches between those fingers. To his immediate left, a fellow with digitgrade hands and feet and the beginnings of a snout or muzzle on an otherwise human head. The others have joined him in this nightmarish den. He can hear Pinkie and Ayjay, the two Earth mares, dropping down in a clatter of hooves. Rainbow dash swoops in, her wings raising a dust cloud that isn't entirely dust. (Applejack smashed into the skull of the first skeleton.) Flutters and Twilight come down gently, both terrified of the scene. Rarity, probably the most sensible of the lot at the moment, decides not to come down. That's probably for the best, Sol thinks, She would lose her lunch down here. That's exactly what Pinkie does after examining the room. "What is this place?" Ayjay asks. "This- this is a temple to Humanity," Sol responds, "this is place is a testament to human cruelty, arrogance, and hubris. This is the thing that should not be…" "Did anypony get that?" Rainbow Dash and Pinkie shrug their shoulders. Only Twilight has managed any semblance of understanding; the dawning horror on her face says it all. "Ana'Ra, you know this place." "I've never been- before," he answers, "but I know WHAT this place IS." "Please let it be a cheesecake factory." "I don't think this place serves cheesecake- EEP!" "My name isn't 'eep!' It's Pinkie Pie!" "She knows that, Pinkie!" RD admonishes, "she just almost stepped on this." Dash lifts part of a severed arm into the light. Once she realizes what it is, she drops it, making a slight retching sound as it falls. "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate. 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'" "What are you talking about, Ana'Ra?" Twilight impugned. "These are the Gates, yea, the very Gates of Hell. Where in the go the Damned and the Sons of Perdition. 'God have pity on such as we, bah-yah-bah.'" Fluttershy, noting Sol's despondency, floats next to him, concern etched in her face. "Sol, please, you need to get a hold of yourself!" Shaking his head, Sol finally comes to grip with what is happening. His mind races with ideas, postulates, hypotheses, as fragments of an awful truth come to light. "Flutters, this shouldn't be here!" "What do you mean, Sol?" "This- this is a weapons lab! The Devil's Lab… Whatever this 'White Rabbit Object' is, I feel- I feel it's tied to my coming here!" "What are you saying, Ana'Ra?" "I'm not sure yet. Too many pieces of the puzzle missin'- Pinkie, don't chew on that!" Pinkie Pie had a clear piece of something acrylic in her mouth. She stop chewing on it when Sol ordered her to, but her saliva was still coating it. "Huh? Wha da need dis fore?" the candy colored mare asked. "That could hold vital information to what happened here. Bring that to me, will ya?" Pinkie trots over to where Sol is, acrylic sheet in hoof (or mouth, to be accurate.) She gives it to Sol, he looks over the device with deep interest. "Perspex is drooled on, chipped slightly in spots, but still usable… Battery is at- 43%. Don't think I'll get any videos off this thing… Will it work-?" Twilight strolls over at examines the object just as intently, then she asks, "What is that?" "It's a P-HAT. Portable Holographic Adjunct Tablet. They're are all the rage back home. Hmm, this one is a clone of the standard Samsung model… One of the mid-range variety units; versatile and economic… Not like mine at home, though. I spent two grand on that bad boy. It's top of the line, five star rated, can't get any better than that one. Still, a serviceable model… Let's power it up-!" Sol presses a hoof to a curious green button in the top right corner of the device. In an instant, the acrylic glass springs to life, bringing up a display of icons and graphs the likes of which Twilight has never seen. In the top right corner of the display is a set of symbols. One of them looks like a warning. "What does that mean, Ana'Ra?" Twilight has pointed to a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in black residing in it. "It's a warning. That tells me the battery is worse than I thought… Hey, was is-?" Sol clicks on a n icon that resembles a piece of paper with a corner tucked. This in turn opens a document. A fair amount of it is redacted (thank you DARPA!) but a patch of text is still visible that freezes Sol's blood. Testing of batch 909328.6c resulted in the total transformation of test subjects. "Pinkie," "The Brain," "Minnie," and "Mickey" were all successfully transmutated from common field mice into a vulpine-like entity. Unfortunately for the mice, the transformation proved fatal. Further testing will be required- The screen went black. Sol growled in frustration; the battery was a lot worse then it said it was. "Girls, I need to look for more devices like this-" Sol holds up the now dead P-HAT, "they're probably laying around the floor or on the desks. Would please help me? If you find one, inspect it thoroughly. If it still has a charge, there will be a green mark in the lower left hand corner. If not, that mark will be orange or amber. If it's broken, don't bother; it probably won't work." With that, the mares spread out, searching through the detritus of carnage that rules the room. Twilight uses her magic to light the room while the rest go P-HAT hunting. After about ten minutes of questing, some thirty units are found. Out of that thirty, sixteen still have charge, five are broken, and the rest are useless. Sol directs them to place the functional ones on a nearby desk. He powers several on, but while waiting for them to go active, Twilight spots something… "That- is one big door." Sol looks up and sees what the Princess is looking at. "That looks like a Type Five security door. Four sheathes, holographic lock, carbon-silica coated, magnetically sealed… this thing would survive a nuclear blast. I don't even want to know what they could be hiding behind a door like this. I do wonder what they were trying to keep out…?" "Forget that!" Dash says, "What if this is supposed to keep something in?" "I don't even wanna imagine-!" Applejack exclaims. "Let's not," Sol adds, "there's still much we don't know here. Twilight, can you direct your horn light over here? Thanks." One of the P-HATs on top of the pile that was gathered was fully activated. Sol could see numerous document icons littering the tablets desktop. He clicked on one that looked particularly interesting to his eyes. URGENT: LAKE ONTARIO FACILITY IS UNDER COMPLETE LOCK DOWN. CONTAINMENT BREACH OF CYLINDERS E994-CC AND E995-CC HAS RESULTED IN LEAKAGE OF BIO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS. ALL PERSONNEL ARE REQUIRED TO WEAR FULL HAZMAT GEAR AT ALL TIMES. Sol found this declaration disturbing, but the next document he opened was more so: We're dead! We're dead! Game over,man, game over! White Rabbit Object got loose in the deep freeze containment area. We've sealed the doors and all the standard security protocols are up and running… This shit is crazy, man! I don't know how, but it's gotten past the hard light interdiction, the plasma walls, and security doors may as well be paper for all the good they do. Already, Sections 5,7,9,11-23 are compromised. The effect of WRO is- grotesque! Better to shoot oneself than get mutated by this shit! I may just take that route; Section 99 is already seventy-five percent contaminated. Gotta find a gu- There was no more to the entry, it just simply stopped. "They were working on nanotech here. Something with transgenic properties… What in the fuck were they thinking…?" "Sol?" Fluttershy was looking over Sol's shoulder, taking in all the details. Her face was wearing the dueling emotions of concern and curiosity. "Flutters, this place- it- Christ, why do I get the feeling I'm in the middle of an 'Adventure Time' episode?" "Sol?! You're scaring me-" Sol turns to Fluttershy, a reassuring smile on his face. "I'm sorry, Flutters. I didn't to scare ya. There's something here- It's a puzzle an' I need to put the pieces together. Trouble is, some the pieces have been eaten…" "I think I understand," Twilight says, "This is a human facility. If this place is here, in Equestria, then- *GASP!* But that doesn't make any sense…" "Wait-a-minute," the farm mare declares, "Let me see if I get this right, Twilight. If Ana'Ra was human and this place was run by humans, then Ana'Ra- never- left- home…"" "Making more sense now, Twilight?" The Princess, thoroughly confused, shakes her head, saying, "But how-?" "Twilight, don't you remember? It was only about a thousand years ago that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna defeated Discord and reunite the three tribes; before that the three tribes founded Equestria in a fertile valley a few decades before that; so, if humans were here before that than Ana'Ra or Sol or whatever he's called, has never left home!" *SQUEAK!* "That mare is surprisingly intuitive. Wonder if its all that sugar she eats? She does have a point. This missive here, about the breach, its dated May, 17th, 2016. That's three months prior to my deployment to Myanmar. The timeline is a little wonky, but I do believe that Equestria and my Earth are one in the same!" "Okay, let's say I except Pinkie's assertion for a moment. What does that mean, for Ana'Ra, for Equestria, for us?" "Well, near as I can tell, White Rabbit Object was deployed sometime after this place was buried. If that's our reference point, than it can be assumed the WRO mutated the rest of the human populace. For how long, I dunno. It could have taken years, decades, centuries even. I could very well be in my own future!" "But how do we know for sure?" Twilight asks. "Only one pony would know roughly a thousand plus years of history. One pony who has witnessed everything that's ever happened since the first day of this kingdom. Let's ask Princess Celestia."