Chapter 4: Things That Go Bump
“What do you mean you can see?” Sweetie Belle asked her suppose-to-be blind friend, “Scoots, you don't have eyes to see with.”
“I know, but... I can see lights,” Scootaloo explained, “I think... well, you and Applebloom look like spider webs, but made of light. I think it's magic... pony's magic is the same color as their eyes right?”
“That's right,” Sweetie answered slowly.
“'Cause you're green, and Applebloom's that tree sap color. It's weird... I can see everywhere,” the pegasus rambled, getting more and more excited, “I can see behind me. Heck, I can see the back of my own head! I'm purple! I can see the big machine that I was in, and I'm pretty sure the gray thing right there is a wall. I can see through walls! Did you know there's more rooms beneath us?”
“You mean...” Applebloom stated, “That thing in there made you see?”
“What else could it be?” Scootaloo replied.
“What do you think, Sweetie?” Applebloom asked as she turned to where her smart friend was moments ago, blinking at the now empty space.
“She's looking at the machine,” Scootaloo pointed out.
Applebloom looked at the pegasus doubtfully until she entered the other room.
“You really can see through walls,” Applebloom said in mild surprise, “What 'cha doin' Sweets?”
“What would the effects be on a pegasus?” Sweetie asked.
“What? Effects a' what?” Applebloom asked, trying to understand what her friend is talking about.
“Darn,” Sweetie turned toward her friends, “According to Dot, that stuff was meant to give unicorns the ability to manipulate magic in the environment.”
“Who's Dot?” asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie smiled and lifted her leg showing off her new accessory, “My new 'virtual assistant'. I found this in the security office. Cool huh? I'm guessing, since Scootaloo isn't a unicorn, it affected the first magic sense it could, her storm sense.”
“What's a storm sense?” Applebloom asked.
“It’s how we sense whenever weather acts up,” Scootaloo answered.
“Sort of,” Sweetie continued, “It lets them instinctively feel magic in the air. It's how pegasi can dodge lightning. I think what it did was strengthen that sense to allow you to feel magic in solid matter as well, then attached it to a part of your brain that wasn't doing anything at the time, your vision.”
“So... the gray I see where walls are, that's magic too?”
“Latent natural magic, I would assume. Everything has magic in it to some degree.” Sweetie said with more than a little excitement for her friend's new gift, “It's amazing. You really can see magic. You know Twilight's going to foalnap you as soon as she finds out, right?”
“Yeah, but at least I'll see her coming,” joked the pegasus.
The three friends laughed. It felt like too long. It seemed like they had been stuck underground for days, but in truth, it was merely hours. After they calmed down a bit, Sweetie turned and started for the main room.
“I want to check out some more of these logs. I know we need to find a way out of here, but we should find out what they were really doing here. It might be something the princesses need to know about.”
“They was makin' kerin... er, killin... dragon ponies,” Applebloom informed, “Ah looked at one while you was gone.”
“Dragon-ponies?” Sweetie stopped, a thoughtful look in her eyes, “The first said they were trying to make the ultimate being.” Sweetie's eyes widened in shock, “I... I think the princesses are really going to want to know what was being made here... or who.”
Sweetie hurried back into the main lab and sat at the desk. She promptly inserted her interface into the computer and searched through the logs. Finally one drew her attention and she brought it up.
“Log 112, Dr. Bright,” came the computer's voice.
The same stallion as before appeared on the screen, “We have discovered the problem with the embryos. Incubation. Our methods are... just not adequate. We believe our current hybrid concept is the most viable, but without proper incubation, they just die.
“I discussed the issue with my wife. Sometimes a nonscientific mind can see the better solutions, and she did. It's a ridiculous idea, but it just might work. Mist and I are going to alter the genes in our genitalia. Then, we shall conceive the child ourselves. The altered genes will then cause our savior to form and mature naturally.”
Log interrupted.”
“That's not what we need,” Sweetie said as she began searching again, “Ah! This might be it.”
She hit play and the video began again, “Log 201, Dr. Bright.”
This time, when the doctor appeared, he looked haggard and frightened, “This was supposed to be a joyous day. My wife... She gave birth today, but it turns out, not everypony here is on the same side. We have a saboteur. Somepony altered the properties of the devourers. They... they ate Rain and Boulder. They're eating ponies. Individually, they aren't very dangerous, but... there's already hundreds of them, and for everypony they eat, dozens more are born. The emergency escape pods are cut off. There's too many of them. Thankfully, my family made it out in time, with a few others. I could have, but I needed to assess the situation... It's hopeless. We set up a bomb, planning on taking them down with us. Shimmer had the key and made it all the way to security, but... they got him. I only pray that we're deep enough underground that they won't sense any other life.”
The stallion's face hardened, “If you're watching this, you need to get out now! Unless this is found ten thousand years in the future, your very presence has likely woken them. Please, for the sake of Equestria, find the bomb and set it. Then, if you can, get out. If you can't... look me up in the next world-”
The recording paused as Sweetie looked back to her friends. They wore expressions similar to her own. Fear.
“He... looked pretty scared...” Applebloom stated.
“All I saw was a yellow box,” Scootaloo added, “But he sounded plenty scared.”
“I think we need to find a way out of here now,” Sweetie said, “Dot, are these emergency escape pods still working?”
“Escape pods one, two, four, and six are non-functional. Escape pod three is deployed. Escape pod five, seven and eight are functional.”
“Great, where are they?”
“Mapping safest route. Warning, structural integrity compromised in access hallway. Avoid area if possible. If travel is necessary, practice extreme caution.” With that, a map display popped up on the eye piece showing the safest way.
“That thing's pretty handy, huh,” Applebloom said, “You sure there ain't no more?”
“On Shimmer's body,” Sweetie informed.
Applebloom cringed, “No thanks.”
“Okay, so first-” Sweetie started, but was cut off.
“Girls!” Scootaloo shouted, pointing a hoof toward the wall the room shared with the hall, “Something's coming!”
The others turned toward the door. That's when they heard it. A rapid clacking sound like something hard tapping the floor. A quiet grumbling sound accompanied the clacking. Then, it came into view. It was short, about a foot tall with a tear shaped body and four spindly legs that extended up a little before dropping back down with two little barbed claws on the end. It reminded Sweetie of a crab without pincers.
The creature turned toward the three fillies and let out an ear piercing screech. With a powerful leap, it cleared the distance between them and tackled Sweetie Belle to the ground. The unicorn screamed as she tried to fight it off, but it was stronger than her. Thankfully, a pair of yellow hooves, conditioned by apple trees, gave the little monster a one way trip into the far wall where it impacted with a splat.
“We need to get outta here!” Applebloom said, panic in her voice as she helped Sweetie up.
“Yeah,” the white filly agreed, “But we need to set that bomb first.”
The two ran out into the hallway.
“No wait!” Scootaloo tried to stop them, but they already left.
Sweetie and Applebloom turned the first corner and found themselves facing a dozen more of the creatures. One leaped at Applebloom, but this time, the hoof that squished it was orange.
“Run!” Scootaloo barked.
The three ran back the way they came. They just passed the lab door when more appeared from in front of them, cutting off their escape. They turned back and ran into the lab again, shutting the door behind them. The creatures slamming into the door threatened to force it open. Thinking quickly, Sweetie Belle lifted her MagiTool and activated a welding torch. Scootaloo and Applebloom held the door shut while the unicorn sealed the entry. When it was strong enough to hold, they backed up and breathed a sigh of relief.
“So what's the plan?” Applebloom asked her horned friend after catching her breath.
“There is no plan,” Sweetie said in a defeated tone, “There is no hope. We're already dead.”
Applebloom looked as if she had been kicked in the gut. Those words struck her with a sense of dread she never felt before. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was angry.
“Hey! I don't know about you, but I still have a pulse,” the fuchsia maned filly admonished her friend.
“You don't get it, do you?” Sweetie looked at Scootaloo as if already mourning her, “Think about the position we're in. Ponies, welding themselves in a room with no food or water because it's better than what's out there? What does that remind you of?”
“Them ponies in the dorms,” Applebloom answered, “We... We're really gonna die?”
“No way in Tartarus am I dying here!” Scootaloo turned to glare at her friends, another thing that baffled Sweetie about the eyeless filly, “I'm not dead till I stop breathing, and even then I won't stop! You want to know why those ponies died? Because they gave up. They said 'it's all hopeless, so let's not even try'. Well, I say buck that noise! If I die, it'll be kicking and screaming, not sitting in a corner feeling sorry for myself. What about you?”
“Y-yeah...” Sweetie said sheepishly before furrowing her brow in a determination, “Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusaders don't give up.”
“Yeah!” Applebloom agreed, “Let's get to work on that plan.”
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The first thing he noticed was the distinct lack of beeping. It was strange to Midnight. He slowly rolled onto his belly and sat up, looking to the sun. Apparently, he had been out for several hours, but...
“The girls!” He suddenly remembered why he was in the Everfree in the first place.
He looked up at the mountain. He remembered the fillies falling somewhere on the rocky spire, but didn't see exactly where. As he started toward the great mountain, a thought occurred to him. He looked back at the dark, foreboding forest, full of monsters and other dangers that would claim the lives of the unwary in a heartbeat... and where he just spent several hours unconscious.
His gaze drifted back to the mountain... The mountain, it seemed, that even the Everfree Forest feared.
“I have a bad feeling.”