“Have you ever seen pictures from before? Back before Equestria, this land, turned into hell? Come with me, we‘re in a library. Maybe we‘ll be able to find something if we look hard enough. It‘s important to remember what we once were, and how life was so long ago.
Don't look at me like that, I'll continue the story while we look.”
As one would’ve expected, the central hub had long since been abandoned and (quite thoroughly) looted. It became very clear to Nox, that something terrible had happened but he wasn’t quite sure what that was. Whatever it was, it was enough to make every pony who worked here abandon their station and run somewhere.
In a room full of “Computers” the pair found the only working model (all the others had either been smashed in or had several important components missing). He left Sally on a chair while she plugged herself in, there was a bunch of whirring sounds which worried Nox quite a bit until Sally’s voice spoke up through the facility. She was “integrated into the system now.” At that point Nox just tuned out and went off to explore the building, he'd never understand all that technobabble.
With each step throughout the dirty gray building, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of detachment from the rooms. So many strange devices that he couldn't even begin to understand, if it weren't for the occasional dirty photo of a pony, he'd almost think this place belonged to an entirely different species.
‘When did the crystal empire get this kind of technology?’ It was true that he had never been to the Crystal Empire before, and his knowledge was only based on books and word-of-mouth. But no one had ever mentioned anything of this nature. Well, the better question was probably: “What happened here?” He'd seen ghost towns with a bigger population. At least ghost towns had rats or other such critters.
He walked into (what he assumed) was someone’s office. Although now it barely resembled an office, anything of value had long since been taken or smashed up. There were framed, cracked photos on the floor which caught his eye, they were depicting the facility as someplace cleaner, livelier. Much happier than the dark and gloomy place it was now.
One photo in particular seemed much more...treasured, for lack of a better word, than the rest. It was a photo of a red and pink mare wearing a uniform that was undoubtedly military armor, but only vaguely resembled the crystal pony's normal armor sets. Maybe that was just what the scouts wore? He noticed that the mare was wearing a saddle with a strange cylindrical device attached to it. It kind of resembled a cannon, but much thinner and with an entirely different design. He wasn't sure what to call it.
“Sally.” Nox called to, what seemed like thin air.
There was that whirr of machinery, his eyes drifted to a device that sort of resembled a camera where the noise was coming from. “Do you require assistance, user?”
Nox should probably tell her what his actual name is at some point. Or did he already? “Do you know anything about what happened here?”
“…No. There are no records contained in this particular system. This one apologizes.”
"That's alright." He sighed, "You can go back to...whatever it is you're doing."
"Understood."
Disappointed, Nox trotted over to the desk. He thought that maybe someone would’ve left a journal or something (he couldn’t imagine it was all that useful). Maybe they kept a journal on the computer? How would he even turn it on? He looked around the strange, square box for something that resembled a switch or a button.
. . . . .
Giving up on that, he just starting randomly poking the thing. No luck. ‘Come to think of it, would it even work?’ Probably not, so he settled for digging through the contents of the desk. “Hm?” There was something odd about the empty compartment. When he opened it, he definitely heard something move inside, but there was nothing in the other compartments. “Ah.” He remembered a contraption that Granite built in the early days. If it was anything like that then he knew what that noise was.
Now all he needed to do was remember exactly how it worked. Maybe there was a switch or a specific way to open it to reveal...
. . . .
“Yeah, screw that.” He used the talons to grab the drawer, and then violently pull it right out! That was probably not the right way to make it work, and he most likely broke it. There was a loud clattering noise that reverberated for several seconds, but he found what he was looking for: It was a small, red book. Tucked away in the corner of the secret compartment between the two drawers. “Alright then.” He grabbed it and set it down on the table, he pulled the chair up closer to get comfortable. Nothing else he could do while he waited for Sally to do…whatever she was doing.
Entry #1
“My last journal filled up at my old job, so this is my new one maybe I should just use the computer for my journalistic needs? It's getting really expensive to keep buying these. I’m still not sure if being posted here is a demotion or a promotion yet? The pay is a little better but I have to live here now in the middle of buttf**k nowhere. Even worse, if I wanna go back to the Capital it’s like an hour drive (assuming its not snowed to hell). At least I hear that they‘re trying to come up with an underground tram system. But it‘s a long ways away.”
Entry #12
“Ya know, the ponies here are really nice. I thought I wouldn‘t fit in but they‘ve been really trying to make me feel like part of the family. It‘s kind of nice. At my old job, it was always: "Pumpkin Party do this!" "Pumpkin I need you debug the system!" "Pumpkin there‘s a bunch of popups on my screen! Pumpkin, get off your lazy ass and fix the system (that they broke because of some stupid reason)!" "PUMPKIN, THE MACHINES ARE MALFUNCTIONING!"
. . . . .
I‘m really glad I'm working here now. Everyone seems pretty competent. I've made friends with one of the scout mares, her name's Rosie Blue. At my old job, none of the mares even looked at me, Rosie seems to go out of her way to make me feel like one of the crew, I've never seen such harmony between the brawn and brains departments before. Usually it's the opposite.”
Entry #87
“Ya know, I’ve been thinking about asking out Rosie lately. We‘ve been working together for years. But would she really go for me? I‘m just the cleanup pony, and she‘s a tough fighter mare. I can‘t imagine that I‘d be the kind of guy she‘d normally go for. Maybe I should just give up? I don't wanna make things awkward between us if it doesn't work out.
Reminder: We're all going out for a party in the capital tomorrow.”
Entry #106
“I saw some of the blizzard survivors today. They looked really messed up, even moreso than usual. The scouts try and save everyone they can, but out here we all know there’s more than just the cold to worry about (I don't envy the scouts one bit). Still, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the kind of monster they’re describing. I can‘t help but feel like I‘ve heard that description before. Other than that, I tried talking to Rosie a bit more. Yeah I know, I said I would give up, but what if it‘s meant to be?
Reminder: Debug the system, someone was browsing where they shouldn't be while they're in the work place and ended up with a nasty virus.”
Entry #168
“It figures that I would just get up the courage to ask Rosie out on date (after months of hanging out together, so this would've been a real date-date not just a friendly get together) and she gets pulled for rescue duty. Maybe it’s not meant to be after all? Oh, before I forget, I found something matching the descriptions of what those ponies a few weeks back saw out there in the snow. Yeah, the descriptions were eerily similar to a missing gryphon case a few years back, over in the gryphon homeland. It was debunked as a stupid conspiracy theory (don't ponies have better things to do with their time). But…is it possible that maybe that was true after all? It's not the only report either, a lot of these stories are on the net. There's a whole website devoted to it. Are they all just trolls or...could some of them be true? Well, I better wrap up here. I think I need to pull maintenance duties on one of the cameras in the tunnels. Might as well download some of the official looking stories and read them on my downtime.”
Entry #169
“Okay, this is gonna sound crazy as all hell. But while me and some other ponies went to fix one of the cameras down in the Sector E tunnels, I could‘ve SWORN I saw SOMETHING down there. At first I thought it was just a rock or something but I don‘t think rocks can move that fast! No one believes me, and to be honest; I don‘t believe me either. Probably just tired, this whole Rosie lovesick thing has been messing with my head. That and I‘ve been spending way too much time on the internet looking up those incident reports. Still, I haven‘t found any solid proof and there‘s nothing to suggest that it‘s anything more than stupid pranksters. Right? Do I really wanna dive any further into this?”
Entry #175
“It’s been a few days now, no one’s heard anything from Rosie’s group. I’ve practically been glued to the camera feeds, and haven’t seen any hide or hair of her. This sucks. As soon as she comes back, I don't care what my negative brain says, I'm telling her how I feel! I might never get the chance again.”
Entry #186
“Thought I saw a pony shape in the shadow of one of the cameras. I used a favor with the boss to have a squad accompany me down to the tunnels. I know it's supposed to be safe and there hasn't been a single wild animal that made its way down there in years, but something in my gut tells me I really shouldn't be going down there alone (AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE I'M KIND OF AFRAID OF THE DARK!). I went to the spot but couldn't find any tracks or the pony shaped shadow, but we did find something weird though. It looked a bit like oil or tar or something like that? Don‘t really know how to describe the crap, I‘m a fix-it guy not a tarologist(?). All I know is that it took me a while to get the stuff off my hooves.
...This is gonna sound crazy, but I could swear the damn stuff was moving. For safe measures, I burned the stuff. Leaving it alone is how a lot of horror movies start.”
Entry #262
“It’s been over a year now, we’ve pretty much given up hope on find Rosie’s group. Everyone‘s already moving on with the funeral processions, but I haven‘t quite given up yet. I could probably lose my job but I need to be the one to find her, I need to tell her how I feel. I don‘t think I‘ll be able to let it go until I find some kind of closure. So, I‘m gonna hack into the system and make a copy of Rosie’s last orders onto my PA, then I‘m gonna go down to the tunnels and follow the path. The trail‘s most likely gone cold but…I need to know that I TRIED. I‘m not entirely sure why I‘m writing my plans down, maybe it‘s a backup plan. In case I don‘t come back and need someone to come find me instead. I miss Rosie, I didn‘t realize how much I‘d miss her until she was gone. I'm such an idiot.”
Entry #263
“I didn’t think this journal would still be here after all this time. I don‘t remember how long I was gone for, a year? Two? Five? Well, I don‘t know. I went looking for Rosie, and the trail lead me to. It‘s funny, I can‘t remember. I don‘t really remember a lot of things, actually. It’s kind of like, one big blur or something. Everyone‘s gone now, bad things happened. A disaster. Not just here, everywhere. What happened to Equestria? Dammit. Why did everything turn out this way?
...Ya know. If there's some divine presence looking out for us, and if by some completely unlikely scenario that it's Rosie reading this journal. Then I guess I can say it, in case I never get the chance.
Rosie Blue. I -I love you. I miss you. And I‘m sorry I couldn‘t save you.
I have to go now. I don‘t think I‘ll be able to write in this journal anymore.
Goodbye.”
“What. The. Hell?” Nox flipped through the journal again, there had to be more! “What the hell’s going on? What disaster?" The book was just a bunch of empty pages after that last entry. “Come on, there has to be something.” He kept looking but he knew it was pointless, the pony known as Pumpkin Party had long since stopped writing in their journal, not to mention most of it was unreadable.
“Dammit!” Nox slammed the journal down angrily! “…” After several seconds, he sighed in defeat. That was no way to treat the last remnants of a pony long gone, Shard would probably kill him right then if she were to see his actions.
"That’s very unsightly behavior, Noctilucent."
He mimicked her voice in his head. With a weary sigh, he bent under the desk to pick it up.
While trying to pick up the book with the talon (still having a bit of trouble with it), he heard the sounds of hooves trotting along the marble floor. ‘Huh?’ He heard the hooves step into the office, for a few seconds all was silent until he heard the opening and closing of cabinets, as if the owner was looking for something. He peeked under the desk to see a coat of deep purple legs, and a dirty blue cloth wrapped around the right foreleg.
What were they were looking for? The better question would be: why was Nox hiding? This was someone who could probably tell him what was going on!
He rose up from the desk and found himself muzzle to muzzle with a purple unicorn. She had several noticeable scars but the thing that drew his eyes were her heterochromatic eyes.
‘Orange and green.’ It seemed as though the two ponies were equally confused by the other’s presence, momentarily frozen as their muzzles touched. It was Nox who broke the silence; “Um-”
Immediately, the purple unicorn’s horn flashed a deep magenta!
Nox felt a telekinetic shove push him against the wall, "Oof!" He yelped, against the ringing in his head, he heard the sound of hoofsteps hastily getting away. “Wait!” He called after her as he struggled to his hooves. “Sally!” Nox called.
“User? Are you damaged?”
“N-No! I’m fine!” Just a bit sore. The monster from below hurt worse- ‘DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!’ He needed to stay focused on the task at hand. “That unicorn, do you know where she is? Can you lead me to her?”
“…Yes. That is within this unit’s capabilities.” Instantly, the lights took on a green shade. Not every light though, just in the direction the purple unicorn had gone.
Nox galloped as fast as his legs could take him, it’s a really good thing he was a pegasus, they were built for speed on and off the ground! He had to catch her, she was the only pony he’d seen so far (well the only one that wasn't a-, nope don't think about it)! She must know something! She HAD to! The lights led Nox up a few flights of stairs and then he crashed through a half-open door where he was greeted by the sudden abuse of the freezing cold wind and snow, in addition he felt ice beneath his hooves and ended up sliding to the edge of the building. Colliding with the metal cross-hatched barrier. “Ow.” When did he become the universe's bucking bag?
As he slowly got up, his brain started to make sense of the facility’s surrounding. “What?” He expected a snowy wasteland, and he was right. But there was more…giant, broken down machines and metal structures were strewn across the land like some foal had dumped the contents of their toy box across the playground. They were all mostly covered in snow but some were so big that the snow had only covered half of it. He couldn’t make heads or tails out of the machines he was seeing, when did the Crystal Empire get machines like those? You’d think someone would have mentioned how advanced the crystal empire was.
Mwirrr Kli-Klik
He recognized the first sound as the spark of unicorn magic, but he'd never heard the second sound before, he turned around and saw the purple unicorn, shivering in the cold wind by the door. She was using her magic to hold up a strange metal object and pointing it threateningly at him. “Uh…what is that?” He asked, gesturing to the object which he assumed was some kind of weapon. But nothing like he’d ever seen before, it looked a little like the saddle cannon from Rosie Blue's picture, but significantly smaller and not attached to a saddle. If it was a weapon, he had no idea how it worked. Way too small to hold a cannon ball.
The mare looked agitated, she opened her mouth to speak: “ *** *** ** ******! ”
“What?” Maybe it was the wind or something, but he didn’t understand a word she was saying!
She just got angrier as she said louder and more urgently: “ *** *** ** ******! ”
Nope, no way he was gonna understand what she wanted or who she was, he took several steps forward, “Look, I really don’t understand what you’re trying to-”
BANG
That loud sound cut through the roar of the blizzard, there was a smoking hole by his hoof. And now he realized that was an incredibly dangerous weapon, “ARE YOU TYRING TO KILL ME?!” He shouted.
“ ****. GR-OUN!” She seemed to struggle with that last word.
Still, he almost understood that last part! “Okay, okay! See look!” He slowly laid down on the ground, feeling that cold sting of the ice on his belly. But it beat getting hurt by that weapon. “There. All better?”
She seemed to relax a bit as she slowly advanced on him, she was circling him like a predator and then stopped when she saw the talon. Nox could see her gaze linger on the device strapped to his hoof. She gestured to it with her weapon, “ ***! ”
And they were back to this game again, “What?”
She impatiently tapped the talon with her hoof and then said much louder, “ ***! ”
“Are you…trying to tell me to take it off?”
She pressed the end of the weapon against his head and repeated her word, much angrier this time!
“Okay, okay! Just gimme a minute!” Nox wasn’t entirely sure how it came off anyways so he just felt around the talon with his free hoof looking for a switch or something!
She repeated her phrase, her impatience growing!
“I’m trying, I don’t know how this damn things works!”
And then she repeated again, but with a few more words Nox didn’t understand. He could make out little snippets that sounded like threats though.
“If you’ll just give me a second to concentrate, I can-”
And then more threats!
Nox was just getting more and more pissed off! "Just be quiet and then I can-"
“User! Do you require assistance?!”
Sally’s sudden voice was enough to distract the purple unicorn just long enough for Nox to leap at the weapon cloaked in the unicorn’s telekinetic grip. The talon grabbed the opposite end piece sticking out below the device and tried to wrench it out of the unicorn’s grasp! Nox knew firsthand that a unicorn’s telekinetic powers could get ridiculously strong, and this unicorn had previously demonstrated the ability to knock his flank off the ground. But Nox had caught her by surprise, so the weapon flew out of her telekinetic grip and slid on the ice to the other end of the roof (He had been trying to grab it but, as already been established, he didn't have full control over the talons). He didn’t want to give her time to ready a spell, so he lunged at her!
However, she was much quicker than she appeared. She had fluidly slipped away from Nox’s range but ended up sliding and slipping on some ice, landing near the door.
Rather than try and fight her, Nox remembered that he didn't want to fight her, just get the weapon away. With that in mind, Nox made a beeline towards the weapon on the other end of the roof.
He slid on the ice and picked it up with the talon. He pointed it at the unicorn…’s empty space, because she was gone. The door to the facility closed right behind her.
“?” Nox carefully strolled up to the door, then he tried pushing door but it wouldn’t budge. “SHE LOCKED ME OUT HERE?!”
It was at that moment, that Nox realized that the purple unicorn mare's heart was colder than his now freezing flank.