"Tell me something; what do you think is better? Continuing to eat from the same apple, knowing that the tree will run out soon and then you'll starve? Or going across the meadow to another apple tree that may or may not be there, and you'll most likely starve on the journey?
Yeah. It's a tough question to answer.
Basically, would you want to risk everything for a small sliver of hope at a better life?"
Break took a deep breath, "Lets go over this one more time," Break's voice dropped dangerously, "you will be inspected for contamination. If you're clean, then you'll be free to leave or stay. If you're contaminated, then you'll have to leave. Do you understand, we don't want any trouble."
"Yeah, I heard you the first time." This was the second time Break had mentioned how this was gonna go down.
"Oh, that's not for you. You seem like a perfectly reasonable pony. Her on the other hand," He gestured to Aurora, "I get the feeling that she'll go completely bucking apeshit berserk, unless she knows exactly whats going to happen. And even that is uncertain."
"Oh..." So Nox was supposed to play translator to...a pony who did not speak his language and could only understand vague gestures and charades.
"..."
Yeah, there was no way that could ever go wrong, he found himself mentally rolling his eyes. Regardless, with the help of Sally and her holographic projector, he had managed (or really hoped at least) to get the general idea across. Of course he won't be able to truly relax until he's safely back on the train home and not standing, horrified in the corner as Aurora does violent things.
'Dear holy mother Faust, please let things go smoothly. I don't want to be thrown in jail as an accessory to murder.' The omnipotent being (which may or may not have existed) he had prayed to in the blizzard had (possibly) helped him find shelter. Maybe she was still listening (if she existed)?
When that giant iron door opened up, he had expected to see some crystal ponies in royal guard armor guarding a secret, royal base. He expected a pony to pat him on the back for making it to safety, to tell him what was going on, and then to put him on the train to Vanhoover where he would never speak of this again.
Instead, the giant iron doors open up to reveal a room, a little bit bigger than a holding cell, with that same artificial look as the tunnels. In addition to that, he got two dirty unicorns to shine light at him while an earth pony had (what they called) a saddle-gun pointed at him. He saw what Aurora's small, pistol could do...what could that, much larger gun do to him?
Speaking of Aurora, she was strangely calm about the whole thing. Maybe Nox's words actually got through to her...or maybe she realized that fighting 4 ponies at the same time (one of which had a very large gun aimed at her), probably wasn't the smartest idea.
"They're clean. I think." Said one of the unicorns, Nox would remember this unicorn because he was missing an ear.
"Of course they are." Said Break in a rather tiresome tone, "Where's Marigold?"
"She's..." The one-eared unicorn cast a cautious glance over to Nox and Aurora, "She's...where she usually is."
"Good." Break looked to Aurora, "...." He stared at her, sighed and then looked over to Nox, "Good news; you're free to go. Bad news; you're also on your own. Just go through one of the tunnels and you'll eventually find-"
"Hold up." Nox stepped forward, but the three ponies stood between the wingless pegasus and the scarfed unicorn, "Alright look. I've been really patient this whole time. I fell out of the sky, I nearly froze to death in the middle of a bucking blizzard, I've been stumbling around in the dark for hours, A MONSTER TRIED TO TEAR OFF MY HEAD AND WEAR IT AS A HAT, I get to the main outpost only to find that its been ABANDONED, SHE tries to kill and rob me, a crazy uhhh," what was that thing called again?
"Virtual intelligence, user." Sally spoke up.
"YES, A VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE WENT INSANE AND SENT A BUILDING FULL OF ROBOTS AFTER US! We got out to find that the Crystal Empire has...I don't know, been taken over or something! And then we nearly got eaten by rabid sludge wolves!"
"Sludge wolves?" The earth pony said under his breath.
"All I want, is to get some bucking answers! What. Is. Going. On?! Why are things trying to KILL me all of a sudden?! And I want to go HOME!" Nox's shout echoed throughout the tunnels, he just stood there breathing heavily. He very rarely lost his temper, always tried to stay optimistic and upbeat (it was really the only way he could stave off depression from not having wings anymore).
"..." For a while everyone just stood totally still. Nox, was starting to feel a little embarrassed about his outburst. Even Aurora was taken aback by the sudden shouting.
"..." Break sighed as he started to pace back and forth, muttering to himself, "...!" He froze, and then turned on his hooves to face Nox, "Alright. I'll help you." He then addressed the earth pony, "Go get the other two, tell them to meet up at Marigold's clinic."
"Got it."
"Scar, go...check on Southern tunnel."
"On it." The one eared pony galloped past the group.
"Nine, stick with me."
The...settlement was a lot smaller than Nox had expected (at this point, he shouldn't be surprised). The settlement took root in a cavern, deep below the ground. Houses had been carved out from rocks or made rather poorly. It was much more like a shanty town than anything else, and yet it was so empty. Nox could see how many of the houses had been neglected. Some of them didn't even have occupants, just boarded up doors and windows.
A red Earth Pony mare crossed his path with her head hung low to the ground, she was going down one of the paths leading to a lower cavern, illuminated by lanterns affixed to the walls. He lingered there, watching as the mare slowly trotted out of sight.
"Graveyard." Break answered Nox's unasked question. His voice held...no emotion whatsoever, as if things like that had become common place. Just a natural part of life, for him. What kind of things had he seen?
"...W-"
"There used to be more ponies who lived here. I don't wanna talk about it, don't ask anyone else either. It's...not a pretty subject."
As Break and Aurora trotted out of sight, all Nox could do was stare at the mare. She'd noticed his gaze on her back and turned around to meet it.
Every single bone in Nox's body was telling him to go up to her, pat her on the back and try to cheer her up with his stupid sense of humor or something, yeah he was more of the straight stallion in the comedy duo but come on! He can still make ponies laugh!
.....It wouldn't have mattered if he performed the greatest comedy routine the world had ever seen, there was nothing that was gonna make that mare so much as crack a smile. That look in the mare's eyes. He'll never forget that stare. That dead, empty stare devoid of all light. That mare...she had nothing left in her, she was just an empty husk going through the motions until she would stop moving. How did Nox know? Simple. Because he used to have the same look as that pegasus. Yeah. Nox realized that the mare wasn't an earth pony at all. She was...just like him.
Marigold's clinic was...a bit nicer compared to the rest of the town. It was a house carved into the side of the wall (Celestia knew how anyone managed that). The outside looked rather small but from the open window, he could tell it was bigger on the inside. The hardest part about the whole thing was convincing Aurora that her and Nox needed to be separated, because Marigold wanted to take a look at Aurora. Meanwhile, Nox would be meet with the council of three. Which, coincidentally, Break was a part of.
One might expect the four of them to be meeting in a fancy room, with maybe a round table and hooded cloaks, or candles or whatever. Instead, they were (quite literally) meeting up in the basement (just add a silly wizard hat and it would feel like last Summer). The basement was largely empty save for some sheets blocking the other rooms, and a single square table.
Nox caught the eyes of two ponies, one cloaked pegasus mare with a yellow coat and a crimson mane, and one cloaked earth pony mare with a violet coat and a navy blue mane.
"Did you two really have to bring the cloak?"
"It is tradition." The two seemed a lot older than Break, the earth pony mare in particular seemed to be the eldest of the three, "So...who's that and is this why you called us out here? I was in the middle of something important."
"No you weren't, you were eating a carrot. You've still got some crumbs on your mouth, Twelve." The pegasus pony, Twelve, unconsciously wiped her mouth clean.
The earth pony mare laughed softly, "Break, how important is this?" Her tone became low, with no hint that she had been chuckling just a few seconds ago.
"...Very, Lira." Break took a seat at the table, "...I've said this before, but we can't stay here anymore."
"This place has kept us safe for years!" Twelve immediately responded.
"And it's tapped dry. Our wellsprings are being contaminated, we've only got a few more left. If those go, then this game of survival is over."
"There's also the matter of the plague monsters. I think there's a danger of a breach as big as...well...we all remember that time." The earth pony mare suddenly spoke up, "However...leaving is still dangerous. You've never been outside of Haven, so you don't know what it's like out there. I do. Break, you're a dreamer. You think that there's somewhere safe out there but there aren't any. Everywhere we go, it'll be the same. On the other hoof, if we stay here then we will die slowly."
"Twelve, Lira. You two have known me for a while, you know that I wouldn't do something unless I had a plan. And I do have one." Break said while levitating a worn down map of the crystal empire that he pulled from a box in the corner of the room, "The spire. In the sublevels, there's a bunch of secret, classified stuff. Some of it may still be working,"
"Or it could be full of plague monsters." Twelve interjected.
"How did you find this out?" Lira raised a very good point.
"On my last run, I managed to find a journal clutched in the hooves of some pony. He mentioned a secret, underground settlement for royals and important ponies. It's supposed to last hundreds of years."
"Aaaand, what?" Twelve wasn't seeing the whole point of this.
"Well, if it's better than ours than it's an upgrade and maybe they'll be some info on other settlements like it."
"So...let me get this straight. You want us to go to the spire, which is filled to the brim with plague monsters. And then you want to somehow make it to these sub-levels, move everyone from here to there and then hope that it has information on other settlement locations?" Twelve said this very slowly, "That's...a lot of unknowns."
"I agree. It is quite risky and we just have the word of a long dead pony that there even IS a settlement beneath the spire."
"Not only that, getting there is practically suicide. I may be the only pegasus with working wings, but there's no way you're convincing me to go out there."
"Don't have to." He telekinetically shoved Nox forward, "Because we can use him."
"Him?" Twelve looked over to his bandaged up wings, "What's so great about him?"
"A few things actually. First of all, he's survived against plague monsters and machines before, that means he's either very lucky or one heck of a survivor. Secondly, he and his companions are not part of our group, we lose nothing by sending them out there instead. Finally, look at him."
"...?"
"You can tell, can't you? The way he walks, the way he moves...he's from a completely different environment. Somewhere...safe. That could mean that there ARE safe places out there."
The two mares looked to each other. For a while, everyone was silent until Lira stood up and said; "Very well."
"Alright, I've had enough." His patience was finally at an end, "I want answers. Now. No more running around, no more little snippets of information that just raise more questions. Tell me what's going on! Where. Is. Princess Cadence? Why hasn't Celestia or Luna intervened? What about the Elements of Harmony?"
"..." The three ponies exchanged confused looks, as if Nox had just started speaking an entirely different language.
"Well? I'm not helping with anything until I get some answers!"
Lira looked Nox straight in the eye and said without missing a beat: "Who's Celestia?"