It was nearly pitch black inside the elevator. All power had been cut off, and it took a while for Twilight's eyes to adjust and get her bearings. Her ears perked up, and she could hear a soft hum of machinery through the doors.
"Where exactly did this elevator go?" Twilight asked.
She couldn't see Rarity, but she could hear her making a racket as she moved around, running into some of the walls of the elevator before finally grabbing onto Twilight for balance.
"I'm... urgh! Not entirely sure." Twilight grunted as she felt the weight of Rarity's hooves on her back, allowing Rarity to use her for support.
"I wish I could see," Rarity added.
Twilight wished she had some kind of a flashlight—and then realized she did have a flashlight! She remembered them mentioning one built right into the suit during her training course. She reached back, trying to remember where the switch was.
"AH!" Rarity shouted as Twilight finally clicked something on one of the legs of the suit. "Point that thing somewhere else!"
Twilight turned, realizing the light had been pointed right into Rarity's face. "Sorry." She continued to turn, finding a place on the shiny walls where there wouldn't be any blinding glare. They both blinked and cringed for a minute or two until their eyes adjusted.
"You could have turned that thing on before we jumped in here," Rarity said. "But no matter. It looks like we're sealed inside. I wouldn't expect any of the buttons to work."
Twilight stepped up to the chrome-colored doors, careful not to point the light directly at them. "We'll just have to force them open, then," she said, turning to Rarity. She reached back and unsheathed her crowbar, once again pleased at how useful such a simple piece of metal could be.
"Twilight, dear, you are quite useful sometimes," Rarity said. She watched as Twilight turned towards the doors and jammed the bar through the small opening between them before pivoting it with her hoof. Rarity lit her horn upon seeing Twilight's struggle, and added some extra pressure. A tiny sliver of light emerged from between the doors, and as the opening grew to an inch or two, the crowbar simply slipped and fell to the ground.
"Okay," Twilight said, holstering the crowbar, "We should be be able to push them open the rest of the way."
She peered through the opening, blinking against the light. The noise was much louder now, coming from ventilation ducts clearly visible against the upper walls. A bright concrete wall shimmered before her.
"Can you see anything?" Rarity asked.
Twilight tried to make out more of the surroundings, but couldn't manage to peer around enough to make out what was to the left or right. "It doesn't sound like we're outside," she said. "Sounds like we're in some kind of busy warehouse or something. It's really bright." She thought back to her tram ride, and considered how cool it would be if they walked out into a room with a giant missile under construction. She felt a pang of guilt as she remembered how much Spike would have loved that, and put a hoof up to her stomach, pulling back from the door.
"Well, I must admit," Rarity chimed in, "I really liked your technique back in the elevator shaft. Perhaps it would work on the doors."
Twilight was surprised at first, but realized that Rarity had a good point. "On the count of three?" she said.
Rarity just smiled at her. "Why not one?" She lit her horn, pressing lightly against both doors with her own magic. Twilight just rolled her eyes, and met Rarity's magic with her own. They both closed their eyes as the cyan light bounced off the metal walls and blinded them. They could feel the doors slipping easily to the side, and heard the sounds of the vents above magnified, as well as the additional sound of some machinery in the distance. They lowered their magic as they felt the doors finish retreating and put their hooves up to their eyes, looking out at last into the bright concrete expanse before them.
"Well, I was right. We're definitely not outside," Twilight said, her eyes finally adjusting as she looked around. "Hopefully we're at least close."
They glanced to the left and saw a wall. "Looks like there's just one way to go," Twilight said. They headed off to the right, looking around at the large bright passage, listening to the busy sounds around them. There was a window on the wall to their right, which Twilight assumed was some kind of security room. There was a metal door next to the window, but it was clearly locked. She peered through the window at some of the control panels, noting one of the buttons on it that said "Silo Access".
"Silo?" Rarity asked, looking at a barn-sized brown metal door on the wall opposite. "You don't suppose they process hay in this facility, do you?"
Twilight put a hoof to her face, forgetting that Rarity was from a small rural town. "It probably means it's a missile silo," she said. "Silos make great places to store equipment, and test out engines before they're used in practice."
Rarity stared at the door. "Rocket engines," she pondered. "Remind me never to go in there," she said, clearly not intent on getting her eyebrows singed.
The continued down the hallway, listening to the hum of the machinery. It almost sounded like conveyor belts, or maybe something rolling, like a cart.
"What—ha!" Rarity shouted. "Look at this!" She trotted over to the wall next to the massive silo door, and pointed to a wall-mounted devices that Twilight recognized from her training. It was nothing more than an intricate yellow box with "HEV" written on the front, and a few pipes mounted to it, but Twilight knew that these would come in handy if there were more of them.
"Do you think it's charged?" Twilight asked stupidly, remember a second later that the device would be glowing red if it wasn't.
"I really have no idea," Rarity said. "It's definitely worth trying, though."
Twilight reached a hoof up and ran it along the surface. She really wished she had her notes with her now. She could remember how all the other scientists looked at her strange as she levitated a sheet of parchment and quill in front of her as she entered the training course, but that was now sitting back in her dormitory, probably getting chewed on by a headcrab by now.
"I think the connection is in the lower corner here somewhere." She pressed her hoof against several places, remembering how she had pressed it into some kind of groove during the training course.
"Uh, Twilight," Rarity said, pointing a hoof to the other side of the device. "It says "place hoof here"."
Twilight stared at the small words Rarity was pointing at and felt her face go very red.
"I..." she meekly placed her hoof where Rarity was point. "... er... thanks." She turned away so she didn't have to look Rarity in the eye.
The machine churned to life as she pressed her hoof in, and she felt a warm surge course through the suit. She looked down at her foreleg and watched a small bar on the suit fill up, and waited until the machine turned red and stopped.
"What?" Rarity said. "What's wrong with it? Why did it stop?"
"It always does that," Twilight explained. "The guide told me these things only hold a portion of what the suit can." Twilight watched Rarity's expression and added "I know. It doesn't make any sense to me either."
"So, what exactly does charging your suit do?" Rarity asked. "Are there special features you can now use? Does it magnify your magic?"
"I think it just adds some extra protection or something," she said. "I'm able to use my flashlight and stuff without charging it, so I really don't think it does much more than add a little extra cushion." She pressed her hoof against the surface of her suit in various places to see if it felt any different. "I guess we'll find out the next time you fire your gun into me," she joked.
Rarity scowled, but didn't say anything.
"Come on," Twilight said, "there have to be some stairs or something that will take us outside."
Now that Rarity was outside her known territory, Twilight took over as the lead, following the only path available to them. They took note of a large fire door situated along the central path, which was thankfully open, as well as the emergency button behind glass set into the wall, which Twilight assumed would close the door.
"Um, Twilight?" Rarity said, pointing a hoof towards the end of the hallway, "I don't think they want us to go this way."
Twilight saw what Rarity meant as she walked up to the device set into the wall near her hooves. It looked like some kind of large camera, or a set of vision goggles, with a single giant lens on the front. The major difference, however, is that there was a clearly visible green dot on the wall opposite.
"A laser?" Twilight asked, tempted to move her hoof in front of the lens, but managed to hold back just in case. "It looks like some kind of security device, but why would they only set it at hoof level? Couldn't anypony just step right over it?"
Rarity pouted. "I really don't like the idea of being scanned by lasers. I wish there was a way to actually see them."
Twilight smirked, thinking back to her lessons in Canterlot. "Well, that's easy enough," she said. "You just create a fog, like this." She lit her horn, thankful that creating fog was a relatively simple spell. She still grimaced at the headache it caused, but it wasn't so bad that she couldn't concentrate.
"Oh, wow! That's quite a thick stretch of light!" Rarity gaped at the clearly visible laser line stretch across the hallway at their feet. "What do you think it does?"
Twilight examined the strange camera device on the wall and shook her head. "There's no way to know for sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's either a tracking device, or some kind of explosive." Both of them took a few steps back at these words. "Somehow, I doubt the latter. I don't think this facility would actually intend on harming its employees."
"But what about those creatures?" Rarity asked. "Would you not put it past one of the scientists to rig this place with traps to protected themselves against those... things?"
Twilight tried not to think about the massive storage facility with crate after crate of ammunition. Could one of those boxes have laser trip mines in it?!
"At any rate, just step over it carefully. I'll keep this place lit up with fog just in case."
Twilight histrionically stepped over the laser, making of a point of keeping as much distance between her body and the laser as possible. Rarity was almost beside herself in nervousness as she attempted to mimic Twilight, letting out small whimpers as she did so.
"Oh, great," Twilight said, looking around the corner. She had already filled the next stretch with fog, and it didn't look pretty. "You're gonna love this, Rarity."
Rarity rounded corner as it bent off to the right, and peered down the remainder of the hallway, which led into a large, cluttered storage room. Aside from storage crates littering the area, there were also a number of boxes marked as being volatile and explosive. And as if this wasn't bad enough, Twilight saw in the distance what must have been security turrets similar to the Gatling gun back in the office buildings, except that these were mounted on tripods.
"H-how exactly are we supposed to get past these lasers?!" Rarity asked, looking at the large array of criss-crossing red beams blocking their path into the room. Twilight had a feeling she knew exactly what these lasers would do.
"Very, very carefully," she said. "I wish there was some way to turn them off. The only other way we can be completely safe is if we somehow disable those turrets back there."
Rarity nearly fainted when Twilight pointed out the tripod guns in the back of the room. "There has to be another way."
Twilight spent a few seconds studying the array of lasers, trying to work out exactly how she would worm her way through them. She counted five of them, which were all unfortunately crisscrossing in all three directions at once, so you always had to be looking at all five of them as you traversed it.
"Yeah, I'm not sure I want to risk this," Twilight agreed. "These don't look like they have any kind of explosives attached to them. That would be like the trip mine back there." She indicated the camera device mounted to the wall behind them. "Our best bet would be to disable those turrets back there, but I don't have access to any of the magic cables from back here!"
Rarity gave her a look. "Aren't you the one that goes around shooting things? Why don't you just use your big fat gun?"
Twilight rolled her eyes at Rarity's sarcasm. "Ha. Ha," she responded.. "It's not that simple. It's not like I can just shoot them, or throw my crowbar at them, or toss a grena—"
She stopped mid-sentence. She had imagined each scenario as she said it, and obviously throwing a crowbar would have been completely ridiculous, and shooting the turret at such a great distance would be impractical. The bullets would hardly do anything.
A grenade, on the other hand, would do significant damage! It had to be worth a shot.
"You might want to stand back around that corner, Rarity. I'm going to try something." Twilight lit her horn and snapped one of the grenades off her harness. Rarity squeaked and jumped, landing on her stomach on the ground with her hooves over her ears.
"It's—" Twilight started to say it's not that bad, but realized she was about to pull the pin on a miniature bomb hovering a few inches away from her face. Suddenly Rarity's reaction was quite understandable.
I'll play this safe she thought. I won't pull the pin until I've placed it next to the turret.
This was, of course, easier said than done. The crisscrossing lasers wouldn't exactly ignore something as small as a grenade. She had to weave it through just the right path to get it into the room. Even then, she didn't have a very good view of the room, and had difficulty judging how far the grenade was from the turret at such a long distance.
She of course had thought about using her magic directly on the turret, but no matter what she came up with—whether turning it in a different direction, or physically moving it somewhere else—there was simply no way to make it not fire. It needed to be destroyed if they didn't want it raining bullets in some direction.
Twilight retreated back where Rarity was now crouching, and slowly got into the same position. She reached out with her magic to make sure she could feel the pin, and hesitated. She suddenly became very aware of exactly how much could go wrong. Here she was, sitting right next to a laser trip mine, just around the corner from a room full of volatile materials, on the other side of detection lasers which could set off an automatic turret that would fire straight into the room of explosives. She tried hard not to think of everything that might go wrong, reaching out with her magic to be sure she knew exactly where everything was.
Just before she pulled the pin, she found herself instinctively wrapping her hoof around Rarity and pulling her close. She felt Rarity painfully latch onto her, sensing the pin being pulled. Twilight closed her eyes tight and braced herself.
The result was surprisingly anticlimactic. A loud pop went off in the other room, like a firecracker, followed by the whine of injured electronics. A few sparks could be heard, and then—
"Is that it?" Twilight asked, still clinging on to a now-shaking Rarity. "I would have expected—" What did she expect? A massive domino effect? The whole hallway to cave in?
Rarity didn't say anything at all. She was covering her ears so tightly that Twilight wasn't even sure she had heard the explosion. Twilight tapped her on the back, causing her to stir.
"Hey," Twilight said, "It's safe."
Rarity slowly pulled her hooves away from her ears, looking up at Twilight with large, quivering pupils. "Are we safe?" she asked meekly.
Twilight caught sight of the laser trip mine a few feet behind Rarity. "About as safe as we're gonna get," she peered around the corner, "for now." From what she could see, the turret was no where in sight. Everything else seemed to still be there, including the volatile crates, but the real threat was now gone.
She reached behind her and pulled out her crowbar, slowly poking it forward until it touched one of the lasers. There was an audible beep of recognition, but nothing happened. Nothing exploded, or melted, or shot at them. The ceiling didn't cave in, there were no spikes or heavy boulders that were unleashed, and the only difference she could see is that the laser no longer reached the other side of the wall.
"It looks like that did it," she said. She glanced back and watched Rarity continue to tremble on the floor, peering up at her like a puppy.
"You can get up now, you know," she added.
Rarity looked around a few times, starting to blush. Twilight turned back towards the lasers as Rarity climbed to her hooves. Taking a deep breath, Twilight leaned her head down and walked through the lasers.
She was met with a cacophony of beeps and chirps as each of the lasers in turn "detected" her, but nothing else happened.
"Okay, come on through," she said back to Rarity.
Rarity just starred at Twilight on the other side. "Just... walk through?" she asked. Twilight nodded, and watched as Rarity closed her eyes and stuck a hoof out, as if testing the waters of a pool. She pulled her head back, grimaced, and then charged through the lasers as a slow gallop. Twilight chuckled for a moment, just before Rarity charged right into her, knocking her over onto the floor.
"AH! Rarity!" she said as Rarity toppled on top of her. "Get off me!" She reached her hooves beneath her and forced the other mare off of her before getting back on her hooves. "Just... relax, okay?"
Twilight looked around. Now that they were actually inside the room, she had a much better idea of how things were laid out. Most of the bright room was filled boxes which, as it turns out, were mostly not filled with explosives. Only one or two were marked as being volatile. There was also a small chain-link fence in the middle, which seemed to be randomly placed. It was built right into the infrastructure, so it must have had an architectural purpose at some point.
However, the thing that really caught her eye now was the body in the corner. Rarity saw it too. Neither of them could take their eyes off it. Clearly, a pony had been unfortunate enough to encounter a few headcrabs, but that was not what really struck Twilight.
She walked up, examining the peculiar outfit the pony was wearing. He was blue, with a dark blue mane, but both of them were barely visible beneath its helmet and mask. The rest of him was covered in what Twilight could only describe as "camouflage". Around its torso was a green vest with a green pack on its back. Even more unusual, it was wearing white-on-black camouflage on the bottom. Clearly this pony was equipped far beyond any normal security pony.
However, even the pony itself wasn't what truly caught their eye. Sitting on the ground next to it was something shimmering: a chrome engineering marvel. Rarity would have called it a "big gun", but Twilight knew this was so much more. This was a military-grade sub-machinegun: something Black Mesa would never have had lying around. This was a weapon the pony had brought in from the outside.
"They're here!" Twilight said, turning to Rarity. "The military! They've come!" She jumped up and started bouncing around the room. "They've actually come to rescue us!"
Rarity simply gawked at her, then back at the pony, then back at her. "You really think so?!" She looked back at the pony and stuck her lip out. "He doesn't exactly look like he's doing too well. Do you think they're still here?"
And as if on cue, Twilight heard an announcement system chime in: the same announcement system she had heard back in her Anomalous Materials lab, just before she rode the elevator to the lower levels.
"All. Military. Personnel. Extreme. Force. On. Foreign. Contamination."
Twilight looked back at Rarity. "I'd say that sounds like they're still here," she said. "Come on! We've gotta be close! They're probably all waiting for us on the surface!"
She was about to run off when she caught herself and trotted back to the body. "I guess I may as well get an upgrade," she said to herself, almost laughing from relief. "Not that I'll need it."
She lit her horn, and traded out her shotgun for the submachine gun, amazed at how the suit so swiftly and easily adapted to the new handle. She aimed it at the wall in front of her and tested out the trigger. All she heard was a click.
"Hang on," she said, opening the pony's pack. "He has to have left some ammunition in here." She fished around until she found a few banana clips, and stashed them into the ammo holster on her suit. "That ought to be more than enough to get us out of here," she said. "The military has probably cleaned out most of the creatures by now."
Rarity got up and shook out her mane. "Well! I will certainly be glad to get out of these awful clothes," she said. "These things are far from the latest fashion." She tapped some of the material with her hoof. "They have inspired me to design a new outfit for these security ponies! They most certainly need it."
"Yeah," Twilight said. "All three that are left." She rolled her eyes.
=========================================================
Aside from the explosive crates, there wasn't much else in the room to look at. Not that Twilight or Rarity cared. Both of them were mostly concerned with a way out, which Twilight quickly found towards the back of the room.
"Is this whole place going to be like this?" Rarity asked. She was pointing her hoof at the fire door they were passing through, as well as another laser tripmine around the corner. The hallway jogged to the left before continuing straight, and from the looks of it, somepony must not have wanted anything from getting through.
"Just be careful," Twilight said. "You can jump over it if you're nervous. It's not even at knee-height."
"But..." Rarity peered around the other corner, seeing something around the other bend. "But what about the second one?"
"Secon—" Twilight stopped and looked around the corner with Rarity. The first laser was in the bend, and was easy enough to jump over. The second one was just after the hallway straightened out, and was barely visible from where they were standing. It was *much* too high to jump over.
"We'll look at it closer when we get there," Twilight said. She walked up to the first laser and came up with an idea. She lit her horn and wrapped her magic around the laser, like a shimmering pink tube. She stepped back, horn still lit, and admired her work.
"There! Why didn't I think of this before?" She turned back to Rarity. "I've solidified my magic, so you can't touch the laser. The worst you can do is bang your knee into the magic."
Rarity didn't entirely look convinced. "You're sure it's solid?" She reached her hoof out tentatively, still a foot away from where Twilight had cast the spell.
"It's all right, Rarity. I've completely—"
Twilight covered her ears. The whole room quivered with the sound of electrical current. "WHAT THE H—" She could barely hear herself think. Twilight looked up, seeing Rarity no long beside her, and turned her head frantically to look for her. She finally spotted her on the other side of the tripmine laser. She had tripped right over Twilight's magic, and was stumbling back to her hooves.
"EVERY PONY FOR THEMSELF!" she cried out frantically, jumping around the L-Bend of the hallway. Twilight saw her turn to run down the hallway, and blasted up a barrier of magic to stop her before she ran right through the second laser. Rarity slammed right into it, making an uncomfortable crunch. Her eyes derped for a moment before she collapsed to the ground.
Twilight turned in the direction of the sound and saw, just in front of her, a headcrab, where there had been absolutely nothing just moments before. She instinctively got out her crowbar.
"Where did you come from?" she asked, sneaking up behind it and whacking it like a golf ball. "You weren't here just a mi—"
She covered her ears again as another blast came, this time just behind her. She turned just in time to see... what? A green glowing ball? A miniature electrical storm? A burst of unicorn magic? Whatever it was, she didn't have much time ot think. No sooner had the ball faded than two more headcrabs stood in its place.
"What is going on?" she said quietly to herself. "It's almost as if—"
She flinched as a third storm appeared to her right. "DAH! WHAT THE HAY?!" This one had left four headcrabs behind, all piled on top of one another as if someone had simply dumped them out of a box. The first two headcrabs had turned and were crawling in her direction.
Luckily the four new headcrabs were on the other side of the fence, so she had plenty of time to get rid of the two in front of her. She ran up and kicked the first one into the wall, stunning it so she could spear it with her crowbar. The second one she simply stepped on until she heard a disgusting and satisfying crunch. She brought her hoof up and looked at the stains, grimaces at the mess.
"Eh... worth it," she thought out loud.
The other four headcrabs were flipped onto their feet, getting situated. Twilight decided to finish them off before they even stood a chance. Her hoof was already on the trigger.
"AH! NOT AGAIN!"
Her hooves went over her head as another storm surged on the other end of the room, followed by another one in the far corner. "What is—" She stopped as she saw the sheer number of headcrabs starting to pour in. There must have been at least seven in each of those last drops.
Without thinking, she slammed her hoof to the ground, feeling the trigger depress. She almost tripped right onto her face. After being so used to the enormous kick from the shotgun, the submachinegun didn't give nearly as much compensating force. What was more, the repetition of each bullet being fired made her head spin and her jaw ache from being jerked around. It made it much more difficult to aim, and more than once she had to stop and readjust.
Twilight turned as another storm appeared behind her, followed by another one just in front, and a third in the corner. She jerked around in circles, panicking, unsure which group to attack first. A few of the headcrabs were already leaping at her, landing on her back and sides. Instinctively she rolled onto her back, and continued to roll along the floor, putting her hooves up and trying not to think about what she was rolling into.
She stood up, looking around quickly and recognizing the fire door. She was in the hallway, and could escape by running down, but there was still no way to get Rarity to safety unless—
"The fire door!" she yelled. "That's it!"
It didn't take long for her to find the glass with the button on the other side. She didn't even bother using her crowbar to break it, and simply slammed her hoof straight through to the button. The suit helped, as did the incredible adrenaline rush. She quickly galloped through the door, holding her head down to protect her ears from the blaring siren. A few lights were rotating as well, signalling the door which was slowly descending from the ceiling.
Twilight turned to see the group of headcrabs turning the leap at her through the door.
"No! Not you!" she yelled. She slammed her hoof down, half-expecting the kickback, and felt her teeth clatter once again as the gun riddled the room with bullets. She heard a click and lifted her hoof. She swore—actually swore—and turned to her right at Rarity, who was working on becoming conscious again.
"Rarity!" she yelled. "We need to get out of here!" She looked at the door again, which was halfway closed. A few of the nearest crabs were dead. "Here. Crawl under this with me!"
She lept over the first laser, nearly running right into Rarity. "Here," she said, helping Rarity off the ground, "like this."
"Twilight, wha—" Rarity was still getting up, trying to get her bearings.
"Under! Under!" Twilight got down on her belly and crawled hoof-over-hoof under the second laser. She heard the door slam shut, followed by the sirens stopping, but she knew there were already headcrabs on the other side.
"Twilight, I—"
"NO TIME!" Twilight yelled, crawling faster. She looked over her shoulder, seeing the laser a few feet away, and slowly got to her hooves. "You have to—"
"AH! Twilight!" Rarity had leaped out of the way as one of the headcrabs jumped at her. Twilight held her breath, half-expecting one of them to crawl right into the first laser.
"Rarity!" Twilight yelled, thinking fast. She had to get Rarity out of there. "Hang on!"
Trying not to think about the recklessness of her actions, she lit her horn and concentrated harder than she had ever done before. Her head exploded in pain, melting all around her brain, burning her temple, causing her to yell out. She focused it around Rarity, lifting her right off the ground.
""OHGOSHTWILIGHT, WHATAREYOU—"
The next second seemed to happen in slow motion. Twilight looked up and pulled Rarity right over the laser, watching as the headcrab next to her leaped up to follow. She saw, just a slip second before it happened, the headcrab leap right into the second laser. She turned her head, pulling at Rarity harder than she had ever pulled at anything in her life, and shut her eyes tight.
It wasn't the sound of the head of the blast that caught her off guard. It was the force! The blast literally knocked her over onto her side. She immediately lost focus on her magic, leaving Rarity screaming and flailing through the air. She could only watch as Rarity flew right over her, landed on the ground, and skidded to a halt.
Twilight could barely move after the cloud of dust cleared. She breathed a sigh of relief, closed her eyes, and felt her mind drift away.
=========================================================
"...Twilight..."
Twilight stirred. Her head was throbbing with a dull pain, and everything around her was blurred. She looked around, trying to get her bearings.
"Twi...light..."
The voice was getting louder, but not much clearer. She could jsut make out a white blur moving around above her. She was... on her back? When did she get on her back?
"Twilight! Wake up!"
Her eyes started to adjust, and the first thing she saw was Rarity's face focus above her. "Uh... morning?" she said meekly. She put a hoof up to her head and tried to sit up. Her body ached as she did so, making her groan. "Wha—"
"Twilight, we have to go!"
"What? Why?" she asked, finally coming to her senses. "What's wrong?" She looked around and noticed she was still in the same hallway. There was a massive scorch mark on the wall behind her, as well as multiple yellow stains where, Twilight guessed, there used to be headcrabs.
"Stop sitting there and get up!" Rarity yelled. "We have to go before more of them—"
Rarity didn't finish before she was interrupted by the intense sound of a magic storm on the opposite end of the hallway. Twilight felt a shock flow through her body, jolting her to her feet, chills flowing through her hide. "What was—"
"Help me!" Rarity yelled, and Twilight watched completely stunned as Rarity turned and slammed her hoof to the ground. She heard the familiar firecracker of the pistol go off once... twice... four times... over and over. Twilight tried to see what Rarity was shooting at, but her eyes were still trying to focus.
"Twilight, you have to get up! These things have been popping up all over the place now! We need to get out of here!"
Twilight fished around her suit until she found the ammo controls. She still somewhat remembered using them from the hazard course shooting range. She touched the panel on the side of the suit and heard the satisfying click of her gun reload.
"I'm ready!" she said, getting to her hooves. "Now what exactly are we shooting at?"
She stared ahead, her eyes finally focusing on the small doorway at the end of the hallway. It lead into an area similar to the offices, with a tile floor and brick walls. It seemed to be some kind of cafeteria.
"What—wait, is that—" she walked up to the body lying in the middle of the room. "It's these things again!" Twilight had hoped they wouldn't have to deal with the bipedal insectisoids again. It was bad enough that they were larger than she was, but their strange magic that was beyond even her comprehension gave her an uneasy feeling.
"Twilight, we—"
"I know, I know! We need to get out of here! Let's just—"
Another storm surged, this time near the corner of the room. Twilight instinctively turned and fired into it. "Follow me!" she said, watching the creature slump lifelessly to the ground.
The hallway had curved to the right just before it reached the cafeteria, and Twilight raced right back out the door and to the right, following the once-again bright concrete passageway. It sloped down as it went, and Twilight nearly stumbled a few times as she galloped down, turning to the left as she followed the path.
There was a wall at the bottom of the ramp, marking where the hallway opened into another room to the right. "In here!" Twilight said, reaching the bottom of the ramp. "We just need to—no, no, nonoNO!" Another storm had surged at the bottom of the ramp, before Twilight could slow down from her gallop down the ramp. She felt her body collide with the creature as the storm subsided, knocking them both to the ground.
"Rarity!" she yelled, getting to her hooves. She had seen a couple containers at the end of the hallway that were marked as being volatile. "Rarity, whatever you do, don't shoot—"
She put her hooves over her head as she heard shots ring out. "Rarity!" she yelled, flailing her forehooves in the air. She could hear the creature behind her getting to its feet. "Rarity, stop!"
Twilight galloped back up the ramp, hearing a crackling sound behind her. The creature was charging up one of its green bursts of magic.
"Around the corner!" she yelled, pointing with her head. She watched Rarity do so, and followed her, nearly running right into her. She heard the crackling get even louder and braced for the shot.
However, instead of seeing a bolt of magic strike the wall, she was instead met with another ear-shattering snap which echoed throughout the hallway. She threw her hooves to her ears and slammed her body to the ground, but the worst of the damage was already done. She could hear chunks of metal clinking off the walls, and a few bits and pieces of organic tissue landing on the ground. She felt herself gag at the sight, but managed to hold down her lunch.
Rarity pulled Twilight to her feet. "Are you all right?"
Twilight looked at Rarity, amazed at how unfazed she was. She was still clearly shaken, but she wasn't frantic like she was before.
"I think it made the same mistake that you did," Twilight said. "It fired without looking around first."
Rarity twitched. "Well, for the record, I did stop." She turned to look at the damage and cringed. "I think I'm going to be sick," she said. "And it simply smells awful!"
Twilight got up and took a sniff, putting her hoof to her nose. "Next time, could we try to keep the exploding of aliens to a minimum?" she said. "It might make our last few minutes travelling to the surface a bit less putrid." She grimaced as she saw the mess with her own eyes. "Let's just get out of here before more of them come," she said. "The sooner we find those soldiers, the better."
=========================================================
Twilgiht rounded the corner and gawked.
"More lasers?!"
Luckily these were not the kind that exploded. She looked past the crisscrossing array of red lasers and into the large storage room beyond. "This is just like the last time!" she said. "Only this time there are two turrets, and a large mess all around us," she added, motioning at the alien debris from the explosion.
Rarity was still standing at the top of the ramp, trying not to look at the stains all over the floor. "So just use your grenades again!" she said. "They worked quite well the last time."
"Yes, but—" Twilight looked back into the room. It was difficult to judge the situation. The room was quite cluttered with green metallic crates stacked all around, not to mention some hooks dangling from the ceiling. This room was large enough to require some fancy means of carrying the cargo around, which Twilight admired for a while. The hooks weren't exactly attached directly to the ceiling, and were instead attached to girders that cross-crossed above them, forming paths that the hooks could travel down.
"I can already see two turrets," she said. "There might be more, but the room is so cluttered—"
She grabbed one of her grenades and carefully threaded it through the lasers. "At the very least, I should be able to take out this first one," she said. "That one is at least pretty easy to see. I just need to..." She mumbled to herself as she positioned it. She took a deep breath, ducked around the corner, and pulled the pin.
Rarity jumped at the top of the ramp, as did Twilight who was on the ground holding her hooves over her head. She heard the sound of debris bouncing around, and stood up. "That should at least take care of the first—" she turned toward Rarity, "—one..."
Both of them heard it: a constant beeping that wasn't there a moment before.
"I—" Twilight said, "But I destroyed it!" she said. "There shouldn't be—"
She peered quickly around the corner a few times, playing her "gopher" game before finally turning to face the room head-on. The turret was clearly destroyed. She could see the scorch marks, as well as sparks and smoke where the turret used to be.
"Then where—" She took a few steps into the room and immediately backed back out as she heard the beeps stop. "It's the second one!" she said, turning to Rarity. "I must have activated the second one when I destroyed the first one!"
Rarity had been patiently waiting at the top for Twilight to do whatever it is she was going to do. How, however, Rarity was stepping down slowly to join her. "Well!?" she said, "Just toss another grenade in there! Take the other one out!"
"I can't! I don't even know where it is!"
"What do you mean you don't know where it is! You just saw it!"
"I caught glimpses of it, but I can't know exactly where it is unless I walk into the room! I need—"
Rarity screamed, jumping on top of Twilight and grabbing onto her. Another storm had appeared, a few feet up the ramp. "Kill it! Kill it!"
"I can't see! Get off me!"
Twilight knocked Rarity off her back and turned to aim when a second storm went off behind her, right where the mess of alien tissue was.
"Run!" she yelled, hearing both of them charge up at the same time. "Follow me!"
What happened next was what Twilight could only describe as the stupidest move she had ever made. Turning around to face the other creature, she bolted forward, around the corner, and straight into the room with the turret. For a moment, the turret stopped beeping at just stood there, giving Twilight just enough time to find some cover. There were some crates in the middle of the room that looked solid enough to sustain some heavy fire. She took a leap of faith, diving to the left of them just as the turret on her right fired. She could hear the creatures behind her firing off their magic, but they were still around the corner and couldn't get to her.
It didn't fire for long. It had some sort of motion detector that stopped it after she was hidden. Now was her chance! She turned back towards the hallway and fired a few round, grabbing the creature's attention.
What happened next was the closest Twilight ever wanted to come to a battle. The creatures were as much of a target for the turret as she was, and the creatures knew it. They stopped as they rounded the corner, and Twilight heard the beeping stop. She covered her ears, bracing for the sound.
Just before she heard the turret fire, a few shots went off around the corner. Rarity was taking out the second one. The turret fired off just as the first creature started charging its magic, disturbing it. She watched as the creature fell to the ground, but its magic lingered, looking disturbingly like one of the magic storms that brought it here. It pulsed for a moment, and then let out a bang that shook the room, spreading tendrils of magic in every direction. Twilight saw the crate next to her glow slightly as it absorbed some of the magic as it struck.
She waited.
Seconds.
Minutes.
Nothing much could be heard now: not even the beeping of the turret. She stood up slowly and looked around at the wreckage of the creature's magic. There were scorch marks scattered all over, and the second turret had been decimated. Some of the crates had holes in them. She took a deep breath, feeling around her suit to make sure there wasn't any damage to herself.
"You okay, Rarity?" she yelled.
She heard a voice around the corner as Rarity stepped through the array of lasers with Twilight. "Never. Again," she said. "Never, ever again." She flipped her hair, looking thoroughly disheveled. "This has to be the worst possible place to walk through. Honestly! Turrets, explosives, mines—this whole place is a giant mess of booby traps! I feel like I'm in some kind of Daring Do adventure!"
She shook herself out and groaned in frustration, looking around the room. "Twilight, dear, do tell me: is it your goal to completely destroy this entire facility before we escape from it?"
Twilight put her hoof to her face. "I think the aliens will end up doing that for us," she said. "I really think we're just accelerating the process."
"Is that really necessary?" Rarity asked, not even trying to hide her sarcasm. "I would think we would want to slow the process, if anything. I hardly think that setting off massive magical explosions, and triggering automatic Gatling guns is going to help keep this place intact."
"Let's just get out of here," Twilight said. "Bickering around it isn't going to change anything. We have to be close. Once we get to the surface, we can argue all we want."
Rarity hmmphed. "I am not arguing! I am complaining!" She turned to Twilight. "Do you want to hear arguing?"
Twilight sighed. "Not really, no," she said.
Rarity threw her head into the air and walked past her. "Good! Now how do we get out of here?"
Both of them looked around the room. The whole place looked like some kind of makeshift barricade, and the scorch marks and debris made it look more than ever like a war zone. Neither of them could see any kind of doorway that led out.
"Do you think this is a dead end?" Twilight asked. "I didn't see any other path back there."
Rarity was busy peering through some of the crates. She apparently had some experience in dealing with clutter. "It looks like there might be an exit back here," she said, looking through some cracks between the crates. The particular stack she was looking through was about three times taller than either of them were. It was a rather impressive stack! Twilight had to marvel at just how precariously everything had been placed on top of everything else.
"Is that it?" Twilight asked? "Because, you know, I'd hate to have to blast through all these crates and cause another mess." She gave Rarity a look which made her glare back.
"There's nothing that says we can't just climb over them," she said. "I myself have climbed over plenty of messes in my day!"
Twilight looked confused. "Where would you have seen a mess that was this big?" she asked, trying to imagine how tidy her home must have been back in Ponyville.
"I—" Rarity stopped and turned, looking away from Twilight. Had she been any less dignified, she might have been blushing. "I have a certain amount of, shall we say, "organized chaos" while I'm working." She straightened up, trying to hide any embarrassment she may have had. "It helps with the creative process."
Twilight rolled her eyes, but didn't indulge in her curiosity any further. Instead, she simply watched as Rarity searched out somewhere along the wall of crates where some of them had collapsed, forming a makeshift stepping stone path to the top. Twilight couldn't help but imagine Rarity as being like some well-groomed mountain goat as she stepped carefully on each of the fallen crates, balancing herself as she worked her way to the top.
"How's the view from up there?" Twilight joked after Rarity was a few feet up. Rarity didn't say anything, still concentrating on getting to the next level up. It was like climbing up an avalanche, and every so often, one of Rarity's hooves would slip on an unstable box.
"Almost... there..." Rarity made the finally leap to the top of the stack and looked around. "Wha-ha-HA! There is an exit!" she said, pointing a hoof down to the other side. "Come up here!"
Twilight lit her horn, "I have a better idea." She looked up at one of the nearby hooks and gently turned the crank it was wrapped around. She couldn't exactly see the crank, since it was deeply embedded in the mechanism, but she could easily find it with her magic by feeling up the cable.
"What are you doing, dear?" Rarity called from above.
Twilight didn't answer, instead reaching her hoof up and grabbing hold of the cable with the rubber end of the suit. Just as she had hoped, the suit latched onto it, just as it did with the crowbar. She lit her horn again and rotated the mechanism once again, hoisting both the hook and herself into the air.
"Ooo, clever!" Rarity said from the top of the crates. "You do have good ideas sometimes, darling—when they aren't blowing up in front of us, that is."
Twilight waited until the cable was all the way up before looking around. She was just a few feet away from where the crates were stacked. Rarity walked carefully over the top until she was as close to Twilight as she could get.
"Unfortunately, I can't reach you from here, Twilight," Rarity said. "Looks like you may need to find another way."
"No, no!" Twilight said. "I have this under control!" She wiggled her hind legs a bit, doing a small dance with her rump. It was quite difficult to cling on. She really wasn't that strong. However, after enough wiggling, she managed to get the cable to swing.
"Having fun, darling?" Rarity asked sarcastically, watching Twilight go back and forth. "I haven't seen a pony do something like this since I got Sweetie Belle that tire swing."
Twilight wanted to do a "Ha. Ha." back at her, but she was too busy working her body to get the cable to swing further. She tried not to look down, or at the crates in front of her. She knew she would have to let go at some point, but knew she didn't have the balance or dexterity to land on top of the crates.
"Can you... catch me...?" She spoke each time she swung forward.
"I think you're on your own here, Twilight," she said. "I must say, you would have been much better off just climbing up the crates like I did."
Rarity's point looked more and more sensical each time she swung.
"Hang on!" Twilight said. "I have... an idea...!"
At least this idea was as completely asinine as the last one. Of course, it was still dangerous, but at least there were no magic-tossing aliens in the way this time.
She lit her horn and felt for the crank at the top. She swung forward, counting each swing silently to herself.
One... she thought to herself, swinging forward with her magic around the crank. Two—oh, screw it. She released her magic on the crank on her second swing, spinning the cable out of control. She felt her body tossed forward and grunted as all the wind was knocked out of her. She had managed to slam right into the side of the stack right at the top, such that the top half of her body wrapped over the top. The slid down, trying to grab hold of something and saw Rarity pounce forward to grab hold of her hooves.
"You're already at the top, dear. You may as well climb up with me." She was gasping for breath upon lunging forward, but was smiling nonetheless. Working together, Twilight managed to hoist herself up onto the stack.
"So!" Twilight said, catching her breath and looking around. "Where's the door?"
"Right there," she said, pointing her hoof to the other side and to the left. The stack they were standing on were quite close to the end of the room, forming a rather tight space between the stack they were standing on and the wall at the far end.
"I—wait." Twilight closed her eyes and reopened them. "This has to be some kind of joke."
When she opened her eyes, Rarity was looking at her with a wide facetious smile. "You knew about this all along, didn't you." Twilight gave her a blank stare.
The door Rarity had pointed at was another fire door. Just like the last few entrances they had walked past, this one also had lasers on the other side. However, unlike the last few, the turrets were clearly visible. They were sitting just on the other side of the stack of crates, in that tight space beneath them.
"Another grenade?" she asked. "Wait, don't tell me. The other turret will activate when I do that." She stopped and thought for a moment, watching Rarity's wide smile. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying Twilight's struggle.
"What exactly are you smiling at?!" Twilight asked, watching Rarity actually start to laugh.
"I—oh, I'm sorry, Twilight," she said. "It's just, one problem after the other after the other." She looked down at the lasers below and laughed again. "I mean, just how many times are we going to run into these things? Honestly! This is getting ridiculous!"
Twilight had had enough. "You know what? You're right!" She walked down the stack as far as she could and aimed her gun at the door.
"Twilight! What are you doing?"
"Getting us out of here!" she said. She leaned her hoof down and fired the gun straight into the wall next to the door. It was a small target, but she managed to hit the glass just in front of the fire door, exposing the button behind it.
"Follow me!" she said. She braced herself, and leaped off the stack of crates. It was a rough landing, but not nearly as bad as the one from the ventilation duct just before she had reached the doctor.
"You're crazy!" Rarity shouted as Twilight walked up to the button. "How is closing the fire door going to help us get out of here!"
Twilight ignored her, slamming her hoof into the button. Sirens blared once again as the warning lights flared. "Come on, Rarity!" Twilight yelled, walking to the other side of the door. "Before it closes!"
Rarity made a pained expression. She looked like Twilight just made her step on a giant bug. She closed her eyes and leaped most-ungracefully off the stack, landing with a painful crunch on the ground and letting out a loud "OW!" Twilight grimmaced, but was relieved to see that Rarity had no problem trotting up to where Twilight was.
"Just duck under the door," she said, peering under the half-closed fire door. "This should protect us from those turrets."
Rarity got all the way down on her stomach and half-crawled half-rolled through the door. It really wasn't necessary, but Twilight didn't say anything. Once they were on the other side, they waited until the door was completely shut before looking at the array of lasers in front of them.
"Good thing there aren't any turrets around here," Twilight said. "I would hate to have to use a grenade right now."
"You mean you didn't know?" Rarity asked. "And you just—" She opened and closed her mouth a few times, completely lost for words.
Twilight gave the hallway in front of them one last look before sticking her hoof out and touching one of the lasers. Sure enough, she heard the turrets start up behind them through the fire doors. They could hear them beeping, but it was muffled.
"Looks like we're safe," she said, walking through the lasers. "See? Perfect plan!"
=========================================================
Both of them looked to their left, and found themselves staring at another stack of metal green crates. These, at least, didn't seem to be nearly as high, and looked as though they would be relatively easy to walk over.
"Twilight, darling," Rarity said. "I really need a rest! All this excitement is making my shoulders all sore."
She pouted, and moved her shoulders around in circles, making sure they were right in front of Twilight's face. Twilight was about to protest, but finally gave up upon realizing just how tired she was.
"It looks like we're relatively safe here," Twilight said, looking around. The fire door was still behind them, and the hallway opened up into the room on their left once again crowded with boxes. "There can't be much more of this," she thought out loud.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Rarity said over the background sound of the machinery. "This is facility is probably a giant pack rat. I bet these rooms go on for miles!"
Twilight sighed loudly. "I'm really not looking forward to tricking out more defense turrets," she thought. "Who in Equestria would want to defend all this stuff so badly?!" She waved her hoof back at the fire door. "I mean, really! It's bad enough having laser-activated guns—but trip mines?! Actual explosives?! At this rate, we'll never get out of here!"
"I'm wondering just what kind of other booby traps are setup in this place. I mean, this is just a set of random storage rooms. Can you image what kind of security they have setup in the labs?!"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "I don't really remember any kind of automated security in the labs when I worked there. Mostly just guards stationed around. I think these auto-systems are just their way of being lazy."
Rarity exhaled a breath upwards, blowing the front of her mane around. "I'm not sure what I like least about this place," she said. "The clutter, the security, or the constant background noise. I mean, it sounds like there's some kind of washing machine all around us! Where the heck is that coming from, anyway?!" She took a step or two back and waved a hoof, "And what is all that constant mumbling?! It's like there's some kind of work-force doing construction somewhere—"
"SHH!" Twilight put a hoof up to Rarity's lips. She held her breath. "I think you're right," she said. "Listen."
Rarity looked offended at Twilight's interruption, but allowed her to have her quiet time. Twilight was suddenly fascinated by what she was hearing. It was quite difficult to tell exactly what it was over the general sound of the equipment, but from what she could decipher, it was definitely some kind of voice, like something coming over a radio.
"What are they saying?" Twilight asked. "It's just a bunch of mumbled garbage."
Rarity walked up to the crates, waving her hoof as if telling Twilight to move aside. "It's just a bunch of orders, darling. Go here, do that, use lethal force or what have you."
"Use—" Twilight stopped, feeling a chill run through her body. "Rarity! Those aren't just radio messages." She jumped to her feet, "That's the military!"
Before Rarity could even respond, Twilight was jumping onto the crates, struggling to get over them. "Come on! They have to be just around the corner! We're almost there!" She felt her hooves slip as she hastily walked over them, occasionally knocking one down the side.
"Twilight, dear! We mustn't rush into this! We don't know what's up ahead!" Rarity groaned as she nearly slipped on one of the crates. "Ooooh, do be careful!"
Twilight reached the top, not even bothering to slow down. The voices were much clearer now. She could almost make out what they were saying. She glanced behind her, and saw that Rarity had completely stopped, as if she was waiting for something. Upon a second glace, Twilight discerned that she was concentrating on something.
"Rarity, come on!"
Twilight landed back on the floor and immediately felt her hooves slip out from under her. She yelled out, trying to stabilizer herself, but there was simply no traction. Her legs slipped out from under her, and she landed spread-eagle on her stomach, sliding forward down the hallway, spinning slightly.
"Rarity!" She lit her horn and focused it on her own body. Pain seared through her head, but she at last slowed down. When her vision finally stopped spinning, she looked around. The whole floor was completely flooded. To her right were the crates she had just climbed over. To her left was a wall with an elevator. Well, actually, it was an elevator shaft. There wasn't any door, or elevator, in or beyond the doorway. Twilight didn't want to think about where she would be if she had slid into that.
She looked ahead of her, to where the much-louder sounds of the radio conversation was. She could almost make it out now. However, the sight ahead of her made her groan loud enough to drone out chatter.
"More security?!" She should have seen this coming. Random crates just weren't safe unless there was either something that exploded or something that shot at you every few yards. She could see as many as three turrets ahead of her, as well as a fire door. The entire passage, for at least the next thirty feet, was jam packed full of laser generators. Twilight lit her horn and fogged up the room just enough to expose them, and watched as the entire hallway turned red.
Twilight threw her head back and shrieked at her misfortune, her voice echoing all around the room. She slammed her head down into her hooves, muffling her voice before finally going quiet. She lied there in silence for a moment, wondering how she was even going to get up.
And then she realized that the place really was quite silent now, except for the sound of the machinery. The voices had stopped. Or, at least, they did for a few seconds.
"Sir, I heard something."
The voice was actually loud enough that Twilight had no problem understanding every word. It was definitely a stallion, and a brutish one at that. It was so muffled, it might have been coming through a radio.
Twilight looked past the lasers and into the next room. There were a few catwalks inside, and a few more boxes. Twilight couldn't see too well beyond the fog and labyrinth of crisscrossing lasers. However, she could just barely make out some pony-shaped objects standing on top of the highest catwalk. She couldn't see all of them: just their legs. However, she recognized the camouflage pattern, and knew immediately what she was looking at.
"Hey!" Twilight yelled. "Hey, over here!" She tried waving her hooves, hopeful to get their attention.
She saw the figured crouch down in the distance, and heard their voices. "It's a scientist! MOVEMENT!"
"YES!" Twilight yelled, putting her hooves up. "I'm right here—"
"Twilight!"
"Rarity?"
Twilight looked to her right just in time to see Rarity half-jumping half-sliding towards her. She felt Rarity's body slam right into hers, and suddenly they were both sliding along the floor.
"Rarity! We're going to—"
The air exploded around them, and Twilight hugged Rarity tight as they slid. It was the sound of a machinegun, just like the one she was carrying, and she could hear bullets splashing into the water.
"Rarity! What are—we're going to—AHHHHHHHHH—"
The ground had falling out from under them, and Twilight watched as the ceiling was replaced by the top of the elevator shaft, now getting further and further away with great speed.
"Twilight!" Rarity yelled. "Magic, now!"
Twilight could hardly think during the free-fall, but she used the little concentration she had left on lighting her horn. In an instant, she felt it merge with Rarity's, and both of their bodies slowed to a halt. Twilight gasped and wheezed as she turned over in the air and saw the ground just a few feet from her. The shock made her release her magic, and she felt the "ground" leave her once again. She closed her eyes, hearing a short scream from Rarity, before slamming into the bottom of the shaft.
Both of them groaned, checking to see how much damage had been done. Above them, they could still hear the soldiers, who had most likely just entered the room they had been in.
"Keep your eyes open," she heard one of them say. "They were here just a moment ago. Check for hiding places."
Twilight huddled up against the wall of the elevator shaft. "They—did they just... shoot at us?!" Her voice was cracking, despite almost whispering. Rarity responded by putting her hoof to her lips and pointing her hoof at the conversation above them. Twilight refrained from asking further questions, despite the lump in her throat.
"D'ya think they fell down there?"
It was more of a grunt than a question. Twilight felt, rather than saw, the other soldier take a glance down the shaft.
"Careful there, soldier boy." Twilight assumed he was slipping on the water above. "Don't wanna be a blood stain at the bottom of that."
"How's we get stuck guarding these dumbass storage areas anyway? There's nopony here!" There was a pause as Twilight assumed he was attempting to look down the elevator again. "Let's just pack up and go to the silo. That place'll be chock full o' cannon fodder."
"Your orders are to stay here. Don't like it? You can jump down that elevator shaft." The guard laughed to himself. "I'd like to see how big a splat a dumb earth pony makes when he hits the ground."
Twilight felt a hoof nudge her against the suit and turned to see Rarity indicating a small opening in the wall. Twilight motioned questioningly at the soldiers above her, but Rarity made a gesture with her hoof that everything was okay.
The entrance was smaller than the vents back in the office rooms, but they still managed to fit. Rarity had some difficulty, and Twilight was reminded of watching a large cat trying to fit into a tiny box as a filly. It would have been funny in a different time.
Twilight went behind her, hearing the soldiers continue to argue in the background. Their voices died out as they crawled further into the small vent. Twilight tried lighting her horn as the passage darkened, but stifled a cry as she remembered the state of her horn.
They traveled for what seemed like hours, twisting and turning, climbing and falling, slaves to wherever the shaft wanted them to go. Occasionally there was a fork, but there was never any indication of where either path went.
"R-rarity?" Twilight whispered, finally sensing that they were far enough away from any military activity. "Rarity, why didn't they see us? Back in the elevator shaft? I would have sworn—"
"They're just grunts," was all she said.
"Yeah, but—" Twilight stopped, giving her hooves time to rest. "Why... how... what the heck is going on?! Who were they? Why did they—" Twilight stopped as she realized her voice was no longer a whisper.
"You obviously aren't very familiar with the Equestrian military, are you?" Rarity sighed. "Can this wait until we're in a bit more of a comfortable place?"
"And risk being shot at? I don't think so. This might be the safest place we get for a while!"
Another sigh. "Twilight, this place is now a war zone. You think this place is safe? How do you know we're not on the other side of a brick wall from a stationed military camp? Or worse yet, how do you know this pipe doesn't go right through a room full of soldiers? We've seen plenty of exposed air vents on our way here."
"Is that supposed to make me feel any better?" Twilight tried to move her hooves up. They were cramping up in the tightness of the vent.
"These guards aren't the Royal Guard Canterlot, Twilight. These are obviously different. I suspect they're not even under the influence of Princess Celestia."
"Of course they—" Twilight lowered her voice, "of course they aren't. You think Princess Celestia would kill a bunch of innocent ponies?!"
"I think that whoever is doing this has nothing to do with Princess Celestia. We're outside her boundaries. They rules here are different."
"So, what do we do?"
There was a long pause. Twilight listened to the air traveling around them, watching the fur on Rarity's back wave in the light from Rarity's horn.
"Well, first off, we get out of these vents. We make for the surface." She took a deep breath. "Chances are, this whole place will go to hell before it's all over, and we want to be as far away as we can when that happens. We make for Canterlot. If we can find the Princess—"
There was another long pause.
"I think I see a light up ahead."
=========================================================
"How many of them are there?"
All Twilight could see was Rarity's tail in the dim light of her horn. Rarity was looking down through a grate at the room below them.
"Only two," she said. "Looks like they're taking a rest. They should be pretty easy to knock out after I take away their weapons."
Twilight watched as Rarity carefully unlatched the grate below them. It was amazing how quiet she could be. Twilight would never have known what she was doing had she not been intentionally listening closely.
"Ready, dear?"
Twilight ignored how strangely the word "dear" fit into the situation, and poked Rarity gently with her horn to let her know she was ready.
The next thing she saw was Rarity's backside slide forward and out of sight, followed by the blinding light of the room below shining up through the grate. Twilight slid up with her hooves, wholeheartedly intending to drop down with her, but held back as she heard the confused shout of the soldiers below:
"Wha—get her!"
"She's over there! Wai—where's my—"
"She's got our guns! Get her!"
Meanwhile, Rarity was racing frantically, trying not to get tackled by the two grunts.
"Twilight!" she yelled. "Come on!"
Twilight lurched forward on instinct, half falling, half toppling out of the grate, landing on the ground with an uncomfortable thud. Before she could so much as look up, she heard the soldiers racing towards her. "Get her!"
Her muscles froze up, wanting to do everything at the same time. She heard gun shots ring through the air. She felt the soldiers collapse on top of her. She curled up and waited, helpless.
A second later, though, she felt the soldiers get up off of her, followed by Rarity's voice.
"You know, I really meant for you to help take them out. You didn't need to just be a distraction."
Twilight looked up to see the other two ponies had been reduced to corpses being carried into a corner by Rarity.
"You you killed them!"
Rarity looked over at Twilight, quite surprised. "Well don't seem so surprised, Twilight. They were going to kill you. It's not like they were nice ponies or anything."
Twilight heard a slight hint of shakiness in Rarity's voice, and knew Rarity was working very hard at hiding any trauma she might be feeling.
"Now," Rarity continued, "help me take this armor off of them."
"Huh?" Twilight watched as Rarity started slipping the garments off the soldiers in front of them, and slipping them onto herself in place of her security uniform.
"Better to be soldiers going AWOL then scientists and security guards trying to escape."
Rarity was working on slipping off the other soldier's uniform for Twilight and handing it to her when Twilight interrupted.
"I think I'd rather keep my HEV suit."
Rarity scoffed. "Oh, yes, and stand out in a big yellow suit that announces what it's doing. You may as well be wearing a flashing white lab coat!" She forced the armor down at Twilight's hooves. "You'll put that on if you value your life."
Twilight looked down at the armor and blinked. "I'm not putting that on," she said, pushing it away with her hoof. "This suit saved my life back at ground zero! There's no telling how many times I would have died without it!"
Rarity looked like she was about to roll her eyes, but took a deep breath instead. "Fine, suit yourself. Just don't come running to me when all the bullets come hurling at you. Purple against yellow really doesn't camaflouge well, dear."
Twilight really did roll her eyes, but stayed silent as Rarity suited up. She seemed much more willing to play dress-up as an army soldier than she did as a security guard.
"Well, at least the beret looks nice on me," she said, levitating the hat over her horn. "Lucky for us—well, me, anyway. The soldiers we ambushed happen to be of some rank."
She looked down at her chest and noticed some of the badges, and a large patch with the words "HECU" on it.
"HECU?" she wondered.
"Probably some kind of combat unit or something," Twilight thought out loud.
"More like Half Educated Chatter Unit," Rarity said. "These guys talk louder than my friends on the Ponyville farms!" Rarity made a face shortly after, "Don't tell anyone I said that."
Rarity levitated the soldier's gun over to her, and carefully mounted it over the armor. Twilight couldn't help but grin stupidly at Rarity's reaction to such an unwieldy weapon.
"Really?! Do these soldiers seriously carry such monstrosities with them on their shoulders like this? You'd think they'd be smarter and at least use magic!"
"Well, most of them are probably Earth ponies," Twilight thought. "It's probably less distracting when you need your magic for something else."
Rarity grimaced, "It's distracting enough having to carry around a massive paper-weight. I feel like I'm going to tip over from the weight of this thing!"
She sighed. "Well, at least the armor is light enough." She looked down at the vest and frowned. "They could have chosen a slightly better shade of green, though."
Both of them looked around at the room they were in. There really wasn't much here that was different from what they had already seen. A few catwalks above them, boxes strewn about, and some vents here and there. The one thing that stood out from the rest was a large closet-like area with a grate for a floor. Judging by the button next to the entrance, and the cams and pulleys in the walls, this was some sort of lift.
"The surface!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Or rather, a way to get closer to it," Rarity said. "There's no telling where it leads. But if we're close enough for there to be soldiers around, we must be getting close." Rarity walked up and examined the interior. "My guess is there are just more soldiers above us." She looked back at Twilight and frowned. "This really would be so much easier if you had just taken my advice and rid yourself of that suit. You look like a canary!"
Twilight motioned with her head towards the gun on her shoulder. "I think I can handle myself."
"Not if there are a dozen of them in the same room, you can't." Rarity stepped onto the lift. "Follow my lead, Twilight. You really aren't going to make this easy for me, but it's probably the only chance we have to get out of here."
Rarity stepped up to the button in the back and raised her hoof.
"Wait." Twilight stepped on the left next to her. "What exactly are you going to do?"
Rarity daintily pressed her hoof into the button and grimaced at the loud clunking equipment come to life around them. A large metal door slammed shut behind them, and they felt the floor lurch upwards.
"Just... don't say anything. Let me do the talking. If everything goes well—"
"Talk? What do you mean, talk? You don't seriously think—"
"Twilight, I know what I'm doing. Just be quiet. They can probably already hear us."
"But—"
Rarity put a hoof up to Twilight's mouth and indicated upwards with her head. She was right. The soldiers could already be heard from where they were.
"This sucks!" one of them said. "These pansy-ass scientists just don't have any fight in 'em! The cockroaches in this place are tougher to kill!"
"Shut-up, Wingman. You rather be out there with the shells? You'll get your chance."
There was a small pause as they heard loud scuffling.
"Oh, great. Sounds like someone's on their way up. I hope it's more cannon fodder. My clip's still almost full."
Twilight shrunk back to hide behind Rarity, who was stretching out as if preparing to display herself on stage at a fashion show. She closed her eyes, praying Rarity knew what she was doing.
"Stand up straight," Rarity whispered. "You're as much a part of this as I am."
Twilight felt her joints lock, and her whole body twitched and shook. She could feel a beed of cold sweat running down her neck. As the elevator crested the next floor, she could see dozens of eyes through the grated door.
"The hell?" one of them said. "What's that scientist doing with a commander?"
Some of the soldiers tightened the grips on their guns.
Twilight heard the doors slam open and ring throughout the room. Immediately, one of the female soldiers starting yelling commands.
"Alright, soldiers, listen up! We have new orders, and a new strategy, and I don't want any of you falling behind!"
It took Twilight a second or two to register what was going on. That wasn't a female soldier. That was Rarity! Her voice was barely recognizable in such a low harsh tone.
"Major Tripe!" Rarity turned towards Twilight and jammed a hoof towards the center of the room. "Take point." She turned back to the rest of the soldiers, who were all standing at attention trying hard to conceal looks of confusion.
"What you see before you, ladies, is a weapon deadlier than any you've held in your hands. This armor turns any meat bag ruffian pony into a weapon of death. Its armor will chew up missiles and spit out confetti. Its weapon-selection is wider than your grandmother. Its healing capabilities will cure cancer."
Rarity was slowly circling Twilight, who was still rigid and trying hard not to shake.
"If any of you see one of these coming at you, you turn tail and run squawking, less you want to be served for dinner with a side of stuffing. Now—"
She stopped and turned towards one of the other soldiers, who was clearly trying to hold back a laugh.
"Do you find something funny, Corporal?" Rarity was inches away from him in seconds. "Because I could use a target during our next demonstration. Someone with as little meat as you would be easy to clean-up afterwards."
"Sir, no, sir!"
Twilight's eyes widened. She wasn't expecting the soldiers to play along so well.
"You are soldiers! You are elite! You will stand proud next to this new technology. You have been hand-selected to escort this walking death trap into the field!" She turned towards the soldiers, and Twilight followed, standing next to her. "We walk at 1700 hours."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Twilight felt chills at crowd of soldiers saluting and grunting their approval. Her whole body was quivering, but she held fast until Rarity said "At ease, stallions!"
Rarity immediately retreated into a corner where there were no other soldiers. Twilight followed close behind. Thankfully, none of the others seemed to want to be anywhere near Rarity, although Twilight was getting some interesting looks.
"What do we do now?" Twilight whispered, still unable to think clearly.
Rarity pulled Twilight around into a more concealed area, and they huddled together. "I've got them distracted," she whispered. "With enough luck, we should be able to sneak out of here between now and... whenever it is 1700 hours is. It's just a shame there aren't any clocks in these rooms."
She indicated a door in the side of the room. "Now follow me, and try to look... soldier-ish."
Rarity walked off towards the door at a steady trot, with Twilight close behind, trying to look as confident as she could. She tried to ignore the feeling of every eye looking her way. She could tell there were suspicions rising from the few murmurs she was picking up.
The door led to a catwalk spanning a bottomless pit. Twilight would have been tempted to peer over the hoofrail for a better look had she not been feeling so self-conscious.
"Watch the tendrils, dear," Rarity said quietly.
Twilight stopped just short of a rope dangling from the ceiling, and glimpsed up to see the same grotesque barnacle-like organism that Rarity had so inconsiderately fed when Twilight first met her. She looked down at Rarity again and walked carefully around it, trying not to think of what it would feel like to become a course for dinner.
The end of the catwalk presented them with a T-junction. Twilight was about to ask which way they should go, but stopped short upon looking to the left.
Both Rarity and Twilight had to stop and admire the gratuitously superfluous amount of security. It was as though some bored security guard had set this up as a joke! The entire length of the hallway was crisscrossed with trip-mines, claymores, security turrets, and electrical wires. Twilight was surprised there weren't guard dogs and barbed wire in there too.
"You think they forgot the kitchen sink?" Twilight whispered. "Not even Princess Celestia's private quarters as that well guarded!" Twilight blushed under Rarity's look. "Not... not that I've ever seen them or anything. I just—"
Rarity rolled her eyes, but didn't mention anything about it. "Well, at least there's a path to the right."
A short way down the hallway, however, revealed that the right path didn't bring them much closer either.
"It's... just a room. Where's the exit?"
Rarity pointed to the right-hand wall as they entered. "There's—" She stopped short and lowered her voice. "There are soldiers up there, in that other room."
Twilight looked up at where she was pointing, and noticed that this smaller room was actually a sink-hole in a much larger room. She couldn't see over the wall, but could still manage to hear chatter above them.
"What are we going to do now?" Twilight whispered. Rarity started exploring the room, and Twilight followed suit. It may not have been a very large room, but like all the rooms in this storage area, it was littered with "stuff": boxes and crates, rope, chains, broken hoofrails, debris—the sort of things neither of them had any use for.
"There's not much we can do," Rarity said softly, still rummaging through whatever she could find. "Even if we managed to get out of this room, we'd still end up facing multiple soldiers. We'd be completely out-matched!"
Twilight looked around the room, around boxes, in dark corners, hoping to see some doorway, some ladder, some vent to escape through.
"Do you think we'll have to go through back through the hallway?" Twilight asked, hoping Rarity wasn't thinking the same thing.
"Honestly, Twilight, I think we'd stand a better chance against the soldiers. One step out of line in that hallway, and we'd be... well, a lot more messy, that's for sure." She shook the thought out of her head. "We need a plan. I can't pull off the commander-act if we're struggling over a wall. We need some way to keep out of sight until—"
She stopped. Twilight heard them too. The soldiers were talking loudly above them.
"Science team? Really?"
"That's what we think."
Twilight and Rarity both held their breath.
"What did they look like?"
There were some shuffles as the other soldiers gathered into a tight spot to talk.
"One of them was wearing a suit: some kind of armor—very bright and shiny. We were told it was a weapon, and that it was going to be deployed five minutes ago."
There was some uncomfortable movement as the other soldiers could be heard looking around.
"What kind of weapon? Did they say what it could do?"
"No, sir. The commander in charge didn't say what—"
"Which commander? Who ordered this thing?"
Twilight and Rarity heard some loud disagreement, and couldn't quite distinguish who was saying what. Neither Twilight or Rarity could move.
"Station 12, we have a code-red. Team Science is fighting back. I repeat, Team Science is fighting back. We need all teams to the top security storage units. We have a weapon loose and planning attack. I repeat, code red."
Twilight started panicking as all the soldiers could be heard shuffling loudly into positions all around the room. "What are we... they'll see us!"
"All teams, we need immediate backup. I want every room in here secure. Leave no corner unchecked, no box unturned, no gate unopened. We have an extremely volatile weapon on the loose."
Twilight heard the footsteps coming quickly towards them, ready to check over the hoofrail above. Twilight barely noticed her hoof hovering over the trigger of her assault rifle when she felt a hoof reach around her front pastern and hoist her back around some crates. She had to stifle her scream as Rarity put a hoof up to her muzzle.
"Whatdowedo whatdowedo whatdowedo—"
"Quiet," Rarity mouthed. Both of them could sense, rather than see, the soldiers on the other side walking up to the rails.
"They're going to see us eventually! Don't you see the catwalks? They're all over this place! They can see us from a distance, or walk right over us!"
Rarity put a hoof up to Twilight's muzzle again. As quiet as she was, the soldiers seemed to be picking up their scent.
"I know, Twilight."
Twilight stopped upon hearing Rarity's voice. She had fear in her voice, and the same fear in her eyes. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was too afraid to speak it out loud.
There was a long silence. It may have lasted many minutes, or maybe an hour. Twilight couldn't tell. She could hardly think anymore from holding her breath. The soldiers were listening now. They didn't need to look anymore. They knew they were there. They just needed something, anything to confirm their suspicious. She could almost sense them smiling, taking in the moment.
That's when Rarity did something Twilight never expected. She reached a hoof around her shoulder, and pulled Twilight forward, resting her forehead against Twilight's. She watched as Rarity's eyes flicked down at their guns, then back up, and then motioned to the side where the soldiers were waiting. Twilight got the message. They weren't going down without a fight. They weren't going to sit here and wait for the soldiers to make their first move.
Twilight could feel the warmth coming off Rarity's face, and saw the slightest smile creep along the corner of her mouth. Twilight found the trigger of her rifle with her hoof on the ground, barely tapping it in preparation.
Rarity gave a nod.
As if in slow motion, both of them moved out from behind the crates, Twilight leaning into the trigger. She could feel the floor vibrate as every soldier opened fire. She stayed on the trigger, feeling the spray of bullets rain out, hoping against hope that none of the bullets ricocheting off her suit would strike her above the neck. A few times, she nearly fell from the force.
And then a sound ripped through the air that had nothing to do with the soldiers. It was a familiar sound they hadn't heard since the lower levels, and for the very first time since the experiment, she was actually glad she was hearing it.
Aliens were pouring in. The green energy spikes and zaps of electrical sparks were tearing through the room. The rain of bullets she felt on herself stopped, and she looked around quickly, picking out a few of the bipedal being that had nearly sucked Twilight into the other dimension back in the office complex.
A shot rang out against the storm of noise, and she looked around to see Rarity, still standing, taking out one of the creatures near her.
"We have to get to the upper level!" she yelled, using her magic to levitate crates over to the wall. "Help me!"
Twilight struggled against the pain in her horn, and threw box after box her way.
"They're everywhere!" Twilight yelled back, stopping every so often to riddle another teleporting being with lead. "We won't be able to hold them off!"
Rarity didn't wait for all the boxes to reach the top of the wall. She leaped up, kicking some of the lighter boxes off the stack, struggling up to the top. Twilight followed, kicking off one of the crab-like aliens as it latched onto her hind hoof.
As they reached the top, both of them had to stop and gape at the chaos on the upper floor. Not just the pillars, boxes, catwalks littering the room, but also the deafening battle of shock-magic, rifles, shotguns, and panicked soldiers.
"There!" Rarity forced Twilight's head around until she saw a sign on the opposite wall. "The surface! We have to get to the elevator!"
Twilight didn't wait for the cavalry to see them. She leaped up onto the floor, using a bit of magic to help her, and lifted Rarity up with them.
What followed was a sprint through madness. Twilight was barely aware of her hooves pounding the ground. Her ears rang, her heart hurt, her eyes focused on the sign so hard they may have bled. She wasn't even aware of Rarity next to her, but kept an image of her in her mind, convinced that she was right behind her.
Just as she thought nothing could get any louder, an explosion rang out behind her. She could feel the wind from it, the heat singing the back of her neck, debris piercing her hind legs. She lost control, and felt herself tumble forward onto the ground, landing on her side.
She tried to get up, and failed, slipping right back onto the floor.
"Get up!" Rarity was in front of her. She had just pushed a button in the wall. "Get up! We're getting out of here!"
Twilight tried again, and forced herself onto her hooves. One of them was very sore, but the suit was healing it fast.
"Into the elevator!" Rarity yelled. Twilight followed behind her, and watched Rarity slam a hoof into the button in the back.
They waited until the gates slammed shut and the elevator had moved up above it, before collapsing onto the grate they were standing on.
Both of them were finally realizing how hard they were breathing, and felt their lungs catch on fire.
"H... how... did you not... get hurt... ?" Twilight asked, thinking about the explosion.
Rarity took a few deep breaths, still shaken. "I must have been on the other side of a pillar," she said.
Twilight turned towards her, and felt a hoof wrap around her own.
Rarity looked her in the eye. "We did it," she said. "We'll be at the surface, soon."
Twilight could hardly think anymore. She just wanted it all to be over.
"Not much longer," she said, looking up the elevator shaft. "I'm coming, Sweetie Belle."
Twilight watched as a smile crested her lips, and started feeling one crest her own, but it was short lived. Above them, they could hear noise: the exact same kind they had just come from.
"Uh... Rarity?" Twilight looked over at Rarity, who was starting to catch on. This clearly wasn't going to get any better just because they were above ground.
"What are we—"
Twilight felt a hoof against her muzzle. "I swear, Twilight if you say 'what are we going to do' one more time, I'm going to sit on your back and make you carry me through the battle!" The sounds were getting louder as they neared the top. "Now let's make the most of the situation, and just get as far away from this place as possible!"
In the background of shooting noises and explosions, both of them could hear the rotors of a helicopter.
"They've obviously landed in full force," Twilight said, a little louder. "We'll need to make a run for it."
They both watched as they caught up with ground-level, and noticed the elevator was taking them to the inside of a small open warehouse. They could see the sun shining in through the door to their left, and felt the ground shaking from the activity.
"Ready?" Rarity looked over at her. Her mane was no longer the beautiful arrangement from when Twilight first met her. Her entire coat was dirtied and ruffled, and her eyes were bloodshot.
Twilight nodded just as the doors swung open.
Two soldiers were holding off one of the bipedal aliens. Bullets were ringing out. One of the soldiers caught Rarity and Twilight out of the corner of their eye, and faltered when he saw Rarity in the commander uniform. It was just long enough for Twilight to step on the trigger, blasting him backwards. She waited for the alien to prevail over the other soldier before putting a few bullets in its head.
"Have to reload!" she yelled to Rarity, racing to a crate and peering out through the open door. The setting sun bathed the front of the room in red, and she could see glimpses of an Osprey flying overhead.
"They must be using those things to send backup!" Rarity yelled as Twilight magicked another clip into the suit. "We'll never get out of here unless we take it down!"
"WHAT?!" Twilight shook her head, clearly having misheard. "Take it out?! Are you insane?!"
Rarity gave her a "we just survived aliens, soldiers, and explosions, you shouldn't be surprised at anything anymore" look. "Simple. We take out the blades." She looked around. "We just need something heavy enough."
Twilight facehooved. "Of course! How silly of me to think that two unicorns with no military training couldn't take out an Osprey!" She couldn't hide her sarcasm anymore. "Why don't we go throw that forklift at it? That ought to make it blow up!"
Rarity was going red in the face. "Are you going to help me or not?!"
"Fine! Fine. What do we have to lose, anyway?"
Twilight galloped out with Rarity, trying to avoid any enemy fire streaming in from the battle outside. Rarity looked around and found a large, volatile barrel sitting in a corner.
"We'll have to make this quick," she said, levitating the container. "It might not be heavy, but it'll sure cause some damage."
Twilight didn't say anything, choosing to hide in the corner with Rarity, waiting for her signal.
"We'll need both of our magic to hurl it fast enough. Otherwise, one of the soldiers will see if and shoot it before it reaches the plane."
Twilight nodded. She could hear grenade going off in the distance, and more soldiers shouting out orders. She carefully peered around the corner and out of the large garage door opening into the red-stained mesa of the outside.
The entire area was paved over. It was like some kind of enclosed parking lot, with large gates surrounding the entire area. If they managed to destroy the Osprey, they'd still need to find a way out.
"I can hear it coming back around," Twilight said, looking around. "It sounds like it's behind us."
"Just be ready," Rarity said. "If we miss, they'll know we're here."
Twilight cringed as the deafening sounds of the Osprey hovered over them. She could feel the wind pick up, blowing her mane around. She looked outside to see more aliens appearing, and a particular shortage of soldiers.
"They're about to send backups!" she yelled, using her magic to grab hold of the barrel with Rarity.
"On the count of—"
"It's already over us! Let's just—"
Both of them looked up to see the Osprey right above them, its rotors cresting over the roof. They felt the wind pick up ten-fold, and felt their hooves slip against the ground as it pushed them back.
"Ready?" Twilight looked over at Rarity, then back at the Osprey. "NOW!"
Both of them tossed the canister up, pushing hard against the wind. Twilight turned the barrel with the sharp edge pointing up, so as to make it more aerodynamic. Even with both of them pushing, it was still a struggle against the wind of the blades.
The last few feet were the toughest. They both strained until they heard the distinguished sound of an explosive substance striking a fast-moving rotor.
"RUN!" Twilight and Rarity said in unison, already on their hooves and racing back towards the elevator. The Osprey could be heard in the background, tumbling towards the ground, debris spitting out in every direction. They turned and watched from behind some steal crates as the bird twisted around in the air, finally landing on its side. One of the blades spun off and struck it in the back, and Twilight and Rarity both put their hooves to their ears as the entire rear of the ship blew sky high.
There was a silence. Or, at least, there would have been a silence had Twilight's ears not been ringing so loudly. They were literally throbbing in pain.
Had both of them known for sure the coast was clear, they would have been jumping for joy. They felt like gods, like they could do anything and nothing could stop them. They had just taken down an osprey!
"Come on!" Rarity yelled, although Twilight couldn't hear her over the ringing in her ears. She followed her nonetheless.
Both of them very slowly walked around the bonfire of flames lighting up the entire space. The sun was going down quickly, and the fire was now the primary source of light.
Twilight made a little jump of excitement, sticking her tongue out at their fallen prey.
"Yeah!" she yelled out, doing what Rarity considered a very dorky dance. "We took out an Osprey, we took out an Osprey," she sang, randomly moving her hooves around to the invisible beat.
"Um, Twilight?"
Rarity was tapping Twilight on the shoulder, but Twilight couldn't feel it. Twilight just closed her eyes and started bobbing her head stupidly, singing "WE TOOK OUT AN OSPREY, WE TOOK OUT AN OSPREY!"
"Twilight!"
Twilight opened her eyes just in time to see a strange rainbow streak across the sky, before it turned and headed directly towards them.
"What in the name of... Twilight, look ou—"
Both of them were knocked back the streak of colors, which was as large as either of them were. For a rainbow, just a bunch of reflections of light, it sure felt very solid. Twilight landed on her back and rolled over, looking up as the streak of rainbow tore through the sky again.
"What is that thing?!"
Twilight fired her assault rifle at it, but there was no way she could hit it. Whatever was flying through the air was too fast.
"Use your magic!" Rarity yelled. "It's probably a pegasus."
Both Twilight and Rarity focused their magic on the rainbow as it dived back down at them. The sparkling purple haze slipped a few times as the entity—whatever it was—kept slipping right through her force field. However, it managed to slow it down enough for it to lose control.
"Aaa—whaaaaa !!" They could hear it screaming as it fell, its voice breaking every down and them.
Twilight jumped right in front of it, and felt it collide with her. She was ready for it this time, though, and made sure she came out on top.
When they finally came to a rest, Twilight looked down to see that she had captured a sleek blue pegasus. Rarity quickly came over to magic her wings in place. The pegasus was obviously struggling.
"LEMME GO!" She yelled. "You scientists as just a bunch of—"
"We don't want to hurt you!" Twilight yelled back.
Rarity gave her a look. "We don't?"
Twilight used her own magic, to hold the pegasus's hooves in place. "She might know something," Twilight said. "And she's unarmed. Look." She pointed at the pegasus's armor, which had no weapons attached to it.
"Just kill me already, like you did with everyone else!" she yelled. "I'm not telling you anything!"
Rarity looked up at the sky. Twilight could hear it too. More soldiers were coming.
"We need to get back underground," Twilight said.
"Underground?! We just got to the surface!"
"Yes," Twilight said, "but if we don't get out of here, we're going to be craters on the surface!"
"Hello!" The pegasus was struggling against the magic. "I'm still here, you know!"
"Come on," Twilight said, finding a small building with an open door. "There's a ladder leading back down over here. We'll take Ms. Pretty-Colors over here in for a little talk."
"That's Airman Rainbow Dash to you!"
Both of them turned. Twilight was tempted to get her a little kick, but refrained from doing so. Instead, she lessened her magic on the pegasus's front hooves, and proceeded to drag her towards the ladder, her rump high in the air.
"You just wait until my buddies get here! None of you scientists are gonna get anything out of me!"
It was like pulling an angry Ursa. Rainbow Dash just didn't want to let up on the struggle, and never seemed to run out of energy to do so. Even when they reached the ladder, and tossed her to the bottom, she barely seemed winded from the fall.
"I say! Careful, Twilight! We want to interrogate her, not use to her mop the floor!"
"Yeah," Twilight said, using what magic she had left to steady herself on the ladder. "Plenty of time for that after the interrogation," she mumbled to herself. "Where are we, anyway?"
They followed another ladder down and looked around.
"We seem to be in some back-door to the storage area," Rarity said.
"Yeah, right," Rainbow Dash said. "This is probably some lair you scientists built for military interrogations. Go ahead! Torture me!"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "This is torture enough."
=========================================================
The tunnels seemed to go on forever, but after climbing through some vents and rounding some corners, they finally came out into the bright familiar light of the storage room, dragging Rainbow Dash kicking and screaming with them. Or, she would have been screaming bad Rarity not gagged her with magic.
"Doesn't she ever run out of energy?" Twilight said. "Honestly, she's been doing this for, what, 30 minutes now? This is ridiculous!"
"Where are we, anyway?" Rarity looked around to get her bearings before finally slamming a hoof to her forehead. "Starswirl's Beard! We're right back where we started!"
"WHAT?!"
Twilight looked around, and sure enough, they were right back at the elevator they had come out of from the office complex, although the elevator itself was now on the other side of a glass window.
"This is... wait, we must be... in that security station we saw when we first came in!"
"Indeed you are."
Both of them turned to see a brown stallion working on standing up. He was bleeding from the side, but he was healthy enough to talk.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked, coming over for a closer look at the wound.
"I'd feel better if that soldier wasn't here with us," he said, nodding at Rainbow Dash.
"We were kind of hoping to get some information out of her," Twilight said. "They don't exactly seem all that friendly, considering they were here to rescue us."
The pony cocked his eyebrow. "Indeed." He turned and walked over to some monitors, where Twilight could see into the other rooms. Soldiers were on patrol everywhere. There wasn't a single monitor that showed an empty room.
"What do we—" Rarity cleared her throat before Twilight could finish her sentence. "I... mean. So!" She walked up to Rainbow Dash. "Why exactly do you want to kill us so much?"
Rainbow Dash mumbled behind her gag.
"She probably thought you two caused all this," the brown pony said. "There's really only one safe place to go from here."
They watched as he walked over to a panel and pushed a large red button. The enormous silo door on the other side of the glass creaked and slowly opened.
"The missile silo?!" Twilight said. "You really think a missile silo is a good place to hide?"
"If it'll get you away from the military," he said. "The soldiers won't want to explore that place too much. It's chock full of radiation, hazardous chemicals, gas leaks, hot steam, crushing equipment, and exposed electrical wiring."
Twilight, Rarity, and even Rainbow Dash looked up at the pony. None of them had anything to say to this.
"Of course," he went on, "I'm sure it's nothing your hazardous environment suit couldn't handle." He leaned in to Twilight. "You wouldn't happen to have been at ground zero, would you?"
Twilight just stared at him.
"At any rate, the silo is probably the best way to get to the Lambda Complex. With the transit system out of commission, the only other way would be on the surface—and I really doubt you'll want to be going there any time soon."
"Wait," Twilight finally caught her breath. "Did you say Lambda Complex?"
"Indeed, I did!" He turned around, holding his side. "Why, if anypony can end this thing, it's them. Darn science team, delving into extra-dimensional portals. They should have known that—"
Rainbow Dash started squirming and screaming against her gag, throwing her head in his direction, as if trying to point her hoof at him and say "there!"
"Calm down," Rarity said. "Really! For a soldier, you sure are whiny."
Rainbow Dash glared at her.
"Anyway, you three had best make your way in there before the soldiers find you."
He turned and pressed another button to open a door to let them out.
"What about you?" Twilight asked.
"Me?" The stallion turned. "Oh, don't worry about me. I'd only slow you down." He went back to a corner and slumped to the floor. "I'm not long for this world anyway."
Twilight heard Rarity swallow, and knew she was feeling the same twang of guilt that Twilight was.
"We... well... thank you," Twilight said. "We'll... we'll send someone back for you, if we ever get this straightened out."
"Don't bother," was all he said.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight and Rarity turned towards the silo access.
"Do you want to drag her, or should I?" Twilight asked.
Rarity looked down at the struggling Rainbow Dash and sighed.
"I suppose you've had your share."
Twilight watched as the purple magic turned to white, and then led the way through the massive door, and into the dark passage leading into the silo.