//------------------------------// // Base of Operations // Story: A Star Pony Tale // by BlondeSky //------------------------------// Chapter Thirteen Base of Operations The building that Astro and Bold stood before didn't look all that impressive, in fact it looked like a fairly average one considering its environment. A simple town house with a white exterior and a gray door, or, in other words, it was exceedingly ordinary with no distinguishing factors. It wasn't exactly the grand operating base that she was expecting to be met with, but Bold still held a smile of content pride on her face looking at it. She gave a quiet happy sigh before walking up to the door with Astro on her heels. She quickly unlocked the door and opened it to allow the two of them inside. To Astro's surprise the inside was just as unremarkable as the outside as well as completely empty of ponies. An entry hallway with white walls and pristinely clean hardwood led into a living room with the same blank walls and unassuming contents. A gray sofa and a small wooden coffee table laid down on a gray throw rug were all that lay inside. "Hey, Jeweled! You here!?" Bold called out into the empty space. "Yeah, yeah! Coming! How'd it go?" a mare's voice replied from deeper in the house. "Why don't you come and see for yourself?" she yelled back as Astro inched nervously backwards behind her. She watched cautiously as a pure white unicorn mare walked casually into the room. The mare's bright blue eyes widened in shock as she saw Astro standing there. As the filly looked on equally shocked she found that the mare was just like Bold excluding the horn and long and curly golden mane and tail. She would've believed it if she had been told that the two were sisters. "Looks like it was." Jeweled muttered clearly in awe. Astro pulled back slightly further feeling unnerved by the mare's stare. Noticing that her gaze was making the filly uncomfortable she closed her eyes and shook her head before again returning her attention to her. "Sorry, it's just that we do get a lot of false alarms with these types of things and we almost never get any new ponies off The Plain." she admitted, "I assume you're off to base then?" she asked turning to Bold. "Yep. I think Dust is going to want to hear about this one." she replied. "Well, you'd better get down there then." Jeweled responded before turning to lead them further into the house. They finally stopped in another bare looking room very similar to the others. The walls were sterile white and bare with simple hardwood flooring. A twin size bed and bedside table stood next to each other on one side with a small gray rug on the floor. Jeweled walked up and stopped just in front of the rug. She pushed the rug aside revealing a strange mark small enough to fit in a one inch square. It comprised of a five pointed star inside a circle with spikes of various lengths coming off of the edge of the circle. The shape had been carved out of the wood and then filled in with astral stone. She simply tapped her hoof to the small insignia and it started to glow before a section of the floor just smaller than the rug fell away to reveal a small box like structure made of the stone underneath the floor. Bold simply clambered inside having already been accustomed to it while Astro just looked on in shock from the top. "You didn't really think that this was where everything happened did you? This is the elevator down to the actual base of operations. Normally ponies just teleport in out of the place, but you have to have some idea of what you're teleporting to and teleportation for star ponies is only made to carry one pony and that pony only. We do have to have a manual entrance in case." Bold explained beckoning for her to join her inside the elevator. She flew down into it uncertainly. "Be sure to tell me how it goes!" Jeweled called as it started to descend. "I will!" Bold responded as the floor closed back up over top of them. As the roof closed over completely Astro was grateful for the dimly lit stone that surrounded them. She could feel the structure moving downwards quickly and smoothly and wasn't sure that she appreciated the motion. She looked over to find that Bold gave no reaction to the current events as she tapped her hoof impatiently. For her it wasn't that it was uncomfortable, but that it didn't make sense as nothing had recently. Doubts continuously plagued her mind as they continued downwards towards the actual base. "It's pretty far down so that it doesn't get found accidently if there's somepony digging around, tunnel systems and all that." Bold informed her as they continued further into the earth. She couldn't have said how long it took to get to the bottom, except that due to the apparent distance it hadn't taken nearly long enough. As the elevator opened, as opposed to the roof opening up the front of it did. This revealed what must have been nearly a hundred pure white ponies milling about in a large central room. The room itself was rather bland of color with a light gray tile floor and white walls. It was similar to the color scheme of the house above. The ponies, while all having the same coat and eye color, had mane colors and styles of all different kinds. They were all different ages, builds, and races. Each one was clearing off to somewhere that they needed to be confidently and quickly. They did this by entering little stalls on the right side of the room before teleporting out. Ponies were streaming in from stalls on the opposite side of the room. They all came through an opening in the back wall which led into another room. On either side of the opening on the far side of the wall a smaller door led into a hallway. A large banner hung on the back wall with the same symbol that she had seen on the floor displayed. Tearing her eyes away from what was in front of her she looked upwards instead. A giant arching ceiling loomed over her divided into five different sections. Each one had been painted with a brilliant design. The first was a midnight blue sky with an eight pointed star in the center and small dots surrounding it and expanding outwards. The second showed a marble column with a shining silver ribbon wrapped around it. Third in line was a stormy sky with three bolts of lightning arcing fantastically through it. Fourth was a telescope on an emerald green hill looking out at the sky. Finally a cluster of beautiful royal blue gems covered a shining purple background designed to look like satin. "You like that?" Bold asked noticing her mouth hanging open in awe. She then looked up at it as well. "It's a little tradition that we have here to do something for all of the managers that we have. This particular base has five hence the five murals you're looking at right now. Each one was made for one of the five of them. Of course when one steps down and another steps up we have theirs repainted for the new pony. We've got a lot of really talented artists here." she informed her, "But right now we have to get you nice and situated which means meeting one of the ponies that these were made for." she told her. "Oh." Astro answered her awe turning to anxiety. "They're not scary, promise." Bold replied ruffling her mane slightly and giving her an encouraging smile. "Okay." she conceded still feeling nervous. The two walked into the crowd of ponies that were streaming in and out of the large room. She led her into the doorway on the far right and into a significantly smaller hallway. Doors to other areas littered the right side of the hall with occasional openings into the center room on the left through which Astro saw bits and pieces of what was going on. More ponies were lined up in multiple single file lines for whatever it was that lay at the front. Through several she saw many rows of filing cabinets, offices, and the like. She looked back towards the other side of the hallway and saw that the doors were still coming. She couldn't imagine what they would need all of that space for. But she also couldn't imagine that they would make all of the space for no reason. Bold again just kept walking on while she looked around distractedly. When the hallway did finally end it curved around a corner and she counted ten doors on the back wall. Bold walked up to the door fifth from the right and knocked three times. She turned back to give Astro some words of encouragement, but found that she was still at the corner looking at her with concern. "C'mon, there's nothing to be worried about. We just need to work out where you're going to stay and who's going to show you the ropes right now. You don't need to do anything, but listen." she promised as gestured for her to come stand by her. She frowned uncertainly but did walk up to stand behind Bold. "Come in." came a stallion's voice from inside. Bold did just that and opened the door.