As planned; five minutes passed when the troops of both Icy and Mane stood ready at the entrance. Mane’s troops were four earth ponies in heavy-set armor. The heavy armor was more usually than none given to earth ponies due to their natural strength.
***
They began walking and trudging through the snow. The storm had picked up during the time they stayed at the base. Sight was difficult and the cold made things worse. Icy’s horn glowed and scanned the blizzard for disturbances or life signs, despite being minor at best. The electrical disturbance spiked and led him back to the bunker.
Surrounding the now pile of snow, they stopped. Icy looked at the pile and turned to Inferno.
“Inferno. Work your magic.” He ordered, voice made static through the helmet.
Inferno nodded, shivering slightly when his horn glowed red. The pile of snow formed steam that slowly melted away with slight difficulty.
Once revealed, Icy placed a yellow crystal near the now revealed corpses of the former inhabitants. The crystal glowed an orange light that reacted with a transparent orange device on the creatures left claw. The device revealed a recording of unknown language.
Icy nodded to Luminous who knelt down and planted another crystal that started to glow silver. Once done, she nodded to Icy. He turned to the two unicorns with yellow armor.
“Sparks. Light. Do it.” He said shortly.
Both trudged forward to face the metal dome. Their horns lit with sparks of yellow and blue as their magic focused on the surrounding until they found the panel close to the creatures. Starting too lit up, they focused harder, gaining a grunt from Light as her head dipped.
Once fully activated, Icy nodded to Mane who drew his sword, motioning another stallion to do the same. They pinned their swords on the now visible slit in the dome. Grunting, they forced the doors open. Icy trotted forward to the edge of the dome. He tapped his helmet and his breastplate. Light shot from his helmet and chest, illuminating the darkness. Slowly scanning for an entrance he motioned Light and Sparks again.
They jumped down and once again lit their horns against the panel on the side of the door. Slowly opening, the only thing greeting them was a long dark corridor. Icy turned to the remaining ponies.
“Listen up.” He began as the soldiers formed a line in front of him and Mane. “From here we will split into two teams. I want Indigo Pansy and Shaker to remain with Inferno. Liquid Mane will go with me to ensure nopony gets attacked by possible hostiles. We don’t know how long we will be in there but take turns to stay up here. Inferno will stay and use his magic to keep you warm should the need occur. Are we clear on this?”
The responding: “Yes, Sir!” was enough to ensure him to continue. Icy jumped down and looked inside the base. His light illuminated far enough to reveal multiple openings. Dark as Tartarus’ abyss and no more living there than here.
“Gallant and Topaz will follow me in there.” Mane instructed and thankfully with a low volume. He grabbed the sword with his mouth and looked at his troops who nodded and joined Icy. They began their walk.
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The long walk through the empty base was unnerving with the fact that they occasionally had to stay to listen for sounds. But so far, the only sounds were made from their armored hooves against the metallic floor. The only difference was that they had no longer felt the cold from outside. Mane had removed the lower part of his helmet to easily and effectively grab his sword should the need arrive. Icy on the other hoof decided to keep his helmet on.
The long walk through the darkness was made worse when they had to split when the rooms that were opened caught the earth soldier’s attention and they needed to check. Luminous was with them and was more than prepared to use her crystals to absorb any information they could find useful.
From what she could explain; they worked like a mind reading spell: The crystal was placed near a pony and with a spark of magic it absorbed the information through the casters or readers eyes and stopped after the pony closed his or her eyes. It was processed with the same magic but reversed. But so far they had found no need for the crystals use.
The longer walk guided them to a split corridor. Icy looked through both corridors, and then turned to his soldiers. Of all of them Mane looked more nervous than the others.
“We split from here. Luminous will go with me, Sparks and Topaz. Light, go with Mane and Gallant. Use a track-spell to guide yourself should you need to get to the other group. Only if the group find anything of use. Same goes for you, Light.” He ordered, getting a collected nod in return.
They split up and began walking the still quiet and dark halls. Topaz, an earth soldier mare, looked around the corridors, her light dancing around in contrast to Luminous’ and Icy’s lights.
“Have you noticed anything weird? Ever since we entered, I mean.” She asked, her voice oddly calm but curious.
Icy stopped and glanced back at her. His eyes looked around the halls, trying to find what she meant.
“Like what?” He asked, not turning to face her.
Luminous made the same observation. The halls were silver-gray and only minor threads on occasion but clean enough. Sparks horn lit up and tried to feel any electrical current. Topaz still looked around.
“We’re looking for whatever inhabited the planet before coming here. And this base is supposed to be theirs.” She stated as she kept her head up, not facing Icy. “Don’t you think it’s odd that the base is oddly clean? And even if they abandoned it, shouldn’t the logical decision be to blow up the base?”
Icy was quiet, taking in what she explained. His eyes danced around the corridor. She was right. Option A: They abandoned the base if something went off. But the base was still here. Why was it still here? Option B: They were killed by something that killed the creatures outside. But no bodies or blood was present. Option C: They left in a hurry. And that seemed to be the only logical.
He breathed and turned to her.
“Let’s keep moving. Whatever we find will hopefully give us some clue of what happened.” Icy said and started trotting with a slightly quicker pace than before.
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Mane’s light from his breastplate danced as his eyes looked around. His hooves were loud when he walked the metal floor. The walls had text that was to him foreign. He looked back at his team who looked around but less stiffly than him. Light stopped occasionally to scan her horn against several doors in attempt to open it but when striking nothing she kept walking.
Gallant looked around too and his sword, a double bladed sword, hung on his back as well as two shorter by his left chest. The ones on his back were locked to the armor on his neck, designed to spread by a simple neck-movement. Clearly made for crowd control. It was a pegasus design, made to look like wings. Gallant was less bulky but slightly taller than Mane.
Mane turned forward but stopped when the corridor once again separated. He looked both ways but it gave no sight of danger. He gave a quiet sigh when turning to his team.
“Light. Have you found any door that could be opened?” Mane asked, his voice low and rumbling.
Light shone her horn to one of the doors that were closed through devices. Some doors they passed on their way could be opened manually but only revealed common-quarters, sleeping areas and smaller restrooms. Even there it felt big. The creatures were by estimate 7-8 feet. And from what Icy mentioned they were bipedal and looked reptilian.
Light stopped by one of the doors that had a device they had seen from the entrance. She lit her horn and sparks crackled towards the device that seemed to power it up. It beeped and slowly opened with a hiss. They carefully entered the dark room; a strange panel with templates with glass was attached to the wall and what looked like circuitry running along the walls.
Light walked towards the panel while Mane and Gallant walked around the room, checking anything that could give them a clue on what creature could be so advanced. Gallant ran his hoof along a table to check dust while Mane opened any cabinets that could be worth checking.
Light lit her horn, grunting when her magic escalated and sparks of electricity sprayed the panel. As she sat down, panting in exhaustion the panel lit up and the buttons blinked in varied colors. The light from the panel caught Mane’s and Gallant’s attention. They walked to her side as she shakily got her hooves on the panel and started pushing varied buttons in hopes that it would give them something.
A symbol resembling a shield and a bar came up on screen. They spread out the room.
“Let’s look around. Find something we could use to enter…” Light looked back at the screen that lit up the entire room. ”… whatever this is.”
Gallant returned to the desk close to the panel on the far wall. He opened a few drawers but shook his head and grunted after each hitting a miss.
Mane mouthed a curse when he checked a book-case only to reach a third of its height. Nopony knew the minutes running for their search until Light’s helmet crackled. Spark’s voice sounded disappointed.
“Light, have you found anything?” he asked, his voice distorted through the mineral in the base.
The stallions stopped to look at Light as she shook her head.
“We found a device that is similar to the base in technology but we hit zero. We need to find entry but no dice.” She explained with hint of resignation. She lifted her head, feeling a little tired. “How is it on your end? Found anything?”
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“No dice. I’m having better time finding a virgin in Canterlot High.” Sparks grumbled as he looked to his fellow soldiers who were searching desks and drawers for papers, only to find Icy looking back and shaking his head. “We only manage to find squat. We’re moving out. Over and out.” He finished with his head shaking disappointedly.
He looked at the screen showing a shield and a bar with undiscernible text. Icy stood next to him and finally let out a grumbling sigh.
“If the aliens wanted to hide something they did damn well hiding it.” He muttered while walking to the entrance. “Team, we’re moving out.”
They left the room but not before Sparks took a last look at the screen. He scowled and followed suit. The long walk down the corridor led them to a big empty space which made them halt. Icy looked around; guard-rails, more doors made Icy and Sparks sigh, the stairs that led several stories down. Icy knelt down and looked into the darkness below. Luminous and Sparks stopped next to him and looked down with Topaz looking back into the corridor.
“How far down do you think it goes?” Luminous asked, looking over Icy’s shoulder.
Icy lit his horn with a light-spell and a small ball of light was shot out and slowly floated down the darkness. The first three floors made Sparks sigh. Two more floors were lit up, Luminous swallowed nervously. Another three floors until the ball of light bounced and floated on the floor two floors later. Ten floors. Icy looked at his comrades. He gave a loud sigh and stood up.
“Call the others. Even the ones guarding the surface. We need all the help we can get.” Icy ordered sourly.
Topaz nodded and placed her hoof to her helmet.
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Inferno’s horn glowed as Pansy and her metal cup of coffee tried to stay warm. Shaker’s heavily armored frame circled on the top of the pit, walking around and keeping his eyes on the snow around them. He gave sighs of anxiety and anger at the lack of activity. He looked to Pansy and Inferno enjoying warmed coffee on the bottom. He groaned and jumped down, his heavy body and armor thudding hard on the snow.
“Alright, Pansy, your turn. Drink up and get up.” He growled, his voice almost as deep as Mane.
Pansy drank the black steaming beverage and jumped up the steps to start her round while Shaker sat down in front of Inferno. Just as he was about to pour the same liquid into a cup Inferno’s helmet crackled.
“Yes?” He answered and gave the mug to Shaker who almost greedily sipped from the warm cup.
“I need all three of you down here on the double.” Topaz intoned. Her voice was calm but it still didn’t sound good to Inferno.
“Why? Are you in trouble?” He asked, getting looks from the two earth-ponies.
The helmet crackled with static.
“No. Icy discovered that this place is bigger than expected. We need all of you to help searching.” Topaz said calmly. “Get your flanks down here. Use your tracking spell. We’ll be waiting. Over and out.”
He removed his hoof and looked at the two earth-soldiers regarding him. Shaker closed in.
“Problems?” he asked.
Pansy still lingered on top but didn’t move.
“No. They wanted us down there. Apparently the place is bigger on the inside.” Inferno explained and sipped his now cold coffee.
Pansy jumped down and walked over to her comrades.
“So, we’re moving out? Just like that?” She asked, suspiciously.
Shaker gave a huff and walked towards the entrance.
“Who cares as long as we get away from this damned cold.” His voiced echoed from the corridors.
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Icy kept his eyes into the darkness. Trying to fathom the depth of a facility like this. He hardly looked behind when the heavy shuffling of armored hooves sounded behind him. Mane’s team arrived and not long after came Inferno’s. Inferno walked to Icy and looked over him into the many floors of the base. He whistled an impressed whistle and Icy got to his hooves. He turned to the ponies in the room, occasionally glancing back.
“Alright. We have discovered ten floors that we need to go through. Like before; split into three teams and search one floor at a time. Choose your teammate carefully, we’re moving in five.” Icy explained, taking one final look into the abyss.