Secure. Contain. Protect
By Little Solarflare
Straight after I had consumed that pill, everything had gone dark. Though I was not aware of my surroundings, I had a vague feeling I was no longer in my barracks.
“......ea......”
My head was swimming, and though I was not sure where I was, I believe I had made the right choice. I was here for two reasons after all: to look for my childhood friend, and to protect and uphold my oath as a royal guardsman.
“Lieu......eart.......me?”
“Swallow the pill”, the letter had instructed, and I had done so unquestioningly. Perhaps not one of the wisest actions I had ever taken.
“Lieutenant, can you hear me?” A female voice asked, followed by a blinding light being shined into my eyes.
“Uugh... Yes...” I answered groggily. I struggled painfully to open my eyes. A cyan Unicorn with a notepad scribbled down some notes. Noticing I was awake, she put down the pad and placed her hoof on my forehead. Satisfied I was fine, she smiled and began adjusting the bed on which I was laying.
“Ah good. You’re awake. Welcome to the SCP organization, Lieutenant.” She informs.
“Where....am I?” I asked while twisting my neck and groaned as I felt tendons and muscles loosen.
“You are in research facility 13034. However our whereabouts, as you know, cannot be disclosed to you at the moment as you do not possess the clearance for such knowledge.”
I swallowed dryly and tasted bile in my mouth. “I see.”
“The birds aren’t alive..” the doctor informed me with a wink. “They are in fact a security precaution, clockwork. Should anything go wrong in the green zone, they would immediately fly directly to Canterlot Tower, where help can be summoned at a moment’s notice.” As we trotted down a paved stone path, we entered what seemed to be several neatly placed and designed town houses.
11......13.......15........ We made our way down the lane. “I don’t think I will mind living here at all!” I thought optimistically as I followed the doctor down the suburban street.
We stopped at house 23. “Here you are!” she announced before giving me a nudge. “Go on then, Lieutenant. From what I remember, she should be off-duty at the moment.” She winked before turning around. “I’ll leave you to it now, I am needed back at the hospital. I will tell the administration to bring your equipment and clothes here.”
I thanked her as she began her walk back. I eagerly trotted to the front door and knocked a few times. No answer. I frowned. I tried again.No answer. I sighed in frustration.
“Groundshaker?” a voice calls out behind me. I stiffen. I had not seen or heard her in so long. Her voice behind me was like a dream come true.
“Aria?” her name jumped from my throat.
I spun around. There she was. Words could not describe my joy, and from what I could see, neither could they describe hers.
“Groundshaker!” she called out happily and galloped towards me. I opened my hooves, and she tackled me onto her front yard.
We giggled as we tumbled onto the grass. It had been too long since I last saw her.
We rolled several circles until she ends up on top of me. We blushed as we gasped for breath and looked into each other’s eyes. That moment there was perfect. I had so many questions and things to tell her. Though before I could speak, she planted her mouth onto mine. My eyes widened in surprise, but gave in to her touch.
It had been far too long. As we embraced each other in affection, memories rolled past my mind.
***********************************“Are you well enough to get up or would you like some more rest?” she asked.
I cracked my neck one more time before rolling off the bed and landing painfully on my face. “I’m good!” I announced through clenched teeth as I pushed myself onto my hooves.
She shook her head and gave a sigh before reading out several questions from her notepad in a rather business-like manner. “So Lieutenant, please state your full name, rank, and species.”
I rubbed my face, nursing the impacted area as the pain slowly faded away.
“Do I really have to do this?” I asked gruffly.
“That was not a request, Lieutenant,” she replied coldly.
I sighed with exasperation before replying, “Groundshaker, Lieutenant first class, Earth Pony.”
“And I presume you know exactly why you are here?” she asked whilst scribbling down several details with her magic.
“Yes.”
“..and you are aware that the activities performed in your duration with us is to remain completely confidential except to members of the organization, Celestia and Luna?”
I nodded and replied, “Yes ma'am.”
She smiled wryly at me. “Very well then. Lieutenant, follow me.”I followed her to what seemed to be a well-lit and extremely clean hallway. The area smelled strongly of anaesthetic and alcohol wipes.
“You are currently in the hospital of the green zone,” she informed me as we walked past different rooms and down a flight of stairs. The hospital was surprisingly empty.
“I'm sorry ma’am, but I never quite got your name!” I said to her as we pushed past another set of doors.
“Oh yes, I had forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Ginger Tonic, but you can call me Doc!” She took a polite bow.
“Doctor, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course!”
“I came to this organization to serve Equestria and to..... umm.. well.... look for an old friend of mine.... a researcher by the name of Aria. Is there any possible chance she is stationed here?”
Her eyes went to the top of her head as she contemplated. “Aria...Aria....... Unicorn?” she asked after thinking for a moment.
I nodded.
“Hmmm, light bluish mane? White-colored coat?”
I nodded enthusiastically, a grin making its way across my face.
“Sigma cutie mark?” the doctor inquires, making me jump for joy.
“Oh thank you Celestia!” I cried in joy happily, surprising the doctor. She held her hoof to my mouth and shook her head, pointing to a sign stating: “Please be quiet in the hospital for the courtesy of the patients.”
“Oh...sorry..” I said in embarrassment.
She chuckled. “I presume you two are good friends then, Lieutenant? Well, I think I will need to talk to Ms. Aria personally about this breach of protocol. However, for the time being, I will ignore it,” she stated firmly.
“Yeah...”
“Well since it’s your first day here, why not make yourself at home. Come on, I’ll take you to her! If you would like, I could assign you to live with her.” She beckoned to me and I followed her through the hospital.
The Green Zone of the facility was amazing. Though I was told we were deep underground, this seemed no different to a small town in the surface. The zone itself was a gigantic dome, painted blue and illuminated by a very large source of light, mimicking the sky of the grounds above. As we exited the hospital, I was amazed to feel what seemed to be sunlight on my face. “Artificial sunlight,” the doctor explained. “We had discovered it after uncovering artifact sigma-1072. It manipulates the magic in the air, which in turn warms its core, causing it to glow like the sun. You will now know these on a smaller scale as sunstones in the market in Canterlot.”
I gazed in awe at the environment around me. The doctor laughed. “You should see the look on your face. For the artificial sky, it was a little experiment we had done with sigma-1702. Although it has proven beneficial, it requires a tremendous area to facilitate. The artificial sky around you is near identical to that of a sunny day above. The only downside is that we cannot have night here. The moment we turn it off, it can never be restarted due to security concerns.
Everywhere I looked was green. There was grass growing everywhere with trees and what even seemed to be birds. There were ponies milling around, some resting on benches reading the “Equestria Times” or others playing a game of hoofball in what seemed to be a park.
We were together ever since we were foals. Her family had lived across the street from us in Canterlot, and before long, we were going to school together. Where she was considered to be the ‘egghead’ and scholar, I was considered to be a good-for-nothing, disruptive class clown. Often she would wait for me after school as I served out my daily detentions. Some for standing up for her when others had tried to make fun of her “nerdiness”. As we entered the final year, she had convinced me to try harder at school, something which I am grateful for, though my grades never quite matched hers.
Then came the time to separate. She had scored above distinction within the final years and was sought after by a multitude of well-known universities, whilst I was convinced by my parents to take an officer course in the Equestrian Guard. Though we had kept in contact through letters initially, as time went on, we longed for each other’s company. This sad cycle repeated itself for 4 years, in which I had not seen her, until one day, she slipped me a note attached to our weekly messages.
“I have found a way for us to be together. In three days time, Celestia will host a competition for the royal guard. Just compete in the events and attempt to win as many as you can. Afterward, you will receive a letter. Follow it’s instructions.”
Aria
Though I had initially doubted her, I had nonetheless entered the competition, and under the eyes of her majesty, excelled. I had bested my fellow comrades in obstacle course, the trials of wits, and won a multitude of duels. However, I was not the ultimate victor. Captain Shining Armor, defeated me with ease in the final bout of of martial prowess. He had bested me, knocking me off the platform as the stadium roared and cheered whilst I rubbed my bruises in hopelessness, believing I had failed the one chance Aria had presented to me.
Yet within the week ,I had discovered that very letter which had brought me there.
*************************
I opened one eye and realized we were being watched; curious eyes were appearing from around the street, windows, and other ponies passing by. To my relief, she broke the kiss. “Let’s go inside, we are too open like this,” she said before rolling onto her hooves.
“Agreed,” I said matter-of-factly before following her inside. Grinning stupidly, I waved to some of the spectators, who upon being discovered, immediately shut their curtains in embarrassment or quickly continued along with their daily lives.
“You coming in or what?” Aria called from the front door. I grinned.
“Of course!”
I followed her inside to what seemed to be a very small, but modernized and comfortable house. The interior was well-lit by what seemed to be smaller versions of the sunstones, contained inside glass lamps, their glow both warmed and illuminated the interior.
She led me towards what seemed to be her living room, which consisted of a sovereign board as well as stacks upon stacks of paperwork.
I grinned. “You haven’t changed a bit,” I mused, remembering our frantic last year of secondary education. Donut boxes had stacked along with piles of study notes and empty cartons within the dormitory which we both shared. The junk had defined it as our territory, acting as a deterrent to other fellow students, who at times proved themselves to be nosy.
But none of that mattered now. She was with me once again, and I prayed that nothing else would ever separate us again. She gave me a rather annoyed look. “You were no different, you know!” she retorted.
I grinned mischievously before laying down on the sofa, placing my hooves behind my head. “I know Vegs. But to me that’s a good thing!” I said as I stretched.
“How so?”
“You are still the Ari I love and remember,” I replied.
She blushed. “Really now?” she asked bluntly.
“Yep!”
She grinned playfully. “Then I guess you remember this!”
My eyes opened widely in surprise as she launched herself onto me. Although she knocked the air out of me, we giggled as we hugged once more and tumbled onto the carpeted floor.
**************************
Over the next few weeks, I had rather enjoyed my new job here in the SCP facility. Working as a guard and escort during the day and coming back with Aria to our little residence at night. A job as a guard here was rather lax, although we were required to be on alert all the time. So far, the most dangerous incident which had occurred so far was a cook who had accidentally jammed a coffee blender and caused the machine to smoke. Tests of artifacts was far and few in between. Guards like me were to be the ones to watch over the artifact, and all monitoring was left over to the scientists. Aria was part of both the security team and the research team. She was one of the few unicorns strong enough to project a forcefield around the artifacts when being studied, though not quite on the scale of which Captain Shining Armor was capable of back in Canterlot. This made her the role of senior researcher, which I discovered was a fairly high position within the organization.
Over this period of time, I had learned that this facility had exactly 20 researchers, 30 guards, and 5 engineers along with 15 miscellaneous staff, and 3 doctors. The facility was approximately 10 km long and wide, and over 2 km underground. Despite all this, life in the facility was one of eternal sunlight, where the only way to sleep was to cover our windows with industrial grade blackout curtains. However, I did not mind. Meals were eaten together at a cafeteria, and any travelling between the Green Zone and Blue Zone could be done via elevators which ran on a pulley system.
So far, we had finished testing two SCP’s. Theta- 6201, though deemed dangerous, had proven to be an excellent projectile launcher, usable by Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns alike. Its blueprints were now on its way to the royal armories. Sigma- 1426 proved to be able to transmit messages to other artifacts of similar material, enabling a distorted form of voice communication, however further development was required.
Today we were apparently dealing with a new artifact form. Apparently this time, it was going to be alive. As we ate oats and cereal for breakfast, I asked a researcher named Ink Well details of this supposed new artifact which was to be tested this afternoon.
“Don’t know much either, sir,” he replied through a mouthful of cereal. “All I know is that we are all to monitor this SCP at all times along with several of the casters. Feels like this thing could be a possible Beta or Alpha level.”
I nodded. “I see.”
“To be honest, the higher ups have instructed us to act with extreme care on this latest artifact. Also, they specified that this artifact was found dug into the cave walls hibernating outside Tartarus. Though how old it is, we do not know. We have sent Princess Celestia several sketches of the artifact, but she does not recall ever seeing it in her lifetime, so now its up to us to determine what it really is. We have several cryptologists trying to decipher what the markings around the artifact mean, although the Cerberus is making progress rather slow,” he added. "To me it looks like a tangle of ropes, though they originally reported it being a statue."
"What sparked it?" I asked.
"Not sure, but it came to life as soon as we sealed it within the containers and has been unable to break free since." He answered.
I thanked him before noticing Aria walk towards our table with a tray of food.
“Morning!” I greeted her with a smile. She stifled a yawn before sitting beside me.
“Morning Senior Researcher!” Ink Well pipped.
“Morning,” she replied tiredly before turning to me. “You have a big job later,” she stated as she levitated a carton of milk and poured its contents into her bowl.
“How so?”
“This time, you are watching over an artifact which has recently animated in the storage container 14B. Though we are not sure what it is, we are going to find out.”
I scratched my chin. “So how do we deal with this one?” I asked inquisitively.
“We are going to move this creature into the containment fields and run several tests on it. The shifting should be a breeze. Also, we are going to have an extra 3 casters projecting the barrier. All in all, it should not be a problem to have the creature under control. In the worst case that happens, we have 17 guards whom are under the command of the finest lieutenant in Canterlot. The rest are taking a nap from their night shifts,” she told me with a grin. "The plan is for the casters to suppress it while the researchers tranquilize it."
“Aww thanks. I don’t think I’m that good,” I said with a blush.
“Well failing that the tranquilizers don't work, you are going to be issued with the latest prototype crossbow which was developed from Theta-6201. Should it somehow break the field, feel free to turn the artifact into a pincushion,” she added with a wink.
I grinned. “Sounds fun!”
She gave me a stern look. “Only if it breaks free.”
I feigned disappointment. “Awww.”
She chuckled. “Come on now Cowcolt, just because we give you a new toy doesn't mean you can go using it without a good reason.”
“But, that’s the whole fun of it!” I protested in the whiniest voice I could conjure up.
She laughed and shook her head. “Come on now Groundshaker, your shift begins in 15 minutes.”
*******************************************
I watched impassively with the crossbow strapped to my side as four guards dragged the storage container on a wheeled sled past the containment gates and into the testing site. Whatever was inside sure was heavy. Even though the muscular guards were strong enough to pull loaded ordinary carts by themselves, it took all their strength combined to shift this artifact the smallest of distances. The fact that the guards were required to wear heavy plate armour did not help. Though I was tempted to help them push, my orders were specifically to observe any signs of breaching in the container.
After a long while, we finally made our way into the center of the containment site. Three casters trotted up to the sled and with combined magic, levitated the container into the center of the dome. With the container finally settled down, I ordered the three guards to enter a defensive stance as we slowly approach the artifact. .
Aria nodded to me and a team of 15 researchers, along with 10 guards and 5 casters, walk into the field. I turned around and nodded to an engineer who activates a Sigma device with his horn, which in turn projects a field above us. A translucent purple beam surrounds the area in a protective grey dome. Aria laughed shakily. “Well here goes nothing!” as we approached the container.
A fellow researcher beside her chuckled and said confidently, “Don’t worry ma’am, we have thirty of the finest royal guard, some of the strongest magic users in the land, as well as a 2 meter thick containment door and emergency back-up who will come on a moment’s notice. What can possibly go wrong?”
I glared at the unicorn and berated him. “The best security team cannot save you from your own stupidity,” I said harshly, “so do not for a moment take this easily or so help me I will personally make you responsible should anything not go to plan!”
“Yes sir!” he meeped weakly as he meekly turned away, his tail between legs and his shoulders shrunken, previous confidence and bravado gone. Aria eyed me disapprovingly and I shrugged back at her. It was my job after all.
I signalled for the guards to surround the artifact, spears at the ready before nodding to Aria who ordered the casters to undo the magical seals around the container. We braced ourselves in case anything hostile leapt out.
The dark metal lid popped open with a hiss and clangs onto the hard stone floor. The interior of the container was pitch black. I signalled for the casters to illuminate the container.
There was nothing inside......
“What the hay?” A researcher exclaimed in surprise before trotting up to the container.
“What are you doing?! Get back!” I shouted at the scientist.
But it was too late, the moment he was within three hoofsteps of the container, a red, cord-like appendage pierced into his head and dragged his limp form into the container, followed by a spray of slick red blood and sickening crunches.
“POSSIBLE BETA THREAT! EVERYONE OUT OF THE TEST SITE NOW!” I roared as I fired a bolt into the container and backed away. As we turned to run, another tendril whipped out and impaled a guard through his chest plate and dragged him screaming and kicking back toward the container. “Aria!” I called to her, “Make a forcefield around that container!!”
She responded quickly and projected a blue translucent field just as another tendril flies out and crackles against the shield. Aria grunted in exertion.
Four more tendrils lashed out against the force-field and a crack formed on its surface. Knowing what to expect next, I sling the crossbow, dove under her, picked her up with my back, and began running. If I remembered correctly, there was a maintenance hatch 20 meters away. I galloped in its direction, just as the shield field fragmented with a crackle of energy.
An unnatural shriek chilled me to my core, but I do not turn around, Instead, concentrate on reaching the main objective: the hatch. I kicked at the locks with no avail before firing a bolt into the keyhole of the lock. To my relief, it opened as I twisted.
I pulled the hatch open, and gulped nervously at the darkness inside before jumping down with Aria on my back. “Aria! Shut the hatch before it gets in!” I told her urgently, and she complied.
As the light from above was cut off, several echoing clangs were heard as the thing pounded on the metal hutch before screeching in frustration. My heart pounded in my chest as we gasped for breath in the darkness. That had been way too close. The dark was illuminated as Aria’s horn lit up.
“What was that thing?” I asked her incredulously.
“I-I’m not sure...” she replied breathlessly, “but whatever it was, I’m sure the sigma field should be able to keep the creature under control.”
A sudden, horrifying realization reached me. “Can SCP personnel pass through the field?” I asked with a growing sense of dread.
“No... why?”
“We just left half of the personnel trapped with that thing...”
***********************************
Steel Wrench’s gut heaved as he watched helplessly at the scene before him. His fellow colleagues and researchers were pounding on the edge of the force field, pleading and crying for him to take down the barrier, their voices distorted. Tears poured down his eyes as he desperately tried to shut down the device, but to no avail. The device needed 5 minutes to power down, and unfortunately he simply did not have that amount of time. The writhing black mass was slowly approaching the group of his friends and workers.
In a bout of desperation, he magically grasped a hammer and swung it at the crystalline device.
It struck with a resounding crack.
As a crevice appeared in the gem, it grew blindingly bright as its enormous magical energies had found a hole to escape. Before he could react, the energies exploded outward, immolating him and shattering the sunstones which were the source of light within the facility. As the energies arched ever upward, floor by floor, the facility slowly descended into darkness.
All over the Facility 13034, the sound of screaming echoed.