Silver fell. He never collided with the walls, and the lurching in his belly told him he was either spinning mid-fall or that he wasn't falling straight down. He couldn't see the ladder anymore, or much of anything, until something crashed into him from below. Night Watch strained with spread wings, slowing his fall. Rainbow and Twilight came in from either side, helping to arrest his descent into the strange place.
As the terrifying plummet came to a smooth stop, Rainbow let him go. "You still need more practice, big guy. Wingspan only gets you so far."
Silver flapped his wings experimentally. He didn't feel as dizzy and overwhelmed anymore. His energy was flowing where it should, and he took the pressure off his wives as he took to flying under his own power. "Thank you, all of you. Coming in here threw everything out of order."
Twilight tilted her head curiously. "Is that more of that 'inner channeling' technique?" She lit the area brightly with her horn and pointed to where the opposite side of the ladder led into a narrow corridor. "We can discuss that later, let's get some ground under us. I have an idea what's going on."
Night supported Silver as he flew, but he didn't need her help, and tried to reverse the situation. "Thank you for catching me, but you're still the hurt one, dearest." He rubbed cheek-to-cheek with her as they both came in for a landing. As his iron shoes came into contact with the smooth floor, electricity pulsed outwards from him. He felt his heart jump as the hallway became brightly lit, leading them inwards.
Twilight smiled with triumph. "Just as I expected!"
Rainbow gave a rolling of a hoof. "Which is, what, exactly? And keep it to small words, wouldja? I want to know what's going on."
Twilight landed beside the others and pointed at Silver's hooves. "What you're wearing, and this whole place. They're obviously connected. I think they're made of the same thing. I think it came because you have so many pieces of it."
Silver nodded. "Alright, I can't argue that, so what do we do about it? Is it happy, now that we're inside of it?"
Twilight tapped softly with her hoof on the metal. "It might be. I haven't felt the signs of ongoing attack. Ponyville is safe, relatively, for now."
Rainbow did a loop in the air, pumping a hoof into the air. Night Watch shook her head. "We have to find the center of this place. I'm almost certain we won't find a lasting peace until we do."
Silver nodded at Night. "I agree. Twilight, does anywhere feel like the center of this place?" Even as he asked, he tried to use his internal sense, turning it outwards to feel where the energy flowed. Though it wasn't shocking through him like when he first landed, there was still a trickle, and he followed it carefully. "I think it's that way." It was the way ahead, there weren't too many other ways to go. "At least it doesn't feel like we have to go back into that ladder tunnel."
Twilight began to trot forward. "Funny thing. I'm almost certain that runs the entire length of this construct. You could have just fallen forever without hitting anything."
Rainbow snorted softly. "Oh yeah, just what he wanted to hear." She slapped him on the shoulder. "Come on. You know we wouldn't let you fall forever."
Silver smiled at her. "Of course you wouldn't. I was more worried I was having a heart attack or something. I didn't really know what was going on, but my body wasn't in my control."
They all proceeded together, clopping softly against the metal. As Twilight set a hoof down, lines exploded outwards in patterns of yellow circles and green lines that rapidly formed new patterns from which turrets popped free and pointed at them. "What?" She didn't get to ask much more as heavy thuds filled the air. They were firing some kind of energy, but each one struck with a loud crash and left a sizzling scorch mark. Twilight deflected the first few coming at her, but even her shield broke under the assault and she scattered out of the way.
Night and Rainbow both tried to fly, but inside the narrow corridor, there was precious little room to bob or weave, and their acrobatics became much more bouncing off the ceiling and walls. Silver stared a moment, realizing he wasn't being fired at. "Stop, damn you. They're my friends!" He charged at one of the turrets and stood in front of it, and it ceased firing, apparently unwilling to shoot through him, but that did little to stop the other that rattled energy blasts at his mare friends.
Night suddenly perked with inspiration. "Silver, push it down, quick!"
Silver raised an iron-clad hoof and stepped on the turret, forcing it back into the ground with a loud click as it sealed. The path seemed clear and he charged at the second turret as quickly as he could as it fired after Rainbow. It was getting better at predicting her moves and caught her once across the flank, singing her cutie mark with a pained yelp. Silver practically hopped on it, forcing it back into the ground and returning peace to the corridor.
Rainbow folded her wings with a grumble. "Thanks... Next time a little quicker though, maybe?"
Twilight shook her head. "I think you should take the lead, Silver. The defenses will open fire if they think they're being invaded, and you're walking around with a..." She rolled a hoof.
Night smiled. "It's like a badge of office. You're wearing so many of their things, you must be recognizable to them."
Silver spread his wings. "Why didn't that work outside? And who is 'them'?" Despite his questions he moved for the front of their line and led the way onwards. "I want some answers." About ten feet further, the circles and lines exploded out from his hooves and he felt an electrical thrill jump from hooves to neck and back to his hind legs and then back again. Was it scanning him? Instead of angry turrets, a field of force barred their way
A smooth voice intoned from nowhere, "Incorrect data. Please provide user information for confirmation."
While the ponies looked confused, Silver hadn't forgotten what he knew of things technological and tried to provide it. "User name, Silver Stars. Request permission to continue."
Twilight slipped in beside him. "Ask it if it knows anything," she whispered in an ear.
"User name: Silver Stars, added to database. Access Granted: User." The field flickered away. "Lockdown currently enforced. Unauthorized users will be rejected."
Silver glanced at his mare friends, guessing they would qualify. "Add User, name Twilight Sparkle."
"No user detected."
Silver frowned at that and threw a leg over her. "Add user."
The pulse ran up into him and through him and past him into Twilight Sparkle. "User found. User name: Twilight Sparkle. Access Granted: User. Proceed to barracks to replace lost identification bracer."
A green line shot out ahead of them and took a sharp left. Silver smiled with triumph. "Come here, Rainbow, Night, let's get you not shot at." He introduced each to what he assumed was a computer. After each, a new green line shot out along the first, repeating the same direction. "We should go where it's pointing. If we can get you identifiable by this thing, it won't shoot first so quickly."
They trotted with less fear as the followed the line, turning left, and half-sliding down a hallway only to have to take a right halfway down it. The lights in the new hallway were flickering and dim. The ground was rough and broken, but they could pick their way forward. The line terminated at a closed door with a panel in front. The other ponies didn't see it as a panel and started looking for ways to get it open, but Silver felt confident.
He raised a hoof and set it against the wide open area of the panel. "Open."
The door slid open about one-fourth of the way before it grinded to a halt, getting stuck on something. "Twilight?"
Twilight looked over her shoulder at Silver. "Hmm?"
"Can you make electricity?"
Twilight shrugged softly. "I should be able to, why?"
Silver smiled. "I think it's memory metal. Electricity will make it snap back to its usual shape. It'll heal. Zap the area."
Twilight tapped her chin as she paced back and forth before waving away. "Everypony off then. I don't want to shock any of you." With a play of magic through her horn, she channeled out lightning through her horn and into the floor, which began to pop and snap as it came back into smooth perfection. When the wave reached the door, it visibly shuddered as the track it was in set itself right, and the door slid open to reveal a large room full of glittering silver suits. There was a field of force preventing them from approaching too close to the suits, and no other panels inside except to open the door from the inside.
Rainbow did a slow circle. "So, uh, where are those identi-whatevers they said were here?"
"Identification bracer dispensing in two... one..." A small panel in the wall popped open and a pair of horseshoes spat out to the ground. "Dispensing complete. User: Rainbow Dash. Do not lose or trade bracers in accordance to regulation 3-E╫P."
Rainbow landed beside the horseshoes and reached to pick one up, but it hopped right onto her hoof and she yelped as it sealed against it. "The hay... That kinda stung a little."
Twilight waved at the others. "Put them all on. Can I have mine please?" Soon they all had their own shoes, though the ones beside Silver's didn't emerge upwards at all, just covering the bottom of the hooves and no further. "Alright, now we shouldn't be fired on. Silver." She turned towards him. "You seem to recognize a lot of this. Is this a human thing?"
Silver chuckled softly. "Kind of strange for a human thing to dispense horseshoes for identification instead of something we'd wear on a shirt or wear around our necks or something like that. It's more similar to our science fiction, our stories." He turned towards the panel. "Computer, are you there?"
"User Silver Stars."
"I'll take that as a yes. Can you guide us to the control room?"
"Negative. Under lockdown, your user authorization level is insufficient for that area."
Silver let out an annoyed snort. "Can we talk to someone who does have permission?"
"One moment. No such user is currently detected. You should return to your quarters and await the arrival of someone with proper authorization."
Silver clenched his teeth a moment. "Computer, in theory, if no such person exists, or ever will exist, what would you suggest?"
"One moment..." The voice went silent and didn't return.
Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "So...?"
Night shook her head. "We're in a bad situation. The voice doesn't want to let us through without someone in charge letting us through, but there is no such pony."
Twilight rose to her full height. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, of Equestria. I demand more authorization."
"Note added to user file. Good afternoon, Princess. Your nation is not recognized in my database and your claim cannot be proven or disproven. Your desire to be known as a princess has been logged."
Silver bumped her with his nose. "Clever idea, but... Computer, how old are you?"
"System time overflow detected. Query cannot be fulfilled. Warning: Some programs may behave incorrectly due to overflow."
Night suddenly grinned. "Computer, could a 'system time overflow' interfere with user records?"
"Yes."
Night pointed at herself. "I am the captain of this ship. Please fix this error immediately."
"Verifying... User permission timestamp for that level of authorization, 0. Error. Global time stamp overflow. Attempting to adjust... Attempting to adjust... Adjustment complete. Welcome, C-captain. Error."
Silver whispered to her softly, "That was amazing thinking, but I think you broke it more than it already was with that logical loop-de-loop."
Night smiled with pride and stood tall. "Please mark all po-users in this room beside myself as one step below captain and in my command, then guide us to that control room."
A line of green flickered into existence, guiding them back out of the room. The line flickered and waved as they followed it, along with the lights, and even the voice of the computer. It was broken, badly. Silver tried to think on how to fix the thing, but trying to enact repairs on an alien computer was far beyond his knowledge.