Night Patrol chapter 17
By Foxgear
Nico Vega looked to the sun for the time, from the pitch of the shadows nearly two hours have past and no word from either Fury or Sixes since entering the cave. Scratching nervously at the ground, he debated on what to do. The obvious answer was to do as he was told and go back to the castle, but the other less rational side was whispering for him to go inside the cave and investigate. He waited another five minutes, struggling internally about what to do when he heard voices from within the cave.
Moving slowly Nico crawled along the wall like Fury and Sixes had earlier, entering near the top of the cave ceiling. Working his way through the forming stalactites with swift and precise movements he positioned himself over the wisps of lights below, where a group of ponies, unicorns from the looks of it, where busy working on something. The sound of metal hitting rock come to his attention as he narrowed in on the group, barely making out what they were doing with his night vision.
“Damn those nobles, don’t they have any idea how complex these transport circles are? Now we have to scrap this one because of their clumsiness.” One of the ponies grumbled hitting the ground with his pickaxe. Strange he was a unicorn, yet he was using his mouth to use the pickaxe.
“Pipe down Post Hammer and erase this thing. Don’t want the princesses to have a direct line to our base do we now?” Another pony said, picking up the broken pieces of stone and grinding them into smaller pieces till they were nothing but dust. “Don’t leave a single trace, we don’t know if the princesses have any knowledge of the magic we use, but best not to leave things to chance in case they have a book or some faded memory of it.”
Post Hammer snorted, “I doubt that Bluntford. We kept it under wraps from everypony. What pony could have any record of it?”
“How about the Alicorn that taught it to our ancestors? We know for fact Gaia kept a record of it and said records have been lost to time, who knows where they could show up. They could be in the princesses’ library right now, so keep your trap shut and help me turn this place into powder!”
“Alright, alright, Liquid Nitro, you ready?” Post hammer asked finishing up the last part of the circle. A pony of tall stature stepped forth with two barrels of something floating in his magical grasp. Carefully he set the barrels into the middle of the now powdered circle and stepped away.
“Everypony stand back,” Liquid Nitro ordered flaring his horn, a soft orange light firing from the tip and hit the barrels creating an explosion that shook the cave. The ponies step out from their cover spots and celebrate a job well done.
“Come on,” Bluntford ordered, making his way to the exit. “Let’s go to the secondary location to the east. Let the princesses stumble around here for as long as they like.”
“You know it,” Post Hammer cheered following behind the lead pony.
Once the group had filed out of the cave. Nico dropped down as he shook the wooziness from the explosion off. Stumbling on his claws for a few steps, managing to hold himself up by leaning against a nearby pillar taking long deep breaths with his eyes closed to help regain his sense of balance. Once he was sure the dizziness had passed, he slowly made his way out of the cave amongst the shadows following the ponies from a distance, leaving behind an engraved crescent moon in the earth as he went.
“I’ll find you, my brothers, you can count on it,” Nico grimly swore with determination. He would not give up, even it meant going beyond Equestria.
Luna awoke with a start, her coat wet with sweat and her breath raspy. Nightmares, she the Princess of Dreams, had just had a bad dream! The horrors of Blueblood’s book playing over and over in her head. The image of cowering foals surrounded by black silhouettes as they poke and prod with little care for niceties or compassion. Worse of all, she was there standing aside, letting the horrors happen before her without even lifting a hoof to help.
Cringing, she forced herself from her bed, landing on her hooves with a soft thump. Quickly she hurried to the water bowl located in the corner and drew herself a glass to wet her parched throat. After a full minute of gulping down the cold liquid, Luna regained her bearings.
Looking in the mirror, she recoiled at her disheveled mane, the black bags under her eyes, and the overall tired look she was sporting. A quick whiff under her foreleg told her just how long it’s been since she’s bathed. Taking a quick look outside and seeing no sign of the Moon Cutter insight, she decided a bath wasn’t out of line.
Strolling into the bath, Luna began filling the large tub with hot water and soap, humming a soft tune as she did so to pass the time. Once the tub was at the right height, she went to fetch her shampoos and other bathing supplies when a thought occurred to her. Walking over to where Applejack lay she gave her friend a good whiff, prompting her to clutch her nose with her hoof.
“My mother’s mane Applejack, when was the last time you bathed?”
Picking up the earth mare with her magic, Luna carried Applejack to the bath debating on waking up her friend before throwing her in, an idea she quickly discarded as she tossed the slumbering mare into the soapy water. A full five seconds pass before Applejack came surging to the surface, wide wake and ever so slightly annoyed.
“What the hay was that for?”
Luna grinned mischievously, “You needed a bath, so I decided to give you one. Now hold still.” Various brushes and shampoos levitated in the princess’s magical grasp as she saunters into the water.
“I don’t want to miss a spot!”
“Wait, wait, hold on now! Luna! Luna! Stop it!” Applejack cried, breaking into fits of laughter as the fine brushes brush against her coat, tickling her senselessly.
Eventually, Luna ended her torment, so Applejack thought when Luna finally stop brushing, but it only got worse as Luna began to wash her with a strange amount of focus. Luna cleaning nearly every part of her, behind her ears, her back, and the bottom of her hooves, if Applejack hadn’t insisted on washing her privates herself, she was certain Luna would have done those too. Frankly, this was a little too intimate for Applejack personally, but the strange look Luna had on while she washing her, gave the earth mare some pause in voicing her displeasure to being bathed like a newborn foal.
Perhaps she wondered if Luna simply needed something to do, something to keep her hooves busy while they wait for the Moon Cutter to arrive. Uncertain on her own feeling and too nervous to question Luna on hers, Applejack simply allowed the Princess of the Night to shampoo her hair.
“They're all done!” Luna declared cheerfully splashing a bucket of water over Applejack’s head. The earth mare giving her a withering look as she shook off her mane and coat sending droplets everywhere.
“Great, now it’s your turn.” Applejack turned around, wielding two brushes in her hooves as she corners the princess in the bathtub.
“I beg your pard-“
Luna didn’t get to finish as Applejack attacked with a vengeance! Her hooves a blur as she scrubs the princess’s blue coat with glee. A storm of laughter erupted from Luna as she halfheartedly attempts to ward off Applejack’s assault by splashing water at her, which Applejack returned in kind. After what seemed like hours of splashing, though only a few minutes tops in reality, they stop, both happy and laughing as they climb out of the tub.
For the moment everything was fine.
“Princess Luna! The Moon Cutter is in sight!” Gadget announced bursting into the other room. The unicorn looked around curiously, searching for his princess who wasn’t anywhere in sight. “Princess Luna?” He approached the bed, finding it a mess and Applejack’s hat lying discarded on the mattress. “What in the world?”
“Thank you for the update Gadget. We will be there to meet the ship when it docks.” Luna walked out of the bathroom, drying her coat with a towel, Gadget blushed, and turned away. “Is that all?”
“Yes, that is all. I’ll get the others moving so we can board right after they dock.”
Luna nodded approvingly, “Very well. We will be there soon.”
Gadget saluted quickly leaving the room as Applejack entered, retrieving her hat.
“Well, let’s go put the hurt on some noble assholes.”
“Agreed,” Luna seconded with suppressed rage, “Come, we will fetch my sister and our armor on the way.”
“Right behind you!”
The room was dark when Sixes came too, he found himself and his friend, Fury, chained and collared. His head throbbing from blow to the head he received from that strange pony, Hoofenstein, what was odd about him? Well, the fact he used both unicorn and earth pony magic was weird enough for him. He wasn’t an expert on the subject, but Gadget explained to him once while he was doing his genealogy research that crossbreeding ponies species usually result in the offspring taking on more the dominate traits from one parent than the other. There was a whole square box thing with other boxes he used to explain it. He wasn’t sure what the unicorn was talking about, but the gist of the lecture was the distinctive traits from other races didn’t mix. Which meant in theory, a unicorn couldn’t have both unicorn magic and earth pony magic or any combination of whatever.
Sixes mulled the information over in his head, confused as the day Gadget explained to him. In retrospect, he should be thinking of a way out of here. He tried moving his legs, but they were firmly cuffed and chained to the floor. Next, he tried moving his head and tail managing only to move either limb only a few inches, either way, even his wings were tied down. The only option left was his fire breath.
“Here we go,” Puffing up his chest he gathered the fire swirling inside his body, bracing himself for the pain of melting metal against his scales, only for a puff of smoke and some sparks to belch from his mouth instead of the stream of fire he was expecting. “Well… that’s not good.”
“Tell me about it!” Grunted Fury struggling against his chains, he wasn’t sure when the other Rinin woke up, but for whatever reasons the red Rinin was bound even tighter than Sixes. Fury sporting doubled the chains and was being held down on his belly with all his limbs pulled in every direction.
“Wow, what did you do to end up like that?”
Fury scoffed puffing smoke from his nostrils, “The hell I know, but somethings off about this place. That pony, Hoofenstein, he called me Ferocious before knocking me out.”
“Ferocious,” Sixes said frowning, “Isn’t that the name of one of the foul’s in Blueblood’s book?”
“Yes, it is.”
Silence filled the air between them. Sixes finding himself uncertain of what to say to his friend and comrade. There wasn’t time to anyways, the lights came on, and in walked the ponies, Madhoof and Hoofenstein. Each one holding various scientific tools, however, the sight of a little white colt had their guts turning with dread.
“Ah, you are awake, this is good, is good indeed. Now we don’t have to wait to get started. We want you to see this.” Madhoof ranted as he chained the foal in the center of the room. Once the colt was locked in he began to draw something around the white pony at high speed. Twenty pieces of thick white chalk scrap against the floor, each one creating a different set of symbols and runes that neither Rinin could decipher.
Meanwhile, Hoofenstein was carefully filling beakers and jars with various materials, some of it powdered, others liquid, and few were pieces of different animals and monsters, but one part stood out a long white feather.
“What are you doing to that colt?” Demanded Fury bucking against his chains, he tried to spit some fire at the mad ponies, but all he got was a few sparks and burnt throat for his trouble.
Madhoof chuckled as he continued his work, “Oh nothing much, basically the same thing we did to you two, though with some different material. We are hoping for a little more successful Bio transmutation this time. Hopefully, this will bring us closer to our goals.”
“And that is?” Sixes inquired.
“To make a better pony race, to go beyond even the might of the Alicorns and to establish a new nation. Free of the trapping of the elite and misgiving against our kind, to show that we are the supreme race!” Exclaimed Hoofenstien as he set his materials around different points of the circles.
Fury blinked, “Wow, you unicorns are full of yourselves.”
This prompted both mad ponies to laugh aloud to the point of tears.
“What’s so funny?”
Madhoof wiped away his tears, his smile dangerously wide as he reached up, grabbed his horn, and pulled it from his head much to the shock of the two. Hoofenstein did the same.
“What’s funny is the fact we are earth ponies.” Madhoof played with his horn in his hoof, showing the small spike sticking out of the crown of his skull where the horn rested. “It’s quite the procedure drilling a hole in one’s head and sticking a metal rod into said hole, but our research on unicorns was quite sound, and our craftponies are the best. With these, we can do all the things a unicorn can do by using our own earth pony magic, and thanks to the fact we use the magic rising from the earth, we are capable of harnessing an infinite source of magic. Just another step towards an earth pony empire and getting revenge on those damned ponies that thought they could look down on us just because they had a horn or wings. We’ll…”
“Settle down, Madhoof,” Hoofenstein commanded, “Put your horn back on and get back to work.”
“Right, sorry I lost myself of a second there.” The gray mane stallion replaced his horn going back to drawing the circles and runes.
Satisfied his friend was back on track, Hoofenstein walked over to Sixes grabbing a syringe from a nearby table.
“I just need a little blood from you 6666, feel honored you will be a part of our first-gen two experiments and the father of possibly our greatest creation yet.” Hoofenstein stabbed the needle into Sixes' neck, filling it to the brim with blood. “Well, I guess our greatest Biological experiment. Our iron hide project is our greatest nonorganic material transmutation of all time. Providing the nobles prove compatible with the process. Would you want to watch that experiment as well? You might get some satisfaction watching it.”
“Go to Tartarus,” Sixes spat snapping at the doctor, “What are you planning to do to the kid?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Hoofenstein quipped, “You’ll be finding out soon enough. Madhoof are you done?”
Nodding Madhoof carefully levitated himself over the runes as Hoofenstein laid the white feather and Sixes' blood in the center of the circle.
“Observe carefully you two, very few ponies get to witness the power of alchemy and even fewer get to see a new life be created right before their eyes.”
The two alchemists took to opposite sides of the circle, ignoring the wails of the colt in the center and the struggles of the two Rinin chained across the room. Magic filled the room, lighting up the transmutation circle with a sickish pink glow, pillars of light erupted from the five smaller circles, a beam of magic bounce between the columns forming a star that began spinning as it descended.
The white colt screamed as the star drew closer and closer to him. He looked to Sixes and Fury, reaching out for them. The night patrollers struggled with all their might! The iron chains groaned and stretched, but did not break, and before their very eyes, the colt disappeared, gone in a flash of light.
The light died away in the colt’s place was a full-grown Rinin pony. The new Rinin was pure white, the entirely of his body was scales, bright and shiny with red patches of scales on his shoulders and flanks, his wings were different, instead of leathery dragon wings, he had fluffy feather wings, a pair of antlers adorned his head, surrounded by a long blue mane.
The newly created dragon pony blinked absentmindedly, looking around his surroundings like a newborn foal, which he technically was. He then began the struggle of standing, on shaky legs the white Rinin rose to his feet and took his first step and fell, his claws unable to grip the surface of the floor, or more likely he didn’t know to use them. He tried again, this time smashed his claws into the floor as he rose. Once he was stable, he lifted one nail and dug it into the marble tile again, so he had some grip and moved, taking his first step. He continued doing this, his actions becoming lighter and more natural as he made his way over to Sixes and Fury.
The two patrollers wondered what he was doing when he finally reached them. He did nothing. He simply stood and stared at Sixes sniffing him, circling around the black rinin, the white Rinin come to a stop in front of Sixes. He made a strange series of soft roars and grunts before forming words.
“Fa-father,” The white Rinin raspily said, looking directly at Sixes and nuzzling the black Rinin’s cheek.
“What…” Sixes gasped, staring at the white Rinin.
“Well, we did use your blood, so it’s only natural, he would recognize you as his snare, but to know how to speak already is remarkable. That feather really proved to be worth the trouble.” Hoofenstein commented, observing the new creation.
He walked around the white Rinin, taking notes as he got measurements and such, “Hmm, he’s a little above average size, his wings are most interesting. I wonder if this also an effect of the feather or perhaps a dominant trait of 6666’s bloodline? Impossible to say for sure but not important either way, now I believe this is number 12467?”
Madhoof nodded, a red hot firebrand floating in his magic as he approached the new Rinin. “Father, son time is over I’m afraid, we’ll need to further test the results of transmutation in better detail. Don’t worry, you’ll see him again soon enough.”
“Don’t you dare touch him!” Fury roared pulling against his restraints. His eyes completely red, hot steam rose from his body, and the room became noticeably warmer.
“Now that's interesting. Do you think 1337 could have gained some new abilities?” Madhoof asked disregarding the branding iron for the moment. “This could change our results. Maybe we need to do another scan of his bio magical makeup?”
“Perhaps,” Hoofenstien said, rubbing his chin. Another pony entered the lab.
“Doctor Madhoof, Doctor Hoofenstein, we’d received reports that Princess Luna and Celestia have left Canterlot and are heading due north to the transport the nobles used.”
“It was destroyed as I instructed?”
“Yes, the team we sent just returned, but we discovered a group of Luna’s patrollers in the area if they search hard enough they could find us. We’ve already begun shutting down all non-necessary power and getting our ponies ready for battle.”
“I see, very well, stop all experiments and prepare project Sleipnir, we will be with you shortly.”
“Yes, sir!”
Hoofenstein turned to Madhoof, “Go get the nobles set up for their “Ascension” I will be with you once I’m done cleaning up here.”
“Alright, don’t take too long, I don’t want to be around those spoiled horn heads for long by myself, you know how I get.”
“I know friend, I know, they get under my fur too, but they have served us well, it is only right we hold up our end of the deal. Well, part of it at least.”
Madhoof chuckled, “Yeah, I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces. Alright, see you soon.”
Hoofenstein waved him off and then turned his attention to the three Rinin before him. The vault would be the best place for them. Judging from the looks of those chains, it wouldn’t be much longer before Fury and Sixes broke loose, and he couldn’t have that. Taking the three up in his magic, Hoofenstien began the long walk to the vault, which was on the other side of the Factory, a terrible floor layout really.
Sixes frowned as they were carried through the factory to what he assumes would be their prison. Along the way, they pasted dozens of earth ponies with metal horns. Now that he knew what they were, it was clear to see if a pony looked closely. Their robust stature, their muscle mass, the way they moved, all these things spoke of ponies used to working with their hooves, and now they had unicorn magic. Gadget would be impressed by their technology. Not just the horns, all of it, this base of theirs reminded him of the Moon Cutter with all the machinery and the familiar rumble of powerful engines beneath the floor, and the air was thinner and harder to breathe. They were defiantly in the sky.
(Now the question is where are we?) They weren’t moving that was certain, and the pony earlier had mention transports, like the one the nobles had used and subsequently the same one that brought him and Fury here. The range of these transports would significantly affect the search range for the others. Hopefully, Nico did as he was told and stayed in his position or better yet was had tracked the ponies that destroyed the first transport to the second one mentioned. If they had portals in walking distance of each other, then the range couldn’t be that great, hopefully. At best they were only a hundred miles, or so ahead of where they were, at worse they were thousands.
Then there was an issue of what they were going to go. The collars prevented them from using any form of magic, so no fire breath and whatever magic his son/clone had. He would deal with that later, much later. Right now, he needed to focus on escaping.
Looking to Fury, the red Rinin seemed to be keeping his cool, which was good. He needed his friend to be level headed right now. His anger could be unleashed later when it would be of more use. The newborn Rinin, he was looking around like an infant, curious and confused, so he was of no help right now.
They took a turn into a room filled with several strange devices, or maybe it was all one big device since everything was connected together. The machine took up the entire place, encircling the wall with at least a dozen empty chambers. Hoofenstein left them floating in the middle of the room while he talked to the pony in charge. A few levers were hit, and suddenly the tunnels were alive with flashing white lights bursting out of every chamber, from the short tubes a couple dozen ponies appeared from thin air, leaving Sixes to assume this room to be the transport hub, something to defiantly take note of.
Next Hoofenstein walked into a strange room with two liquid containers in the center. This had to be the most roundabout way to escort prisoners to a cell, but Sixes didn’t complain, enjoying the Intel he was gathering. Fury mimicked his silence, probably guessing his intentions as the red Rinin’s eyes darted around the room taking in every detail, while remaining incognito, not that Hoofenstein probably didn’t know what they’re doing. He seemed to be letting them get away with, either out of arrogance thinking they couldn’t break free, or a calculated move on his part. To what ends Sixes didn’t know, but no pony that could build an operation this big and keep it hidden for so long, could be called stupid.
On to the room’s contents, Sixes found them puzzling, there were only two things in here besides the glass tubes, and that was the things inside the glass tubes. Two baby pegasi with polar coloring. One was blue with a rainbow mane, and the other was kind of a tannish yellow color with a grayscale rainbow hair, both were sleeping in the tubes floating in who knows what. Sixes wondered what their purpose was.
“How are our little angels today, Shovel Shank?” Hoofenstein asked the pony tending to the two pegasi.
The pony Shovel Shank was also another earth pony with a false horn, as if his name didn’t give him away, he was dull brown with a blue mane. He seemed to have a nervous tick as he kept rubbing his forelegs together every other second.
“Yes, yes, they are doing good, stable, and bursting with magic. I dare say they might be ready to come out of the tubes soon.”
Hoofenstein huffed when he heard this, and a look of what seemed to be genuine concern crossed the mad doctor’s face.
“I see, unfortunately, that may have to wait, my friend. We are about to enter a critical time, and we can’t risk two little foals flying around. Until the danger has passed, they must remain inside their tanks.” Hoofenstein said patting Shovel Shank on the shoulder, the false unicorn seemed outright out depressed at the news. “But don’t worry, it would only be a few days, and you can finally let them spread their wings.”
“That’s- that’s nice. I’ll seal the lab then.”
“Keep up the good work Shove Shank, remember we only have each other rely on.” Hoofenstein patted the nervous pony on the back and took his leave.
Sixes glanced back at the pony Shove Shank, finding his demur unsettling as he stared at the floating pegasi. The pony was not one Sixes could say he would have trusted in any capacity, something seemed off about him, but he supposed it is only logical this place would be filled with equally insane ponies.
Hoofenstein walked for a bit more, stopping at another room, this one stranger than the last, yet filled with things more familiar. All around them, floating in giant test tubes, where monsters. Not just any monsters, but the very same monsters they’d been hunting since joining night patrol. Stone cyclops, white timberwolves, goblins mixed with ogres, even a few of the more massive beasts such as hydras, manitcores, and cockatrice. Seemed Luna was right, these creatures weren’t natural, they were made, just like they were.
There were no more stops after last room. Hoofenstein delivered them to what he called the “vault,” peculiar name for a dungeon, but that wasn’t the burning question on Sixes mind as Hoofenstein place them in small holding cell. There were two sets of doors. The first was the one they were brought through and the second presuming lead to “the vault”. The design allowing new prisoners to be placed inside, well minimizing the chance prisoners could escape, thanks to the second door.
“Well, you in go now,” Hoofenstein said, opening the second door with his magic. A second pony proceeded to push them into the vault, but Sixes dug in and struggled against the guard's spell. There was something he wanted to say.
“You created us and wiped our memories. Why?”
Hoofenstein signaled for the guard hold and shut the door. “An interesting, yet obvious question dear 6666, but one I will answer. I hate the sight of ignorance. It is one of biggest problems in this world in my opinion. I suppose your case it different, but none the less, some context could help you see the light as they say. You know of the Alicorns, correct, the race of ponies that embody the traits of all three tribes. They are the most powerful beings the pony race has to offer, the pinnacle of our evolution, yet such a strong and wise race is now reduced to merely two Alicorns and do you know why? Have you ever questioned either princess as to what happened to them all? What became of the great Alicorn race?”
Sixes remained silent, thinking back to the times he spoke with Princess Luna, the subject of her race or fellow Alicorns besides her sister had never come up. Nor had he ever asked.
“I’ll bite, what happened to them?”
“The same thing that happens to all great beings, they fell from grace, and it all started with a simple little wish. You see back in the days before the princesses, before Starswirl, before the meeting of the three tribes, there were only two. The Alicorns, keepers of the elements and protectors of the land and the earth pony tribe, the children of the Alicorn Gaia of the earth. At that time, there were no unicorns or pegasi, but one day the Alicorn of the sky, Tempestas, grew jealous of the children of Gaia. She too wanted to be loved as she was and so she created the first pegasi from the clouds and gave them dominion over the sky and all the power to bend it to their will. She proclaimed them better to the ponies of the earth and demanded a tribute to keep the weather fair and favorable for crops. Gaia reluctantly agreed and endowed the earth ponies with is magic to further enhance their connection to the earth, allowing for more crops to be produced to feed both races. Not long after the Alicorn of magic Minerva, grew jealous and wanted her own children, so she created the unicorns from her own essence and gave them the power of magic, to use in any way they saw fit. With this new tool they gained control of the sun and the moon and forced the earth ponies provide for them. Once again Gaia blessed his children with richer crops to support the new race, but it wasn’t long that the earth tribe began to be treated less like ponies and more like slaves. This outraged Gaia, who took up arms against Tempestas and Minerva, this caused the Alicorns to divide into three groups, those for who fought for Gaia, those that fought for Tempestas and Minerva and the third those who chose to run and hide. Thus the great Alicorn war had begun, and in the end no side truly won, and the Alicorns disappeared into myth until the tribes united after the wendigo’s winter and Celestia, Luna, and Symphony were discovered after they were found wandering in the wilderness. Sometime later after the defeat of Discord all three would be voted into being the rulers of Equestria, and I think you know most of the story after that.”
Sixes head reeled with information overload, trying to make heads or tails of Hoofenstein story. “If you know all that, then why are you trying to help the nobles become immortal? Sounds like you have less love for them then I do.”
“They have their uses. You remember Madhoof’s little burst of an earth pony empire? I, on the other hoof, desire a different future.”
“What you want everypony to be Alicorns? Is that why your taking foals and changing them into monsters?”
Hoofenstein shook his head, “No, no, you don’t understand my dear 6666, I want ponies to be premier species of the planet and to do that, we need to be something better then what we are, better than the Alicorns, we need to evolve and adapt. You and the others are merely the first steps in a larger game. With you ponies now can have the genetic possibility of claws and scales, nature’s armor and swords, next the introduction of new magic and innate abilities. When we erased your memories and dropped you off in that cave we wanted to test your behavior and instincts patterns. We wanted the experience to be natural, hence the erased memory. I must say you have performed wonderfully. You have become so much more than I first predicted and the potential of future generations with crossbreeding is fascinating. Look at your son over there, I simply can’t wait to see what he can do, but alas time is short. Hopefully we can avoid the princesses’ eyes, but I would be lying if I said I wished they didn’t find us, in fact I’m hoping they do.”
“And why is that?”
“Why the genetic material, of course! Think of how much progress could be made with a single drop of Alicorn blood, all the holes would be filled, and we could move our plans ahead so much faster.” Hoofenstein giddily grinned leaning closer to the bars of the door. “In simple terms 6666, either way, I win. Even if the princesses destroy this facility, even if they kill me or lock me up forever. I still win. Because for as long as one Rinin or any other of our experiments lives, my work lives on with them, goodbye 6666, 1330, enjoy your stay in the vault.”
With little effort Hoofenstein pushed the bewildered Sixes and friends into the vault and slammed the door. Inside was complete darkness save for the faint glow of a light gem floating in the center of the vault.
The vault was very primitive compared to the rest of the factory. The entire place was made of rough stone with holes dug into the walls, probably to act as prison cells. The question now was where the other prisoners were?
A sudden thud of heavy hoof steps had the three Rinin bouncings as whatever was making said stomps emerged from the darkness, the silhouette of the beast rose almost all the way to the ceiling. Sixes and Fury took up position in front of the white rinin… (I really need to name him) and bared their fangs at the monster approaching them. The beast’s head lurched downward, the light revealing it to be… a giant pony?
Sixes and Fury were taken aback at the sight of the thing, it smiled at them, its giant muzzle right in front of them. Hesitantly Sixes pat the giant, the giant responding to the gesture by falling onto its belly like a dog would, even panting like one too.
“P-Rex leave them alone,” A voice called out, emerging from the darkness was a strange-looking earth pony with a short silver ethereal mane with black white coat that looked very similar to the arrangement of a skeleton. More ponies emerged of all shapes and sizes, colors, and whatever Hoofenstein mixed them with. There were hundreds of them, and they each bore numbers on their flanks.
The ghostly looking pony stepped forward and offered his hoof, “Nice to see you two again.”