//------------------------------// // 10 The plot thickens // Story: Lifegiver // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Lyra Heartstrings - 2nd of Midsummer ‘15 EoH - Midnight I had exactly five seconds to gawk at the seriously massive iced over door before the dull rumble of gears echoed off the stair well. Lily yelped, jumping a full foot into the air, even wheeling around. Poor girl. There’s a difference between serving in the guard and tomb raiding. “Don’t worry about it,” I soothed. “It’s just the stairwell closing.” “But what if we can’t get out?” Lily asked, giving me a ‘starting to panic’ state of hopelessness. Oh boy… That budding panic would probably get us into trouble. “Calm down. There was a button at the bottom of the steps,” I soothed again, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “I marked the button on the top. We have backup coming in… About twenty minutes if we are not back out with Cole by then. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. We’re fine. How are you?” “Thank you.” Lily sighed in relief. “I forgot about your frien-” She stopped mid word, eyes shrinking in a baffled confusion as she stared off at a point over my left shoulder. ”Was? Why is there a guitar in the corner?” I turned around, instantly spotting a thestral style Stratosurfer propped up lovingly in the darkest corner of the room. It was old, beat up, with a faceplate scarred from countless strikes of a pick. So old the original color had flaked off the body, leaving behind only a few pink and blue flecks of paint on the worn spruce body. Tartarus, bits of the arcane amp were poking through worn down spots on the face… This had been used well past it’s warranty, that was for sure. It also presented a bit of a problem... Thanks to Octavia, I knew a bit about instruments. “That’s very weird,” I agreed. “Especially because this design is only fifty years old.” “Perhaps… Perhaps someone who visited the hotel left it behind?” Lily mused. “If somepony found this vault door, it would have been reported.” I said shaking my head. “Also that means Luna would have known about it, and she would have set this up as a base for the Night Guard. No, the windigo had to have moved this here. But why?” To set a trap, obviously. “Don’t touch it.” I ordered firmly. “Ja, Ich werde nicht zu tun buchse scheiße!” Lily exclaimed, taking a step back from the guitar. I blinked unsure of what that particular Germane was for. I only knew a smattering of the language. “Uh, come again?” “I said, I’m not going to touch anything at all.” She translated. Huh, and here I thought she said she would not poop on it. Lyra, your Germane is worse than you think... Right, let’s plan this. Don’t waste time and what might be limited oxygen. Oh, yeah... Better not tell Lily that we possibly have limited air down here with that stairwell closed. “First thing’s first,” I began. “It knows we're down here. Those stairs were loud. We don’t split up for any reason. Second thing, if ether of us are in trouble, scream out my name, not help. Why? Because it could scream help mimicking one of our voices as a trap. “The bad news is from what I’ve seen, their powers very a lot, but they only have a small number of things. So aside from limited flight, invisibility, intangibility, the equivalent of excellent physical conditioning, and a versatile energy attack, I have no idea what it might be able to do. Example, Cole can shapechange, freeze things super quickly, and mimic simple unicorn spells. Her ‘mom’ by which I mean the windigo that was supposed to raise her, could light things on fire out to a hundred meters…” “So we have no way of knowing how it might attack us, und we are right in it’s lair?” Lily asked face filling with fear, then to my great interest, shifting to a grim determination. “Okay. What can hurt it?” “Energy.” I said simply. “A punch wont do crap to one. There’s nothing to hurt, no anatomy. But since they are living magic, if you sent a good jolt of thaumaturgic current through them, that hurts! Cold’s also excellent. If you can make ice, your golden, try to freeze it or even just pelt it with snowballs. Most unicorn fillies I know learn to conjure-” Lily nodded. “Ja, I did that as a colt.” Oh. My. Luna. I felt my eyes widen then shrink. “I’m so sorry, are you male?” Lily nodded. “Ja.” Right Lyra, update your brain pronoun list… Okay, there we go. Now delete that readied ‘Oh my gosh the new neighbor is so cute, you need to meet her!’ speech you had ready for Bon-bon… Right, all good! “Sorry about that,” I apologized. “Okay, so you can do snowballs. That will help.” It would help about as much as giving a potion of speed to Rainbow Dash, but well, if it was hungry enough, and with how cold it was here, maybe that would be enough to kill it. “Oh, nein, nein, nein!” Lily exclaimed shaking his head. “I may not be a Thaumaturgist, but the transference of thermal energy is first year study at my alma mater. I can do more than a snowball. But uhh, but not for long… I’ve got a small reserve.” I nodded, opened my bags with my magic and tossed him a Manabar. “Danke.” Lily thanked stashing it in his own saddlebags. “So what can you do?” I asked curiously a I turned to study the door. “Liquefy the air by moving all of the heat to another pocket of air.” He said simply. I triple blinked. “Uh… How big is the AoE on that?” That did not sound even remotely safe. “A meter should be enough to give me ten shots before I’m empty.” Lily said after some thought. Oh, that was much better! “That should get that area cooled to about minus one eighty…” Lily mused to himself, tapping a hoof to chin in thought. “So the zone will draw in available heat almost instantly, returning the room a stable temperature due to the laws of Thermodynamics… Okay, ja, I can do this!” I couldn’t help but crack a smile. The white colt was like an action-oriented Twilight with his determined ‘Science!™’ face. “Right, let’s see about cracking this door open,” I said turning to inspect the door’s surface for any possible means of opening it the Lyra way. “Uh, why?” Lily asked. “Shouldn’t we try to go back?” “It will be expecting that. It’s probably lurking at the base of the steps for us to return. So we go into the vault,” I explained. “Besides, if this is like say, a bank vault, who knows what goodies might be lurking in it!” Also, I’d really like to not fight a creature that can pass through objects in a pony-wide corridor. My eyes scanned across the icy surface of the door. Maybe there was a crack, or a release lever hidden behind the sheet of ic- “Ah ha!” I exclaimed spotting a narrow sliver of a crack in the door just left of the center point. It was a pinprick of light. Literally the width of a sewing pen. If there wasn’t some source of light behind the door, I’d never have spotted it. “What did you find?” Lily asked peering at where I was looking. “Small crack in the door. Meaning that’s a weak point. Maybe a good lasering can get that crack to be a hole we can crawl through.” I said as I lit up my horn to try burning the gap wider. “I don’t see anything,” Lily remarked. “You must have great eyesight.” “Yep. Thanks to Bonnie.” I remarked, firing a thin golden laser into the crack. “Does she also make eyesight improving candy?” Lily asked, watching me work. “No, she’s a vampire. Bit me in her sleep.” I remarked. “Um, what?” Lily asked. “But… You were in sunlight. No wait, how even-” I sighed and rolled my eyes. I hated explaining this so much! “Sunlight just shuts some powers off,” I grunted. “As for how, my friend Vinyl happened to have been a vampire for like, ever, and turned her wife Octavia so she wouldn’t outlive her. Then Octavia and Bon-bon got into an argument and Bon-bon unwisely decided to tell the aggravated fledgling vampire to ‘oh yeah, well bite me!’. So she did. “Then a week later Bon-bon bit me in her sleep, and so Vinyl made us all stay at her Dad’s place for a few months until everypony was over the vampire version of adolescence so we didn’t turn the whole town. Got it?” “So… You’re a vampire?” Lily asked. “Yes.” I groaned. “Und… You haven’t tried to drink my blood. Why?” He asked. “You’re type O. I hate type O. Also not hungry. Also blood is only needed once per two weeks and I just get stuff from the hospital because I’m not a bucking feral monster.” I said, getting all aggravated as he refused to just drop the issue. It wasn’t a big bucking deal. “I’m not O, I’m A negative.” Lily exclaimed angrily. “The hay you are! I can smell you!” I objected, stopping the apparently futile cutting to turn and properly argue with this despicable- Wait! What the buck am I doing? This isn’t me! I took a deep breath and shunt my eyes. Yep, I could feel it. A deep pressure right behind the eyes, an electric tingle at the back of my head. That was a psionic attack. Mind magic. Clever girl. I focused on a counterspell, horn blazing gold before I simply hosed the room with a burst of counterspelling noise. “Alright, it can manipulate emotions,” I said, the pressure and tingle gone. “Joy… Also sorry.” Lily bit her lip angrily. Buck! Had I not dispelled- “Faust verdammt noch mal zu tartarus!” He shouted, gritting his teeth. “This always happens to me! Always! We are turning it into an icecube!” “Glad to hear you’re onboard with the not-die plan!” I said cheerfully, sticking an eye up to the crack to peer through to try and- “Oh… Okay.” I said, ears drooping. “Yeah no silent entry for us. This is a bucking pony thick!” Lily nodded, his horn glowing blue as he summoned a ball of light. “Let’s find the handle then. Now that I think about it, I don’t want to fight a windigo in a narrow passage.” I gave him a smile. “You know, I’m starting to like you.” “Uhh, thanks, but I’m sort of seeing Scoots…” He admitted in that awkward first love sort of way. I snickered. “I don’t think of colt’s like that. I meant as a friend.” “Oh,” he said in a relieved tone. He turned around and started to check out the wall behind him, which thanks to the orb of blue light, was now revealed in all it’s detail. The room we were in was about the size of my bedroom. Tiled with those same odd green tiles, and had a large completely dead lightgem in each corner of the ceiling, with one almost dead one in the center. Aside from the door, the stairs, and the odd guitar in the corner, the only other thing present was a brass panel riveted to the right hand wall. “Well, this is probably how you open it,” Lily remarked. I managed to keep the venomous ‘you don’t say’ silent, and blasted another counterspelling aura through the room, just in case that wasn’t really my irritation. “There’s a button und a keyhole…” He remarked. “You think the door key might work?” It was a long shot. “Eh, mab-” “Oh! There’s a key broke off in the lock.” Lily remarked, magic glowing briefly before an audible click echoed off the tiled walls. “Das- Er, that seems to be it. Should I press the button?” The key being broken off in the lock did not bode well with me. Not at all. Not one bit. Not even one planck length. There was extreme danger ahead. There was a monster. There was treasure. There was a dungeon. I repressed doing a little happy dance. “Fifteen.” I said with a grin. “Huh?” Lily asked turning to look over his shoulder at me. “Rolled for initiative.” I remarked. I quickly took my messenger stone from my bag and tapped it, “Colgate. Cole, we found a vault and are moving in. The way back is blocked by the enemy. Wish us luck.” Nothing. “Buck… The wards down here block magic from getting out in general. I guess that’s one way to keep a Windigo penned,” I sighed. Too bad I didn’t think to bring a proper radio. Tech would probably still work… No wait, too far underground for radio. “I’m opening it,” Lily informed, reaching up with a hoof and tapping the button. The door creaked with the sound of rust scraping rust. Ice cracked and shattered as the entire door pulled back and away from the center, irising open as individual blade like slivers pulled back and rotated. As the blades parted I could see that the center of the door had been chipped and broken apart on the other side, making a cone shaped, crumbling away, recess ending in that last pinprick of light. That was very concerning. I knew Cole’s true form was semi-solid. She could fit through a plate sized hole if she squeezed. This windigo could slip through much smaller places. And put a lot of energy into making this hole as small as possible... That couldn’t be for food reasons. It would want out. It would know there was more to be had on the other side. It was like… Maybe it wanted to leave, but keep something else inside… Oh bucking tartarus, please let that just be my imagination! A series of bright lights over the doorway snapped on, revealing a steel walled tunnel heading maybe fifty meters to another large door. There was nothing to do but walk down the icey, but brightly lit passage. “Stay close,” I instructed, stepping into the tunnel. Lily nodded and followed along after me, wisely keeping his light spell floating above his head. Who knew if the weirdly intact lights would go out… On the right side of the tunnel a few meters in, I spotted another brass panel. One button, one lever. Fortunately they were labeled. ‘Door Release’ and ‘Lock current position’. I gave the lever a quick yank with my magic to the locked position. “Good call,” Lily remarked. “You said it sister,” I replied. “... Brother.” Lily corrected. “Sorry, sister is just a thing to call a pony you work with. It’s like the Griffonese ‘comrade’.” I apologized, noticing a door ahead and to the left. “Oh, sorry.” The door in the side wall was mostly iced over, but I could see it was made from oak timber, tightly fit boards. An odd choice for such an obviously expensive bunk- Oh dear Luna we were in a bunker! An honest to god Tribunal Bunker! The troopers insisted they didn’t know any of the fallback headquarters. This could be the single worst mistake- I spotted a sign at the far end of the tunnel, next to a button on yet another brass plate. It read ‘WARNING: Do not enter laboratory without protective equipment.’ Okay, good news. It wasn’t an HQ. Bad news. It was a lab. With a warning for- “So um, that sign is a warning, und that door is labeled Equipment Room.” Lily pointed out mega helpfully. “Oh good!” I exclaimed, turning and punching the iced over timbers with a telekinetic burst. The door shattered like glass. Looks like someone had gotten hungry for door… “Okay… It’s safe to say that nothing in there won't be frozen to shatterpoint. Know any wards?” I asked Lily hopefully. He nodded. “Ja, I have a good shield spell.” “What about passive protectio- oh! Is it a mobile shield?” I asked hopefully. He shook his head no. “Damn… Well, we brave it then. We will just have to chug some healing potions later, that’s all.” I lamented. “Ja… Umm… Nein.” Lil said firmly, shaking his head. “We turn back, we freeze the entire path out, und we leave. I am not entering a hazmat suit area without a hazmat suit.” I couldn’t really blame him for that. Lily turned around and started to leave the tunnel. One step. Two… Then Three. The lights faded to a dull red. A hiss like the death rattle of an old stallion echoed down the tunnel. The shards of ice pealed up off the floor like rose petals in the wind. With a sound like ripping flesh the steel wall panels on the side of the tunnel we had entered peeled back, pulsing, dripping, blackish red tendrils pouring forth from the gaps, weaving a solid wall of flesh that blocked the exit before twisting and melting into a closed eye. The eye opened. The eye dilated. The eye saw us. The hissing became a dull pleased sounding rumble. Lily wheeled around and sprinted for the door. “Bumsen alles und Lauf!” He screamed. “Whatever you just said!” I scream-agreed in reflexive panic, smashing the door button with my telekinesis. The other door hissed, screeching as the end of the tunnel sized square door pulled into the right side wall. Lily threw himself at the gap, wriggling through at a speed which would impress a lamia contortionist. I jumped, passing through the door just as it cleared a pony’s width, and instantly falling down a short staircase to slide along the floor of a massive steel walled, floored, and ceilinged room. I had no time to take anything in as the still opening door was smashed inwards. Ten tons of steel bending like taffy as a river of fleshy tendrils burst from the tunnel, spreading inwards across the wall, infecting each steel panel like a virus, making the metal rot like dead leaves! “Food…” A deep, hateful, rumbling hissed. Lily yanked me to my hooves with his magic, running into the center of the room, only to jump back in terror as the floor blistered upwards, popping as a putrid green ooze erupted from the wound in the floor. This was so above my paygrade! Oh bucking Luna, please don’t be real, please be an illusion, please oh please be an illusion! Yes, that’s it Lyra, it’s an illusion. Find the windigo, ice it. It’s not actual transformed into this evil, it's all an illusion. Yes. Illusion. Hahaha! The stairs ripped apart with a loud fibrous crunch, broken shards of metal arranging themselves into a mouth- “There! Fire!” I screamed, immediately slicing a line along the stair-mouth with a blazing gold beam of light! The room screamed! The infected, rotting, wall tendrils began to bleed! Something slammed up from the floor, smashing the wind out of me. The floor flashed by, the wall, the ceiling. My skull rang as I smashed into the ceiling. My chest crumpled as I hit the floor a heartbeat later. A second ear-shattering scream ripped through the room! The blood red light flickered white for the barest glimpse of a moment as a massive wave of cold assaulted my rear legs. I was in too much pain to move. I just had to get the weakest powers… I could have been turned by Vinyl but nooo… I was stuck with regeneration that would keep me paralyzed here, helpless as the room itself devoured me whole. “Sterben!” Lily shrieked. “Sterben! Sterben!” The air was split by more screams, each punctuated by another blast of colder-than-ice air! “Prey… Die… Consume… You!” The rumble hissed in rage and pain. The lights flared to an intense unearthly red! “Lyra!” Lily screamed I bit my lip and pushed myself up off the ground, chest screaming in agony. Come on Lyra, suck it up. Rise above it. Make it back home to Bon-bon. I managed to turn my head. I could see Lily now. Wrapped in a wad of black, icor oozing fleshy tendrils, being pulled slowly towards a pony shaped blob of flesh, coated in frost and large crystals of ice. “Gotcha… plot… kid.” I groaned, putting half my energy into a single dense bolt of crackling lightning. The bolt struck the flesh-blob, the scream ripped panels off the walls, thick black ooze pouring from the gaps like oil as electrical arcs raced around the floor, seeking anything conductive! The tendrils vanished as if they had never been. Lily dropped to the flesh-infected rotten floor with a loud metallic thud. An impossible sound, unless- “Illusion!” Lily exclaimed. “Oh you can just buck right off to Tartarus!” His horn flashed blue, the air around the blob shimmered, thickened, and a wave of intense cold filled the room as the wendigo screeched again, the rotting walls, tendrils, and blistering puss patches vanishing like dust blown off a countertop. The room was normal. Perfectly normal. And the sickly yellow pony shaped flame ball crackled weakly, laying on the floor as it crawled towards Lily, dragging it’self with one barely defined hoof. “You’re … Weak… I… Can… See it… Fooood… Prey…” The windigo whispered. “I said buck off!” Lily screamed, horn flashing again. This time I saw the damage. The Windigo’s form pulled itself apart like pulling a lump of clay from a million places at once. It shrieked, the cry going dead silent half way through it’s scream as it’s body dissolved into embers, sparks, and then nothing. Lily laughed then fall over onto his side. “Adrenaline… So… Much… Hahaha… Oh… Vögeln mich.” I felt my skull knit itself back together. Man that was a weird feeling… Getting some stability back into my legs I staggered over to Lily and gently put a hoof on his neck. “Ah hay… Just sit there a bit… Heart attacks and other horse apples.” I grumbled, sitting down to let myself heal. “Ja… Faust’s bloody mane…” Lily groaned. “This place is mine. I bucking earned it!” I nodded. I’d have to report this, but if we thoroughly explored this bunker, and it was fine, I’d get Luna to let the kid keep it. “Yeah. You can say that again.” I agreed. “You just saved my plot.” “It didn’t have… A stake.” Lily grunted. “Yeah, cause what wouldn’t that kill...” I chuckled. “Magic works too. We’re just hard to kill. Not impossible except one way… I’m nursing broken ribs right now. I’m not Vinyl or her dad, you can’t just stick my bits back together.” “Oh.” Lily said in the tone of a pony who needed a drink and a nap. I certainly bucking did at least. Nap, drink, Bon-bon. All at once, not in sequence. But there was still work to do. Now that the room wasn’t a mass of demon tendrils and sickness, I could make it out easily. The huge chamber was divided into sections. There was a security door behind me, to my right was a pair of large rooms separated by a doorway that was built on the lower half of the bigger area, with the top half open to the air and made into some sort of lounge. To my left was too more rooms with a large staircase separating them. The top portion of those rooms was also open to the air, forming a balcony two upright liquid filled tanks sat on top of. “I need you to know that I owe you one,” I said in as steady and honest tone I could manage at the moment. “You’ve got the right stuff for this kinda thing. You can be my wingmare anytime.” “Ha! Ja, but no.” Lily laughed, taking a deep breath and slowly standing up. “I never, ever, ever, want to fight an illusionist ever again.” I nodded. “I second that emotion.” “So… It’s midnight, und we just fought an apex predator with illusion powers, emotional manipulation ability, und body crushing telekinesis… I’m tired, und I want to go to bed, but this wouldn’t be the worst night ever… So we need to go search those rooms don’t we?” Lily asked with the most pathetic eardroop ever. Stop giving me Bon-bon eyes! It’s creepy on a colt! I nodded. He sighed. “Let’s start with the-”, Lily stopped mid sentence. “Embryology Lab?” “Wait, what?” I demanded spinning to look at the sign he was reading. Sure enough to my left, on the left side of the stairs was the entrance to one room, and a sign on it read ‘Embryology Lab’. Lily quickly walked into the room, moving with clear purpose. After passing through the doorway he called. “Ja! It is! Und it’s done the hard way.” I had to see this. I quickly moved over, walking into the lab to find Lily inspecting rows of alchemical stations, several freezers, and other serious chemistry apparatuses. “Well… Did not expect to find this here.” I muttered. “Somepony was using this to do Biomancy the hard way.” Lily said in a professional tone as he inspected an array of small glass dishes set under a complex series of glass tubes. “I recognize this from my history lessons. It’s a Falsch Gebärmutter, this is used to culture an embryo und check to see if it’s correctly developing. “Und these over here, these would um… This would break the embryo down so you could extract genetic information. The fact they have thirty dishes in the Gebärmutter implies bulk creation und testing… They were artificially breeding something.” He finished, shaking his head. “Das ist like seeing an early Biomancy laboratory. Before any of the magical techniques were developed.” He added, moving to open the closest freezer. “So, trying to reinvent a lost art huh?” I asked. “Seems legit. Tribunal agents were supposed to be super tough. Maybe this is where they worked out how to breed…” I trailed off as I realized something. In the room outside, there were banners. I didn’t think to look at them because the history books said the Tribunal were into hanging their banner all over their bases. Their specific red bordered, black banner, featuring a white star. The banners outside were gray, with a blue jagged border, featuring a red triangle… “Or, we are dealing with a totally unrelated group,” I puzzled together. “Who abandoned this lab when the windigo broke out of containment. Hence the key being broken off in the lock…” Lily made a concerned sound. “What? I don’t think they will be back,” I said soothingly. “I mean, this place was very abandoned.” “Nein, nein, nein!” Lily said urgently. “Shadowy unknown organization, ja, sure whatever. No big deal after the windigo. Please be very quiet for a minute!” He backed up out of the freezer, carrying a single petri dish in his magic’s grip. Inside was a blob of yellow… Stuff. Oh! Oh no… Lily set the dish down on the counter and gently probed it with his magic. “Dead… To be expected. Long term cold storage… But what would you have been?” He continued to analyze the… Tissue. Ears drooping sadly. “Pony… Unicorn… No, nein, pegasus… Wa… I…” Lily looked over at me with an amount of concern I had never seen before. “This embryo is almost genetically identical to Scootaloo.” He said firmly. “It could be her mother or sibling! It’s not hers, there’s variation, but… There is no way anything else could share the tri-fold chromosome pattern she has.” I held up a hoof urgently. “Lily… Are you completely sure?” He nodded. “Ja.” “So we are standing, in a hidden lab, that’s set up to do genetic engineering, and you are holding a f- a fe… something that would have developed into a sibling of somepony raised by Unicorn Supremacists of the worst kind?” I asked. Stupid bucking tokophobia… Never thought that would come up in a delve. Half the bucking reason I became an archaeologist right there. Lily nodded. “Das ist correct.” There was only one course of action left to us now. “Okay. Lily, I’m sorry, but Luna’s going to have to investigate this… Maybe you can use the penthouse while she does, maybe you stay with Scoots, maybe you stay with me, but-” “Ja,” Lily said nodding and putting the dish back in the fridge. “I understand. But I’m keeping the building.” “I’ll do my best. I do owe you one.” I sighed. “We need to sweep the rooms.” Lily nodded. “This side first, other bottom, then the top.” I nodded as he trotted out to the next room. He was the expert here, I was following his lead now. “Splicing lab,” Lily read as he entered the much smaller bookcase filled room. “Ja, very simple chemical tanks in here. Crude, but effective… But what were the splicing?” “No idea,” I said as Lily picked up a book left on the floor as if dropped and began flipping through the pages with his magic. He read a few pages, skimmed a few more, then set the book down on the counter and sat down, putting his head into his hooves. “Do I even want to know?” I asked. “Nein…” Lily whispered, face still planted into hooves. Buck… I had to. It was my job… I was reporting this to Luna after all. “I… I need to… For the report.” I said urgently but hesitantly. “I’d read it, but I know absolutely no genetics terms.” “You wouldn’t need them.” Lily warned. “I need to know.” I insisted, this time a bit fearfully. “They were breeding unicorns…” He said slowly. “For pure strains. Und splicing them together in a fluid derived from windigo essence. Freezing them into a pool of liquid mana. They… They were trying to give unicorns windigo magic… Und, to get their supply of windigoes… They let some embryos develop fully, mature enough to need to eat solid foods und then… Th-the containment cell…” I had no words. “I… I don’t…” Lily stammered. “Yeah… I don’t understand why either.” I said bitterly. “With all the good that the art can do… Why? Why do people choose to do evil things with it?” Lily demanded. “It’s… It’s barbaric! I can’t even begin to… Her parents! Scoots parents know about this! They know who is responsible!” Lily jumped up with a violent gleam in his eyes, growling through clenched teeth. “I’ll beat it out of them!” I quickly wrapped the unicorn in a tight hug. I like history. I’d read about what happened in Germaney. Why all Germanes looked the same and were almost always sick. This was personal for him on two fronts. He needed the hug. “Shhh… It’s okay,” I soothed. “We’ll finish here. I’ll get Luna on this, and once we have official permission, then I’ll hold the bat for you while you beat the truth out of those savages!” “They could have cured a disease!” Lily shouted. “Eradicated it! All this time, money, effort, and they… They… They choose to follow some archaic ideology und pollute the art with another atrocity! “It’s… It’s our fault. It’s half our fault… If we had shared the art, maybe… Maybe they would have used… Other methods.” I tightened my hug. “I know. I don’t understand why people choose evil ether.” “I am keeping this lab!” Lily insisted, making me let go of her in shock. “Why?” I demanded incredulously. “Because if there is a last thing I do, it will be to turn all of this cruelty and evil into something good!” He said in an iron tone. “I will take this torture chamber, and use it to cure something, und I’ll give that cure away. Buck money. Buck time. Buck effort. There has been enough evil done with the art I love!” Buck… I… I didn’t even… Wow. That was certainly an interesting mindset. He would take this place of evil, and de-corrupt it. I liked that idea. Yeah. That was good. Destroying this place would do nothing to decrease the harm it did in the past, but using it for good could possibly make up for everything that had happened here. Maybe, one day. “Yeah. That’s honestly a good idea,” I said approvingly. “We’re checking upstairs…” Lily muttered stomping out the door and turning to head up. I quickly followed. Even with me being reasonably sure the windigo was dead, I wasn’t about to be alone in this place… Not for another week at least. We reached to top of the stairs. The two clear glass tanks sitting on the loft portion were clearly labeled with more brass plaques, but the lettering had been scraped and worn off over time. Each tank had a dull blue fluid washing around the top of it, moving, bubbling, undulating… “So um, since those run into a dispenser at the bottom,” I asked needing to make a joke, “are those, like, evil water coolers or-” “It’s cryo fluid. They are probably storing base DNA strands in them.” Lily remarked looking up at the large two pony wide steel door set into the wall in front of the stairs. “Energy Cohesion… Maybe this is the utility room?” I shook my head as I eyed the frosty ground, spotting a yellow and black caution pattern painted on the floor under the ice. “Uh, you don’t put a hazardous area stripe in front of your crystal chamber… So, if they were making windigoes into a liquid, this is probably where they did that.” Lily nodded and stepped forward. “There’s a pressure plate here, I think the doors will-” Mechanisms in the walls groaned as the doors slowly pulled apart, revealing a second set of doors behind them which also were groaning open, and then a third set beyond them, which finally led into the room behind the frankly insane amount of secur- A unicorn’s skeleton fell, striking the floor and shattering like glass. It had been propped up on the inside of the second door, the remains of a black lab coat fanned out around the former pony. A researcher… Trapped between the sets of doors in a one ponywide space… “Well, that’s where our windigo probably came from.” I sighed, thinking of sweeping the remains up for burial before remembering what the ponies here had done. “Ja… Okay, so uh, don’t follow me until I’m all the way through so we don’t close the doors on each other.” Lily insisted walking carefully into the hall, stepping over the frozen solid remains. I nodded. “Good plan.” Lily carefully walked down the hall, looking down at the floor, probably searching for more pressure plates. Sure enough as he passed the final set of doors there was another click and the doors began to grind shut. Just before the front doors slammed together I heard Lily yelp in terror, “Ly-” The doors smashed into one another with a sound of hammer on anvil. I bolted forward, slammed my hooves down on the plate, and pushed myself against the seam between the doors, surging through the moment they parted enough only to hit the second doors, squeeze through the gap, hit the third doors, force myself through the widening opening, roll across the floor, spring, up, igniting horn- “No wait! It’s fine! It’s trapped in there!” Lily shouted from just behind me. I flicked my eyes around the room. It was mostly empty, a few worktables, some equipment, a small force and power hammer for some reason, and the center dominated by a huge dark blue glass chamber. The glass walls were easily a foot thick, it’s floor was a grate leading to a drain, the ceiling had apertures in it with frosted edges, a huge block of warded steel formed the rear side. Most importantly, cowering on the far side of the tank was another windigo. Smaller than the other one, fiery body much more energetically dancing, and colored a very pale blue, almost white. This one was far healthier than the other. It had a mane and tail made of a darker sea-green fiery aura, and two burning emerald eyes. “It’s pretty well fed,” I warned. “This tank looks like it dumps freezing water. We lucked out, where’s the con-” “Please don’t kill me!” The windigo begged in a female voice. “I don’t want to consume ponies, that’s a waste of natural resources! You make more heat all the time, it’s insane to just kill one! If you leave one in the room the room warms back up. I’m not greedy, I can wait an hour! Besides, you share heat with each other, yes? That’s what hugs are for right, sharing warmth? I can do things to result in being hugged! Ponies like music, right? The radio always has music on it! I can sing! Please don’t!” I narrowed my eyes a bit. “Yeah… So, your friend sort of tried to eat me while throwing illusions around. Pretty sure you're lying.” Lily put a hoof on my shoulder. “Lyra, her voice matches the one I heard upstairs.” “That doesn't mean much.” I objected. “Tried?” The windigo asked. “You killed him? Good. He always threatened to eat me. That’s why I ‘broke out’ of the lab.” Well that was true, they could eat one another, but still… “If you were afraid of the other one, why are you down here now?” I asked. “Oh gee, I scare somepony accidently and then they re-emerge a few hours later with a pony dressed in what I can only postulate to be assault gear to come in and probably to kill me.” The windigo said rolling her ‘eyes’. “Of course I endeavored to obnubilate beneath the barracks in the concealed sections of the base to eschew death! I… I just forgot that he was… Non compos mentis. His telekinesis is more puissant than mine. He forced me into here to preserve for later.” “Um, did you just sit down and read a thesaurus or something?” Lily asked for me. “Yes,” the windigo replied. “How else would I have learned to verbalize felicitously?” Huh... Point to you windigo. The whole 'locked in here' thing probably meant a lack of Equish classes. “So um, in laymare’s terms…” I prompted. “Uh, you are in assault gear, probably here to kill me, so I hid down here in a panic, forgot that my…roommate was insane and more powerful than I am, and was promptly confined to this tank.” It summarized. That did seem sort of reasonable… And well, not all of them were evil. I gave Lily a slow look of concern. “Are you buying this?” “It seems reasonable, und I don’t want anyone else to die in here.” He said firmly. “You said you listen to the radio, ja?” The windigo tilted its head. “What do the words ‘und’ and ‘ja’ mean?” “He doesn't speak Equish as his native language. That’s an accent.” I explained. “There is more than one language? Great! As if the system of communication wasn’t already intricate enough, ostensibly nopony can accede on a singular system! How do you communicate congruously!?” The windigo demanded with an angry ‘hoof’ stomp. “Well, first of all,” I explained, “we use simpler words. Also most ponies know enough simple Equish words to talk to nearly anypony else.” “Okay. Thank you. So, since you’re verbalizing with me, that signifies you’re not going to kill me, right?” It… Ah buck it, she asked. She seemed civil, there was probably no need to kill her… But if we let her out and she attacked- Eh, Lily had this. We were a good team. “Oh!” The windigo exclaimed in realization. “Ponies only harm those they know names of in rare circumstances! My designation is Three-emm-dash-bee-three-arr.” Three-emm-dash-bee-three-arr? The buck sort of name is- Wait, not a name, a designation, meaning she was- Lily’s ears drooped before mine. She understood what that implied too. This particular windigo must have been created here. Probably the last one before the place was abandoned. “Two questions before I’m okay with not killing you to protect myself.” I informed stepping closer to the tank. “First, why was this place abandoned and when? Second, If you could get out of the Lab, why can’t you get out of the hotel?” “That’s all?” 3M-B3R asked sounding surprised. “They fled in panic thirty one years ago when I broke out of the containment cell after working out that my former self’s bones could be habituated to compose a pry-bar and ergo I could tear away the warding circuitry from an sizeable enough section of the cell through which I could pass after shrinking myself. The Ashes postulated I had developed a puissance which let me vanquish their wards. “This is erroneous, which is why I was only able to leave the lab. It would seem that the laboratory’s wards are on an independent system from the base's manareactor, as that is still running the wards for the exterior walls. The interior wards however, failed a long time ago. My… non-friend did not know the outer lab door was unwarded however, and endeavored to dig through for some time afore giving up. “Thus, I had free reign of the upper floors for the last thirty years. The insect ponies were rather nice, but I remained obnubilated from them for trepidation of being harmed. I’ve spent the last fifteen years subsisting on the sun’s warmth via the windows, and composing music. Do you require more information?” I should start reading the dictionary apparently… Half the words in there I had absolutely no idea what they even meant. That or I should see about inventing a ‘big words’ add on for a translation spell. “I see.” Lily said in a tone of honest to Celestia comprehension. “That’s why you’re looking confused every time she’s said anything. Uh, number-letter-string, you’re using words most ponies don’t know. I’ve been understanding everything because I habitually put a translation spell on myself in the morning, but apparently it does not include ‘trepidation.’ You need to use more commonly known words.” “But then my speech is inaccurate and miscommunications ensue!” 3M-B3R protested. “Miscommunications are happening right now! I have only the barest idea of what your answers actually mean,” I objected. “Oh,” she said blinking. “I see. Give me a minute to…refine.” Lily sighed and turned to face me. “She broke out thirty years ago, scared the ponies working here off, and lived upstairs undetected since the changelings owned it. Apparently there’s a arcane reactor powering this place, but the lab wards are on a separate power supply. So she can leave here but-” “Wait a bucking second, if the lab wards are off, then she’s not trapped here and is lying!” I objected spinning around and readying a spellbolt! Only to let the energy fade away as I saw the windigo double facehoof and groan in the same manner as Vi upon realizing she’d done something extremely stupid. “How could I possibly have forgotten that?” She moaned. “I could have just left and warned you not to come down here…” Right. This was no monster, this was a person. “Does that button, or that lever open the tank?” I asked. 3M-B3R stood up and walked through the glass, leaving a corner of the tank between her and us. “The lever. The button floods the chamber with liquid nitrogen. You… You won't hurt me, correct?” “No, we won’t.” Lily said firmly. Shit, I had to report this. A proper inspection team would find a windigo hiding here no matter how good she could hide. They would kill her. “So um… About this reactor, how would I shut it off?” I asked. “Oh no that’s a bad idea! Then the lights and heaters would do off, not to mention the doors! You’d trap yourself in here, since the backup systems are long since dry.” The windigo in need of a proper name warned. “Yeah, well, you can’t stay here. I have to report this to the Princess, and well… I’m not a racist, but any inspectors will definitely see you as a monster first. You need to leave.” “Oh. You can shut the wards off in the reactor room. There’s a labeled button you can see through the door. I can’t go in though, it’s got it’s own warding,” she replied. “How will we hide her?” Lily asked. Well, I sure as hay wasn’t going to do it. “Uh, you do it. She can be your sister or something.” I decided. Wait a moment! 3M-B3R, Ember! Ah ha! Name acquired! “Yeah, you can pose as Lily’s sister Ember, who's visiting from Germaney. I’m sure Sky will be okay with pretending that, and Scoots will um, Scoots will befriend anything so she can help too. That should be enough to legitimize-” “But I don’t like being white.” Ember (because buck calling someone a string of characters) protested. “Uh, related ponies don’t have to be the same color…” I said slowly. “Oh crap, um, you can shapeshift, right?” Ember nodded, her undefined flame shape twisting into a unicorn version of herself, same pale white-blue, sea green, and emerald colors. Fur, teeth, ears, a simple horn, mane done up in a ponytail with two loose bits of bang framing her face… Tartarus she was better at that than Cole! “Should I add a buttocks insignia? Are those common?” She asked. I almost fachooved. “They are called cutiemarks, everypony has one, and they signify something you are good at.” “Ah...” She said, a simple deep purple and blue arcane guitar fading in on her flanks. “It might not be a good idea to have her claim to by my sister.” Lily mused. “I have friend in town, they know I’m an only foal… Ember, we shall say you are a friend of mine visiting from Germaney. That’s far more, viable.” I nodded. “Yeah that probably is…” I turned to give Ember a quick look. “Right, so, I’m turning the wards off. You’re free to go. But if I hear of anypony getting hurt by anything remotely resembling a windigo, I’ll find you.” “I assure you, I won't hurt anypony. You already radiate heat. Sure, killing you would get me plenty of warmth for a few days immediately, but that’s just a bit short sighted in my opinion… Also your foods are tasty and can supplement radiated heat with their atomic motion.” Ember said reassuringly. I nodded. “Okay, everypony on me. We're leaving. Lily, take her and wait at the entrance, I’ll boop the button.” “Alright.” Lily agreed, tiredness starting to creep into his voice. The three of us left the Lab, moving back into the main area. Looking ahead I could see two regular steel doors with a sign reading ‘Reactor control’. Hopefully, that was just a manacrystal compression reactor and not some hybrid nuclear-thaumaturgic reactor. That would be bad. Lily and Ember split off, moving up the steps into the entrance tunnel. “So, are you okay with being called Ember?” Lily asked. “It is a suitably distinct label, assuming ponies do not possess the capacity to vocalize my appropriate label with any efficiency.” She said simply. “Allight. Und you compose music?” He asked. “Yes. Is my guitar okay? I could play some for you.” Ember asked. “Ja, it should be okay. It’s still by the entrance as far as I know.” Lily replied as the vanished into the tunnel, and I entered the reactor room. This was it. This was the big test. We had split up. Lily could handle himself for the split second… If she attacked him, it would be now… Nothing. Not one scream. Not one sound of a spell. I nodded, scanned the wall, noted that this was NOT the dangerous kind of reactor, found the brass panel, and booped the button. As I left the reactor room, I couldn’t help but wonder what music a windigo, who had been trapped in a lab and love hotel for three decades would write. She had an insane-huge vocabulary. That implied intelligence, and presumably the only music that might be kept in a laboratory would be classical compositions. The guitar was not important, I mean how many different instruments could someone have accidentally left in a hotel? “Woah!” Lily exclaimed. “What? I can’t let it look all old while playing…” Ember said shyly. “Okay, let’s rock.” The answer to my question came as a thundering series of masterfully played notes exploded from the entrance tunnel in a euphoric melody that sounded as if it had been written by Octavia, and was being played by Van Haylen! A second later a second guitar kicked in, somehow, adding it’s own melody to the first. An instant later, she started to sing. Well. Very well. Well enough for me to be certain that all this windigo had done for thirty years was practice. Thirty years of nothing but practicing playing and singing Mane Metal! “Faust gave rock and roll to you, // gave rock and roll to you // Put it in the soul of everypone... // Do you know what you want? You don't know for sure // You don't feel right, you can't find a cure // And you're gettin' less than what you're lookin' for… “You don't have money or a fancy car // And you're tired of wishin' on a falling star // You gotta put your faith in a loud guitar! “Faust gave rock and roll to you, // gave rock and roll to you // Put it in the soul of everypone // Now listen, // If you wanna be a singer, or play guitar // Mare, you gotta sweat or you won't get far // Cause it's never too late to work nine-to-five! “You can take a stand, or you can compromise! // You can work real hard, or just fantasize // But you don't start livin' till you realize // Faust gave rock and roll to you, // gave rock and roll to you // Gave rock and roll to everypone…” “Oh buck the hay yes!” I exclaimed. Best. Ruin. Ever!