Clockwork Wing watched from her perch on the edge of the warehouse roof as the last employees trotted off for the night. There was always the risk of being spotted up here, especially by a thestral, but the dim light of the starry sky wasn't enough for most ponies to notice things by. The moon would be out about now, but the higher buildings rising above blocked it out completely. But dim as the light was, it was plenty to see by with her green glasses. Everything looked strange with all the blue and red light automagically converted into green, but combining it all into one color made it much easier for the eyes to pick out contrast in the very dim light.
"Sending a radio pulse now," she said into her sending stone, before pushing a button on a small gadget on her belt. "Pulse sent. Verify triangulation."
"Pulse received on all antennas. Triangulation complete. You're about twenty hooves up from the cluster of signals we previously detected, roughly straight up. It's definitely the right building," Golden Spanner's voice spoke into her ear through the receiving stone clipped into place within. "Be careful, Clockwork. There's no activity there now, but who knows what they left behind?"
"That's what I'm here to find out," she said before pulling the control cables to spread her wooden wing frames wide, the cloth spreading to catch the air as she leaped into a glide. Spiraling downward, she managed to alight behind the two earth pony guards standing a few hooves away with neither party noticing the other. Wings folded in tight against her flanks, she drew a small vial from one of her belt pouches and poured it into the lock. Sticking a pair of thin metal wires in, she attached a battery and the electric shock caused the gel to instantly solidify. A quick turn unlocked the door, and she carefully returned the newly formed key to its vial, removing the current to let it flow back in. Only when the door quietly clicked closed behind her did the two guards in the black cloaks notice enough to turn toward the door, then to each other, and shrug.
"The liquid key worked like a charm, Greased Lightning," Clockwing whispered as she began her search within.
"You weren't doubting me none, were you now?" Greased countered across the link.
"Of course not, just confirming your invention's success," Clockwork pointed out. She got quiet for a time as she looked for anything out of the ordinary. Another quick use of the liquid key got her into the manager's office, where she checked the logs for anything unusual.
Just as things were getting interesting in a dry and boring manner, her thoughts were interrupted by a faked snore. "Come on, mare, you find anything? It's boring here if you don't narrate."
"Maybe... I wish we had a camera here. Well, one suited for this kind of thing. Maybe we can put that on the invention queue," Clockwork suggested. "Anyways, up until the incident, this warehouse was receiving a shipment of onyx every week during the rains. What's curious is that the jewelry stores serviced by the warehouse didn't have any onyx jewelry. Black isn't that popular of a color, but where's it all going if not to the stores?"
"That's all you've got? Unpopular gem shipments?" Lightning complained.
"I'm still reading here. Anyways, the day of incident they have a half written entry crossed out. They were expecting another shipment but it didn't show up, is my guess," Clockwork continued. "So something definitely happened here. Anyways, I'm moving out. I can always come back here a little later."
"Please!" Lightning agreed.
The search of the main warehouse area proved entirely fruitless, aside from the mild note that not a single container was labelled 'Onyx'.
"Just get out of there, Clocks, you're wasting your time, and risking too much for too little," Golden suggested.
"Just a quick pass through the other rooms, and I'll be on my way," she countered. She could at least open every door and look for anything obvious.
She opened the door to the locker rooms and gagged immediately as the smell of rotting flesh assailed her senses. "Clocks! What is it? Speak to me!" Golden said anxiously through their link.
"I'm okay. But somepony isn't. Something dead has been left to rot in here," Clockwork explained, before she began searching. A couple of adjacent lockers seemed to be the source of the smell, but they had combination locks, which she didn't have any special tricks to open.
"Okay, this is seriously creeping me out," Lightning pointed out. "You coming home now?"
"There's another door up ahead," Clockwork objected.
"Probably the showers," Golden suggested. "Be careful Clocks..."
"I'm not going to slip and-" the mare began before letting out a huge gasp. Somepony had installed iron bars to turn the shower stalls into a makeshift prison. Dried blood decorated the walls within. But far more concerning, both gates were open, with two pony corpses hanging by their necks from each. All were rotting, with flies buzzing hungrily about them.
"I-I'm... I'm coming home now. Now!" Clockwork Wing explained, unable to say any more. The mare quickly made her way back to the entrance and threw the door open, galloping past the guards before they could react, and barely registering the feel of their black cloaks rubbing against her fur as she burst forth between them. As they began to pursue, she drew a device from her belt, aiming it at a nearby rooftop and firing a cable out, the grapple at the end securing itself to a corner before she reeled herself up to it. By the time they could find a ladder to climb after her, she was long gone.
As the elevator descended, I weighed my options. This supposed alicorn was obviously a central figure in this organization, perhaps even the central figure. I suspected he wasn't what he appeared to be, but that didn't mean he wasn't powerful and dangerous. Still, being alone in this place with him, or near to it, meant rather favorable conditions for an ambush. As long as he didn't teleport out, he would have no escape and no reinforcements.
"We are going to kill you," the earth pony informed the alicorn blandly. Bubbling Beaker and I were momentary stunned before our resolve showed on our faces and in our stances.
[Why would you say that out loud?!] I questioned mentally. It was Istaran's voice that echoed in my mind though, ringing with amusement. [If you're going to play with my toys, you're going to play by my rules. You gave this pony valid reason to trust you, so to strike would have been a betrayal, more so the longer you kept up your facade. Now your intentions are clear. Have at it.]
For his part, the alicorn laughed. "Ah, so Celestia has finally sent her dogs. I thought it would have been sooner, or else that she would send her best, but you'll do for now." His horn glowed brightly, while a second horn glowed more dimly in the darkness behind him, the second horn's light visible to my eyes but not my companions.
Uncontrollably, I sat down, a vacant expression crossing my face. Bubbling reacted the same, while the earth pony had a slight delay. Internally, I started to feel a bit disconnected. A bit of introspection told me why. My mind had, in a sense, split. The organic part was completely under magical compulsion. But Deus Machina had contingencies for such a thing. The nanomachine network could bypass any nerve, controlling my body like a puppeteer. And it had had constant access to every neuron firing in my brain for some time now. It had created a digital model of my thought processes, and that digital model now was 'me' in a sense... actively thinking through the situation, and ready to assert control of my own body at a moment's notice. I realized it came mostly from my interactions with Elysium, our shared dream world. Rather than use my 'meat brain' fully, Deus and Nightmare Core had arranged to emulate parts of my mind whenever I was 'dreaming'.
Bubbling had no such advantage, however. I could command her subnet if I wanted, but she hadn't been one of us long enough to have a digital 'ghost' like I did. And I had no hope of forcing her horn to do anything useful. I started gathering an inventory from her subnet, however, to know just what other pre-fabricated tricks she had in that labcoat of hers.
And then there was null. I was fairly certain the alicorn hadn't realized yet the earth pony beside me was a dead changeling. That also meant he wouldn't know Cracked Whip had survived the fight with him. After all, the barrier in the fighting ring was set to lower when only one combatant was alive. null was crafty enough to pretend to be mind controlled, but was our foe unable to tell the difference? For that matter, could I strike while supposedly 'mind controlled'?
[It isn't a betrayal,] Istaran's voice assured, with a mental shrug. [It's not your problem if he trusts his own abilities and they fail him. He knows full well what you intend to do.]
"Since you're Celestia's dogs and all, I'll give you a suitable task. A game of fetch! Go and get her favorite dogs for me. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony! With them under my control, or even dead, the tyrant Celestia will fall. Perhaps I'll offer her sister a place in my new regime," the alicorn explained.
I really, really wanted to put this sad sack of horrible cliches out of everyone's misery quickly, but every minute he spent monologuing gave me more information about his plans, and would hopefully help me take down the whole organization, not just splinter it from the top. So I bided my time for now. Besides, I still didn't even know his name.
The scent of blood began to enter the elevator from somewhere. Mixed blood, from an assortment of ponies, enough distinct scents that Deus couldn't give a reliable count. We were getting somewhere, and it wasn't pleasant.
"But first, it's time to start your indoctrination properly. Welcome to the training grounds, my newest recruits. Welcome to the Revolution!" He stood up on his hind legs, throwing his forelegs up and his wings wide in dramatic pose. The movement of the wings didn't feel right to me. I couldn't say for sure, but it was like they had fallen into the uncanny valley... looking just right enough to feel very, deeply wrong. Also, they were red. We finally had enough light to make out that the alicorn was truly black in fur, red in feathers, mane and horn. He hopped down from his perch, not bothering to use his wings to assist his descent, and walked past us, bidding us follow.
From here, it was clear he was much larger than average, a size normally reserved for earth ponies and alicorns. He had a cutie mark that looked to be a fireball; a white round shape surrounded with red flames that matched his other features. I guessed it was proof that some ponies were just destined to be terrible.
The space we were in was massive, a largely natural cave supported by the occasional concrete pillar. There were massive stockpiles of the black crystals all around, and quite a bit else I couldn't identify. There were at least a hundred ponies down here, all bearing black crystal growths on their snouts, withers, along their spines, and even protruding out through their now indecipherable cutie marks. Most of them seemed to be busy sparring with one another rather viciously. The source of the blood was at least quite clear now; none of those sparring was lacking in injuries.
Other devices were visible on some of them, either implanted in one way or another, or worn or wielded. Those were a totally eclectic mix, clearly designed by a variety of ponies rather than an individual with a unifying aesthetic. Bunsen and Bubblings' predecessors, perhaps.
We were lead to a unicorn in a lab coat, a stallion unlike Bubbling and Bunsen. I begged the universe for him to not have a German accent. "Ah, Rising, you bring more recruits?" he inquired of our alleged leader. I mentally sighed in relief. "I'll be right with them," he offered, turning back to what he had been doing, apparently patching up an injured pegasus' wing. Once he was done, he dismissed the pony, who immediately charged off for another round of sparring. These ponies were intense.
"I leave them in your care, Doctor Bones. See that they are properly inducted, then send them on their way. They have their task," Rising said before repeating it to us anyways. "When the doctor releases you, he will send you back up into the city. Get to the town of Ponyville. Get the six mares known as the Element Bearers to come here, by whatever means you see fit. Once we have them out of our way, then we move against the real targets!" He laughed maniacally and I barely resisted the urge to end him then an there. But I waited. We were terribly outnumbered here, insufficiently equipped, and out of contact with the rest of the kingdom. It wasn't time, not yet. The moment passed, and he walked away.
The doctor had me turn around, sit by a table and let him begin injecting me with various substances, before force feeding me a sludge that seemed to be mostly ground up black crystals mixed with a bit of water and for some reason some wheat. Maybe somepony thought that would make it resemble food in some way? I was thankful for the mind control spell making it easier to pull off this deception. I don't think I could have drank it with any kind of control of myself.
I saw a unicorn a distance away checking over the contents of a clipboard while trying to look like she wasn't paying any attention to us. She had far less black crystals on her, less than even Doctor Bones. But she had the same red aura color on her telekenisis as I had seen in the elevator. And though she had been quite quiet, Deus had tracked her hoofsteps the whole way from where she had been hidden in the darkness. Now that I could see her, I memorized her features. Stark white, with an uncommonly long, pointed horn. Her mane was a dull grey, straight and simply styled. All business. She looked a bit underfed; a lean and hungry look to her eyes. Her cutie mark showed a throne, I noted, red cushions on a gold-inlaid mahogany frame.
She set the clipboard back in its place, and let her aura drop a bit, but not completely. Through Deus, I could tell her influence on my mind had faded, but another, similar spell had already taken its place. The sludge... it was a potion of a kind, I concluded. Though from all I had seen, I assumed it was not all potion. Or perhaps one of the injections was the potion? The crystals had their own purpose. One Deus would never allow to come to fruition.
Once Bubbling and null had been similarly treated, the glow in the unicorns' horn finally faded, and she moved on, heading for one of the concrete columns in the distance. She slipped behind it, and didn't re-emerge. Meanwhile, the doctor showed us to another column, revealing a smaller elevator within. "Here you are, you three. This will let you out into the basement of one of the high-rises," he explained. "From there you can let yourselves out into a back alley, and make your way to the train station. Don't dilly-dally. You have an important mission."
And just like that, we were on another, much smaller, elevator.