We Shall go on to the End

by Wheller

Chapter 1

We Shall go on to the End
Chapter 1

Vinyl Scratch breathed deeply as she stepped outside of the Cutie Mark Crusader’s office and into the hallway outside. The hallway was deserted, which made sense, the third shift had yet to go off work yet, and as the smallest staff in FutureTec, the hallways of the former missile base were deserted. ‘It’s all clear out here’, Vinyl said as she fully left the office, keeping her revolver trained down the hallway.

The group stepped from the office and into the hallway, Twilight and Vinyl up front, Rarity, and Surprise, who had drawn her chain knife, and was holding it in her teeth. ‘You still have that?’ Vinyl questioned the Pegasus mare as she looked back at her.

‘Ihm cahse ah neef it!’ Surprise mumbled.

‘Some thing’s wrong, we’re still under emergency power, the backup geothermal plant should have kicked on by now!’ Scootaloo said.

‘Geothermal plant?’ Fluttershy asked in confusion.

‘Yeah, FutureTec HQ has three power systems, The primary nuclear fission reactor, the backup geothermal, and then the emergency power, which runs on deep cycle batteries’, Scootaloo said. ‘Should the nuclear reactor ever go offline, Emergency power kicks in for five minutes, and then is taken over by backup power’.

‘So then’, Vinyl Scratch said. ‘We can say for certain that this isn’t an accident’.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded in affirmation.

Vinyl took a step forward, when not two metres in front of her, a gigantic bulkhead door slammed shut in front of her. The hallway to their left's bulkhead door slammed shut not long afterwards. 'The doors run on emergency power?' she asked.

'The releases do', Sweetie Belle said. 'The doors themselves? No'.

'That's a stupid design', Vinyl said.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded their heads in agreement.

'Vinyl, Rarity, help me with this!' Twilight Sparkle asked as she inspected the bulkhead door before her. It was too large and too heavy for her to be able to push open with her magic on her own, but three unicorns together... that just might do it.

Vinyl and Rarity set down their guns on the floor and wrapped their magic around the bulkhead door, struggling with all of their magical might to push the door open. It refused to budge. Something had to be holding it in place.

'Well so much for that', Vinyl complained.

'Ahf gaht ift!' Surprise mumbled as she took a step towards the door, she revved her chainknife and plunged it into the door. The diamond carbide teeth of the tool ground against the metal door for a moment, Surprise however, pulled back after a couple of seconds. Inspecting her handiwork with disappointment, the door only had a few small scratches. 'Ifst tah thaick tah caht', she said, spitting out the chain-knife and repeating. 'It's too thick to cut'.

Vinyl Scratch looked in disappointment at the door, then back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. 'Is there any other way out?'

The Crusaders shook their head. 'The system is designed so that if power is cut off through unnatural means, that the control room seals it self from invasion, the only way an intruder can get in is if they turn the power back on', Scootaloo said. 'Which means then they have to deal with internal security'.

'Oh oh!' Pinkie Pie said, waving her hooves in the air. 'I've got an idea', Pinkie Pie flipped open her saddlebags and pulled out two bricks of her Composition B explosive. She pressed them against the door, and took out two wires and pushed them into the clay. She unrolled the wires and moved back into the room. Everypony got the hint and moved back into the room. Pinkie Pie pulled out her plunger detonator and wired it up. 'Everypony ready?' Pinkie Pie asked.

Everypony nodded, and Pinkie Pie threw down the plunger. They heard the explosion from the hallway, dust filled the air, obscuring their view. They waited for the dust to settle, and Pinkie Pie looked out into the hallway with glee, however her smile quickly turned to a frown. Then to an annoyed glare. 'Oh come on!' Pinkie Pie cried out in frustration.

Twilight peered out into the hallway, the door hadn't even budged. 'So I guess we're waiting', Twilight said with a frown.

The group went back into the Cutie Mark Crusaders office and sat down on the floor. They waited around for a while. Nothing happened for a while. Vinyl Scratch groaned loudly. 'WHAT is going on out there!?'

Everyone in the room jumped when the Mainframe terminal crackled to life. Everyone looked at it, watching as the image flashed and distorted several times. The eerie green glow from the mainframe to form into the image of a unicorn.

'Fuck', Vinyl Scratch said.

'Rabble!' cried Emerald Sparkle's tinny artificial voice barked over speakers from. 'Fire up the verdant squares'.

Everypony looked at the mainframe terminal in confusion. 'What?' they all asked.

'Rabble! Demand the ancillary!' Emerald Sparkle barked again. 'Think. Fine. Speech. Bad'.

'Uh...' Vinyl Scratch said. 'What is she saying?'

'She's got brain damage', Rainbow Dash said. Causing everypony to look at her in confusion. 'I listened to one of her audio logs, talking about her connection to the mainframe. Disconnection from the mainframe was going to cause her brain damage'.

'You uh... you all don't think she's still mad about the Battle of Ponyville, do you?' Pinkie Pie asked.

'Should kill, had chance, blew it', Emerald Sparkle barked again, two turrets popped out of the side of the mainframe and pointed at the group.

'Yeah... she's still mad'.

'Frog blasts the vent core!' Emerald Sparkle cried out. Her machine guns began to click, however no bullets fired from them. 'Quoi?' she cried out.

Apple Bloom looked over the mainframe terminal. 'O' course! The mainframe's gotta have its own power source... but she can't have cut the power ta the Headquarters, she needs it ta be functional!'

'Power off-line... what? Why? Eagle the marks of the system!' Emerald Sparkle cried out.

‘Can somepony turn her off?’ Applejack asked in annoyance. ‘Her funny talk ain’t doin’ us any good’.

‘Rabble for soothe, dumb hick!’ Emerald Sparkle snapped back. ‘Reroute the hydrosphere, powered the armour of the doors!’

Twilight examined the still flickering, and unstable, image of her grandmother to the fifteenth power. ‘I know we haven’t exactly been on the best of terms, Great Grandmother... but someone, or something, has it in for us, all of us, and we need your help. Can you reroute some of your power to the bulkhead doors outside?’

‘Easy’, Emerald Sparkle said. She was silent for a moment. They all heard the bulkhead doors rise up from outside, slamming into place in the ceiling. ‘Not over. Will kill you’, she added at the last minute.

‘We’ll see’, Twilight said.

Emerald Sparkle made no reply, instead, she flicked off of the screen. The Mainframe terminal's screen resuming it's standard 'Connection lost...' screen.

Twilight waved to everypony and they all galloped out of the room, they didn't get before running into a wall of ponies clad in thick armour. Apple Bloom opened her mouth to say something, but then she noticed that the insignia's on the armours did not signify that these were Templars of the Manehattan chapter of the Cultus Mechanius.

Rather, these were members of the Fillydelphia chapter. One of the Fillydelphia chapter members stepped forward. Vinyl Scratch and Surprise looked up to discover that they knew who he was. 'Archimedes', Vinyl Scratch said with a hiss.

'A fine hello to you too, Vinyl Scratch', Archimedes said with a grin as the unicorn stallion lowered his weapon towards them. Archimedes weapon was unlike any they had seen before. It was large, bulky, with a large battery attached to it and a temperature gauge on the back near the aperture sight. The weapon was roughly the size of the Welaran Commonwealth's Emerald Rifle and looked relatively heavy. Archimedes stood out among the crowd as he was clad in his deep purple chapter master robes, his coat was a light beige colour, and his mane was silver, while it hadn't been that long since Vinyl Scratch had last seen him, Archimedes looked much older than he did the last time she had seen him. The others in his group were three earth ponies, all carrying identical weapons to Archimedes' in a powered arm attachment on their backs. 'You know, I really should be thanking you', Archimedes added. 'Your antics, after all, did allow me to find this place, kind of hard to miss an invasion of robots, after all. That and the Manehattan chapter's... gracious... gift of their weapons', Archimedes said slightly lowering his weapon in admiration of it, while still keeping it pointed at the group. 'Even with their fancy particle lasers, the Manehattan Templars were still no match for my Brother Paladins'.

'Ya'll gonna keep flappin' yer gums about stuff Ah don't understand, or ya gonna say what ya want?', Applejack cried out. Stomping her hoof in annoyance.

Archimedes looked at her for a moment. 'Ah yes, down to business, thank you for getting me back on track. Brother Paladins? Kill them'.

Everypony looked at Applejack in annoyance, who gave them a nervous chuckle. The Fillydelphian Paladins all took a step forward in unison when the bulkhead door gave way, crashing down upon them and crushing them under it's huge weight.

A beam of bright light from the Paladin's weapons shot out towards the wall, filling the air with a deafening screech.A beam of bright light from the Paladin's weapons shot out towards the wall, filling the air with a deafening screech, hitting the wall and leaving dark burn marks in the metal.

'Quick! This way!' Apple Bloom called out, pointing towards the other open hallway, they all took off running for their lives.

Comments

[Fulgor Ignis]

And so, the fun begins anew.

[Disguised]

Frog blast the vent core indeed.

[DreadedCandiru2]

Oh, well. So Archimedes is being the idiot this time. Perhaps when they get where they're going, they can team up with the Nephites.

[ugugg93]

Aw, and here I thought Celestia had decided to lay waste to all