The Vault Initiative

by rockyrobben

Chapter 2

Sensing the crushing defeat of her beloved nation, The Goddess of Sunlight opened her wings and bid her celestial child closer.

And so it came to be that a storm of fire descended upon the world. The seas boiled; the mountains glowed; and the deserts turned to glass under her burning eye.

---

Lily's hug did nothing against the coldness that chilled my insides to numbness. Her words came out as a drone which faded against the thump of my own heart beating. My gaze fell and all I saw was the hazy blueness of my own hooves on the dull stone.

How can he know that? Mother was brave, strong and a leader of ponies. She was Celestia's chosen! And yet, she failed.

I lifted myself up, slipping out of Lily's grasp. Her mouth moved, and I heard sounds, but they meant nothing to me. Only the words of the Alpha filled my mind.

I flared my magic, and a bubble of water lifted from the pool. A moment later, the salt and other assorted pollutants dribbled out the bottom. The purified blob floated to the shore and splashed into a bucket.

Another blob flew wildly across the room, spraying the floor. I took a step into the pool. The warm sea water lapped against my hooves, welcoming me in. I wanted to lie with it, drink it, and forget this dark world.

My tears created small ripples in the pool.

Something tugged on my hind legs and tail. I shook it free.

Wetness lapped at my knees. All I had to do was lie down and everything would be ok.

Another part of me screamed, cried, and howled for my attention.

The water lapped at my belly as the salty water tried to carry my weight.

Almost over...

The inner fire flared like a phoenix rising from its ashes. With that, my clarity returned.

I roared in defiance. I was not going to die while that arse-sniffing, savage, fur ball still breathed! I had to make him face the flames and hear his screams! Oh, Celestia, Mother-of-All, I will make him pay!

Something bit on my tail and pulled me back. Flood Gate placed a comforting hoof on my shoulder, which I brushed off as I moved to the exit. He could not stop me. Not now.

"What do you think you're doing? The Dogs will kill you if you go," he said as if that would make a slightest bit of difference.

My gaze never left the end of the passageway. "I don't care," I said.

"Please Dusk," said Lily, "Please reconsider. Don't fight him." She jumped at me, but I broke free. I was Dusk Light, forever resilient!

"I'm not going to fight him," I said, "Celestia will."

The two looked at me as if magic pixies had just floated out of my ears.

Suddenly, the concern and fear on their ignorant faces grated on me like an annoying colt that cried when I tried to sleep. I bit back a snarl and hurried down the passageway towards the boulders protecting the Old Section. How could they understand? They believed she was dead. I will prove everypony wrong! I will bring the sun to this darkness!

"And do what?!" said Lily. "Resurrect her? That's insane and you know it!"

"She's not dead!" My muscles tensed and I focused on my hoof steps.

I heard Lily mumble, "Not this again," within the heavy panting of Flood as his mutant body struggled to keep up.

"But...she is!" Flood said, "And she burned...everything! Why can't you...get it into your head... that she cursed us all?"

I turned so quickly that Flood almost ploughed straight into me. I pushed him back with such force that he slid along the smooth stone. "She is not! They never found her body! And I am going up there because I know where to find her. And I will bring. Her. Back."

"You'll never find her," he said. "That witch left us to die."

My magic surged so quickly that the two ponies had no time to react. I picked up Flood and threw him into the maw of a Dog-shaped support. He crumpled to the floor, only to be picked up and thrown again.

"What do you know?" I said. "How can you denounce the one pony that gives us light and strength for many thousands of years, and who never raises her hoof against her kin? We are all her children and she loves every one of us!"

I watched Flood struggle to his hooves, his grey coat matted with his own blood. I expected anger or rage, but his expression conveyed only sorrow. He put a hoof over Lily as she sobbed into his coat.

As I panted in the hallway, resisting the urge to throw him once again, I watched him lean over and nuzzle his bereaved co-worker. "Let him go," he said. "Let him follow his madness."

He looked up to me, those sorrow-filled eyes making my own leak. "I wish you luck, Dusk Light."

I spat in his direction. "How very dare you," I muttered as I turned to run. I took the first left, knowing that I had to leave quickly. This tunnel descended into the depths of the Earth, and formed a link between the surface levels and the squalid mining levels. The Gem-lights dimmed with age as I galloped deeper down. However, to my right was an abandoned tunnel. I squeezed myself through the blocked entrance just before the Dogs crashed past.

---

I spent most of the day in the Lunarium, clutching my gem, and hiding from the sheer power of the sun that trickled through. Touching the thin beams was like putting your hoof over an oily torch used in the Under-Warrens (where the last remaining gems still hid in this depleted subterranean world). Ignoring the pain, I let my heart soar. There was no place closer to Celestia than next to her light. And, soon, I would meet her face-to-face.

I read that she was twice the size of a pony with a horn that touched the sun. I also heard that her mane ebbed and flowed in the air, even without a breeze. Oh, Master of Equestria, I cannot wait for your glorious return!

I heard the soft pitter-patter of paws. A mangy, flee ridden husk of Dog, small enough to fit through the gap, found me next to my beloved statue. I guessed he was smart enough to check the abandoned sections. However, the miserable mutt came alone, which suited me perfectly.

With a smile and a welcoming gesture, I said, "Bless Celestia, for I would not be able to do this without you!" And, with one stone, a lot of magical force, and a small distraction, I ended its pathetic existence.

I blanched as I stepped in a rapidly spreading pool of blood. For my plan to work, I needed to be invisible to those damn sniffers. With a roll --and a serious amount of retching in the corner-- my disguise was complete.

Just before the bright light turned to the silvery softness of moonrise, I began my journey. Escaping this place was difficult. But, fortunately for me, Dogs were dumb. For some reason that Celestia only knew, they could not differentiate between ponies. Even with explicit instructions such as 'the blue unicorn with three stars on his arse,' it still meant that every blue Pegasi, Unicorn, and Earth Pony became the subject to their scrutiny. And avoiding them was not too difficult either. When things became tight, I threw a rock to distract them long enough for me to slink past.

I made my way towards a cavern that the miners called The Palace, where the Alpha's mate lived. No-pony knew anything about the Matriarch other than that she guarded the way out of this cursed place.

Stories between mining ponies told that she was as tall as the palace itself, with eyes that spewed flame and claws that could cut through the thickest rocks with ease.

Hopefully, all that was exaggeration, right?

I took a deep breath and took the fourth exit from the-rounded-cavern-with-black-slabs-for-floor, keeping my head low and my pace brisk. Many parallel grooves ran from the junction down this way, but they bore few marks.

As the tunnel gave way to cavern, I just stopped and gaped like a fool. Light-headedness struck me faster than a Pony heading for food, and suddenly, I lost my balance. This cave was just so damn high!

In front of me stretched a huge clearing. Torches hung from the bases of great pillars to illuminate a lot of empty space. From here, I saw great scratches (other than mine cart tracks) embedded into the stone I stood on as if a great beast had dwelled here. I gulped as I thought back to the miner's tales.

At the back though, I saw the great face of the Palace itself. Square patches of light illuminated the vertical cliff face, and some of the courtyard far below, with powerful gem-lights within. In the centre, I saw a great rectangle of light, far greater than any of the other view-holes. Old beams jutted out above it, with ropes strung between that and the courtyard floor. If I was not mistaken, it was a crane system. And, by the debris littering the courtyard, it had failed a long time ago.

I shook off the feeling that I may just float away in this place and focused on my hooves. I walked from one incomprehensibly large pillar to another.

The palace door squealed open. I slammed my back against the pillars and held my breath. I waited heart-in-mouth for the inevitable cries of alarm.

Time slowed as I listened in to the dogs' idle chatter, but they did not mentionanything about escaping ponies. I heard their sniffers sniff.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the Dogs walked by. So far, so good.

I bolted for the door to the palace. I sped up a small staircase and slid to a halt as I approached the sturdy looking door. Well, when I said door, I meant planks of fine wood riveted onto iron beams. To the side, a metal ring made a handle. So that was what the door to the Lunarium used to look like. I tugged on the handle and slipped inside.

The hall --and it was a hall, not a cave-- continued into the distance. On either side, murals of Ponies, Changelings and Dogs, painted with incompetent hooves, danced in front of a dark grey and brown background while a angry looking sun (as in a sun with an angry face drawn on it), covered the ceiling with a bright yellow. At my head height, squiggly lines radiated off the barren surface. Each crudely drawn character had a happy, smiley face plastered eternally onto their faces. Underneath, words scrawled unevenly spelt out words like 'friendship', 'family', and 'unity'. It was enough to turn my stomach. In what world could we have ever been friends with those monsters?

The corridor ended with a picture of scarily well presented wolf-like Diamond Dog. The creature had many of the features of the Alpha: the staggering height, the angled ears, pointy snout, and those terrifying beady eyes. But, where the Alpha was all muscle and ferocity, there was a certain calmness and grace to this one. The creature also sported a fantastic frilly dress of silver and diamond studded earrings. It looked regal for a Dog.

This, I assumed, was the Matriarch.

I bolted left, passing fragile looking vases and small pictures happy looking creatures of all races. I knew the exit was here, somewhere. And since I was still underground, the answer was probably to go up.

I found a staircase and ran up it without much thought. My ears twitched as I heard muffled steps behind me. I dived into a small alcove especially designed to complement the vase sitting proudly on its elegant stand.

My heart crept into my mouth as the steps grew louder. I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw dusty brown hooves clop past me. I poked my head around the stand. It was a pony! The mare swished her elegantly plaited mint green mane. She looked so...clean. I bet she had never had problems dealing with parasites. However, I could not help but look at my own coat, so full of dust and painted red with blood, and feel shame.

She reminded me of the mare in those pictures. She was beautiful.

I clutched the vase stand tighter as a grating sound reminded me to loosen my jaw. What has made her so special that she can live in luxury?

However, the gem studded collar around her neck banished my thought. There was a wild look in her eyes, as if she were cornered critter. Her coat looked damp and she panted heavily.

She's fleeing too?

I resisted running up to her and tell her that everything was ok. She may still betray me.

She stopped mid-pace. As she lowered her hoof, she raised her chin and...sniffed?

Unsure as to her motivation, I retreated back into my hidey-hole.

Our gazes crossed. The wideness of her eyes probably reflected my own as we stared at each other. I contemplated running over and tackling her to the ground. But I was no soldier; there was no guarantee I could silence her. I could use my magic, but levitation could only restrain and lift things, not strangle them. And throwing the vase would be like garnishing myself while shouting, "Dinner's ready!"

I hung in the shadows, knowing my fate was now in her hooves. And, by the way her eyes darted to the floor and her ears drooped, she knew this too.

She tugged on her collar and her tail swished. A moment later, her gaze glazed over as she turned to face away from me. "I saw nothing, Brother," she said just loudly enough for my pert ears to catch it.

Brother?

Warning signals fired in my brain, but I could not put a hoof to it.

At least I was able to rule out that she was an enemy. She may even be my best bet of finding the way out of here, assuming that I could find a place where we could chat.

Maybe, just maybe, this plan was not so suicidal after all!

I crept along the passageway, tempering my rage as I walked by yet another mural of dogs, bugs and ponies holding hooves, while dancing and singing in their cave-city. I refused the temptation to deface the picture with a hoof, and instead focused on the faces. I needed to bring those smiles back to ponykind. I needed to succeed. Oh Wise yet Absent Goddess! Mark my words, I will bring you back!

I rounded the corner and noticed a mint green tail disappearing within the third door to my right. Not knowing where I was, I decided the best bet was to follow her.

I expected another damned passageway, but this room was high enough to give me vertigo again. To my left, I saw the large rectangular hole in the wall that overlooked the courtyard. Ropes and pulleys lined haphazardly on the walls. Structural beams, rigged as cranes, sagged and splintered as if something had tried to pull it down. But, in the centre of it all, there rested a metal clad behemoth with a chimney and a body that dwarfed even the Alpha.

It was a full blown train!

The machine looked in a horrific state of disrepair, most likely being the sole source of all the metal heading into the mines as pickaxes and such. Panels were missing from its outer shell, exposing the complicated network of tanks, pipes and pistons. However, I was still able to read the words 'Friendship Express,' in peeling pink paint on the cylindrical tank at the front. Underneath and in the gap between where the cylinder curved inwards and the wheels, the paint still held. There, somepony had written the words, 'The Vault Initiative: Finding Salvation Underground' as if it rode the ripples on a waterline.

And there it was: the exit, as marked by the wide metal tracks that lead under a massive stone arch. Thick stone blast doors, as tall as the ceiling and as big as the entire room, blocked my route to salvation.

Suddenly, I found the startled brown coated mare digging through an overturned passenger cart.

"Hey, wait!" I said as I gathered my muscles and leapt in after her. I landed on a floor stripped completely bare, and by that, I meant no floor at all. Any safe flat panel had disappeared, meaning that I landed on exposed pipes and parts of train dented, buckled or torn. I was lucky I did not break my legs between some pipes. I picked my steps through the larger-than-expected carriage, avoiding dusty seats and broken tables.

I approached the mare, who threw bits of wreckage around her as if searching for something.

"Please, leave!" she said as tears fell from her cheeks. "They will show you no mercy if they find you here!"

She launched herself off the other side of the carriage.

I went to follow her but my breath caught as I saw just how vast this room was. There must have been at least five more railway lines, each with a multitude of passenger or supply cars abandoned on them. There was no order to their positioning, and many had fallen over for unknown reasons.

I slowed to a stop when I saw the mare's tail disappear into another carriage. I doubted I would get anything out of her. What was the point anyway? My quest belonged to the other end of this room, where those doors were. I felt the gem jiggle in the sack on my back and it made my spine tingle. I was getting close...

I ran past carriage after carriage in the room that never seemed to end. I dodged dangling ropes from damaged cranes and the debris of supplies left to rot. My lungs worked for every breath, sweat marred my fuzz and my jaw hung low so I could breathe easier. All the while, I felt like I made little progress.

My muzzle wrinkled and I suppressed a gag as I ran past a carriage that looked more like a skip on wheels. A crane had fallen into it, and something foul had spilled over the top. Blobs of a green and brown...something... crusted down the sides and into pooled into solid puddles. There was no way my nose would let me past that, so I climbed through another broken passenger cart (painted in bright colours and bearing the words 'Rebuild a New, Improved Equestria!') and ran away from the stench.

I could not help but laugh; and here I thought body odour and caked-on Dog's blood smelt bad!

The doors became larger and higher as I approached. It by itself was an awesome creation. Those doors must have been at least three pony lengths thick to support that amount of mass. There was no way that even Celestia's magical might --and an awesome might that was too-- could move that. But every door had to open; otherwise, it was not a door.

If there was a mechanism, it did not make itself known to me.

I heard something clear its throat behind me.

My stomach lurched as I jumped so high I almost hit the ceiling!

"The doors have long been sealed," said the voice that belonged to the dusty brown mare, "Baked shut by the sun."

My brain still reeled. "You...what...where?" I could only stare dumbly at the same dusty brown mare whose sad eyes sparkled with the same hue as her emerald mane.

She turned her gaze from the sealed barrier to me, her mint green eyes analysing my every feature. "I have learnt many times to give up on hope, but still, here I am, gazing into the face of some-pony I may know. Say, do you know a Twilight Sparkle?"

Again. I had that feeling again. But, this time it made my stomach burn and my ears droop. It felt similar to the time Lily did not show up for work until well into the evening.

"She's my mother!" I said, confused.

"I thought as much." She hugged me, which whipped those butterflies in my belly into a frenzy. "Oh, Brother, it brings me much joy to see you live and well!"

I tried to pry her away, but she gripped me too fiercely. Plus, it felt wrong to push away a beautiful mare crying on your shoulder.

I had a sister all this time? No, that was not true. I was an only child!

"But I've never seen you before!" I said. "Who are you?"

She let me go, patting down my mane as she did so. "My name was Amanita, but the Dogs deem the name 'Pet' more fitting for me. I was a close friend of your blood-mother and I was your occasional foal sitter."

What? How? My mind screamed to run and hide; anywhere was better than next to this mare. I swallowed, my throat suddenly becoming dry.

"You looked after me?"

She revealed a thin smile as she stared into the distance. Her expression softened along with her voice, "Your mother imparted on you the same voracious appetite for books that afflicted her. There was not a day where I found you without your head buried in some old text. You especially loved Twilight's old photo albums. It is not surprising then, that you do not remember me."

"But you look so young," And hot...

A small and tired looking smile curved her lips as if those words hurt her. "Thank you."

Suddenly, my brain caught up with me, and all the pieces fell into place. I looked again at her immaculate exterior, with not a hint of dust on it, even though she had been piling through rubbish moments earlier. She called me Brother, and then expressed no direct relation to me. She also seemed to be sniffing a lot around me...

Oh, Celestia, Lord and Protector, save me.

I pushed Amanita with my magic and sent her sliding along the floor. I tried to flee, but the fire that roared in my chest crashed against the icy chillness running down my spine, leaving me stranded in limbo.

It was so obvious. How did I not see it sooner?

She was a Changeling: a vile, murderous, snivelling, backstabbing insect.

Comments

[PresentPerfect]

Okay, this story is actually pretty interesting, and I like the main character's voice, but the first chapter does it no favors.