A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria

by Riclo

Chapter 15 | Klade's Mountain Base

Klade's POV

The hoof-cuffs had just been unlocked off of my wrists and the magic-blocking ring taken off with them. It wasn't like it technically mattered though; during my stay in the dungeon overnight, I had slipped my hands through the over-sized hoof-cuffs and replaced the ring with an exact replica created by my magic. This would've allowed me to use magic, and I was almost going to say that the ring they were taking off was fake, but I didn't want to stir any trouble in-case this happened again - then they would make sure I wouldn't be able to repeat that.

'I hope the next pony they put that ring on isn't dangerous.' With my binds now taken off, it appeared as if I had free-roam of the castle - at least for the next hour before we had to depart for Baltimare. I watched as Twilight and Trixie left the room, both spaced out a noticeable difference apart from each other, when Rainbow Dash flew right in-front of me.

"I knew that couldn't have been you who I kept seeing! Literally nopony believed me when I kept saying that it wasn't like you to try and kill us like that - especially me" She pummeled me in a hug, and I sighed, gently hugging her back. "Gosh I'm so glad you're back! I really, really am."

"Yeah." It was conflicting being devastated by the confirmation of Duston's death just yesterday, then being swarmed with affection by my close companion - I wasn't really sure what to make of it. It was at least making me feel a little less like shit though.

"You better not disappear like that again." She replied. "You had me so fucking worried in ways that nopony really should know about - it's kind of not that cool."

"Discord is fucked." I remarked as I gazed back at Rainbow's wide, magenta eyes. "I'm not letting him get away with this."

"Yeah, only if you get to him before I do." Rainbow snickered, and by now I noticed that the rest of Twilight's friends were surrounding me.

"I'm so sorry about Duston." Fluttershy softly exclaimed as she walked up to me.

"We'll be here for ya, just like how we were for Twilight." Applejack chimed in.

It still didn't feel completely real that my brother had died - even with all the time to myself I had throughout yesterday and the night, I still wasn't sure of what to make of it. Hearing Applejack mention Twilight made me remember that she had been in a relationship with him, which prompted me to ask about it.

"How's Twilight been doing?"

"She's been.. coping." Rarity answered. "I'm personally impressed with Celestia's decision to take her place for now. That means that she will be right with us, correct?" She started to smile. "I simply cannot wait to accompany Celestia herself! This has been the best thing to happen to me in a long time!"

"Maybe Celestia is trying to compete with us on who will defeat Discord first?" Rainbow mentioned half-seriously.

"Maybe." I replied simply.

"We should throw a party for you Klade!" Pinkie Pie spoke up. "Once all this is over at least. I don't think Celestia would let me do it before then, and I don't know if I'd want to either. It could be a super-mega-ultra we won and everything is okay now party!"

"I guess." I responded. "Right now though, I think the only thing that's going to do anything to make me feel better would be to see Discord die."

"Twilight probably feels the same way." Rainbow expressed. "I can't wait to see you kick his ass."

I didn't reply at first, watching as Luna walked out of the room with the shackled clone. If she did find a way to de-manipulate him, I'd want to learn it from her. "We should start getting ready." I eventually spoke, turning around and leaving the room. Once I was out, though, I suddenly found myself not knowing what to do. I almost felt as if I was mentally lost, and I looked around at my surroundings, observing the beautifully decorated halls of Canterlot as well as stationed guards looking at me from their posts. Not too long afterwards though, I noticed Rainbow Dash walking up beside me again.

"Duston's death has you that bothered, huh?" She inquired.

"I just found out about it yesterday." I responded, causing her eyes to widen with surprise.

"Wow, really? I didn't know that part... We'll get Discord for this, don't worry. I was really starting to think you were dead or brainwashed or something for the longest time - I really hate him too."

"Well I'm not, luckily." I turned to look at her, suddenly finding that I didn't know what to say at first as I gazed back at her. Eventually though, I continued. "Just what exactly has happened since I disappeared?"

"You mean like.. everything?" Rainbow asked to confirm. "The last time I saw you was the night of the party - the night Duston died and Twilight blew her library up."

I paused for a second as I thought over what she just said. 'So Duston really did die that exact same night... I wonder if he killed him right after he told me he was going to do it. He had to have planned that, that son of a fuck.' Rainbow noticed my silence as I simply stood there in thought, which prompted me to speak up. "When I went home that night, well.. it technically wasn't my home - Discord had trapped it. When I opened the door, there was just a black void on the other side instead, and I was pushed in right afterwards. That's where I was stuck for what must've been days, completely isolated in some pitch black, dry-air hellhole."

Rainbow frowned as she listened to me. "Was that the underground cave Trixie was talking about? I think she said it was in the middle of the San Palomino desert, right?"

"Yeah, it has to be. I don't remember much when she first got me out of there though - I was probably just hours away from dying. I'm really lucky she got me out of there when she did, let alone doing it at all in the first place."

Rainbow's ears remained perked up while she listened. "So Discord tried to kill you too." I could see how angry she must've been getting as she stood there. "I can't believe you couldn't escape though. There was nothing you could've done for that whole time?"

"No. That room was disabling my magic, and as you all seem to already know, Discord brainwashed all of my clones, so I couldn't use them to just remotely teleport me out of there. I need to make sure nothing like that happens again."

"You better make sure that doesn't happen again." For the moment we just looked into each other's eyes in silence, until eventually I turned my head and looked elsewhere. Talking about my clones reminded me that I had wanted to scout out my base in the Foal Mountain Range, and I figured I'd have enough time do that real quick. After all, I didn't know what else I could possibly do for the next hour.

"I need to go do some things." I spoke as I began walking off again, only for Rainbow to follow.

"I'm coming with you." Dash asserted. I didn't see any reason not to let her - I figured she probably wasn't as dumb as Trixie when it came to putting herself in danger - and plus it would probably look better instead of me wandering off by myself after being gone for a whole week. I didn't reply, letting her follow me as I made my way through the hallways of Canterlot Castle, until I eventually reached the courtyard. Memories of the last time I was here began to come to the front of my mind: It was after Discord captured the princesses, and we beat him at one of his games in order to free them. We had fallen for one of this technicalities though. He did free them, sticking to his word, but then trapped us all within the castle with a large, round magical blockade. It was at this courtyard specifically that we had battled a large group of changelings - all of us had been here, including the princesses and Duston.

'It's going to suck doing everything by myself - I just realized that.' By now Rainbow seemed to have an idea of just where we were going - in this courtyard there was an underground tunnel that led straight to my base. We had all taken it before, but when I approached the large, plain grey rock that acted as a door, I noticed that there were two royal guards standing right there. The ground surrounding the rock looked like it had been dug up and then re-covered, leaving behind a mess of dirt, pulled up grass and small rocks. From what I saw, I assumed that the princesses had tried to get in from around the rock after failing to figure out the number-code sequence, located on the rock that would cause it to slide open. I approached the two guards, who were already looking at me as soon as they noticed.

"What's this all about? I need to get in there to check some things." I spoke up.

"I can't do that, sir. Nobody is allowed in here for the time being." One of the guards replied.

"This is Klade though - he's literally the one who made this whole thing." Rainbow responded. "We're working with the princesses anyway and we don't have much time before we gotta leave."

"Sorry, I can't do that. Until we receive direct orders from Princess Celestia stating otherwise, we aren't allowed to let anyone in."

Rainbow turned to look at me with a bewildered expression, before speaking up shortly afterwards. "Come on, let's go talk to Celestia and get this sorted out."

I nodded for the time being, agreeing only until I was out of the range of the two guards, before I responded. "There's another entrance we can go in."

Rainbow stopped and looked at me. "There is? Are you sure that's a good idea though?"

"Yeah, it's always been there - I never ever make just one entrance to anything. It's in the Canterlot Library and it should lead us to the same tunnel."

Although reluctant - something that I didn't fully understand why just yet - Rainbow followed me as I began to walk in the direction of the library. Eventually I had arrived, and it was a familiar sight too; I had visited here back when I had first arrived in Equestria, and it was the place where I had found the magical spell book I was looking for, filled with all sorts of magic only humans could do.

'I think I still have that book in my house somewhere... so much for 'borrowing' it. I don't think I've looked through the whole thing yet though otherwise I'd return it.' I made my way through the hallways, each one suited with tall, blue-colored bookshelves that reached up around four times higher than Rainbow Dash. There were plenty of ladders placed around, as well as signs that clearly dictated that no flying was allowed - they probably didn't want any wind gusts knocking over bookcases, which would understandably make a huge mess. There were some ponies currently here, perking their heads up and watching me as I walked on through, which was starting to remind me of when I had first been transported to Equestria - the same thing pretty much happened.

I soon approached a more distant and secluded part of the library, looking at my surroundings first to make sure no one was around, before approaching one bookshelf in particular that was pressed up against a wall. I got down on my knees and de-clamped some camouflaged levers that were keeping the shelf firmly held in place, then I stood back up, activating a physical strength boosting spell that had I used several times in my other adventures. From there I grabbed onto the shelf and began slowly sliding it over to the side, revealing an open doorway inside the wall behind the shelf.

"Let's go in." I stated as I made my way forward and deactivated the spell. Rainbow followed as I entered the stone passage, where I pressed a button that was located on a nearby wall, causing the shelf to slowly slide back in place and then re-lock itself closed.

"That was pretty cool." Rainbow commented as I turned on the lights that illuminated down the passageway. If the lights were still working, then that was probably a good sign.

"Yeah, I do cool shit." I replied as I started walking forward. Although I didn't mind the proceeding silence, Rainbow did, which caused her to speak up to keep a conversation going.

"Just how strong does that spell make you anyway?" She asked. "I've seen you using it before, and plus you've told me about it."

"It doesn't make you stronger at all actually - I found that out the hard way." I replied, catching her interest.

"Really? So then, what does it do exactly?"

"Well, I read the fine print in the book after fucking up my arm once. Apparently it activates your muscles so you're using them at full-strength at every single thing you do, so I guess an easier way of putting that would be to say that it just makes lifting easier, but also alot more dangerous. If I were to feel myself failing to lift something, it's really important that I don't just try harder because my muscles are already being used at their maximum. It'll just fuck me up."

"Huh." Rainbow responded. "Well that kinda sucks."

"I guess so. It still does give somewhat of an illusion that you're stronger though, but it'll definitely wear you out after awhile."

"Yeah, I can imagine." She replied with a short laugh. The rest of the short trip proceeded to be silent despite Rainbow's social attempt - not like I was helping at all. We had soon arrived at the main tunnel that leaded straight to my base, and I looked around, taking note of how creepy it seemed since the concrete tunnel just seemed to extend on forever into the darkness on both sides. I wasn't about to walk the rest of the way though - that would take forever - so I began imagining a four-wheeler dirt bike in my mind. Rainbow knew I must've been creating something after seeing me just stand there, and after a few minutes it appeared in the real world, where I got on and then looked back at Rainbow.

"Come on, let's have a tiny bit of fun for the rest of the way there." I exclaimed. Dash grinned slightly as she got on behind me, wrapping her hooves around me to hold on. I was still wearing the black leather jacket from earlier, something that was making me look either really badass or really edgy now that I was on the ATV. I hoped it was the first one.

"These things move forward really fast, right?"

"Not as fast as you can fly, but yeah." I replied as I turned the key. The engine turned on, echoing throughout the tunnel as the four-wheeler rumbled with energy underneath us. I revved the engine a few times and then glanced back at Rainbow. "Well, lets go." From there I began to throttle forward, feeling as Rainbow held onto me tighter with her hooves. I hadn't realized how much I missed doing shit with Rainbow until now, and I was really glad to be around her again.

The wind rushed against us as we zoomed across the concrete flooring of the tunnel, where I slowly angled the vehicle through the occasional turns that the passage had. I was going at full speed, where there was unfortunately no jumps or hills to have any fun with - it was all just mostly flat flooring. Rainbow seemed to be enjoying herself as she remained held on, and soon enough I saw the other side of the tunnel come into view, causing me to begin slowing down. I could see the armored van parked from where we had all previously used it to escape from Canterlot when the princesses were captured - it was still sitting right where we left it.

'I wonder if I should drive that back so it's at the Canterlot side in-case something like that happens again.' The ATV slowed down until it was alongside the the van, and I turned the engine off, waiting for Rainbow to let go before I stepped off with her. From there I made my way over to the elevator that led up inside, where I noticed from a panel in the elevator that the base's alarm and defensive systems were currently active.

"Hold on, it seems like the place is trapped right now." I spoke up as Rainbow made her way in with me.

"Trapped?"

"Yeah, I have a trap setup where if anyone tries to enter, it'll seal off the base both physically and magically. It's supposed to let me know either back at my house or through a handheld device that someone's in, and through there I can either release poisonous gas that'll kill everyone inside, or another kind that'll just knock them out."

"Oh, wow. That's pretty brutal."

"Pretty much. I made sure though to have hidden gas masks and a secret way out so that I don't end up killing myself like a fucking idiot if I make a mistake. If it's active right now though, then it should mean no one's inside."

"You really do think of everything, huh?"

"Yep. Backup plans to backup plans." I entered in the correct number-sequence to disengage the alarm, and the red light that the panel was showing proceeded to turn green. 'Alright. Watch me get killed anyway.' I pressed the button on the elevator, watching as the double doors slithered closed, and from there the room began to move upwards. It took only a short time before the elevator had arrived, and the doors opened, revealing the main control room of my base. It was a large, rectangle-shaped room, fitted with shiny, almost reflective marble flooring. I had never gotten around to making any other structures though, leaving the mountain rock itself visible on the walls and ceiling, giving it more of a feeling that it was constructed right into the mountain itself. A big, long table was located in the middle of the room, surrounded by twelve total chairs; five on each side, and then two and both ends. This was for me and my clones to discuss battle plans and shit like that, although I had only ever actually used it once. A large flat-screen TV was located at one end of the table, which was supposed to be connected to all the cameras and video feeds that I had all across Equestria.

Etched into the sides of the control room were multiple smaller rooms, where each one was fitted to control its own railgun. There were six total rooms for this, but there was still leeway for two more - I had unfortunately never been able to get around to making the rest I wanted to create. Each room had a sign located at the top, describing the location of that particular railgun, which went as follows: Canterlot Top, Foal Mountain #1, Foal Mountain #2, Everfree, Smokey Mountains, and Mountains South. The Smokey Mountains and Mountains South railguns - the latest two that I had created - were specially created to shoot actual nuclear bombs instead of regular projectiles. I had definitely been lucky so far that Discord hadn't taken advantage of that yet, and I was going to make sure that he never could while I was here.

"This place looks different." Rainbow commented as she looked around. "It's alot brighter this time. It's like you made it about twenty percent cooler."

"Yeah, I was kind of sick of it being so dark and olde-timey, so I made it look better." I made my way over to the table and glanced across it, looking to see if there might be anything left behind that would hint on what Discord was planning, but there wasn't. From there I made my way into the nearest side-room - the Canterlot Top room specifically. The room wasn't as bright as the control room, with the only light sources being from the various different colored buttons on the control panel, the large display monitor located on the wall above the panel, and an ambient blue light that was giving the room a cool, wavy atmosphere. I made my way over to the panel and sat down at a wheeled chair located right in-front of it, where I turned on the monitor and watched as the live video feed of the railgun located at the very top of the Canterlot mountain was activated.

"I don't see Discord anywhere." Rainbow exclaimed as she looked up at the screen.

"I wasn't expecting to find him - I'm just here to lock this so nobody else can use it." Out of curiosity, though, I began to turn the gun, watching as the video slowly moved with it. I had a viewpoint of pretty much all of Equestria from where this gun was located - it was the perfect vantage point - and lo and behold, I was soon able to see the tower located all the way at Baltimare come into view. I would've easily been able to lock onto it from here and fire at it.

"You could totally destroy that right now." Dash commented. "You should probably just go for it."

"Nah, Celestia didn't seem to want me doing this for some reason. I'll just go with her and do it her way for now." It was definitely tempting to just shoot at the tower now that I was right here looking at it from the video feed, but I didn't want to spark any unnecessary drama with Celestia.

"Well this is dumb." Rainbow frowned. "I've been out with Twilight and her friends for days trying to stop these towers - why should I keep doing that when you could just get the rest of them right now in like five minutes?"

"We'll have to ask Celestia why she didn't want me doing this."

"Honestly, who cares what Celestia wants - I don't think she realizes how much easier this could be. I think you should do it and I'll defend you if she makes a big fuss about it."

I thought about it in silence for awhile as I sat in the chair. It might've just been me, but Celestia didn't seem to be looking at me with a particularly warm gaze whenever she did so. I wasn't sure what the problem could've been - I had been gone for awhile - so maybe that was it. Either way, going with her really wasn't a big deal; if that failed for whatever reason, then I would just offer this suggestion again.

"I'll wait." I eventually responded. "Going with Celestia shouldn't be too much of a big deal. We'll just destroy the towers that way."

"Suit yourself." Rainbow replied. She didn't seem to put too much of an effort to refute my decision, so I proceeded to turn my attention back to the monitor. I didn't need anyone else using this - like my clones for example - so I needed to put a lock on here so that it could only be used if the correct 8-digit number sequence was put in. The clones were essentially total copies of myself though, which meant they had all of my memories - I would've needed to come up with a number that had absolutely no relevance to me.

'Just thinking up of a random number myself might not be good enough... if I can think of it, even if I think it's random, then they might come up with the same number just because they're copies of me.' I turned to look Rainbow. "Hey Rainbow, can you come up with a 8-digit number for me? Try to make it easy to remember."

"Uh, sure." She replied, taking her attention off the display monitor. "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8?"

I was about to tell her that wouldn't work - that probably was the most insecure pass-code ever. It was definitely something I never would've even thought about using though, which was making me think that maybe it'd be fine - under that logic, my clones would never even think of putting in something so predictable. "Thanks Dash." I faced the control panel again, entering in that specific lock-combination. Just to be safe though, I excerpted the 8 with a 9, making it still extremely similar to Rainbow's suggestion while also keeping it easy to remember. With that complete, the railgun was now locked and couldn't be controlled without entering that pass-code first.

"Time to do that to the other ones." I exclaimed as I stood up from the chair.

"Do what exactly? What were the numbers for?"

"I'm locking these so nobody can use them unless they put in those numbers to unlock it." I answered. "We don't need any manipulated clones coming in and doing a bunch of bad shit."

"Oh. Well you should've told me that first - literally anyone can guess what I just said!"

"It'll be fine, I changed it up a bit."

Rainbow glanced at the monitor and then back at me. "I mean, normally I wouldn't care so much, but if something bad ends up happening then Celestia's not gonna look good at you at all. We should probably uh, take everything a little more seriously."

"That's why I'm here." I responded. "At least now they're all gonna be locked - they weren't before."

"Well.. alright, fine. I guess that works."

With the lock now placed on the railgun, I stood up from the chair, making my way out of the room and heading towards the next one - I was going to have to repeat what I just did to the remaining five guns. Doing so only took less than five minutes, and upon locking the last railgun, I decided that I should check out the rest of the base, just to see if anything had happened. I hadn't been here in awhile either, and I always liked screwing around in here and in the vicinity of the surrounding mountains - it was where I spent the majority of my time in Equestria having fun and doing crazy shit with my magic.

I made my way over to the top left of the control room, where a set-up stairs awaited me - going up them led straight to four large rooms. Each of them were interconnected and formed a square in total - this is where I normally housed all of my clones. I knew Rainbow hadn't been to this part before, so I decided to explain what it was.

"I created these rooms to keep all of my clones in." I explained as I looked around the brightly lit area. "The idea was to fill it with a bunch of stuff that could keep me occupied for years, and then even more." The first room we had entered had a wall completely lined with flat-screen TVs - at least ten of them in total - all fitted with a PlayStation 3 game console below each one and a large sofa extending across the entire wall. There were several controllers laying around, and the four TVs located at the very end of the room appeared to be turned on. Out of curiosity, I stepped closer to observe just what the television was displaying, where I saw that Modern Warfare 3 was currently being played. I grabbed a controller since it was laying right there on the floor, and I looked through the custom classes they had created, only for me to nod my head in approval - there were no tryhard classes to be found!

'These guys know what they're doing.' I set down the controller and turned off the four TVs and consoles, where I proceeded to look around at the rest of the room. A small black shelf nearby was completely filled with game cases, most of them for the PS3, but there were others that were for the Nintendo Wii as well. This was because I had created a single separate Wii located at another part of the room, just to add a little more variety. Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary, so I moved on to the next room - this one was alot more focused on relaxing. There were multiple physical games laying around - a pool table, a ping-pong table, an air hockey table, and a stacker arcade game specifically. There was a small bar located against one of the walls, although it was mostly there just for fun and memes. My clones didn't survive off of food or water, as it was more of a raw magical power thing - something I would get to later. Despite that, I still lined the bar with all kinds of drinks and sodas, just because it looked cool and in-case there was ever more than just my clones having fun here.

"This place seems pretty chill." Rainbow commented as she looked around.

"Yeah, it's pretty epic." The lighting of the room was currently filled with an ambient orange, but I had made it possible to customize the light to any color, unlike the previous room that was stuck with just a white light. Everything seemed pretty normal here as well, so I made my way onward to the next room. The atmosphere of this one was totally different, which would probably give off a creepy vibe to anyone who didn't know what it was for. It was lined with four total machines, two on opposing sides against the walls of the room. These devices were created to give my clones the magical power they needed to survive; in a way they were like batteries, and this is where they went to recharge. The spellbook I had learned these from outlined that a clone would only last about a month by itself before it would rot away into nothingness, so these machines were to prevent that even if I wasn't around to personally replenish them.

"What on Equestria is all of this for?" Rainbow inquired as she examined the strange-looking devices.

"These keep my clones alive, basically." I replied. "Magical energy is what keeps them alive, and these are here so I don't always have to replenish them myself."

"Huh." She responded as she slowly walked around. "I mean... just how similar are your clones to you anyway? The whole idea still seems kinda weird to me."

"They're essentially carbon copies of me." I answered. "They have all of my memories just prior to when I created them, so they would know everything about me too. I'd probably say that the only difference is what they're made out of."

"That's so weird, but so cool too." Dash exclaimed as she walked further into the room. "Hey, what's this one do? It looks way different."

I caught up with her, where I saw her looking a lone contraption that looked way different than the others. What she was looking at was probably the most technical thing I had ever successfully created with my magic. "This is what my clones used to teleport me remotely. This one is actually powered by a magic crystal as well as electricity - I needed the magic crystal to get the teleportation to work. It's like a coordinate-based GPS system thingy that can track my location from anywhere, and from there you can specify where you want it to teleport me. It's really badass and it took me fucking ages of testing to get it working right." I stepped closer and then sat down, looking at the monochromatic screen displayed in-front of me. Sure enough, it was showing my exact location with a dot - right here in the mountain. "So you could even use it right now for example - you could teleport me right into Canterlot if you wanted. What makes this actually work is this ring." I held up my hand, showing her a golden, engraved ring that was currently on my finger. "This is how it finds my location and also what allows it to teleport me. The thing that makes this extremely useful though is that it'll still teleport me, even if I'm in someplace that's disabling my magic. I've gotten out of a few unfortunate situations with Discord because of this."

"Oh wow." Rainbow remarked as she listened to me. "That's actually really, really cool."

"Yeah, it's probably really good that you know about this too; now that I think about it, I should've told more people about this. That way if I ever disappear again, I won't almost die only to be saved by an extreme case of luck."

"You better be more careful from now on." Rainbow replied, looking at me with a stern gaze. "I'm going to kick your ass if you let yourself get almost killed again."

"I'll keep that in mind." I stood up from the device, taking another short look around before heading into the next and last room. This room is where I kept each clone's loadout, which consisted of an M4A1 assault rifle, two Glock 18 machine pistols, a Model 1887 shotgun, and then a backpack filled with ammo and a few explosives. Every single loadout was missing though, which was something I had figured would be true, but it was actually pretty ominous to be seeing this room completely empty in person. Each one of those clones still remaining was out there and dangerously armed.

"What's this room supposed to be?" Rainbow asked as she looked around, clearly confused at the emptiness.

"This is where I keep each clone's loudout set up." I answered. "As you can see though, it's all gone. The same guns they were shooting at you with were taken from here."

"Oh." Rainbow commented with a frown. "There looks like there's alot of room here for stuff."

"Yeah, they're pretty armed." I did another quick look around, before beginning to head back down the stairs. As I was about to return to the control room, however, the sound of the tunnel elevator suddenly caught my attention. I immediately stopped in my tracks, grabbing Rainbow to stop her descent with me as I stood and listened.

"Klade?" Rainbow asked, looking up at me in confusion as I listened closely.

"Someone's here." I replied with a voice somehow even more serious than I had previously been talking. I pulled out one of the G18s that I had, taking the safety mode off and then making my way down the rest of the stairs until there was only a couple left in-front of me. I used the wall as cover as I peeked around the corner; the elevator was located all the way at the other end of the room, with it being at the bottom-right while the stairs I was at was located at the top-left. Since it was so far away, located all the way across the table, I changed the G18's fully-automatic firing mode to semi-auto for increased accuracy. I waited patiently with the gun aimed towards the elevator, ready to kill Discord or any other evil mother fucker that could've walked in - even my brainwashed clones. I tensed as I heard the elevator doors open, my finger waiting right by the side of the trigger as I aimed with more focus, only to see Trixie trot in a few seconds later.

'God damnit, it's just her. What the hell is she doing here?' I changed the gun's firing mode back and put the safety mode back on, returning it to my hip holster and then stepping out into the room. "What are you doing here Trixie?"

The mare in question was startled by my abrupt voice, jumping slightly in place and then turning to look at me. "Do you think you can just leave Trixie like she never even existed? What is all of this anyway? You're still inclined to help me, you know!"

"I didn't forget." I replied as I began making my way over to her. There was still one more room left in the base - the first room that I had created where I currently liked to test things out in, such as weapons - but I figured that was going to have to wait for another time now. "How did you get here?"

"I followed you, duh." She responded with a frown. "Don't even think that I am going to let you run away from me. But really, why is there such a huge tunnel underneath Canterlot? Trixie thought it was never going to end! Her hooves hurt now."

"It's been here for awhile - before you even met me, actually."

"Klade made everything here." Rainbow chimed in. "It's not just awesome, it's 'pure epic' I think he calls it."

Trixie blinked, taking a moment to comprehend that everything around her had been actually created by me. "You made... all of this? That can't be true! But how..? Is it your magic?" She stepped closer to me. "I demand that you teach me!"

"I thought I was fixing your reputation - now I'm doing this too?"

Trixie shook her head. "No, forget that - Trixie can rebuild her own reputation if she learns how to make such extravagant buildings like this." She looked around. "Where is here, anyway?"

"In a mountain." I answered as I made my way over to the elevator.

"A.. mountain?" Trixie asked as she looked around once again, this time taking note of the rocky walls and ceilings. "You mean, inside an actual mountain?"

"Duh." Rainbow replied in a mocking tone of voice.

"Come on Trixie, I probably have to leave with Celestia soon." I spoke up upon entering the elevator.

"You mean you're going to leave already without showing me anything?" Trixie responded as she trotted over to me. "Why are there signs with names on them? What is 'Canterlot Top' supposed to mean?"

"I'll have to show you another day." I answered. "We have to leave now."

Trixie groaned, glaring at me as she walked into the elevator. "You're lucky you have that excuse right now. However, with or without you, Trixie will discover what all of this is."

I didn't bother to reply, pressing the button on the elevator and watching as the doors slowly closed afterwards. The room began to move downwards, where Trixie turned to look at me shortly afterwards.

"What does this room do anyway?"

"It's called an elevator. It's a room where you go inside it, and then the whole thing will more either up or down with you." I answered. "It's like stairs, but better."

Rainbow chuckled slightly at the end, and I watched as Trixie looked up and then downwards. We reached our destination after only a short amount of time, indicated by the room stopping and the doors slithering open. As I was about to leave, though, I suddenly came up with an idea as I glanced at the alarm panel.

"Rainbow." I spoke as I turned to approach it. "Five-digit number."

The cyan pegasus glanced over at Trixie, then trotted over to me, whispering in my ear so Trixie couldn't hear what she was saying. "1-5-4-3-2."

From there I replaced the current code needed to deactivate the alarm with Rainbow's, and then turned on the alarm afterwards, watching as the green light turned red.

"What's going on?" Trixie asked, clearly not liking being left out as she trotted over to us. "What are you two doing?"

"Activating the defense systems." I replied. "Now nobody can come in here without risking their lives - included my brainwashed clones." I proceeded to magically create a handheld device - this is what would alert me if someone tried entering my base. It looked similar to an electronic pad, fitted with a small screen and a few buttons - it was about the size of a phone. I synchronized it with the panel and then covered the pad with a hard case, since I didn't need to be accidentally pressing any of the buttons. I put it away in my jacket pocket then turned to face the two ponies standing there. "Okay, we're done now. Let's go." I began to walk out of the elevator, catching a glare from Trixie, probably because now she wouldn't be able to come here on her own. Instead of heading towards the four-wheeler, however, I approached the van instead. I wasn't about to ride on the ATV with two ponies, and I wanted this van back on the Canterlot side anyway.

"You two can sit in the back together while I drive." I spoke as I approached the back of the armored vehicle. I opened the double doors, revealing the interior; it had a couch, a mounted light machine gun that extended out of the top, and a rocket launcher with a box of rockets that could be shot through a multitude of windows that could be opened up. I thought back to the last time I had used this, when all the mane 6, Duston and the princesses were stuffed in there during our escape from Canterlot. I exhaled slowly as I thought about my brother, pushing it to the back of my mind for now as I turned to watch the two ponies step inside. "Don't beat each other up in there." I commented as I began to close the doors.

"Yeah, I don't think fighting Trixie would be a problem." Rainbow replied. The doors were closed by now, where I could only hear Trixie's angry, incomprehensible response muffled through the vehicle's armor. I couldn't resist laughing to myself as I made my way up to front, and I opened the driver's side door, seating myself inside and then turning the key. The van's engine began to roar to life, echoing loudly throughout the empty, concrete tunnel. I shifted the gear to reverse, then turned the vehicle around, where I proceeded to shift it back to drive and head off in the direction of Canterlot.

Author's Note:

Yes there's a fucking couch in the van

Also, I'm sure you're wondering just what non-tryhard classes Klade's clones had... (probably not) I made them all anyway though, and you can see all of Klade's Custom Classes here in this imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/f1tlP If you've ever played MW3, then I highly recommend you check them out (Or even if you haven't, because I think the descriptions are super badass) I spent alot of time getting that album set up

So far though, this has gotta be my favorite chapter.