Hello?

by Prince Polaris

Who survived?

Wait. There's no way. That's impossible. Somepony else was down here? Why did their voice sound so strange? Nervous shudders ran through Silver, and he froze up again as the voice came echoing down the halls once more.

"Is anyone.. there?" It asked, and Silver felt a rush of... sympathy? Sadness? Something about the voice sounded so... lonely. "H-Hello?" Silver asked, and he cringed a little bit as he realized just how quiet and meek it had sounded. He cleared his throat, then said "Hello?" In a much louder tone, his voice echoing down the same halls. He spent what felt like an eternity waiting for an answer, with his ears perked towards the now-bright main tunnel.

But there was nothing. He had heard a voice, right? He hadn't imagined it? Silver had no idea where it had come from, other than it obviously wasn't in the power room. So, Silver decided to walk. He slowly walked out into the main hallway, and that is where he noticed that he could hear a secondary whirring sound, a bit sharper than the dull hum of the lab's ventilation. Once he got halfway down the hall, Silver found that the noise was coming from the big rooms he had passed over on his way to the power room.

He could see the signs now- Server Room 1, and Server Room 2. The machines in both rooms, Servers, they were the source of the noise. Whatever they were doing, it didn't seem like something he needed to worry about. He looked into both of them, but they seemed empty other than the humming rows of boxes.

So, back out to the main hall he went. Now that he could see all of it, it was kind of unnerving. Abandoned metal carts were scattered along the hallway, the once-colorful carpet was tattered and stained, and while he could tell that there used to be two matching paintings at either end of the hall, one of them was hanging of of the wall. However, Silver was more focused on the "Administration" Door in front of him. He hadn't paid attention to it on the way in since he had been focused on the Power, but maybe this is where he could try to contact other ponies?

Before he walked up to Administration, Silver looked to the right, and he noticed that the heavy metal door had rolled closed. So that explained it! It had opened when the power ran out, somehow. He walked up to the Administration door, gave it a push, and then realized it wouldn't budge. There was a pad next to it, maybe that would work? He tried to push it, but instead of doing anything, it just whirred as a light shone against his hoof. And then it beeped at him. Silver gave the door another push, and nothing. He tried to push the button again, but that just got him another beep. Equestrian technology could be so annoying... Silver gave the door a shove, but of course, it wouldn't move. It was made of metal, after all.

Fine. "I'll be back for you" Silver muttered, and with that, the stallion walked to a set of doors at the end of the large hall. The doors were next to the further of the two "Lab" hallways, and once he was close enough to read it, Silver noted that Labs 11-20 were down that hall. Seems 1-10 were on the other end, then. Silver was more concerned with the two doors though, and the sign that said "OFFICES AND RECORDKEEPING" between them. This place had to have a phone too! However, it had the same metal doors that Administration was closed behind. There were four of them though, and Silver couldn't see a button near any of them. He stepped up to one so he could try giving it a shove, but right before he set his weight into motion, the door opened!

Silver was so startled by it that he backed up from the door, and it shut once more. This time, he caught a glimpse of the floor moving. The floor tiles in front of the door were raised up above the others, and Silver set his hoof on one of them again. The tile depressed, and the door in front of it opened. Silver wasn't sure if he was impressed or annoyed- it was a cool mechanism, but... did they really have to turn doors into bits of machinery?

Either way, that meant he was in. Silver walked into the room, which held desks with computers on them and messy bookshelves. The bookshelves looked like they were once full of books, but right now they were mostly empty, with some books scattered among them and on the floor. The computers looked like a mess, because even if Silver did know how to use one, he would have to figure out how to connect them together. All the monitors were piled on one desk, the keyboards and mice were tossed haphazardly in a pile on another, and the towers were all resting on the floor in a stack. Some of the towers were in pieces though, and Silver had even less of an idea what the objects inside of them were.

But in the back of the room, on the wall? A red landline phone! Silver had seen phones like this before, and red ones meant emergency or something, right? Silver grinned with excitement as he pushed his way through to the handset, and picked it up. To Silver's confusion, the phone didn't actually have any numbers on it. Didn't he have to dial something? He then realized that he could hear the phone making noise, and he held it up to his ear, saying, "Hello?"

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As the phone was lifted off the cradle, old wires began to electrify with life. Somehow, the phone was able to patch its call through a mismatched patchwork of what was once Equestria's phone network, to reach what was the only remaining phone of its kind. And it began to ring.

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Princess Celestia was about ready to leave for the crater that was once Ponyville. She was standing in her throne room, looking at the stained glass windows lining the hall. Somehow, they hadn't broken, but they sure would once the earthquakes managed to dislodge Canterlot from its perch. The princess had come to the castle to check one single lead that she had before she went to Ponyville, but it hadn't come up with anything. She decided to look through the castle's library, and it had brought up nothing. She even checked the secret rooms and passageways that she had shown to her student such a long, long time ago, but she couldn't find any signs that Twilight and the battery may have been in that area.

Celestia opened her wings, and then she heard a ring from behind her. That sound, it wasn't something she could have possibly expected to hear. She knew exactly what it was, of course. It was the red phone next to her throne, which had direct lines to Twilight's Castle, the Crystal Empire, and a few other locations of extreme importance to Equestria.

And every single one of them was destroyed. Some thanks to the chaos, some thanks to sabotage, to keep other races from finding anything left behind. So why was it ringing? As Celestia walked up to the phone, she reasoned that it was probably nothing, a phone line on the fritz, a broken system, after all, everything was a mess when it came to Equestria's power and internet and phone grids. She picked up the phone, and in a calm voice, she said, "Hello?"

And to her intense surprise, someone answered.

"H-Hello!" Silver gasped, once he heard a voice on the other line. "I-It works! I uh, I need help, I got left behind in Centria, and I don't think I can make it back to ThreeTown on my own, and right now I'm hiding out in this weird place behind the old Equestrian embassy... ah heck, I hope you know what I'm talking about, uh... I'm Silverwing by the way..."

"I... yes, Silver, I know what you mean" Celestia said, but she was still trying to take it all in. Within the span of mere seconds, Celestia's memories and worldmap were thrown into disarray, as new information was given to her that didn't fit. Somepony underground was talking to her on Equestria's top secret emergency phone network? Why not the blue phone to her left that linked to a phone in Centria, designed for emergencies that involved the Underworld? Was this some sort of prank? It had to be, right? Celestia was trapped, half of her was desperately hoping that fate was stitching things together, but half of her was sure that she was being messed with. So she continued, asking, "Sorry, where exactly are you?" And she let the pony talk.

And he did. Silver sat down, holding the phone like it cold shatter at any moment. "Okay, I uh, I got left behind in Centria, I was looking for something in the train station wreck and I guess they forgot I was supposed to be with them. I headed to the Equestrian Embassy since it hadn't collapsed yet, and I went snooping around in the back area, and there was this door that led into this big cavern! There's this metal wall with a door in it, but I managed to shove it open, and behind it was some sort of a uh, a research station I guess" He said.

By then, Celestia was already lost. She had been to the Embassy, and there was no area behind it. Was there? Silver kept going- "So, near the back, there's this uh, this big door, it's kinda hidden, and it was open, so I go in there, and there's this huge bunker back there! Like, there's all these bright lights and big hallways and there's uh, twenty laboratories here for some reason? I uh, I managed to turn on the power, I don't know how, pony stuff is so weird, and I went hunting for a phone, and I found this one!" He said. The stallion sounded so relieved and happy, surely somepony pulling a prank wouldn't be able to pull off such genuine emotion, right?

"Does the bunker have a name?" Celestia asked. A simple question, but she had to know what was going on. Chances were, it was just a private installation. Some random company had decided they wanted to skirt Equestrian laws, and they dug out a bunker underground, it wouldn't be the first time some awful, money grubbing ponies had done it. She could hear Silver shuffling through papers in the background, muttering "One of these oughta... uuuhhh... hmm, this one says report, uh..."

In a confused tone, Silver read off the top of the paper. "Okay, uh, Sparkle Labs, March second, 2025, Lab 5 report, uuuhhh, parasprite taming? What's... I don't know that word, there's a stamp on it that says project success?" Silver said. Finally, Celestia spoke. "I-I'm sorry, what was it called?" She asked, her voice quiet. "Oh, uh, was it Sparkle Labs? I've never heard of this place before, so I guess that's the name, I haven't seen it anywhere else... oh, this paper says it too!" Silver chirped in the background.

While Silver was happy about his discoveries, Celestia realized that tears had began to run down her face. Finally, it seemed that she was finding out what Twilight had been doing all that time. It made sense, in retrospect, for it to be underground. In the 2020s, as Equestria began to re-integrate the once alienated country under their own hooves, Twilight had taken a special interest in the place. Celestia supposed that she decided to build a bunker down there, for research, and projects, and-

That had to be it. That had to be where she was. Where fluttershy was. Where the core was. Buried underground, in tunnels and caverns that were on the verge of collapse, and with nopony other than a single UnderWorld guardspony inside. Oh Luna, this wasn't just a development, this was a massive breakthrough! Celestia managed to clear her throat, and she spoke to Silver again. "Okay, Silver, you said it was Sparkle Labs?" She asked.

Silver grabbed onto the phone again, and his voice came through as he said, "Huh? Oh, yeah, do you know what this is?" He didn't expect the answer he was given, for sure- "Silver, if my theories are correct, you've managed to stumble onto the exact location of the entire UnderWorld's Salvation".

Naturally, the line was silent for a bit. "W-What? What do you... Aren't we all going to uh, get on that big ship and go into space? What would we need from this weird place?".

"The ship's power source, Silver, nopony knows where it is, and if you're telling me the truth, it might be in that facility with you".

"Oh... O-Oh Celestia, that's..." the stallion started to say. The princess really wanted to let him speak, but she couldn't resist, she needed to do a little something to lighten her mood. So she interrupted, saying, "Yes? I'm listening", and she made sure to speak in the more stereotypical 'princess' voice.

"It's just... it... wait, is... who is this?" Silver asked, and she couldn't help but giggle as she noticed he was catching on. "Yes, Silver, it's me, the Princess... that phone of yours is somehow connected to the one here in my old throne room, and I can't believe I happened to be here to pick up. Every oher phone this is connected to is gone by now, so I was, well, let's say surprised to hear it start ringing".

Silver was still experiencing one of every pony's worst fears- saying either "oh celestia" or "oh luna" to the princess in question. But it made sense! In their movies, the red phones always went somewhere important, didn't they? He managed to find his tongue, and he said, "Ah j-jeez, sorry Princess..." She hushed him, saying, "It's okay, really, I love doing that to ponies... back to the subject at hoof though, have you seen anything in there that even remotely resembles a cylindrical power source?" She asked.

Silver had no idea what that would even be, but then again, it seemed easy enough to find. "Well, no, but I haven't looked in any of the labs... would it be in one of them?" He asked. "Oh, probably, could you look? But before you do, are you okay?" She asked, concern edging into the Princess' voice. Silver couldn't help but blush on the other end, saying, "Oh, miss, I'm okay... kind of dirty, but I haven't gotten hurt yet, and I guess I could use something to eat... do you think you can send some ponies down here to come get me, though? Or maybe help look for this thing?" He asked.

"Oh, certainly! I'm going to make sure somepony keeps watch of the phone too, so please, if anything happens, or if you hear it ringing, please come talk to us?" She asked. "Y-yeah, of course, princess! Just tell them to go through the back of the Embassy, and they might need to shove the first big door open" Silver said, and his armor clonked on the other side of the phone as he stood back up with it, ready to go exploring. "And I'll have to figure out how to open the door in this place, too"

"Well, be careful, Silver" the Princess said. "I'll just keep track of anything that looks important, and once I've explored I'll come talk to you again" Silver said hope filling his voice. Celestia sounded the same way, and she couldn't help but smile as she said her own goodbye- "Be safe, Silverwing... we all depend on you"

And with that, both ponies hung up the old phones. They had work to do, and neither one wanted to wait. Equestria itself was on a time limit, and time was running out. "We depend on you..." Celestia muttered to herself, echoing her own words.

Author's Note:

I'm gonna start making the chapters longer, is that a good idea?

another proofread baby

Comments

[Brony1337]

Hmm, you should try to keep it at one speaker per paragraph. New speaker, new line.