Legends of Equestria: The Legionary

by The Blue EM2

The Return of the Sphynx

"We will discover the secrets of this pyramid, whether they willingly reveal themselves to us or not," Somnambula said grimly. "Now let us go."

As the door opened, the Legionaries grimly marched into the pyramid, and to await whatever horrors lay within.

Flash looked to Somnambula. "I'm no expert on pyramids, but I don't think the ancient Neighiptians built them with sliding doors. Or any of these gizmos. Or any of these modern looking things."

"Project 722 have heavily modified this structure for their own purposes," Somnambula replied. "We must watch our steps and keep an eye out for traps that the enemy might have planted."

"OK, so where do we start?"

"The chambers open off of the central corridor in a symmetrical fashion as far as the central atrium. The central atrium is marked by a giant pit, below which the sarcophagus is found. More chambers open up off the corridors that can be found running off the other four exits, but I do not know if they are in use. This structure has, as I say, been extensively modified by Project 722."

"First door on our left!" called a Legionary. "Should we go in?"

Flash spoke up, ready to issue orders. "Split up, and check the two rooms."

The others nodded, and with a motion pushed the doors open. Curiously, the locks were not operational or faulty, as they got in with little difficulty. The room was set out like a storage space, with black tiling on the roof and walls, and blue tiles on the floor of the chamber. Apart from the lighting, which gave the whole thing a chilling yellow glow, the only things of note in those rooms were several crates and empty boxes, most of which were empty. The ones that were full had minute things like ammunition and a handful of body armour units in them. Flash made sure to have the locations catalogued so that the equipment could be recovered by engineers and studied at a later date.

Once the rooms were secured and guarded, with several legionaries staying behind to protect the goods, the unit continued into the pyramid. The flickering, harsh light and dark colours did little to break Flash's unease about the place, but they went onwards anyways.

Most of the other rooms were simply filled with more boxes and acted as storage or as break rooms for the troops (the break rooms were suspiciously empty, leading Flash to suspect that the soldiers were somewhere else in the structure). Another block of rooms acted as water closets and washrooms, which Somnambula theorised led to bunk rooms and rest spaces higher up in the pyramid. The buildings outside, based on their preliminary investigations, mainly seemed to serve the purpose of overspill space to allow extra equipment to be shuttled in if need be, or extra living quarters if that was what the allies of troops needed here. Apart from that, mostly sciency stuff in those buildings.

It was not long after they approached a section of corridor. This section of corridor was somehow even darker than the rest (blowing the generators must have either damaged or disabled the standard lighting, which would explain the flickering as that could be a set of backup lights). The corridors, still coloured in that ominous black and grey livery standard in these very walls, now had an even more chilling air to them, which made being in there quite scary. But not to Legionaries, as Legionaries knew no fear whatsoever.

Above them, a single notice flickered. "What does that say?" Flash asked Somnambula, as none of the Legionaries, himself included, could actually read it.

"It reads... science division offices and laboratories. No unauthorised personnel beyond this point. All individuals of Grade 4 or higher permitted only. Please report to Doctor Maulwurf for details or clearance on entering."

"That sounds ominous," said Flash. "Generally, when one is in a creepy building, strange science is taking place or illegal and shady shit is going on."

"How can it be that bad? It's just a bunch of labs," said another Legionary. "Besides, I think the Praetor would want us to search them."

Flash nodded. "Alright, open the door. But be careful. These doors could be booby trapped."

One legionary kicked the door, but it didn't move. "Locked."

Somnambula flew over, and pressed on something. With a hiss and a low beeping sound, the door began to slide open.

Flash was the first to go inside, and what he saw horrified him.

The room before them was layed out with several tables and experimentation chambers contained within the walls of the room. Many of these tables had straps on them to tie a person down, and the workbenches had several secured syringes and phials in them, all of them glowing with a strange green liquid, as well as many other colours of liquid. These vials and syringes bubbled ominously, and many machines hummed and glowed as well in that room.

But this wasn't what horrified them most. Inside the chambers, strapped down onto the tables, and inside huge storage crates that were piled up inside the room were bodies.

Human bodies.

"Faust almighty," Somnambula said quietly. "Now we know why this place was so heavily guarded. Project 722 has been experimenting on humans. But what have they been testing?"

"Secure the vials and syringes for transport," Flash ordered. Several legionaries marched to perform his order as he turned back to Somnambula. "This would explain all the people who are going missing. Project 722 is taking them here to test stuff on them."

"Sir!" called another. "We found somebody!" They roughly hauled a researcher out from the storage closet on the wall.

The researcher shouted something that Flash didn't understand. "Keep him under guard." He looked to Somnambula. "A piece of Glowpaz, if you please."

Somnambula tossed it to the researcher, who caught it. Immediately, his words became understandable. "Don't shoot!"

"Answer my questions and I won't." Flash glared at him. "What were you working on?"

"I- I was assigned to the advanced weapons program," the researcher replied, his voice and body both shaking in seeming fear. "They wanted us to test the stuff that the advance team had been researching and developing on functioning subjects to assess their capability in the field."

"What sort of things?" Flash asked.

"I don't know. I wasn't involved in what they were researching, but I can tell you what the various objects did. Some of these chemicals produce an energy sequence that block off the brain and cause the neurons to temporarily stop functioning, cutting function to the cerebral cortex. Another was a bullet of some sort that allowed this dark creature to possess somebody. It wasn't clear how this worked, but we had no choice!"

"They weren't holding a gun to your head!" Flash shouted. "You could've said no!"

"They weren't holding one to mine, but they were holding them to my family! They said that if I didn't go along with the testing or research, they would kill my wife and son!"

"Sir?" called another legionary. "There's a document here. Says something about a raven."

Flash trotted over, and took a close look. "They're covering this up as development for a Covid-19 vaccine. The sick bastards."

He looked back. "You two, make sure he doesn't get away. These sick fucks will pay for what they've done."

The two legionaries flanked the researcher and stared him down. The researcher, sensibly, chose not to move and instead stayed still in a chair.

"The rest of you, Somnambula, with me. We still have the central chamber to search."

They set off out of the room, leaving the grim scene of destruction and horror behind them as they entered the corridor and turned to the left. They marched down into the blackness, and the lighting soon stopped altogether, as the corridor seemed to stretch infinitely into the blackness ahead. In the shadow of the dark night, navigation became extremely difficult. Luckily, the magical properties of Glowpaz helped out once again, as the stone could naturally glow in the dark. The sickly green light produced by the magical rocks certainly made navigation easier as they went on their way. And the light was certainly appreciated, as for a long period the chamber was completely black and empty of light. But there wasn't a lack of nothing as they went along, and at long last they reached the central chamber.

This chamber stretched almost to the very top of the pyramid, and was filled with statues. But that wasn't the only thing in there. Inside the chamber was a massive creature that had purple fur and inner fur in a stripe that was of a lighter shade. Attached to the right foreleg was a purple amulet, and on the left a golden one. It wore an elaborate golden headdress, a gold and black collar around its neck, and golden earrings in its ears. Its bronze eyes glared down menacingly. It also had the face of a humanoid, the legs and many features of a cat, and a purple tail that swished about.

And it was very angry.

Author's Note:

You read that right, people. The Sphynx is back.

Comments

[JimmyHook19]

And it was very angry.

Dun-Dun-DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Blue EM2]

10527157
Wouldn't you be?