We don't go to Sub-Level Five

by RadBunny

Chapter Eleven: Situation Rundown

Princess Sparkle was currently ruing the day she made a pact to never turn a politician into a pastry. Yes, it had been necessary legislation, but it had only been one time, and only for a few minutes.

Discord had loved that little anger-infused loss of control, but Twilight had learned to control herself. Deep breaths. In, and out.

Her day had been perfectly normal, perfectly on schedule, and then the lovely company owner and politician Stylus Protractor came into the throne room and proclaimed one of his facilities had exploded.

That alone would have been a headache; Twilight already knew about it from the brief situational summary from a few days ago. What started as a headache had quickly turned into one of the best days this week. The individual who had shown up an hour or two before the initial company representative had made sure that this day was going to be a fantastic one. The entire interview and interaction were just formality on her part.

She had half a mind to invite Discord to watch. When the owner of a company (rather than someone from their board of directors) showed up days after an incident to explain what occurred, that was usually a nice courtesy during a chaotic time. In this case, it was downright suspicious, especially when adding to the memo she got.

“Ok, so, Mister Protractor, please explain this again,” she said courteously. This part had to be convincing. “Your facility which manufactures and tests…”

“Various chemical compounds and catalysts to help further positive technological developments in Equestria, along with some military contracts,” the pony said smoothly, “hence our top-secret security status we utilize.”

“Hmm. Yes, I was reading over the shipping manifests of some of the shipments,” Twilight said, her ‘royal tone’ in full effect. “And this facility just…detonated? Two stories above ground, four and a half below, if the initial report your representative delivered is accurate.”

“That is correct. The local emergency responders are sifting through the rubble now. As best as we can guess, there was an undetected leak of multiple storage containers which ignited on the bottom floor. We were able to retrieve most of our staff using the new emergency recall devices. No official fatalities as of yet.”

“Oh! Really?” the Princess couldn’t help but exclaim happily. With the various ideas and patents she had put out in some of her spare time, it was always a pleasure to hear they actually worked!

They usually did work, but it was nice to have positive feedback.

“Yes. We managed to recall all of our essential staff. Unfortunately, quite a few may have perished simply due to the rapid nature of the collapse; no fault of your design of course,” the light blue unicorn explained.

“Of course.”

“I just wanted to personally inform you that the Stairway Company will be submitting a full report as soon as we make sure the scene is safe. We welcome any investigation if that is necessary.”

“Oh? I doubt that will be needed.”

Twilight noted how Stylus immediately relaxed. This bureaucrat was taking her for a fool. Considering how much red tape this company had put up with her past investigations, the Princess was going to enjoy this moment quite a bit.

“That is good to hear. I’d be happy to answer any other questions if you have them. I was sent to make sure you were fully informed of the situation, after all.”

“Of course, Mr. Protractor,” Twilight said, secretly prancing with glee. “There is just one question I have for you.”

“Highness?”

“What is on Sub-Level Five?”

While the company owner remained composed, Twilight saw a knife’s edge slide across Stylus’s gaze. Twilight was secretly enjoying the exchange far too much. For too many years this company had eluded various investigations, put up far too many smokescreens for the book-minded Princess to take lying down.

Rumors were one thing, but when those rumors all had a common theme, that caught Twilight’s interest, especially when the spreaders of said rumors abruptly went missing more often than not.

When the rumors also dealt with unspeakable acts against her subjects, that made Twilight quite attentive indeed. She didn’t have multiple Ph.D.s for being lax in terms of research.

All her leads had been dead ends, all her back-door investigations yielded nothing but diplomatic shrugs. The company and primary facility were in international lands, after all. Of course, Twilight had taken a few liberties on conducting various studies of her own. Totally unrelated to the facility of course, at least initially.

However, now a golden opportunity had literally knocked on her door.

“Sub-Level Five, Highness?” Stylus said in apparent confusion. “There isn’t such a level. It stops as Sub-Level four and a half.”

“Yes, power generation and supply. I’ve seen the blueprints,” Twilight said, a slight smirk sliding onto her features. “But those don’t exactly line up with seismograph readings, Mister Protractor. Hundreds of lengths down into the bedrock. Quite interesting, really. A facility dozens of times larger than the original blueprints indicate.”

That made the light-blue unicorn’s face a bit paler.

“Send him in.”

Stylus’s eyes widened in shock as Flask Heat trotted into the throne room, an impassive expression on his face. Despite his cool demeanor, the earth pony’s light blue eyes shone with unrepentant rage.

“The emergency teleportation gem in your saddlebags won’t work, Mister Protractor,” Twilight said with a sigh, “so you can stop trying to activate it. The jamming field is my personal spellcraft. Considering you are being officially detained as a matter of national security, you may as well sit down. Besides…” a rather eager smile now dawned on the Alicorn’s face as she trotted down from the throne to sit in front of the mortified unicorn.

“We have so much to discuss.’

---

Across an infinite number of dimensional planes, a certain Draconequus perked up an ear; a light-yellow Pegasus reaching over to hold his paw.

“Discord?”

“Sorry, Flutters, I just caught a whisper of something wonderfully chaotic.”

---

Astral woke up to…he actually wasn’t sure. It was a cushion, a very comfy one at that. There was a voice humming away in the distance, but he wasn’t entirely sure who. Had he left the radio on in the apartment?

Wait, he didn’t own a radio.

With a jerk, the Thestral sat up in bed with a gasp, his heart pounding in his ears.

Right. Sassi, apartment place; safe.

He barely remembered drying off and staggering to his room. Looking at his forelimbs, the cuts and scrapes he had accumulated were expertly bandaged, the gauze soaked in disinfectant.

Right. She had bandaged me up and ordered me to bed.
Not like I could argue.

The stallion felt like his body had been run over with a train. Three days of running, creeping, pulling a supply sled, and carrying a significant number of supplies…

In a word?

“Ouch,” he grunted. But at least he was clean now. Sore and not up for a fight, but alive and clean.

First things first; locating a comb to tame the signature bat-pony head fluff.

Wincing with each step, Astral walked out of the room, his ears indicating Sassi was likely in the living room or kitchen.

Ugh, even my head wasn’t spared an ache or two.

There was, thankfully, a comb in the bathroom that tamed the fluff, Astral trying to wake himself up with some cold water. It was partially effective, the stallion finally trotting out to look around the small apartment. It only then occurred to him that this wasn’t a typical ‘soldier’s bunk.’

Oh. Right. This is Sassi’s home.

There were pictures on the wall with her and another pony; he was too far to see who it was, along with photos of her in various cities.

“Oh! Hey, you’re up!” Sassi said cheerfully, looking over to him from the kitchen. “You’ve been out for a while. You just passed out over ten hours ago.”

Ten hours?!

“Wow. I’m usually not that heavy of a sleeper,” he muttered, sitting down on the floor with a wince, Sassi waving a hoof dismissively.

“It happens. Acclimating to combat and stress. Heck, I slept every hour when I was off my shift during training. Barely had time to eat.”

Astral’s eyes widened as he glanced over to Sassi; the mare not having any of her armor on. Surprisingly, she looked just…normal. Dark blue coloration contrasting her lighter blue ears, mane, and tail, and webbed wings folded neatly against her back. A half-hidden compass behind a shield was emblazoned on her flanks; not that Astral let his gaze linger.

“Sorry,” he stammered, averting his gaze, “I half expected you to be a robot. Or have like, a limb or two made of metal.”

While true, it was only half of it true. Astral knew the stress was making him seek any sort of distraction. Noticing that the previously-armored mare was, underneath the gear, fairly attractive, apparently was such a distraction.

Sassi let out a snort, the Thestral then letting out a genuine laugh, a complete contrast from her earlier, clipped tone when first meeting him.

“I don’t blame you!” she said with a grin, “but nope! One-hundred percent flesh and blood! Enhanced, but still, well, squishy.”

“Enhanced?”

Sassi nodded, getting out some fruit from a refrigerated cabinet.

“Yeah. As part of the primary security program here, some of us got a series of booster shots,” she explained, rubbing her right forelimb with a wince. “It wasn’t pleasant, so I’ll leave it at that. Basically, just boost your, well, everything to about three times normal. Stronger, faster, yadda-yadda. I need to eat more, but that’s one of the few downsides. Considering the stuff we need to be on guard for, we needed an extra edge.”

“The Skitters?”

“Yup. Skitters, the other experiments…wait,” Sassi paused, looking at him with a bit of concern, “you really have no idea what this place is, do you?”

He shook his head, the mare letting out a low whistle.

“Ooooooh boy,” she sighed, “I was wondering if they gave you any information topside. Well, you’re in for a shock.”

“Try me,” Astral said, wincing as he walked over to sit on the plush sofa. “One of the few requirements of my job was to deny the existence of any floor lower than four and a half. Obviously, there are a lot more. I saw forty-six or so in the elevator. Then they’re these ‘silos’ of sorts? It’s a bit bigger than I intended. I thought the company was just making…” his eyes widened, the Thestral coughing, “eh. Not important. Clearly, they are doing a bunch of stuff that is so far beyond illegal there isn’t a word for it.”

“That’s an understatement,” Sassi said softly, Astral glancing over to her.

“Hmm?”

“Ok, rundown time,” she said, voice becoming more clipped. “You’re in the Main Silo Junction. There are three silos. Silo One is the safest; that’s where you worked, at one of the above-ground entrances that served as a cover. There are about fifty floors in that silo. You follow?”

Astral nodded, trying his hardest to remember every word.

“We’re in-between Silo One and Two. Silo Two is where the big stuff happens. Experiments, genetic-magic stuff, weapon production, product testing, power generation, and so forth. That one has another set of more than fifty floors, but each floor is much, much larger. Still following?”

Another nod.

“Then there’s Silo Three. That’s an old one probably as big if not bigger than Silo Two. It’s mostly decommissioned but has some floors that serve as a holding area for…volunteers, who are then transported to Silo Two. But it’s largely decrepit and abandoned.”

“Volunteers?”

“A nice way of saying death-row creatures who signed their life away for science. You don’t want to know the specifics.” Sassi watched as the grey Thestral turned a light shade of green, Astral curling up a bit tighter to himself.

“Experiments. The Skitters?”

“Those are the spawn of an experiment, yeah,” Sassi confirmed, “the Skitter Queen is at the base of Silo Two, if the readings are right. Usually, the number of offspring was limited, but ever since the surge….”

“Surge?”

Sassi nodded, sorting through the fruit on the counter in thought.
“A power and magical surge that happened about a week before everything went down the toilet,” she said, “it disrupted a ton of security measures and containment fields. Probably related to the computer virus that was spreading around. The main power failure was the icing on the cake which let everything escape.”

Astral nodded, staying quiet as he thought. To say this was overwhelming was an understatement.

“A lot to take in, huh?”

“To say the least,” he admitted.

“Well. If you want to keep your mind off things, can you cook? Or at least make something tasty with a blender?” Sassi asked, “I honestly can burn water, and I’ve never been able to get the right proportions for a good fruit smoothie. Not sure if that makes me less of a Thestral, but I’d appreciate it if you took a crack at it. Normal smoothies just taste so bland to me.”

“Huh? Oh, sure,” Astral said, levering himself off the couch with a wince. Walking over, he located a small knife and began slicing up the various fruits, finding the simple activity did help him process it all. “Were there many other Thestrals here? I don’t blame you for not knowing the proportions. We taste stuff a bit differently when it comes to fruits compared to other creatures.

“Hmm? Not that I saw. And that would explain why all other smoothies tasted so boring,” she replied.

“That sounds about right. We’re used to a bit more of a punch with sweet and sour things,” Astral explained, rather fascinated that he had found a Thestral who didn’t know this. Most children quickly figured it out in Hollow Shades, or anywhere else really.

“So can you put all of this into a nutshell for a pony who, as of three days ago-”

“Four.”

“Four days ago, only thought this place manufactured the odd chemical here and there?” he asked.

Sassi hummed, tapping a hoof to her cheek in thought.
“An evil organization has a huge complex where they run a bunch of nasty experiments. Somehow everything crashed and set things loose and now the entire place is a deathtrap,” she said with a nod. “Oh, and you got your butt saved by the security mare.”

“I was going to go with an armored princess, but security mare works too,” Astral said with a grin, turning his attention to the blender, “ok, three parts pineapple, one part mango, two parts- no, one part kiwi…”

He missed how Sassi’s ears perked up, her face one of genuine surprise at his previous words.

“I’ll take the armored comment,” she chuckled, her gaze glancing away from Astral, “but definitely not pretty enough for the princess part. Either way, glad to help.”

Astral glanced over to Sassi, his eyes then returning to the blender.

The stallion wasn’t a flirter. When he genuinely tried, his anxiety went through the roof and he made a fool of himself. To quote his best friend “Dude, you just need to stop trying. You are like, the king of flirting when you do it by accident when just talking normally to mares. If you got out more and thought a bit less, you’d be more successful!”

To that end, Astral had to stop himself from correcting Sassi’s rather self-deprecating joke. It was certainly not appropriate to do when first meeting a mare, and definitely not when he was stressed out of his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was have her get any wrong impressions. If Sassi’s words about ‘dealing with bad ponies’ had any weight, he wanted to be as far away from that definition as possible.

Even so, the fact this mare thought herself not terribly attractive, even in jest, was rather odd.

Blending up the fruit concoction, Astral paused and tasted it with a nod.

“There we go. Let me know if you like it. Do you have a lot of fresh fruit down here?” he asked curiously, “the greenhouse I passed didn’t look the healthiest.”

She let out a snort at that.
“A decent amount, along with freeze-dried and dehydrated options. But that’s a mission for later,” Sassi explained. “For now, it’s to see if this is tasty or not.”

Judging from the happy ‘mmmmm’ that left Sassi’s mouth on taking a gulp, Astral had nailed it.

“Soooo much better than when I do it,” She sighed, pouring out half for herself and leaving a glass for the stallion. “Consider yourself on cooking and blending duty, payment for room and board.” Sassi then raised a hoof. “Oh, and before I forget, and since it probably would cross your mind, the reason you’re staying here in my apartment, is because some of those Skitters have a wicked sense of smell. The other rooms aren’t hermetically sealed, so you being here is one potential less failure point to worry about, even if it’s super unlikely. So, if you’re here, cooking duty it is!”

He did, for the most part. But Astra weakly saluted with a hoof, a genuine smile on his face for the first time in what felt like ages.
“Yes M’am.”

“Ew. No ‘M’am’s here,” Sassi shuddered, hopping onto one of the couches to relax. “If your file is right, you’re not much older than me. So, unless you want me to call you ‘Mr…’”

“Eurg, no,” Astral said with a firm shake of his head, taking his glass to sit down on the other sofa, “definitely not.”

The two finished their fruity meal, Sassi casually taking out a forelimb-long machete from the couch and beginning to polish it.

“So, Astral,” she asked, “I’m curious about you. How does a security guard end up down here still alive? Or even associated with an organization this scummy?”

Sassi saw his wide eyes, and the mare burst out laughing as Astral stared at the weapon.
“Oh wow! Sorry, that must have sounded a lot more threatening than I meant!” she wheezed, stowing the blade away. “I’m just so used to having creatures around who are comfortable with weapons. My question still stands though, since we’ve got the time and you technically are in my home.”

Well, she had him there.

“Where to start? the stallion said with a tired shrug. “I’m from Fillydelphia, long line of guards in the family. It didn’t work out during the end of basic training, so I wanted to try and find out what I really wanted to do. The Company reached out to me and asked if I wanted the job. Considering the benefits, how could I have refused?” he frowned at that, “I did some research, and nothing obviously illegal surfaced, and they even helped pay for a degree in a totally separate field. I got tipped off by a friend who helped me get this far.”

“Tipped off?” Sassi’s ears perked up at that, “like, to all of this happening?”

“Not directly, no,” Astral said, ears drooping. “I would tell you his name, but I don’t want to put him in…any….”

Astral’s eyes were locked onto one of the pictures, a smiling Sassi standing next to a familiar earth pony.

“How do you know Flask Heat?” Astral asked, Sassi’s demeanor immediately shifting to being more guarded.

“He’s a close friend, why?”

“Because he’s the reason I’m still alive,” Astral said softly, “he’s the pony who gave me a bit of warning, in a way.”

Author's Note:

Bonus chapter! Looks like the rabbit hole keeps getting bigger.

Comments

[Reggie the Griffon]

10982994
TBH
I missed the tag with all the other red tags up there.
Also rip D-Class bois

~Reggie

[RadBunny]

10983205
It's like 'dark adventure, horror...OH fluffy romance...
RIP indeed.

[Schwabauer]

10983205
The D-Class get what they deserve.

[Silver Starlight]

Stylus’s eyes widened in shock as Flask Heat trotted into the throne room, an impassive expression on his face. Despite his cool demeanor, the earth pony’s light blue eyes shone with unrepentant rage.

*ROAR of applause from the studio audience*

[RadBunny]

11104150
Accurate!