My Little Strife: The Sigil Is Magic

by Ichtudirweh

Prison Escape

"I'd better conceal my assault rifle....In case things get ugly in here."

You realize before entering the prison. You slowly pace your way up to the main prison gates, with your assault rifle carefully shrouded underneath your tunic for concealment. The main gates were essentially just a metal barred door. You press your hand/hoof on the frigid metallic surface, and a motion sensor lowers the gates into the ground. Your eyes glance around inside the prison entryway. The interior was heavily guarded with Acolytes on patrol. Time to find Fido. A lone prison guard may know where he currently resides. As you tap the Acolyte on the shoulder to question the whereabouts of the Diamond Dog, he abruptly turns around to you and bellows aloud:

"The Order's wraith will rain down on these servants until they beg for death!"

Useless information. On the lower level, a red uniformed Acolyte nearby a metal mesh gate stood on patrol. Before you attempt to open the door, he shifts his hulking silhouette in front of the door to prevent further access.

"Halt! No one gets through here without authorization from the Warden or the Mayor."

The red uniformed Acolyte guard bellows down to you.

"Here's my pass, now let me in." You respond to the guard with little patience.

"Ok, but only talk to the Warden." The Acolyte responds, void of emotion.

Your Com-Link wrist mounted device recieves commentary from Blackmare, who overheard the short conversation.

"Geese, what a grouch....We'll get him later."

You don't say Blackmare? You sarcastically think, as the guard unlocks the entrance to the door. You jog into the room with little time to waste, and the metal door slams behind you. The Warden was overlooking the lower floor from a second story platform. Another flight of stairs was located down the hallway from outside the mesh gate. From a distance, the prisoners were located down the flight of steps. To avoid any conflict with peaceful negotiation, you would have to talk to Fido the Warden first. It was his final word if the prisoners would live or die.

You travel up the flight of steps, where Fido stood on the second floor of a balcony. He carefully analyzed any incomming visitors with a watchful eye. He was disquisitive about your arrival to the prison. You approach the massive diamond dog with a request to release the prisoners, as you presented the pass you recieved from Mayor Mare. Fido did not take kindly towards your peaceful negotiation. He presents a negative backlash of his own.

"I don't care if Mayor Mare gave you a pass for admission. I am in charge here. This is my prison. My key that I hold is the only way in or out, and I'm not taking any chances. The Order does not tolerate any mistakes." He scorns at your request.

His resistful nature infuriates you. The prisoners were going to be released one way or another.

"Give me the damn key you dirty mut!" You lose your temper towards Fido.

The Acolytes withdrew from their frozen stature, and brace themselves with their assault rifles at bay. You carefully grasp your punch dagger underneathe your tunic. Peaceful negotiations was no longer a valid option. Fido chuckles due to your short temper, with only another statement to enrage you even more.

"Ha! Over my dead body! Shackle or chains? Don't leave here, I want you to hang around!"

Fido backs into a wall to press an electronic switch. The alarms sound off around you. You charge at Fido, as he attemts to swing at you with his gigantic paws. You manage to dodge his behemoth arms, and dive underneath the space between his disproportinate legs. You jump up onto his gigantic silhouette, and fling your arms around his neck into a chokehold. The Acolytes raise their assault rifles without hesitation, and discharged their rifles towards your direction.

The Order has a disregard for their servants and workers it seems. They completely ignored the fact that Fido was trying to pry you off. The rounds unintentionally strike Fido. Bullets wizz around your head and strike the masonry from behind you, as some of the rounds ricocheted in different directions. Fidos massive size collapses to the ground, with you still attached to him. You use his massive body as a blockade from the gunfire. While blindfiring towards the direction of the Acolytes, you reach into his pockets and locate the prison key. Spraying and praying seemed to be effective. Two Acolyte guards collapse to the floor with bullet ridden corpses. You reload a fresh magazine, and swing yourself down to the lower floor.

An Acolyte located from outside the metal mesh gate discharges his assault rifle in a three round burst. You slam your back behind the metal door. You squat to the floor and return fire for a split second. Fast reflexes and perfect sight alignment defeats the Acolyte from outside the mesh.

You open the metal door. and sprint down to the lower level of the prison. You eyes widen in horror from a gruesome scene before you descend further into the prison. Rebels, stallions, peasants, and a few mares lie decomposing behind metal cages from opposite sides of the staircase. The Order were executing existing prisoners, to make way for more room inside the facility. You judged that they were executed by a firing squad, due to the bulletholes lodged inside the masonry walls, and the small entry wounds located across their corpses. The sight of the relentless killing infuriated you, but you had to keep calm in order to survive this mission. Your subconscious screams for revenge over the poor souls that lie dead behind bars.

A metallic gate with a golden key hole greets you at the end of the stairs. You withdraw the key recieved from Fido's bullet ridden corpse, and turn the key inside the lock. The thick metallic door swings open automatically, and it leads you to the main prison sector. Without any prior knowledge or warning, you pass over a glowing green floor sensor. The electronic sensor scans all visiting pesonnel for traces of Order tracking technology. Luckily for you, you had no such technology surgically installed inside your body. However, with your pure organic form, the alarms sound off inside the prison from failure of detection. You take cover to a nearby control panel, to hide behind four electronic pillars. A transmission from Blackmare disrupts your concentration.

"Guess there's no free pass this time. Time to lock and load!"

Two acolytes advance toward your position from the right side of the corridor. You drop to the floor in a prone position, with your assault rifle pointed down the hallway. You discharge three round bursts, aimed at their torsos. The Acolytes bellow a robotic scream from the rounds making contact. You pick yourself up from the prison floor, and sprint down the corridor towards their direction. You make a sharp right down the hallway. Scampering mechanical legs forces you to pause. You look around with your assault rifle at bay, but to you failed to identify the source of the noise. Suddenly, a small, brown mechanical spider lunges forward onto your chest armor. You land on your back in complete bewilderment. An electrical current that protrudes from the spider's mouth, arc's closer to make contact with your metal armor. You've never seen one of these small creations from the Order. However, you exert the brown mechanical spider off from you. The mechanical spider skids down the hallway in sparks, with it's legs scurrying to regain posture. You discharge several rounds into the little monstrosity. The mechanical spider erupts in a small explosion of metal shards and electronic debris.

"What the hell...Was that thing?" You think as you regain your composure. You swap out another magazine into your assault rifle, and continue down the corridor to the right. On the same level inside the prison, you encounter two more nasty little mechanical spiders. You destory them with relative ease. You continued down the corridor, traveled up ascending staircases, and made more turns along the way. You pass by electrical boxes with Order technology, and prison bars with both human and pony captives inside the bars.

"Hey! Your not from the Order! In the name of God, please release us stranger! They're going to execute us all!" One malnorished human reaches out to you with a bony hand.

You pause from venturing further, and advance towards the prisoner to view inside his viewport. His prison cell was inaccessable from a green transparent barrier.

"I'm here to free you all, but I need to know how to bypass this barrier. Would you possibly know how to shut off this transparent field?" You ask the man.

"I believe so brave one. The Acolyte guards control the prison cells with a main control panel. I've seen it with my own eyes. Qucik, find the main control center. Either shut off it's power or destory the main frame. Please hurry, I fear that we do not have much time!" The prisoner panicks in distress.

"Alright, I'll get you out of here one way or another." You tell the prisoner in return.

You jog down the hallways, and avoid a near collison into a row of metallic bars. To the left was a guard station that controlled the bars with an eletronic switch. You locate the override pull switch inside the room, and spot a new piece of hardware along the way.

A crossbow consisting of eletronic bolts and a detachable box magazine, rested on the floor nearby an observation viewport. You sling your assault rifle and pick up the electrically charged crossbow. A satchel of bolts attached on to your belt. The futuristic crossbow had an automatic reloading mechanism, with a mighty draw weight of about five strong stallions. The eletronic 'stun' bolts must have been used on prisoners attempting to flee the Order. However, you wonder how effective the bolts would be against their own creators...

The electronic bars lower from the right of the hallway. You continue down another long hallway with prison cells on parallel sides. Two Acolyte guards from down the hall point their assault rifles at you. The prisoners contained inside the cells, suddenly beg and plead for release from your arrival. One of the Acolytes was currently distracted by three prisoners located to the right. The prisoners reach out from the viewport of the cell, and grab the Acolyte's uniform to throw him off balance. The distracted Acolyte discharged his assault rifle unintentionally into the other Acolyte. You launch a carefully placed electronic bolt into the torso of the distracted Acolyte. He grasps the lodged bolt inside his chest, and pulls it out with little harm done to him. You drop the crossbow to the floor and withdraw your assault rifle. You carefully aim a three round burst towards the Acolyte's chest, which instantly kills him.

You rearm yourself with the crossbow, and sling the assault rifle over your shoulder. Another set of electronic bars block your path. A fellow prisoner points out a guard post with an override pull switch. You scavenge the guard post where you locate preloaded assault rifle magazines, personal health kits, bandages, and more electronic bolt magazines. After you pull the switch, you rush into the next hallway. A hovering drone appears down the hallway, which you've instantly recognized from the skies of Ponyville.

It was a troublesome Sentinel, accompanied along with a brown metallic spider. The spherical hovering robot scans the hallway with its infrared sensor. The Sentinel identifies you as a threat, and gradually opens it's chassis to reveal an technologically advanced weapon. It launches a stream of incinerating lasers towards your direction. You dart behind a wall to the right, and pause for a brief moment with your crossbow at bay. The sentinel scans the area for your presence, but fails to target you yet again. You do a quick barrel roll to the left, and launch two carefully aimed electronic bolts at the sentinel's exposed infrared sensor module. The sentinel short circuits when one arcing bolt makes contact with the exposed electronics, and implodes into a blazing ball of fire. The brown metallic spider charges towards your prone position. You launch another electronic bolt at the spider. It makes contact and short circuits the little nuisance.

An elevated platform greets you down the hallway. You step onto the elevated platform, which lowers you to the underground sector of the prison. As you step off from the platform, you spot a viewport that gives you a tactical advantage inside the next room. The alarms were not sounded inside this level, so stealth was a key factor. A floating sentinel hovers inside the next room. You look to see what the sentinel was guarding, to only find out it was Pinkie Pie herself. Her compuslive and random nature assured her as a high level threat to the Order. Inside her containment cell, she curled up into a fetal position and lied whimpering. A lone Acolyte stood on patrol nearby a doorway, with both human and pony prisoners located inside the next room. You had to make a choice:

A) Take out the guard blocking the door with your electronic crossbow, then the sentinel afterwards.

B) Use your assault rifle and take out the sentinel first, then engage the Acolyte shortly after.

A) You decide the Acolyte threat had to be silently terminated beforehand. You waited until the sentinel patrolled the opposite side of Pinkie's cell, away from the viewport. You rested the crossbow on the ledge, and aimed directly towards the Acolyte's helmet from across the room. You steady your breathing, and slowly press the trigger with your finger/hoof. The bolt soars from across the room, and penetrates the Acolyte's helmet with precision. The Acolyte falls to the floor with post mortem spasms. The thump caused by the Acolyte alerts the Sentinel. It scans the lifeless body while on patrol, and activates the alarms inside the lower level. You release two more bolts aimed at the sentinel's exposed chassis, while it was busy scanning the body. The sentinel short circuits and falls into the pit below Pinkie's cell. Pinkie Pie ceases to whimper, and peeks upward from her forehooves due to the sudden disturbance.

B) You figure using your assault rifle on the sentinel first was a better decision. You drop your crossbow nearby the viewport and withdraw your assault rifle. You carefully align the sights towards the red scanner section of the Sentinel. A carefully squeezed three round burst is discharged at the spherical drone. The rounds penetrate the thick armor, but does little good to eliminate the robot. The sentinel activates the alarms inside the lower prison sector. You quickly change your sight picture over to the Acolyte guard, and squeeze off a volley of rounds. The Acolyte bellows in robotic pain, and collapses to the floor. Before you could re-align your assault rifle's sights at the Sentinel again, it returns fire with a linear stream of lasers. The lasers sear right through your armor, and burns through your vital organs inside your chest. You attempt to cover the exposed chest cavity with your hand/hoof. Your vision of the world permanently fades to black. Protip : Your electronic bolts can short circuit robots, so use that to your advantage next time!

You hurtle down the flight of steps in the next room, with the captured attention of Pinkie Pie.

"Weeee! A prison break! Thank Celestia your here to save me! The prisons control room is just to the right of my cell. Please hurry! I don't know how much longer I can stay cramped inside this tiny cell!" Pinkie yells with a whine.

"Dont worry, I'll get you out!" You holler back to her, while entering the next corridor to the right. Two sentinels travel up the prison cell hallway, with two brown metallic spiders on the floor. You deplete the last of the electronic bolts inside the crossbow's box magazine. The Sentinels implode to a firey ball, which favorably collided into the spiders just below them.

The main control room was secured by a paw print scanner, located just to the right of the door. Another transmission from Blackmare is received by your intercom. She gave you some insight on what to do about the door.

"Ok, you pleased the Mayor, splattered the Warden...Now it looks like were going to have to do a little surgery."

Wait, cut off one of the diamond dog's paw? The gatekeeper must have been Spot, since it seemed that the Order gave the Diamond Dogs the duty to overlook the town's prison. Inside the next room, opposite to the doorway of the main control room, a gilded altar with skull decorations captures your attention. You jog over to examine the altar, when suddenly a squad of Acolytes discharge their assault rifles from hidden vantage points. Swift reflexes dictate you to take cover behind the altar. Oddly enough, the Acolytes ceased fire towards the direction of the altar. This gave you an advantage in the firefight. You return fire and impetuously eliminate the threats.

While briefly examining the altar, you locate a large golden skull switch. You press the switch into it's corresponding slot, and a door located at the top of a staircase reveals itself. A personal Sentinel from Spot reveals itself at the peak of the staircase. You vigorously withdrawal your electronic crossbow, and launch two electronic bolts towards the robot. The Sentinel tumbles down the staircase towards your direction. You enter the room, where Spot anticipated your arrival at the end of a plush bed. He silently smirks to himself, with a following speech only to infuriate you.

"I don't know how you got passed Fido, but I hope you like the décor inside my room. Perhaps I shall mount your head onto my wall! Congratulations, You've just moved in!"

He hollers with laughter.

"Release my comrades, and I might let you live." You return to the ignorant mut.

"Kill me, and you'll never set anyone free. I possess the only pattern key that will unlock the cells." He grins at you.

"Alright then, so be it. Do you mind lending me your paw?" You withdraw your punch dagger.

Spot releases a nervous tremble from the sight of your gleaming blade. He attempts to swing at you in self defense. You dodge his massive paw, and lunge your punch dagger directly into the pit of his stomach. His eyes widen in pain, and he grasps the entry wound while you withdraw your dagger. He falls to the floor in defeat. A trickle of blood slowly developed into a pool around his body. You remove his bloodied paw from his wound, and crudely saw it off for your own. You return back to the doorway, with a surprise message from Blackmare.

"AH! You cut off his paw! I thought you were a nice guy. Well, kind of. Hmf, let's go back to the scanner." She responds to your gruesome act.

It was absolutely heart wrenching to live the life of a mercenary, but you justify your cruel acts by thinking about the innocent lives that you'll be saving. You rush back to the door with the paw scanner, with Spot's severed paw grasped in your hand/hoof. You press the paw into the scanner, and await for the door to open upon itself. With the paw still clutched, you walk over to the control panel that contained three more scanners. You firmly press the paw into the scanners, which releases the translucent barrier inside the prison cells throughout the complex.

Your mission was successful! You freed the prisoners while completing your task.

You descend into the lower level of the control room, with a corresponding message from Blackmare.

"Way to go my friend! Jump onto the teleporter with Pinkie, and we'll bring you back to base."

You retrace the pathway back into the room of Pinkie Pie's isolated cell. The prisoners scurry out from the cells in relief, while thanking you along the way. Pinkie Pie, now armed with an assault rifle from the deceased Acolyte guard, helps escort the prisoners for a safe departure. She trots over to you with a warm hug after the crowd was clear.

"I knew you could do it Silly! Let's ditch this party and meet up with Rainbow Dash. You lead the way!" She squeals with a high pitched voice.

You nod to Pinkie, and travel back down the hallways towards the location of the control room. You locate the transportation device on the lower level, and hold Pinkie by your side. The molecules of Pinkie Pie and yourself dissipate into the air. The teleporter transports you directly back into headquarters, where Rainbow Dash awaits for the two of you. She briefs you on your next mission.....

Comments

[Ichtudirweh]

Well, shit. I lost about 1,500 word of content on the Power crystal chapter by accident

Seeing if any Admins can recover the lost content.

I'll try to finnish up that chapter by tomorrow along with pictures.

[Ichtudirweh]

Update: Chapter 10 is comming out better than expected, so sit tight. Still have to make following pictures. Going to try and finish it up by this weekend.

Update: Just sit tight everyone, had a busy weekend. I'm thinking I should wait until S3E1 airs for more ideas for the Power Crystal chapter. The Irony, I'll try to get it out there at least by tuesday.

[Inspectah Dash]

Hm, interesting concept. Will definitely give this a read.

[Ichtudirweh]

Thanks, wanted to do something different for once. Also, still progress on the power crystal chapter. S3E1 and E2 didn't really contribute anything new to the Power Crystal chapter, since we all know that Rarity loves her jewels :D

[Cuber Snuggles]

Death count: 2