Prologue+Chapter 1

Facility 202

Prologue

Dust, ashes and hatred…
That’s what Equestria has been reduced to…
The consequences of a great power destroying itself…
Taking the lives of the innocent, the unknowing and the unknown…
Decimating any trace of civilization in a once peaceful land…
But…
Pony kind is too mighty to just fade away…
Ponies are stubborn like that.

25 years…
25 years of hardship…
25 years of hell and war…
25 years after the Great War the battlefield still rages…
Not because of Luna trying to overpower her sister…
That was long ago. Now it’s a fight for survival, for the last remaining resources…
Both Luna and Celestia fought for power over the once harmonious land of Equestria, both sides were desperate and had to resort to killing innocent ponies in Pegasus bombing runs…

SYSETM ONLINE…
RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC…
ERROR: THRUSTERS DISABLED
ERROR: MAGIC-NET TELECOMUNICATIONS OFFLINE
ERROR: HARD-DRIVE DISK NOT FOUND
RUNNING SCAN FOR ALTERNATIVES…
DISK FOUND IN PORT 12#...
EXECUTE DISK?
CONSOLE: YES
EXECUTING DISK PLEASE STAND BY…

MESSAGE BEGINS:
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Facility 202, a hydroelectric city situated at the base of the waterfall just outside of old Canterlot. One of the last cities to have any form of civilisations, a bastion of hope in a sea of darkness.
The ponies that inhabit the city have gotten used to the sound of the magic turrets annihilating any and all who try to conquer the settlement. It’s usually just some beast from the Everfree forest (You may be thinking that the forest would be miles away but due to use of magic weaponry it grew…) although sometimes it’s a small invading hamlet or a dragon, now they put on a fireworks show…
That uses up A LOT of ammo, luckily the turrets run off the magic from any unicorn unless it’s a cloud based turret but they’re a different league, the turrets drain energy from the pony and convert it into hardlight. Basically the more unicorns, the more ammo but this energy has to come from somewhere right? Well it’s food energy which is converted into magical energy by the pony, so basically the turrets use food as ammunition. It’s a whole complex thing and right now it’s side-tracking a bit…
As now my friend, Twilight Sparkle has invented a device that’ll change the whole field of war…
Now you may be wondering who I am? I’m commander Rainbow Dash, fearless leader of the pegasi.
The bearer of the element of loyalty and the most loyal servant to our dear Celestia…
I don’t have long but I do have this to say. Never give up, keep on trying… it’s the Pegasus way!
The instructions are imprinted 0110 0110 crystal. Only use it for the 001, Good luck!
111 01 101 1001
Buck, they’re coming! I have to go…
==================================================================================
MESSAGE REPEATS
ERROR:
SYSTEM DAMAGED
DISK DRIVE UNSTABLE
WARNING! DISK JUMPS MAY OCCUR
RECOMMEND REPAIRS TO PRIORITY SYSTEMS

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Facility 202
Chapter 1-Discovery

“Is that all?” Quizzed Alex.
“Unfortunately, as far as I know we can download its files and send them to the archives but apart from that all this is a ball of scrap, a relic of the old civilisation…” Replied AppleSplash.
AppleSplash was a fairly small pony, he was a unicorn and knew the standard spells and hundreds of spells related to fixing old machines. He had a dark grey coat and a white mane and tail with a cyan streak through the middle, he was naïve of the expansive wasteland that was known as ‘Equestria’ many years ago. He was pretty young still but that didn’t stop him from becoming an engineer to maintain Facility 202…
“Ah hope we can sell for lot of monies!!” Moaned a large Pegasus from a chair in the corner of the workshop, it was AppleSplash’s uncle, CloudWacker but you couldn’t tell unless someone informer you, he was very different from Apple. He was dim before the accident, his father was showing him an invention of his, a new type of hoofheld spear that would telescopically extend into an enemy, impaling them with messy results. It worked perfectly but he managed to get it to extend into his head, it was 2 hours before he was freed from the wall that the spear had pinned him to and another few for him to regain consciousness. Now he’s basically a worthless lump that’s good for nothing “He would be good for target practice but nothing else” I thought to myself before realising that Alex had pulled something unbelievably bright out of the worthless pile of junk, so bright that I had to lower my visor to see what it was.
“Alex fetch my tools!” I mumbled to Alex as I examined the object so bright that it was blinding everypony in the usually dark, dim and musty workshop.
“TURN OFF! NOAWW!” Yelled CloudWacker, I didn’t pay attention to that loud idiot.
As he said that Alex was back with the heavy tool bag and as he placed it on the counter the orb started to get hot in my hoofs so I set it down.
“AppleSplash it’s on fire!” Screamed Alex.
I whipped around in alarm. “Shoot!”Grunting as I replied as I telekinetically motioned it into the dangerous materials sink and turned the taps on full power, the room filled with steam and the strange object stopped glowing and turned a dark purple colour. I moved it back onto my work bench and examined it. It had a keyhole and I shot a hoof towards my lock pick tools.
Alex spat the tools out to the right of me and I inserted the pick and tension wrench, we sat there in silence which was only broken by a satisfying click. It stirred and glowed red with incandescence, before it subsided and the outer shell burst off with a whoosh of steam and a crystal popped out accompanied by some strange objects. “Hopefully that’s the last of the surprises.” Alex remarked.
“Uhhh Alex, go put this into the hazardous material bin so I can examine it later.” And with that he did…

After a nice warm bath and some annoyingly watery soup I climbed into my starchy bunk bed and flipped the light out.
The following morning was out of the ordinary, I heard hoofsteps and jerked upwards. Head engineer Tinker-Jane (She prefers to be called that) strode into AppleSplash’s room. She was flanked by 2 guards clad in a sleek nanosuit which seemed to glisten in the gloomy lighting. I got out of my bed, “How may I help you ma’am?” I called out as almost as if I was a robot. She had the hazardous material bin strapped to her saddlebags, it looks like the peculiar objects didn’t explode… I wish they would and kill that bitch.
“You see this bin?” I nodded in reply “It contains tier 1 materials, I should lock you in the dungeons.” She stated in a harsh tone, I’m screwed now I thought to myself…
“But we both know that’s not going to happen!” She said in a sinister tone
“I’m sorry but what do you want from me?” I replied coldly
“This crystal can power more than just a whole city but an entire network of turrets and several battalions of battle-chariots.” She said
I just stood there, maybe it is worth getting my ass melted again for a dumb rock?
“Why do you need me, you’re 3 skill grades above me and I’m a bit tied up right now” I quizzed
“Because you know how it works far better than any other engineer in the whole of Facility 202!” She answered, I guess I’m going to have to be killed by this crystal whether I like it or not
“And you’re going to do this without question, as you know me and my guards can be very ‘persuasive’ if you catch my drift.” As she said this 2 of the more heavily armored guards charged up their magical weapons to emphasise her point. Being forced to this is bad enough, but now if I didn’t I would be tortured. Fuck…
“Do you understand?”
“Affirmative”
“You’ll need to have it installed into this power core.” As she said this, a small blue pony entered the room, it was pulling a cart with a SPDC (Standard Power Distribution Core) mounted to its battered wooden frame onto it. “Your deadline is 1 week, don’t disappoint me…” She said as she walked out of the room, shortly after her guards followed but the cart pony stayed.
“What do you want kid?” I spoke with a gruff, tired voice
“Tinker-Jane told me to provide you with anything you need, no questions asked!” it said enthusiastically, I realised it was a mare. I guess she felt sorry for me…
“Ok, I’m not going to work right now but how may I contact you?” I said
“Code your radio my frequency, 24.7MHz…” She said as if she had spoken those words a million times before.
“Ok, goodbye...” I said
“Call me when you need stuff but for no other reason.” The mare replied
“Of course, one thing though.” I said
“Go on…” She said with a sigh
“What’s your name?” I asked
“Sarah. Now I have to go!” She said in a hurried tone
I went back home to plan…