.:+:.

Alarms.

"Warning..... Pacification Field Offline.... Warning...... Magic Generators have failed......"

"....Warning... Cryogenic Holding Chamber Malfunction, Ice Talismans non-operational..... Warning.... Chamber breach, radioactive matter present.... Warning;"

"Subject at risk."

The sound of alarms going off woke me from a restless, and dreamless sleep, that I can't remember falling asleep for. Letting out a moan, my head thudding against something hard as I tried to sit up. I cringed back slightly, trying to force my eyes to open, but they feel so heavy, my limbs feel heavy. I feel like I got kicked in the head by a freaking yak on a rampage…. The hell..?!

"..... Warning.... Subject at Risk....... Please evacuate immediately....."

The words seemed to bounce around me and echo, the alarms kept ringing in my ears to the point that it was beginning to give me one hell of a headache- I wanted those damn things to shut the hell up, I want them gone.

I try sitting up again, this time slowly lifting a hoof forward so it can meet the barrier in which my head had hit before. The surface was smooth, and utterly freezing. Just like me- my teeth were chattering incessantly as cold chills racked my body and made me tremble. I forced my eyes open slowly, nothing was making any sense, all the details were gone, everything was lost in a sheet of grey before my eyes. A slight, sickly green glow enveloped everything around me, and I scrunched my eyes closed again, the odd light was making my growing headache much worse.

".......... Warning....... Radiation Levels have Increased..... Please evacuate immediately...."

Radiation...? Chamber...... Subject......?

My mind was foggy, I can't make sense of anything…… When I tried to remember... Everything is blank, there's nothing there, and my head begins to pound more at my attempt to recall any small, passing shred of memory or knowledge. I tried to bring forth anything- anything that would help me understand what was going on…. But it’s just dark emptiness, nothing comes to mind, nothing at all- every memory I may have ever had, or might not have… its not there- everything in my head is blank. I don’t know where I am, what happened, what’s going on, or even hardly who I am…..

I groan again, my head throbbing more- I felt heavy and slow, I felt weak, small.... And Sweet Celestia, I am freezing! Get me the hell out of here!

Then again, where is ‘here’ anyway?

A cold slab of something hard was pressed up against my back, and I can feel the same cold surfaces surrounding me on either side. I shudder involuntarily, and force my eyelids open halfway, blinking slowly a few times to try and clear my vision of the haze lingering over it. When at last, the scenery before me begins to clear, I can make out that I'm not laying down, in fact I'm pressed up against a slab of metal, sitting up right with my hind-legs stretched down. My hoof had met contact with cloudy, and dust ridden glass inches from my face. The glass is clouded and frosted over slightly inside, from outside the sickly green glow is coming in through the dirty glass to bath me in its dim light. I slowly rubbed away the condensation and frost, to try and get a clearer look of what lies beyond the glass, peering through the dust on the other side to see....

...rubble...?

Everything looks to have been destroyed, the walls had crumbled and fallen on the other side of my small metal prison and cached the floor with bits of concrete and whatnot. Everything seemed to be coated in a thick sheet of dust, the walls cracked, the floor uneven, sections of the roof hanging down at an unsafe angle- pipes and wires and tubes, all that seemed to be holding on for dear life above me. My mind was having a seriously hard time trying to figure out, just what in the hell is going on?

"Subject 4 is in danger..... Please evacuate.... Radiation levels have increased...... Internal structure has been compromised..."

My ears perked at the name, it ringing in my head with an air of unfamiliarity and foreignness.... Subject 4. Who the freaking hell is Subject 4?

"Zone 4 has been compromised..... All personnel please evacuate..." The mechanical voice continued on, sounding slightly static and gurgled, like the speakers had been damaged at some point. "Subject 4's safety has been compromised, please evacuate the Subject.... This is a level 5 emergency...."

Zone 4... Now that didn’t manage to ring a bell in my head either, if it ever had been something I knew about- I can't place where I had heard it before, or even remembering hearing it. For a split second, pure irritation rose up inside of me- I can’t. Remember. A. Damn. Thing.

How can I not? Why the hell was my mind so freaking blank?

Due to the situation- you know, trapped in a metal and glass box and freezing my feathers off- I didn't have time to dwell on my strange lack of memory, all I could actually manage to process right now, was the pressing need to get out of my small, enclosed, prison-it was slowly making me feel a bit… claustrophobic.

I reached a hoof up to rub my temple and found something else, it was… a headset of sorts, two metal ends shaped like teardrops clamped down on to both of my temples, a band that was of a cool silver metal and interlaced with thin, slightly glowing wires- that rest just behind my ears to keep it on my head. I blinked slightly, unsure what it was or why it was on my head…. I ignored it for now. Get out of here first, figure that out later.

I shook my head furiously and the headset clattered at my hooves at the bottom of my cage… tube… whatever.

Letting out another groan, I pressed both hooves against the glass, and pushed as hard as I could manage- to the point my legs started shaking with the strain, vainly hoping this small attempt would grant me freedom. Thing is I knew it wouldn’t, it was too weak an attempt. The glass was too strong.

When the glass didn't budge, I let out a sigh, and tried to readjust myself, so I was able to press my back hooves against the clouded surface. Using my front hooves to steady myself, I pushed against the borders of metal on either side of the glass, and pushed my back up against the metal- pinning myself tightly. My first kick, was utterly feeble, and that was just plain irritating. So, I tried again. And this time, I kicked harder.

The kick caused a ripple effect of sound in my almost completely metal prison, the noise rung in my ears more than the alarms did, making me wince at it. By now, the alarms going on outside my cage, had stopped ringing in my ears as much as they had been when I first came to consciousness- now all the noise banging around my head was just the noise I managed to stir up. Pressing my ears flat against my head the noise was blocked out a little, I grit my teeth and my body tensed, eyes narrowing, I kicked again.

The glass still did not budge, and I kept trying. I couldn’t just give up- I mean, who wants to die trapped in a tiny freaking box? Not me!

Every kick I could feel my limbs getting stronger, stronger from more use- my heart started pumping faster, my blood flowing more, I was shaking off my heaviness and drowsy feeling the more I fought to get myself out, I really did not want to be stuck in here- oh no sir!

Crack

My eyes went wide once I heard the unmistakable sound of breaking glass, and glancing down, through the haze of my own breath billowing out in front of me, I could see the hairline cracks beginning to spread across the glass where my hooves had repeatedly struck it, about four dozen time by now- my hooves were starting to ache at the beating. I figured the glass must have already been cracked, and I hadn't noticed it, and now I was just adding to the damage- but who cared?

New energy rose up inside my body as I smirked slightly, I was getting somewhere, and all the waiting only made the want to get out of here fiercer.

"Warning, Ice Talismans no longer operational."

I didn't have time to register the sound of the computerized voice, once my hooves broke through the glass, the shards cutting into my hind legs, and I let out a hiss of pain at the sting, but hey- it was better than the cold. A rush of warm air flooded into my small prison through the shattered hole in the glass, along with the scent of smoke, and something completely foreign to me. Something acrid, and it made my stomach turn as it reached my nose. It was sour, disgusting…. I couldn’t place it now- but later I did figure out what that smell was, and I don’t think I would ever get used to it- nor get used to the world waiting for me on the other side of the sheet of glass.

.:+:.

By the time I had made it out of my metal prison, I had managed to kick out most of the glass, and climb through. Looking back to it- it was a oval shaped pod, with various tubes and wires threading into the back of it, connecting to a large box shape generator that was smoking with bits of silver and light blue crystalline bits of glass (or was it really glass?) spreading around it. There was a terminal just to the left of it that flickered with static and let out an error beep every once in awhile- it looked too damaged to be able to even attempt to see what was on it, the screen itself was static. Despite the obvious damage, the entire thing was sturdy - it looked so reinforced I was a little shocked I had managed to break my way through- but I wasn’t complaining. Nope, definitely not complaining..

I sat upon the dust covered ground, pulling out bits of glass from my legs and coat, wincing every so often as I resisted the urge to make too much noise. Thankfully, I had managed to climb through, without getting any glass stuck in my wings, bonus there, that would have sucked ass.

Pulling out the last bit of glass from my foreleg, my blood dripped through my pale grey, almost silvery coat, staining it a dark crimson color as the stream of blood flowed from the shallow cut, I stopped the flow before it could stain the red wraps around my right forehoof. My eyes locked on to the strange device connected to my lower left foreleg. It glowed with a yellow-gold light, showing a mini-map of the interior, of what I guess, would be the building I am in.

Zone 4- ShieldTune Facility

Somewhere in the back of my head, as I continued to stare at it, the name….. PipBuck, came to mind. So that's what this is on my leg, yeah... My PipBuck.
Little trickles of knowledge and information surrounding the device began to flow into my nearly blank mind- at first slowly, before it became a river and I suddenly remembered everything about it and its function- so hey, I do know something a least. It was a little comforting to feel like I wasn’t entirely clueless anyway. Maybe it would just take a little time for me to remember everything, hmm? Hooves crossed for that.

Anyhoo… PipBuck- a computer worn about the hoof that collected and stored information- with nearly limitless storage. Had I any possessions on my person besides this and the wraps about my hoof- it would organize and sort things through Magical means and the like- it also caught on to radio frequencies and payed audio files, again- I needed to actually find a signal or have a file for that to be of any use.

Mine, it’s clean and functioning, which surprised me. Despite the fact that I cannot remember why it is I am here, where I am precisely, or for what reason even…. Looking around I guessed I had been here for a good long while, and seeing as how everything seemed destroyed and only semi-functional, if functional at all- to see my PipBuck in pristine order was both surprising, and a little comforting. Hell, seeing myself in such good condition was a bit of a shock too.

The button labeled Data is lit up as of the moment, I turned it over to see the embroidered figure of my Cutie Mark on the back (A bright yellow lightning bolt with two red rings curling around it), before flipping back to the front again. There was a small dial used for scrolling through lists on the PipBuck, Compass, retractable cord for plugging into terminals and whatnot, S.A.T.S (You know, the Arcane Targeting System- for shooting things, hitting them, whatever) and a Radiation Meter in the top left corner…

Wait... Radiation Meter? What do I need a Radiation Meter for?

I stopped looking my PipBuck over when I finally registered the sound of clicking, almost completely drowned out by the sound of the wailing alarms, and the computerized voice of the pony spouting countless warnings over and over. The needle of the meter was shaking within the yellow portion of the scale.

I'm currently being hit with low-level radiation.

Any first thoughts to this should have been ones of panic and worry, but instead I was only calm and mildly confused. It really didn't bother me at the moment.

It didn't occur to me at the time, that Radiation Exposure really wasn't a good thing, (later on, I just didn’t care… for certain reasons, we’ll get to that later) and I didn’t take any time to worry over the fact either, or even wonder why there was radiation at all- I just accepted it, it wasn’t as if I had anything to go on whether or not to say radiation was a common thing or not.

Blank mind remember? Hopefully not blank for too long….

Pushing it to the back of my mind, I instead began to inspect the PipBuck further. Switching to the status portion of the interface, I quickly over-viewed the effects plaguing my body that my PipBuck was picking up on. It was already registering the small cuts I had received from the glass, and it most wisely stated;

Magical Head Injury

Well no shit, I thought sourly as I read the words. Clearly it had to be some sort of ‘head injury’ to cause me not to remember hardly anything. What other explanation could there be? I pissed me off though- because ‘Magical Head Injury’ was in no way specific- at all. Helpful, real freaking helpful… and what’s with ‘Magical’? Did a unicorn blast me or something?

However, it did make one wonder what sort of Magic could have given me a head injury at all…. I really couldn’t remember getting hit with anything- but as it stands, I really can’t remember coming here at all- and I have no clue what happened to this place either. I do know some things though…. My PipBuck for example- that information is still stuck in my head, I do know who I am- well, not entirely. I know my name, but not who I am, not my past, my actions, none of that…… this is gonna suck.

At least I knew basic things still…. I may not have any memory of my past or the events passed, but I did know enough to still function properly. I wasn’t an idiot, after all- and I wasn’t so confused I was stumbling around like a fool. I was keeping my cool- I should get some props for that at least. How many ponies, who wake up to find themselves in some strange place, with no memories, or any idea why they were- how many ponies would be running around like an utter fool, stammering and blubbering- their minds racing and unable to come to terms with the situation at hand? Probably close to all ponies- and yet here I was, very, very calm and collected- in spite of the (should be) stressful and disorienting situation. You won’t find me blubbering like an idiot.

I quickly switched away from the status, back to the map, shaking my head in unneeded irritation. My PipBuck seemed to be expertly aware of all the passages, hallways and rooms of the Building I was in now, though I don't remember coming into possession of this data, or exploring so the PipBuck could update on its own- as I knew that was what was usually required for the device to jot down any specifics of a map. Don’t ask me why I know how to use it, or even why- despite the lack of relevant memory- I know how to use it almost instinctively, I chalked it up to be a basic set of info one couldn’t just forget- I mean, these things were to be used pretty regularly, once you learned it… I guess it just sticks.

On the map, in smaller letters than the ones that told me this was 'Zone 4- ShieldTune Facility', the map had labeled the room I was in as;

Subject 4 Cryogenic Holding Chamber

I look back to my previous prison- the super cold and frozen pod. This is the Holding Chamber.... And there is no other ponies here, so I must be Subject 4…. But that can't be right. Small bits of information were slowly coming back to my mind, nothing major really (at least, nothing important), but I can remember my name, and 'Subject 4' is not it.

I know for a fact, that my name is-

"Warning! Hostiles detected!"

My reaction to the alarm is so immediate, I'm surprised at myself. Pushing myself to my hooves, I jump over to and crouch behind a slab of concrete that has fallen from the roof, and check my Eyes Forward Sparkle, situated in the deep shadow that is cast over me by the slab. I'm hidden and out of view in seconds, it was all instinct.

Four red blips appeared in front of me, from the direction where a small hallway is set, the light flickering in and out from a damaged light in the ceiling. My ears strain to hear anything, and I remain rigid, not daring to move, and not daring to even breathe as I silently wait. After a few tense moments, the blips disappear, and I relax, whatever enemy that had been there, has moved on, for now.

Let's add basic survival skills and thought processes to the list of things I still do remember and know.

Removing myself from my cover, I cast a glance back toward the hallway, before I scan the room in a little more depth. Everything's destroyed, and most of the room is cast in sickly green light, while the rest of it remains in deep shadow. Its circular in build, with cracks littering the walls and floors everywhere. Some of the roof has fallen down toward the floor, but the roof itself is cast in such deep shadow, I have no hope of seeing anything above me other than the ends of wires and tubes- and I certainly can’t see how far up it goes.

My eyes shift along the wall and pause, I can make out a deep purple banner hung up, tilted slightly, on the far wall behind the Pod in which I had been in. Its badly faded and tattered, so much so that I can't even make out what the symbol is. I simply stare for a few moments, doing the best I can to try and make out what is on it.

I think it looks like..... A cloud? Maybe a snowflake? .....I really don't know, and I turn away, not particularly concerned.

Settled in front of my metal prison, steps rise up at the end of a hallway, where the roof has started to sag in on one side. Directly behind my prison, sits two generators, which are silent and unmoving, despite the column of smoke rising up from each, both are connected through the multitude of wires and tubes, to the back of my prison. Two blackened and shattered stones sit in a slot on the top of each generator, these are the apparently the 'non-operational Ice Talismans' I figure.

The sickly green light is coming from a terminal, resting atop a ragged desk, set up against a wall right across from the small Pod I had been in. I walk over slowly, ears perked as I remain alert for anything out of the ordinary. The alarms are still going off, but I've managed to put them in the background for now, my attention is fixed on the terminal I am approaching. Gently pushing the barely standing chair in front of it aside, I start to operate the terminal, faintly surprised that through all this destruction, it’s still working.

I frown when it's revealed to me that I need a password in order to view the files. I stomp a hoof down in irritation, I haven't the slightest clue how to hack into a terminal..... This may be because of the apparent ‘Magical Head Injury’, but honestly, who knows if I would have been able to hack one with my memories anyway? Besides, I probably don't have and probably never will have the tools and skill needed to hack anything- I didn't take myself for a very tech-savvy pony, not that I could be sure… I just felt that way and that was enough.

Looking away from the locked terminal, I instead opened up the desk, finding it filled to the brim with molding paper, an oddly pristine white coffee mug, and an old, slightly dented bottle cap. My attention catches on to the cap, it's blue with a white star emblazoned on it. Huh. Cool.

I grab the cap with the star, and ruffle through the papers, most are too old I can't read them, and the others are only work reports that don't interest me, until (gleefully) I come across a paper, that has the password to my locked terminal on it. I quickly close the desk, and type in the passcode; 'FireLight'

The terminal's so badly damaged, that it can only show me three files that haven't been entirely corrupted and unreadable. The first is a message from another worker who came from a different ‘Zone’ (There are more?) than the one I am in, that Zone is labeled ‘Zone 6’.

'Yancy,

Katarina wants all hooves on deck for this, it means so much to her, she hasn't taken the time to sleep for what seems like forever. The lack of sleep hasn't managed to change her mood yet, I'm glad. I would seriously hate to see a grumpy Katarina, that'll be the day...

Hehe, anyway- I heard there was some malfunctions down in your Zone? Windy told me you were having some problems with the generators down there, I hope you fix the problem soon, there's no telling when Katarina will decide to teleport the rest of them here, it'd be best to have everything ready….

..... I was actually meaning to ask you, do you think any of the other Princesses know about this? About what Katarina's been having us do? I was thinking about it the other day, because something tells me that they wouldn't approve of what we're doing. Its not as if we're hurting anypony... But still, I'm doubtful. Taking ponies, keeping them locked up? That doesn't seem the sort of thing they’d approve of...

Anyway, too late worrying about it now, huh? I just hope we don’t find ourselves in a mess with the Ministry of Morale… Celestia knows that would be a damn nightmare.

I hope we have time to meet up again soon, it’s been too long Bud, maybe we could have a round of Poker?

- Moldy'

I don't recognize any of the names within the file, and all it manages to do is confuse, and intrigue me a little. This... 'Katarina' pony, seems to have been the one in charge here, and I suddenly want to know more. First thing, why the hell am I here? Second, what is the Ministry of Morale? And this place for that matter? ShieldTune?

And they were ‘taking ponies’ and ‘locking them up’, huh?

… sound familiar, anyone..?

Shaking my head slightly, I flip to the next file. It seems to be a message sent to the entire facility consisting of Zone 4, like some sort of Employee Memo, from somepony named Wynter.

'Hello everypony, this is your Project Supervisor here in Zone 4, Wynter Coat. I would like to thank you all for the hard work and dedication you have poured into this Project, it means a lot to Katarina, and I'm sure she would love to thank you all personally, if only she had the time. Remember, the security of our Subjects in the event of a BaleFire bombing, may very well be the security of Equestria in the future! (.. sounds like a slogan to me..)

I must warn you all though, some of the other Zones have had some difficulty securing their own Subjects. When and if, Subject 4 has arrived, I encourage everypony to do their best to secure her as quickly and efficiently as possible. (Her, huh?)

We don't want what happened in Zones 2 and 3 to happen here.

Thank you all again, and please, stay safe.'

....Subject 4, Zone 4........There's also more Zones somewhere, I wonder who are the other Subjects? And what was that about a BaleFire Bombing? Is that why this place is so screwed up? BaleFire bomb seemed….. Somewhat familiar, in all actuality. The more I thought on it, the more I seemed to recognize it- a weapon of mass destruction. But who launched it? That part was still a little fuzzy….

Oh, and it seems Subject 4 was a girl. Good to know.

On to the last file on the terminal, it’s short, with no name of the sender, and it’s an audio recording. I downloaded it to my PipBuck, and played it so I could hear it through the speaker, lifting my leg to my ear so I could hear it past the still on-going alarms overhead, I leaned against the desk with my shoulder and sat down a moment.

"Things went to hell too fast.... I don't know if you'll get this, Moldy..... I don't even know if you’re still there......." The voice is the deep one of a buck, who is trailing in and out of speaking, he was panting. His voice was raspy, and I could hear fire crackling in the background, along with sound of alarms. "... Most ponies already left.... Others... Well, they're dead....." The buck broke off to cough harshly. "Fires have started spreading down in Zone 4..... I'm trapped in the Cryogenic Chamber....... The smokes filling the room..... It’s poisonous....."

Another fit of ragged coughing.

".... Subject 4 is with me.... She'll be spared, the filters in the tank won't let the smoke in, the Pod is still working properly........ And she'll stay safe from most of the radiation........ And debris, or fire... As long as the generators continue to work…. She’ll stay in stasis........" I pressed my ears against my head, my heart clenching a little. I knew what was happening, he was slowly dying, and this Audio File- they were his last words. ".... Damn those Zebras..! How did they even know we were out here..? Katarina's Stealth Spell should have kept us.. Hidden....... Too late now though, I just hope everypony else got out ok.... I doubt it.... The radiation outside alone will kill them... And the amount leaking in here will too.. Like it is me......"

The buck let out a low raspy sigh, ".... So much for the Facility being able to stand up to Radiation.... I suppose it really was only meant to protect the Subjects........ I don't know if the other Zones were locked down like this one.... But...." His voice dropped away, and he let out one last, clearly painful breath.... And then there was silence. The Audio File cut out.

My eyes dropped to the floor, How could all of this have happened? How could anypony have let him suffer like that? I felt for whoever this buck was, and I was going to guess and say this had been the voice of Yancy. I didn't know him, I had never met him, (As far as I could remember) and yet it pained me to hear him like this. It pained me to hear anypony suffer like that. Against my will, I had started to shake from the force of my mixed emotions. On one hoof, I was saddened by this, on the other, I was angry that he had had to suffer as he had.

And for some reason, deep down inside of me… there was something that wasn't anger, wasn't sadness. It was just cold.

Shaking my head, I downloaded the first two files onto my PipBuck for later overview, and turned away from the terminal. All of that would have to wait for later, right now, I only needed to focus on the task of getting out of here. It was clear that the fires Yancy mentioned had long since died, and the poisonous smoke had gone with it- it was also clear that whatever radiation that had been seeping inside and killing him, had lessened.

I must have been here for a very long time, if that was the case…

Trotting forward carefully, I headed down the hallway with the flickering light, and came face to face with a huge, steel door. It didn't budge as I approached it, and the alarms only continued to keep wailing. By the door, at the base lay the twisted and crumpled form of a unicorn skeleton. I couldn't look away from it, and my stomach flipped again, threatening to spill its contents. But, my stomach was empty, so all I could do was gag pitifully, and turn away.

Damn it! I cursed in my head, furious with myself for being so squeamish, this couldn't be that bad, I was stronger than this... I could handle it. Taking a deep breath, I slowly turned back towards the door, and appraised the skeleton slowly, frowning but my stomach didn't flip again.

The remains were that of a buck, that I could tell from his sheer size, and I realized with slight sadness, this must have been Yancy, he had been sealed inside this chamber…. I’d listened to his last words from the Audio File on the terminal… I faintly wondered what happened to Moldy. There wasn't anything with him, other than the thin, stained clothes he had been wearing when he died, the once white was black from smoke, and burned in several places. Pushing away my discomfort, I dug around in his pockets, finding lint, and an old pass card. I dropped the pass-card out onto the floor in front of me, looking down at the picture of the buck, barely able to see it now that the plastic of the card had been significantly melted. His coat had been dark orange, with pale yellow hair, and bright blue eyes.

I looked away, he didn't make it. No other ponies who had been working here probably had either. I dipped my head toward the corpse a little, silently hoping that whatever awaited him after the horrible death he had endured- was someplace nice. I’d like to think that if I were to die, the place I ended up afterward would be nice too.

Maybe that was naive of me.

Stepping past the remains, I tapped a hoof against the door, seeing if it would react to being touched. When it didn't budge, I looked to the keypad on the side. Like the terminal, it was glowing with the sickly green light, and despite the obvious damage, it was still working.

"System Lockdown, Level 5 clearance only."

Apparently, Yancy had not had ‘Level 5 Clearance’- otherwise he would not have trapped in here at all, and I doubted that I would have that sort of clearance either. I’m pretty sure I was a nopony.

"Warning.... Radiation Levels have increased...."

The computerized voice continued to speak over the alarms, but I wasn't paying attention to them anymore. I slowly pushed my nose against the keypad, against the 'Open' key. A small beeping sound came on, "Voice Recognition Required." I narrowed my eyes at the keypad, standing a little taller and clearing my throat. Hey, it was worth a shot right? Trying won’t hurt anything.

"Open the door."

My voice was a little raspy and rough from lack of use for who the hell knows how long- I ended up coughing a little and clearing my throat to get rid of the roughness. Looking back up to the terminal, nothing changed. It was silly, to think the door would open at my command, and I only continued to stare at it as we fell into silence,

Really, what would my next move be if I couldn’t get this door open?

"Please, Identify your name for Voice Recognition Processors to recognize, and process command." The small computerized voice spoke again, the text typing out on the screen in front of me, I tilted my head a little.

"Flash."

With a grind of rusted metal against rusted metal, the bottom half of the door slowly collapsed into the floor, while the remaining top half slid up into the ceiling. They groaned as they did so, until stopping abruptly as they were halfway open. So, I apparently had the 'Level 5 Clearance', that Yancy had not. Maybe I wasn’t so much of a nopony.

"Door malfunction, please contact Maintenance for further assistance." The keypad's voice informed me, but I had already jumped through the section that had opened, and landed on the other side without pause.

.:+:.

Pressing myself up against the wall, I peered around the corner slowly to see down the dark hallway. There was something grotesque and hideous floating along near the end, seemingly made out of disgustingly dark green goo. It was small, only about the size of a large apple, and it looked swollen, I was surprised such a thing was even able to fly with those thin, see-through wings.

Ever since I had made my way out of the Cryogenic Holding Chamber, I had spent the entirety of an hour or so, sneaking through the destroyed and dark hallways, trying to avoid the creatures that appeared on my E.F.S as red blips. I had managed to sneak past several without alerting them to my presence, I could only assume that these things were deaf, or really stupid.

That, or I was highly underestimating my own stealth skills. The latter did not seem likely. Considering, any noise that I may be making, was more than likely drowned out by the incessant wail of the alarms throughout the entire facility. The ones that had still not shut the hell up.

Once the creature had disappeared into the darkness consuming the end of the next hallway, I trotted across to continue down the one I was already in, senses on high alert for anymore. I was constantly consulting the map on my PipBuck. Most of the hallways and rooms in Zone 4 were already labeled and mapped out, making my job of heading to the exit, a whole lot easier- this place looked like a maze of hallways and corridors. If my PipBuck’s map had not been already updated, it would have taken me hours or even days to navigate my way through.

Pausing to look at it now, I could see that the way to the exit was located on the other end of the facility from where I was now, on the lower levels. And, as far as I could tell, Zone 4 had four different levels. I was (conveniently) on the second to lowest one. The basement just above the second basement if you will…. A really big, long, winding basement filled with goo creatures and massive bugs. (yeah, bugs- like giant cockroaches, from what I could guess. I may not remember anything- but I was fairly certain they shouldn’t be the size of a small dog.) The main floor could be accessed by a flight of stairs, or an elevator- which I guessed was probably not working, so the stairs it is- which is where I was heading toward now. I had no idea what to expect of the main ground floor, or the higher, second floor either.

Gently hopping over a fallen column of cement, I veered around a corner, toward an employee locker room my PipBuck had marked. I had come across more than a few other skeletons through my travels, but none of them offered anything valuable. As much as it felt.. Wrong, to riffle through the remains of dead ponies, my mind was furiously telling me, it was necessary. I needed to find a weapon of some sort, just for the time when my sneaking, failed me, which was bound to happen eventually. I was gonna have to defend myself sooner or later- and I didn’t trust in the strength of my hooves to do it. Survival instinct.

On that note, my blank slate of a mind was slowly filling in with small dull bits of color. Again, nothing personal in a sense- but knowledge of guns was something that was trickling in slowly. I knew how to use them, I just don't remember where I learned from… And everything else, it was just simple basic stuff. Basic survival instinct.

And besides that, I started to recall other things… Something about a war (which would account for BaleFire Bombings) and of the patron ‘Gods’ as most ponies considered them, Princess Celestia and Luna. I believe the war had been with the zebra homeland for some reason… Some stupid reason I couldn't quite recall just yet. How Equestria itself was like outside of this place, I had no clue. That part was still blank.

The locker room door was shut tight, and I pushed against the metal frame in an attempt to get it to open, but in vain. I hit my head against the door, and sighed. "Damn it...." I murmured under my breath, I had been hoping to get in- I wanted to see if there was anything valuable that I could use once I managed to find my way out of this maze….

"Please repeat."

My head snapped up, and I finally noticed the keypad next to the door through the gloom, the words spoken typed out upon the surface to face me, I hadn't seen it before now. With my plan of making my way through Zone 4 without being seen, I hadn't turned the light on my PipBuck on, so seeing anything in the almost constant darkness was hard. The Keypad looked to be of the same make and caliber as the one I had come across in the Holding Chamber- the same one that had locked Yancy inside, but for some odd reason or other- had been programmed to obey commands through the sound of my voice and name. Narrowing my eyes, I decided I might as well try my luck- what’s the worst that could happen?

“Open the door.” I said firmly.

“Name required to access and approve of security override protocols.”

"Flash." I said, my voice a little stronger this time- it was becoming smoother and less rough with more use- though I had stuck to being as quiet as possible until about now. With a metallic click, I was able to push the door open, and I stepped inside, keeping it halfway open behind me- I’d hate for it to shut and somehow lock me in.

I smiled, casting a glance backward at the keypad, Thank you, whoever decided to give me Clearance!

The lights flickered on, only half of them working after the devastation the facility had endured. Most of the lockers had fallen to the floor, where very little had remained up against the cracked and deteriorated wall. In the corner, a small kitchen with a sink and mini-fridge sat. Water slowly dripped from the rusted faucet, if I drew nearer, my PipBuck would start to click more than it already was. This room was not without its own collection of skeletons. Several of them littered the floors in the center of the room, others were crushed underneath the fallen lockers. Glancing around the ones that were just beside the door, I slowly began to check them for anything valuable. They offered little though- most of them weren't dressed and those that were, their clothes had burned to ash long ago. With a shake of my head I delicately hopped over them, toward the center of the room.

As I looked the rest of the bones over, I found nothing, once again. It was becoming increasingly frustrating, couldn't I catch a break here? Celestia, Luna... Could you let me find something, anything? Though that wasn't particularly fair, I had already been pretty lucky so far, I had been able to unlock doors with my voice alone after all.

Picking through the lockers, I found them empty, one after the other, until I stopped in front of the last one, it alone had been left standing at the end of the line of other lockers which had fallen. I pulled it open, not hoping to find anything, and recoiled slightly.

There was a pony inside of this one. I forced myself to stay put, and crushed the lurching in my stomach.

The locker in which she had seemingly taken refuge in, had kept her (I guessed her) the rack of bones like all the other ponies were. Only, what it was she had been wearing hadn't been burned- and her skeleton itself was the dusty white that bones should be, not the jet black every other skelton in this place was. As opposed to the lab coats and utility barding, or lack of clothes at all that the other skeletons I had come across had thus far, she was wearing armor, black leather armor with a strange marking on the back- a music note surrounded in flame. With the corpse, clutched in her stiff and petrified forehooves, was a shotgun. I could see saddlebags strapped to her body, and boxes of ammo littering the bottom of the locker.

I snorted, the Goddesses had a bit of an evil sense of humor.

Getting the pony out of the locker was hard, but getting her out of the armor was less so. I was fighting back the bile rising up in my throat as I took it off, along with the saddlebags, setting the shotgun as side for now. What little flesh that was left was so rotted and dry that it literally fell off of her bones like butter, jostling her from the locker (which, she was stuck to- her skin and bone had been melted into the metal in some places) had actually made the trace skin about her face slip off and hit the floor with a sickening smack.

The Armor wasn’t in bad shape- but the inside of it was so filthy that I braved the ticking of my PipBuck’s meter and scrubbed away at the gore and the dried flesh and the mush for a good half an hour with the water from the sink, before I even considered the idea of putting it on. I got it as clean as possible, to the point I had managed to get it off and only leave a faint stain- I was a little surprised at how durable and strong the leather of the armor was, and how well it had lasted (I was guessing there was some enchantment placed on it). It was light and form fitting- which suited me, I considered myself more agile and quick on my feet- but it was also very, very strong- atop the leather there had been metal sheets of armor placed, and then more of the leather had been sewn over-top to give it its black hue. It was extra reinforced, durable, light-weight- and I felt it could stop and prevent a very good bit of damage when and if it came to that.

Luckily for me, the pony in the locker had been a Pegasus, so the armor was suited for somepony with wings. If it hadn’t been…. I guess I could have Jerry-rigged the armor a bit to suit my needs- but that was more time in this place than I wanted to spend.

As I pulled the armor on, I smiled a little at how well it seemed to fit me- for a moment I forgot about where I got it, wearing it felt good.

I turned my attention to going through the saddle bags. What I found greatly pleased me, despite finding more ammo for the shotgun that I had collected from the bottom of the locker, there was more in the saddlebags, giving me a healthy supply. There was also a .357 Magnum Revolver tucked away, with boxes of ammo for it as well. I picked the gun up in my hooves as looked it over, it seemed as if it had never been used, or the pony I had taken it from had taken excellent care of it.

I sighed and set the gun down gently. Rubbing my face with my hooves a little and brushing my golden mane from my face a little. I took a seat and just sat for a moment, still holding hope for more information to start sinking into my head- which was still aching at the alarms continuing on above me. I knew Zone 4 had to be some place in Equestria- that’s what the country was called, as that was something I remembered and knew for certain- I just hadn't a clue where in Equestria Zone 4 was. The 'Personal Memories' part of my brain was rather shot, I knew my name...... and…um….... yep, that was about it. I let out an exaggerated sigh,

'At least you aren't completely clueless.' A voice in my head dead panned, 'That would be pretty bad.'

I pushed the voice away and told it to shut up. I lifted the saddlebags onto my back, settling my wings over them, and tightening the strap around my stomach. I pulled the strap connected to the shotgun over my head and around my chest, so it could rest against my back, and replaced the ammo, and the revolver back into the saddlebags. I cast a glance back and down at the dead Pegasi in which I had taken these things from. Despite her features having pretty much been erased, I knew she had died scared, I felt as if some horror filled expression was forever carved into her face. She was roasted alive inside that locker, escaping direct contact with the radioactive flames that had spread through the facility, but none the less affected by them.

"Thank you." I murmured, and headed out of the room without another glance back.

.:+:.

I stopped in the doorway of a heavily enforced room, non-operational control panels, monitors and what-not lining the walls, and dozens upon dozens of fully armored ponies littered everywhere. There were chemistry labs, sparking terminals, weapons lockers and empty ammo casings everywhere. This was a small detour on my path to get to the exit. But when it had appeared on my PipBuck, I couldn't resist, it sounded way too interesting.

'ShieldTune Zone 4 Research Lab, Weapons.'

Now tell me you wouldn't have wanted to see what was inside too?

The armored ponies in here, were wearing metal armor, heavily fortified and probably held up well against heavy attacks. The same mark of a blazing music note that was painted on my newly acquired leather armor, was painted where their cutie marks should be. They were completely engulfed by their armor, with helmets, visors and completely covered tails too. I cringed slightly at the sight, wearing heavy metal armor like that would have helped burn them from the inside out in the fires.

Other ponies were in here besides the armored ones, ponies who by their burned lab coats, must have been scientists working here.

I walked in cautiously, sweeping my gaze back and forth, staying aware of my E.F.S. just in case an enemy got close. None of the terminals were working here, and unexpectedly I found myself a little disappointed. I was surprised at this, I couldn't hack into the damn things even if they were working anyway. So why be bummed none of the were working?

I stopped to see if any of the armored ponies had anything useful to me on them, ignoring the stench of old burned hair and skin coming off of them heavily. More ammo was dropped into my saddlebags, but I left the heavy duty rifles and machine guns strapped about their persons behind. I wasn't sure I could carry those with me, I wasn’t the biggest of mares, more lithe and agile- and those things looked really freaking heavy.

Scrap metal and unfinished mainframes sat on the metal tables spread out across the room, even disassembled weapons that I knew I would have no luck in putting together, they weren’t the simple guns I felt I might actually have a chance at repairing, but advanced, unrecognizable devices I could probably only stare dumbly at. I also found some stupidly white and pristine coffee mugs again. How did they manage to stay so white when everything else was covered in dirt, ash, blood, whatever?

My ears caught on to the low buzzing sound coming from somewhere in the room, even over the wailing of the alarms- which by now I had managed to block out nearly entirely, though my head still hurt. Glancing to the left, my eyes caught sight of a glowing protection field, guarding a metal instrument that looked faintly like a gun to me. Walking toward it, I stopped just outside the field, the energy pulsing from it making my coat stand on end. It was slightly smaller than the shotgun I was carrying now, completely made of some strange, smooth dark metal. The top of it was rounded and cone shaped, with a small speaker system on the inside. It was more like a megaphone than a gun, beside the handle and dials that seemed to turn up whatever frequency it may emit, which a small screen I could only guess must show data or numbers or the like.

My gaze switched from the device, to a small interface panel connected to the protection field. Tapping a hoof to it, it came to life, shedding the same sickly green light that Yancy's terminal had before.

"Welcome back Dr. HoofDrum. You have been inactive for 117,815,040 minutes."

I glanced down at the corpse of a buck near my feet, and frowned. I looked back to the interface, opening the file that held information on the 'Sonic Emitter' held within the protection field.

"Status: operational. Energy Cells: full."

My eyes widened as I read the words, the protection field had done its job. If the... Sonic Emitter, held within the field still worked, it may be worth trying to take with me. I quickly downloaded the files related to the Sonic Emitter to my PipBuck, feeling a sense of urgency when a red blip appeared in my E.F.S. I typed in a command for the protection field to disengage, with a small pop the pale blue glow of the protection field disappeared, and I grabbed the Sonic Emitter, stuffing it into one of my SaddleBags, and exiting the room silently.

.:+:.

"Luna fuck me!" I growled furiously, cantering through the hallways, going as fast as my legs would carry me, weaving around and over the fallen debris and skeletons littering the dark hallways- stumbling a little as I landed on a few bones that rolled under my weight, before promptly snapping in half. I could hear the swarm of little fuckers chasing after me, and I ran faster. Apparently, trying to sneak by a whole herd of them through a lit up hallway, had not been the best idea.

My luck, had officially run out.

Unfortunately, these hallways were too narrow and low for me to be able to spread out my wings, and instead of run through the hallways, I could fly through them. If I was able to, I could leave these creatures behind, and get to the exit faster.

Screw these narrow hallways!

My E.F.S was telling me there were about a dozen of the damn things chasing me, and I flinched when one of them sent a spike covered in some strange bubbling liquid right past me. It missed by inches, and stuck into the wall, eating away at the metal like some sort of freaky acid, it was melting it like it was nothing.

Alright, I'll try not to get hit by one of those things.

Turning a corner at top speed, I barely had time to register the huge pile of rubble inches from my nose, before I had pushed off the ground in an instant's time, thinking fast and sending myself sailing over the top, through a narrow space left open between the roof and the pile. My back hoof bumped against a piece of rebar sticking out of the pile, and I managed to land ungracefully on the other side, saving myself before I could face-plant on the floor. In the next moment, I spun around and nudged the shotgun from my back, to rest it on my shoulder, and I leaned back on my haunches, using my hooves to steady the weapon as I aimed it at the space near the roof, where the creatures would be coming from to pursue me, ready to fire.

I activated S.A.T.S, not sure of my own aiming skills as of the moment- I could remember how to use guns, I just couldn’t recall if I was any good at aiming them. Pulling the trigger with my tongue felt weird, but that's what I had to do- another thing I remembered. Because, really? What other way was there to fire it? It’s not as if I have a fancy horn to levitate and fire the gun with- though I wish I did, I could run and shoot at the same time that way…

BAM! BAM!

Locking on to the first one, it was obliterated completely, sending green guts everywhere. The first shot also hit the next one coming in at the same time, wounding it enough that it let out a pained screech, as it fell back to the other side of the rubble pile. The spike it had shot my way, hit the floor next to me harmlessly.

… You don’t need a horn Flash, wings are better.

… and cooler.

BAM! BAM!

The first shot missed, but with the help of S.A.T.S I was able to take out another, and I reloaded as quickly as I could. Two more went down after I reloaded, and S.A.T.S dropped. I slung the shotgun onto my back again, and started running. Five down, seven more to go.

Perhaps my luck hadn't run out just yet, I had managed to keep running through without coming across any collapsed hallways that would trap me. I was fairly certain I was still headed toward the exit, the personal marker I had placed on my E.F.S seemed to think so. With all the running I had been doing, I was surprised I hadn't come across it yet.

More spikes hit the floor in front of where I was running, wasting away at the metal. I jumped over them, thankful these things seemed to have really bad aim. But I was getting tired, I didn't know how long I could continue to run. My body was clearly not used to so much running so suddenly, and my head was starting to swim with all the exertion. I pushed on, not willing to slow down, at this point my life was dependent on getting out of here. Who wants to be melted away by the freaky acidic goo these things were shooting? Couldn’t I have run into some of those giant bugs, those would be so much easier to kill…. Ugh.

The stairs reared up in front of me, and I smirked the slightest bit. I had been trying to get here for a few hours now- I hadn't allowed myself much time to explore and hadn't even attempted trying to get to the very lowest floor- I was happy now was the time I finally reached them. Without pausing I started dashing up them, they turned and continued to climb in a spiral like fashion. I kept my pace as best I could as I continued to climb the seemingly endless flight of stairs, by the time I caught sight of the heavy metal door of the exit, I had probably climbed more than a hundred different flights, and my legs ached, my chest heaved, and I was covered in sweat, my legs were trembling and I was stumbling, but I didn't break pace until I reached it.

Fuck those goo monsters! They ain’t catching me!

This door slid open as soon as I approached it, and I found myself sliding out into a huge circular room, the roof reaching up far above me, with flickering lights humming. My legs fell out from under me, they were shaking so much, I was heaving, my body drenched in sweat and making it stick to my skin.

Dozens of heavy-duty turrets turned their sights on me, and my heart dropped to my stomach.

"Shit!!"

Now that the room was bigger, I spread my wings and took to the air, faster than should have been possible, heaving and exhausted beyond belief with climbing all those damned stairs. At least my wings still worked, even if my legs had fallen out from under me. I looked around wildly, looking for some way out of the room. A window maybe, anything- I was running from goo monsters a moment ago and now I was gonna get torn to shreds by a flurry of bullets.

‘Fuck You’ Say the Goddesses.

I heard the turrets begin to shoot, well before I managed to find an escape route, and I waited for the searing pain of bullets tearing through my body, a barrage of fire that would surely kill me.

Then, I saw the bloated mass of a creature that had been chasing me disappear in a splash of green guts and goo. The others were quickly met with the same fate, as the turrets met their targets.

The turrets were not shooting at me.

I almost fell back to the floor in utter shock, my wings forgetting to keep me afloat for a split second, before I regained my composure so I didn't hit the ground. The turrets turned their attention to me once the creatures were puddles of goop splattered across the floor, but they didn't open fire, and my E.F.S wasn't registering them as hostile. I stayed hovering in the air for a moment, my shadow casting out upon the floor from the dingy light seeping in through two large windows on the upper wall, both their glass shattered. First I have clearance for doors downstairs, and now turrets killed anything but me?

Who the hell ran this ShieldTune place, and why does it like me so much?!

Slowly sinking back to the floor, and folded my wings to my sides, and looked around the room, still tense just in case the turrets decided to kill me. The room was large, the grey concrete floor under my hooves was cracked and shattered, covered in dust, and now green goo. Tattered and torn banners hung from the bottom of the large shattered windows, where dim gray light was still seeping in and bathing everything in it. The bones of other ponies littered the ground, all blackened and some of them melted into the floor partially. I had made my way out of a door that was soon hidden behind a wall that slid into place in front of it, keeping it from view, and effectively completely muting the sound of the blaring alarms of the facility below. My ears started ringing at the sudden silence I hadn’t heard since waking up.

There was a stage set up at one end of the room, the lights from the catwalk above it hanging on their wires for dear life, or already fallen to the floor. Posters were put up on the walls, all of them too faded and destroyed to make out. There was only one, and I trotted closer to it to take a look. There was a tall, dark grey unicorn mare with a multicolored mane and tail. Feathers and beads adorned her tail and mane, and I was surprised at the number of glow-sticks on her person. Her indigo eyes locked onto me as I looked up at it. She was seated behind drums, the drum sticks held in her magic, smiling widely as she played away.

"Beatz Concert House; starring the best drummer in all of Equestria, and everypony's favorite band: The...!!"

The bottom half of the poster had been torn away, so I could not see the name of the band in which the mare played.

I tilted my head at the poster.... So, Zone 4 was a concert house? Then, for what reason would there be all of these turrets here? That's sort of overkill on security...Turning away from the poster, I glanced back toward the door I had come out of. It had shut on its own, and I narrowed my eyes at the wall that had replaced it- it looked like nothing was there, not an entrance, nothing. None of this made any sense, Zone 4 had seemed like more of... Military base to me, than a concert house.

Something wasn't right here, and I spotted the turrets again, questions filling my head to the point it began to pound again. I figured not everypony must have known about the military operation going on under their feet. For what it looked like- it seemed ShieldTune had been… well, extremely secret.

Shaking my head, I walked across the floor, toward the double doors I guessed would lead me outside, completely ignoring the fact that there was a second floor. I didn't want to explore right now, I just wanted to leave.
My stomach suddenly let out a loud caterwaul and I grimaced, ears pinning against my head.

... Food would be nice, and something to drink.

I could feel the turrets’ sights locked on to me as I walked across the floor on slightly shaking legs, all the way until I reached the doors. They were still yellow on my E.F.S., and had yet to try and kill me… I just figured they wouldn’t. My eyes turned toward the double doors, all thoughts on ShieldTune, everything under my hooves, all that had happened- the gore, the death, the violence, the confusion…… I let it fade to the back of my mind and all thoughts moved forward, toward those doors- out of this place, outside to the rest of the world. A world I had no idea what happened to it, where I was, who I was…… What I expected to find outside, I didn't know. Nor did I expect anything that happened after I set hoof from this Concert House for the first time.

I didn’t expect things… to change so much….

.:+:.

Footnote: Level Up
New Perk: Lucky Pony-
You have been considerably lucky since you woke up, from avoiding goo-monsters (Almost!), having doors open at the tap of your hoof, and avoiding death by turret. Now you have +1 added to your Luck Stat.

Author's Notes:

FoE: AH is updated every Friday (unless unexpectedly delayed for some reason).

Chapter 2 will be posted on: June 3, 2016