The door was immense and made from bright orange centaur steel. Around it was a strange metal that Tarnish didn’t recognise, it was dull looking, had no shine, and was a pale greenish colour. Opening the door posed a problem, as there was no visible mechanism, and Tarnish was tempted to pull out Flamingo to carve his way through.

Destroying a centaur steel door felt wrong though.

There was a centaur statue near the door, a short, smiling centaur mare, and she had one hand outstretched. There was something funny about the statue, and Tarnish felt as though he was being watched by it somehow. It was an intense, uncomfortable feeling that he didn’t like, not at all. The centaur mare had antlers, weird ones, like moose antlers or something, but Tarnish didn’t quite recognise them.

Vinyl, who was some distance away, kept her weapon pointed in the general direction of the massive twenty foot tall door. She had taken off some of her outerwear and she was a bit sweaty looking. Daring Do was studying the centaur statue, and she too, was sweaty from the heat. All around them, the sounds of chirping birds could be heard, but no birds could be seen.

Tarnish, distracted by his thoughts, wondered how the apple trees were pollinated, because there didn’t seem to be any bees or insects around. There were animals here though, he had seen a few rabbits already, and one somewhat obese squirrel. No predators in the sheltered ravine though.

“Is that even the sky overhead?” Tarnish asked, giving voice to his thoughts. “I wonder if it is some kind of ceiling with illusion magic. There is a lot here that I don’t understand. We could be standing in a cave for all we know, and not a ravine.”

While Tarnish spoke, Vinyl pulled out the snowflake gem, which twinkled with an intense blue light. It flickered, it flashed, and she held it up before her snoot to examine it. Still pointing her gun at the door, she levitated the snowflake gem over to the centaur statue and placed it in the open hand.

The stone fingers closed around the gem, and there was a chiming sound, like a doorbell ringing. All around them, the sheltered ravine trembled, and there was a screeching sound from the doors, which began to open. Tarnish backed away and pointed his own weapon at the opening doors, while the centaur statue’s hand opened back up, releasing the snowflake gem.

“Do we go in?” Tarnish asked while he watched Vinyl grab the snowflake gem from the outstretched hand.

Inside, it was dim, but not dark, the lights flickered, and Tarnish could not help but feel that it was a little spooky. The entry hallway was made of the dull green metal that made up the doorframe. Nothing could be seen, no guardians, no nothing. Just an open door. Never had an entryway looked less inviting.

Whipping out her slate, Vinyl wrote down a few words in a hurry, then held it up. This is a bad idea.

“What choice do we have?” Daring Do asked in response to Vinyl’s statement of the obvious. “Answers lie beyond the door. Let’s take off as much of our gear as we can, stow it on our backs or in saddlebags, and then go inside to have a look around. It’s sweltering in there.”

“And it smells bad too,” Rainbow remarked.

Daring Do nodded, but said nothing.

Shield held forward, Tarnish crept down the hallway, leading his companions. Daring didn’t like this formation, but Tarnish was in the best position to use his shield. The lights flickered with a pale, cold, yellow-orange light that made his eyes water. Below him, on the floor, was an artificial ley line, which bothered him a great deal, because he recalled Maledico’s warnings about them.

This place had a powerful stink to it, foul, headache inducing maybe, and try as he might, Tarnish couldn’t figure out what the smell was. He couldn’t even begin to describe it, but it was intensely unpleasant. The hallway made of dull green metal came to an end, and opened up into a teardrop shaped room that had four visible passages leading off of it, two on either side ahead of him.

Stale air clung to Tarnish’s face, leaving him uncomfortable, and the sounds of his own hooves seemed muffled somehow in his ears. The artificial leyline split up ahead, going right and left, but only through two entryways, rather than all four. The stench, the smell—for some reason, Tarnish thought about a bowl of raisin bran, but filled with sour cream and paint thinner instead of milk. It was only a suggestion though, as the actual smell was far, far worse, and his brains lacked the means to make sense of it.

On the ceiling, a tiled mural of Director Solis smiled down upon them and her outspread hands reached upwards towards the sun. Princess Celestia’s sun. Now frozen in place, Tarnish stood staring. He began to search his pockets for the glasses, and failing to find them, he searched Vinyl’s pockets. When he found them, he put them on and read the lettering beneath Director Solis’ hooves.

Skyreach Weapons and Research. Birthplace of Project Eternity. Only by controlling the future can we preserve it.

Below that, in much smaller letters were the words: A guaranteed destiny for all.

“Tarnish, what does it say?” Daring Do asked as she craned her head to look up.

After licking his lips, Tarnish read the words aloud, “Skyreach Weapons and Research. Birthplace of Project Eternity. Only by controlling the future can we preserve it.” Then, after a pause, he added, “A guaranteed destiny for all.” He could not help but feel that his own voice seemed muffled somehow in this strange place, and it felt as though his ears needed to pop.

“How come nothing is attacking us?” Rainbow asked her companions in a worried, somewhat scratchy voice. “I can’t take this, it’s too quiet, it’s driving me crazy. I’d feel better if there was a fight, just something to get the tension to die down. I’m getting the jitters.” Turning about, she peered down the different doorways, hoping to catch a glimpse of something beyond.

Sitting down on the floor, Vinyl pulled out her slate and a piece of pale blue chalk. She began writing, and did so in tiny, meticulous letters, giving herself plenty of space. When she was finished, she held up her slate for all to see.

This sounds an awful lot like cutie mark magic. If one could control what cutie marks appeared on ponies, one could conceivably control the future, albeit in a very loose and out of control sort of way. It would be like trying to ride a shopping trolley down the Canterhorn road. Possible, but insane.

“I can’t tell if that is the view of a loving parent or a benevolent tyrant,” Daring Do remarked after reading Vinyl’s words. “So, let me get this straight. What you are saying is, if you wanted to have a specific future happen, or if, say, you wanted to lean towards certain and specific outcomes, you could control what ponies do, how they think, feel, and act, thus driving them towards that end.”

After a moment, Vinyl nodded in agreement, wiped her slate clean, and began writing again.

“That sounds like herding cats.” Daring Do shook her head and there was a pained expression upon her face.

It isn’t a direct means of control and there is still a lot of free will involved. But, I suppose, if you were smart enough, clever enough, and had enough foresight, one might see that Grogar was going to return, and begin planning accordingly. Maledico did, so it is reasonable to assume that other centaurs did the same. We’re here with a purpose. We’re meant to be here in Skyreach.

Lip curling back in doubt, Daring Do shrugged, then frowned, the corners of her lips sagging, and then she heaved a resigned sigh. “You might be right, but we could be here by circumstance or happenstance, with no proof of either.”

Hearing this, Vinyl nodded, then put away her slate, her chalk, and then she stood up while Tarnish tucked away the artifact spectacles.

“Is there a difference between circumstance and happenstance?” Tarnish asked.

“Yes,” Daring Do replied. “Circumstance is a fact, event, or condition irrefutably connected to some event, happening, or action. Happenstance on the other hoof, is coincidence, mere chance, or a connected sequence of random events, serendipitous or otherwise.”

“Right.” Tarnish blinked a few times, and tried to digest the word salad he had just been fed. He wasn’t sure if he had learned something, or had just somehow avoided a headache through serendipitous happenstance. When he was a foal, he had been immensely proud of the fact that he had written the word ‘FART’ on the wall in big, loopy letters with a green crayon.

“What do we do now?” Daring asked her companions, looking at each one in turn. “It’s getting late. Should he head back to the cave so we can rest? Do we risk staying in the sheltered valley outside? What is our course of action?”

“I’m inclined to stay and keep looking around, but I’m not sure about camping just outside.” Tarnish met Daring’s eyes, and then glanced over at Vinyl, whose eyes were hidden behind her glasses.

“I’m sick of the cave, and I’ll risk sleeping outside. We have Flamingo.” Rainbow pawed the floor with her hoof, then resumed looking at the four entryways leading deeper into the facility. “It just feels good to be warm again without wearing a mountain of clothing.”

Her head bouncing up and down, Vinyl pointed at Rainbow Dash, thus casting her vote.

“I think this means we stay.” Daring Do’s face took on a grim expression. “Right, stiff upper lip and all that. Which door do we take? Where do we get started?” The pegasus pony mare jerked her head around, looked Tarnish dead in the eye, and her eyes narrowed. “Mister Teapot, you haven’t had your tea in a while. I am getting a very distinct prickling, if you catch my drift.”

Embarrassed, Tarnish gave his boss a sheepish grin, and then he set about fixing himself a cup of tea, even though his amulet was a bright shining blue. He did, however, look down to check. An intense frown crossed his muzzle when he saw the bright blue, and he tore his gaze away from his amulet to look down at the artificial ley line on the floor beneath him.

Experiencing a moment of growing worry, Tarnish said to his companions, “Hey, I don’t mean to alarm all of you, but I think we should all have a cuppa, otherwise, I think we’re going to become very grumpy in the very near future…”

Author's Notes:

Well. Here... we... go...