Entry 029 - First Ascension (Part Three)

The rear entry back into the StableTec Acquisition of Sciences building whistled open once more. Cautiously, I peered through from the top of the door. I’d found a beam just above the door I could hook my hind paws onto and used a steady flap of my wings to keep me from falling. With this secret vantage point, I surveyed the corridors upside-down. Mole hung back as I checked the path ahead, to the left, and to the right.

“It’s all clear, Fuzzball,” I hissed, and dropped down with a careful wing flutter once Mole and raced through and pressed herself against the far wall. I slid in behind her and let the door close behind my blue flame of fur for a tail tip. “Right, I’m thinkin’ the best way we can do this is if we head to your sister’s office and take a peek around inside it. Are ye with me, lass? Do ye know the way?”

My Candy girl was still giddy from the kiss and nodded to both queries with the silliest grin still painted across her face. She kept herself up against the wall as we walked, glancing back and forth all the way until I carefully reminded her that she wasn’t really blending into the iced walls we were walking through. If we were stopped and asked, we were just going to inform them that Dr Whithers had invited us in.

The chance came when we rounded a corner and were faced with a pair of unicorn mares in StableTec Sciences coats walking towards us. Mole and I froze, watching them trot along the corridor in our direction and waiting for them to notice us. My brown filly tried to slip behind me but I stretched a wing and stopped her.

“Act natural,” I tried to whisper as calmly as possible to her.

“They’re going to tell Maud,” she squeaked back.

“We’re going to be fine, just--” In the same second, both heads of the fillies in front of me lifted to look at us. I panicked and nearly squawked out the words, “Good morning, ladies!”

“Oh,” the mare on the left stopped and frowned at both of us. She checked her PipBuck as her co-worker paused also. My mind raced as I wondered whether Mole was right and I had gotten her into deep trouble. I thought of all the possible messages they might have been sending to Dr Candy, and so was perplexed when the doctor chuckled. “No, I thought so. It’s ten past four, so that would be ‘good afternoon’.”

“Good afternoon,” her friend parrotted, and the two resumed their journey past us with soft, silly giggles.

“Was that the Guardian Griffon?”

“Sure was! I never expected her to be so awkward or nervous--”

“Of for sure, for sure, so, about those isotopes--” Their conversations evaporated away as they took a right turn, although my small griffon ears remained on the radar for any other mentions of possible trouble for me and my filly. The burst of Mole’s lungs when she gasped out in relief thus had me near filling my Stable Suit in shock.

“They didn’t tell Maud!” she wheezed in surprise, staring dumbly at the corner they’d disappeared around. Despite watching it in trepidation for several seconds, they did not reappear, nor did Maud come charging into the space to demand why we were there. For now, at least, we were in the clear.

I ordered Mole to keep moving and tucked her under my wing as we passed through the white halls, listening to her directions when she advised them beneath the feathers. Remembering the heavyweight attached to my foreleg, I lifted my PipBuck and swiped the screen with the knobs and dials until I found a local map of the building. I gave myself a mental kick for forgetting this feature earlier as I looked at the paths and rooms shown on my screen, seeing the green dots moving about ahead of us. Right in front of me was a way to avoid most ponies before they showed up in our path.

“In here,” I drove Molasses into an empty laboratory and hushed her softly while we peeped through the window. A trio of ponies passed, a ginger maned grey mare seeming to be dictating plans to their colleagues. As soon as they were gone, I checked the PipBuck to ensure the coast was clear and started for the door again. I’d completely missed the suggestive movements of the green dot in the room adjacent to ours.

We froze up again at the sight of another scientist stepping out of his office. Mole once again ducked back into the room, but the maneless mustached horse was more interested in me to notice my associate. Yet, instead of him suggesting he was fetching the authorities, he flapped and flailed with joy sounds at the sight of me. The stallion raced back inside for a moment before running out and up to me with a notepad and pen.

“Can I get your autograph?” I blinked at the items being thrust at me and sat, taking the things to once more scrawl my name and a simple message. “I just heard your performance replayed on Shot’s Hot Radio Station, you were amazing. Oh! My daughter is going to be so jealous when she sees that I got to you first!” The words ‘Shot’s Hot Radio’ stood out to me, as I hadn’t considered this Stable having more than one radio station. Admittedly, a Stable having any radio stations had been a surprise to me, I naturally assumed everyone got their news updates and tunes from DJ Pon3 everywhere. I finished my epitaph to him, pausing with the quill in my claws.

“Did you want me to write one for your daughter too?” I asked, blown slightly away by this behavior, but the stallion snatched both away with a manic grin.

“No, that’s fine! I want her to be jealous,” he crowed, looking at the still-wet ink and laughing gleefully. “Oh, I love it!” He turned back around, without a word of gratitude or apology for stopping us, and closed the door to his office once more. The shut door stuck in my vision for several seconds while a warmth radiated over my chest, and then I felt Mole nudging me.

“It’s this way, Captain…”

“Och, okay,” I walked with her, still under the spell for the first few steps and finally breaking out of it as I spotted an elevator dead ahead. “What the fuck was that?” I posed to my marefriend, frowning in utter confusion.

“Swear,” she reprimanded me, “what the thingy was what?”

“That scientist dude, lass. He just…” I didn’t have words for it. I trailed off, leaving Molasses in confusion as I tried to understand the actions of the stallion. I felt like I’d been robbed of something, but I wasn’t quite sure what and without being able to say that they’d taken something tangible, I wasn’t sure whether I was annoyed or upset. My wing squeezed the brown chipmunk closer and shook my head, glancing at the floor. “I dunnae know, Moley, I jus’-- Oh! Mole!”

Ceasing in my tracks, I pointed to a message printed on the floor with my free wing.

“Did you have something to put away?” Mole asked in her usual innocuous way. My golden gleaming eyes followed the trail of lines from the direction up to a doorway only half a corridor away. Jackpot.

“Do you like to play dress-up, Moley?”

“Hehe, oh yes! I love fancy dress parties, getting all fancy like a princess or, ooh-oh-oh, I have a chicken costume that I haven’t--WAH!” Clutching her under my wing, I pulled her eagerly along the short line before she could squeal out more tales of her foal-hood days, and slipped her into the changerooms.

Inside was a square block of lockers, at least enough for a hundred ponies to store away their gear and change into their camouflage white coats. There was a long wooden bench that I was able to sit Candy down upon, and a door off to the side which appeared to shelter several showers. Luckily, it was all unoccupied at this moment, but that didn’t mean it would always be that way. I set to work looking for something for her to wear.

“It seems like most ponies are so star-struck by me, that they’re totally ignorin’ you, my wee lil’ Sweetroll,” I informed her as I wandered around the grey thin cabinets. “That makes me a prime distraction for everypony while you trot along and find out as much information as your wee fluffy flanks can find on the ascension process.” I found an open locker, but upon plucking it open with a talon came up with nothing inside. Mole’s head was rotating all over as she glanced around the room, trying to understand my thought process.

“Is this the little stallions’ locker room or the little mares’?” She asked, then squirming uncomfortably. “Um, n-nevermind. Crow?”

“Uh-huh?” I asked, not looking back as I found another open locker and slipped it open. There were a few bits, a pony’s Stable Suit in dire need of a laundrette, and a box of bobby pins. I startled myself later when I realized that I favored the bobby pins over the bits, but at the time they were the most useful to me. Now I was going to be able to get into the lockers that weren’t unlocked.

“I need to use the, um…” She went silent as she wanted me to fill in the blanks, watching me pad about the room trying to decide which box I should break into first. I chose one under the name of ‘Binaural Beats’ and stuck the pin into the keyhole carefully, pressing my head to the metal to listen to the clicks.

“Yes, Mole? Come on, wee one, need to use the…?” I let my eyes turn, one seeing the wiggling ‘gotta widdle’ dance that my cuddle-pony was making and finally understood, “Oh! Aye, go on then. Be quick about it though, we dunnae want to get caught in here.” She nodded urgently and pounced off of the bench, scrambling into the next room with a small squeak of assurance that there would be no issues there. A door slammed, followed seconds later by the sounds of relief and a small happily hummed tune.

“She’s a foal,” I muttered to myself with a dumb grin, “I’m in love with a bleedin’--” CLICK! The lock interrupted me in mid-thought and the small grey door swung open, allowing me to see the goods inside. However, frustratingly, Beats had seemed to have a fetish for coffee cups and clipboards as that was all that was stuffed inside this particular locker.

It took four more tries between the closets before I finally found the white coat and a card I was looking for. Some pony called ‘Busting Biceps’ was the unwilling provider of the uniform, yet I still found myself with a problem when I took the coat off of its hanger and examined it. This thing looked like it would fit me! Flushing from the restroom told me Molasses was done, so I started back to my miniature filly who I expected to be dwarfed by this. My PipBuck chimed from my leg.

“It looks like you’re trying to rob ponies of their belongings,” giggled Bucky from the device, “do you need some help?”

“Shuddup, you useless coc—” I stopped and stared at the screen. The map was still present on my display, and amongst the dots was a green dot heading for our location, with an ominous crimson bullet point immediately behind it. I made it into the shower block and shoved Mole back into her toilet cube amidst complaints that she hadn’t washed her hooves yet when the door behind me screeched open.

“...And I’m telling you, I-I haven’t been doing a-anything like that!” The mare’s voice was petrified as we heard her stumble in mid-cry. I could hear the noise of somepony hammering on the console by the door before it gave a locking clank and a bloop of confirmation. The voice belonging to the jailer had me instantly understanding why she was scared.

“That is not what I’ve been hearing or seeing, Semi Skimmed,” growled the deep voice of Procrustean. Pushing my beak against the gap of the restroom door, I peered out in time to see the familiar mare who Molasses had jumped into earlier on the tour. The tea-colored mare with a milky mane was being pushed into a locker by the copper furred and coal maned brute. “You’ve been sending out anti-ascension messages throughout the Stable. Not a great move for an agent like you working within Dr Candy’s Ascension Division. Tell the truth.”

Clawed paw over Mole’s mouth, I listened to the sobs of the scientist and finally realized where I recalled her from. She’d been one of the first ponies here that I’d met in the streets, the one who’d been looking for an outsider who might recognize her ascended friend from a photograph. Seeing her treated like this by one of the biggest bullies in the Stable made me feel guilty for not being kinder to her, and yet I still could not dare to bust out of my hiding spot to help her. I wasn’t concealing myself for my own safety but for Moles, at least, that’s what I told myself.

Oddly, I heard something change in Procrustean’s voice at the sight of the whimpering mare. He began speaking more kindly to her, something that creeped me out more than when he was being the biggest asshole on this side of the wastes. His hoof released her and his head dipped into view from the partition wall between us.

“Please, I have been trying to keep your reputation clean after discovering your same-sex relationship, and you were very lucky that Brass Kettle was ascended before the information reached me. I thought that you understood our arrangement, Skimmed.” His slimy hoof brushed her jaw, making her crying hitch while her eyes darted fearfully up at him, and I understood from the look she gave what ‘arrangement’ he had designed for her. A sick feeling welled up in my stomach, my claw pulled Mole closer and tighter to me.

“I-I just want to know she is safe, sir,” Semi stammered, “I just want to know… I need to—”

“Hush,” Crusty’s touch pressed across her lips. I could feel her lack of comfort. “Of course your friend is safe. She is in the Gardens of Equestria with the princesses. They wouldn’t let anything happen to any of their ascended. Unless…” He sighed deeply and trotted past her, his ‘Security’ tag on his specially made Stable uniform glowing in the light of the locker rooms. “I do hope they did not find out she was filly-fooling with you. You know they would not take kindly to a mare who broke the rules.” He listened to her stopping and hesitating in her fearful noises, and smiled privately. My free claws clenched, and at that moment the big evil wanker was lucky I had Mole to think about or I would have leaped out and ripped open his face for that comment alone. “They might find out a lot sooner if they discover a mare has been asking strangers from the badlands about her perfectly healthy friend.”

He turned, knowing he had the mare wrapped around his hoof. I sat at the crack in the toilet door, trying to will some strength into her and urge her to fight back. Mole squirmed against me and tapped my talons so that I would release my clasp on her mouth and let her breathe. I heard her whisper my name fearfully, but I didn’t respond while my heart sank for Semi Skimmed as I watched her give in to the brute.

“I’ll stop…” He waited for a few seconds, staring expectantly at her.

“That could mean a number of things, Semi Skimmed,” he eventually muttered mirthfully, “what will you be stopping?” She took a deep breath, her throat bumping on the heavy air.

“... Asking about Brass,” she croaked. “I won’t do it again.”

“See that you don’t,” he chortled as he patted her cheek and leaned in to kiss it. Something was muttered into her ear that never reached mine. The mere thought of what he might have been pressuring her into and the look of dismay on her face brought a growl out of me. Procrustean’s head pulled back sharply and his eyes swiveled towards our stall.

“Is somebody else here?” His hooves turned on the tiles, slipping himself into the showers and restrooms as he looked about slowly. I urged Mole up onto my back, supporting her with my wings. I gulped a breath and stepped back onto the lid of the toilet to get away from his searching eyes. The light beneath the door to the cubicle darkened as the figure moved close to it, his dark eyes flicking through the gap. “Hello?”

Breath held, heart thumping, feathers shivering and tail coiled, I had to watch him from the spot we were trapped in. I thought I heard Semi Skimmed ask him what he was doing, but he ignored her completely. He stood, a door holding a flimsy barrier between him and us for over a minute, maybe longer, it felt like an hour. Then, when I thought he had us rumbled, his hooves began to clop across the tiles again. I freed the air in my lungs, thanking whoever had given us a chance to survive another day. I did not want to end up a wet red paste under his hoof, like the Snip he had killed in front of me.

BAM!

The sound of the fourth stall door from us being bucked off of its hinges woke me up immediately, forcing me to think fast.

“I KNOW somepony else is here. Do NOT test my patience!” Procrustean’s pants of fury were nearly as loud as his screams as he checked the inside of the first stall. Not finding us, he swiveled around to the second.

BAM!

“The longer you hide, the worse it is going to be for you when I catch you,” he gave a snort and a bray of anger, slamming his hooves down on the ceramics at the sight of another empty cubicle. Molasses’ shuddering, squeaking breaths were whimpering in my ear as I looked about for a way out of this. I urgently slipped the huge white coat over us, As though that might provide some cover.

BAM!

He was one cubicle away. One sheet of something that could barely be called a wall keeping him from catching us. His breathing was the ominous rumble of a freight train careening along the track towards us. His yells were the blaring warning shrieks as it told us of our impending peril. The walls shook as he reached us, his hooves ready to batter our door open with his mighty force.

“STOP!” Semi wailed out. “STOP, STOP, st-stop.” I heard her sink and flop to the floor, her sobs echoing against the harsh, cold tiles. I held fast.

Procrustean’s shadow turned slowly, his tail end twitching under the door as he faced the crying mare.

“Yes?” His question was a chilling and unforgiving as the floor she had dropped to. She gathered up the oxygen she needed to speak and let out a sorry sigh.

“I’ll be with you. If you s-stop hounding me and doing a-all of this, th-then I will do what you want.” A sinister, betraying calmness after Procrustean’s storm drifted through the rooms. The air was claggy and made me feel ill. Mole’s tears were wet on my neck. A grunt of a laugh tumbled out of the stallion.

“Tonight?” he asked flirtatiously.

“T-Tonight,” Skimmed reluctantly agreed, her body sagging against the floor. For a few seconds more, there was silence. Then, a small amused hum slipped out of Procrustean.

BAM!

The rusty back hooves of the chief security office slammed our door off of its hinges, sending it smashing into the back of the block and flopping over the lavatory. In an instant he was ripping the broken gate back, clumsily tossing it across the floor to Skimmed’s frantic cries and stuffing his head through. His snorts fumed hotly at the sight of the final booth containing neither hair nor feather of us.

Had I not been scared witless, I might have found some humor in the look of astonishment and disgust he gave. Semi’s interruption had given me the precious few seconds I needed to come up with a plan. While his thoughts were on a rendezvous with her, I hauled both myself and Mole up over the top of our stall and silently into the one he’d previously busted. I had to hope now that this door still hanging by a thread and the white coat draped around us was enough to blend us in with the broken restroom.

Crusty hovered inside the smashed up toilet cell for as long as he could, hoping for his suspected spies to materialize in front of him if he watched for long enough. When it was clear his effort had all been in vain, he huffed, pulled himself back and looked to Semi one final time. He chuckled in a way that made it seem as though he’d just tried to shoot the targets at the shooting range and missed every single one, rather than the ‘yak in a china shop’ destruction he’d created around us. Thankfully, his hoof steps moved away, and this time it was for good.

“Tonight, then, Semi Skimmed,” he muttered as he stopped beside her, crouching to give her cheek the tenderest kiss. “I might even give you a few tips on how to win the Ascension Battles, too.” His amusement knew no mercy as he patted her head like a puppy, then headed to the door. There were a few clicks and beeps upon the buttons, the door gave a happy noise as it was released once more, and slid open gracefully to release the beast from his pen once more.

Mole only waited until the door was shut before she scrambled off of my back, and amidst my protests pushed our ruined stall out of the way. Semi had no time to react in fear, surprise or anger as the brown sugar lump pounced and hugged her, bawling stronger than the brave mare herself. With a groan of defeat, I pushed the door off of myself as well and stumbled out of the wreckage, to the sight of Skimmed’s confused gaze.

“You are--?”

“The bitch, aye, I ken yer now,” I confirmed, stopping a short distance from her. I couldn’t be the touchy, feelie comforter that Molasses Candy was. I’d spoken to enough victims to become desensitized to their pains. I did, however, want to help. “You cannae let him get to you, Ms. Skimmed.”

She sneered at the suggestion with her eyes glowing hot-red and wet. Without shoving Mole off she moved the mare back enough for her to clamber out of the hug and stand on her own four hooves, staring at us. Her nostrils sniffed twice while she shook her head.

“I… I have NO idea how you hid away in there without him catching you, but you don’t understand. How could you? You’ve not been here for more than a week,” the hoof she had pointed at me swiveled to Mole, “and you are only allowed to frolic around the Stable because your sister is in the top tier of the Councils. If you knew what was really going on here—”

“That’s why we’re here,” I protested, springing my wings out and forgetting the white coat on my back, spreading it like an awkward kite. “There are ponies being ascended from this wee hole in the ground just for singing a ditty, sending them to dead space it seems, and ponies like Crusty bollocks there lording it up over everypony else. I want answers.”

“Doesn’t everyone?” She snorted haughtily and straightened her white coat, pointing herself towards the door. “Get in line, ‘Guardian Griffon’, the only way you’re getting answers is when you ascend. Then maybe you’ll be able to ask the Princesses yourself.”

“The ‘Goddesses’ are—” I bit my tongue with the pointy parts of my beak as I realized I couldn’t finish that sentence, Mole was already looking at me funny. “Look, I wasn’t good to you on my foremost day here, and I’m sorry about that. If there’s a chance that you can help us and we can help you, then I’m wanting to be a part of that.” During my speech, I crept closer to her. Once I was close enough, I dropped my voice to a whisper and moved my head beside her cheek, so that my last words were private.

“If there is a Garden of Equestria, don’t you think I’d have goosed into there instead of mosied into here? Your wee Brass Kettle lassie is out there somewhere, so help me and I’ll help ye find her, aye?” I leaned back, hoping to see something promising in her eyes. There was doubt, and conflict, and more fear in her expression than she had shown when Crusty had tried to seduce her.

“You’re not alone you know, Semi Skimmed.” Mole was fumbling with her hooves, speaking out loud to the mare but unable to look her in the eyes. “You might feel like it and it might feel like this big, sometimes dark place is cold or lonely but you just hadn’t looked long or hard enough. Now that we’ve found you, you don’t have to go through this alone. Just... Just listen to Crow. Because she is my Captain and she’s smarter than she thinks she is and she’ll keep you safe.”

Semi Skimmed stared as intensely at my marefriend as I was, both of us surprised that those words had found their way into the party-loving filly’s mouth. Eventually, she found her response.

“Okay? But how do I know I can trust her when she didn’t have the time of day for me a week ago.”

“Because she didn’t have the same for me either. Or that’s what I thought because inside she really did care. And now she keeps me safe.” She trotted over, resting her hoof on my shoulder. “She’ll keep us all safe.”

Every limb reacted to my heart before my head could catch up with what I was feeling or thinking. The next thing any of us knew, the small coffee bean was squeaking against my beak, her warm body in my arms and her beating, loving muscle as close as it could possibly get to mine. I ignored the sounds of realization or concern from the pony we were trying to enlist the help of, for a few seconds she did not matter. All that mattered was showing Molasses Candy that I might not have words to say it, but I could show that I loved her in my reckless, idiotic way.

“You two are… Alright,” Semi Skimmed tried to speak as we kissed. I got the impression she was just putting words together just to fill the awkwardness she felt, but it did not stop Mole pushing into my smooch. It seemed the only thing to stop us was her tap on our shoulders, the pair of us breaking apart in unison.

“You really think I’m the one that needs help when you are kissing in public like that?” She scoffed, her dark tealeaf eyes flashing from one of us to the other. “You don’t understand the dangers here. You’re blinded by all the songs, and smiles, and lies.”

“Then show us the truth, lass,” I watched her make up her mind, glances still darting from one of us to the other, her eyes narrowing. Eventually, she came to a decision, her head shifting side to side with a sigh.

“Fine, but you can’t get caught. Maud won’t let anybody who isn’t meant to be up there just come poke around without a personal invite.” She tutted softly, walking around us and rubbing her chin. “We need to make you both look like you work here.” I shifted the gaze from my feathery blue wings covered in the white apron to Mole’s glistening nervous face and back.

“I’m open to any an’ all ideas you have, Skimmy.”

I had to open my big mouth.

Semi had found Mole a coat that would fit her, pulled her mane into a ponytail and finished her look with a pair of glasses. The prescription was weak enough to wear and still see her way about the facility. In comparison, the getup Skimmed had dressed me up in was ridiculous. I’d had my bandana unwrapped and brought down to cover my beak, while white medical bandages were wrapped around my head and just left a gap for my eyes. Biceps’ jacket covered my wings and tail, and boots from a radiation suit completed the look. I was certain I was going to get caught like this.

The elevator trundled us up to the top floor with a lazy hum, while speakers inside the closed compartment played a plinking-plonking tune meant to ease our minds. I could say on my own behalf that it wasn’t working. What I did however enjoy was the slight change of scenery, the lights on the buttons and the display inside this crate glowed blue. It wasn’t much, it was enough to satisfy the senses I felt nullified by lack of a rainbow in these surroundings. It was my belief that this was the purpose of the anti-color statement made by the designers of this area. They wanted you to feel your intelligence drained from your body, experimented on and processed until it conformed to the StableTec way of thinking. I wasn’t going to let it beat me.

“If you two see anypony else while you’re poking about up here, just try to stay out of their way, and no awkward questions will be asked.” Semi’s attempts at reassurance fell short of the mark as Mole and I shared a concerned glance.

“You’re gonna stick with us though, right?” Mole nudged her. “You gotta stay by me and Crow so that Procrustean—”

“Not here. We’ll talk about it later,” the mare mumbled, treating the conversation like it was being overheard.

“Semi, we’re not going to let him—”

“Shut up.” She shut me down as the elevator jolted to a halt. The box pinged, the doors squeaked open, and I briefly panicked.

The floor was open plan, with a pillared archway to our left. Above it was fixed a headline announcing ‘Congratulations On Your Ascension Day’ in bold letters. Bulbs were fitted into it to make the sign light up, but the magical power wasn’t switched on for it at that time. Throughout the rest of the room, offices lined the back walls. They seemed so far away that I would never have reached them without bumping into one pony even if I sprinted. There were machines and devices set up in blocks and rows around the room, and several white coats working at each section. Those on the desks closest to us turned and glanced at us, some double-taking when they saw me. I grimaced under the bandages and urgently shuffled out of the elevator with the two mares, leaning into Semi Skimmed.

“You gotta show us what we need to see so we can hurry up and get out of here,” I implored her, avoiding the strange looks I was attracting.

“Don’t talk, Biceps,” she said aloud, pointedly drawing attention to me despite what she’d said in the lift. “The facial burns and swollen tongue will heal now we’ve put ointment on them. Hopefully, you won’t run about with a kettle of hot water in the future.”

“Oh! Brass was always telling him to slow down!” The mare from the next closest desk tutted, gazing apologetically across at me. “I guess we won’t be hearing you shout or yell today then.”

“Brilliant,” chuckled the stallion beside her, “we’ll be able to work in peace and quiet today then.” I could hear Molasses giggling with them beside me and could only shrug my shoulders, nodding quickly. Sold by the story surprisingly easily, the surrounding ponies got back to work and our guide continued her tour.

“I had to get that out of the way. Someone had to believe you were Busty.” She worked us around and out of the way of the hard-working lads and lassies drumming on buttons and catching flashing lights to defeat them. I wasn’t focused on them for long enough to understand each workforce’s purpose, because Semi Skimmed hurriedly guided us through the archway to the other side.

Before us were four large glass chambers. Each had a strongly sealable door on the outside while within sat two bolted down chairs. Even from twenty or so meters away, there was very little else of note about them. I would have assumed we were looking at a chamber for ponies with radiation sickness or a plague if my head was switched on.

“Are these really the ascension-thingies?” I expected something grander, with more bells and whistles than a bells and whistles shop. Heck, I’d seen bathrooms on Raptor cloud ships with more technology than these tubes. I couldn’t see how a glass cylinder and a pair of chairs were supposed to send anypony anywhere other than to sleep if left there long enough.

“These are… These are the Ascension Portals.” Semi Skimmed’s hesitation did not go unnoticed, yet I politely ignored it and continued walking towards the portal in front of me. Mole, on the other claw, turned her head and reached out a tender hoof to the mare. Passing them, I didn’t see whether the touch was accepted or reciprocated, only that Semi was beside me when I finally reached the glass.

Inside the chamber, there were still no clues for my eyes to decipher how these things worked, if they did at all. On the ceiling of it was a rippled cone that looked like the horn of a trombone, surrounded by piping spiraling out from it. On the floor of the case were lines, circles, and markings made of brass and fixed into the tiles. They surrounded the entirety of the chair.

“What’s with the shiny code on the floor. Is it a secret message or something?” Skimmed enchanted the door to the glass case, and encouraged it to open for us. After stepping inside, Skimmed got the door open with a bit of magical button pressing on the code of the closest keypad. I walked in and showed her what I mean, tapped at one with a boot to see if it would come up with some persistence, but it stayed rooted to the floor. The things covering my claws and paws were getting more uncomfortable by the minute.

“They’re not codes, they’re runes. They enhance the magical energy and tell it what task it needs to perform. In this case, that task is sending a pony to the other platform in the Gardens of Equestria.” I considered her words very carefully as a planted my derriere in the uncomfortable seating inside the so-called portal, and noticed that my throne wore the same glinting marks. A second spiral was built into the main seat, under the flank of the pony who sat under it, and I chuckled at the mental image of the coil turning into a spring that simply ejected the ponies out of the Stable and into the wild wastes. After confirming both seats matched, a new thought struck.

“Why are there two seats?” I slipped around on my rear and lay my hind legs over my armrest, enjoying taking the stress off of my cramped feet.

“Ahhh,” Semi leaned on the arm of the second chair and pressed her cheek on the backrest. “This is for your spouse if you sang as a pair.”

“You can sing as a pair and be ascended together?” My eyes were instantly drawn to Mole, just as hers were to me. I wondered why the little brown horse wasn’t looking as eager about that idea as I was.

“You can, but there are some conditions to that,” Semi Skimmed updated me forlornly, “You have to sing together from the very beginning, including the Seven Day Trials. And--” a sigh. “You have to be married to one another. One male, one female. No two of the same sex can go together.” My beating chest plummeted once more. I clicked my beak in irritation at the backward rules in this sham city.

“How do you know these aren’t designed to just vaporize ponies instead?” I asked, casually revealing my disgruntled mood.

“Who would do anything so barbaric to innocent ponies?” she asked. I told her exactly who, and she did not like the answer.

“You have a poor view of StableTec, then,” she continued as she exited the pod, once I had satisfied myself that there were no further questions I would gain from being in the circular box. “You believe the same company who gave us a good, sheltered home and the means to live would destroy us without due concern? Surely not.”

“They’ve done it before,” I muttered in a low voice, idly feeling that one itchy scar behind my neck. No more Stables, that had been the promise, yet here I was…

“They didn’t kill my mom and dad, Captain,” Mole piped up, reminding me she was there. Guilt punched me in both eyes and the beak as emotion tingled in her voice, her green sparklers shining at me. “I was just a baby, but I remember my mom. Bubble says there’s no way, but I do. She held me close as she kissed me on the nose in the way that she liked because it always made me giggle, and she told me I was gonna be brave and strong. She said, one day, I’d go to see her, with my brothers and my sisters. We all would.” Her face was split by a big, shiny-toothed grin, fighting back glistening crystals dripping from each apple eye. “And then my dad hugged me real tight and told Hard and Maud that they had to look after us ‘til then. He kissed my mom and sat down with her as they sang their last song. Then the runes all lit up and fireworks flew around them, and they waved to us as they became magical lights too. When everything stopped, poof…” Molasses made a small, silent firework between both hooves, smiling damply but happily. “They were gone.”

I gazed at the small pony with the floppy ears and took a step towards her.

“Mole…”

Something small and luminescent danced past my beak before I got to her. I watched it in surprise, which only grew as the flying glowing light was joined by a friend, and then a third green speck, and a fourth, and more. A startled squawk rushed out of my beak with no time to stop it as the multiplying orbs swarmed me, sending a strange sensation of electric staticity charging through my body. I leaped back and slapped my forelegs at the mites until my vision was cleared of them, and only when I could see again did I understand what had attacked me.

“Oh bloody hell, it’s one of those things,” I growled, pointing at the Minstrel clopping across to one of the devices and examining it. Noticing some off looks from the scientists in the other room, Semi gave a wave and an apology.

“Some of Busty’s bandages caught on the machinery, nothing to worry about. He’s fine!” She called over to them, which was followed by speaking through her teeth at me. “Discreet, remember, you can’t go drawing too much attention to us! I’m not supposed to be in here either, you know.”

“What the buck is it doing wanderin’ around? It’s not singin’ or something?” I bravely moved a bit closer to get a better look at it. The strangely illuminated pony whose skin rippled and moved like impatient bugs was holding its hoof over the console. Its little lights were bouncing back and forth between the kit and its stretched-out leg, and seemed to be interacting with the device in question. It looked like a mare. A pretty unicorn mare with a studious gaze ahead. The flick in her mane was incredibly similar to Mole’s.

“She’s working. We call her Starlight, she’s one of the two Minstrels we have constantly available and performing for us.”

“What’s the other Minstrel called?” Mole quizzed Skimmed, peeking at the jade lightbulb too. Side by side, they would have looked like mother and daughter, if one wasn’t irradiated.

“Sunburst,” smiled the mare, “they don’t just sing, you see. They conduct tests, perform tasks, act as our security. Right now she is ensuring the systems we have are ready to collect the last song of the next ponies to ascend.”

“Big question incoming, Semi,” I warned, poking a boot through the partially sentient dust, “how do you take a wee pony’s last song and turn it into this? What is it, really?” I drew my foot back quickly and gave it a thorough check, relieved to see nothing had clung on to me.

“Ever heard of a soul jar?” She chuckled and shrugged when my mate and I shared a shake of our heads. “It’s a magical item that has a bit of your essence trimmed and fused with it. Like taking a lemon rind and putting it in a pie. It changes what that thing is.”

“Oooh, yummy,” grinned Mole.

“Aye… Wait. What’s a lemon?” I puzzled, to Semi Skimmed’s lament.

“Okay, bad analogy. I meant it is like putting a data chip in a terminal.” Semi explained instead.

“Ohhh I get it, aye,” I nodded, jumping out of the way of ‘Starlight’ as it went to act on another machine.

“Who chipped it?” gasped Mole. “Were they given a stern telling off? Were they made to see the Overstallion? OH! Were they jailed?”

“No, stop. Gosh, this is hard.” Skimmed pushed her hoof into her forehead with a suffering groan. After a quick glance around she collected a coffee cup and her pen. “Last try. My pen is a small bit of a soul, and the cup is a jar. The pen goes in the cup.” She put the pen into the StableTec endorsed cup and rattled it around. “Now that it has a bit of a soul, it can do basic stuff like rattle around, but I have control. See?”

“Oh! I actually ken what you mean now!” I grinned to Molasses who nodded at the full capacity her neck allowed. “I was fibbin’ when I said I got it before.”

“Thing is, they’ve been acting strange lately,” our new friend frowned, “you see, they’ve been going—”

“Ms. Skimmed.” Mole’s bespectacled sister stood under the archway, staring at the scientist with her stony gaze. I froze up, while Molasses immediately found importance in a line on the floor while marching across to the minstrel, disappearing behind it. “I thought you were going to prepare the podium for my speech at three this afternoon.” The watered-down strawberry unicorn stood rock solid with eyes only for Semi, her dark pewter mane pulled back so tight that it stretched out her forehead.

“O-Oh. Yes-Yes, in a moment, ma’am. I was just showing—”

“It’s three o’ five now,” Maud advised in dreary disappointment. Skimmed checked her PipBuck and squealed out, flustering heavily on the spot.

“So-So it is! C-Coming now. Busty,” she grabbed me and pulled me against her, stumbling on her words, “the office, I mean, that document you needed, I-I mean, on the terminal... You’ll be f-fine with your task, right?” She managed to point out an office to the side of the elevator, slapped me on the back twice and then she was off. “I am so sorry, doctor, you see, Busty…” I listened to our only remaining tour guide apologize to the Candy sister and nodded dumbly, knowing full well Semi didn’t see it.

I ducked back behind the pillar, gingerly avoiding the Minstrel so that I could talk tactics with Mole. The mare surprisingly didn’t look as nervous about our current situation as I felt, she wore a little smile like I’d promised her a cookie for a job well done.

“Are you alright here, hen? Not too worried we might be caught?”

“I’m shiny, Captain! Maud didn’t even recognize us. These disguises are working perfectly,” she grinned, then dropped into a ready-to-pounce stance, her expression turning as serious as she could muster. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to stay here. I’m gonna go check out your sister’s office, whatever answers we need are on her terminal I’m bettin’. I’m gonna go download anythin’ important from it onto my PipBuck while your sissy is talking to all the smartypants ponies in here. Then we get Skimmed and make a break for it, aye?” Molasses’ pouted, her frown growing throughout my plan. Eventually, she released a pent up squeak of frustration.

“We got all the way here and now you want me to just sit and wait? I haven’t done anything yet!” She sat on her flank and crossed her forelegs. “You defended us from Procrustean, you helped us sneaky-sneak through the corridors--”

“And you got Semi Skimmed on our side. That makes us even.” I rolled my eyes at the snort she gave that answer. It would have been adorable if this wasn’t precious time being wasted. “Mole, this is’nae game. Your sister is still a part of whatever is goin’ on here, it could be serious for you an’ her if you’re caught. So listen to your Captain, aye?” Her face was still dissatisfied, but at least she was nodding as she sighed and remaining in her seated spot beside the green grim specter.

I held my spot and peeped out from the side of the arch, watching Semi prepare the small podium in the corner farthest from Maud’s office. I thanked my lucky stars that either Dr Candy had chosen that spot or Skimmed had the foresight to move the mare and her disciples far away from where I would be sneaking. Incidentally, I could see that Mole’s sister was no help as she stood on the sidelines and watched a small crowd already gathering. When Skimmed’s work was done, my new friend called out for everypony to huddle in front of the rostrum, then stepped down to let Maud take her place in front of the scientists.

“Ahem,” she levitated her speech under her nose and adjusted a pair of black half-moon spectacles that had always been perched on her nose in the times that I saw or met her. I took the cough as my cue to start sneaking across the room while she gave her unenthusiastic address. “Firstly, I want to thank you all for your hard work in advance of the coming ascensions this month. You have all put the effort in that I expect of you and you have my gratitude for that.”

I’d reached some desks by crawling along the floor, but the boots on my feet were making the journey tenuous. I was practically walking on my scrunched up talons here. For once in my life, I thanked the foals who cut the nerve endings in them when I was a chick because I never regained the feeling in them after that. It made this moment a little more bearable. However, being so close to the goal, I decided I could shed them and make a run for it before anypony saw me.

“Next, I understand that Busty Biceps has joined us after an injury, but I would like to give a shout out to his recent achievements. Busty, could you come up here?” I froze with the boot in my beak, hearing the name of my alias. My footwear was desperately pulled back on as she called again, ensured my bandages were down covering my beak, then shot my head up.

“Come on up.” Everypony turned inconsistently to watch me raise myself out from behind the desk and hobble slowly around the crowd. The three steps onto the small stage were the most difficult to mount as I lifted myself up to stand beside Maud, staring through the slit left for me in the dressings. She blinked at me with eyes almost as sleepy as Elmwood’s then turned back to her audience. I briefly spotted Molasses waving to me from the hiding spot before she disappeared.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts, Mr Biceps has been pulling all nighters since the molerat incident shut down our servers and terminals.” I quietly wondered whether she’d figured out my plan before I’d managed to complete it. Part of me expected she had fetched me up here to unmask me.

I happened to glance across at Dr Candy’s office just as a band of honey yellow magic wrapped around the door handle and pulled. I felt my eyes stretch to full strength in horror the moment I realized that little idiot was going against my orders. I glanced at Maud who kept talking without noticing her door opening on its own, then back.

Mole peeped over at me with a huge mischievous grin, yet I could do nothing but silently panic as she slipped through the break she’d made. I saw she’d at least had the sense to cover up the hinges with a silencing spell or something before she closed the door. She was in that office, behind the door, and I could only stare and will her to get out of there.

“It’s a testament that he’s here even with his injury ensuring he’s checked our internal technology.” Maud continued. Somehow, despite the dull tone in her voice, she definitely seemed to trust I was Busty. Yet my mind was on the rebel spy hunting that office for clues now. I saw her pop up again in front of the terminal and tap at the keyboard. Her face was more blank than her sisters for several seconds, then her hooves shot to her ears and tugged them.

She didn’t know the password. I could bet all my caps and my fine feathered booty that Mole had never tried to hack a terminal in her life. She was floundering.

“That’s why starting next week, Mr Biceps will be receiving a promotion as my personal assistant. I would like you all to wish Busty all the best in his new career and—”

“What? Dr Candy, ma’am, that’s my job?” Semi Skimmed called from the sidelines, hurrying forward. Dr Candy gave her a lazy look from over her raised snout.

“Then I’ll have two personal assistants, until such time that one of you ascends.” Maud tilted her head again, blinking slowly. “You’re in the Ascension Battles this month, hmm?” Skimmed gasped out as though she’d been shot in the gut and stumbled back onto her flank. Did that mean what I thought it meant? I was trying to listen to this and keep an eye on Mole at the same time.

“One round of applause for my new assistant,” the ripple of politely stomping hooves echoed around the room and I worried briefly that Maud might demand a speech. I was glad when she moved from the subject instead.

“Next on the agenda is the missing Minstrel. We have all the reports back on whose Minstrel it was and where it went missing. The mare was Moving Melody of— Mr. Biceps, you can step down now.” I had forgotten myself as I watched Molasses tap frantically at the terminal. I apologized, quickly stepping down and looking back over at the office. If Mole typed in the wrong answer too many times, she’d be locked out, did she know—

Suddenly, the small mare bounced, forehooves in the air. Had she messed up? No! That was a sign of victory! She’d gotten into the machine all on her own!

“YEE—cough! Cough-cough-splutter!” I quickly covered up my delight with a throat clearing, everypony looking at me in confusion. I rubbed my bandaged throat apologetically and shifted myself to the back to listen to Maud’s speech and watch Molasses simultaneously. The pony’s head bobbed about in front of the terminal and only had to hope she knew what I was hoping to find from it and how to download it to her PipBuck.

“It seems that losing a Minstrel is affecting the behavior of the other Minstrel particles. When they form, they are forming in couples, we cannot seem to get them to form as singular entities. However this is a trivial issue, we are not duly concerned by that at this time. We will investigate further after the ascensions.” Behind Maud’s dulcet tones was a hint of intrigue rather than worry. She seemed to be interested that her ghostly workforce was playing tricks rather than being worried about it. A disconcerted mumble snaked through the other scientists. I might have listened to the rest too if I hadn’t been trying to figure out how to telepathically get into Molasses Candy’s head and tell her to hurry the buck up.

The elevator pinged.

Maud paused her speech as her eyes shot over to the figure stepping out, coaxing me to look as well. I contained my squawk of shock before it left my throat, but only just.

Procrustean sidestepped from the lift and nodded for the mare on the podium to continue. But as she returned to her speech, his gaze glided across the room, and dropped like a hawk on me. My stomach gave an ill groan and my throat closed up. If he’d been a unicorn rather than a meaty earth pony, I might have thought it was him using magic to finish me off. Right now, his glare was doing a good enough job on its own. He knew.

“The battles tomorrow will bring us four new ascensions, so I want everypony to ensure they’re up to task…” Maud’s voice grated the uncomfortable air. My thoughts were back to Mole, I couldn’t let her get caught by the beast. I had to do something but when I discreetly peeked at the office, I could see she was already jumping out of her sister’s chair and dancing towards the door.

With my mind yelling insults at the decision I concocted, I twisted to look to Semi and felt grateful that she was looking at me too. Her concern for the behemoth blocking out gate equaled mine. I gave her a short nod towards the filly slipping still unobserved from the back office and willed her to understand. Skimmed nodded shortly.

Snapping my head about again, Mole had finally seen Procrustean in the room. To her credit, she managed to keep her fearful tripping over her own hooves as quiet as possible, then looked in alarm at me. I ushered her into hiding with a flick of her head and, thankfully, she dashed back to the spot I’d told her to wait at in the beginning. I could only hope she had managed to conceal her fluffy tail before Crusty got wind of what I was doing and looked over as well.

He studied the closed door to his council colleague’s office from the spot where he stood, but it didn’t hold his interest for long as his eyes finally drifted back to me. I couldn’t hold back the tides of Tartarus any longer. I had to face the devil head on.

I turned, walking his way, each step made of lead. Behind me, I could hear Maud concluding her speech before my hearing turned as numb as my claws.

“... And so, I want you all to keep up the good work and be proud of yourselves. Someday, you too will be rewarded for your efforts in the Garden of Equestria. May Celestia and Luna watch over you all.”

May they take particular care of me, I thought as Procrustean moved like a statue come to life. He pushed the button to activate the elevator doors and then motioned for me to step inside. My heart was up and bashing at the walls of my brain, my vision felt hot and my limbs wanted me to sprint and fly away, but I had to forsake them all. For Mole.

I kept my head held high, my strides long and my posture more confident that I felt. I took his invitation and made my way into the tiny box that would feel a lot smaller in a few seconds. Satisfied that he had me and that I wouldn’t be going anywhere, Procrustean stepped in after me and pushed a button. The cage gave a cheery ping, the doors closed, and that was it.

I was in deep shit.

Author's Notes:

Music for this chapter; Lacrimosa - Mozart. Click here to listen to it!

Quick thanks to Salty Alty (Link!) and Official Fallout Equestria (Link!) for editing.

The First Ascension might be one of the longest parts I've written but all of this is proving essential to the plot. There's a lot to unpack in this chapter so if you want to read and then discuss it, come to my Discord! https://discord.gg/cQkyDSN

Also, if you're enjoying it or you want to put your thoughts across, please share your ideas, comments, and horse noises below!

As always, thanks for reading and I'll catch you in chapter thirty!

All good things,
Scar