Make your mind up

"Isn't this amazing Twilight? Your old foal of a father finally got promoted to head of the department!" Twilight was overjoyed, naturally. Her father had been trying for this position for years. She would finally get a chance to see inside of the Royal Canterlot Research Center for Specialized Magic and Science! [R.C.R.C.S.M.S.] History was made here everyday! So much knowledge spewed forth from behind the normally closed doors, she didn't know if even she could understand all that information. Spike followed Twilight around, a basket of delicious rubies shoved between his claws.

"I'm just glad that they finally decided to recognize your devotion to your work. For awhile there, you had me worried; you were almost always coming home past midnight!" Twilight's mom was about as excited as Twilight was. She understood just how much this meant to her family.

"Twilight, do you think Ponyville will be ok with you gone? It doesn't have the best record for being without, ya know, problems." Spike chomped through a ruby, tiny shards flying out of his mouth.

"Oh Spike, I'm sure that the others can take care of it. It's about time that I took a vacation anyway." Twilight was going to learn SO much today!

"But whenever anypony says that something bad happens! I mean what if there's aliens? What if Dash gets stuck in some weird monochromatic world?" Spike did have a point, but Twilight wasn't going to let Spike's sudden burst of common sense get her down.

"Aliens? You've been reading too many comic books! Read a dictionary or something, might help when you write letters." Twilight really didn't care about Spike's paranoia, she was too busy looking at all the sights. Her hooves clicked against the hard tile floor as she tried to view everything at once.

"So you're the new applied pony research head? That's great!" Twilight chimed. Spike crunched.

"Yes, I know Twilight! This is only the fifth time you've said that!" Her dad laughed with her for a second. "In fact, we just got a new intern in the applied aerodynamics subdivision. What do you say to saying hello to her?" A ruby fell out of Spike's basket and rolled into a corner.

"Of course! I would love to go greet the interns! Do you think they would be willing to share some notes with me?" Learning! Chomp!

"The door is right over there." Her dad motioned over to a single door. "You'll have to open it with your hooves, dear. Everything in this place is as magic proof as anything can be." Twilight tried to will the door to open. Her horn glowed a fierce red and the door refused to budge. She was shocked to find that no matter how hard she tried the door really wouldn't open. She walked up to it and placed a hoof on the button to open it. It swung open with a nice sciency swishy sound.

The room beyond the door was filled with paper and scribbled on whiteboards. A single thick plane of glass overlooked what looked to be a large flight course. A few harried looking pegasi ran about the place, scribbling on note pads.

"May I speak to the new intern? I wish to introduce her to my daughter." Her dad spoke in a clipped tone. "Twilight, I want you to be nice to her, she hasn't had the easiest time so far. But still! She's the first griffon to join us in quite some time!" A pair of doors that Twilight hadn't noticed opened to reveal a face that Twilight hadn't been expecting.

"You?!" Twilight let incredulity slip into her voice.

"Yes me! I graduated from flight school you know!" Gilda growled back. "Why are you here? Are you here to drive me away from this place too?!" Twilight's dad shifted uneasily.

"I see you two have already met?" He turned towards the window. "I don't remember any clouds scheduled for today..."

A thick cloud cover almost blotted out the sun. A dim glow shot through the clouds. Gilda tackled her.

"THERE WASN'T! GET DOWN!" The clouds exploded.

So... If you don't know what Iji is go look it up.

"

All that can wait

"Alright, we're done." Who....?

"Are you sure she's ready? What if her magic rejects the machines again? What if she dies when we wake her up? I want to check her over for another week, just to be sure." She...?

"Look, we've sunk a month into her already. We've been lucky that they haven't found us yet. How much do you want to bet our luck won't hold?! I don't think we can wait another week just because you're worried." How long...?

"What good will it do if she isn't perfect? They have an army, and we have a potential soldier at best. Even with the enhancer we found-" What...?

"It doesn't matter. As long as we do anything, that's better than doing nothing and sitting in here until we die. I just want to see her alive again..." Again...?

"Like she'll make a difference." Spike...?

"But you forget that she is the princess's very own apprentice!" Yes...?

"Stop bickering already! Are we going to wake her up?" Please...?

"Yes, of course. Now first we should check her sensory conne-" Who are you?

"What's that noise?" I don't hear anything.

"What's wrong?" What?

"Get to the safe room!" Safe?

"Too late! THE TAS- AGAAAAAAH!" Where did they go?

Twilight barely cracked open her eyes. The light blinded her, and a headache she didn't know she had rose forth like a raging river.

"Ugnnh?" She groaned out. What time was it? "Hello? Dad? Spike? Where am I?" She rolled out of the bed, landing hard on her hooves. "Anypony here?" The room she was in was plain, possessing only the bed she woke up on and a single whiteboard covered in equations. There was a loudspeaker up above her, the cold steel glistening with magic. A single light, one of the long tube lights lit the room. A single door, with a window at head height, was directly across from the bed. She walked shakily over to the door, trying to figure out where the shoes on her hooves came from. She looked outside the window.

"!!!" She barely restrained herself from screaming. Some weird armored ponies walked around outside, though that's not what drew her eye. A large pool of blood outlined the dead bodies of a couple of ponies, their chests having been blown out by some odd form of magic. She observed the murderers. They weren't proportioned right. Their front legs were far too short, and indeed as she watched they became bipedal using the now evident overly long tails for balance.

"Twilight!" Twilight immediately started freaking out. Could they see her? Were they going to kill her too? "Twilight, calm down. It's me Gilda. I'm in a control room in the middle of this complex." Twilight started getting angry. "Calm down Dweeb! Look, I can see you through the cameras around here."

"Explain. NOW!" It only occurred to her after she said that that Gilda might not be able hear her. "That is, if you can hear me..." She was satisfied with a response.

"Stop shouting! You'll draw attention! There is a microphone in these loudspeakers, so yes, I can hear you. I've got a lot to explain I guess..." Gilda almost seemed regretful. Twilight had diagnosed her as a sociopath when they first met. She wasn't supposed to show remorse! She wasn't supposed to care! PONIES WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!

"Start explaining."

"First off, I don't think they speak any language I know. The last few ponies here told me a little about what happened. Two months ago, the aliens attacked the complex. They used some weird technologically amplified magic beam strike system hat they call an Alpha strike to take out our antiteleporting fields. They came down here and started killing."

"WHAT? WHY?"

"Calm down! They can understand YOU! I don't know why they came here. But, their ships carried them through what few other defenses we had. I'm sorry, but your parents and Spike were among the casualties."

"What? What?"

"That's why I'm stuck in the control room. I don't now why they're here, or if we can get them to leave. I'm trying to figure it out! I haven't had a decent cooked meal in weeks! Thankfully for me, I can eat Tasen so I don't think I'm going to starve to death anytime soon."

"Spike... Dad... Mom... They're dead?"

"I just said that!" The loudspeaker snapped.

"They died?"

"Yes! I thought you were supposed to be the smart one! Get over it!"

"Why didn't I die?"

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! THE TASEN WILL NOT STOP AND LET YOU LIVE IF YOU HAVE A BREAKDOWN!"

"The Tasen?"

"That's what they call themselves. Look, I hate to ask for your help, especially after you just learned they died and all, but I need it if we ever want to get out of here alive."

"What happened to Celestia? Or Luna?"

"They were visiting Ponyville. Look if you stop talking, I can tell you why I need your help. I know we've haven't seen eye to eye in the past, but will you PLEASE help me?"

"What can I do that you can't? That Dad couldn't? That everypony else couldn't?"

"STOP TALKING DWEEB! I think I heard some increased activity near you. Keep talking and they'll find you. After the Tasen struck here, a bunch of the ponies in biology, mechanics, and spell programming survived and managed to take down a few Tasen for study. They did their sciency stuff and managed to piece together how to gift a unicorn some of the abilities that the Tasen possess. You are that unicorn, and if you start talking again I'll personally lock the doors so you won't get out." There was an awkward silence where Gilda thought that Twilight was going to talk.

"I think the technogeeks found some weird magical enhancer ore or something in some crates. THESE NOTES ARE NOT HELPING! WHO TAUGHT THESE PONIES HOW TO WRITE? A few scientists got this idea, from me, that they should try and make something to stop the Tasen. We killed some big Tasen guy, a commander or something. They took him apart and stuck the mechanical bits in you. I don't know the specifics, I had guard duty. You have something called a nanomaulogical field- Who names these things? -that should allow you to take more Tasen out then the entire survivor group did." The griffon muttered something under her breathe that the microphone caught anyway. The noise of crinkling paper came over the speakers.

"Lousy scientists had to use a UNICORN didn't they? Couldn't give me the ability to kill more Tasen! Stupid no good morons!"

"I can hear you, you know." Twilight decided to try and stop Gilda's whining about not being chosen

"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT TALKING? STOP TALKING! Talk when I say you can! Look, they took you apart and made you not dead anymore. Look, it's not my field, I studied flying not technomancy! I wasn't the one who was supposed to tell you! There were supposed to be others! I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THE LAST ONE!" There was yet another awkward pause, then an ear shattering screech came out of the speakers.

"Sorry, had to stop freaking out. I'm ok. From what the tech guys told me, you should be able to understand and speak the language of the aliens. I need you to head out from where you are right now, sector 1, to the end of sector 3 where Krotera is. Hopefully, we can convince him to fly off."

"Krotera? You really aren't being clear."

"You'll know him when you see him. He's like, the big boss of the aliens or something. I think that if we can convince him to leave that all of the others will follow. I think.

"Ok I guess... Wait, why hasn't Celestia returned to help us?"

"Yeah, one last thing before you leave. After we took out the commander guy, the Tasen put up some sort of magic dampener system. According to these notes-" Sounds of rustling paper came over the intercom."- you should be able to use something called sparks. Apparently some weird floaty thing is supposed to allow you to comprehend the intricacies of the Tasen's technology and spells. Give me a minute, this scientist had chicken scratch for writing. Tasen die nano drop? What the hell does that even mean? Nano give points? Interact with C? Kick with Z? What the hell were these science ponies on?! I think you can channel the nanomaulogical field down your horn or something to make things open. You know what, I'll call it a nano field. You understand?"

"Find Krotera get him to leave. Gilda what abou-"

"It doesn't matter right now. Get to Krotera, then I can go into more depth."

"Bu-"

"GO! HURRY UP!"

The intercom shut off and the room was filled with sweet, sweet silence.

Seriously, past this point there be spoilers. Please do not post anything remotely spoilerish to the game here. IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME BEFORE, GO PLAY IT! I WILL PROBABLY NOT DO IT THE JUSTICE IT DESERVES!