Institute (A)

Far into the wastes stands a lone and towering building waging a personal war against the tests of time. Large heavy doors have remained silently shut for longer than anypony can remember in a stubborn resistance to the many scavengers and raiders who are lured to the thoughts of treasure. Many have tried, but nopony has ever successfully entered the slumbering behemoth.

Until now.

You and your caravan had just stumbled across a gold mine of tech. Prism rifles, power armor, even a possibly working water talisman littered the walls of an uninhabited underground bunker. Luck is a cruel goddess, however; even as you were praising her she was plotting your demise in the form of Steel Rangers. They saw the tech, saw you, and attacked without question. You never stood a chance.




Pain: An unpleasant feeling used to tell the body that something is wrong. It is an alarm to back away from damaging situations, a subconscious protector of injuries, and even at times a strict teacher warning those under its guidance to not make the same mistake twice. For you, it is something more. Pain is your anchor to the world. You know you are alive because there is no way in Tartarus that being dead would hurt this much.

Cheerful music plays as you lay upon a soft, fluffy bed. The walls around you are painted in a skillful and tasteful depiction of trees, making your location feel almost like a forest clearing rather than the small room you are actually in. The other members of your large caravan are nowhere to be seen, but that might not mean you are alone. Above your head cartoony paintings of pegusi loaf and enjoy themselves amongst white, fluffy clouds. They are actually moving across the surface; A particularly bright sunshine yellow mare actually performs a mid-air cartwheel as a second mare, blue and white, appears to be actively watching you with innocent curiosity from a relaxing position upon a painted cloud.

The back wall houses what appears to be some sort of a white return hatch. A homely framed cross stitch above hatch cheerfully states that “It’s better to Give than to Receive”. Against the wall opposite from your bed lies a boring and drab office desk complete with password protected terminal and cabinets. The scattered screwdriver and mostly broken bobby pin collection on the floor suggests that somepony had been trying to unlock them. Upon the desk lays a small letter addressed to a member of your ex-caravan. Up against the far sides of the desk, as far away from each other as possible without falling off, sit two small stone carvings, one of Princess Celestia, the other of Princess Luna. They each stare at opposite walls with their blank diamond eyes. If they are as “alive” as the pegasi above your head then they are doing a fairly excellent job hiding the fact. A small radio sits on the desk and serves as a plentiful source of happy, chipper tunes.

There are no windows, and the only door is on the on the wall behind your head. It takes up almost the entire wall and is undeniably shaped like a cutesy pink heart. It looks pretty secure, but also a bit out of place with the rest of the room’s décor. It is most definitely locked

Although it feels like you have been disintegrated twice the pain surprisingly seems to neither hinder nor be worsened by movement.

Speaking of disintegrated, almost all of your armor, weapons, and caps are somehow gone.

A groan escaped the brown unicorn as she awoke, she vividly remembered seeing wonders of tech before suddenly everything went out, the lights, the feeling of her hooves on the ground, everything just went.

Now, she was in some strange, strange room, feeling ever so fluffy against the cosy bed, she almost didn't want to leave it. Her eyes fluttered open and she turned her head, looking around from this cosy spot, the music slightly distracting as she tried to remember what exactly happened. But her memory failed her.

"Wait... Ah'm alive? But, what happened b'fore... Ah should be dead." She said to herself as she rolled off of the bed, landing on her hooves softly with a clop. Body engulfed in pain, it didn't get worse, but she didn't stop feeling it. "Where am ah? Where's mah stuff?" She questioned thin air, not realising she wouldn't get an answer. Instead, she trotted over to the desk, floating the screwdriver with her magic, in case she needed it, then inspecting the letter. It most certainly wasn't for her, she knew that much.

Cuppa's thoughts were too awash with confusion for her to see any of the finer details of the painted walls and the statues, not even the door for now.

Kestrel rumbled out a groan as he came too, his eyes fluttering open only to clamp shut again when the bright light of the room began to burn his retina's. Fuck that hurt...hell everything hurt.

Carefully, the gryphon began to open his eyes, slowly this time. The light still burned a bit, but he adjusted quickly enough. Once his eyes had caught up with his body the gryphon, rolled onto his feet with a grimace of pain and began to assess his situation.

"I'm alive and in pain, decent start..." Kestrel started before looking around at the rather strange room he was in. He quickly assessed that this was the single strangest place he had ever woken up in.

On the celing, little pegasi fluttered and played as far to chipper music played about in the background. A radio nearby blared some rather annoyingly chipper music; walking over to it Kestrel quickly shut it off.

That done the gryphon decided to flex his brain muscles a bit. He tried to recall how the hell he had ended up in this place. The pain in his body pulsed a bit at the memory.

Steel Rangers, the convoy he had decided to travel with had looted some old munitions depot and the Rangers had found that Tech. Everything he had ever heard about the Rangers had said that they kill on site of tech.

"So why am I still breathing..." Kes thought as he began to walk towards the cabinets and terminal on the desk. He tried the terminal first...it failed. With a grunt Kes decided to leave the thing alone, cracking passwords was not his thing.

He checked the cabinets next, testing each. They were locked. Damn...he was not good at that either. Looking down at the pile of bobby pins and screwdriver Kes decided to pick them up. He might not be good at lockpicking, but a screwdriver could make a nice hole in a skull if you hit right.

He was just about to put the stuff into his saddlebags, but reaching back to do so revealed that the aforementioned items were in fact not there.

"Hmm...damn."

Kestrel decided for the first time to look down at himself, and found that once again he had, once again, been totally stripped of his gear. Reaching up he found that he still had his mask on, and his Left foreleg still had his PipBuck on it.

"Got a weapon at least. Now...where the hell am I"

Gripping the screwdriver in his beak Kestrel began to look around for anything else in the room that would tell him where he is. The only thing that seemed even remotely close to that was a small letter that was sitting on the desk next to the Terminal.

With a scrutinizing eye the Gryphon looked it over. Perhaps it held some answers.

Sky awoke with nothing but pain on her body, why is she in so much pain. Then she remembered she was with a giant caravan to look for loot then the Steel rangers came in and attacked them. And everything else is a blur after that, but now all she could do is stare at the room she was in. The decor of this place is weird or to childish, This place had to be some kind of daycare or something. No way ponies actually had this type of stuff for fun, but it was the past and most ponies were different 200 years ago.

Sky sighed as she weakly got off the bed, the pain still lingered in her body. She continued to look around the room as she noticed the giant heart shaped door, odd shape for a door. Sky finally realized something, all her stuff was missing. Sky immediately went to her neck and felt her diamond necklace, It was still there and so was her pipbuck. Then she felt weird for once, she looked at her body and she was out of her armor. "You got to be kidding me!" Sky yelled as she stomped her hooves on the ground, her face with a bit of anger. But she calmed down to look at the room she was in, this place still seemed to creepy to her even if was meant to be like a foals room.

"My guns and armor are gone." Sky muttered to herself as she looked at the desk with a terminal, She quietly moved towards the the desk, noticing the bobby pins and screwdriver on the floor. She picked up the screw driver to help her later, but She couldn't hack a terminal to save her life, she couldn't lockpick the cabinets, but she could try to search the desk for something useful. Then she noticed the letter on the desk, a letter that she will have to check for anything useful.

[search the desk for anything useful, see who the letter is addressed to, Hack the terminal,Science 19. and use whatever bobby pins are left and lockpick the cabinets, Lockpick 24]

Rad woke from the dream he'd been having, where he was with a caravan, they found a good stash of old tech, but then Steel Rangers attacked, and he seemed to pass out or something. But now he was awake. "Huh... Strange dream, but i'm still at... Wait... This ain't home..." Rad then looked around, spotting the Pegasi on the roof, the strangely out of place door, and the desk. "Well if this ain't just the most BORING room ever... Apart from that roof, never seen anythin like that before, the paintins are... Movin? Fancy."

Rad spread his wings and lifted himself off the bed, floating over to the desk, on the way his brain and nervous system seemed to re-connect and he felt the most excruciating pain ever, yet it didn't seem to affect him much, apart from his concentration, though he did notice that he was lighter... Which meant his stuff was gone, though he could still feel his saddlebags, they were empty, but he had them.

Rad looked over the desk, he saw the letter, and put it in his bags, figuring it may come in handy later, he took the screwdriver too. Rad also eyed the two statues, figuring they may be worth something to somepony he took them as well. "Hmm... Random things to leave about... Now what about an exit eh? Come on think, the door is clearly gonna be locked." Rad looked around the room, and noticed the Return hatch. "It's a small chance... But maybe..." He floated over to the hatch, and first off tested to see if it could even open, then if it could, he would see if he could fit down it.

Pain... why do I always have to feel pain when I leave Stableton ?

Gunner sat up on the bed, looking around, when he spotted a pegasus staring him.

"What are you looking at ?"

Receiving no answer, the stallion looked closely, squinting his eyes in the process. It led him to make two realization : One, the pegasus was some sort of drawing on a wall. Two, someone had took his precious goggles.

"Son of a bitch !"

Ok, calm down. Where the fuck am I ? Last thing I remember, those steel rangers assholes where shooting at us. Am I dead ? Because if this is heaven... it really sucks.

A shiver ran on Gunner's back. Hmmm, it's chilly here... Wait a second, where is my stuff ? Who undressed me ? Was it a sexy mare ? Wait, focus Gunner, no time for that.

The stallion then crawled out of bed, trying to ignore the pain, and took the direction of the desk, picking up the screw-driver on the way.

It's just you and me baby

Seeing the powered, functional terminal, the earth pony sat in front of it, with the clear intention to understand what the hell was going on here.

(Science 45, Luck 8)

Ow...this really, really hurts...why the buck am I hurting so much...right...steel rangers...figures...

Scrap stirred as awake, wracked by pain, as he recounted in his head what had happened before he had blacked out and, before he had woken up in this place...speaking of which. Where the buck was he?

Moving painfully out of the bed he had found himself in he glanced around the room he found himself in, noticing that its moving ceiling and the rest of the decor were not quite the wasteland standard. After that he noticed another distressing fact: his stuff was gone. Everything gone. His trusty lightning pistol, his combat barding and all the excess things he had collected, gone...the only exceptions was his pipbuck and his empty saddlebags.

Not the most stable pony at the best of times, which this most definitely wasn't, panic quickly began to overtake Scrap, followed soon afterwords by what could only be described as a full blown nervous breakdown, as Scrap devolved into a muttering twitching mess.

"This is great...JUST BUCKING GREAT...I'm stuck in another simulation or something even worse...and I've got no gear...I'm alone...hahahah...this is perfect...just perfect...I'm gonna die here...and I was a happy pony...stupid greedy self...I could have been at home...happily hugging Bakewell and avoiding Mr. Snuffles attempts to eat me...but now I'm here...hahahahah...PERFECT..."

Eventually his sanity returned to a level where he could stop ranting and twitching and preform basic tasks that might lead to his escape such as collecting the screwdriver and unbroken bobby pins off of the floor, attempting to pick the cabinet locks and attempting to unlock the password protected terminal.

(Lockpick 60, Luck 6, rolling to unlock cabinets)
(Science 85, Luck 6, rolling to hack terminal)

Ember woke with a jolt "NO!! DON'T!!! I NEVER WA-" He realised he was no longer being shot at by armour clad ponies... And that he was no longer out side... And that the ceiling was watching him, a pegasus on the ceiling, but it wasn't real... But it was moving. "Oh no... Oh no no no no no! This is b-bad, i'm captured... But why? And m-my stuff is gone." Ember snapped his head around the room, looking nervously at everything, he saw the desk, with it's terminal, and the letter. "Well at l-least they wrote to m-me" Ember got up and cautiosly moved over to the desk, where he opened the letter and started reading.

Dawn slowly opened his eyes, the world around him a blur as searing pain pulsed through his body. The first thing he saw was clouds and pegasi, 'w-wait this can't be happening...... No I can't be back here again', he sat up abruptly, ignoring the pain in his head......... And the fact that he had almost died moments before. Shaking his head, seeing as he was not in a pegasus enclave compound, Dawn took a moment to study his surroundings seeing that he was in a place that resembled a hospital ward if anything, the pain registering throughout his whole body once more as he layed back into his soft bed.

'I wonder how I got here in the first place......... Wait I'm not the only one here.' seeing that other ponies (and griffon) were coming to gave him a slight tinge of hope that everything was going to be alright. Seeing as everything that could possibly be done in the room was out of his reach in terms of skill or had somepony working on it, Dawn laid back into his bed checking whether the things he brought with him were still in his possetion.

'why am I not surprised'he once again found himself withought a fire arm, already putting him at a huge disadvantage, not to mention he didn't have any caps to speak of.'Might as well get used to this........ Never knew those CQB courses could ever useful......... Damn my hard headedness.'

"Mom! Dad! You're home!" A faceless unicorn mare dirt covering her lime green coat stood next to an imposing red earth pony stallion. A filly sized Sawdust bound toward them, the sky was dark, as always, but daytime dark. As she got close the sky turned suddenly bad storm dark, the mare's flesh fell from her body leaving a ghoul in her place while the stallion collapsed into a heap; his eyes lifeless and his flesh burned by fire and radiation.

The filly skid to a stop a scream rising in her throat, one that transitioned back to the real world as it were. Sawdust bolted up screaming, greeted by the waking world with pervasive dull pain. It was one that reminded her of a time she'd gotten hit broad side by bird shot. That hadn't been fun at all, but at least the idiot hadn't known the difference between it and buckshot, or it could have been a whole lot worse.

Having just woken up her mind felt slow, like it was wading through a swamp, one filled with weeds and muck and nasty thorns, however it started picking up steam quickly enough. The room was at odds with her last memories, the fight. She remembered catching one of the Steel Rangers off guard, only to find out that most bullets were laughably underpowered for combat against power armor. She wasn't spared the bolt however, but that left a big gap, how did she end up in a bed, achy but otherwise intact when she should be a pile of ash on the floor?

She listened to the air, made a face and listened again. Her eyes went wild, expanding to drain her sockets of visible white, "Twilight?!" She yelled, throwing the sheets off, seeing her own intact hide but not her duster or its contents, "Twi!" She yelled again, her eyes darting around the room, a powerful panic entering her voice and movements.

Within minutes she had upturned everything in the room that was reasonably large enough to hold her diminutive doll. Even some things that weren't were checked under and around. She ended her search sitting in front of the computer, mouth quivering as she broke into tears. Several minutes would pass before she reclaimed her composure, several minutes before she started in on the items on the desk.

The computer was not a model she was familiar with, more over the few debug tricks she knew about managed to only cause the device to reboot. She looked over the desk, giving the letter a half hearted read at first but then as she spotted a name the was familiar she gave it a proper read. Everything else would wait as her mind simply could not function right without her Best Friend there to help.

The mind found itself drifting through nowhere, never and noone. After a moment, it could feel a kick, and it realized it's name, at least the one others used to use, was Arc Weld, it was a unicorn, and it occupied a body full of pain.

"Gaaaahhh!" Arc breathed in the moment he got conscious again. He felt his whole body to be engulfed in pain, to every single hair in his mane, and they even hadn't had nerve endings to feel pain.

Everything started coming back. The building with all that juicy stuff, then the moment he almost shat himself when he saw the Rangers show up, then equally terrifying moment when they opened fire and then... well nothing, that part of his memory was blank. Huh.

Arc looked around his room. The pegasi playing the clouds, the music, everything just called to stay there and lay on the bed, forever resting and letting his mind wander wherever it would like. So tempting... but it came from different time, not for the ones inhabiting Equestria today, it came from times when there were nice places for mind to wander to.

Arc got up from the bed and immediately fell on the ground. When his head stopped spinning, he tried to get up again, this time successfully. He gazed around the room, stopping on the small statues of the regal sisters.

"So here you have been hiding when Equestria needs you more than ever." Arc said with a chuckle. He stepped closer to them to take a better look. Quite a nice piece of work, that was sure.

When he approached the statues, he felt his hoof touch something on the ground, which turned out to be a screwdriver. That could be useful thing to have. Arc tried to tuck it into his vest, but then he realized that it was gone too, he needed something to carry stuff around. The bedsheet seemed as good ad-hoc solution.

(Trying to make a makeshift bag from the bedsheet, Repair 51, Luck 6)

Then there was the terminal on the desk, perhaps it could shed some light on this place.

(Hacking the termina, Science 90, Luck 6)

And there were some bobby pins lying next to the screwdriver, but Arc knew he never made the whole lockpick thing work, perhaps there would not be a need for that now.

Zestari woke slowly. Her entire body ached and burned in distant memory of a disastrous incident. As she lay there, trying to fight the desire to curl into a ball, she could hear the soft plinking of soothing, almost joyful music. Scattered thoughts began to congeal into vague memories. An unopened building. Veritable mountains of expensive and valuable scavenge. Attack! Ponies in armour! Pain! Nothing.

She bravely opened an eye and instantly regretted it, as light pierced its way directly into her brain. And with a low groan, she rolled over. As she continued to lay there, she flicked her ears about, trying to determine if there was any noise other than the joyful tunes. “Happy?” she asked quietly. After a few moments of this and determining that nothing was in her immediate vicinity she slowly opened her eyes again.

As she adjusted to the light her eyes were drawn to the art on the walls and ceiling around her. What in all of zebrica is all this? She lay there watching the pegasi joyfully playing around. An edge of fascination about how they moved about, was underpinned by fear and concern about her whereabouts? She engaged in a nervous staring match with the blue and white pegasus, and Zestari could swear that it was laughing at her. “I’m going to keep my eye on you.” She said quietly to the Pegasus as she finally gained the energy and courage to get out of the bed.

Taking further stock of the room, she became aware that she had been stripped of her possessions. She supposed it wasn’t surprising, all things considered.

She noticed the hatch on the back door, quickly followed by the realisation of a lack of windows and a door in the shape of a heart. That made her frown in further confusion, and she could feel the beginning of a headache coming on. She looked back up to the ceiling to check on her pegasi guardians. Yep. Still there.

She went over to the door to find it locked. Again, unsurprising, but the room certainly was. She turned towards the out-of-place mundane desk. Her mouth went dry at the sight of the Nightmare Moon figurine and she made a note to stay away from it. Freaky star horror thing. She did go and scrutinise the Celestia figure though.

She collected the bobby pins and screwdriver off the ground, even though she had no real knowledge of how to use them to open things. She attempted to access the terminal which was locked. And after a few moments trying to remember commands she’d seen others type in, she gave up on it. She tried to open the drawers. They were locked. If only she could use those pins.

With a sigh, she grabbed the radio and briefly played with the dials trying to see if she could pick up a signal other than the now jaunty piano coming through. Leaving it alone after a few moments in irritation, she scooped up the letter off the table. Before she began to read it, she made her way back towards the door.

She placed her head against the garish pink of the timber she tried to listen through the other side. She couldn’t hear anything, so after clearing her throat she spoke loudly, “Hello is there anypony there?” While she waited for a response, she looked down at the letter. Hopefully it would shed some light on the situation.

(This is long, and also lots of work. Because of this it is very possible that I have missed something. If you believe I have missed something related to your character feel free to PM/Skype/Stalk me in the Cbox for answers. This holds true through the entire thread. The spoiler tags are for your convenience; without them this post hits like nine pages or so long and I don't want you to have to flip through everyone else's stuff if you do not wish to.)



v CUPPA v

Spoiler:

v KESTREL v

Spoiler:

v SKY v

Spoiler:

v RAD BOOM v

Spoiler:

v SPARK GUNNER v

Spoiler:

v SCRAP PARTS v

Spoiler:

v EMBER HOOVES v

Spoiler:

v DAWN BLAZE v

Spoiler:

v SAWDUST v

Spoiler:

v ARC WELD v

Spoiler:

v ZESTARI v

Spoiler:

v EVERYONE WHO DID NOT POST v

Spoiler:

{TERMINAL}

Spoiler:

The Pegasi on the celing were ignored for now. Kes could care less about some paintings happiness, he had a letter to read.

Now it might have seemed rude to do so, reading another persons mail like this, but right now Kes did not care. He carefully went over the hastily scrawled text, burning the words in his memory before folding up the letter and sticking it into the band of his Pipbuck. Never know when paper is going to come in handy. He was just about to activate the map feature on the device, and try finding out where he was, when and angry buzzing caught his attention.

"The hell..." he thought as he watched the two statues on the table tremble and shake like babes in winter. Even after they stopped Kes continued to stare at them for a moment or two before hesitantly going back to doing what he was doing before.

With a press of a button and a quick flick of a dial Kes activated the PipBuck's Automap feature. If he was lucky perhaps it would tell him just where the hell he was. If not...well there were two statues that needed examining.

Carefully Kes approached the two statues, assessing each closely. He had never personally prayed to the goddesses, or even had faith in them as such. To him they were but figureheads from a world long since gone. But he was no idiot, he was sure something was odd about these statues on the desk.

One by one he would pick them and look them over, starting with the Luna statue. He carefully looked the statue over, running his talons along its stone body, searching for any deformities; looking for a possible hinge or some such that could hide a compartment in the statue. Last Kestrel checked statues did not just start vibrating out of the blue for no good reason.

Should he find nothing he would set the statue down on the desk and investigate its sibling. Celestia, Matriarch of the Sun as she was sometimes called. Ponies in Filly had prayed to her, begged for release from the torture there. She had not answered.

When he was done looking the statues over he set them both down on the desk again, and turned the sisters to face him. His gaze then flicked over towards the door, the exit to this room. He was about to stand and walk over there to try the door but something compelled him to do something else. Something silly, foolish even.

He asked the statues a question.

"Don't suppose you two know anything?"

Scraps grabbed the gun and knife, putting them in his empty saddlebags, quietly hoping that he wouldn't have to use them, not because he had any aversion to violence, but instead because he doubted he could actually shoot the gun with any semblance of accuracy.

Moving on he read through the terminal entries after he unlocked it. They didn't provide any helpful information as to how to get out of the room, though it did provide him with some backround as to where in the wastes he was, eveb if he didn't recognize any of the names or the location.

He was pondering what to do next as he noticed the statues of Luna and Celestia start to shake violently, moving towards the edge of the desk before stopping just as abruptly as it started.

"Ok then. That was weird. Still can't let it distract me."Scrap said pushing the statues back from the table's edge. "And you doing that isn't helping either" Scrap said to the ceiling pegasi that were gagging androlling their eyes, before adressing the ones that appeard to be sympathetic "You guys are cool though"

The fact that he was talking to a ceiling didn't even register to Scrap as he continued to examine the room for possible ways out. Moving to the door he took out one the bobby pins and the screw driver and attempted to unlock the door once.

(Lockpick 60, rolling to unlock the door once.)

Sky sighed as she failed in the lockpick and terminal hack, with her terminal actually frying itself. Was she that bad of a hacker? she only cursed herself and actually noticed the pegasi on the roof watching her, and they moved.

Sky was now starting to freak out a bit but noticed the very loud rattling noise, and noticed the two statues began to shake a bit before they stopped.

Something really weird was happening here and Sky aint leaving til she found out why or at least she found some other pony here in this giant place, either way she looked at the two statues and thought they would look nice in her shack in stableton.

So she took the two statues and began to look at the pegasi in the ceiling, a blue and white pegasus ponies that followed her in the clouds painted in the ceiling or it wasnt painted but something more.

But she looked on to them. "You two know a way out of here? or am i going to find a way my self?" She asked the two, "Please im also a pegasus like you two, we dont leave pegasus ponies left out. dont we?"

Sky asked the pegasi in the ceiling and she thought she was crazy to ask for help from ponies in the ceiling.

Arc read the messeages from the terminal with stoic calmness. He had learned long ago that there was as much trustworthiness in written words "The best hooves" as in country that had name longer than three words. In the end, in his still dazed status, the message had nothing interesting to say.Then something rumbled behind Arc's back. He turned around to face the source of the sound, but only managed to push the letter from the table. There was nothing new behind him, but the letter perhaps had some more information.


(Opens and reads letter)

Wait... have the regal sisters moved? Arc stepped closer to them. "You girls want to go for a ride? Well... the place does look lonely, doesn't it..."

(Tries to put statuettes in the bag)

Dawn's head was clearing up as his ability to think was coming back to him 'wait waht the' Dawn shook his head, taking off his glasses, cleaning them, then putting them back on. 'Why is that pony..... INSIDE.... The griffon'. Finally getting up from the bed, though rather reluctantly. Moving closer to his companions, Dawn could see that they were becoming more and more translucent the closer he got to them, waving a hoof through them, Dawn could tell they where just images. 'Okay so i'm not going crazy....... I don't even know anymore'

Dawn began to investigate the room, seeing the desk with the two figurines and the letter, as soon as he noticed a stripped pegasus swipped one, as well as the letter (or at least he thought so), as soon as he was finished his own room began to shake, looking around he noticed that some of his companions had registered the the shaking themselves. 'alright that was....... Weird'

Giving a "what the hay" shrug Dawn walked over and opened up the letter that was sitting on the desk, [reads letter], not sure how to respond to it Dawn simply tucked it away in his coat pocket. ' now about thoses statues' Dawn looked at both of them yet he lingered more at the one who resembled princess Luna, he had always been more appreciative of the night sky...... It was the time of day that he discovered his cutie mark....... As well as the time he lost it. Finally making his decision and taking the Luna figurine. The room shook as the latch near him opened, the anger of the naerby paintings and statue obviose through their eyes.

Looking over at the near by painting, Dawn let out a breath. He felt like a school colt again, if anything this was an improvement, at least no one was jumping him. "Okay you guys look." Dawn paused, he could feel his sanity slipping away by the second, "I'm sorry I had to do this but....... Theres no other way of going about this...... I'll make sure that I make this up to you later, o.k." looking back hoing his apology had done something he looked at the figurine 'i'm the princess of the night, so of course they run in fright......'

Shaking his head Dawn looked back at the celestia statue, "I'll take good care of her alright." he winked before staing down the latch, there was no where to go but down.

[attempt to go down the hatch]

Cuppa's focus on the letter was broken as she saw the shifting of the colours on the wall out the corners of her vision, causing her to set the letter back down and look around, seeing solely white walls.

"What the hay?" She asked herself as she started looking around at the entire room, gazing up at the ceiling for a moment to see the displeased Pegasi looking down at her, it caused her to flinch slightly and shrink back towards the desk as if she could hide under it or something.

As she did that, the statues started shaking, making Cuppa jump and let out a little squeal of shock as she turned just to see them stop shaking a moment later. "Wh-What in the hay is goin' on!? Ah... Ah dun like this..." She quietly said as she took a quick glance back up to the pegasi on the ceiling in case they'd done anything, then looking back at the statues on the desk and the letter.

Levitating the letter and settling it into her saddlebags, Cuppa figured she may as well try to find Kestrel and hand the letter over. "Umm... Is summint the matter?" She'd ask the room in general, attempting to get some sort of reaction out of perhaps the shifting walls or the shuddering statues. That happy music was still playing at least...

Rad gave a questioning look at the statue as it seemed to stare at him accusingly, and noticed the Pegasi on the roof now looked distrustful, at this he simply smirked. "What? That's the way of the wasteland my friends! Don't worry, your friend will make a fine ornament for somepony out there, and will net me a few caps." He then opened the mail hatch, and seeing he could probably fit down it he let out a laugh and turned back to his audience "Well it was nice knowing you my friends, but i'm outta here! Hell I doubt we'll see each other again, but if ya wanna meet up, i'm sure ya can find me!" Rad knew there was the possibility that he would get stuck, but he also reckoned the world wasn't forged on hesitation, and climbed down the mail chute.

Saw stared at the document a few moments longer than strictly necessary before flipping it over and shaking it a bit. She wasn't sure if that would do anything but it seemed like the thing to do at the moment. She gave it a displeased look, then regarded the statues.

She tried to imagine them speaking to her, anything at all to make the room less lonely than it was right then. That's when they started moving about, vibrating around on the table. Sawdust froze as they started to move and when they finally stopped moving they were staring at her. Watching her by dint of being pointed at her.

Sawdust couldn't move, not with the Sisters watching her. Staring. Accusing. Suddenly her head twitched right, looking at Celestia. ... It's silent voice sounding in her head a silent refrain of accusation. She recoiled from the desk, falling over the chair in the process, "I-I-I'm Sor-r-ry! I t-tried t-t-to keep her s-s-safe!"

A second silent voice rose in the darkness of her mind, booming out disappointment. ... To it Sawdust cowered, pushing her back up against the wall behind the desk, "G-G-Goddesses, please! I'm sorry!" She yelled through tears before curling up into a ball and hiding her face. Breaking eye contact with the statues lessened their impact, but it would take another few minutes for her to gather up enough courage to face down the statues again.

When she finally did, it was violent. She slid hurriedly up to the desk and reached out to the statues and attempted to sweep them from the desk, yelling at the same time, "It's not my fault!" Assuming that the statues respond to her rough treatment she considered the remaining things to be checked in the room and decided to approach the heart shaped door, to examine it more closely.

Zestari continued to lean at the door, reading the letter with a frown and re-read it. Sawdust had been one of the ponies Zestari had been with when they found the bunker but was this letter addressed by her or to her. Not only that but the contents weren’t exactly clear. A confession? Advice? Regret? She flipped the letter over to see if there was anything else, before folding it back up. Something to look at later, she supposed.

Her ears twitched against the door as the rhythmic vwwooomping continued. That noise was confusing her too. What was it supposed to be? Her eyes traced the shape of the doorframe. No way… A pony would have to be crazy or something to make a heart shaped door emit a beat, wouldn’t they?

Before she could investigate further there was a rattling from behind her towards the desk and she slowly turned her head towards the disturbance.

Her eyes went wide at the sight of the Nightmare Moon statue. By Zebrica, it was looking right at her!

With a terrified wail, Zestari threw herself at the floor in an undignified manner. Even in the scant few moments in which the evil item had been focused upon her she was sure she could feel its evil gaze burning into her. Then it would try to tear her soul from her body and consume it as all star-spawn horrors did, and leave her little more than a husk.

Trembling, she began to drag herself across the floor, making sure to not even risk a glance at the Luna statue for fear that once her eyes peered into those bottomless voids that served as Nightmare Moon’s she would be unable to look away.

The fact that the statues had moved by their own volition proved it to her that these were somehow extensions of their owner. The Nightmare Moon one was obviously some sort of zebra soul-reaper. She wasn’t sure about the Celestia one. It was probably safer, but right now she didn’t want to take any chances.

Remaining options seemed to be limited to the hatch at the back, the terminal and the cabinets. Well the hatch was her first destination and continuing her belly-shuffle she made her way towards it. Propping herself up she opened the hatch and looked inside.

The size was good, but she couldn’t tell very well how deep it was, nor where it led to. She wasn’t keen on the idea of tossing herself down there and looked about the room again, pointedly avoiding the desk. Her eyes were drawn back to her painted audience, and she watched them. They were probably laughing at her. Stupid things. You didn’t see what your star-spawn leader did to the surface. She continued to watch them frolic, allowing her heart rate and stress lower slightly. Before an idea crossed her mind, perhaps they could be useful… “If you can show how to get out of this room I’ll bring you back some delicious chocolate and share it with you.” She said, smiling at them in a saccharine fashion.

Ember looked at the blueprint piece, it seemed interesting, and seeing that the letter was for Scrap, figured he may have an better idea what it is. When the statues started trembling and moving Ember reared back in shock. He took a moment to calm down, wrapped the letter back in the blueprint and put it in his saddlebags. Then he picked up the screwdriver and any usable bobby pins and had a go at opening the desk.

[Lockpicking the desk, lockpick 45, luck 6]

V Scrap v

Spoiler:

V Rad v

Spoiler:

V Zestari v

Spoiler:

V Kestrel v

Spoiler:

V Sky v

Spoiler:

V Arc Weld v

Spoiler:

V Dawn Blaze v

Spoiler:

V Spark Gunner v

Spoiler:

V Cuppa Beans v

Spoiler:

V Sawdust v

Spoiler:

V Ember Hooves v

Spoiler:

Sky looked confused for a moment, when the black buck pointed to the desk. Was she supposed to look at the desk or search it again? or what, get rid of the terminal? Search the desk, something.

Sky could only groan in disappointment, "What am i supposed to do!?" Sky said as she slumped to the ground and began to whine, "Why do you make me think."

Sky said as she lay there and looked at the black buck with the pink mare, having a staring contest. Sky just sighed and got back to her hooves, these paintsi were a nice bunch at least.

Sky said as she went to the desk and terminal, hopefully to find something in the terminal or search the desk again for something to get Sky out of this room.

(search the desk(again) and terminal for a key or something to get Sky out)