I Can Have a Dark Side IC (Closed)

Dash drew in a breath and let it out. It seemed like a convenient excuse to get Dash and Spectrum off his back about the files. If he had heard them, but it didn't seem too much like they necessarily needed to be wary of their hosts anyways, so Dash nodded, "Alright, I'll be right back." he said. He looked to Lightning and Spectrum, "Stay frosty." He then trotted out of the Administration area.

Remembering where the path the other ponies had gone to get to the living quarters, Dash retraced his steps. He made a mental note to look for a Pipbuck while he was here. If what Ami said was right, then it seemed like there would likely be some abandoned Pipbucks Dash could perhaps get his hooves on.

He steadily made his way to the Living Quarters, staying vigilant and checking his corners.

(Perception 6, Sneak 75, making his way to the Living Quarters. Also, keeping a lookout for a spare Pipbuck and any potential threats. All AP into dodging if need be.)

Arc studied Xeshir for a while. The he silently growled and rubbed his forehead, the headache getting worse. Right. At least now he had four fifths of his designated team, Lucky being goddesses know where. This had to do.

"Well, now that we have our hooves under control again, Xeshir, we were just about to leave for the second level of the Stable. Any objections to that, or perhaps some other items to remark?" Arc's voice was sounding slightly agitated from the frustration the headache was causing him. There was just no bloody calm moment to think on how to force the Stable door open, and he did not trusted the computer, not at all.

Cross blinked a few times as they came upon a blood spattered room, his magical grip on his weapon tightened. Out of the corner of his eye he panicked as he saw what looked like a hoof, but oddly enough one of his color. Right before the room changed to pristine and clean, he called out to the others.

"Weapons ready, theres something in there!" His horn glowed even brighter as he felt a bit stressed, if there was anything he hated, it was not knowing.

"Idiots...have you forgotten that the dangers in stables are hardly ever alive" he silently cursed the fact his old friends didn't plan for turrets and other nonliving entities. The stench of Arcanic processes was all over this place. He centered to the middle of the room, "Watch the walls and all the hiding spots, Marcus, clear out any supplies, we'll watch." He didn't allude any further to whatever he saw, magic had a funny way of being unpredictable.

Scrap was opening his mouth to answer Violet when Bakey spoke up before could say anything. Honestly, he was glad she did, because it saved him from having to tell Violet that he was going nowhere near the fourth floor.

Speaking up after Bakey had finished talking he added.

"I'm gonna have to go with Bakey on this one Violet. I think we should stay off that forth floor, and Bakey has a point on me not knowing stable tech, I could probably figure it out given a little bit of time, but I wouldn't want to accidentaly do any permanant damage."

Xeshir shook her head. "Nope, nothing...Unusual." She said as she accepted Nova´s hoof and quickly got up. "But just in case, we might wanna go with out weapons ready." Said the zebra as she opened her saddlebags and took out her brand-new power hooves, quickly putting them on. "Can´t hur to be cautious...Right?" She said, hoping the group wouldn´t think she was paranoid.

Radiant Waves and Clean Cut looked back at Cross as he snapped into action. Perhaps he hadn't noticed that everything was back to normal now, or maybe he was just trying to remain the one in charge for now as Radiant seemed more worried than before they'd experienced that weird vision.

And then Bone Head would end up barging past all four of them, apparently being a griffon on a mission as he headed straight across from the exit of the first level's stairs and straight down to level three.
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Bone Head would arrive on the third level, and assuming he followed Ami's directions, he'd turn right, then spot a sign directing to where he actually wanted to go.

But alas, he was foiled as there was a whole room cutting him off from going to the armoury as he had to go via the Armoury Screening facility before he would be allowed near the armoury itself.

The door was always locked off by the alicorn AI herself, and it still persisted to be locked off now.

Then he'd attempt to open the door with his hammer so he could advance towards his goal, which would just loudly clang against the door, hurting his talons more than he had damaged the door. Meanwhile everypony on the second floor would hear the clang.

And then he'd try to use a grenade to blow his way through the door.... Getting some distance to allow it to be able to arm properly, he would fire, it would impact and explode, yet the door would have but a small dent and a scorch mark from the explosion. It seemed that Bone Head didn't consider that an armoury, let alone a pre-war bunker created to allow life and be protected against balefire blasts wouldn't have sufficiently protected doors and walls.

Then a pair of turrets popped out from the ceiling and focused on Bone Head, Ami materialising into being shortly after. "Bone Head, could you please tell me what you're trying to do?" She'd ask with a partially annoyed tone, those turrets still focused on him for now.
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Cuppa soon appeared from the stairs in the second level, just stopping as she saw the other four. "Hey, ya'll gon' investigate th' Infirmary too?" She asked, having no idea what they'd seen moments ago.

"Umm, yes, Cuppa Beans. But we are starting to get a bad feeling about this Stable. Have you noticed anything weird yet?" Clean Cut began, raising a brow to the coffee-mare. "Nope, ah've seen nuthin, really." There would be a dull clang heard by this point, which would possibly draw some kind of attention.

"Wonderful, See Cross? There's not actually anything there. But I guess we should take things a bit more careful, just in case there are some rogue sentry turrets around... But I hope you know, we've not yet gotten to the supplies, not sure if you noticed or not."

At about this time, the group would hear a boom from the floor below, Cross would be able to recognise it as a rifle grenade if he wasn't too occupied with this problem.

And a moment later, Arc's cluster of ponies would arrive to further clutter this one small part of the hallway.
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With the good bakers discussing possibly venturing down to the fourth level, meaning Violet suggesting it before Bake and Scrap decide against it, Ami froze up once more for a split second.

When she rejoined the trio in functioning, she gave a smile. "Whilst I would appreciate you helping with such a small issue, I think I will be okay with my current functionality without any attempted repairs. I don't want to stress Scrap out by making him conduct a practice outside his field either."
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Dash's trip through to th Living Quarters was amazingly uneventful, aside from hearing a clang and a boom from down the stairs. He could easily be distracted by such a thing, but surely he was still looking for Amber.

And find Amber he would, just leaving the bathrooms looking very clean and a touch more attractive than she had been before going for a wash. "Oh, hey. Exploring like everypony else?" She'd end up asking as they met.

Bone head arrived at the armory's security door. He expected it to be locked, but he had himself a key of sorts. He pulled Lil miss of his back and twirled it around his talon before lining up his hit. To the griffin's credit his trusty sledge had worked on every door he'd encountered in the waste. Sadly this was not the waste and the vibrations from the impact caused his talons to sting for a bit. "Fine, option B." Bone said as he put the hammer away and took a few steps back before drawing his rifle. The grenade did more but not even close to enough.

That's when the turrets appeared. "Interesting." The griffin said. as he waited for ami to fully materialize. "Didn't I say? Doing inventory." Bone head responded to the virtual alicorn as he casually reloaded his rifle before leaning against it. "Little hard to do if the doors locked. Would you be a dear and open it please." He asked as if it was no big deal.

Arc watched Xeshir put on the close combat weapon. "Well, guess little paranoia never killed anyone." He unslung the RPCW and checked the spark battery. The battery seemed fully charged, and the weapon was cleaned from all the mud and grime Arc picked up in the sewers few days back.

Arc looked down the sights of the weapon, checking whether they were at least marginally correctly aligned. All seemed fine, so he pointed the gun down, checked if the safety was on and looked at the two ponies and zebra.

"Alright then, we're moving out. I'll be in front, Nova behind me, then Rad, and Xeshir guarding our flank. Hopefully, the second floor of the Stable will be as friendly as this one." Or we could all end up dead. That is a possibility too.

He left for the stairs that led to the second floor of the bunker.

Rad watched as everypony seemed to arm themselves. Rad however didn't need to do such a thing, he was pretty much always wearing his power hooves, despite how stupid such a thing likely was. And his carbines were mounted on a battle saddle, and as such were always ready for use. The pegasus glanced at his left side carbine, the rifle with 'Ol' Unreliable' scratched into it. He hoped that should he need to use it, it would actually work properly.

Rad took up his designated place as they began to head out. He wasn't expecting any trouble, since he had made friends with, as far he knew, the only living thing in the Stable. But since everypony was going to be cautious he would too. "What do you think we'll find in here? Never bin in a Stable before..."

Scrap internally breathed a sigh of relief after Ami said that their help wasn't needed. Now, save some unforeseen problem, he wouldn't have to go near that room. Now he just had to keep their minds off it so nopony would go running off to explore.

"Soo! We should get back to the task at hoof, the cakes aren't gonna bake themselves!"

Hopefully that should do the trick.

Dash blinked when he came across Amber, "Ah, uh..." He thought for a moment, "Yes, you're Amber, right?" he said. He was pretty sure that this was the pony he was looking for, "I think Cyber Star was hoping to speak with you in the Administration area-..." Dash stopped when he heard what sounded like a boom echoing through the facility. It was hard to tell exactly where it had come from, "Did... You just hear that?" Dash asked, checking his Marksmare Carbine quickly, "It sounded like an explosion..."

Lucky had just taken another swig from his flask (which was by now half empty) and was still making his way towards the stairwell to the second floor himself. He looked around the walls and at other doors as he passed, remembering some of the days of his own life in Stable 113.

'I wonder what horror befell the poor souls who lived here,' he thought to himself as he walked. 'There was no way that ALL of the ponies in here were scientists after all...'

Just then, he saw the rest of the team he had been assigned to start heading down the stairway to level 2 ahead of him. 'Well, that's convenient.' He then proceeded to follow them as they made their way down.

(Needed to get a post in, I'll be down on the entrance to floor two with ya'll, just after everyone else has posted for it)

Xeshir nodded at Arc´s orders. For a Stable pony he could think coherent strategist, thought the zebra as she guarded the flank of the group, which at least gave her an excuse to stare at the others plot, but her most recent encounter with...Herself had left the zebra a bit troubled. Her mind drifted off as she started thinking of curses and if she was affected by one. She was so focused she didn´t even noticed Lucky joining them.

Nova simply nodded to them both before getting her trusty SMG ready. It didn't seem a bad choice given the current situation. Nova also double-checked that her rapier was still secured, and smiled as she found it was. It was rare that Nova found something that could fully use the speed she possessed. Still, Nova returned her attention to the task at hoof. Despite the cramped conditions, Nova constantly found herself looking up still. Force of habit she guessed.

Marcus rose from his bow, shaking slightly as the images refused to leave his head. What he had seen was a sign, a bad sign. Blood on the walls that disappeared as suddenly as they appeared was an omen that could not be ignored. He heard Cross' orders and shook his head at him.

"No! We must leave this place! There is a giza mabaya (dark evil) here that can not be ignored!"

He stepped back and turned, noticing that the hallway had become more filled since his group had entered it. He shook his head at them.

"We must find a way out of here. This place..." He shuddered and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before he continued speaking. "... already it shows me dark visions..."

When he heard the clangs and the explosions down below, he let out a whimper.

"It has already begun..."

Marcus was not usually the type to take in omens and believe in curses... but what he had seen. It left him spooked. Very spooked.

As Arc's group arrived and Marcus started saying the place was evil, both Radiant and Clean Cut looked towards Xeshir. "Can you calm him down? Say... Maybe tell him your zebra ghost stories aren't real or.... whatever else you can do?" Radiant asked Xeshir quite bluntly, not paying mind to the fact that she might be unintentionally offending the two. "I'm sure you zebras get on better with one another, right?"
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"Mr. Bone Head, you do not need to take inventory of what is stored in the armoury, I already know what this Stable has armaments wise and do not require somepony to tell me about it's contents." Ami said with a slightly annoyed tone, a focused stare locking on Bone Head which funnily enough cause the turrets to turn a little to focus directly on his face.

"I would advise that you find something else to do. I may be able to allow you entry to the armoury, but I wont let you take anything out of there. You would need to be screened first anyway, just in case." She followed up with.

"So, are you going to leave or are you willing to submit yourself to the screening process, take into mind that you are not permitted to take any armaments into the armoury, nor remove any without express permission from somepony with security-grade clearance." Now it was up to Bone Head, he could find something else, or he could disarm himself and be screened, just to see what weaponry the Stable had, aside from the turrets, of course.
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Ami perked up a little as Scrap reminded them that they were meant to be baking cakes. The Alicorn's image jerking momentarily before returning to semi-fluid movement. "Oh right, we were going to start baking. It is just that the griffon is causing hassle outside the armoury... Would any of you know why that is?" She asked curiously whilst looking at the list again.

Whatever the answer, Ami would give a small nod and then return to listing things off for Bake and Violet to retrieve, they'd almost finished fetching ingredients anyway.
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Giving a frown and then waving to Arc's group, Cuppa thought for a moment. "Ah dun know what ya'll saw, but it definitely ain't round 'ere no more." She said as she looked down both directions, spotting the signs sticking out that indicated the wards, and the looking the other way to see a storage and synthesis room for medicine...

"Wait, this place can make medicine?" She asked herself before looking to the others. "Do ya'll know how valuable summint like tha' is outside?" Then she looked past and saw a sign indicating the I.C.U. "Ah'm gon' check tha' store room." She then said, trotting off towards it and leaving the others where they were as she tapped the switch for the door.

On the thought of the door being already unlocked, Ami must've unlocked all but the most important doors to allow them to at least have a look around.

Rad's nose would pick up a very sweet smell coming from further down the stairs though, as if there was a monopoly of Sugar Bombs being eaten somewhere down the stairs, it could be level three or level four, but he had a smell he could follow to reward him with sweet, sugary goodness.
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Amber shrugged as Dash said Cyber Star might want her for something, about to say something negative about the ponies she was working with before the explosion was heard. "Uhh... Got to say, I've no clue. Unless the reactor's just blown, which I doubt seeing as there's still light, somepony's just being stupid with explosives."

Now though, Amber did pull a hammer from her bags, it was just a normal claw hammer, nothing fancy for such a pony. "Want to check it out?"

Rad had stuck with the others in his group, mostly finding the maze of corridors that was this Stable rather boring, he had hoped for... Well, he wasn't really sure what to expect, but everything looked the same. So when he caught the smell of something, he perked up a little, Rad knew that smell... Sugar Bombs!! He'd not had those in a long time, and the smell was really tempting. I'm sure the others wont mind... I'll go get 'em, an' share with everypony! He thought to himself, before simply wandering off, following the scent, he figured he wouldn't need to tell anypony where he was going, since he wouldn't be gone long...

Dash saw the weapon Amber had decided to arm herself with along with her proposal that they investigate the source of the explosion. Dash was no expert on Stabletech, but he had to agree that a reactor malfunction sounded like something that'd cause a much larger explosion and a much bigger problem than the pop they had just heard. Perhaps the source had been a grenade something. Not necessarily comforting either, since it denoted a potential threat, "Hmm... Maybe I should get you secured with Cyber Star first, unless you feel confident with something with a little more punch." He replaced the Carbine to his back and took out his .45 auto pistol, placing it on the floor and nudging it toward Amber with a hoof, "Do you think you could handle that? Also do you think Ami would be able to tell what happened?"

Bone head didn't flinch when the turrets focused in him. *sigh* "My dear ami, do please tell how i'm going to get clearance when every pony in this stable that could give clearance is dead?" He said a little annoyed. "All of your security protocols stopped being relevant over 200 years ago. Your willingness to allow us to explore the stable as "Guest" already shows that you can ignore these protocols." The griffin stopped leaning against his rifle and instead slung it over his shoulder. "So i'll ask once more. Could you please open up the armory. The weapons stored in there can be used to a much grated extent out there then gathering dust on the shelve in here. After all it's not like you need them to protect the stable's residence anymore."

Cross let out a loud drawn out sigh and eyed Radiant suspiciously, she was being too nonchalant about this, stables were horribly dangerous and she should've known as well as him how alert they needed to be. He was about to open his mouth to answer her before he heard stuff exploding.

'Oh great, stuff is exploding' he thought. He shook his head disappointingly. "Oh great, now stuff is randomly exploding." He gave the rest of the group a bored look as it struck him what the sound was and his ears perked up. "That sounds like a grenade rifle...highly doubt thats native to the stable. We should get that checked out..." he didn't complete his thought assuming the rest was self-explanatory.

Bakewell got ready to resume ferrying ingredients, but looked back to Ami when she asked about the griffon.

“I don’t know the griffon at all.” Bakewell admitted in response as she continued her task. “He might be trying to get in. It’s really, really dangerous outside. Most ponies have to use guns and such to survive.” She said. “Maybe he wants to hand them out to the less armed of us to make sure we’re safe, or perhaps he wants to horde them to sell and get rich quick. What exactly is he doing? Did he rush off alone without telling anypony, or does he have others with him? If he's alone he's probably wanting to sell them. Or maybe kill somepony...”

Scrap smiled to himself after his ploy worked and hopefully the previous subject was forgotten. Then Ami changed the subject even more and Scrap grinned a little bit more, even if the subject change wasn't the best.

"From what I've observed of this gryphon, I'd say hes going for the armoury purely for personal gain. So please deny him access to the armoury, it would probably be the best for everyone."

Xeshir gave Radiant a flat look. The mare sure lacked...Common sense, but the zebra nodded and trotted closer to Marcus. She had met him once, so she knew a few things about him.

The zebra whispered in the stripped stallion's ear. "Don't panic Marcus...I had a vision too, of a copy of myself...But for now, stay calm until we can find the source of this. Now buck and be jasiri! (Brave!)" Said the zebra, saying the last part loud enough for the others to hear, but the first low enough for only Marcus to understand. The zebra hoped her little knowledge of Marcus's language was correct, or that at least she hadn't accidentally insulted him.

Arc rubbed his forehead again. The headache seemed to get worse the moment he saw Cross Roads again. Bloody confined spaces. He hated this Stable more than ever.

Arc slumped against the wall of the corridor. He looked down at his pip-buck, and realized that somewhere along the road, he acquired whole automap of the Stable. Alright... not bad, this should be very helpful. If anything, we should not be able to get lost so easily now. Arc looked up, and realized that the also picked up Lucky somewhere. The headache seemed to subside a bit.

"Lucky? Could you please check if you also have whole map of the Stable on your pip-buck? Just want to be sure it isn't a glitch or something, and this is the real map."

He looked back down on the hoof computer. Cuppa was indeed correct, this level was the medical. Or at least the map told him so. The layout of the corridor was the same as on the map, but... he would prefer to be sure.

Arc closed his eyes and made a strained sigh. He placed his face into his hooves and rubbed his eyes. "Lucky, Nova, Xesh, Rad? Guys, if you could please gather around..." Arc ignored Cuppa as she trotted past him. "Guys, to our left are four rooms. Should be four medical wards, two minor injuries, one paediatric and one burn ward. I think... we should search the rooms, see if the map is authentic." I still don't trust the computer, Arc almost added, but he stifled it. He was afraid that it could be watching and listening.

Lucky, having already seen the map, merely said, "I've got one too, Arc. There's something up with a room on the 4th floor, but I'm pretty sure it's a working map otherwise."

He then moved into the group and listened as Arc relayed his plan to everypony.