Title:           Plans have layers Spike
Author:          Anonymous
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/mpueY0Rk
First Edit:      Tuesday 14th of February 2017 06:18:59 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Tuesday 14th of February 2017 06:18:59 PM CDT

CD
 
~~~
 
Both watched as the unstoppable, unbreakable, indestructible beast went rigid... and then, like a mountain being leveled, she fell onto her side to lie still on the ground.
 
“...was that part of your plan?”
 
~~~
 
Elsewhere...
 
~~~
 
Deep below the sprawling industrial area Hoofington had become in the span of a single year, an awe-inspiring mass of tubes wide enough to fit a dragon through, several hundred miles of wiring, complex engines beyond simple equine understanding and machinery the combined size of four Canterlot Castles has been dutifully powering up in long-before scheduled intervals for over an hour now.
 
Little by little, this colossal feat of engineering, magical and scientific genius was building up power beyond even the scope of the titanic war machines Fawntaine Industries yet intended to build. All of this was made possible due to a crack in the otherwise near solid tectonic plate upon which the magical land of Equestria rested, a massive amount of pipes the size of small houses converging onto one, focal piece of machinery that was, against all odds of reason, half-submerged in the boiling, bubbling deadly soup of an underground magma chamber.
 
Those lucky few souls that had laid eyes upon this seeming miracle work of future technology being made reality when it was first built were now dutifully working to maintain the energy flow as indicated and overwatched  by the computing network EVO's highly secretive and elusive shadow leaders had installed and prepared for just this moment. The supercomputer did as it was supposed to do, interpreting signals and values for the many, varied species involved in this project to work with.
 
Every single one of them knew that this thing they had helped create from nothing but scrap would one day change the world in dramatic ways none of them could forsee just yet. And everything was progressing smoothly; everything was going perfectly.
 
Until the very last moment, when small, seeming innocuous signal arrived wirelessly from the surface.
 
It was nothing dramatic. Nothing immediately alarming, and certainly nothing the staff was alerted to. Countless signals like these were flitting in, out and about Hoofington thanks to the many radio towers EVO had installed lately. And, really, all it did was  notify the computer that a single, small variable had changed. A simple number among the hundreds of billions that kept the Operating System functional and doing what it was programmed to do. Nothing significant, in the eyes of even the keenest observed.
 
A single ONE in the midst countless others, was changed into a ZERO.
 
It could have come from any device with enough importance or clearance to affect the entirety of Subsection A through D down below, which encompassed all there was to this titanic project. It may have come from just about anything; a terminal, a mobile device or even something as innocent as a hidden switch within something as small as an earbud.
 
But... the effect it had was instantaneous and jarring.
 
Like a chain reaction, more and more numbers collapsed and turned into new, numerical values. Data was flowing, charts were altered and predictions based on the lightning speed of computed calculations were formed. All coming to one, per-emptively prepared result.
 
Control was seized from every manual input device with no previous warning; keyboards, digital locks and interfaces stopped responding to those taught to operate them. Within short order, panic was breaking out as the loyal employees of EVO's most secretive Alternative Energy Project were cut off from the surface and the unfathomably powerful reactor they had been tasked to oversee within the single bat of an eye.
 
The most crafty and tech savvy among them were just barely able to figure out that there hadn't been a hostile take-over or a catastrophic failure. Sadly, the reality of the situation was far more disconcerting.
 
Upon their meddling with the computer's interface, the simple Artificial Intelligence informed them in a gentle, flat voice that allowed no room for argument that the situation had changed, and that it would put the according protocols into effect on its own from this point onward. Scientists, researchers, engineers, security... everyone was left puzzled, confused and just a little worried.
 
When, minutes later, the energy re-routed through this section of Hoofington's underground and up to the surface spiked to such levels that the more mathematically-inclined of them could safely predict it being enough to put a Crystal Empire-sized hole into Equestria's countryside, some of them remembered how to pray to whatever deities of old they had once believed in.
 
~~~
 
Several miles to the East, far below the central point of the Hoofington valley...
 
~~~
 
...a radio set crackled to life, lonely and silently, the voice coming from it sounding weary, but concentrated.
 
“Bearing housing T-203?”
 
Holding said jet-black device was a gryphon, with feathers dark as the night, blue eyes and a scar that visibly told the story of a broken beak at some point in the past.
 
“Check.”
 
The gryphoness' voice was was flat, the boredom easily heard from the lack of any lilt or haste in it.
 
“Connecting rods I-415, I-416 and I-419?”
 
Every time the voice over the radio asked something, the gryphon glanced down at at a set of unfolded charts. Then she bent down and compared the actual item with the schematic drawing.
 
“Check, check and check.”
 
Both of them knew this kind of work, from hours upon hours of endless repetition.
 
“Pump T-927?”
 
Both of them knew better than to let routine creep in.
 
“Check.”
 
A single mistake or oversight could mean damage in the range of millions of bits.
 
“Are the crankshafts of section T-222 in phase position for simultaneous stroke?”
 
A single mistake could mean someone's ruin, be it a life, economic damages or a stress-induced breakdown.
 
“Check.”
 
So, despite being made to endure a seemingly dull and lonely task all alone in the deep, twisting and dark tunnels beneath Hoofington, both the gryphon and her co-worker on the radio performed it dutifully.
 
“Alright. That's a wrap, then. Apply the front cover N-217 and screw set N-217 and you're good to come back up.”
 
The voice over the radio sounded relieved, and just a bit tired. It said tone of voice that made the gryphon speak her next works with some slight hesitance.
 
“Actually... when I passed through Intersection J-203 earlier, I think I saw one of the older flip-disc displays the previous guys installed half a year ago show a potential hazard concerning the wire tie of gear cluster O-066. I wanted to check that out before calling it a day, Peppermint.”
 
Peppermint, the mare currently holding the other half of the radio set, far, far above and further to the West, sounded cautious, her voice changing to something more laden with concern.
 
“O-066...? You mean, that stuff behind the ablative-thaumatic shielding at the end of corridor T-225 they had to abandon four months ago?”
 
The gryphon nodded, despite the futility of the action, before vocally adding.
 
“That's the one.”
 
More silence, only the soft crackle of the radio and the distant gurgle of some viscous fluid passing through some nearby pipes breaking up the monotony.
 
“I don't know, Blackbill. Sure, it's at potential breach risk that could affect us, but I am pretty sure the guys upstairs would prefer if we made a formal request first.”
 
Blackbill snorted, waving a talon, uncaring whether Peppermint could see her gesturing or not.
 
“Oh, come on. You know how lenient they are with our backgrounds and what we do, so as long as we get this shit done. I'll just have a quick look Whether there's a risk of malfunction or not, I'll be right back up with you.”
 
Despite all that, Peppermint seemed to have reservations. Rightfully so, Blackbill thought, but she wasn't some little, young chick that needed constant supervision. Of course, the mare who had been appointed as her partner for the last two months didn't seem to share her opinion.
 
“You sure?”
 
“I'm sure.”
 
“Are you absolutely sure?”
 
Blackbill was just a moment away from tossing the radio against the wall, an intense, piercing glare leveled at the device. Hope she was hoping against hope that her intimidating glare would be transmitted through it.
 
“YES! Dammit, I am absolutely sure, you feather-damned nag!”
 
Silence. Long moments ticked by, prompting Blackbill to scratch her claws across the raw floor in annoyance. Then, finally...
 
“Haaaaaah. Fine. Just be certain to check the cycle counter at the double door system's lock  . You don't want to run in there if that malfunctioning primer kicks back up and purges the airlock with you inside.”
 
“Ugh, don't remind me. I bet old Hephaestus' paw is still stuck in the fluid outlet down there.”
 
“As long as you are careful.”
 
“Yeah, yeah, yeah... you old, cranky nag.”
 
Despite her sharp, reproachful tone, Backbill felt a bit of a warmth; a pleasant tingle as she thought of Peppermint. She may be a cranky, aging mare with a shady background that featured far more dark moments than her own, but she really did have an watchful eye on all of them.
 
“Just call through if there's any problem.”
 
Even if the constant, mother-hen attitude could really grind her gears.
 
“I will! Over.”
 
“Over and Out.”
 
With a twist of the button at the top of the black, brick-shaped device it fell silent, though not without emitting a single, loud crackle of noise.
 
Blackbill mused on the strange communication etiquette and codes EVO's top brass had passed down to them, idly wondering who had thought of it in the first place, before discarding the history of that as something to inquire on at some other point. For now, work awaited, and the gryphon would be far happier the sooner it was done.
 
As she walked through the tunnel, a flashlight firmly secured in the breastpocket of the  partial overalls she wore, Blackbill had to occasionally pause and check her map. It may seem silly to an outsider, but the gryphon knew better than to rely on memory down here, where countless twisting corridors, spiraling staircases and an abundance of machinery formed a labyrinth-like maze that looked the same on every floor. Forgetting to constantly double-check one's location was an express invitation for disaster to strike.
 
It didn't take her long to reach her destination and despite the eerie sounds the echoed down the hallways from a distance, she didn't feel ill at ease. The Diamond Dogs had done truly marvelous work down here, and they had inhabited the underground these tunnels now criss-crossed long before EVO or even Equestria itself was a thing.
 
The worst she expected to encounter was a cranky Diamond Dog putting the moves on her, really.
 
All too soon, she stood before the by now outdated panel that, as she had suspected, displayed a warning for a potential malfunction of a minor device beyond the heavily shuttered floodgate next to it.
 
Briefly, Blackbill mused that it  was unlike any door or passageway that had been installed down here. Comparing the instructions and charts she had brought with her in a saddlebag didn't yield any useful information besides several cautions of the potential dangers of this abandoned section of the project.
 
“Come on, Blackbill. Your mother didn't raise no chicken...”
 
Mumbling quiet assurances to herself, the gryphon approached the gate, trying to find a way to open it. It took the better part of the next fifteen minutes, a lot of cursing, sweat and physical force for her to turn the lock, and even more cursing and huffing until she had managed to pry it open far enough for to slip inside
 
The musky smell of stale air and dust immediately assaulted her senses, causing her to cough and cringe in disgust. Blackbill didn't care to examine the big, messy splotch of reddish rust on the ground near the right corner of the airlock where she suspected  Hephaestus had his accident several months prior.
 
Thinking back on it, she supposed it had caused quite a scare, both for the mangy mutt of a Diamond Dog and everyone else on this section back then. Following the strange incident that had seemingly been caused by him having some inexplicable sort of panic attack further down, reportedly combined with a software error of the computer network identifying him as a threat and reacting accordingly, EVO had restricted this section of the underground tunnels.
 
Work and development had been pretty much abandoned down there, and the Diamond Dogs kept their lips sealed, the small pack Hephaestus belonged to suddenly as silent and reclusive as they had been before EVO arrived.
 
“...freaking better have powered down the security system...”, Blackbill mumbled to herself as she bent down, took a screwdriver into her clawed hand and removed the panel that featured a prominently blinking, red light identifying it as the likely source of the malfunction.
 
When she set the panel aside, Blackbill realized that the tiny space had hidden some strange, black monitor upon which a seemingly random collection of vertically aligned letters and numbers, all digital, were displayed.
 
--------------------
 
SS 1
CH 1
TT 1
 
CE 0
LU 0
 
TS 0
AJ 0
RY 0
 
DC 0
FS 0
 
OK 27
X 6
 
--------------------
 
None of what she saw made any sense to Blackbill, nor did she hold any hope of deciphering the meaning of the display or the exact source of the malfunction without any sort of input or manual to be found nearby. It was frustrating, but she would just have to report the incident and hope someone actually instructed how to use this interface would come by and fix it BEFORE anything happened.
 
The gryphon was just about ready to screw the panel shut, head back topside and call it a day, when something strange happened right before her eyes. The number, behind the second line of code changed from a 1 to a 0.
 
A sudden, sharp noise of screeching metal, followed by a resounding SLAM startled the gryphon badly enough that she jerked upright, slammed her head into the top of the small opening she had been leaning into, causing her flashlight to fall to the ground.
 
Blind panic seized hold of Blackbill. She was no coward, but the strange noises all around her started picking up in volume and frequency. The gryphon had only heard of the incident, and what it had done to the Diamond Dog's paw, but her imagination was doing its own to make her see strange things in the all-consuming darkness.
 
It was when she registered the sensation of something hard beneath her left hindpaw giving away with a sharp CRUNCH of broken plastic that Blackbill knew she was screwed.
 
She barely managed to reach for her radio, claws shaking, sweat breaking out all over her body. A dull, rhythmic thumping was beginning to pick up in intensity and volume from beyond the walls surrounding her, barely allowing her to focus enough to turn the knob of the radio and speak into it, hoping that Peppermint hadn't left yet.
 
~~~~
 
Several floors up, in a staff break room...
 
~~~
 
The pegasus known as Peppermint by her peers nearly jumped out of her skin when the radio that had laid silently at her side sprang to life. Until just now, she had been trying to nap and catch just a little shut-eye before her shift would end and she could start her trek back home.
 
“...*pop* *crackle-hiss!* -Mint, please, please, please, RESPOND!”
 
Any manner of reproach or annoyance was flung away when she recognized the voice coming from the other end... and the panicked, breathless way its owner was yelling through it. Without a second thought, she snatched the radio up and sprang to her hooves.
 
“Blackbill! Did something happen?”
 
“I-I... I don't know. I can't see. I broke my flashlight. I... I think...”
 
“Blackbill?”
 
“Sorry, I was just checking something. Yeah. The airlock shut on its own, locking me out. I... I don't know what happened. One moment, I was checking out a screen, then suddenly, everything down here started howling, thumping  and hissing.”
 
“Okay, Blackbill, I want you to calm down. Think of the underground safety classes we took. Breath. In and out. Calmly, steadily. There is enough air.”
 
“Y-yeah, okay... I, jeez, I know this stuff, Peppermint!”
 
“Alright, sorry. Just making sure. Did you fall? Are you hurt?”
 
“No. Just a bit disorientated.”
 
“Okay. Where are you right now?”
 
“Right beyond O-066, where that stupid mutt had his accident. I can't see. It's... huh.”
 
“Blackbill? What happened?”
 
“I am not sure. There's... there's this weird blue light all along the walls. It looks like its flowing, or something... really weird.”
 
“Okay, let me just get the maps real quick, okay? Do NOT touch anything!”
 
“Yeah.... yeah, okay”.
 
Peppermint had tried to remain calm through their conversation, but even she felt a bit of trepidation and worry as she ran over to the desk that contained a good portion of the maps that charted the underground tunnel network.
 
This was an unusual situation, and while what Blackbill was seeing didn't sit right with her, she'd first have to help navigate the gryphon out of there before thinking about any of that.
 
“...Mint? ...Pepper!”
 
“I'm here, I'm here! Calm down, will you?”
 
“Not that easy. I don't like this. I don't like this at all. It's getting louder down here. I don't want to get caught in some weird freak machinery accident because it locked me inside.”
 
“Okay. First, you are going to be fine. I promise. Secondly, can you see the gate from which you came?”
 
“Uh... yeah. My eyes adjusted a bit, and the weird blue light is kinda helping.”
 
“Do you see a small, hoof-sized panel on the left side of the gate?”
 
“Uhm... yeah. Yeah, there's one.”
 
“Alright. Press it, then push the lid up.”
 
A minute of relative sillence passed, rudely broken with a sudden, sharp series of curses Blackbill uttered.
 
“Hey, are you alright there?”
 
“It's a fracking dummy.”
 
“What?”
 
“A dummy, Peppermint! There's nothing here, just an outline of something that was supposed to be there!”
 
“What the... O-okay, fine, uhm, let me just...”
 
“Ohcrapohcrapcrapcrap, shit, shit, shit!”
 
“Blackbill! Calm. Down.”
 
“I'm... I'm trying, okay, I'm trying! It's just.. it's so loud down here. It's like my whole body is vibrating.”
 
“Right. Look. I want you to turn around and follow-”
 
“Are you NUTS! No! I am not going down there! What if...”
 
“Look. The maps say there's just a lot of slightly unstable, unfinished tunnels and an emergency hatch into the upper floors further down. I want you to follow the hallway, take a turn right at the first intersection, go through the doorway there and then take the ladder in the unused utility closet YX-272.”
 
“Unstable...?”
 
“Look. According to this, there's just some stabilized ceiling and floors. Go through there, keep your eyes open and stay calm, then you'll be fine. I'll head down and meet you halfway, okay?”
 
“Dammit.... fine, yes, okay. I'll... I'll go down the dark, glowing hallway of of thumpy noises. Great. Just great.”
 
“You'll be okay.”
 
“...dammit, Peppermint...”
 
Snatching up her safety helmet, saddlebags, maps and keycard, the green pegasus hurried out of the break room. Despite her reassurances, she felt a bit of unease. What the gryphon had described didn't sound a lot like an abandoned, unused hallway or emergency light at all. She couldn't make sense of what could be active at this time at all, nor was she aware of any test runs today.
 
It took her four minutes to reach the large cargo elevator, and another minute for her to ride it down to the appropriate floor where the emergency escape hatch Blackbill should emerge from shortly would open up.
 
“Pepper...”
 
“I'm here. Don't fret. Are you at the ladder yet?”
 
“I'm still walking down the hallway. I haven't seen any cross-sections yet. But the noise is getting really loud.”
 
Peppermint came to a slow stop, frowned, and yanked out the map from her saddlebags, spreading it out on the floor. What she saw upon it made her heart nearly stop.
 
According to the map, the intersection should've been jut a measly hundred feet down the hallway. Right within viewing distance of the airlock. If Blackbilll hadn't even reached the cross-section yet, that would mean something had changed since the map had been drawn...
 
...or that the gryphon wasn't quite in her right mind anymore. It wasn't unheard of, nor unthinkable. She might have hit her head or something worse, stumbling down the hallway, injured and disoriented.
 
“O-okay, uhm, just... maybe you should sit down and wait until I come for you, okay? Blackbill?”
 
“There's a door.”
 
“Blackbill? Hey, Blackbill!”
 
“It's... it's weird. It's not like the others down here. It's... crap, it's really big. You could git an entire-”
 
“Okay, Blackbill, STOP! Stop, sit down and wait until I am there!”
 
But it didn't seem like the gryphoness could hear her. And it was getting increasingly difficult to hear her too. Aside from static, there was something else making the conversation increasingly unreliable.
 
“It's... it's open, I think. But there seems to be so much light. It's all moving towards it, into it. I... I think it's really big. It sounds like a huge cavern or something...?”
 
A dull roar and muffled crackling seemed to drown out whatever Blackbill was saying, her voice increasingly quiet, like she was lost to her exploration.
 
“I'll just have a look, maybe it leads... leads to some way out. Right? Right...”
 
A new surge of desperation made Peppermint run as fast as her hooves could carry her, the map she had been reading forgotten and abandoned in the hallway.
 
“Is that... that's, I think that's a wall? A really big w-... what...”
 
Abandoned like her attempt to talk to the lost gryphon wandering the hallways right below her.
 
“...oh lord of the skies...”
 
The pegasus' breathing was sharp and ragged by the time she reached the dimly lit dead end that...
 
“It's... it's moving... what... what is... it's... it's big...”
 
...that...
 
“It's... black, and gigantic. There's... there's metal grafted onto it, I think... that shouldn't be there...”
 
...that held nothing but emptiness. No emergency hatch, no uneven outline in the floor, no interface, no display. Not even a map. Nothing. It was a complete dead, without any way in but the way she came.
 
But even here, she could feel the dull thump of something below her hooves. Like a powerful heartbeat, deep down in the earth below.
 
“Are they... there's... it's connecting to it! It's blue, all over blue. Some weird energy!”
 
Blackbill seemed to be losing her mind, and Peppermint didn't know how to respond, what to say. An incoming rush of dread, horror and helplessness paralyzed the pegasus as she listened to her co-worked ramble.
 
“I am getting out, they're, they can't, how is this even....”
 
Then, there was a sudden change of pitch and volume, as if Blackbill had just realized in what kind of danger she may be.
 
“No! PleasenononononNONONOOOO-”
 
Peppermint would never find out what it was Blackbill saw moments before she died.
 
And the pegasus was absolutely certain Blackbill was dead. For no living being should be willing and able to make such a high-pitched, horrid screech like the one she was hearing from the radio.
 
In some ways, it was Blackbill's voice, but in some others, it wasn't. It went on and on and on, even as Peppermint clutched her ears, even as the ground started shaking, even as the blue light started pouring through the cracks in the ground and past her, over her, touching her... entering her... breaking her apart...
 
...on and on and on, the shriek went. Wild, loud, panicked, horrid. The dying scream of an intelligent creature suffering a horrible death, of body and mind.
 
Though which came first was uncertain.
 
In a brief, blissful moment of self-awareness before her self and psyche shattered, Peppermint realized she had begun screaming as well.