Plip plop.
"It's all a dream. I know it. I'll wake up any minute now, just watch." Carrot Top thought to herself as she tried to will herself out of her "nightmare."
She felt the blood drip from her mouth, splattering like paint on the concrete floor.
Her eyes were blurry when she tried to get her bearings, but couldn't find a way to see properly, a mess of dark colors in her view, making a hazy collage. She tried to move, but found that forehooves were shackled tightly.
"Why can't I move?" Carrot Top thought, fear rapidly filling her heart as she tugged helplessly at the chains that bound her in place.
Her vision started to clear slightly, allowing her to see that she was in a large, dark room. Hopelessly stuck within a circle of light generated from a distant light far above. She glanced both ways, seeing that her forehooves were locked into shackles that stretched away into the darkness to both sides.
She looked down to see her hindhooves were bound to ground by short manacles that were firmly bolted. She pulled on all of her restraints in hope of freeing herself, but found that her "uncanny strength" associated to all Earth ponies was utterly useless. Normally, she could lift a few hundred pounds of fruits for her job in the market, but now she couldn't even weaken the links.
Trying to call out for help, she found her throat was raw as if she had been screaming earlier. After that failed, she leaned her body forward in attempt to pull the chains out.
Her forehead broke out into a sweat as she pulled as hard as she could and was satisfied to hear the chains groan in protest. Feeling the muscles in her forelegs tremble, Carrot Top groaned in pain as her body screamed in protest. She pulled with all of the strength she had left, making sure to add as much as adrenaline as she could. Finally, the steel links suddenly broke and she tumbled to the floor, grunting in pain as her face hit the ground.
Following a moment to recollect herself, Carrot Top struggled to stand. She found her legs were still too wobbly to allow normal movement, so she collapsed to the ground to rest and to gather enough strength to pull her back hooves free. She waited a few minutes before viciously pulling against the cuffs again once more. Hoping they would be easier to break than the ones she had broken earlier, she put that thought in her head she pulled. When she slightly bent the links after the second try, she rested to allow more strength to return so that she could fully break them on the next try. With a deep sigh, she began to pull on the chains again when a harsh sound suddenly rang out in the vast room, sending a cold shiver down her spine.
It was laughter, full of evil, and yet so emotionless as it buzzed throughout the room like a swarm of bees, "Keep on struggling, that'll get you somewhere." A voice called out, mocking her to try to escape. She continued tugging on the now weak links, nearly destroyed, nearly free. As she worked, she noticed that the hidden pony's voice was rather strange, as if an odd, warped hum had distorted the laugh.
"Trust me, little filly, you don't want to struggle much; or my friend D45H here will have to stop you." The voice piped in. Judging by what she could hear, Carrot Top assumed it was from a stallion by voice-tone, but she could be wrong. She could feel him there he was sitting in the shadows just outside the circle of light, his silhouette masked cunningly within the shadows. His presence seemed to taunt her while she worked to escape. At the mention of "D45H" a low, clinking noise resonated from somewhere nearby, like gears from a machine. Each individual "clink" gave Carrot Top more and more gooseflesh at the thought of what was in the gloom, some horrific monster waiting to attack, perhaps.
"Did you trap me here?" Carrot Top asked, unable to stop her teeth from chattering as she struggled pathetically, causing to chains to jangle.
The stallion chuckled as if he had just heard a funny joke, his laugh was a creepy, yet comical warble as rumbled throughout the chamber. He then responded with, "Of course I did; but don't worry, I brought you here because you seem like the 'perfect candidate'," he paused, letting the words sink in, "for my little experiment here today." Carrot Top couldn't see the stallion, but she could feel him continually mocking him. She imagined him with a large shark-like grin, the teeth glinting as they closed in for a bite.
"Let me out of here, you freak!" she screamed, her voice suddenly went out from her sore throat.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." He chided, "You're an impatient little foal, Carrot. Don't worry my friend; you'll leave this place, eventually." The stallion responded with an insane cackle. The noise seemed to wedge into Carrot Top's head and vibrate within her skull, causing her to writhe in pain.
Trying to free herself without the stallion noticing, she quickly tugged at the weak links holding her in place. Watching in nervous anticipation, she waited for them to snap. Finally, they sprung free and Carrot Top wasted no time to instantly break into a gallop for what she thought was the exit. She tensed her legs as best as she could. As she ran, she made sure while she ran to bend her legs so they wouldn't suddenly buckle while she escaped.
After blindly sprinting through the dark, she saw what appeared to be a door and sprinted for it as fast as she could. Praying to Celestia that she could be able to get away from the crazy stallion before he could catch her again.
"Yes! A door, I'm free!" Carrot Top thought excitedly as she rapidly neared an apparent door at the far-side of the building. Upon reaching it, she didn't even bother stopping to open the door, but rather launching her bulk into it so that the weak, old bolts snapped and the door fell, allowing her to gallop into a cool breeze.
"Something isn't right." Carrot Top assumed as she slid to a halt just outside the building. It was nighttime, and she could see a thick fog had built up around her. Also, she couldn't breathe normally, as if the oxygen had been sucked from the air, leaving her to gasp continually as she struggled to find her bearings in the irritating cold.
The shrill laugh rang out in the chilly night once more, followed by another distorted comment from the stallion, "If you think that I'd let you out so easily, you must be sadly mistaken to believe that you can escape me; but don't worry, I won't hurt you, but I don't know about D45H." Carrot Top could hear the noise again, now more eerie in the cool, night air. It was as if a banshee had been given a voice-changer, morphing the noise so that it sounded almost artificial, like steam hissing from a boiling kettle.
An odd feeling overcame Carrot Top as she caught her breath. She couldn't see anypony, but she felt somepony watching from just inside the building, keeping inside the veil of darkness. She decided to ignore the feeling and turned to continue running. As she ran a few a hundred yards down the concrete path that lead to the building, she was suddenly intercepted by a figure that smashed into the path a few feet in front of her from the air.
Carrot Top kept her guard up as she slowly approached the figure. Probably a pegaus, as it had come from the sky. The figure stood sluggishly, appearing to have taken some damage from the landing; but the figure gradually focused their eyes onto Carrot Top, two red orbs that shone like flashlights in the dark.
The figure's legs were slightly spread from their landing, but quickly adjusted it into a defensive stance, as if anticipating a fight. Golden Harvest tried to plead the figure for help, but her voice was still broke when she spoke, "Please, I just want to leave, can you help me?" she begged the peculiar figure.
Cocking its head disconcertingly, as if pondering whether to help Carrot Top or not, the figure gazed pupil-less into her eyes. Beginning to walk in a measured circle around the figure, Carrot Top stood her distance as if the figure were a dangerous hazard that was slowing her escape from the mysterious stallion.
Just as she was about to pass the figure, they turned their head to follow Carrot Top's movements, watching with unwavering concentration, not even bothering to blink with those demonic eyes.
As she continued to walk away from the figure, she could hear a small voice coming from the figure. It was the crazy stallion, his voice muted and accompanied by static as if over a radio, "Bring her to me, D45H, we have unfinished business." The figure named D45H gradually turned to face Carrot Top.
There was a slight pause of silence, which was filled by Carrot Top's hurried, exhausted breathing. D45H released a blood-chilling shriek filling the night air with a strangled cry of rage, which was accompanied by a rather alarming action of spreading what appeared to be wings. Carrot Top began to panic when she noticed that the feathers seemed, different, not the usual gently curving kind seen on the pegasi visiting Ponyville. Instead, these feathers seemed rather sharpas if knives had been taped to the figure's sides.
Backing away slowly, Carrot Top hoped able to make a good running start on the seemingly slow D45H; but she was wrong when the pegasus started taking slow steps that gradually turned into a light trot.
Carrot Top broke into a full gallop as she sprinted down the dark path, hoping to end this living nightmare. She began to see something in this distance, "I'm saved!" Golden thought excitedly as she sprinted for what seemed to be a town.
This town seemed strange, the buildings sloping in the most strangest of places. "Where am I?" Golden gulped as she neared the town's border.
She could see a group of pegasi standing idly near the edge of the town. Openining her mouth to call to them, she was suddenly swept off her feet and had the air blown out of her lungs as something tackled her and pulled her into the sky, away from the warm town and sane people that lived there.
Risking a glance at her captor, she found it rather hard because of the violent turbulence. Despite that, she managed to see that the figure was a pony but something was wrong. Was that Rainbow Dash?
Carrot Top hadn't been very close to Rainbow back in Ponyville, but she knew there was something was definitely wrong with Rainbow Dash.
Her usually cyan coat was now a dark grey and appeared to be all metal, as if she had been skinned and had been recast in steel. Her mane and tail was usually a vivid rainbow of colors, but now they seemed to have been faded and put into long braids. She realized they weren't braids but plastic cables stretching from her metallic head, flapping in the wind as they flew back to the building Carrot Top had awaken in.
As they soared through the sky, she could hear a low hum, she managed to crane her neck to see small engines on the underside of her "wings", they were each spitting white-hot flames that came close to searing Carrot Top's legs.
After a long pause, Golden suddenly remembered what was going on and tried squirming against the robotic Rainbow Dash's grip but found that she, or it, had a remarkably strong grip. Trying a new tactic, she instead brought her hoof up and swung at Robot Rainbow Dash's head in defiance, Carrot Top yelped in pain when her hoof bounced harmlessly off of its head, causing a throb of pain to reverberate up her arm.
She ignored the pain when she noticed the building from earlier rapidly approaching as Robot Rainbow Dash went in for a landing at the entrance. Gathering her strength, Carrot Top began to swing in rage at the head of the robot. Although she was throwing punches randomly, her hoof suddenly missed the robot's head and instead clipped its neck instead. There was a brief flash of light and a sizzling noise followed by the Robot Rainbow Dash giving off another grotesque scream before dropping into an unexpected dive.
Pushing against the machine's weakening grasp, Carrot Top managed to pull herself from the clutch of the mech and plunged down towards the ground.
After saying her prayers and bracing for impact, Carrot Top was surprised to see that she was still falling, but had fallen past the level of the building. She then found herself plummeting through the sky, heading for the ground a mile away. It spanned underneath her, an ocean of dark green and grays that made up the land of Equestria. Managing to look back, Carrot Top discovered that she had been up in Cloudsdale the entire time, as the houses she had seen were irregularly shaped because they were made of clouds; and she couldn't breathe properly because the low amounts of air at such a height.
She saw lights not too far away below and noticed that it was the small town of Ponyville. She began to futilely paddle towards the town before once again, she was overtaken by the strange robot that swooped in from below after a dive and managed to catch her before pulling her back up to the land of clouds.
As the beautiful, aerial view of Equestria pulled away from her, she felt as if the angel of death had come to her. Being pulled to the afterlife in a moment of both bliss and fear.
Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in her abdomen. At first she ignored it, trying to reach the exposed cables of the robot's neck once more, but found herself much weaker than before.
Then Carrot Top looked down and noticed she had been impaled by one of the robot's long blade-like feathers. Foolishly fighting against the bladed feather, she found it useless but struggled with all of her leftover strength. Even after they both landed deftly at the entrance of the apparent abandoned structure that she had been tortured in earlier.
There was a series of clicks as the left "wing" on which Carrot Top had been skewered on rotated so that gravity slowly and painfully pulled her off the blade and onto the ground. As soon as she landed, she was immediately pinned by Robot Rainbow Dash's hoof, which seemed to be have been given large iron studs.
The studded hoof pushed harshly down on Carrot Top's chest, as she swore that she could ribs cracking under the immense pressure. Although she was completely overmatched, she still struggled trying to reach the drone's weak points, but they were too far away. Instead, she had to deal with the harsh lightbulb-like eyes that glowered down upon her.
As her eyes gradually began to darken into unconsciousness, Carrot Top could feel that a new pony had joined them, they stood just out of her field of view, but she knew who it was: it was the stallion with the voice-changer who had brought her here. To confirm this, his voice suddenly rang out in her rapidly fading hearing with, "Excellent work, D45H. Unfortunately, our little specimen is about to give out on us." He paused just like before, allowing the degrading names to hurt Carrot Top, "You apparently pushed down a tad bit too hard when you stuck her there, my dear. Nevertheless, she has felt the mighty power of the drones that I will release into Equestria when the time comes." he said with true villainous malice.
She gave a weak smile at the thought that she herself had nearly defeated the drone that stood over her, and to think that she was next to nobody. What would the entire fleet of Equestria fare against this pony's "power"? Absolutely nothing at all; so to mock him, she had smiled, letting a small trickle of blood flow out of her mouth to pool lazily on the ground.
The stallion seemed to notice this and in anger, he disengaged a blade-feather from Robot Rainbow Dash and proceeded to slice viciously into Carrot Top's flank, cutting her cutie mark off. The pain hit instantaneously, she could feel the harsh edge to the blade slice through her flesh in one swift motion. As he pulled the strip of flank away, blood began to ooze from the spot, joined by the sting of exposed muscle in the bitter, night air. The pain was unbearable, but Carrot Top felt too weak to give into the pain.
As life slowly gave out for Carrot Top, she could feel the emotionless and unwavering gaze from the artificial eyes of Robot Rainbow Dash, as if it was pulling her very soul from her body. The cold-hearted, twisted laugh rang out in the night, chilling the blood that remained in Carrot Top's body.
"Bring her inside, D45H. Perhaps we can give her a little experiment before she leaves us, thank her for the trouble she has caused." The stallion chimed in as Carrot Top heard him walk away. With an incongruous chirrup, the noise reminding Carrot Top of a broken pipe, D45H leaned towards the dying Carrot Top, grabbing her right leg with its jagged wings. This sent numb waves of pain throughout Carrot Top's body, making her weakly writhe while being dragged into the dark.
She felt the blood flow from her mouth:
"Plip plop." She thought as the light faded completely.
-Binary POV-
Binary Code sat at his main processing terminal, reading a rather short report on Canterlot's current political progress. The princess had a meeting today with delegates from Germaney, so he had to be there as a bodyguard.
It had been ten months since his election to become Captain of the Royal Guard, mostly due to his vicious demeanor on the battlefield, there was not much conflict here in Equestria, but he had to keep his eyes peeled for any sort of danger.
Usually, the only things worth checking out was the occasional Parasprite infestation, which was quickly dealt with by his special extermination squad, not authorized by the Royal Court, but who could tell the difference between a normal pacifying rifle and a gas blower? Binary could, but he and his technicians told no one.
"Speaking of technicians…" Binary though to himself as he swiveled in his chair, facing the East Wing of his "laboratory". His two technicians designed the lab. He was searching for one of them now among the large piles of scrap metal. With his help, who provided the equipment and the bits to keep the machinery up-to-date and functional; they had built a perfect base, both secluded and efficient for their goals in protecting Equestria.
The whole purpose for Binary Code was to preserve Equestria's balance, whether it was a Timberwolf invasion in a small town, to a lightning leak in a factory within Cloudsdale, Binary was the first captain in the history of Equestria to restore balance in record time, 15 minutes dealing with a dragon who had stumbled into Ponyville; thus, earning him the prompt title of "Metal Guardian of Equestria".
He suddenly spotted his main technician, Circuit, between two large husks of former airship carriages, scouring for parts. Circuit was most likely the tallest unicorn Equestria; he stood slightly higher than Princess Celestia herself, but his horn was shorter, as he wasn't an alicorn. His mocha-brown coat, coupled with his sickly yellow hair, while his black wire glasses matched with his calm, sea-green eyes, he seemed to have an almost alluring demeanor; however, his flaw was that he was too kept up in his work; which was perfect for Binary Code, who loved hard-workers. In finality, Circuit's cutie mark shone against his brown-tinged hide, showing off his black and green mark of a circuit, his namesake.
Binary Code hopped out of his chair and wove among the metal carcasses, making a beeline for Circuit who hefted a damaged turbine with a satisfied grin on his face. As Binary neared, he tried to seem impressed on Circuit's find, but in reality, he just wanted to shake his head at the uselessness of another piece of junk sitting in the graveyard of old machines that made up the East Wing. Although, Circuit had amazing potential with all kinds of machines, like the time he developed a toaster into a flamethrower.
The large, misshapen husks of the old devices came from all over Equestria, from lifts, conveyor belts, and vats imported from factories in Cloudsdale and Fillydelphia, to old blimps from Canterlot, to the occasional carriage out of Manehattan or Ponyville. This is where all machines came to die, wrecked, smashed, and shattered mechanisms lay on top of each other like garbage, forming hazardous piles of rusty metal; which surprisingly, Circuit's gangly legs could actual maneuver through.
Upon seeing Binary approach, Circuit motioned with his hoof for Binary to follow him; he meandered through the rusting metal, careful to avoid the sharp edges sticking out of the various heaps, all the while balancing the large turbine with his magic levitation. He reached a table and swept various nuts, bolts, and wires off to place the turbine onto it. After positioning the large turbine so that it wouldn't fall, Circuit turned to Binary, stretching his body from a long day of work.
"What's going on, Code?" Circuit asked as he began to inspect the damage of the old turbine, putting his face up to the various scratches and cracks in the framework.
Binary sighed, he was annoyed, "It's just been a long day of doing, well, nothing. I just want to have some action this week, but the Princess hasn't sent me anything today; not even a daily update on all of the security nodes that need to be ready for tonight's meeting."
Circuit stopped examining the turbine and looked at Binary with a puzzled look, "Aren't you happy you don't have to do anything this week? I mean, who doesn't like to rest after a long month of work? Well, not including the work you've been doing up here, but fighting off creatures and monsters and such isn't getting annoying for you?" he asked.
Binary fidgeted anxiously, "I use it as an excuse to wake up every morning." he retorted with a shrug, trying to brush off the sad truth of getting up each and every morning to the sick enjoyment of cruelly massacring the creatures that seemed dangerous using the drones he had built.
Circuit shrugged, not focusing on Binary's apprehension, but wanting to see the potential of the turbine for his work. Binary stood watching Circuit crack apart the ancient metal covering and study the various wires wrapped around the core.
"Besides, the meeting will be fun, right?" Circuit asked, still engrossed in his work.
Binary thought he was kidding, so he busted out a joke, "Yeah, I get to punch the Cloudsdale delegate in the face and shoot the Gremaney ambassador's head off, such fun!" Binary said with his crude humor, even pumping his hoof for emphasis. It was true, he hated meetings. They were a boring waste of time where Binary had to stand still for two hours at Celestia's side, listening to various clan elders argue the problems of Equestria, instead of going out and actually solving them.
Upon hearing the joke, Circuit looked up with a look of confusion and terror on his face, "Are you serious…" he paused, considering what Binary had just said, "Wait, funny joke, Code." He said accompanied by his "what an idiot" eye-roll.
"Where's Wires?" Binary asked out of boredom from watching Circuit return to obsessively survey the innards of the turbine once more.
Wires was the third technician in the laboratory. More focused on programming than actually building, which Circuit mostly did, Wires was mostly found in the West Wing of the main area of Binary Code's base, setting up complex codes for the various machines that the three ponies designed.
Without even looking up, Circuit motioned towards the West Wing. Binary found the topic of who got which wing funny, as he had the small strip of the "Central Wing" which consisted of his workspace and launchpad for the trio's latest creation, his suit.
Binary wandered his way through the mounds of metal before reaching the lab's West wing. The West wing was filled with rows upon rows of servers, all containing the trillions of codes that controlled Binary's forces; the servers long, thick cables running across the floor like snakes before disappearing into the wall where they would run up to the roof to be broadcasted across the nation; and at the center of this marvel, sat Wires, rapidly tapping at a complex device he and Binary had created called a "computer." The computer was designed for Wires to input the codes for all of the servers to process within the base; thus, effectively controlling the drones. In Binary's case, his workspace also contained a computer which he used to control many different nodes, drones, and cameras throughout Equestria.
Drones. The word was a constant reminder of Binary's purpose in life as the captain of Equestria's guard. Binary had replaced Retired Capitan Shining Armor, who had retired in order to watch over the Crystal Empire as the prince with his wife, Princess Cadence. A month later, Binary had joined the Guard Academy in order to make his life-long dream come true: justice and unity throughout Equestria.
While Binary stood recalling the event, Wires looked up from his work, curious to see Binary spacing-out in front of his workspace. "Uh, you okay, Binary?" he asked.
Binary snapped out of his daydream, "Huh? Yeah, sorry, got sidetracked for a second there; anyway, how's the programming coming?" he responded, trying to keep the day lively.
Wires arched an eyebrow, which looked quite comical on a pony of his stature. He was a very short unicorn, slightly taller than an average foal, with an olive-green coat and a shock of a blond mane and tail, his electric-blue eyes matched with his mane's intense colors; coupled with his short size, which earned him the nickname "Gremlin", which he hated.
"Did you seriously ask how my programming is coming?" Wires inquired, visibly shocked at the question, as the topic was very broad and Wires believed that nopony was convinced that the topic was interesting.
"Uh, yeah." Binary answered, trying to keep the conversation normal and avoid an awkward moment.
Wires sighed and shook his head, causing his mane to give off a rather annoying glare from his bright mane. Binary winced at the sudden shine and looked away, rapidly thinking of an appropriate topic to discuss with the ever busy Wires.
When he stopped moving, Binary quickly started with, "So, any new stuff going on?"
"What sort of stuff?" Wires asked, arching his eyebrow curiously again.
"Like pest control, or a security breach, or anything?" Binary begged, his boredom getting the best of him.
Wires shook his head sadly, "Sorry, Code, nothing; besides, the patrol drones would handle something like that, but there's that meeting today." He said with an impish grin.
"This is ridiculous! To think that I used to believe that there was actually conflict in this damn nation." Binary growled.
Wires's grin widened, "That's how great you are, Code. You're so good at this 'justice' business that you've basically exterminated all of the problems in Equestria." He assured the exasperated Binary who grit his teeth and tapped his hoof impatiently on the ground.
Binary couldn't stand it; he needed some action, "Is 'Alpha' ready?" he pestered.
Wires' brow furrowed as he typed something on his keyboard; after a moment, he managed to find what he was looking for, "Eh, it can be used but I'm not sure the HUD is fully updated and the back thrusters haven't been added yet," he said with a shrug, gazing up sympathetically at Binary.
Binary face froze up with hesitation, was he ready to actually use the first suit the trio were designing? To him, yes, but he knew that he wouldn't be a professional at the controls on the first go, and what if he misuses the thrusters so that he ends up plummeting to his death? The test flights would be monitored by his unicorn comrades, but what happens when he would be out in the field? An Earth pony had no business up in the air, flying at supersonic speeds, but he needed some action, so he decided to go with it.
"How soon will Alpha be ready?" he asked, eager to try the new invention, to feel the wind brush against his body, if the suit would allow that.
Wires thought for a moment, "Well, we could get it functional before the end of the week. Oh, and by the way, its full name is 8R0NY."
"Hmm, okay, I guess our first test run will be next, uh, Monday. So, put "Pass 8R0NY Act" into my reminders so that today's meeting will be something to look forward to." He said with a satisfied grin as he began to walk back towards his computer, before being stopped by Wires.
"Well, this is interesting. Unidentified air subject coming in for a landing on the launchpad, it's really small, so it's probably a pegasus. There's your action for today." He heard Wires said as he rushed for the launch-pad, using his hi-tech cuff to call a pair of land drones to escort him.
As he neared the large, reinforced steel door, two lumbering drones joined him on either side. They each stood eight feet tall, black spray-painted armor with "Land Series" stamped on their sides in white on their sides. Their heads were narrow, with a single optical scanner running down their 'face'.
Their large frames squeezed through the door onto the large square of tarmac that acted as both a landing and launch pad. The large square, about the size of a tennis court, extended over a very deep canyon; thus, the base was built into the side of the cliff. The wind was whistling at such an altitude as each drone raised their arms and Binary heard the satisfying series of clicks as their arms opened up. The released arms revealed large crackling cores inside the base of the arms that housed the drones' projectile tasers, the inner energy cores giving off dangerous wisps of electrical arcs.
The unidentified subject turned out to be one of the few pony guards left in the force after the Drone Act. He was a pegaus, his armor glinting off of the sun high above as he backed away slowly with visible fear.
The drones followed, taking a few steps toward him, their one-ton legs sending vibrations through the asphalt. The guard spread his wings in anxiety, "Drones, stand down, unidentified subject discovered to be pony Royal Guard, ID…." Binary trailed off purposefully, to receive the guard's identity; he was met with the guard's reply of, "Uh, Lieutenant Silverfeather, sir." The guard said with a meek salute, the old salute of the Royal Guard. It was tradition for pony guards to salute from the head as if to show responsibility. However, after Binary had become the captain, he had changed the salute to a hoof over one's heart as a sign of having a soldier's pride in his work, but Binary ignored the mistake and carried on.
"ID specification, Lieutenant Silverfeather." Binary told the drones, waiting for their response. It came with, "ID processed, Lieutenant Silverfeather, authorized military personnel, pony division, air corps." The robotic voice of the drone to Binary's left released in its monotone voice.
'Probably a message from the princess, she is seriously going to be left in the dust with communications if she keeps sending ponies messengers instead of electronic messages.' Binary thought to himself as he commanded the drones to leave; they trudged back into the base, their extremely heavy footsteps reverberating through the blacktop.
After the drones disappeared back into the base, Lieutenant Silverfeather seemed to be more relaxed and approached Binary Code with a polite bow, Binary returned it with a stiff nod.
"I'm guessing the princess has sent you on some important terms?" Binary pushed, winking and adding a little smile to ease Silverfeather's nerves.
However, Silverfeather was even more confused and nervous as he tapped his hoof lightly on the ground, "Uh, is that code for something, sir? I'm not very adept to the whole "secrecy" part of the job."
Binary chuckled at the guard's anxiety, "Don't worry, buddy, I thought you had an important message from the princess."
Silverfeather appeared shocked at Binary Code, the Captain of the Royal Guard, calling him "buddy".
Binary sighed at the incompetence of the tense guard, "Well, what are you here for?" pressuring the guard with haste.
The guard suddenly got very serious, standing up straight and narrowing his eyes, "I was sent here by Officer Iron Spear, sir. He told me to tell you of a serious situation in Cloudsdale."
Binary tensed, Officer Iron Spear was a very prestigious commander of Equestria's military. He still served, but had demoted himself long ago so that he could relish on the battlefield before he died a 'soldier's death'.
"What's happened?" Binary asked, fear and excitement boiling inside him in anticipation.
Silverfeather cringed, "Cloudsdale authorities discovered the body of a dead mare inside an abandoned rain factory. She was apparently murdered by a serial killer. Officer Iron Spear is requesting your immediate presence; it's like a gross art show in there." His face recoiled at the thought of the apparently violent crime scene.
Binary clenched his jaw, he couldn't keep his emotions under control, a mix of shock, anger, and joy churned in his head, fueling his adrenaline.
He apparently wasn't looking very well according to Silverfeather's comment, "Sir, you don't look too well. Is everything alright?" he asked with concern.
Binary managed to nod, "Yes, everything's fine. It's just the altitude or something," he said with a dismissive wave, "Come inside, we'll discuss things there." Binary urged, beginning to walk back to the door. After a few steps, he looked back to notice that Silverfeather wasn't following, hesitance etched on his face.
"Aren't you coming, Lieutenant?" Binary asked.
Silverfeather gulped warily, "Sir, we need to go immediately."
Binary rolled his eyes, "If you haven't noticed, I can't fly." stating the obvious so that Silverfeather could focus on the task at hand.
"Well, I could carry you." The Lieutenant mumbled awkwardly.
Binary grinned, "Besides, I gotta grab my suit." He said as he reentered his base. This time, Silverfeather followed.
As they walked, Binary suddenly had a strange vision, it was only for a moment, but he saw what looked like drops of blood splattering on a concrete floor. A voice was there too, it called out with a warped croak, "Plip plop."