In the beginning of time, there may have been nothing. Here, on the northern edge of the Griffon Empire, in the center of one of the many dessicated deserts left over by ancient griffon-pony wars, however, definitely was nothing to speak of. No secret vault the documents about which had been destroyed immediately after being read, no lasting invisible magical corridor leading through the desert into its middle protecting any nonexistent travellers from the sun and sandstorms, and definitely not an unremarkable small hill with heavy gate reinforced with metal, magic, and even more metal embedded in one of its sides.
In short, this place wasn't secret, because there wasn't anything to see here, got it?
Inside a cavernous and definitely unrelated underground area behind completely coincidentally same looking gate lay a rather large open room which could easily be mistaken for an airship loading bay. Considering the amount of space and the location which totally had nothing to do with the Griffon Empire and if you tell anypony I'll have to kill you in the name of national security, the twenty-or-so ponies wearing either traditional gold-foiled armors of princess Celestia's Paladins, dark blue themed ones of princess Luna's Nightguard, or even few unicorns in amethyst-coloured light mails of her Royal Majesty Twilight's Hex Guard looked fairly insignificant and out of place. Granted, majority of the free space was taken by barricades with heavy griffon weaponry including miniguns, rocket launchers, and several still experimental railguns secretly bought from the griffon Black Ops all aiming at the gate… just in case.
If this place actually existed, it would be meant to withstand the attack of an army.
Behind the heavily fortified area lay a ramp leading deeper down into a complex of rooms, well-hidden and mostly small vents to the surface which would allow access to only the most determined of bugs, and eventually to a batpony relaxing in an armchair with his set of armor lying next to it, listening to a radio. The pony's coat was dark blue, his mane and tail silvery grey, and his teal eyes often rolled back whenever the radio spouted something blatantly insane. To be frank, if he wasn't a stallion and his mane was different, one might think he was looking at princess Luna, and they wouldn't be far off. Starry Night was, indeed, princess Luna's son which, in addition to his exemplary Nightguard service record, won him a place in this forsaken and forbidden hole.
"I wish I could catch something other than this drivel," Starry growled, "There's already enough trouble all over the place without these idiots stirring things up. How do they even get the signal up here?"
"We at the Good Fight have documents proving that the fish stinks from the head, everypony! Celestia, the pony we once thought of this… this pristine pony-protecting prudent princess? She's a CORRUPTED, tentacles and all!"
"She was," Starry sighed, "So there's the true-ish part of the report. Incoming the bullshit part in three… two… one..."
"Our REAL rulers, princesses Luna and Twilight Sparkle, unfortunately don't see the fact that the creature they THOUGHT they restored from corruption isn't the old princess, but a monstrosity who still needs to sodomize and devour ponies like a mantis on regular basis to keep her power and grow her secret army. If you ever heard the term Golden Legion, then don't be fooled. They USED to be the first ponies who went with Celestia to strike against the leaders of the Corrupted, but now they are the new Corrupted Celestia's servants set on eliminating anypony who dares to speak THE TRUTH! My sources, whom I can't name in fear for their safety, say they are even targeting us at the Good Fight. It's all in the leaked documents!"
"No, it's not. You're just hoping nopony actually reads them," facehoofed Starry Night, "You're safe anyway, most of the ponies who actually believe your nonsense can't read anyway."
"And don't even get me started on the FAKE war brewing in Zebrica and the… ugh, refugees. That's what Celestia wants you to think. Do they think you're stupid? There's one warlord, ONE against the entirety of united zebra clans and countries. Coups and revolutions happen in those places every few years, and suddenly this time it's supposed to be different?"
"Yeeeah, that's what actually worries everyone. How has ONE mostly bandit clan managed to take control of one of the southern Zebrica countries, obliterate their army, and massacre majority of the population?"
"But you, my friends, you can smell Celestia's bullshit. The fake zebra refugees are just a vanguard of the Equestrian apocalypse! They are coming after our mares, they will breed us out. You know it's true. Mares can't help themselves around zeebs, it's their bestial aroma MADE for breeding. Of course, Celestia has been funneling money into chemical companies in Zebrica to develop scent enhancements."
"Or maybe they're just terrified after some warmongering maniac used something close to tactical magic strike to destroy an entire developed city full of zebras, and he doesn't show signs of stopping. Anyway, there has been only some three thousand refugees yet, and we turned most of them back after some talking, so your 'crashing wave of big zeeb dongs' you called them yesterday is nothing more than a trickle… likely still more than you can manage in bed. Which would explain the fear, heh."
"SHE GROWS ZEBRA-CORRUPTED HYBRIDS IN SECRET LABORATORIES UNDER CANTERLOT!"
"Aaand after bullshit part comes the screaming part. Looks like the cocaine is finally kicking in."
The voice on the radio suddenly grew quieter and turned from batshit -Starry Night protested at the term- insane to tinfoil conspiratory.
"However, there's something significantly worse coming, something from the depths of darkness you can't even imagine. This is top secret, but you need to know so that you aren't… next."
Starry quickly combed his knowledge for some more pressing topics he'd been briefed about, but nothing the Good Fight could consider worse than secret labs under Canterlot came to mind. There, of course, were laboratories under Canterlot, some even closed off for most military, but the research and experiments there were nothing overly sinister. Well, considering princess Twilight's unbridled interest in everything, she might cause the end of Canterlot, ponies, or maybe the world, but it would definitely be on accident, not by design.
"New conspiracy content then? Out with it! I always like a good laugh."
The radio, not because of his answer, but because it was in fact… you know… a radio, kept going.
"There's an… entity they call Flow behind last month's attack on a secret government facility hidden in the territory of the Separated. If you haven't heard about it, it was because the royals hushed it up, and because we've been trying to get any concrete leads."
"Celestia damn it!" cursed a voice of a newcomer whom Starry completely missed, "How does THAT idiot know about it?!"
"Hi, Bladedancer," Starry raised his eyebrow, giving the unicorn mare a nod as she moved to sit down to the armchair next to his, "Wait, he's not making it up?"
Bladedancer, a muscular mare in her early forties, and the basic template for a unicorn everywhere - blond mane, white coat, grey eyes, bearing a cutie mark of a fan made of swords, took her armor off, and showed Starry a long deep scar on the side of her barrel.
"This entity is… unstoppable. It killed Paladins, Nightguards, Hex Guards, Separated, everything that tried to stop it. Why it targetted the government facility is unknown, but we can piece the information only we know together. Some of Celestia's experiments must have worked, and resulted in the creation of this thing. Those inequine acts must have been incredibly painful and torturous, and now the escaped experiment must be seeking revenge. We don't know where and when it will show up again, but if you see it, run. We don't know much other than that it looks like a large pony wearing a metal mask covering its face, and a white robe."
"I was there during the attack, and it definitely happened. Can't say more about it - top secret. The escaped hybrid theory is utter nonsense, though."
"BUY OUR PRODUCTS! HELP US FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!"
With one final yell, the radio host switched to commercials.