[FROM THE MIND OF STARNOTE]
"Let's not be too hasty with this. I was only searching for answers myself."
"So you're ready to listen to what I have to say?"
"Sure. Whatever the hell you want to call it."
I slowly put my gun back. "I can wrap it up in a nutshell, but it will come as a surprise to you. Celestia has been trying to create other alicorns. However, she has been killing several other ponies to do this. Supposedly, one of the successful test subjects escaped, and apparently Celestia used the parasprite invasion as a self distraction to let her try and kill it because it went crazy on her. Now although I'm not entirely sure, I can guess that the earthquake was a result of an attempt to kill it."
He stared at me suspiciously. "What proof do you have?"
"All the proof that you needed was on the photograph that you rejected from me."
"Fine. I'll go back and get them."
Before he had any chance to leave the hallway, his other two friends came back, this time freaking out.
"Holy shit! Grey Flame really is dead!"
The leader of the group turned around and turned towards me again. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."
I backed down. "It was out of self defense! I literally had no other choice!"
Choked up, he looked towards the ground, lightly sobbed, and looked back up while sighing. "I can give you that one, but we're still enemies. Well, at least enemies with a common interest: Finding the truth."
"True that. You gonnah head to the bedroom, or what now?"
"We go to the room. All of us."
The short walk to Celestia's bedroom revealed a lot of the group. The leader's name was Boldkey, and his two friend's names were Pierce and Pick. For some reason though, the other two wouldn't give me their full names... I don't really blame them, though. Pick was dark blue and Pierce was orange, by the way.
We reached the room to find that the dead guard and clutter were still there. Thankfully, the journal and photos weren't that hard to find, so within seconds, all three of them were reading the sickening notes of Celestia.
"Holy shit. How long has this been going on?"
"Not sure. There were no dates in the journal." There was a couple seconds of awkward silence after that statement of mine, but it gave me an interesting idea for some reason.
"Wait! Remember the name of this project? Project Underground?" I asked.
"Yeah, why?" Pick said.
"Well... What if this entire operation was performed underground? Like, underneath this very castle?"
They thought about it for a second before responding. "Yeah, that would work... We should probably start searching the area. A combing." Boldkey said.
That fateful search started in the dark corner of Celestia's library in hopes of more journals or documents similar to the one found in her bedroom. The large, marble, multi-story room was fairly easy to find with it's location being pretty close, so we were there in no time. The massive room was dimly lit by only one small chandelier, and it featured two curved staircases on each wall of the place, all of it surrounded by literature. And sure enough, the four of us found ourselves in the doorway confronting thousands of books.
"Holy shit, that's a lot of books..." Pick barely muttered.
"Yeah, too much for us to handle. Yo Peirce, check the area for offices and let us know if you find any," Boldkey suggested.
Peirce followed Boldkey's order diligently as the rest of us stood in a circle.
"Anypony know how these libraries are categorized?" I asked.
"Yeah, I think I can give it a shot. I remember being in here once, and from that I could tell that the fiction was on the East side, non-fiction was on the West side, and the documents were slightly past that section. I can't recall any more, though," Pick said.
"That's all the info I'll need, thank you." I walked further into the room and admired the massive room, taking in the scent of fresh paper as I trotted up the staircase heading to the right.
I stopped dead on the stairs then and there. "Wait a minute... Fresh paper..." I muttered to myself before coming to a sudden realization. There might be printing going on here. And with printing could come life...
I finished the short climb to the top of the staircase and took in my surroundings. The document stations were clear on their location: Brightly lit and directly behind the non-fiction. I continued forward, noticing that the sound of hooves clacking on a keyboard was getting louder as I was getting closer to the light from behind the bookcases.
The sight of a frizzy mane behind a chair at a desk clearly came into view as I stepped past the final isle of bookcases. The desk he was at had a computer and several stacks of newspaper, all of which stated the same headline. I couldn't tell what it was though. He appeared to be male and a pegasus...
"Um, hello?" I sheepishly greeted him.
"Gotta type. Gotta type. Everpony must know. They betrayed us." His voice sounded dry and jumpy, kind of like me after too many energy drinks.
"What? You mean Celestia and Luna?"
"Yeah. Them. No. Wait. Just Celestia. Luna's good. Luna good. Good Luna."
I stepped closer to him to find that the headline read "Celestia deemed responsible for disaster, Luna innocent!"
"Do you mind if I read one of these?" I asked.
"No. Yes. Sure. Read it. Here." He reached out towards a large printer on the desk and handed me a warm copy. I took it and sat down, holding it in front of me as I began to read.
CELESTIA DEEMED RESPONSIBLE FOR DISASTER: LUNA INNOCENT!
The disaster that happened yesterday. You remember, right? Well, some of you searching for answers might have been looking in the wrong places. That note on the gates to Canterlot Palace... That rumor you heard from your sister. All of these stories are false, and we can prove it. Serious investigations took place yesterday in and around Canterlot Palace to find one vital piece in the puzzle: Celestia's journal.
Knowing what came next, I skipped forward.
That's right! All of it was a plot! Luna was framed! The parasprite invasion was planned!
I was confused. The earthquake had only happened about two hours ago... Where did this guy get this kind of information?
"There was no investigation, was there?"
"No. I just had to make them believe."
"Make who believe?"
"Everypony."
I folded up the newspaper and bolted down the stairs to find that Boldkey and Pick were still talking with each other.
"Guys! I have another clue!" I intruded.
Before either one could respond, another voice spoke up from behind us. "And I have about forty thousand more. Come here. Now." It was Pierce, who apparently had made another discovery. Or forty thousand.
We all made our way into the room where he was, only to find that it looked like a normal marble office. Well, at first glace, at least.
"Alright, what is it?" Pick said, obviously annoyed.
"Look," Peirce said, pointing to a semicircular line carved into the ground below us.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Well, if action movies had taught me anything, it's a secret door. However, we need to find some sort of switch or button somewhere that opens this sucker. Look for some sort of clue that relates to the phrase "Everypony Must Believe"." He replied.
"Holy shit. Where did you find that phrase from?" I found myself mutter.
"Underneath the wooden desk, it was carved there. Why?"
"Nothing. Nevermind."
Everypony else just stared at me stupidly until we went our separate ways about five seconds later.
I looked around the room to observe the room and found some interesting things. An old file cabinet in which Pick was digging through, a large bookcase that Peirce and Boldkey were tearing through, and a desk. A desk with a typewriter on it... Curious, I stepped closer. There was nothing else on the desk... That gave me an idea.
Shakily, I typed in the phrase 'Everypony Must Believe'. The second that the final 'e' was typed, the entire wall that had the bookcase on it shifted in a circular motion. And before I could tell what was going on, the section of wall surrounded by the circular crack was completely sideways, revealing a dark and cold stone corridor behind it.
I looked around the room to find the other three in a state of shock. It seemingly took forever for somepony to talk afterwards, and it was me, actually.
"Well. Ladies first."
We slowly and warily filed into the stone hallway to find that it was mossy and poorly lit with scattered torches. I grabbed the nearest one with my mouth and held it out in front of us as we walked into oblivion with me leading the way.
The slow walk through the hallway was tense. We had no idea what to expect at all, although we did kind of expect the massive descending flight of stairs that quickly followed that. After several minutes of hoof-killing descending when the hallway leveled out again, we found ourselves face to face with something that made us (and our heart rates) jump. Well, somepony.
Standing inches away from us, dimly lit from the fire of an old torch, was Celestia. And she was pissed.
"You shouldn't be here."
Stunned, I got a spike of adrenalin. Luckily, that gave me a burst of courage. "Give us one reason why we shouldn't be here."
"Leave. That's an order."
"I'm not going to until I find out the truth about the earthquake."
"It was natural. Go back. This is your last warning."
"Natural? Bullshit. I still refuse to go back." I looked back to see if my group mates were still behind me. They were still there, but in a shaky, sweaty state. One by one, they nodded at me.
I turned back towards Celestia. "We refuse to go back. And about what we found in the castle: What's with Project Underground?"
"Very well. I didn't want to do this, but..." Before anypony could stop her, she let some of her own magic swipe Peirce from us and dangle him in the air by his back legs directly in front of us.
It took all of us by surprise, but Peirce in particular, who panicked at the feeling of being dragged in mid-air. "ShitshitSHIT! PUT ME DOWN!"
Celestia gave us a wicked smirk and turned Pierce sideways, showing us his side. "Now you tell me all you know about this or I start removing his spine bone-by-bone. Starting with this one."
We saw Peirce shriek in pain as Celestia made a small glow appear in his back, followed by the gut-wrenching sound of bone splintering. The clatter of bone on the ground happened below us. When we looked down, we found a mangled, bloody spinal column piece sitting on the ground in front of us. That bitch just teleported a bone out of his body...
"Now tell me what you know. Or I do it again."
"Oh no you fucking won't!" I remembered I had my gun and made a quick move on her. Reaching back with my right hoof, I pulled out the gun and swiped it back, loading it while simultaneously aiming at her and echoing the sound of gunfire throughout the hallway as I crammed down on the trigger as fast as possible.
An explosion of red splattered out from her front leg as it buckled down in pain, sending her into a kneeling position as her blood flowed down it and she cried out in pain. She lost concentration completely, sending Peirce down on his head with a sickening 'GRUNTCH'.
"Shit! Peirce?!" Boldkey rushed over to him in aid as Celestia raised her head and looked at me.
"You shouldn't have done that, you know." She tried to stand back up, only to find that her head had been smashed into the ground by an enraged Boldkey.
"YOU BITCH! YOU KILLER!"
"SILENCE, FOOL!" She had one last say in it as she used her last bit of magic on me. The gun that I was holding seconds before had been torn out of my hooves, just as she reloaded it and aimed it towards Boldkey. She slowly stood up as Boldkey stepped down, giving her the height advantage over him.
The gun stopped moving. Just as I thought Boldkey was going to get murdered, the gun was taken over by a darker glow. The gun started shaking. Violently. And ever so slightly, as Celestia tried to reverse the affects, it slowly was aimed towards Celestia's head.
A surprise voice came from further down the hallway. "PULL THE TRIGGER!" I dropped the torch in shock and looked behind Celestia, doing a double-take. It was Luna.
"What?"
"JUST DO IT!"
Following an impromptu order, I ran towards Celestia and jumped at the gun, only to find myself being swatted down by Celestia's good front leg. The wind was knocked out of me as I fell towards the ground and skidded several decimeters on the stone floor, eventually stopping with more pain in my back than I ever thought imaginable.
Luckily, I wasn't the only one that heard Luna: Boldkey had caught Celstia off guard and seized the moment in one last, desperate attempt to save somepony's life.
I could nearly see it in slow motion as I propped my head up with my sore neck: The powerful but clumsy leap on Boldkey's part set the stage for him putting on one hell of a rage face. The gun was seized with a hoof, and in one desperate attempt to strike, flung his other hoof towards the trigger hole, resulting in a deafening explosion right in the middle of the intensity.
It was a bizarre sight to see the leader of Equestria meet such an ironic fate as she collapsed to the ground, dead even before her landing with a slow 'thud'. I couldn't tell if it was horrifying or satisfying... Or both.
Shocked at what I just saw, I shakily stood up and stared at Luna with a dumbfounded look on my face.
"What the hell just happened?" I exclaimed.