Ruby turned around to see Snow Mark, apparently alive and well holding a extremely dangerous, not to mention intimidating rifle at her. It would be suicidal for her to react by putting her scoped hunting rifle to defend herself. She was not as experienced as a commando was in terms of combat, so she put all her weapons on the ground in front of her and surrendered. She had to use the only thing that would either save her life or end it, careful diplomacy. "Sorry to interrupt, but that is because he is a Commando. Me and the Commando you are speaking to were assigned to rediscover this facility for the Commandos for their use. It’s unfortunate that our first meeting Ms.Mark is you pointing a rifle at us. We promise you no harm Ms.Mark, the commandos have....changed since the Great War and so has the world above."
Snow glared at them, "You don't think I know that? What company do you think built those tall towers? It sure as Tartarus wasn't-" Snow shuddered with disgust, "Stable Tech. And in each one of those towers is a vast camera array that I can tap into, just like every other piece of tech that runs on Mark Co software. And no, I do not find Mr. Soldier's Commados anything like my sister's." she then wrapped all their weapons in a magical field and took them away, "But I am not going to allow my weapons go out there. All these that you see? This was the most dangerous weaponry ever developed by Equestria, and was supposed to arm the Commandos in the final assault upon Roam. There is no way I am going to let that fall into anypony's hooves."
"Well then...isn't this a problem." Ruby said as she turned around to send a telepathic message to Hunter, with the link being impossible for Snow to access. "With the Solider arriving soon, what do you think is going to happen if he sees this. I don't know what is going to happen, and i wont be able to hand myself against in a professional firefight if one could simply happen. We are at an Impasse."
Hunter thought for a bit before deciding to stall, and also distract Snow in an attempt to calm her down, "Uh, before we do anything, we'ld like to know, just how did you survive for so long?" Snow glared at Hunter for a few moments before her urge to talk about technology got the best of her, "Well, I was the richest, most influential pony outside of the government, and well, I helped fund some of the developments at Big Mountain, or more specifically, their Immortality research. Pulling some strings and using that influence, I managed to get them to see the most crucial papers on it. So I took the design and development of the Immortality Chip, turned it into an injection, made it more focused on lifespan over true immortality, thus giving it a much safer usage, then took the injection as a test. It worked, and I ordered the development for producing it on a larger scale, but still just enough for just a speck of ponykind to prevent overpopulation. Sadly, the Last Day happened before its release...And because I've that test, I've had to sit here and watch the world shrivel and die while all the others that got trapped down here with me died off.." Snow finished with an extremely sad look on her face, the gun still pointed at the
“Stalling, of course! Nice Idea Hunter...” the prospector said before deciding it was her turn to get some information out of her. “Immortality Chip? I thought that project was scrapped before your idea for the injections? I have scavenged Big Mountain about three years ago due to my curiosity of Project Eternal, and according to the records buried at the bottom of the facility, the Immortality Chip project was scrapped due to it being too dangerous and costly. I have found records so confidential that only five ponies knew they existed, and they were killed during the raid on the facility by the Zebra’s. According to the document, the Immortality Chip was merely for show, it never existed. What those five actually did was implant a chemical that stopped the age process after a certain year. It was similar to your injections, but they created the ‘prototype’ to it. So....the Eternals have their 'immortal' longevity lifespans and no true immortality. However, I must admit that your injection is the most impressive creation I have ever heard of. “Also, what do you know of an organization known as ‘The Brotherhood of Life?’ Only a miniscule number of ponies know they even exist. I know they exist because...” she paused. “Because it was them who saved my life on that faithful day...”
Snow didn't reply as she realized what the two were up to, choosing instead to make a motion with her rifle, "Now, you two are gonna come with me, no questions asked, and in complete silence, got it?"
Ruby looked at Hunter as she sighed deeply as she then began to follow Snow. Looked like she had caught about what was happening quickly, and now she was being followed with her captor holding a rifle to her. She had no idea what exactly the rifle did, but either outcome she thought of would be the death of her.
Hunter did nothing, simply doing as Snow said as she was the one with the gun, not him. Walking beside Ruby, he gave her a look that just said, 'Don't do a thing and we'll be fine.' as Snow lead them through seperate corridors in the bunker
Ruby walked in silence as she was escorted across the corridors that made up the bunker. She could still not get her head around the technology within the bunker, still leaving her impressed but showed no expression of it due to her capture by Snow. She continued to follow Snow with Hunter as they made their way across the bunker.
Snow eventually lead them to a private room that had walls absolutely covered in monitors, each one showing a different area of the Equestrian Wasteland, while below the monitors, rows of computers had data spilling across their own monitors, "The Great War provided a great opportunity to implement a massive monitoring system in Equestria. From this room, you could get every speck of information about the environment and the ponies living in it if you wanted." Snow said to them, before motioning her rifle towards a table with 6 seats in a circle around it, "Take a seat. I have something to tell you."
Ruby simply did as she was told in silence, avoiding the chance to speak, and sat down in one of the chairs opposite from Snow. Hunter followed shortly after as they both looked at her and what she wanted to say.
Snow looked at the two curious but scared and worried faces directly across from her, "Let me start with a question, how do you think the Great War started? And just why did it start in the first place?" - - Auto Merge - - (You know Crim, I think we should merge our FoE roleplays into one single general thread, that way we don't have to make a whole new thread for a new one, and since we do so many...)
(Agreed. It does get complex overtime to search through each one and simply saves time in general when making a brand new one.) "I know it was over natural resources. Equestria had a monopoly on magical gemstones, and the zebra nation had a monopoly on coal needed to power Equestrian industry. They were both dependent on each other until their relationships became strained. Then the "accidental" massacre at Littlehorn started the Great War." Ruby began. "That's all i knew anyway about the war. Are you saying that you had something to do with it Ms.Mark?"
Snow sighed and nodded slowly, "Yes, I did, in fact, I was the reason it even started in the first place...and then I profiteered off it...You're looking at the mare who claimed to only try to help ponykind, and in the end, destroyed it. And if you want to know why I'm telling you, it's so that you'll understand just why I don't want those weapons released to the Wasteland..." Hunter gave Snow a curious, interested look, "Would you mind sharing just how you started the Great War?" Snow breathed in and nodded, "I'll give you the short story first, then you can decide if you wanna hear the long one. Short story is that I was seeking to expand Mark Co beyond Equestria into lands where the labor would be cheaper, like in the Zebra Empire, and neglected further development in Equestria. Because of me, the zebras were risen to a point technologically to where they could face Equestria in combat for the first time, and also while yes it was true that Equestria did not have much coal, it did however had something much better, oil. But it was just cheaper to find places to mine coal rather than develop the technology to drill oil on a large scale, so that's what I did...And thus, the foundation of the Great War was laid, and I was there to supply the weapons, and to make the coup de grace, the megaspells, the dangerous kind. You see, Fluttershy came to me with a deal, give the Zebras a megaspell, the peaceful sort, and she'll keep the Ministries off my back for war profiteering. So guess what I did? I developed a dangerous megaspell that zebras could use, and sold it to them. I guess you could say if it wasn't for me and Mark Co, there would be no Last Day, there would be no Great War..."
"So you are the one responsible for causing not only the largest genocide in all of history, but you almost wiped out civilization as well." Ruby looked in disbelief before looking down and sighing deeply. "Dammit. I understand that you wanted to help the world and you accidentally misunderstood the consequences of what would escalate into the great war. You could have never known that the megaspells were to be actually used, unless that's another reason you want these weapons inside here. Unless you have something worse....."
Snow hung her head further, a clear sign that she in fact did. "Your near immortality has become your way of making sure that your weapons never fall into the wrong hands again in an attempt to stop a repeat of what happened in the Great War, your way of trying to get forgiveness for the wrongs you have done, huh?" Hunter guessed, which was met by a small nod
Ruby looked disappointed at the thought of having to be in Ms. Mark's position during that time. She looked at Hunter and gave him a look that simply said. 'Have to admit, i feel sorry for her.' before looking at the disappointed Ms.Mark again.
Meanwhile at the entrance to M.A.D. Julion retracted his helmet to gaze upon the ornate white marble hall in more detail after red lasers identified them and decided not to call security on them, 4 Alpha Squad Commandos and a Recovery Team behind him looking around as well, "So Hunter did it...Well I'll be damned..." he muttered, then motioned to those behind him, "Let's go!"
Ruby looked at Ms. Mark and also took time to notice the vast security network that showed the Equestrian Wasteland. Every place she knew was on there, Manehatten, Los Pegasus, Ponyville and even Fillydelphia. Her eyes wandered across the network until she seen the sight of her own town. She was impressed, but also felt uneasy knowing that throughout her life, somepony had been watching her.
(Hmm, I got an idea! LEt's say that Crimson had discovered MAD before, but made a deal with Snow saying he would 'forget' about the facility, but she would give him the locations of raider camps for his Spring Cleansings, and he was about to visit for the next location?)
