Description:
Yoshimon1 said:
This is quite disconcerting. If the King and the Order have been deceiving everypony for centuries... Well, not the whole order, Clear Fountain and Florette at least seemed to be genuinely good ponies. But still, we have to do something, we can't just let them blame the Sirens for everything again! Let's find this Justice and have a chat with her! For justice!
Interested in learning more about what you just watched, you decide to try meeting with Justice. However, not sure where to start looking for her, you ask the librarian if he knows anypony by that name.
Librarian: "Guh huh, of course I doh the boss."
Apple Basket: "The boss?"
Librarian: "It's what bost podies call her. Since she joi'd the Undercity, she's beed as buch of a leader as they've ever had. Or so I'b told."
You ask if he knows where you can find her.
Librarian: "Her office is in the dortherd checkpoint's security roob. You'll have to ask a guard to let you id, though."
You thank the librarian for his help, and exit the library. Following his directions, you make your way north to the northern checkpoint, where a security guard greets you.
When you tell the guard that you are looking for a pony named Justice, he nods, then pushes a button next to a door across the room. A nearby speaker spits out a distorted "Come in", then the door slides open for you.
As you enter, walls of animated yellow lights immediately steal your attention. Dozens of screens cover the walls, seemingly displaying what every camera in the city is seeing. From crowded streets to quiet gardens, everything seems to be under constant surveillance.
Your party stops in the center of the room, and the door closes behind you.
You find yourself standing in front of a yellow mare, who sits hind legs crossed in a swivel chair, looking as though she had been expecting you. Behind her, atop a wooden counter, is another mare, this one brown with two pairs of armoured prosthetics and a cheerful smile.
The yellow mare speaks up first.
Yellow mare: "And here they are. I had a feeling you'd be here sooner or later. I'm Justice, lead of security."
Brown mare: "And I'm Rocket Rush, technical assistant!"
You introduce yourselves to the unicorns.
Justice: "For outlanders to end up in Midgard, let alone in the Undercity, you must have taken one hay of a wrong turn somewhere. No, you're after something, aren't you?"
You tell Justice that you're actually looking for a way to cross the Mists to Yggdrasil, and that your quest has lead you to her.
Justice: "This explains that. Hmm. Well, as much as I wish we could help you, we never did make it through the Mists despite years of trying. At this point, if it's even possible is anyone's guess."
Thinking it as good a place to start as any, you ask if she can tell you about her experience anyway. She glances over to her friend, then back to you.
Justice: "Sure, I don't see why not. You've probably read the name Mortal's Crossing somewhere before. That was the name of a project I once lead, along with three other ponies; Bright Logic, Novelty, and Rocket Rush.
Our objective was to learn how to navigate through the Mists, and ultimately explore what lies beyond them. And wouldn't you know it, our research even had the full support of the Order, which means we had quite the bit to spend.
We started by testing the waters — literally — with a simple craft that could float on the surface. Our pilot, Rocket, used it to enter the Mists for the first time."
Rocket Rush: "As soon as I went in, visibility dropped to zero! I tried pushing forward for a few minutes, but when I gave up and turned around, I found myself back out in seconds. It's like I'd been fighting against strong currents the whole time without even realizing it!"
Justice: "And no matter where we tried entering from, we were met with the same result. As if the wind all around the Mists somehow flowed outward, and we were too slow to counter them.
With that in mind, we devised a new, more powerful craft. One that could speed through the air. Then, we carefully lined up its course. It was set to travel straight from one side of the Mists to the other, and land somewhere safely in the island's southern waters.
Well, that's not remotely what happened. Rocket flew in, then somehow, she came right back out nigh about-faced, spun out of control, and crashed into a cliffside."
Rocket Rush: "I lost a few legs to that one, but I got better!"
Justice: "We figured we'd stop there for her sake, but she didn't let us. We still had to try one last thing: diving under the Mists. And that time, we left no room for error. Accelerometers, gyroscopes, cameras, even an escape pod — no matter what happened, we'd be ready for it. Or so we thought."
Rocket Rush: "I'm still not sure what was happening down there! Every time I reached the Mists underwater, all systems would suddenly go haywire. Even the black box stopped recording! Then, I'd get shoved out by what must've been a really, really big fish."
Justice: "And that's all we know. In the end, our project was decommissioned. Novelty went on to work on new projects, while the rest of us moved to the Undercity. Bright Logic got a job at the library, and Rocket Rush and I just lent a hoof to whatever needed doing down here.
Not a year later, we caught wind that our latest craft had fallen from the sky. It was never intended to fly, mind you, so Rocket went to survey the wreckage. She retrieved the cartridge from the black box, and, well, you've seen what's on it."
