//------------------------------// // Movement in the Dark // Story: DisQord Continuum: Equestria Rising // by ZoidbergIsBestPony //------------------------------// Movement in the Dark “So, what’s the good word, Smart Cookie, eh?” the Chancellor asked, chuckling as he walked over to his favorite secretary’s desk. He was in a chipper mood from the recent progress in the relocation. Sunbeam sighed. She knew all too well, he was deliberately still calling her ‘Smart Cookie’ to egg her on, but she merely pushed it aside. “Well Chancellor, with the latest transport ship from the Pegasi, we’ve been able to relocate more than sixty-five percent of the Earth Ponies. With the delivery of the next two transport ships, we should have the capacity to finish transporting the remaining Earth ponies to the Soil Lands, before our remaining food supply runs out.” “Excellent, excellent!” the chancellor cried happily. “I got to hand to it to that arrogant Pegasus commander, he really saved our furs.” Sun didn’t like to admit it, but the chancellor was not lying. Thanks to the extra ships, their relocation plan was actually viable now. But Sun understood the true cost. These ships were the product of slave labor. Slaves slated to be left behind on a dead world. She just hoped a solution could be found to save everypony, before it was too late. As she looked over the figures, a call from Clover came in to her communicator. Looking to make sure the chancellor was back in his office with the door closed, she answered. “Hey Clover, what’s up? How’d our ‘delivery’ go yesterday?” “It went badly, Sun,” Clover started. “Badly? How badly? What happened?” “Very,” Clover continued. “The pony rebels and three Alicorns were caught and shot. And our weak spot in the wall is no more.” “WHAT!?” Sun screamed back, loud enough for the chancellor to hear. “Is every thing alright Smart Cookie?” the chancellor called from behind his office door. Sun tried to quickly recover. “Oh..um..nothing sir. I just read a figure wrong, and thought we owed millions on a bill instead of thousands!” she hastily made up. “Well, whoever she is, just make she’s worth the price I pay for her! Ha!” the chancellor laughed at his own wit. The door to his office remained shut. Sun breathed a sigh of relief, before it evaporated, as she shouted in whispers back into the communicator on her hoof. “How could this have happened? I thought Pimsey fixed this for us?...Wait! Pimsey! That two-timing, weak as dung, son of a rat’s–” “It may or may not have been him, Sun” Clover tried to calm down her friend. “He’s agreed to meet with us tonight to tell us what happened. Can you make it?” “I’ll be there all right. I’m going to ring that scrawny pony’s little neck!” “Just make sure you hear what he says first, please!” Clover pleaded. “Usual place and time?” Sun asked. “Yes.” “I’ll see you tonight,” Sun said coldly and hung up. “What are your sensor readings, Lieutenant?” Captain Tiberius Brannigan called to his SME officer (Science and Magic Expert). “Sorry sir,” the private answered. “There are no readings at all. Whatever this object is, we can only tell that it exists. We can neither see it, nor can our sensors penetrate it.” The P.W.S Loyalty (Pegasus War Ship) hovered in orbit of the Unicornia colony. They were on patrol, when their sensors caught a glimpse of an object in space, progressing toward the colony. The followed it into geostationary orbit above the colony. “Take as many readings, from as many angles as you need, Lieutenant,” said the captain. “But do it fast. We don’t want the Unicorns to think we’re spying on them.” “Yes sir.” “That’s somepony else’s job,” the captain muttered as an afterthought.” Their sensors had only discovered the object from the most insignificant magical aura it produced. They could neither see it, nor determine size, shape or any information about it. The Pegasus soldier continued to scan for any information regarding the object. After twenty minutes, he finally had something to report. “Sir, the object is moving away from the planet.” “Pilot,” the captain called, “change course to continue tracking the object from a distance.” “Aye sir.” The pilot changed course and pulled the ship out of orbit. “What’s its heading?” asked the captain. “If it continues on the same heading,” the pilot calculated the route on his terminal, “it should arrive at the Pegasopolis colony in twenty-one hours.” “Confirmed, sir,” said the SME officer. “I don’t like this thing, whatever it is,” the captain said as he gazed out at the space beyond him, looking for an object that could not be seen. “If it so much as blinks near our colony, we’ll see if an M.E.W. Missile (Magic Enhanced Warhead) will make it visible!” “I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY!” Sun screamed at the weakly Pegasus soldier, holding him once again by the throat, pinned to the wall. The three ponies gathered together behind a local Pony Chow fast-food chain, nearby the old counsel building. It was late into the evening, and the restaurant had turned out its lights for the night. “PLEASE! Let…me try…to…explain!” he sputtered out. Sun dropped him to the floor and stared daggers at him. “Speak!” Pimsey tried to catch his breath, quickly. After a few seconds, he finally got out, “I did it.” Clover’s shocked face was nothing compared to Sunbeam’s. After freezing for a moment in a dumbfounded state, she snapped out of it and punched the Pegasus right across the jaw. He flew to the ground from the blow. Steam flared from her nostrils and fire burned in her eyes. She was getting ready to kill this pony. Clover quickly grabbed her and held her back. “Wait! Wait Sun!” she screamed. “Let him speak! He wouldn’t have even showed up if he didn’t have an explanation!” It took every ounce of Clover’s strength to hold her friend back. Pimsey sat back up and rubbed his jaw. He hadn’t been hit like that since his father, growing up. “I had no choice!” he said. “They knew about ponies on the outside of the camps trying to help the Alicorns on the inside. I had to let a food drop be captured instead of a gun drop. If they found weapons, they would have killed every Alicorn in the camp. I protected them!” Sun was still beyond reasoning, but Clover caught on. “Are you saying, that you actually saved us by sending six ponies to their deaths!?” “Six dead, or thousands? Which would you have picked?” he said, standing back up. He looked into both ponies’ eyes. Clover’s quickly fell to the floor, but Sun’s did not. She stared right back at him, full of anger. “I knew one of those ponies who died, Harmon,” she said. “You sent one of my friends to their death!” “I’m sorry! I really am, but I had no other choice!” He looked at her apologetically. After several moments, Sun’s face finally fell. She backed off from the Pegasus. Clover decided to push forward with the plans. “They may not have as much food, but they have what they need to begin the uprising,” she stated. “It’s up to them. With no means of communication, we’ll have to be ready to go at any time. With limited food, they’ll need to go soon. We best be ready.” She turned to Pimsey. “Harmon, I don’t know if we can really trust you, so if you really want to prove yourself, figure out a way to reduce the number of guards in the camp.” “I can’t do that!” he said, afraid. “They would know it was me who signed the orders!” “Figure out a way!” Clover ordered. She nodded at Sun and turning together, they walked off, leaving the Pegasus behind to his dilemma. “Captain,” the SME officer called. “The object has stopped.” “All stop. We haven’t already reached Pegasopolis have we?” asked the captain, curiously. “No sir. At present we were still twelve hours away from the colony.” “Have they detected us?” “Same as before captain, they might be able to see us, they might even be able to hear us, but I can’t even determine that it really even exists, let alone if it can detect us.” The private rechecked his terminal. “It’s started moving again. New course heading towards ‘Dirtville’ colony.” Turning to the pilot, the captain gave the order. “Keep her in our sights. Whatever this is, it seems to know exactly where all three colonies are located and scouting each for some reason.” “Aye sir,” the pilot answered, changing course. “So what do we do now?” one of the Alicorns in the group asked the elder, huddled in the barracks. “If we can’t feed ourselves more than the rations we’ve been getting, how can we possibly hope to commandeer the ship?” Many ponies in the group were nodding in agreement. One of them in towards the back called out, “Maybe we should scrap the whole plan!” More murmurs of agreement could be heard. The elder Alicorn could not put up the argument needed. All he could respond with was, “But we must! We have to!” The noises in the group started growing loud enough that a guard might overhear. “Guys knock it off!” some pony in crowd yelled. “The guards are going to hear you!” The group quickly quieted back down. Within the group, Sugar Baker was thinking to himself, debating his choices. Finally, he reached his hoof high into the air. Most did not even see it. The elder pony had seen it though, and tried to get the group’s attention. The mutters and whispers finally died down. “Go ahead, son,” said the elder. Lowering his hoof back down, Bake spoke up, “Thank you. I think we should do it tomorrow.” More muttering commenced, but were immediately silenced by the elder. “The reason I say this,” Bake continued, “is because this is our one and probably last chance to fight back; possibly even to live. We’ve stored up enough weapons for every other Alicorn, and we’ve stockpiled just barely enough food to survive for a little while if we succeed. “Many of us realize, and other have realized but refuse to believe, that this world is dying.” Bake looked directly over at Zeus, pretending to be asleep in his bunk. “With the ponies all evacuating to their own colonies, we’re destined to be left behind to die in the cold of a never ending winter. “The ship is nearly completed. If we wait any longer, it will either be gone or fully stocked with fully armed soldiers. If you want to live; if you want to ever see your families ever again, we need to strike now!” It was hard for the group not to applaud, but the most unusual whispers of cheers came out. When it died back down, the naysayer spoke out again. “Every other pony armed is not enough! We cannot fly and we cannot do magic. That would leave have the camp defenseless!” Zeus tried to cover his ears with his blanket. He started tossing and turning trying to stop something. He had appeared to fail as he jumped out of his bunk. “A’ight, a’ight! I’ll do it.” The group turned their heads to see who was speaking. Bake stared back at him confused. “Do what?” he asked. Zeus reached his hoof up to his horn and removed the orange cap from his horn, as though it were nothing more than a bathing cap for horns. Several ponies around them gasped. “You’ve been able to do that this whole time, and you never said anything?” One of the Alicorns nearly screamed across. “They put a broken one on me.” Zeus said, shrugging. “But I think this plan is foolish and stupid. I think y’all foals; going to pretend to be soldiers and get everypony killed. I aint no foal. And I ain’t planning on dying! “You wanna fight and die, that’s your business. I ain’t gonna fight. But I can at least give you ponies a foals chance in hell.” Bake walked up to Zeus, smiling. He lowered his horn to the stallion. Zeus’s horn glowed in a blue-black, wrapping around the cap that covered Bake’s horn. When the glow dimmed, Bake reached up and removed his cap. “Thank you, Zeus.” Bake said, before turning to another pony next to him. His horn glowed freeing the pony's cap, who in turn freed another. The glow of horns spread around the barracks in a rainbow of colors. When everypony’s Magic-Prevention cap had been removed they all nodded together in agreement. Tomorrow they would fight. Tomorrow, they would be free.