The frigid mountain air whipped past the princess as she flew closer and closer to the peak. She had been flying for a few solid minutes now, and was finally passing around the peak itself, heading to the other side. It was getting late, as the sun was just barely still above the horizon, balanced like a slowly deflating ball upon the distant land.
Twilight's eyes widened as she saw a three-pointed rock formation, and a very well concealed cave underneath an outcropping, with a flat alcove she could land on. As she dove towards it, she decloaked, eliciting from her lips a soft sigh of relief.
Upon landing, she took a moment to stretch out her wings and legs, catching her breath. The altitude didn't quite help in this regard, but on the bright side, due to the heavy exertion of cloaked flight, the cold didn't effect her very much.
She took a look around the area upon which she had landed, slowly walking about it and looking for anything unusual. The three-pointed rock formation looked natural from afar, but up close, it appeared to have been a little more sculpted. No real surprise there, making an artificial structure look natural to mark a hidden area wasn't unheard of. Formation aside, the only other oddity out here was what appeared to be a well concealed area for small balloon craft to dock, complete with "natural" rocks that could act as perfect tether points.
Twilight shivered slightly as she regained her energy, and decided to walk into the cave very cautiously. There could be guards, traps, or even... nothing?
Nothing. It was an empty cave. That was it. She looked confused, seeing the rounded walls of stone, and finding no door of any kind. Then again, if I built a secret facility, I wouldn't want an obvious entrance either... she thought to herself briefly. She tried to think back on her studies, trying to remember if there was any technique that might help her... Aha!
Her horn glowed dully, and she bit her lip in concentration as she let loose a solid beam on the walls. She swept it from left to right, until she found one section of wall that registered as hollow behind it, but just barely, which meant the wall was thick. She walked over to it and found the outline of some kind of very advanced locking mechanism, which she couldn't operate. Weighing her options, she needed to get in there, but wasn't sure how. I don't know any lockpicking techniques... and there's no guarentee I could blast it... or who would hear me blasting on the other side.
She was left with one very risky option: teleportation. You see, the teleportation technique is typically used for quick movement to a place that one knows, can see, or has been to... most of the time. One can teleport just about anywhere, but without meeting the above criteria, the subject would risk sticking themselves in a wall or something. When Twilight had been infused with all of the Equestrian Alicorn energy during the Tirek incident, she had randomly teleported by mistake, and even that had nearly stuck her in a boulder. However, Twilight was aware of all of these things, and had come too far to give up now.
After scanning the wall a few times, Twilight believed she could make it. All I have to do is overshoot my initial estimate of the wall depth to give myself a margin of error, and I should be just fine, she reassured herself. And so, taking a deep breath, the teleportation field engulfed her, and she disappeared with a flash.
Twilight reappeared with a gasp, tripping forward, as she had appeared about half a foot above the floor. She picked herself up quickly and dusted herself off, shaking her head as she looked backwards. The wall was about ten feet behind her, which was just about where her estimates had put it. She beamed at her success, but only for a moment, as a voice spoke up, forcing her to whip around.
"Princess Twilight. Reach said to expect you," said a deep voice from directly ahead. She turned to see the black unicorn from Reach's building standing a few yards ahead of her, wearing only a red sash with a blue streak along the edge.
"You. Who are you?" she asked. She really wasn't sure what she was expecting his answer to be, he was obviously an agent for the Trident, but she needed time to scan her surroundings.
"You could say I'm Reach's security manager. And you've become a risk to my job," he stated coldly, staring her down. They both knew that she had nowhere to run to, and to teleport back outside would require concentration, which they both knew would put her at the disadvantage. However, he made no direct advances. Not yet.
"Look, we both know the odds here... I might as well know who you are. You said that you're a security manager, but you wear the red sash. Shouldn't the security manager be wearing a blue sash?" she inquired as she looked around subtly.
Twilight analyzed the area completely. The room was large, with a very high ceiling that abruptly stopped and went flat at the very end. It was roughly the width of the stained glass hall in Canterlot, and was about half as long. The whole area was smooth, dimly yet wholly lit, and composed of gray stone, with pillars carved into the walls on either side. The only outstanding feature was the emblem of the trident, the three arrows joined at the base within a circle, like a royal seal, at the end of the room. Long steel strips encased the room's lights, which lined each wall.
"I really don't share Reach's taste for explanations. I am a simple stallion: I know what I have to do, and I do it," he said, voice never wavering. He stepped closer.
"Can I at least get a name?" Twilight tried, knowing that any last minute observations would have to be made here. His stance prioritizes defense over offense. If it comes between defending himself or attacking me, he'll prioritize himself. His physique denotes incredible strength, and I don't know enough about his energy to determine if I outclass him. These observations in mind, she began formulating a strategy.
The black unicorn sighed and rolled his eyes briefly. "I told you already that I don't care for explanations. We have business to take care of," he stated, walking towards her.
She had only a rough idea of what to do, and knew that this was her only chance. She charged up her horn, and flapped her wings to fly backwards. He anticipated an attack, and charged his own horn, the green aura engulfing it beyond its edges.
Twilight fired a solid blast at him, and he attempted a counter... but wasn't expecting the blast to land at his hooves. She had performed a fake-out, and he was pushed back about two feet. He knew he would be stunned for that brief moment, and immediately engulfed himself in a perfect pony-shaped shield.
Twilight used his moment of confusion to fire irradically in order to provide cover for a swooping dive-bomb blast. She got fairly close when he discharged his shield, which blasted outward and slammed her backwards. Didn't know he could do that... she thought, resetting her stance just in time to deflect a giant green ball into a pillar, blasting a crater into the smooth stone.
He kept his distance as he fired arcs of green lightning, no less than five bolts at a time, randomly hitting at a range of about ten feet in front of him. She noted the pattern and saw the range begin to expand, and took a huge risk by flying towards him. The lightning did, in fact, only arc forward, unlike real electricity, following a bombardment pattern instead of searching for a path of least reistance. On the bright side, she was safe from the arcs. On the downside, he executed a flawless side-flip, putting him in the perfect position to slam a hoof into her chest with a sickening crunch sound, sending her flying across the room.
The princess hurt badly, but managed to stand back up, processing what had just happened and formulating a new plan. She rushed him again, ignoring the pain in her chest, and he punched-- nothing. Twilight had teleported behind him and, using his own momentum against him, shot him in the back with a stun blast. Because the raw strength of his punch had kept him flying forward in that brief moment, he didn't have time to deflect it. He fell on the floor, his back legs spasming slightly... before they righted themselves.
A stun blast didn't take him down? She was shocked, but when he wheeled around, his eyes looked almost like they were burning with rage. His face remained flat, but she could see the anger in his eyes. Perfect.
Twilight put her original strategy in motion, charging up as strong a horn blast as possible and firing it directly at his head. As it approached him he smirked triumphantly. He muttered "they never learn" under his breath, as he used the same reflection (or return-to-origin) technique he had used back in the Reach building. However, what he didn't take into account was that she had learned the same technique from the file back in the R&D hallway.
She used it to send it back to him, and while he was surprised, he immediately reflected it back to her, back and forth, back and forth... and so on. The ball of energy would be more than enough to kill Twilight, and likely the black unicorn as well, if it sucessfully hit the horn. The ball moved faster and faster between the two, with the stallion not even showing a change in expression. Twilight hovered in the air, hoping to gain some advantage at a higher elevation, and looking a bit distressed.
The unicorn was confident, but not cocky, as he maintained perfect form the entire time. He knew that, of the two, he had more experience using it, and could keep his timing impeccable. It became a waiting game to him. Twilight, however, had a different idea.
Quickly, as the ball flew towards her, she swiched to a normal reflection technique, and shifted the angle downwards slightly. Thus, when the ball impacted the tiles at his hooves, he didn't even have enough time to register what had happened before he was thrown against the back wall, the impact knocking him out cold.
Twilight knew that he wouldn't be out for long, so she quickly levitated him up by a light fixture next to the Trident seal, and wrapped the steel around his body. She then cast the same type of energy over him that the Equestria Games officials had trapped in a booth to disable unicorns. As the glow engulfed him, it wrapped around his horn, completely preventing it's use for at least the next 24 hours.
Sure enough, as she was bending the steel to prevent his incredible strength from ever hoping to break him free, he began to wake up, growling and struggling, as he discovered his horn to be useless.
Eventually he gave up and looked at her with the exact same serious expression as he had greeted her with. "Well? Aren't you going to finish the job?" he asked seriously, waiting for her to kill him.
"No. You can stay here for a while, I think," she told him in a fairly flat tone, but with just a hint of sass. She was quite more relieved than she was pleased at having beaten him... although that's not to say it wasn't satisfying.
She had just hovered down to the floor when he spoke up again. "My name is Flak. I am in command of Reach's personal operations unit. That pegasus that killed your friend? He was under my command," he stated formally. It was like he was presenting some business plan to a CEO. He said it with neither pleasure nor remorse. Like it was just... business.
Twilight flew back up to him once again. "What did you say?" she demanded, remembering Straight Arrow's death very vividly.
"I said that kid's death was my responsibility! And I've killed more. I was going to kill you as well. That's what I do," he explained, staring her in the eyes as he spoke. His eyes were so... cold. So empty. Devoid of feeling, blank, like his flank.
He's trying to get under my skin, I can't let him get to me! she reasoned, but the memories dredged up by his words did not make her solution very simple. "You... you monster," she resolved, gritting her teeth.
"Well if you hate me so much, then finish the job!" he shouted, staring her down.
Her horn charged up and reflected off of the black pupils she saw before her. "...No. I'm not a monster like you," she stated, firing a more powerful stun blast than earlier directly into his disabled horn.
He shook in his restraints for a moment, then finally his head drooped as he was knocked unconsious. If she had killed him, she would have been just as monstrous as he was... right? Didn't mean she couldn't keep him quiet though.
She hovered down, but swung around with horn glowing as she heard weak clapping from a doorway under the big seal, and a raspy voice saying "Well done, well done."
"Who are you?" she inquired immediately, turning to see a hunched over pony in a plain gray cloak, which hid his face from view.
"Woah there missy, you can calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you. In fact, you just saved my life!" he explained, holding up a brown hoof to signal her to settle down.
Twilight sat back and powered down her energy, listening to what he had to say as the light from her horn faded to nothing.
"He was here to kill you, supposatively, but I know Reach wanted me out of the way as soon as you were gone. He wants this facility, you see," the hooded one stated.
The princess paused, standing and approaching him slowly. "You... still haven't told me who you are," she pointed out casually. She felt... almost comfortable around him, although she couldn't quite place why.
"Oh, of course. My name is Mark Maker. You, Twilight, have many questions, and you have spent a very long time to eventually get here. I think it's finally time you get some answers. Follow me," he instructed, coughing a bit and drinking from an opaque vial before turning and walking down the dark hallway.
Mark Maker? Could that really be his name...? Will I finally get some straight answers? Questions were swimming through her head faster than she could process them, but she calmly stood and, after doing Cadence's breathing technique, slowly followed behind the mysterious old stallion. Whatever lay ahead, Twilight was finally ready.