Vichy Water
It's almost time to leave.
Twilight feels it, somewhere she can't really pin down, but now that she's been home again, she aches for it. Just being back for that moment filled her with magic and peace and belonging she hadn't known she's been missing. The only question now is when. In this, as in so many other things, she turns to her friends.
It's a complicated conversation. Everypony is keen to help their human friends, but most of them also have reason to want to return. Applejack and Fluttershy are worried about their responsibilities, and homesick. Rarity tries to be graceful, but Twilight can tell that she too is worried about how her affairs stand in Ponyville, whether time has passed her trend-dependent business on, or set it back. Pinkie seems cheerfully indifferent, but finally admits she's worried about missing birthdays. Rainbow Dash tries to act neutral, but she's not so hard to read, and it isn't difficult to see why she'd be the most conflicted. The Wonderbolts remain a dream, but she's even more exceptional on Earth, which strokes her ego, and of all the ponies, she's most readily embraced human culture. Still, when they mention home, Twilight sees her eyes drift skyward; she doesn't even seem aware of it. They all seem broadly agreed the time is near.
Finally, they agree to wait one more month, until the beginning of November. Twilight thinks, and her friends agree, that she'd like to be sure the election is fair, and to see how well the reform candidates fare. If they do well, she can announce her departure then, and have it seem appropriate. If they do poorly, or it seems the elections are somehow unfairly run, she can reconsider, stay to help. In any case, the next day, if all goes well, they'll all depart.
She'd rather not have an audience for that part, so she decides to take off from Annie-Jane's farm. She isn't sure she can find the exact spot she broke through last time, so she hopes simply flying to the edge of the atmosphere will be enough, in which case anywhere will do. If not, they were at least approaching the city from the west, so it's as good a place as any to start a search.
That just leaves them with right around a month to spend. They settle in, in their own ways, to do so. Twilight decides to split it between research in the day, and seeing friends at the Prancing Pony in the evenings. She also announces that she'll be speaking to the protesters in the park on election day.
Mr. Gray's back in his element, and though he'd of course never show it, he's loving it. He doesn't have a little symbol on his butt like those weird ponies (the thought of having one makes him crack a slight smile) but he's always felt this shadowy world is where he was meant to be, looking for connections, leverage, the ways in and out unseen.
Lasombra's assignment for him is difficult. There's a massive capability gap between them and their enemies. They're outnumbered and outgunned, but he's used to that. It's another thing he finds he's missed. But day by day he thinks he's figuring it out, finding the way in. He thinks he'll have it all set up in time for election day.
Applejack stands next to Twilight and her other pony friends on the base of the statue, looking out over the park, waiting for the election results to come in. She's proud of everything they've done here in the last month. Almost half the park's a garden, largely thanks to her, and several new structures loom in the distance. If they need to, the humans will be able to stay safely all winter, and if they don't, some are already talking about maintaining the garden, using the techniques Applejack showed them and the magic she wove into the soil, and using it to feed the needy. She smiles at the thought. The magic should last at least a few years, maybe more, and she hopes when it fades, the power of old fashioned hard work will prove equal to the task of keeping the garden going.
There's a big screen set up nearby, showing the news coverage of the elections. The polls are looking good for picking up a majority in congress, which seems to surprise many of their human friends, though Applejack isn't sure why. Even the news networks have been forced to respond, listing "Independent" on their charts next to the usual Republican and Democrat sections. They remain too hidebound to list the proper party name the loose coalition of progressive candidates has been using: "Reform".
A hush falls over the crowd as the results start coming in.
Lasombra's already claimed he'll cover the other approaches to the park, though Mr. Gray has no idea how he'll get them all; as far as he knows, theirs is a two-person operation. Nonetheless, he's not being paid to ask questions, so he finds himself sneaking through yet another vacant apartment, this one on the edge of the Cambridge Common. He's close enough to hear the sounds of the crowd through the open window. They're cheering as the first election results come in; apparently it's going at least as well as the polls predicted.
"I've secured our flanks," Lasombra's voice sounds through his earpiece, "are you proceeding on schedule?"
Silently Mr. Gray reaches up and presses the earpiece gently, sending the affirmative tone.
"Excellent. I'm en route; see you soon and stick to the plan."
Mr. Gray sends the tone again, then skulks towards the window.
Rainbow's grinning wide as the last of the results come in, wing around Mary. She knows this means she'll have to leave soon, and she's ready - of course she's ready, Rainbow Dash isn't going to be sad over something so mushy! So of course she's happy the humans elected so many of their friends. Twilight's told her that it'll be a long road for them still, that there are powerful interests entrenched in the government that might takes years or decades to root out, but to Dash, this doesn't sound very different from all the other "impossible" missions they've had. She knows their human friends can do it. After all, they're their friends.
So when the final results come in, and the lavender "Independent" bar outweighs the blue and red ones combined, she leans close against Mary and cheers with everyone else, then falls silent as Twilight moves forward to start her speech.
She's good at it, of course. She's Twilight, after all. But Dash has heard a lot of these before, and there's hardly anything exciting about them at all, so she finds her keen eyes drifting around the dark park, taking in the nearly-bare streetlit trees, the throng of happy people, drinking in Twilight's words, and the dark facades of the buildings, far beyond the park...
Her eyes stop on one building, caught by the telltale glint of metal in the orange streetlight. She feels them widen, and her wings spring to readiness.
"Twilight," she hisses at her friend, "shield!"
Twilight doesn't miss a beat in her speech, but Dash sees the purple globe spring up around her, and the crowd murmurs. As Twilight tries to reassure them, Rainbow springs into the air, heading towards the building at her best speed. She hopes she can get there before the gunner can find a new target.
Polaris creeps up the empty apartment's stairs with newly-practiced silence. She's spent the last month focusing on that in particular - her staff skills haven't let her down yet, but if she isn't willing to use a gun herself, she feels she should at least have the best chance to get to her ideal range undetected.
She's glad she bothered. On a whim, she'd searched for vacant apartments near the common, and found none, but after further digging had discovered this one, rented not by an individual but by a company, and just for November. Now she's slipped in through a curiously unsecured window, and every instinct she has is telling her she was right. The three-story condo faces the park and is totally unfurnished, and she saw coming in that one of the third floor windows is ideally placed with a view to the statue. Now she's reached the third floor, and eases around the doorway to peer at the window.
As she suspected, a large man lies prone, facing out the window, armed with a long rifle. She sighs in her head. She's been hoping against hope they were over this, but apparently either someone hasn't learned the lesson they claimed, or some other interest group has decided, against all evidence, that removing the Princess will somehow make this all go away. She slides her staff free, and prepares to strike. One blow to the hand followed by a second to the head should do it - make him lose the trigger, then hopefully knock him cleanly out.
Just as she's about to leap, she hears the muffled sound of two silenced shots and twin blooms of blood spring forth, one on the man's back and one on his head. He slumps, motionless, dropping the rifle. She steps back and sees Mr. Gray step into the room. He bends down and checks the man's pulse.
"Ah," a man's voice says behind her, "I can see we had nothing to worry about, after all." She turns to look and sees a well-dressed, dark haired man with a neat mustache and goatee finish climbing quietly up the stairs.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Gray asks from the other room. The new arrival gestures to her. Polaris turns to meet Mr. Gray's eyes; he nods at her.
"Well, well. Good to see she's in good hands."
"Thanks? What are you doing here?" Polaris can't quite hide her distrust.
"He paid me," Mr. Gray shrugs, and looks towards the other man.
"David Lasombra," he introduces himself. "I felt I owed Twilight. So when I heard from some of my contracts in the wider corporate world that a few of the more...reckless companies feared a loss of influence in Washington, and felt that removing Twilight might somehow help, I felt I should intervene."
"This is their plan? One guy in an apartment?"
"Not at all. As I said, I have my connections. Some of them are more sympathetic than others, and I was able to work with them to...misdirect most of their agents. They've somehow ended up in Officer Diaz's holding cells. This crude gentleman was their ace in the hole."
"Thanks, I suppose," Polaris nods at him. "We'll take any help we can get."
"Yes, well," Lasombra says, "as I said, I owed her."
"I've read the diary," Polaris says.
"I suppose you have," he sighs. "Well, good luck."
She nods, and heads down the stairs.
"So, what's your plan now?" Mr. Gray shakes off his confusion at seeing Polaris, and focuses on Lasombra's voice.
"My old bosses fired me," he says, then gestures to the window and the exuberant crowd outside, "but it sounds like their bosses just did the same to them. We don't hold grudges in my line of work; enough enemies as it is. I'll take a few months off, wait for the dust to settle, then see if the new guys need me. A good word from her might not hurt." He nods towards the stairs after Polaris. "You?"
"Back to work, I suppose," Lasombra shrugs. "I had a lot of vacation saved up, but it's mostly gone. Plenty to do in the robotics field, as usual." He stares down the stairs, mouth tight, and is silent for a long while. Outside, the crowd cheers again.
"Still," he says, "I enjoyed this. I felt like I was doing some real good."
Mr. Gray finds himself nodding, slowly. He pulls his old badge out of his pocket and gives it a long stare. Finally, he sighs, and tosses it out the window.
"I bet we can still catch up to her," he says.
Lasombra looks up, mouth open, then smiles.
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"How'd you know my first name? But I go by Lou."
"Wait, your name is actually Loius?"
"First generation. Parents're French. Why'd you call me that if you didn't know?"
"I don't know if I'm more shocked it happened to be your name, or that you haven't seen Casablanca." Lasombra laughs as they head down the stairs. "I have it, if you'd like to."
"What, to watch it with you?"
"Sure. What are friends for?"
Mr. Gray - Lou - is silent for a floor's worth of stairs. "I don't know," he says finally, "I haven't had any since I was a kid."
Lasombra looks at him. "Me either, come to think," he says, "unless you count ones I've made myself. Which you shouldn't. I guess we'll just have to figure it out."
"Yeah," Lou finds himself smiling, "I guess we will."
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This story is so good.
4813126
4813343 It's funny how you're telling everyone to avoid this story yet you keep commenting on it.
No offense.
4813349 None taken.
4813234 Look,I liked this story and that's my opinion and you have your's and also it seems that you're trying to offend me,Which you're not cause I've been though too much shit to give a fuck anymore also alot of hospital visits so many times that everyone deemed the "normal" of the hospital. So yeah you might think this story sucks but I don't and that is that. So yeah I'm not offended,you troll. :p
Considering what one of the parts of the last chapter were, my guess is that the gate is likely to be two-way... and once again, it makes me wonder about the true nature of the gate given how the Mane Six arrived on Earth and the lack of memories (I have the feeling it involve the teleportation paradox/clone-instance dilemna), the gate is not a 'pure' one like the mirror from that best forgotten thing.
I'm thinking that it's probable that this story arc is coming to an end... but though things are starting to be tied up nicely, the main mystery of the story remain unsolved, making me think that though the Mane Six have a 'way home', they're far, very far from done with this particular chain of events.
Hey all, not dead or anything, but summer con season is a real beast! Heading out to GenCon this weekend and so might not get an update in until next week, but should be done with it after that. This one is wrapping up and I have another story planned for after, and I'm excited about both. Sorry for the delay.
Well, some things happened. Finished well at MLP CCG Nationals (not something I ever expected to say a year ago), got buried by catch-up work, got sick. Linear time is a harsh companion. But I'm back. Probably three more chapters in this one, and then I'll be on to the next story, which will be more traditional. Hopefully at least one of the three will be up in a few hours.
I worried about Grey and Lasombra colluding. Nice misdirection. Also good to see I was incorrect when I called Lasombra being bad a while back.