Marked

by Eisen

Chapter 22: The Dark Hall

Author's Note:

I've composed another song for Marked, this one a theme for the halls of the Trident facility.
Click here to listen, and thanks for reading and all your feedback!

Twilight looked at Reach's office and bit her lip in consideration. Reach could answer numerous questions I have about this Trident, and I'll likely get access to that hallway if I agree to join anyway... And yet...

She paused and looked back at the door, both fantastic and ominous at the same time. "Directive," the plaque read. If he lets me in, he may be selective in what he lets me see, and while what I have seen is amazing, it also raised a lot of questions. If I take a look for myself, I'm far more likely to see things as they are, unfiltered.

Thus she was faced with a choice. To go to Reach, or to take a peek for herself. After a long while of consideration, she looked at the door, and set her jaw in affirmation of her choice. Her horn glowed, reflecting the purple aura off of the polished tiles upon which she stood, as she used her power to search for life signatures. She could detect Reach in his office, still sitting in the same spot, likely reading or watching something. She could detect individuals milling about in their rooms in the halls, but there were no hidden observers, no one-way glass rooms. She felt safe.

Twilight took a deep breath as her horn powered down, and tried some deep breathing exercises. Even with her Alicornic power, she could only maintain invisibility for about four minutes, tops. It should be noted that most unicorns can't even turn invisible to begin with, let alone hold that state for much longer than a few seconds, unless they either trained for a very long time, or were extremely powerful. Even her few minutes of invisiblility when infiltrating the Reach building had been pretty exausting.

She closed her eyes, and slowly let out a long sigh of preparation. After one last detection sweep to make sure nobody was in the halls, she slowly began to disappear until the hall seemed completely empty, and the door marked with the red arrow opened and shut silently.

4:00 minutes remaining.

The hallway was more dimly lit than the other two, and the red arrows on each door gave off a soft red light, very likely some kind of polished and cut, glowing, smooth crystal. Twilight very quickly read the doors: Command Centers A and B, Planning Room, Strategic Analysis, Demographics Room, Member Quarters, Documents, and Council Meeting Room. After briefly detecting life near the doors, she found Command Center B to be completely empty, and decided to slip inside.

Within the room, she observed a very large, ring-shaped table. She saw some papers lying on the tabletop in front of a few chairs, and decided to skim the contents. Many of them seemed to talk about the same subject: enacting an "Economic Revitilization Protocol." From what she read, the people in this room were concerned that, becuase Equestrians had only each other to trade with, the economy was winding down. There were a lot of proposals for new colonies and new business in the Crystal Empire, but what caught her eye was a few brief mentions of "The Reach Plan," and whatever it was, it seemed to involve non-Equestrian nations, but she could only derive that much from context.

3:30 minutes remaining.

Twilight walked out into the hall, and knew that she needed more information on these kinds of plans, if she would be working for them. She detected life again, and found that Command Center A was full, but no one was by the door, so she covertly dropped in. Inside, an identical ring-shaped black table was present, all the seats filled, with a dark red colored mare standing in the center of the table and trotting about and looking around at each one of the ponies present.

"Now, if we could redirect to the core topic, I personally believe that Mr. Reach's plan is a bit out there in terms of feasability... but, I must know your input so that I may properly represent you in the upcoming council meeting." She spoke with a mighty tone, reminding Twilight somewhat of Mrs. Harshwhinny, but slightly less posh, much flatter. After hearing the council comment, she took note of the two red sashes she bore, one of which had a golden stripe traveling it's length. So she's one of the council members then... Twilight thought to herself as she listened, trying to ignore the strain from staying invisible.

One member, a light blue stallion, spoke up with a fairly calm voice. "I'm all for it, assuming he can actually get it to work."

Another piped up, this one wearing a Yellow sash with a red stripe. The comment seemed to spur him to add to it. "What makes me concerned is that Mr. Reach never specified exactly how he was going to use the stored unicorn energy we're working on down at R&D, other than simply saying the energy was part of his plan to boost the range of effect. From a technical standpoint, I'd like to know how he's using it."

Yet another member chimed in, reminding the whole that Reach had never steered them wrong before, which earned much approval all around, with nodding of heads and murmuring of agreements.

Twilight was just about to duck out and save her energy, when another member's words stopped her cold. "Regardless of the council's decree, the old stallion's reluctance to repurpose the Brander is, and will be, a significant obstacle, and I find that Mr. Reach was oddly vague about how he would fill the void." This did cause a small stir among them, before he continued speaking along the same thought. "Not that the hermit is ever around when we need him anyway. Why, the guards say he just returned to duty last night after being gone for well over a week."

1:00 minute remaining

At this point, she was very interested in what they had to say, but she had to leave the room, as she was beginning to feel weak. To put the strain of a unicorn constantly exerting that kind of energy into perspective, one could very much compare it to trying to hold a plank for a long period of time, and the more energy needed for an action, the more strain is put on the unicorn, like adding weight to that plank.

That said, she struggled to keep her breathing quiet as she slipped into the "Documents" room, determined to find something out about this Brander before she left.

Thankfully, the only person there was a red-sashed librarian, working behind his desk, organizing files. This made it so much easier for her to slip over and find a document on the Brander, and her knowledge of library layouts and alphabetical organization allowed her to snatch the folder quickly. She found a secluded place to crouch in the corner of the library, where she decloaked with a quiet sigh of relief.

Alright, time for some answers, Twilight thought to herself. She peeled open the folder and found that it was a record of maintainance orders, which explained what she found at the Reach building. It listed all sorts of components that were mandated from companies all over Equestria, and even a few from mage guilds. Lots of orders for metals, various refined crystals, gems, and a few electronic components, but nothing very complex. In fact, a lot of these materials weren't high tech in the slightest, with the few techy compoments mainly dealing with electricity.

She read that more maintainance and supplies had been ordered in the previous year than in the previous two decades combined, which logically in her mind meant that either something broke, something was being added, or was getting significantly modified. She couldn't find anything that gave her a clue exactly what it did, and it was likely that many of these orders were for raw materials, and thus would be constructed into whatever was needed on site.

Then, her eyes widened as she finally found something she could use. It gave a location, and a broadcast range. The peak above Canterlot. The Brander is located in the peak above Canterlot! She read through delivery instructions that there was a small cave, marked by a three-pointed rock formation just under the frigid cap of the peak. The "broadcast range" specification though worried her quite a bit, as whatever it was broadcasting, it did so all over Equestria. The range was far enough to even reach out beyond Appleoosa. What device would need that kind of range? she pondered.

She almost panicked as two mares walked in, discussing the economy. Twilight took a few deep breaths and turned invisible once more, slipping by them and covertly dropping the file back off, which became visible just as she walked away from it. None of them noticed.

She had about another minute left of energy, and it was a straight shot out to the main hallway with Reach's office door. Just stay calm, let's get out of here, she reassured herself, walking calmly...

Then the meeting let out. All those ponies from Command Center A exited and filled the hallway.

30 seconds remaining

She had a small fear-based adrenaline rush, helping her weave between ponies, but she had to back up a few times to get out of the way, losing progress.

15 seconds remaing

She had to get out of there, her knees were starting to shake as she walked. Almost out, almost out, almost-- "oof!"

She froze in fear. "What the--?" A confused young stallion had bumped into her and stumbled, and he looked at the empty air before him, unaware that he was mere inches from a panicked princess, who was trying desperately not to breathe.

"You okay there?" one of his coworkers asked, another looking back as well. He stared at the air for a moment before shaking his head and walking towards them. "Yeah, yeah I'm alright."

0 seconds remaining, cloak unstable.

Twilight was faltering, pushing beyond her limits as she finally ducked into the main hallway, gasping for air as she collapsed on the cool tiles. She rested for a moment, then composed herself, using the breathing technique that Cadence had taught her to relax before looking over at Reach's door.

Alright Twilight, the princess thought to herself confidently as she strolled towards his door. It's time to go get some answers.

Comments

[Dlaf rferg]

Oooooooo, tensionnnnnn!!!!

Really enjoying the story, and the prompt is amazing. Wish I thought of it, honestly :p