//------------------------------//
// Chapter 31 
// Story: Sleeping in the Light 
// by Wheller 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 31


The change in scenery was a welcome one. The hot and sticky weather of Sainte-Hélène had been replaced by that of an air conditioned office. There was no humidity to speak of, and the air felt pleasant. Kelso’s passing thoughts of how wonderful the modern world was were quickly interrupted at the creak of an opening door.

Forcing Kelso to take a closer look at her surroundings, she was quick to discover that the room was occupied. It was none other than Vinyl Scratch, sitting in the chair, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling with her forelegs folded behind her head, and her hind legs resting on the desk in a rather nonchalant fashion. The door opened fully to reveal a kangaroo standing in the opening, looking completely flabbergasted at the fact that Vinyl Scratch was sitting in presumably his office, at his desk, in his chair. Kelso glanced around to the front of the desk to discover a name plate sitting on it. ‘Albert Isaac, Governor General’.

‘Hi there!’ Vinyl Scratch said with a wide grin, not bothering to sit herself down in a more regular fashion.

‘W... who are you!? How did you get in here!?’ the kangaroo that they presumed was Albert Isaac himself, cried out in surprise.

The unicorn mare’s grin got wider, and she casually pulled her trademark goggles off her eyes and down around her neck, revealing a bright pair of ruby red eyes. ‘Oh relax would ya? Name’s Vinyl Scratch and you should really invest in a sturdier lock. Here’s the thing, You’re Excellency, while I’m sure the who and how are great questions to ask in your mind, I’ve got a better one for you. “What do I want?”’ Vinyl Scratch said, almost as if she was about to tell the punch line of a well set up joke.

Albert Isaac studied the unicorn for a moment, she didn’t stop grinning at him, and he sighed, and lowered his head. ‘Fine, what do you want?’ Isaac asked, giving in to the intruder’s suggestion.

Vinyl Scratch leaned forward. Resting her fore knees on the desk and her head on her hooves, and looked up at the kangaroo and offered him a sweet smile, as if she was about to start buttering him up for something. ‘I need a ship, a fast ship, a ship fast enough to say... run the blockade of the Said Canal?’ Vinyl Scratch suggested. The passive observers were caught off guard by this question, the way she had asked it was the way a foal would ask for an extra scoop of ice crème after dinner.

‘The Said Canal?’ Sparky asked, looking to Kelso for answers. ‘Why would the Said Canal be blockaded?’

Kelso shook her head in disappointment. ‘At this point in history, the Capran nation of Misr is in a state of revolt against the welaran and the cheval management of the Said Canal... which is...’

‘The most important shipping lane that connects the Europan Sea to the Sea of Orange, yes, I know, I’m not completely stupid’, Sparky said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. ‘Skip to the good part’.

‘Long story short, since the welarans and cheval manage the canal, all the money made by ships paying to use the canal goes to them, and not the misr, even though it is situated in the middle of their territory’, Kelso explained.

‘And that’s bad?’ Sparky asked.

Kelso nodded in affirmation. ‘Basically, the misr revolt and occupy the canal, and they did a pretty good job of holding their own for a while until a single welaran corvette ran the blockade from the Sea of Orange side, smashing through the defences and allowing the rest of the Welaran Royal Navy to pour in and push the misr out, and that was it for that’, Kelso said simply.

Albert Isaac frowned at the unicorn before him. The frown quickly turned into a scowl as he began to process her request. ‘So, what? You think that you can just barge into my office in the middle of the night, and demand me to give you a ship?’ he cried out.

‘Well, it worked for Princess Luna, didn’t it?’ Vinyl Scratch said, tapping her hooves together and giving him another of her trademark grins.

Albert Isaac was taken aback by that statement.  ‘How... how do you know about that?!’ he asked.

‘Simple, Princess Luna happens to be one of my friends, and being my friend, is a good step into being her friend, and the Governor General of South Island being friends with one of the Princesses of Equestria... well, there aren’t many of those outside of Equestria’, Vinyl Scratch said with a grin, that had been her punch line.

‘I guess being acquainted with royalty has its perks?’ Dizzy asked with a shrug.

‘Not anymore it doesn’t’, Viola said, shaking her head in the negative. ‘Nowadays you’re lucky if you don’t get run out of the country on the suspicion of being a royalist’.

‘Hell, communists have more rights in Equestria then royalists do’, Hopely added with a scoff.

‘I see... I take it you have a ship in mind?’ Albert Isaac asked.

‘I do!’ Vinyl Scratch said, nodding her head insanely. ‘HMSIS Dash’.

Albert Isaac raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Dash, the kangaroo gave the unicorn mare a quizzical look, Kelso recognised that look, it was the same look that she had seen nearly every day that she interviewed a suspect for one of her cases. The look that meant what he had just heard sounded familiar.

‘You... you’re that mare that caused all that property damage? Aren’t you?’ he asked accusingly.

Vinyl Scratch sighed and shook her head in disappointment. ‘How many times do I need to explain this? I put the fires out, and I paid for all the damages. Everypony just needs to let it go...’

‘Yeah, that didn’t stop the Trotterdam city council from passing a law that bars her and her descendants from ever entering the city again’, Hopely said with chuckle.

‘Shut up Hopely’, Sparky said, giving her the evil eye.

Albert Isaac couldn’t help but smirk. ‘All right, all right, you plan on running the Said Canal? Well I wish you good luck. The Dash is at Port Beagle, and I’ll let them know that you’re coming’.

Vinyl Scratch nodded in thanks. ‘One more thing’, she added.

‘Yes?’ Albert Isaac asked, his voice sounding as if he was regretting this action already.

Vinyl Scratch merely grinned at him. ‘There’s a certain kangaroo I need on board...’

...

And here they were, back to the hellhole Sainte-Hélène, and it was funny that Kelso used the word hellhole, because she and the rest of the passive observers found themselves squished into a small trench that someone had dug out, along with Rarity, Fluttershy, and the angry looking cheval mare from a previous memory. She had since removed her rifle and had switched over instead to a submachine gun, and was working to secure the rest of her ammunition for it.

Despite being a cramped hole, it did have a number of amenities that would likely not be found anywhere else on the island.  Such as a bed made from tree branches and banana leaves, a table created from several bamboo rods tied together, and oddly enough, a military grade wireless receiver, likely stolen from one of the buildings in the actual prison complex.

Rarity’s eyes widened as she looked at the radio sitting on the table. She must have figured that she could use it to call for help and get off the island, and she happily trotted over to it. The cheval mare, however, had other ideas, and was quick to turn around and hold the submachine gun to her head.

‘I... uh, don’t suppose you would be willing to let us use your radio?’ Rarity asked, chuckling nervously.

‘Not a chance wallish’, the cheval mare said, causing Rarity to take a step back in surprise, not expecting that the cheval could understand her, let alone actually be able to speak to her.

‘You... you speak our language?’ Rarity asked dumbfoundedly.

'Of course she does, she's cheval! They all speak wallish, they'll just never let you know they do', Hopely said, rolling her eyes at Rarity's naïveté.

‘Of course I do wallish’, the cheval mare said, rolling her eyes. ‘What idiot doesn’t learn the languages of their neighbours?’

Not waiting for an answer, the cheval mare finished securing the rest of her ammunition and waved for Rarity and Fluttershy to follow. ‘Come, we’re leaving’, she said simply, and pushed open the camouflaged roof entrance to her hole.

‘Leaving?’ Rarity asked. ‘What? I’m not leaving until...’

‘Take a look around you’, the cheval mare interrupted as she climbed out. ‘I guess if you want to stay... I can’t stop you’.

Rarity, along with the rest of the passive observers glanced around to discover multiple bricks of plastic explosives that lined the walls of the hole they were standing in. ‘No no no! I’ll go! Yes, let’s go! Let’s go now...’ Rarity said with a nervous chuckle, and quickly pulled herself out of the hole, not willing to spend any more time in it than she already had. Fluttershy said nothing, glancing around at the explosives and quickly followed with nothing more than a fearful squeak.

When they were outside, the cheval mare took the rifle in her teeth and passed it over to Rarity, who looked confused as to what she was supposed to do with it.

‘Take it!’ the cheval mare said in annoyance.

Rarity did as she was told, and looked the weapon over for a moment before looking back at the Pegasus mare. ‘I... I don’t know how to use this!’ Rarity cried out.

The cheval mare sighed and trotted over to a nearby pear tree, and set herself down against it, she took one of the fallen pears and skilfully balanced it upon her head. 'Well?' she asked, looking to Rarity expectedly.

Rarity looked blankly at the cheval for a moment before speaking. ‘You don’t want me to shoot that pear do you?’ Rarity asked, appalled at the idea of such an action.

‘You’re brilliant, wallish’, she said, rolling her eyes.

Rarity was starting to get annoyed with her. ‘First off, we are not wallish. We are equestrians! Second off my name is Rarity and I wish to be addressed as such!’ Rarity cried out, completely oblivious to the fact that the cheval mare was clearly aware that they were not welaran, and merely calling her such to get a rise out of her.

‘Sure, whatever wallish’, the cheval mare said with a look of amusement on her face. ‘Equestrian, huh? Well makes sense, considering you were dumb enough to come here. You want respect? You have to earn it, you’re already dumb enough...’

‘We didn’t choose to come here! We shipwrecked!’ Rarity cried out, interrupting the mare.

‘Uh... Rarity?’ Fluttershy squeaked quietly, trying, and failing, to get Rarity's attention. Fluttershy clearly understood what the cheval mare was trying to do, but Rarity was too angry to pay attention to the meek pegasus, and her words fell upon deaf ears.

‘Likely story, you’re all words and no action anyway’, the cheval mare said, rolling her eyes.

‘Uh... Rarity?’ Fluttershy asked again.

‘Oh? You want to see action is it? I’ll show you action!’ Rarity cried out, ignoring Fluttershy again as she brought the rifle to bear.

‘She’s going to hurt someone with that!’ Sparky cried out.

‘I can’t bear to watch’, Dizzy said turning away.

‘Um...RARITY!’ Fluttershy cried out.

‘I am waiting...’ the mare said with a yawn.

Rarity looked down the rifle’s aperture sights and pulled the trigger with her telekinesis.

‘RARITY!’ Fluttershy shouted at her.

The bullet exploded out of the rifle and impacted upon the pear on the cheval mare’s head, causing it to explode and sending the chunks of the fruit off in random directions. The cheval mare began to smile. ‘You do have guts wallish’, she said.

The realisation of what Rarity had just done began to sink in; she couldn’t believe she had just done that. Fluttershy had hit the ground, covering her ears and shivering in fear.

The cheval mare walked up to her, continuing to smile. ‘My name is Danielle, Danielle Voltaire, and we are going to get off this island. Together’.