Nightmare Moon had conquered our second sheriff's station, and we planned to move our base from the cave in the desert to someplace more civilized.
At long last, we flew down to the desert floor below us and walked into the cave entrance. Neither of us had much to say this morning, so with the proper application of magic our respective armor was removed and we climbed into bed. I curled up between my cuddle buddy's forelegs and pressed my back against her barrel. We were both asleep in moments.
We awoke just as the sun was about to pass below the horizon. Both of us were quick out of bed; today was moving day, after all. Fortunately, there were no boxes to fill with clothing and knick knacks, as all we had was handled by Nightmare Moon's magic. A quick spell from her, and our bed and armor stands vanished one by one into her pocket dimension.
She spent the next few minutes scanning for and dispersing any residual magic found in the cave. She said this was so anyone looking for her would not be able to sense the presence of her magic and possibly track us down with it. Not knowing enough to say otherwise, I accepted her word and simply trusted that the dark mare knew what she was doing.
After she declared the cave to be absent of magic residue, she swept the dirt floor clean of any hoof and foot prints. We circled the desert floor for several more minutes, until my queen declared that no trace of her magic was left.
I said a silent goodbye to our old home, the place where I had learned to be a mage and where my life had changed so much. We then departed for the Central Station posthaste.
Veering yet again around the MCAGCC Twentynine Palms marine base, we made acceptable time and landed in front of the Central Station sheriff's station. I opened the front door for the Mare in the Moon, and we casually walked inside. At the front desk was the same officer from the morning. Looking up from his paperwork, his face brightened as he recognized us.
"Good evening, Mistress and Master! We have a home all picked out for you. We hope it will meet your needs."
"We shall see. But first, are there any officers here this evening that are not fully subverted?"
"There are a few, Mistress."
"Lead me to them, and I shall bring them into the fold."
"I'll call someone up to help you, Mistress. I'm not supposed to leave the front desk."
"As you wish, but do not dawdle."
While the officer reached for his desk phone, I had a request of my own for the dark mare.
"My Queen?"
"I am still not comfortable with you addressing me in such a manner, Captain."
"You have a better term?"
"Nay."
"Then, Queen it is. Anyway, I had a question."
"What is it?"
"Can you enslave the new officers on your own? I want to gather up a list of the officers we need to visit tonight."
"As you wish. I shall enlist the help of my minions in your stead."
"Sounds good."
I walked up to the front desk, and caught the attention of the officer behind it just as he hung up the phone. I informed him of what I wanted to do, and he said the Duty Officer would be able to help me. He picked up the desk phone again and proceeded to call the Duty Officer to the front desk. While I waited, two officers arrived to guide Nightmare Moon to the others that had not yet been drafted into the ebony mare's army.
Soon afterwards, the Duty Officer arrived. He led me through a side door and down an nondescript hallway to an empty conference room. As we both sat down in some mildly comfortable chairs, the Duty Officer spoke to me.
"So Master, what can I do for you?"
I could get used to this 'Master' business really quickly.
"I need a list of all the officers assigned to this station that are currently off-duty, along with their addresses. The Mistress and I will be visiting their homes tonight and enslaving them."
"Alright, I can do that. Anything else?"
"Yes. I'm not familiar with the area, so can you plot the addresses out on a map? I'd input them into my phone, but I don't have it anymore."
"Oh? What happened to it?"
It got dissolved when I got changed into this cat-creature, but that's none of your business.
"Dropped it and broke it."
"Ouch. Well, tell you what. I can put the addresses into one of the iPads we use here at the station. It's got 4G and GPS, so you can just chase down the saved pins on the map."
"Really? Hey, that's great! Can I put comments on the map? It would be helpful if I could flag the addresses we've visited, and the ones we've finished."
"Sure. I'll create a custom map, which will let you change the icons for the saved pins. You can write comments as well."
"Perfect. How long will this take you to finish?"
"Hmm. About an hour or so, Master."
"Alright. Get started on that right away. Oh, and call someone over who can lead me to the Mistress."
"I can do that, Master. The Mistress is right near my office at the moment."
Huh?
Oh right, all the shadow parasites can talk to each other.
"Then lead the way."
The two of us got out of our chairs, and I followed the Duty Officer out of the conference room. We walked down a few seemingly random hallways, then into a nondescript back room where we found Nightmare Moon. She was presiding over a single officer, who was lying on the floor. I figured that the officer was being run through her own version of the 'savior' dream. While I watched, the officer opened her eyes and sat up. She then stood up and left the room without another word.
Now that my dark Queen was no longer busy, I spoke up.
"My Queen, I've returned."
She looked up, then smiled warmly at me..
"Ah, perfect timing Captain. I have just finished with the last officer at this guard station. We were fortunate, all of them had shadow parasites and all but one needed a single pass through the 'savior' dream to fully subjugate them. The one that just left required a second pass."
"That's good news. The Duty Officer here needs an hour or so to get his list done, so I'd guess our next step is to visit our new home."
"Correct, Captain. Duty Officer?"
"I'll have an officer meet you here and show you the way, Mistress and Master. Excuse me."
Nightmare Moon and I watched the Duty Officer turn and quickly exit the room.
"I am impatient and wish to meet the guard as soon as possible, Captain."
"Sure. Why don't we meet him in the hallway?"
"Agreed."
The two of us stood and made our way to the doorway. I reached it first, so I opened the door and held it open for my Queen. My Moon Mistress gave me a barely perceptible nod in thanks, and strode confidently through the doorway. I followed afterwards and closed the door behind me.
I was facing a bare wall painted a shade of light gray. The corridor stretched off to both my left and right. The left ended in a blank wall some hundred or so feet away, while the right ended in a set of double doors maybe some sixty feet down the corridor. Both directions had several doors and additional corridors branching off form them. The door I just closed was right behind me. The floor was made up of some sort of gray marbled vinyl tile, covered in a glossy wax coating that made the tile look like a slick granite countertop. The walls had various scrapes and scuffs in the paint, but no posters or other materials on the surface.
I looked to Nightmare Moon, to see if she wanted to stand and wait for our guide or walk down one of the corridors to meet him. She chose instead to sit down facing the right corridor, and closed her eyes. She immediately opened her eyes, then stood up and began to walk down the right corridor. A moment later, a uniformed officer appeared from a connecting corridor that joined this one just before the double doors.
"Mistress, Master! Please follow me."
It's almost like she knew the officer was about to appear.
I dismissed the thought from my mind and followed my dark Queen down the corridor. Once we had met up with the officer, he turned to walk in front of us. Once he reached the double doors, he pushed them open and revealed a similar corridor beyond them. However, this corridor ended in a sturdy-looking door which I presumed led outside.
As with the night before, no one batted an eye at our presence. Granted, this was a back hallway that did not seem to be used often. But the few officers did not even look our way as they went about their business. The waxed vinyl floor felt cold and smooth beneath my bare cat-feet; feet which made no sound as I walked down the hallway. The officer's boots squeaked slightly on the floor, while Nightmare Moon's armored hooves clacked loudly at each step on the firm surface.
Upon reaching the sturdy door, my presumption was proven true as the officer opened said door and revealed a parking lot outside the building. The three of us walked out into the cool night air, and I quickly recognized the area as the parking area on the east side of the building.
Once the officer left the sidewalk and entered the parking lot proper, he spoke to the two of us.
"Alright, let me find the panel van that these keys belong to. I'll have to remove the seats somehow, or you'll be squished Mistress."
The Mare in the Moon turned to me for an explanation.
"I think he wants to transport us to our new home in one of these cars."
The ebony mare's eyes opened in understanding, then she turned to face her minion.
"That shall not be necessary."
"Well then Mistress, how can I show you the property we found for you?"
Nightmare Moon and I unfurled our wings and spread them wide.
"Flight, of course."
"Yeah. You just drive and we'll follow."
"Oh. I didn't think about that, Master."
"It's alright. You can't fly, so your first thought is ground transportation. No harm done. Now get a patrol car and let's go."
"Okay. Good thing I still have the keys for my cruiser with me."
The Moon Mistress and I stood in place, wings unfurled, and watched the unnamed officer walk to a nearby patrol car. Under our patient gaze, he unlocked the car door and got in. A moment later, the engine roared to life. When he had pulled out of the parking space and began to drive down the parking lot aisle, Nightmare Moon and I took off and followed him from high up in the air.
We followed the police car as it pulled out of the parking lot and made a left turn on to the main street. Shortly, he made a left turn on to another major street. Several minutes' drive down this street, and the patrol car made another left then quickly turned right into a residential neighborhood. The patrol car wound its way through the residential streets until it turned into a secluded subdivision. This street had several homes in various states of construction. Some homes were little more than bare lots, while others were merely bare plywood and 2x4's. Three of the homes appeared to be complete, all of them two-story homes. The ground around the homes was bare dirt covered in ruts worn into the surface by footprints and rainwater. However, concrete walkways had been laid that led from the street to their front doors.
The officer parked in front of a completed home that was painted in shades of pastel blue and white, and exited the vehicle. Nightmare Moon and I took that as our cue to land. As soon as our respective hooves and paws touched the road surface next to the patrol car, the still-unnamed officer spoke up.
"The contractor who built these homes lost their funding before they could finish this subdivision, and went bankrupt before they could sell any of the finished homes. This home is the nicest one in our opinion, but the whole neighborhood is yours if you want it."
The three of us walked single-file up the walkway to the front door. The officer pulled his keys out of his pocket, unlocked the door and held it open for us. Nightmare Moon entered first of course, and I followed afterwards. Once we were inside, the officer followed us in and closed the door behind himself.
At first glance, the floor plan felt very familiar. I was standing in the tiny foyer with my back to the front door. The stairs to the second floor climbed upwards in front of me, and they turned to the left near the top. To my left stretched the large living room, which the dark mare was standing in the middle of. Past the living room I could see part of the kitchen. To my right was a door, which I presumed was a closet. The walls were pristine and painted a shade of white. The plush carpet on the floor and stairs looked to be the same shade of white, though the carpet looked dirty and could have used a good vacuuming. The carpet muffled our footsteps; even the Mare in the Moon's armored hooves were quiet.
I turned to the officer, who was standing next to me in the foyer.
"Looks nice, good job."
"Thank you, Master. Do you still need me, or can I return to the station? I'm a half-hour late for my patrol on the south side of the city."
"No, I think we're good here."
"OK, I'm out. Here are the keys for the other houses here, in case you want to check them out. Please return them to the reception desk when you return to the station, and we can make you a copy of any key you need."
The never-to-be-named officer pressed a set of keys on a key ring into my palm, then opened the front door and let himself out. As I walked into the living room and looked around, I heard the patrol car outside start up and drive off.
Once in the living room, I could see that there was a hallway behind the staircase that led to two bedrooms on the other side of the home. As I watched, Nightmare Moon exited one of the bedrooms and began to walk back down the hallway towards me. Once she noticed me standing in the living room, she addressed me.
"This domicile may be suitable for our needs, although the two rooms back here are somewhat cramped. If there is nothing suitable upstairs, we may need to reside in this large room."
"This home is probably designed for a family my queen, and those two rooms are probably intended for children. The master bedroom should be upstairs."
"Agreed."
Up the staircase we went. To our pleasant surprise, the second floor was one large room. The room stretched over half of the first floor, essentially covering the space above the living room and kitchen on the first floor. The walls were painted the same shade of white as below, and the carpet also looked to be the same. To our left, there was a large decorative bay window which took up the entire wall. There were thick curtains on either side of the window that were held open. Through the window we could easily see the street in front of the building. To our right was another decorative window, but this one had doors that led out to a large balcony. The rest of the room was empty.
Upon sighting the balcony, Nightmare Moon's eyes went wide.
"Oh, by the maker!"
The ebony mare rushed over to the balcony doors and swung them wide, then walked out onto the balcony itself. My curiosity piqued, I followed behind her.
"This is glorious! It reminds me of my rooms back in Everfree Castle!"
I looked down at the dirt and weeds below the balcony, and then out into the desert beyond.
"Not much of a view to speak of, my Queen."
"Bah, I care not about the view. I care about the seclusion and ease of access. We can easily land on this balcony in the morning and enter our home without being seen. This will do."
The Night Incarnate turned from the balcony and walked back inside. I did the same and closed the balcony doors behind me. Under my gaze, Nightmare Moon lit her horn and closed her eyes in concentration. Suddenly, the room flashed and our bed from the cave appeared in the middle of the room. The head of the bed was against the wall to my right, and stretched into the large room. Another flash, and my armor stand appeared near me; also on the wall to my right. A final flash and Nightmare Moon's armor stand was on the same wall, on the other side of the bed.
My Moon Mistress opened her eyes, and smiled as she saw her handiwork.
"There. Now this domicile looks more like a proper home. I would prefer to add more draperies and tapestries, but it shall do for now."
Nightmare Moon turned and began to walk towards the balcony doors behind me.
"Shall we depart?"
I felt the weight of the keys in my palm, and realized that we would not need them as we would be using the balcony to enter and exit our new home.
"I'll meet you outside, I want to lock the front door."
"As you wish."
I made for the stairs just as I heard the balcony doors being opened. A quick run down the stairs, and I left our new home via the front door. Turning around, I fumbled with the keys for a moment until I found the correct one. A quick turn of my wrist to close the deadbolt, and I was off the ground to meet with my dark Queen.
A short and dull flight over darkened homes and twinkling street lights later, and we arrived back at the Central sheriff's station. This time, we sauntered past the glass panes in front of the front door as if we owned the place. We had nothing to fear - we actually DID own the place. I opened the front door for the Night Mare and followed after her as she entered the building. Again, the same officer was at the front desk. He quickly noticed our arrival, and brightened noticeably. Reaching behind his desk, he placed an iPad on the counter for us.
"Here you go, Mistress and Master. The addresses of all the off-duty officers are plotted into Google Maps on this device, so it's ready for you to use."
Nightmare Moon snagged the iPad with her magic, glanced at its darkened surface, then floated the device over to me. I turned the device on; Google Maps was already open, and the map was centered on the Central station. Pinching the screen to zoom out the map, I saw that there were a lot of red pins on the map; maybe some two dozen or more. I zoomed back in, and tapped on one of the red pins. A dialog popped up, which showed the name of the officer in the title, their address and a photo of the officer in the description. Tapping on the push pin icon in the upper-right of the dialog let me change the icon to push pins in different colors, or I could choose a completely different icon altogether.
The Duty Officer set this up just right.
"My Queen, this device is set up perfectly. Oh, officer?"
When the desk officer looked up, I tossed him the key ring of keys to him.
"These are the keys for the homes in the subdivision the Mistress and I will be staying at. We won't need any copies."
"Alright, Master."
I turned to Nightmare Moon, and showed her the map on the iPad.
"This marker in the center is our current location, and the red pins represent guards that we need to visit. Do you have any preference as to where we start?"
"I would prefer the most efficient route, whatever that may be."
"Of course. I'll try, but the pins are scattered all over. I presume that I will lead, since I have the map again?"
"Correct."
"Alright, off we go."
Back out the front door and into the air, I led Nightmare Moon to our first target of the evening.
Using the iPad as a guide, we arrived at the first address some ten minutes later. The residence was a large multi-building apartment complex, so we had to search the property for the officer's apartment number. Of course, the numbers on the floors weren't in sequential order from one building to another. The numbers jumped around in some crazy pattern that neither of us could figure out, so we ended up wandering for several frustrating minutes before we FINALLY found the apartment.
"Alright, my Queen; we're here. How do we get in?"
"A simple task. I shall slip under the doorway in my mist form."
"And what about me? Gonna unlock the door so I can get in?"
"Ah.
"As your presence is unnecessary for me to impart the 'savior' dream on to our subject, perhaps it is best that you should wait out here."
Oh.
Before I could reply, the dark mare had turned to mist and slipped through the cracks around the doorway.
Then silence.
I looked up and down the empty hallway to see if anyone was watching us, but I couldn't see anyone. Nor were there any chairs or benches to sit on. I admit, I was unhappy at being left behind. With nothing else to do, I sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall behind me.
I guess I should mark this address as 'visited' on the map.
And...done.
That took a whole 5 seconds, whee.
Any games on this thing?
Looks like that's a 'no'.
Maybe I can surf Reddit while I'm waiting? Provided the site's not blacklisted on the sheriff's network. Hah, I bet /r/mylittlepony would freak out if I took a few selfies with Nightmare Moon.
Just then, a mist seeped out from around the door and coalesced into the Night Mare. Not expecting me to be seated on the floor, she turned to a spot above my head and spoke.
"Success. The guard is..."
Finally noticing she was speaking to empty air, the dark mare looked down at me on the floor.
"Why art thou sitting on the ground?"
"I didn't know how long you'd be, so I settled in for a long wait."
"I see. As there is no longer a need for me to oversee the progression of the dream, my time inside each new domicile shall be quite short."
While the Mare in the Moon had been speaking, I had clambered to my feet and stood in front of her. Re-opening the Google Map application on the tablet, I flagged the current spot as 'in progress', and then chose our next destination.
"I've got the next address ready, my Queen. Shall we go?"
"Of course."
We quickly made our way out of the apartment complex and took to the sky.
I wish I could embellish some sort of high-stakes sneaking around or an unexpected surprise, but the work was mighty boring and dull. At least, it was for me. Basically, the rest of the visits we made to each address went much the same way. A quick visit to each officer's home to make sure they were asleep, then place them in their own 'savior' dream. Any that we found awake, we came back later until we found them asleep.
After we had visited every address on the map, we cycled back through them all to see how their dreams had progressed. Nightmare Moon had changed the 'savior' dream cycle to automatically place the dreamer in a nightmare if they failed to save her, and into a pleasant dream if they succeeded. If she found an officer in a nightmare, or that had not fully accepted the shadow parasite, she would send them back into another dream cycle. This assembly-line pattern meant that we could enslave a large number of officers at the same time, even though it meant that we were flying back-and-forth for most of the night.
Many hours later, I changed the icon for the latest officer into a green pin which marked them as 'enslaved'. After zooming out and scrolling around the map, I realized that all the officers listed on the iPad had been fully enslaved. The night went by smoothly, almost everyone we visited was home and asleep and unknowingly waiting for us to arrive. Most were in their beds, alone or with a partner, but a few were asleep in front of the television. All in all, this evening was trouble-free.
And we even had about 50 minutes left before sunrise.
A quick flight back to the San Bernardino Central sheriff's station, and we summoned the Duty Officer. Tonight's activities had been so successful, I decided we should revisit the Morongo Basin station tomorrow evening and execute the same plan. I proposed the idea to my Queen, and she agreed. However, flying to the Morongo Basin station was out of the question for the evening as we would be caught outside in daylight. Fortunately, the trip was entirely unnecessary. The Duty Officer led Nightmare Moon and I down a dull hallway and into a plush conference room, where we could make a conference call to the Morongo Basin station.
The Duty Officer punched in the phone number into the conference phone, but did not press the "CALL" button. He then left the room, giving us privacy. Just before I was about to initiate the call, I was held back by a hoof.
"Ah, Captain?"
"Yes, my Queen?"
"I admit I am uncertain as to what is happening here."
"Oh! Sorry about that, I'm so used to these things I didn't even think about explaining it to you. Um, remember my phone? The device I used to call my roommate with?"
"I believe so. What of it?"
"Well, my phone was designed to let one person - er, pony speak to another far-away pony."
I gestured towards the conference phone on the table.
"This device was designed to let a roomful of ponies speak to another far-away pony, or another roomful of far-away ponies."
"I...see."
By the expression on her muzzle, it was clear that she did not see at all. I pressed on anyway.
"All you really need to know, is that you will hear the voices of your minions from the device over there. Simply speak to them as if they were in the room with us."
"What shall I say? I do not know who I will be speaking to."
"You'll be speaking to an operator, whose job is to direct incoming calls to the right party. Just tell whoever speaks that you're Nightmare Moon, and we want to speak to Officer Eskridge."
Before the mare could reply, I pressed the "CALL" button. The phone rang twice before it was answered.
"Morongo Basin Sheriff's Station, how may I direct you call?"
Looking towards the ebony mare, I indicated she should speak. She leaned slightly towards the conference phone and repeated the words I gave to her seconds earlier.
"This is Nightmare Moon. I wish to speak to Officer Eskridge."
"Yes Mistress, I'll transfer you now."
At that, the line went silent. The Night Incarnate looked to me for direction.
"Now we wait my Queen, until Eskridge answers."
Several rings went by, then Eskridge's voicemail picked up.
"You have reached the desk of Officer Eskridge. I am away--"
The phone made a clicking noise, and the operator returned.
"It seems she's not at her desk, Mistress. Should I page her?"
Again, the dark mare looked to me, and I nodded.
"Yes. Do so."
The operator did not put us on hold, so we could hear the resulting page.
"Eskridge, please call the switchboard. Priority call from the Mistress. Eskridge, please call the switchboard. Priority call from the Mistress."
"I've paged her Mistress, she should be calling in momentarily. Oh, there she is now. I'll patch her in."
A click was heard, then Officer Eskridge's voice came on the line.
"Yes, Mistress? What can I do for you?"
I detailed our plan to Officer Eskridge. She was to take a station iPad and add the addresses of all off-duty officers to a custom map. We will then use that map to target the off-duty officers tomorrow evening, so she must have the iPad ready when we arrived the next day. If she had any questions, she should call the Duty Officer here at the Central station. She acknowledged her task and I ended the call.
Nightmare Moon and I retraced our steps and left the Central station by the front door. The two of us took to wing then angled ourselves southwards towards our new home. We touched down on the balcony to our bedroom just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. We removed our armor, and without another word we crawled into bed and curled up together. We were content in the knowledge that we finally had a major success in our goal of conquering Earth.