Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls

by thatguyvex


Episode 99: Zero Hour

Episode 99: Zero Hour

Endless blue married an endless white surrounded a realm without end, but with a notable beginning. Sky above, and cloud below, yet neither held a distinct limit, even when stretched to their horizons. Within that space was the Soul Palace, a term unequal to the task of properly defining what was, in essence, neither a place nor an object. From the eye of an observer it would look like an object, but space was not what it seemed if one moved closer to it, or stood within its walls.

One unimaginably large edifice stood upon a floating plane of stone that could have been mere miles wide, or wide as a continent. Endless, pristine gardens of perfect splendor intermingled with swaths of primeval, wild forest, which in turn were mixed with countless hundreds of lakes, rivers, and streams. Then it all ran up right against a wall of gold and red sandstone, hundreds of feet high and carved with intricate designs of nature. A gate stood within this wall, led to by a long, wooden bridge that floated in the air and cut over the landscape until it extended even further into the void, flanked by floating pillars of stone.

Beyond the gate lay a palace of mind numbing size and complexity, its pagoda-like construction towering higher and higher in ever interlocked tiers. It did have an end, however, a top tower that sat uncounted miles up, and it was from here that a woman paced within a vast chamber. The chamber had no walls, only four pillars holding up its golden roof, allowing anyone to look out across the vastness of eternity beyond. Aside from the pacing woman, there was only one other occupant in the room, if indeed it could be described as an occupant.

A single crystal of opaque white, containing a human looking figure shrouded in shadow, its features indistinct past its crystal prison. It floated in the air, only partially suspended by golden chains and nailed through with several golden spikes. Scrolls of fine parchment, also lines in gold, were wrapped around the crystal tightly, their flowing script only ever so slightly moving, like a slow drip of water.

The woman herself was at once unremarkable, yet somehow captivating at a glance. Neither old nor young, her face held an ageless quality. Porcelain skinned save for the hint of freckles over her cheek, the woman had blue eyes that reflected the sky outside, and hair the matched the gold of much of the palace around her, worn in an elegantly done braided tail that hung past her back. She wore the traditional black robes of a Soul Reaper, with a white Captain’s coat, although devoid of any Division symbol save a blank diamond.

A Zanpaktou was set through the white sash at her hip, contained in a pearl white sheath. The handle was similarly wrapped in white cloth, with a diamond shaped hilt of gold.

Her pacing was even, her marble features turned in a contemplative and impatient hint of displeasure.

“What is taking her so long? Her report was due already.”

The words were spoken with a voice of a rich but hard edged feminine not-quite baritone; the voice of one as comfortable with authority as others were with their own clothing. It was not the voice of one accustomed to being kept waiting.

Then, as if on cue, a disturbance in the air at the foot of the long, wide set of stairs leading to this apex room of the palace appeared. The shimmer resolved itself into a circular  paper-window of Japanese style, suspended in mid-air, which then opened. Beyond it was the scene of a different room, one the woman recognized as the office of Scorpan, Captain Commander of the Gotei 13. There was no sight of Scorpan within view, but instead of a much younger looking woman with minty green skin, a childish and mischievous face containing sparkling green eyes, and a curly shoulder-length head of sea green hair. She wore a similar outfit to the other woman, black robes and white overcoat bearing the plain diamond, lacking any symbol.

The porcelain woman narrowed her eyes, “You’re late.”

“By twenty minutes,” the girl replied with a flippant tone of amusement that said she knew exactly how little it bothered her, “Don’t go making a fuss over it. Scorpan had a meeting, and I didn’t feel like interrupting him. Unlike some of us, I rather appreciate he still takes his job seriously.”

With a long suffering, if barely audible, sigh the other woman said, “Then don’t waste any more time and tell me what you’ve learned.”

“Yikes, you’re in a mood. Did mother give you another bad dream?”

Diamonds could have been cut by the other woman’s hard edged tone, “Enough prattle, Medley, and give me your report.”

The girl, Medley, shrugged, “What is there to say? We already knew Starlight Glimmer stole Discord’s pet rock and fused it to herself, but looks like she’s plundering another world for goodies to rebel against us with. Scorpan got caught with his pants down, but honestly I don’t blame the guy. We’ve got him fighting a war down here that’s more than a tad distracting. Which is kinda the point, isn’t it?”

The other woman’s eyes grew flint-like, “You are protecting your area, are you not?”

“Oh by Mother, yes, of course I am. What do you take me for? Scorpan has no idea I’m even using his office right now to talk to you, and anyone nearby would have their brains scrambled before they could hear a word. Now are you going to listen to me, or pretend to be Mom all day?”

A sharp breath, let out slowly, “...Continue.”

“Thank you. Now, since we can’t get at Starlight, I’ve been checking up on our other areas of concern. Specifically your old flame and his new set of action gals.”

“He is not an ‘old flame’!”

“Whatever you say. You’re the one who invited him into our club, and then acted all scorned when he said no. Never seen you get that huffy and embarrassed. I half expected you to order him to be executed.”

White knuckles popped slightly from how hard her hands had balled into fists, “My offer to Discord was a cordial one, and I accept he has no interest in being a part of our work here. As long as he remains neutral and does not interfere, then I have no issue with him playing at retirement.”

“Yeah, just as long as he doesn’t know what we’re really doing or why, right? Because I seem to recall telling you I heavily suspected he learned a hint of the truth back when that Sunburst kid got interred in Jigoku. Which, by the by, I still think was a screw-up on our part-”

“Necessary. It was necessary. His line cannot be allowed to spread, as is the case with all imperfections and dissidents. That’s part of why Jigoku exists in the first place, Medley. And if Discord had learned the truth, what of it? He hasn’t spread the information.”

“Not yet. I know you’re fond of the guy, but he’s always been a risk to the plan, and you damn well know it. You should have given me the all clear to eliminate him back when he made that damn Hogyoku. Now Starlight Glimmer has it, and that alone could screw us over.”

“Please, she’s a child. Even with Discord’s novel invention, she can’t gain the power necessary to challenge us. Even if she drains that other world of every drop of this so-called ‘magic’...” for a moment there was a hint of doubt, but she quashed it immediately, “No, not possible. We are secure here, and Discord is of no concern either.”

“You sure about that? Because my investigation suggests to me he’s working entirely too closely with these new girls.”

Also children, who are not nearly strong enough to be considered  a threat.”

Medley’s tone gained its own sharp edge of exasperation, her child-like expression turning grim, “Children who in the span of a month and some change have gone from nobodies barely able to survive attacks by lesser Hollows, to powerhouses capable of taking on Captains. The Soul Reaper among them accessed her Bankai with a few days of training. You cannot stand there and tell me that doesn’t constitute a threat. Even you can’t be that confident. You’re not Mother, no matter how much you want to be, and even she wasn’t invincible... as we proved, didn’t we?”

For a moment the golden haired woman’s eyes twitched, turning towards the large, suspended crystal in the center of the room. “Yes, and with that, what is left to threaten us? The bastard ‘King’ and his army of zealots? Tirek, who is little more than a fossil of the old ways? Scorpan, who remains ignorant of anything outside the duties we’ve assigned him? This realm of ‘magic and ponies’ that has no interest in our affairs? Only Starlight Glimmer and her rebellious nature, and those of the rebellious bloodlines constitute a possible threat, and even then, were they to come here, of all places, they would fall to us. No, Medley, I do not perceive the ‘threat’ as you do. I suspect you’re merely bored with the mission you’ve been assigned and are looking for an excuse to stir up trouble.”

“While I’m not going to deny that I’m bored out of my mind, I actually do happen to think that if you were playing this smart, you’d give me the go ahead to take out Discord and those girls with him. Mark my words, they’re going to be trouble down the road. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Discord has already made another Hogyoku.”

That was a disturbing thought. For a moment she considered it, but dismissed the notion, “I will not order that without absolute proof that Discord and those children are a threat. Remember who we are, Medley. We are the architects of a better world. Some sacrifice is necessary, but I won’t order the murder of children without clear proof it is necessary to achieve our perfect world.”

“Pfft, you big softie. You were always Mom’s little angel, weren’t you? Easy to act all clean and noble when you’re up there, and you send me down here to the trenches to do the dirty work.”

“Medley...”

“Oh for Mom’s sake, I’m kidding,” Medley did an exaggerated salute, “I’ll keep observing things, Big Sis, and let you know if I find any of that ‘proof’ you want. But I want your word that if I do find it, you won’t hesitate to let me at least take Discord out of the picture. He’s not joining us, no matter how much you hold out hope.”

“Very well, I’ll consider it. Be well, sister.”

The window closed, vanishing from existence in a wash of sparkling dust, as if it never were. Then the woman turned and looked towards the white crystal. Her eyes dimmed, as if in memory, and with a soft sigh no louder than a gasp of wind, she approached the crystal. She laid one hand on it, looking at the shadowed figure within, her face cast in an iron look of resolution.

“We will fix the mess you made, Mother. If it takes us another ten thousand years, the imperfections you allowed will be ground out, one after another, until the world is... as it should be.”

She turned away and began to stride out of the room towards the vast stairs, leading hundreds of meters down from the tower. She paused as something within her pulsed for a brief second, like a distant cry. 

Stop... please...

The woman clenched her eyes shut and shook her head, one hand going up to touch the spot over her ‘Heart’. The voice quieted as she shut out the pulse from the Heart. Gradually the pulse slowed, then became steady once more. The voice was gone.

“No, Mother, there is no stopping. Not until we’ve created the world you refused to.”

----------

“And you found no trace of those who caused the disturbance in Hoofington?” Celestia asked with a hint of incredulity in her otherwise forcibly calm tone. She was in her throne room at the palace of Canterlot, but rather than seated on her throne, the alicorn was pacing the hall, which was empty save for one other occupant.

Discord was doing a lazy backstroke through the air, conjuring a periscope which he used to peer at her with a comically over sized eye in the periscope’s lens, “I was keeping an eye out, Celestia, but you did ask me to protect Canterlot while you and Luna were off playing mouse-trap with that train. My attention was focused here, and by the time I caught wind of some rather delicious chaos running amok elsewhere, the instigators of all the fun had already vamoosed. I’m a master of chaos, not a detective. You really expect me to know how to track anything?”

“You tracked Tirek down, didn’t you?” Celestia shot back irritably, and Discord closed up his periscope and gave her a look as he conjured a book labeled ‘Equestrian Villains Almanac’ and opened it to the T section, showing her Tirek’s page.

“Because I’m familiar with Tirek and his magic stealing shtick. Made him very easy to find once I followed the trail of depowered ponies. This ‘human’ Starlight is a wild card, and it wasn’t as if I was expecting her to cause a whole town to go on a drunken bender. Although I do approve. Hoofington was in serious need of some livening up and once the fires were put out, I think everypony there had a good time.”

At Celestia’s look, which likely could have been used to smelt iron ore, Discord threw up his hands, “Oh please, I’ve said and done worse. Just because I’m on the team goody-good doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate some finely crafted chaos on occasion. Besides, why are you grilling me, when it was you and Luna who let the bad guys slip away from you?”

Celestia looked away, “Luna was injured. I had to get her back to Canterlot as fast as possible. As it stands, we took the enemy’s measure, and know what they’re capable of.”

“Yes, but somehow I doubt they’ll fall for such obvious bait again,” Discord pointed out, suddenly holding a fishing rod and lowering a hook with  banana on it in front of Celestia, “They won’t bite twice. You’ll need to come up with a new plan.”

Celestia batted the banana away with a wing with an irritated neigh, “Then perhaps you could make yourself useful and help me think of one? Or... Luna’s wing...”

Discord cocked his finger and waggled it, “Tut tut tut, Celestia, you know that chaos magic doesn’t work that way. I can’t restore order to something, I can only disrupt and rearrange already existing orders, or create my own in place of another. Now, if you want Luna to have something other than wings, like, say, jet engines or a sweet new set of spider legs, I can arrange that. But healing her is on you.” 

“I wish I could,” Celestia said, taking a deep breath, which did little to calm the storm within. True healing magic was a slow process. Transmutations often confused those unfamiliar with magic to think that changing a body was an easy thing, but in truth those transmutations used raw magic to create a sort of temporary ‘costume’ over an existing thing. These transmutations never lasted for more than a few days, and tended to be flimsy compared to the real thing. Luna could still fly via a spell to grant herself a temporary wing, but her speed would be much reduced due to the false wing’s fragility. 

In the meantime, regenerating the actual, physical wing would be a process that would take months of slow, painful spellwork. Celestia was one of only a few in Equestria even skilled enough in the restorative arts to even accomplish a true limb regeneration. Most who practiced medical magic could only achieve healing relatively simple injuries, most of which could have been healed by conventional medicine anyway, with magic simply speeding up the process somewhat. 

Distracting herself with the clinic details did little to put out the spot of solar rage that was tightly contained within her heart. Those fools had dared to hurt her Lulu! They were lucky she didn’t scour the land clean with the sun’s furious flames until she rooted them out of whatever pit they were hiding in!

“Ahem, Clestia, you’re ‘flaring up’ a bit there,” Discord pointed out, and Celestia gave a startled blink as she glanced up at her flowing mane. Its usual serene waves of ethereal colors had become tinged around the edges with red hot flames. With an embarrassed look, she forced her emotions to calm and watched as the solar fires died out from her mane. 

No good. I can’t allow myself to become so rattled. Luna is fine. It’s a terrible injury, but she will recover. I must focus on the problem at hoof.

“Ahem, thank you for the warning, Discord. Now, while Luna recovers, I believe we need to shift the focus of our search. It’s clear our opponents are roving the land in search of magic to take, and if the latest report from Twilight is any indication, they’ve already gotten a start on that by stealing from the hippogryphs.”

That report had bothered Celestia for more than a few reasons, and she was glad she’d provided Twilight with another blank magical journal to maintain communication with, otherwise they’d have no idea that the human Starlight and her allies could potentially shapeshift with the Pearl of Changing, now. The existence of this ‘Storm King’ was also concerning. Starlight had captured him, but what if she turned him and what was left of his army to her cause? 

“Yes, looks like your favorite student is in for quite the aquatic adventure,” Discord said, holding up what suspiciously looked like an Ogres and Oubliettes figurine of Twilight and the other ponies in her party, “Delving into the deep to face off against the ancient sea witch and her army of ocean horrors. Why, I think Spike ran us through that adventure not so long ago, only it was the Squizard’s long lost sister, Squizzette who was the villain in that campaign.”

“Discord, if you’re not going to take this seriously, you may as well just get back to patrolling the city.”

Discord tossed the figurines aside, crossing his arms, “Oh I am taking things seriously. Why, don’t forget my dear friend Fluttershy is among Twilight’s party. If for no other reason than that, I’m quite invested in the success of their mission, and dealing with this interdimensional interlopers. So, you had a train of thought going on how to change up our strategy?”

“Well, you said they won’t fall for the same bait twice, and I agree with you,” Celestia said, her face gaining a look of devious intent that Discord wasn’t certain he found disturbing on Celestia’s countenance, or surprisingly fetching. “So I think I have another kind of trap in mind...”

----------

Pipsqueak had no idea what to make of his companion. The Arrancar girl named Ocellus was not at all like any Hollow he’d been told of before. If he could ignore the hole in her stomach and the distinct presence of Hollow reiatsu, she pretty much acted like a mischievous big sister, and had made the passing days far more enjoyable than he would have expected. Mostly she’d played games with him through the various rooms and halls of Hitsuyo-Aku, while taking up some of what Firefly had been already showing him about controlling the surges of Hollow spirit energy now residing in himself.

However today he was in no gaming mood. He morosely hung outside one of the tower’s medical labs, looking through a window at the form of Firefly, sleeping on one of the many beds within. Firefly hadn’t woken up since being brought back from her and Pipsqueak’s mother’s failed mission to recover a magical artifact. Apparently Firefly had been badly wounded by one of this realm’s ‘Princesses’, and her life was now hanging on by a thin threat, aided by the medical technology of Hitsuyo-Aku, but little else. None one here was medically trained, after all. Even Pipsqueak’s mother could only do so much with healing Kido.

From what Pipsqueak had overheard, it wasn’t even a matter of the wound Firefly had taken being specifically all that bad, but rather that the wound had been struck using a form of this world’s magic that left the injury in a state of continuous festering. Firefly was essentially stuck with a incurable infection, and Starlight had surmised magic might be needed to cure it. 

“Oh boy, you’re still out here?” Ocellus asked, poking her head around the corner. Compared to Pipsqueak’s relatively plain appearance of white and brown fur over his small, colt’s body, Ocellus was a slim equine with a pearl white carapace with soft pink elements around the protective shell around gossamer wings. She had a similarly pink colored frill, with a curved, pointed horn in front of it. It was still impossible to miss her Arrancar features, however, with the Hollow hole in her chest and the fringe of curved bone over her brows that looked almost moth-like. 

She trotted up to him, leaning down a bit to ruffle his mop of brown mane with a chitinous hoof. He knew he was short, but it still bothered him how much taller Ocellus was than him, despite their ages not being that far apart. “You really need some cheering up.”

“I don’t much feel like being cheered,” he replied, pulling his head away from her head pats, “Although I do appreciate the thought.”

Ocellus turned a glance towards the window, looking at Firefly. Aside from shallow breathing, one wouldn’t even know the nearly still form under the sheets was alive. “Look, I get you’re in a funk over this, but what are you fixing by standing around here, watching her?”

“Shouldn’t somebody?”

“She’s hooked up to a legion of monitors. If she so much as coughed, Starlight Glimmer would know it and be here in a snap. Or your mom, for that matter. Pretty sure my mom doesn’t care.”

Pipsqueak frowned at the mention of Platinum. It was strange. He’d never seen her so... upset, as he had when she’d arrived back from the mission, her back drenched in Firefly’s blood from having carried her all the way back to the hideout. Platinum had maintained a professional calm, but Pipsqueak knew her well enough to tell that she’d been more than a little distressed over Firefly’s condition. Which was odd, because Pipsqueak thought his mother hated Firefly. What had changed?

“I don’t understand my mother,” he said, and Ocellus let out a thick giggle that, he had to admit, was rather charming and adorable. He quickly ignored that thought, however. It wasn’t proper.

“You think you don’t understand your mom? You should try figuring out mine, sometime! Did I ever tell you about the time she took me and my brothers to a gothic rave in the human world? Oh man, I’ve never seen so many teenagers in black lace run that fast, but I didn’t know back then that humans were so susceptible to fire.”

Pipsqueak just looked at her, blinking for a second, “Have you ever considered the possibility that your mother is a bit... insane?”

Ocellus just smiled, her eyes gleaming oddly, “Aren’t we all, a little?”

Before he could answer, she slapped him on the shoulder with a light, friendly pat, “C’mon, enough of being a worry wart! We’re going to go out and have some fun, you and me!”

He barely had a chance to respond before the shockingly strong Arrancar girl was dragging him by the arm back down the hall, heading for the elevators. “W-what kind of fun, exactly? Nothing involving fire, I hope?”

“I wish, but mom says I should play nice while I’m here, so nothing too exciting. Just thought we could go train up your Hollow some more by going out to blow up stuff at the end of the canyon! It’ll be fun, I’ll throw rocks at you and you try to explode them with a Cero.”

“I-I can’t do that!” he protested, hooves scrabbling on the floor, “I can’t even do that mask thing Starlight Glimmer does, so how could I shoot a Cero? Why would I even ever want to?”

“Well you’re never gonna learn with that attitude. And why wouldn’t you want a free, at-will giant freakin’ laser beam you can shoot whenever you want to? It’s only, like, the best thing about being a Hollow! Teacher gives you homework? Not today! CERO! Somebody bugging you during your nap? CERO! Too long a line to get into the club.”

“C-Cero?” 

“Damn right Cero~!”

Pipsqueak tried to reassert some level of control, and reality, onto the situation by clearing his throat and planting his hooves, only somewhat slowing Ocellus’ determined advance. “Look, while I appreciate what you’re trying to do, I really don’t think this is a good time for it anyway. There are people out there still looking for us, and too much ruckus might attract undue attention, wouldn’t it?”

Ocellus made a face, with an admittedly attractive pout, “There you go, using ‘logic’ and ‘reason’ to ruin a perfectly fun idea. You’re like a tiny, not muscular version of brother Pharynx.”

He cleared his throat, trying his best ot put on a voice of confident, noble compromise, “If it’s fun you seek, I am not against it, I only think we should contain our fun to the premises for the time being.”

“He’s right.”

The both turned to look down the hall as Starlight Glimmer trotted into view. She had a dour look about her, eyes with faintly dark circles beneath them from lack of sleep. Pipsqueak recalled just how incensed she had been since learning of Firefly’s condition, and the woman’s twitching eyebrow made Pipsqueak nervous. Starlight was back in her unicorn form, but she carried the Pearl of Changing with her like some kind of talisman, ever floating next to her in an aura of teal magic. 

She looked between Pipsqueak and Ocellus intently, “It’s good to try and learn more control of the Hollow energies inside you, Pipsqueak, and if I had time, I’d help you more with that. I owe you some thanks, Ocellus, for helping him on that front.”

Ocellus smiled, her changeling form’s wings fluttering, “Think nothing of it. Any friend of mom’s is a friend of mine.”

“Yes... that being said, Pipsqueak is right, I don’t want either of you straying far from the tower. It’s okay to go outside for a bit, get some fresh air, but don’t leave the canyon.” She paused, then fixed Ocellus with a hard look, “And no throwing rocks at Pipsqueak, especially to try and teach him things like Cero. That’s advanced Hollow stuff that he shouldn’t be messing with while he’s still adjusting to the changes in his spiritual makeup. I’ll handle that part of his education, when it comes up, but no jumping the gun.”

“Well he’s going to be needing to learn some way to defend himself,” Ocellus countered, “He’s, like, super small and his limbs are all gangly-”

“H-hey!”

“Well they are! Just saying, he’s the most vulnerable of the people here, so he ought to learn how to protect himself, shouldn’t he?” Ocellus said, and Starlight rubbed her chin.

“Hmm, a good point. Hmm, Pipsqueak, tell me, did your mother ever train you with an Asauchi?”

The question caught him a tad off guard, but he shook his coltish head and replied, “No. My illness always meant I was never going to joint the Soul Reaper Academy, so there was never a reason for me to even touch an Asauchi. Mother merely taught me matters involving diplomacy and administration, so I could run the household in her absence.”

A thoughtful look crossed Starlight’s face, “I’ve seen this facility’s inventory list, and they kept a few spare Asauchi on hand for experiments. You should take one, just in case.”

“I’ll... consider it,” he said, then with hesitance creeping into his voice he asked, “Have you figured out a way to help Miss Firefly yet?”

Starlight’s face became a dark thunderhead of frustration as she said, “Not yet. Nothing solid, at any rate. Her wound is infected with magic. We need an expert on magic to deal with it.”

“Why not ask the silly monkey man? Mr. Storm Weenie?” asked Ocellus, “He might be a total loser, but he probably knows about magic, given he was planning to use that staff thing of his to steal magic. Even if he has no clue how to heal magical wounds, he might be able to point us in the right direction on where to find someone who does.”

“That... is a remarkably good point,” Starlight said, looking at the young Arrancar with a critical eye, “Your name is Ocellus right? One of Chrysalis’ drones?”

“Ahem, I am not a drone. I am a proper daughter of Chrysalis, thank you very much,” said Ocellus, holding her head up high. Incredulity spread over Starlight’s face in a thin layer.

“As you say. Look, you just brought up an idea, and I think I’ll go pay the Storm King a social call to see if he actually knows anything useful. In the meantime, can I ask that if you and Pipsqueak go play anywhere, you stick close by?”

“Of course!” Ocellus wrapped a hoof around Pipsqueak, squeezing him perhaps a bit too tight, “Me and him are best of pals, and I’d never let anything happen to the little guy.”

“Ahem,” Pipsqueak cleared his throat, not quite extricating himself from Ocellus but managing to maintain some semblance of noble dignity as he said, “The concern is appreciated, from both of you. Now, i do think I could do with some fresh air, so perhaps if Ocellus would be so kind as to provide me some space to breath, we could... go for a walk?”

“Gee, make it sound boring why don’t you?” Ocellus said as she let him go, but she was still wearing a mischievous smirk, “But I’m sure we can think of something less boring to do with enough effort.”

“Just remember, no explosions,” Starlight said, trotting away down the metal corridor. Pipsqueak thought he also heard her mumble, “...almost as bad as her mother.”

----------

Chrysalis was tired, thirsty, even more hungry than thirsty, and wondering if traveling into the absolutely desolate wastes of the Bone Dry Desert was at all going to be worth it. Truthfully, it wasn’t much worse than the badlands she’d once had her hive located in, but that was made bearable by the fact that she... well, had a hive. A hive full of willing, loyal servants who tended to her needs. This was not the case now, she was unpleasantly forced to be reminded of every time she felt the instinctive need to demand someone bring her food or water, and there were no drones nearby to obey her will.

Now, she was far from helpless without servants. She wasn’t even in all that much danger of starvation, since her Changeling physiology didn’t require anywhere near the same amount of organic food or water to sustain her as weaker races did. She could go weeks still and technically be fine. It was just a pain in the flank and she didn’t like it.

Tracking her mysterious double and her odd accomplice has taken some time. They moved far faster than Chrysalis could steadily keep up with, at least without exposing herself. Luckily following a magical trail with her tracking spell was simple, and she could take things at her own pace. And with some effort, she’d finally found where the trail ended, within a bleak box canyon situated somewhere amid the dunes of the southeastern Bone Dry Desert.

With stealth only a Changeling Queen was capable of, Chrysalis had slithered into the shadowy crevasses of the canyon, changing her form to that of a cobra with dusty brown scales identical to the ground to blend in with ease. Now she sat coiled around a rock, the reptilian eyes of her cobra form staring unblinking at the edifice of a large, dark tower built within the deeper shadows of the dusty canyon. While far from the largest building she’d seen (her hive had been twice the size, easily), it was clearly not a natural construct that belonged in the canyon and Chrysalis couldn’t deny it exuded a distinctly cold aura. 

So, this place must have been the ‘Hitsuyo-Aku’ the impostors had mentioned. But what was it? Just a base of operations? Why place it out here in the middle of the desert? If it was just for the sake of being hidden, there were better places to hide that also had more available local resources. 

The trail of her doppelganger went into the tower, but Chrysalis had decided to hold off on venturing inside. She knew better than to just waltz into the stronghold of a potential enemy. Instead she had settled in to observe, and debate with herself on her next move. Her mind turned with slow deliberateness over her options, and which would offer the greatest benefit to her. She suspected that the petulant ponies of Equestria might find information on the location of this tower valuable, considering it seemed apparent the tower’s occupants were not allies of Equestria. However, Chrysalis rather hated Equestria, and a number of its most prominent denizens, so helping Equestria in any capacity didn’t exactly appeal to her. Besides, what would she gain from it? It wasn’t as if Celestia or Luna would give her her hive back, especially not with how friendly her traitor son Thorax was getting with them. 

Conversely, she detested the idea of anyone trying to masquerade as her. It felt like a personal insult. 

I have no desire to make allies of anyone, but if I’m to get my vengeance upon Starlight Glimmer and the traitor Thorax, perhaps I shouldn’t be too quick to judge these impostors. But before I decide anything, I require more information.

So she waited. And waited. And with growing impatience waited some more... until finally she saw movement by the front entrance to the tower.

Chrysalis’ confusion only grew as she saw a small colt emerge, one who couldn’t have been much older than ten or twelve. And with him was... was a Changeling? Only this Changeling was stark white, with elements of pink in her frill, torso, and wings. What kind of perversion of the Changeling race was this? Wait, why did she have a hole in her chest!? 

The pair walked out and, chatting quietly between themselves, started trotting around the side of the tower, as if they were going for a pleasant stroll. Chrysalis was beyond baffled by what she was seeing, but she wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to learn more about these strangers and why they were here. She slithered away from her rock and proceeded to follow the pair. 

As it turns out, one can learn a lot from eavesdropping. 

----------

The week went by with Sunset just waiting for the other shoe to drop. She truly expected there to be some kind of horrible emergency, or another attack, or something as the days ticked by and brought her and her friends ever closer to ‘zero hour’ for their plan. Yet things were almost unbearably quiet the entire time, as if the Kraken attack had somehow used up their quota of weird for the month.

The Kraken hadn’t really gone anywhere, according to Twilight. It remained off the coat, not quite going out to the deep ocean, and not really straying very far from it’s magical circle either. Similarly, Gilda hadn’t shown her face again either, although by now Sunset knew that was because Adagio was keeping a close eye on the Tenth Espada and had convinced Gilda that randomly attacking Sunset and her friends was a bad idea. Not that Gilda had any idea of what was actually going on, but Adagio assured Sunset she had the burly woman under her thumb, for now at least.

Adagio... Sunset shook her head, still not sure what to feel about the siren’s situation. 

It’d been surreal, seeing her again, but even more so now that she was sitting in an empty campground, some ten miles from Camp Everfree, and was waiting for Adagio to show up for a face to face meeting. They’d talked briefly over the communication devices Discord had installed into their Soul Reaper badges, but Adagio had kept this conversations terse and purely about coordinating the plan for rescuing Ember. Today, however, Sunset sensed Adagio wanted to talk about something more. At least, she’d insisted on a face to face meeting, alone.

Her friends hadn’t really liked that idea. Applejack had argued that going anywhere alone, especially near Everfree, was a bad idea. They knew now that Grogar was in town, too, or rather, with Adagio’s group in the Everfree Forest. His presence was a potentially serious wrench in their plans, but so far Adagio had managed to keep him in the dark while she and Twilight worked on their end of the plan.

A plan that was still missing one very key piece, that being where Ember was. Twilight seemed pretty convinced Ember was being held somewhere near Camp Everfree itself, possibly hidden in the camp, but so far she hadn’t found where. She’d set up her own lab just a mile from the camp, where apparently she continued her research on magic and its effects on spiritual powers. Sunset wasn’t sure how to feel about Twilight using magic in ways that might turn it into a weapon for the Quincy to use, but as far as she could tell so far, Twilight was mostly focused on fixing Indigo Zap’s legs. 

As for coming to Everfree alone, she wasn’t that worried. While she’d dialed back her training to unwind with her friends, which had proven to be quite stress relieving and made her feel generally a lot more rested and alert, she’d still spent time training with Discord. She was confident in her power. She’d even made progress on developing her newest technique, although it still lacked precise control. She wasn’t sure it was ready for battle use, but it was getting there. Hokori and Hikari were both being helpful, and she’d meditated in her Inner World a number of times to just commune with the pair of differing spirits within her Zanpaktou. 

She’d also gotten word from Equestria concerning how events were progressing there, and they left Sunset hoping against hope that even if they did rescue Ember, that Captain Starswirl would still figure out a way to get them to Equestria. The thought that Princess Luna had been so badly injured really worried Sunset, but even more worrying was all this talk of Charybdis and the trouble’s Princess Twilight’s expedition had encountered. 

Aria and Sonata were taken by these sahuagin... do I even dare bring that up to Adagio?

It was not a pleasant thought to imagine Adagio’s reaction to that news, and considering how delicate the situation was here, and how much focus they’d need ot pull off rescuing Ember, Sunset wasn’t remotely certain it was a good idea to tell Adagio what had happened to her sisters. Then again, lying, even by omission, was starting to become so much of a staple of things lately it didn’t sit well with her to keep the truth from Adagio either.

Well, she’d cross that bridge when and if it came up. Where was Adagio anyway? Sunset had been standing her for at least ten minutes, and Adagio had said to be here at noon, sharp. Sure, Sunset was enjoying the warmth of a clear skied, summer day, and the forest filled the air with sweet, earthy and clean scents that left her feeling invigorated. But Sunset didn’t like being out in the open, if empty, campground. It left her feeling exposed. 

A twig snapped nearby and Sunset spun, hand going for her Zanpaktou. She was in her spirit body, having let Chappy stay back at Discord’s shop, so she was fully ready to engage in battle if attacked. 

“Jumpy, aren’t we?” Adagio said, wearing that cocky, smug smile that Sunset was so used to. Trying to hide her embarrassment, Sunset looked Adagio up and down, taking stock of Adagio’s less than modest outfit.

“I know its summer, but don’t tell me you don’t get cold in that get up back in Hueco Mundo?” Sunset quipped. Adagio let out a rich laugh, and rested her trident over her shoulder as she walked up to the campground table and leaned against it, just a few feet from Sunset.

“These clothes serve their purpose. I have no shortage of outfits, what with the supply runs my vassals perform for me.”

“Vassals?” Sunset rolled her eyes, but was wearing a wry smile as she did so, “You’re really getting into that Espada role.”

“Its no ‘role,” Adagio said, a note of seriousness pricking her tone, “I am an Espada. Period. End of sentence. Fortunately that confers no specific loyalty to my fellow Espada outside of following Lord Tirek’s orders, at least so much in that it keeps him from obliterating me. Besides that, I do have some wiggle room in how to handle my own affairs. That’s more than what can be said of you or Twilight.”

Sunset frowned at that, crossing her arms and turning a pondering look towards the sky, “Maybe. Soul Society doesn’t seem to want to tell me or the girls what to do, but I have no idea just how much we can act without them stepping in, either. As for Twilight... I don’t know. I trust her, and the new friends she’s made among those girls from Crystal Prep seem like they’re good enough people. But I don’t think I really trust the Quincy, or this ‘King’ of theirs.”

“Then you’re smarter than I was giving you credit for,” Adagio replied, and before Sunset could shoot off a remark to that, she continued, holding up a hand, “All I mean is that you’re smart for understanding that Twilight my be a Quincy, but she doesn’t represent the whole of them. Whatever influence she might have with their King Sombra, it doesn’t mean the Quincy won’t be a problem at some point.”

“Don’t you and the Quincy have some kind of info exchange arranged through Twilight?”

“To a limited extent, yes,” Adagio gained a stony look on her face, “And that’s all I’ll tell you past that. I have enough problems without you trying to get involved in any extra affairs beyond the current one”

“Speaking of which, isn’t it dangerous for us to meet in person like this? Aren’t you worried Grogar will find this meeting and listen in?” Sunset asked, as she’d been worried about that very thing.

Adagio’s eyes flashed with anger that wasn’t directed at Sunset, but seemingly rather at everything in general as she said, “Possibly. I can’t discount the chance he has some monitoring devices still implanted in me, but I can’t prove such either, and it would be impossible to rescue Ember without making plans with you and Twilight, so I just have to risk it. If he does have a means of monitoring me, it means he could have ruined my plans already. Instead he came here willingly to ‘assist’ me. I think he wants me to try to rescue Ember, so I don’t think he intends to interfere with anything I do. At least not immediately, and not in an obvious manner.”

“Still... that’s going to make it hard to talk straight with you, knowing he might... you know, hear anything we say.”

As Sunset said that, she noticed Adagio moving her left hand towards her, and turning it palm up to reveal a note. It read, ‘I know, which is why I want you to ask Discord about finding a way to counter any such devices Grogar might have planted in me. That’s why I asked for this meeting. I’m now going to shoot the breeze with you and make it sound like I just wanted to unwind and chat. Try to play along.’

That certainly explained why Adagio insisted on meeting in person. If Grogar was listening in on Adagio’s conversations, Adagio couldn’t verbally ask for Discord’s help without tipping Grogar off. Now Sunset could go ask for Discord to step in with something to counter Grogar with the Eight Espada being none the wiser.

“I don’t really care if he hears what I have to say,” Adagio spoke, doing a good job of sounding relaxed and casual, “Planning aside, I mostly just wanted to let off some steam and catch up a bit. Hard to do that in a cave with everyone else around, you know?”

Even if it was forced as an excuse to throw a potentially eavesdropping Grogar off the trail, Sunset rather appreciated the idea of just... talking to Adagio. Even before she’d become a Hollow, Sunset hadn’t exactly had much time to speak with the eldest siren. Besides, who knew when she’d ever get another chance to?

“Yeah, I can do that. I’ve been wondering how you’ve been, you know?”

“Hmph, well, don’t get too sappy on me. We’re hardly friends. You do make a convenient person to vent at, however,” Adagio said, her smirk deepening. 

For a time they chatted about a whole lot of nothing consequential. Adagio told Sunset about Hueco Mundo in general, and life, such as it was, in Las Noches. Mostly Adagio complained about its utter lack of amenities or proper luxuries. She’d had her ‘vassals’ working plenty to recover items from the living world to fix that problem, and apparently Adagio had “big plans” for making an entire economy out of selling living world items to Arrancar in need of ways to be less bored. 

“Wait, all this stuff you’re getting...” Sunset said, her mind going back to the string of robberies that had been plaguing Canterlot City over the past few weeks. Stores all over the place had been reporting missing clothing, furniture, food, even vehicles going missing from used car lots. “Have you been stealing from my city!?”

The utter, full throated belly laugh that escaped Adagio was all the answer Sunset needed, and she fumed at the siren turned Espada. Adagio, for her part, just looked at Sunset’s miffed expression, and burst out into further laughter, holding her stomach. 

“Oh...hahah...oh sweet merciful ocean, I needed that,” Adagio said, “Your face is beyond precious, right now.”

Sunset let out a low grumble and looked away, saying, “Glad you got a laugh out of it. Seriously though, if you’re going to steal things, at least do it from a different city. This place has a lot more Soul Reapers than me stationed here right now, and I can’t protect your people if they get caught.”

A final laugh hopped out of Adagio’s mouth before she made a dismissive gesture, “My vassals know what they’re doing, but I take your point.”

“Why do you keep calling them ‘vassals’ anyway?”

“Because that’s what they are. They’ve sworn to serve me, and I in turn have sworn to look after them, as a proper leader should. It’s that simple.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow, “So you don’t see any of them as friends?”

It was Adagio’s turn for an eyeroll, “Oh please, don’t start with that. ‘Friendship’ is your shtick, little miss pony. I prefer more reliably defined relationships. Master and servant, for example.”

“Then what is Ember to you?” Sunset asked, leaning towards Adagio, eyes burning with an intense light, “You don’t see her as a servant, I’m betting.”

Adagio made an annoyed sound in her throat and glanced away, and Sunset couldn’t miss the hint of red on the siren’s face, “What she is to me is none of your concern. And even if I did think of her as something close to a... friend, or whatever, what of it? I’m not about to start acting all sweet and friendly towards just anyone, or shoot sparkly rainbow lasers. If I see Ember as a friend it is because she’s earned that distinction.”

“Mmmhmm, and the other Arrancar in your group haven’t? They’re just servants?”

“Ugh! By the depths of the Abyss you are the most annoyingly persistent twit I’ve ever met, Sunset Shimmer!” Adagio actually stamped a foot in aggravation, and Sunset couldn’t help but laugh at the way Adagio’s face popped a small vein on her forehead.

After the fit of laughter died down, Sunset smirked at Adagio and said, “Now we’re even.”

“Hmph, well played,” Adagio said, bringing herself under control, “You do seem to know how to push my buttons.”

A few moments of silence passed between them as they both composed themselves. While Sunset had been baiting Adagio a bit, she had meant her question earnestly. As for Adagio’s answer, it had been more or less what Sunset had expected. She didn’t think Adagio quite considered those Arrancar serving her as mere ‘vassals’ like she claimed. It was pretty clear she cared about them, more so than she likely ever would have prior to the changes she’d endured after becoming a Hollow. Back then Adagio only seemed to care about herself and her sisters, from what Sunset had seen. It was good to see that Adagio had formed connections with others, even if she didn’t necessarily define those connections as ‘friendship’. 

“So,” said Adagio abruptly, “I imagine you have a means for maintaining contact with that pony Princess who helped you defeat me with that saccharine song. I’ve heard my sisters went back to Equestria, but I’ve heard nothing since. How are they? Do... do you know?”

There was a hesitant note of vulnerability in Adagio’s voice, as if just asking something emotionally sensitive of Sunset was a strain on her. As for Sunset, she was momentarily frozen

This was the last question she wanted to answer. Yet the earnest need in Adagio’s voice, that small moment of vulnerability, made Sunset hesitate on whether to tell the truth or fabricate a response. Even if she’d been leaning towards the truth, Adagio picked up on Sunset’s hesitance instantly and her soft tone immediately turned harder, “What is it?”

No hiding it now. Sunset took a deep breath, “Adagio, I don’t know if there’s a good way to tell you this, but there’s been some... developments in Equestria.”

Like the classic notion of ripping a band-aid off fast to just get it over with, she quickly went over the dry facts of what had been occurring over in Equestria. Adagio listened to it with ever widening eyes, and ever growing fury turning her face into a frightening visage of violence. Her hand gripped the park table so hard it broke the wood, nearly breaking the table in half as Sunset finished the last part of explaining the attack on Mt. Aris and the subsequent capture of Sonata and Aria.

“That worthless Princess lost my sisters!?” Adagio erupted, spiritual pressure exploding out of her in such a swift and potent wave that Sunset actually had to take a step back as the ground was stirred by the unbridled reiatsu stemming from Adagio’s now red wreathed form. “Princess of Friendship!? She ought to be the Princess of Incompetence! Idiot! Moron!”

Adagio swung her trident around and into the ground at her side, simply in pure need to destroy something, and the ground shook with tremors as a wide fissure was ripped through the ground from the impact, almost splitting the campground in half. Adagio continued to roar, “When I get my hands around that Twilight Sparkle’s throat there’s going to be a fresh addition to the nearest glue factory! How could she let Charybdis, Charybdis, have my sisters!?”

“Adagio, get a hold of yourself!” Sunset said, “It know it sounds bad, but Twilight and her friends are going after Aria and Sonata, and they’re going to get them back!”

“How!? How do you know that!?” Adagio stamped a foot, cracking the earth beneath her, death flaring in her eyes, “The sahuagin know the oceans better than that mush for brains Princess! How is she going to catch them before they get back to their mistress in the Abyss? Do you have any idea what Charybdis is capable of!? What she does to people? Because I do. I apprenticed under her.”

“I know that,” Sunset said, forcing herself to meet Adagio’s heated gaze without flinching, “The whole reason Aria and Sonata went with Princess Twilight to go after Charybdis was to get back something she took from you, a part of your soul.”

“Then they’re being idiots! I don’t need that little soul fragment anyway, and to think they’d even be able to get it back from Charybdis is utterly ridiculous! She’s not some two-bit hedge sorceress. She’s an ancient practitioner of several forms of dark magic. The spell song she taught me was just a drop of her full magic knowledge. Oh, and did I mention the armies of deep sea monsters at her command? What does your Princess Twilight think she’s going to accomplish with a handful of fools who can barely swim?”

Sunset’s unease was somewhat pushed back by a stab of her own anger at the insults towards Twilight, combined with a simple understanding that Adagio, while somewhat justified in her reaction, was still not seeing the big picture. She took a step towards Adagio, “Get your sisters back, for one. For two, take Charybdis down a peg,and maybe prevent her from being a bigger threat down the road. I don’t think it's coincidence she’s being so active lately. Not with a Kraken using Equestrian magic running lose in our oceans over on this world.”

Adagio’s otherwise furious expression underwent a brief moment of rapid thought, “The Kraken that attacked on the beach, didn’t your Soul Reaper friend suggest it was from the Beast Realm?”

“That’s Clover’s theory, yeah, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t originally come from Equestria, or that it didn’t get its Equestrian magic from Charybdis. Fluttershy even ran into some kind of controlling outside force when she tried manipulating the Kraken’s mind. And that Kraken is making a magic circle for some reason. Adagio, Charybdis might be trying to come here, to this world. Can you think of a reason she’d want to do that?”

Adagio’s eyebrow twitched, her anger still evident, but it was turning into a heated simmer rather than an eruption as she said, “The only reason she’d be interested in a world like this are souls. Out of all the forms of dark magic she showed to me during my time learning under her, it was her soul magic that was the most... unsettling.”

“What is it, exactly?”

“She never taught me more than what I needed to know to turn a siren’s spell song into a means of drawing power out of a soul’s emotions, specifically negative ones. That said, I saw her casually being able to reap souls from sacrifices made in her name, and using those souls to perform any number of rituals that suited her. I’m fairly certain she made herself immortal by consuming soul energy.”

Sunset shuddered slightly, a finger of invisible frost tracing its way down her spine, “And you let someone like that have a piece of your own soul?”

“It... seemed a worthwhile trade at the time, in exchange for learning the magic I desired to gain more power. Do recall I was much younger and more foolish back then. But do you understand now why I’m so furious with that friendship-brained alicorn for letting Charybdis’ forces take my sisters!?”

“Yes, I do, but I’m also hoping you understand now why they felt the need to go after Charybdis in the first place,” Sunset got closer to Adagio, not quite getting in her face, but definitely invading her personal space as she fixed her with an even stare, “If I had a sister, and a part of her soul was in the clutches of a monster like that, I’d go after her too. And it may not be as hopeless as you think. Princess Twilight has the help of the hippogryphs now, plus other allies. On top of that, she’s an alicorn. She’s not exactly weak, and neither are the ponies with her. Also, they’ve got Flash Sentry with them, who’s a Soul Reaper. They’re not going to face Charybdis without power of their own, or a plan. And they will get your sisters back.”

“You say that, but you still haven’t seen Charybdis in person. I have. I know what they’re about to face. It’s-”

“It’s nothing we can do anything about!” Sunset said, heat finally edging her own voice, “Adagio, I get it. But right now you can’t help your sisters by losing your cool. Or did you forget that Ember’s still counting on you?”

“That’s a low blow...”

“Maybe, but I’m just reminding you that we have our own problems here to deal with. We need to keep focused on them. Remember, my ultimate goal is to get to Equestria anyway, so when the time comes, we can both go there and make sure your sisters are safe. But we can’t do that unless we rescue Ember first, right?”

Adagio was silent, and Sunset pressed harder, “Right?”

“...Right,” Adagio said, her sigh like a hiss of steam, her eyes flaring up once last time at Sunset, “But I still plan to give that Princess of yours a piece of my mind, next time we meet.”

----------

Twilight had to admit, she did enjoy having the near limitless resources of the Quincy Vandenreich at her disposal. When she told Sombra she wanted to set up a ‘field lab’ near Camp Everfree, it hadn’t even taken a full day for a pair of large, silver, sleek looking trailers to arrive. The vehicles reminded Twilight of the ones she’d once seen in a movie about researchers on a island full of dinosaurs, where one of the trailers got pushed over the side of a cliff by the T.Rex. Not exactly a great movie in Twilight’s mind, but these field labs certainly were! She’d had plenty of equipment brought from her mansion, but these two trailers came fully loaded with some of the most sophisticated lab gear at the Quincy's disposal.

Twilight had her field lab set up less than a mile from Camp Everfree, situated north up a large game trail and nestled up against the foot of a hill that had a mostly clear top, and a wide creek burbling down it. A perimeter of sensors maintained security alongside a stealth screen similar to what Twilight had used during her initial meeting with her friends from Canterlot High, only this ward was maintained by silver poles filled with Quincy alchemic liquid that fueled the optical/spiritual screen.

A wide clearing along the edge of the creek was where Twilight and her team had set up their gear for testing Twilight’s various devices. In the past week she’d created several prototypes that worked off a new idea of hers in regards to fusing magic and reishi. Aside from the work tables, there were around a dozen silver cylinders of varying sizes situated around, which Twilight had spent hours checking and calibrating for today’s test. 

She called these cylinders ‘Magicule Cells’. Each, like the standard Quincy ‘ginto tube’, was filled with alchemical liquid. However, this liquid was then put under pressure and run through a series of interlocking pipes throughout the cylinder, with nodes of crystal structures, smaller than the ones on her Hexenfaust. Since crystals of varying types were so good at harnessing and even acting as storage for magical energy, the idea was that by charging the crystalline structures in the M-Cells, the alchemic liquids that acted as a catalyst for reishi particles could be passed through the tubes through the crystal structures to absorb and combine with the magic within each crystal. Then by cycling the liquid through the tubes in a feedback loop, a constant stream of combined magic/spiritual energy is formed that can then be released through prepared vent ports on the end or sides of the M-Cells.

The notion was that these would act as batteries of fused magic and spirit energy for charging devices designed to utilize that kind of power. Only... in truth it was far, far more dicey and complicated a prospect than that. These cylinders were just Twilight’s base prototype design, and so far over half of them had failed to maintain a constant charge. She’d been working non-stop (or as non-stop as she could while coordinating plans with Adagio and Sunset) to go over the data from the failed tests and make adjustments. 

She suppressed a yawn as she went over a datapad and said, “Okay Sunny Flare, let’s try Cell-7 with the Deflector Harness. Lemon Zest, help her out while I go check on Indigo.”

“Ten four, Twi!” said Lemon Zest.

“Hopefully this goes better than the last one,” sighed Sunny Flare, still brushing off bits of dust from her shoulder, “I think I’ve had enough of these things exploding.”

“Hey, its not that bad,” Lemon Zest said as she picked up one of the smaller M-Cells, about the size of a water bottle, and took it over to a mannequin shaped like a human torso and head made out of ceramics. “I’m kinda digging the mad science vibe. Sure, stuff might blow up, but it does it in spectacular fashion, and this is a way more fun thing to do with my summer than sit at home waiting for deployment orders.”

The pair worked together to strap a device around the mannequin that looked like a wide, metal triangle attached to four leather straps like a bandoleer. The metallic triangular object was about half as wide as the mannequin's chest, and a good three inches deep. Not an idea size, Twilight had to admit, but one had to get proof of concepts down before one could achieve miniaturization. She stayed long enough to see that Lemon Zest was loading the M-Cell properly into the Deflector Harness' port, and then started walking towards the left most lab trailer.

“If anything goes wrong, let me know,” she told Sugarcoat, who was helping her oversee the tests. Sugarcoat gave the simplest of nods, her visor glued to Sunny Flare and Lemon Zest’s work.

“I’ll make sure they keep a minimum safe distance. If it blows up, you’ll hear it before I could come tell you, anyway.”

Twilight chuckled dryly, “True.”

Within the lab trailer a set of fluorescent lights coated everything in uniform brightness. This second trailer was set up for heavier engineering work, with cables strewn about powering numerous heavy workshop equipment. Twilight tip-toed her away past open boxes of tools and strewn parts to reach a central workbench that took up the back half of the trailer. There, Indigo Zap was standing awkwardly on one leg while she had her other leg up on the workbench, hands delicately working a soldering tool inside an open compartment on the leg’s upper thigh. A glass microscope hung from a metal arm and provided Indigo a zoomed in view while she focused on the delicate work. Twilight’s approach wasn’t quiet, and Indigo glanced up at her as she approached.

“How’s the leg?” Twilight asked. The other day Indigo’s right leg had started twitching strangely, so both her and Indigo had gone over it to look for the problem. Apparently some of the reishi conduits had become warped during the fight with the Kraken, so Indigo was resoldering the conduits with alchemic silver. 

“Almost done,” Indigo said, wiping her brow and turning back to her work, “Guess I should have known trying to move too fast with these legs would cause a problem.”

The young woman sighed deeply, “At this rate, I’m pretty much useless if a fight breaks out.”

Twilight considered placing a comforting hand on Indigo’s shoulder, but didn’t think Indigo would really take it as anything more than being patronizing. Instead she tried to keep her voice understanding as she said, “This is just a step in a long process, Indigo. These legs are important prototypes, but they’re not the finished design I have in mind. Once we understand more about how magic and reishi combine and work out the kinks, the next pair of leg models will be much stronger and easier to use, I promise.”

“I know that, it’s just frustrating, is all. In the past I didn’t even think about my legs. They were just, you know, there. Now I got to do maintenance on them. Heh, guess I really can’t skip ‘leg day’ now, can I?”

“Well, at least I don’t have to build a prosthetic replacement for your sense of humor, since that seems to be working just fine,” Twilight said, feeling a bit embarrassed at her own lame attempt at humor, but it seemed to cheer up Indigo as the girl cracked a small grin at her.

“I can believe you’d try, though. Seriously Twilight, don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s kinda freaky how good you are at all this science and tech stuff.”

Twilight used her remaining flesh and blood hand to self consciously rub at her artificial hand beneath its black glove, “I’m not that good.”

“You for real right now?” Indigo tapped the prosthetic leg on the table, “You literally built this within a week of me losing my legs. I’m pretty sure if we left you on a deserted island with nothing but a ball of twine and coconuts to work with, you’d have a working teleporter in a few days.” 

“I can’t tell if you’re giving me a compliment or making fun of me,” Twilight complained, and Indigo smiled.

“Can’t it be both? So, did you just come in here to check up on me?”

“Sort of. I wanted to see if you’d finished resoldering the leg. I wanted to work on converting them to use the new M-Cells. Assuming the testing goes well, I think using M-Cells will actually solve part of the energy distribution problem we’re having with the legs. I can also start doing stress tests on other materials. I was thinking a composite of-”

There was a small detonation outside, followed by the sound of profuse swearing from Sunny Flare, and Lemon Zest laughing heartily, and Twilight sighed, “-and nevermind, looks like the Deflector Harness exploded again. I’ll leave you to your work, Indigo, and go make sure nobody else needs limb replacement.”

“Good luck,” Indigo said, waving as Twilight went back outside. 

While she expected to see the smoke coming off of a flaming harness and mannequin, and was glad to see Sunny Flare and Lemon Zest unharmed as Sunny grabbed a fire extinguisher to put the fire out, what she didn’t expect to see were the two siblings standing outside the field lab’s perimeter.

Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce were standing outside the ward, looking at it with confused faces. Strictly speaking it was surprising they could see the ward was there at all, since it should have provided an optical illusion that hid the lab. Then again, Twilight had told Gloriosa where to find the lab in case she needed to contact her, but she’d asked Gloriosa to call first. She glanced at Sugarcoat as she strode towards the perimeter.

“What happened?”

Sugarcoat adjusted her visor, “Hard to tell. The test on the Deflector Harness was actually going well, with the shield actually redirecting Lemon Zest’s reishi arrows, but then my visor picked up a weird energy surge just a moment before the M-Cell overloaded and the Deflector Harness went up like a badly wired circuit board. If you ask me, it happened right when those two showed up.”

She pointed at the Camp Everfree siblings, and Twilight frowned, nodding, “Well, everyone just clean up and I’ll go see what they want.”

As she went up to the perimeter, she noticed Gloriosa was carrying a stack of tupperware, and Timber Spruce had a bright red cooler with a white lid. What in the world...?

 “Umm... hello?” Gloriosa said, close to shouted, “Is anybody here? We can’t see you, but this is the spot you said you’d be, Miss Sparkle. I hope me and Timber aren’t interrupting anything, but you and your friends have been out here for a few days now and we thought you might appreciate some actual food to eat.”

“Oh man, did somebody say food?” Lemon Zest said around salivating lips, eyes lighting up like little, hungry lanterns, “Twi, let her in!”

“Geeze, it’s not like I’ve been starving you guys,” Twilight said, but Sugarcoat gave her a level look.

“No, but we have been subsisting on rations for the past few days while trying to keep up with your pace.”

Twilight wondered at that, thinking over the last seventy two or so hours. She supposed she did get a little ‘in the zone’ when it came to research and invention, and she’d never had to consider the limitations of having other people doing that research with her. The girls had been keeping up, certainly, but now that she thought about it, they’d barely left the field lab, and their diet had largely consisted of meal bars and copious amounts of coffee. Even as she started paying attention to her body’s needs, her stomach gave a loud gurgle of protest. 

Oh, she was sort of hungry. 

Adjusting her glasses with an embarrassed cough, she said, “Well, understood. I’ll make a point of arranging food runs from now on.”

With that she went and deactivated the warding screens around the perimeter. Gloriosa and Timber both gave starts as the lab and its trailers just sort of appeared in front of them, as if the air itself was pulled back like a curtain.

“Whoa!” said Timber, “It’s like a cloaking device right outta Star Trek.”

Twilight glanced at him, “You... watch Star Trek?”

Gloriosa looked sidelong at her brother, “Don’t get him started. In any case, I hope this isn’t a bad time? We brought-”

“Food!” Lemon Zest was in front of Gloriosa in a flash, licking her lips as she gazed at the stacks of tupperware as if she were looking at treasure chests, “Please tell me you’ve got something in there with actual meat on it?”

With an unsure smile Gloriosa opened the top container, revealing stacks of freshly made, plastic wrapped sandwiches, “I’ve got tuna, BLTs, egg, bologna, and a few PBJs mixed in there.”

Lemon Zest barely waited for the woman to finish speaking before yanking a sandwich out and devouring it like a half-starved piranha. Between mouthfuls she said, “You, mmph, are a, mmm, domestic goddess.”

“You didn’t even ask which sandwich that was.”

“Don’t care. Gonna eat them all.”

“I wasn’t starving you guys that badly,” Twilight groused.

Timber cleared his throat and held up the cooler he was holding, “Where do you guys want me to put this? Got pretty much every soda under the sun, plus some variety of juices.”

It took a few minutes, but in short order an impromptu picnic was set up outside the trailers, with Twilight and her team all partaking of the gifts of homemade sandwiches and carbonated sugary drinks. Twilight had to admit that her body instantly felt better after she’d eaten a real meal, and made a mental note to ask if Gloriosa didn’t mind making more to bring on a regular basis.

“I’d be happy to,” Gloriosa said, “With the payment we’ve received already for agreeing to this deal of yours, I’ve been able to seriously restock our supplies. You think my sandwiches are good, you’ll be blown away when it comes to barbecue day.”

Twilight was pretty sure the sound Lemon Zest made at the mention of ‘barbecue’ was in no way decent for a young lady to make, and she focused intently on her sandwich. Meanwhile Timber looked around the field lab, nodding towards the now charred mannequin.

“So what’s the deal with the half-melted crash test dummy?”

“We were lighting things on fire for fun,” said Sour Sweet, having joined them from her own duties working on chemical experiments in the other trailer. She then fixed Timber with a flat look, “What do you think happened? Another experiment went bust.”

“Technically things were working just fine,” Sunny Flare said, “The Deflector Harness, that slightly less melted metal bit, was designed to generate a protective field of magic and reishi when detecting incoming attacks. Was actually working pretty good for a change, but then for no reason the power source overloaded.”

“Here, Sugarcoat, give me the datapad with the readings,” Twilight said, “I’m curious what might have caused the power surge.”

Sugarcoat nodded and tossed over the pad, while Gloriosa frowned at the charred mannequin, “Well, please be careful not to cause too many fires. The wrong spark and a good portion of Everfree could go up. We’re heading into a dry, hot summer, by the weather reports.”

  “No worries, Gloriosa, we’ll be careful,” said Lemon Zest, stuffing her third sandwich into her mouth. 

Examining the data, Twilight found herself making a curious noise under her breath. Sunny Flare was right. By the readings, the M-Cell was working just fine, providing the most stable power flow to the Deflector Harness in all their experiments to date. By the numbers, nothing should have gone wrong. And indeed, there was no indication in the data that the energy contained in the M-Cell went out of control, rather it showed a sudden spike of magical energy from an exterior source. Some sort of unknown pulse had offset the power flow and caused an overload. 

An outside source of magic? But form where? And it happened exactly when Gloriosa and Timber showed up...

Her eyes slide up from the datapad and looked between Gloriosa and Timber. The pair were chatting with her friends, not noticing her scrutiny. Twilight's mind churned over possibilities. She rather swiftly placed Timber Spruce on a low suspicion list. He’d largely recovered from his injuries, and there was little about him that struck Twilight as out of the ordinary. Gloriosa on the other hand, while also seemingly normal, there were one or two unanswered questions concerning her that Twilight had been wondering about. 

She’d said she’d located Timber Spruce at Twilight’s mansion via a phone GPS, but after talking with Soarin about it, he’d told her that the mansion had electronic countermeasures to prevent signals like that from getting in and out, as a precaution against spying. So Gloriosa had been lying on that front. Twilight hadn’t thought much of it other than to wonder just how she’d found out Timber was at the mansion, but it’d seemed a secondary concern until now.

If Gloriosa had access to some kind of magic, that would explain things. And it wouldn’t be hard to find out.  

Midnight, have you been paying attention? Twilight asked, figuring Midnight would be monitoring her thoughts.

Midnight’s amused, chuckling voice reached her mind a moment later, Just who do you take me for? Of course I have. I was wondering how long it might take you to put two and two together and realize there’s more to this Gloriosa Daisy than meets the eye.

Twilight suppressed an annoyed huff, If you suspected something, you could have told me sooner.

Rich laughter echoed over her mind in velvet waves, If you’d taken much longer, I would have. Now then, how about we take a look at this woman on a magical level and see what we can see...

Fortunately there was no overt sign of magically reaching out with her senses, with Midnight’s help, to feel things out around Gloriosa Daisy. It also didn’t take long to almost immediately feel a very powerful sensation of condensed magic, multiple sources of it, all clustered together around Gloriosa’s neck.

Her necklace! Those geodes! They’re... so strong... Twilight couldn’t keep the surprise off her face. 

Whether Gloriosa noticed Twilight’s look, or sensed the magical probing itself, was difficult to tell. She did look at Twilight, however, and saw the recognition there. As everyone else was still carrying on their conversation, Gloriosa’s expression went from surprise, to fear, to resigned decision all in the span of a heartbeat.

“Say, Miss Sparkle, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you. Perhaps we should go for a walk?”

“...Sure, that sounds like a good idea,” Twilight said.

“Huh? Gloriosa?” Timber asked, confusion in his tone. Sugarcoat and the other girls also noticed the change in mood.

“Something up, Twilight?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Nothing, me and Gloriosa are just going for a walk and talk. We’ll be back shortly.”

“Yes, we won’t be gone long, Timber. You all keep eating. We’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Confused stares followed them out of the camp, but nobody moved to stop them. Twilight and Gloriosa kept walking down the length of the creek, following a forest trail until it curved off south back towards Camp Everfree, a mile distant. Within five minutes they were alone, surrounded by nothing but trees and the sound of birdsong. Twilight stopped first, followed a moment later by Gloriosa.

“How long have you had magic?” Twilight asked, bluntly.

“Before I answer anything, I want your word that you won’t try to take this necklace,” Gloriosa said, placing her right hand over the necklace of multi-colored geodes, “It’s mine, and no one is taking it from me. Understand?”

Twilight could feel the buildup of power. It wasn’t reiatsu, no spiritual pressure at all, but a buzz of intense magical energy that surged through Gloriosa and the necklace. 

Be careful, Twilight, Midnight warned, The power in those crystals is... it’s intoxicatingly strong. She’s unskilled as a welder, but if she’s powered by THAT, then even with my help, she’d be trouble for you.

I’m not planning to fight, replied Twilight mentally, But be ready, just in case.

She held up a placating hand and said, “I swear to you, Glorisoa, I don’t want to take anything from you. I just want to know what that necklace is and where you got it. You’ve probably already figured this out, but magic like that isn’t natural to our world.”

“Then where did you get yours?” Gloriosa asked, not at all relaxing her guard.

Twilight considered her response, and realized that if she wanted to build trust here, she needed to be truthful, “Probably from the same world yours comes from. This magic is native to another realm, and it’s come through to our world several times before. I collected a lot of it and went through a... change, that’s led to me having some of the magic left inside me. That’s how I can use it, and sensed it in you. I think the magic of your necklace caused the overload today. That’s what tipped me off, although I suspected something was up when you found Timber at my mansion so easily.”

“Didn’t buy the GPS story?”

“Sort of. Look, Gloriosa, I want us to be able to trust each other. I’ve given you my word that I won’t take your magic from you. If that’s not enough, we’re stuck at an impasse.” 

For a solid minute the two ladies stood there, facing each other as a gentle breeze stirred the grass around them. Gloriosa kept her hand on the necklace of geodes... then slowly released it with a tired sigh escaping her lips.

“I suppose I was already willing to trust you far enough to take your deal with the camp. Little late for second thoughts. I’m... sorry I got so tense there for a moment. This power I’ve found, it’s important that I hold onto it. I thought it was the only thing I could use to protect my brother and my home, and for all I know, that’s still true. I want to understand it, learn how to use it.”

“Believe me, I know exactly how you feel,” Twilight said, smiling gently, “More than I can explain. I think we have a lot in common, Gloriosa. If you’ll let me, I’d like to help you learn more about this magic you’ve found, but first I need to understand where you obtained it. The geodes, they’re the source of the power, right?”

“As far as I know,” Gloriosa said hesitantly, “I found them in a cave my brother and I used to play in when we were little. I don’t know how they got there.”

“When did you find them?”

“Around six months, I think?”

The same timeframe as when the Friendship Games happened! “I see. Gloriosa, there’s a very strong chance the magic in those geodes stems from the same place my magic does. I won’t ask you to so much as take the necklace off if you don’t want to, but would you agree to allowing me to study the crystals themselves?”

“No offense, Twilight, but if my geodes make your experiments explode now, how much worse would it get if you started actively studying them?”

“That’s exactly why I would want to study them! If I can get a better handle on how the magic is affecting Quincy technology, my research will speed up by leaps and bounds! But... I understand the concern you’re raising, too. I’ll exercise every caution, I promise, and if you truly don’t wish to have the geodes studied, I’ll leave it at that. But this could lead to serious breakthroughs in my research.”

“...I’ll think about it. No promises.”

Twilight nodded, trying to contain her excitement, “I understand. Hmm, does Timber Spruce know about the geodes?”

“He does. I know he’s been worried about me, too, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got a handle on this. Mostly.”

“Just what can you do with the geodes?” Twilight inquired with intense curiosity, “How did you use them to find Timber?”

Gloriosa gained a wry smile, “How about we leave that for later? If we spend too long out here, everyone else will start wondering what we’re doing, and I hate worrying my brother. I’ll... provide a demonstration tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Twilight replied, relaxing somewhat, as did Gloriosa. With that agreed upon, the pair started heading back to the lab...

----------

...And beneath the surface, many meters down, a wide root system trembled as the energies of the geodes nearly being used traveled back down the roots into the greater cluster that surrounded the Everfree Forest and its lake. At the nexus of these roots, the occupant of the gigantic root system stirred.

She’d felt her vessel’s emotions. The fear, the anxiety. Good. Those emotions only made the vessel more suitable for her intended purpose. She could also taste the presence of the old enemy, the Quincy. Unexpected, but not unwelcome. She’d need fresh food to gorge on when the time came. 

The even older enemy in the form of the Soul Reapers were also nearby, yet their spiritual pressure was oddly obscured. Close, yet veiled. No matter, their turn to be devoured would come too, if they interfered. 

Meanwhile she sensed her ally was excited. Across the tear between worlds, she felt the one who so long ago has touched upon her mind and together they had formed the plan for revival. 

You stir... the time is coming soon...

Her thoughts were still slow, sluggish, but sharp enough. Her ally’s voice reached her, along with the deep rush of ocean currents.

I have guests that will be dropping in before long. An old acquaintance of mine will just be dying to hear from them, I think. Don’t fret, my friend. My pet is preparing the circle, and I have nearly everything I need over here. Soon, we’ll both have what we desire, and the festivities will begin.

She didn’t laugh so much as shake with anticipation. Yes, festivities. If that was what one would call a bloody slaughter. She didn’t even care much about the lives in the human city nearby, or the Quincy or Soul Reapers. Food and old enemies. They were nothing next to the true object of her fury. Once the revival was complete and her strength restored, the sweet, sweet taste of vengeance would be all she cared about. 

But she still had to wait. Just a little longer.