All around Wild there were ponies, and she could feel each of them with her magic, with the exception of the pegasi up in the air. So far she had stumbled on a few young foals, too young for school, hiding in the crops, playing hide and seek within close proximity of their parents. She hadn't found any grown ponies hiding as of yet, and she was already starting to tire. It had only been an hour since she had arrived, but already the constant use of her magic was putting a strain on her, even at this lower power level. Number was right, she was made for quick bursts of magic, not steady use.
There was a lot of ground to cover though, and she needed to flush out her mama and Bill. Figuring out which ponies were out of place was a difficult task, and even though she could spread her magic out to the entire fields it was hard to tell anything beyond a certain range. The same lingering magic that she said would disrupt the crystal ponies was also making it hard for her to tell anything beyond a certain range. It was like trying to make out shapes in a sea of dark lime jello. Until she got close to them they were just indistinct shapes.
She touched her phone on her leg and raised it up. "Sapphire, see any movement up there?"
"Just ponies out and about," Sapphire's voice came over the phone, partially muffled by wind shear. "Things are looking really bad a mile or two off. There’s a pretty unfriendly looking crowd to our southwest."
"The protestors," Wild replied. "They've been getting really rowdy as of late. They aren't why we're out here. Focus on the fields, my mama has to be here somewhere."
"You don’t know that," Sapphire replied.
"It makes the most sense for them to be here," Wild snapped. "I'm sure we'll find them."
"Wild, I'll help you keep looking, but your hunch is just a hunch. I’m starting to get worried about what’s going to happen if that crowd gets out of control,” Sapphire paused letting the rush of wind carry over the line. “I don’t like that there’s so much activity near where my daughter is. Maybe I should make a storm to disperse those protestors, might make it easier to find your mother and her friend if everyone wasn’t so distracted?”
Wild stopped to stare at her phone in disbelief. "A storm is against city ordinances, and would only make it harder for the national guard to do their jobs. You aren't bringing a storm in. You act like bringing a storm in is the solution to every problem. You should have named yourself Storm Queen."
"I do NOT think a storm is the solution to every problem. But none of them would have planned for rain, and no one is brave with thunder exploding overhead," Sapphire replied with a hint of smugness. "Why waste time with lots of guards trying to pen them in when you can just make them all leave on their own?"
Wild grit her teeth. Tonya had once tried to make a point about how powerful ponies were more trouble than they were worth by telling about how Sapphire had caused havoc to one of Sunset's contractors with a storm over some misunderstanding. Tonya couldn't keep her admiration from Sapphire's abilities from leaking into the story, but had also stressed that Sapphire had flown in with a storm that nearly washed away the town without trying to find out all sides of the story. From what was described it was surprising Sunset hadn't pressed any charges. That probably meant Tonya had conveniently left out that Sunset had caused it in some way. Tonya would do everything to paint her wife in the best light possible, after all. Regardless, Tonya had made her point.
"Please, just keep your eyes out," Wild replied as she clicked her phone off.
There were several humans and earth ponies working together to carefully harvest some daisies without hurting the tasty flowers. She walked over to them and they all waved at her in greeting as she approached.
"Have any of you seen two unmarked crystal ponies?" She asked as she approached.
"The ones that the police put that emergency alert out on everyone's phones for?" An earth pony stallion asked as he wiped his brow with a foreleg. "Nope, haven't seen them. Would have reported them if we did. That emergency signal popping up all at once startled the lot of us, but we all know to keep a lookout out for them. Don't want anyone gettin' hurt."
Wild sighed and nodded. "Thank you. Just keep aware that they may be hiding in dense vegetation. Make sure you're staying in groups of three or more."
"Will do, ma'am."
She walked away from the group and considered what to do next. Looking through the fields was not being as fruitful as she thought it would be. Perhaps Number had been right, and they were keeping towards the housing where they could get into houses and find isolated pony couples. She just didn't like that idea; it made her mama into some sort of predator looking for prey. It had only been a day. Was her mama already that deranged in that short time?
"Alexa, call contact Papa."
"Calling, Papa."
There was a brief ringing before it was answered. "Hello? Have you found a trace of your mother?" Her papa's voice said.
She absently shook her head. "No, nothing so far. Any traces on your end?"
"Nothing," her papa replied. "Most houses have no replies. We have had a few that answered, but no one has seen anything. Think we are actually scaring some ponies by searching door to door, or in the case of one night pony making them mad."
She grunted in response. "All we can do is keep trying. I might come down there and assist. It seems like everyone is aware and on the lookout here, and I know there are a lot of pony houses to cover."
"Enough that we could be at this for days," her papa replied. "We don't have that kind of time."
"I know," she said, far harsher than she intended. She was scared, frustrated, and worn down from constant use of her powers. "All we can do is keep searching. Hopefully Melissa will get back with word soon."
"I hope so," her papa replied in a whisper, she could tell from the sound of his voice that he was trying to hold back tears.
She wiped her own eyes before replying. "I'm going to make a few more calls." She wanted to assure him it would be alright, but she was having her doubts about that, and couldn't bring herself to lie.
She hung the phone up and looked up at the sky. She really couldn't tell most pegasi from one another at the distance they were above her. She saw their colors, but for all the variety of colors that ponies came in they still repeated the same colors and color combinations fairly often. She also didn't know enough about weather making, casual flying, and pegasi search patterns to tell what any particular pegasus up there was currently doing. She just saw them dart around against the backdrop of an overcast sky, with the cloud cover hiding the early afternoon sun. The grayness matched her mood.
"Alexa, call contact Number Crunch."
The phone was answered quickly. "Wild? Have you found her yet?"
"No," she replied. "And based on your response I'm guessing you have no word from anyone."
"Nothing as of yet," Number answered. The unicorn's voice became hesitant. "Wild, my understanding of statistics and probability are mainly tied to business, but I've been trying to run some math on this. Based on the previous attacks it seems like there should be at least two more victims by now, if things keep progressing the way they have been. I haven't heard anything yet, but that's what my rough math says."
It briefly crossed her mind that she had access to a math genius in the form of little Jessie, and she might be able to run some models on how this would progress. However, she rejected the idea quickly. It wasn't likely complicated enough math that she needed a math genius to figure it out. Without doing any math herself she already knew that the times were decreasing between attacks, and that it was likely another attack would have happened by now. She really didn't want to have it spelled out in detail how bad this was.
"I'm guessing the police have already figured that out as well," she finally replied, a moment of silence. "Any new word from Sunset?"
"Only that she is bringing in some sort of outside help. She also called Rarity and the Equestrians to her," Number answered. "She's gone to your sister's house for some reason."
It was early afternoon, most night ponies would normally be asleep, but given the current family crisis she supposed Rosetta and Phobia were up and awake. Sunset was probably there for Phobia, not Rosetta.
"I'll give my sister a call and see what's going on. I think I'm going to shift to the pony housing, and leave Sapphire here checking the fields. If they are here then they'll likely cause a commotion, and Sapphire can follow from there. Do me a favor, and pass that on to her while I'm calling Rosetta."
She hung up the line and gave out a new order. "Alexa, call contact sister."
"Calling sister"
"Hi, this is Rosetta Stone-Remedy. If you're getting this voicemail I'm probably at work, and can't get a signal. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Rosetta was at work, or somewhere she couldn't get a signal? There was also the possibility her battery had died.
She frowned. "Alexa, call contact sister's house."
"Calling sister's house."
A few brief rings happened before it was answered. "Wild? What do you need? I'm kind of busy at the moment trying to keep my mother and Twilight Sparkle from screaming at one another," Phobia said over the line.
Her brow raised. "Twilight Sparkle is here?"
"Yes," Phobia replied in a flustered tone. "I'm both happy for that and aggravated. We can really use her help, but my mother and her get along like oil and water. It's almost impossible to get through three sentences without some accusation, complaint, or general rudeness to happen. I don't like all this negativity in my house."
"I would guess that your mom is responsible for most of that, no offense," Wild replied.
Phobia sighed. "You aren't wrong, but Twilight isn't helping much either. The princess has not been shy about her distrust, and it's riling my mom up further. If I could just get my mom to leave I might make some progress talking to Twilight, because we get along most of the time. She and I have our disagreements, but we trust in one another's good intentions. That trust isn't there at all between my mom and Twilight."
"Sounds like you have your hooves full," Wild said. "I was just wanting to talk to my sister. Can you get her on the line, just so I can check in about Mama with her?"
"Sorry, I can’t," Phobia answered in a worried tone. "She's not here right now. She, my little sisters, the Middleton foals, Crystal, and a few of my other guards are all at the school. They have it on lockdown due to the riot threats, and they're safer there. Anti-Dreamwarden groups are some of the most likely to get violent, and my family are all potential targets if someone gets it in their head to go out and try to hurt me."
Wild groaned and rubbed her muzzle. "Okay, well, can you let her know me, Papa, Sapphire, the police, and a host of SPEC agents are out looking for Mama? I'm assuming she has to be asleep or sleeping soon. You can just do the whole dream thing...by the way, have you seen Mama there?"
"I can't say that unless I found her and she gave me permission to share that information," Phobia replied in a sad tone.
Wild glared at her phone. "Seriously? You can't even tell me if she's been dreaming?"
"Information about someone being awake or asleep is still private information that has to be guarded," Phobia replied.
"But she's in danger!" Wild shouted, earning her worried looks from nearby ponies. "Even professionals reveal information if it means their clients are in danger."
"I'm sorry, Wild. It's the rules," Phobia replied firmly. "I cannot break the rules with deliberate creative interpretations. If I didn't believe that kind of information could be used against someone, maybe I could get around it, but I do believe it, so the rule is ironclad."
"You said unless you found her. Is that a clue you haven't?" Wild demanded.
"Don't read too much into it," Phobia cautioned tensely. "I can promise that I'll do all I can to try to reason with her in the dream realm, and to pass on how worried we all are for her. If I can convince her to release any personal information you'll be second to know, after Rosetta."
Her ears twitched as she heard a sound that she would never forget in the distance, a shot from a gun; followed quickly by several more Even though it was far off she reflexively hardened her body. Some less familiar, or humans with weaker ears, might mistake it with a firecracker or something else, but with the amount of times she had shots fired at her in the last few years she'd never forget that sound.
"I need to get going, now. I think something bad is happening with the protests, I just heard shots being fired," she said hurriedly.
"I'll pass that onto my mother," Phobia replied. "Keep safe."
She quickly hung up the phone and then hit the quick dial button she had set up earlier today. "Sapphire, what's going on with the protests? You can see better than I can down here."
"I'll need to get higher to get a good view, since I can't fly in closer due to those stupid no fly zones," Sapphire answered in aggravation. "Hold on. I might lose phone signal. If I do I'll call right back as soon as I'm done getting a better look."
The sound of rushing wind as Sapphire changed elevations was so loud that the speaker of her phone began to distort. While storms were one of the things the blue pegasus was known for, her actual special talent made her an unimaginably fast flier. This rush of wind held for at least ten seconds while Wild silently waited before the background noise suddenly cleared up.
"I can’t be too sure, but looks like there's an area where maybe a hundred people are fighting and yelling, and it looks like it is growing. Some are running away in random directions, but there’s no way to tell what’s going on," Sapphire reported.
"The National Guard can take care of it," Wild replied. "I might need to go in though, just in case my mama and Bill are in all that mess. I don't want them getting hurt."
"The National Guard aren’t even close to that and people are already getting hurt," Sapphire snapped. "I'm just going to end this quickly. Your city can fine me, or whatever. These humans need to cool off."
Oh no, she wouldn't...Wild thought helplessly. "Sapphire! Sapphire! Don't you dare!"
"Sorry, krrk… hisss….ksssh, can’t hear you…" the storm-happy pegasus's voice came over the line clearly.
Wild could only watch helplessly as a blue blur stood out against the sky, streaking across the sky towards the southwest with a contrail of silver. In her wake, storm clouds followed, coalescing so fast she could almost feel the humidity being ripped from the air around her to fuel it. Did Sapphire have no experience with angry crowds? This wasn't going to disperse them, it was just going to add to the chaos and confusion. “You idiot! Storms aren’t the answer to everything!” She shouted helplessly after her phone hung up. This was South Carolina, people didn't run from storms here, they'd stand outside in a hurricane for the thrill of it. Storms just made people act more recklessly.
The crack of thunder and flash of lightning heralded the rain, which came pouring down just a moment after the first flash. Around her the air rapidly built with static causing her fur to start to stand on end. Sapphire’s magic settled over the area, dominating it in a way that she only ever felt with her own. The wind whipped across the fields carrying with it the smell of ozone and moisture. The other pegasi immediately broke and scattered from the sky to await orders from Amber Flowers, the weather captain, to give orders on how to deal with the sudden storm. It would take a team of pegasi to break that storm up if Sapphire didn't do it herself, but they might not be able to if Sapphire fought their efforts.
It was a matter of debate who was stronger, Sapphire or Sunrise Storm, but both of them were strong enough that it would take a small army of pegasi to counteract them. What wasn’t normally debated was that Sapphire was far more willing to throw around her might. Ponies that crossed over that PREQUES six rank were just too much to try to fight on their own terms. Sapphire was somewhere in the high-six to mid-seven range by best estimates, the next strongest pegasus in Riverview was a high four, that was a huge gap in power to bridge and absolutely none had anywhere near the expertise of the Equestrian trained pegasus.
Another series of lightning bolts rained down, and one of them must have hit a transformer, because even from where she was standing she could see the power go out in street lights and traffic lights in the distance. Just what they needed on top of everything else, a blackout.
"Alexa, call contact John Trimble," she said to her phone.
"Calling, John Trimble."
The phone only rang once before being answered by her current head of security. "Yes, ma'am?"
"I'm going into the protests. I do not want security following me in," she said gravely.
"Ma'am, with all due respect-" the crystal pony on the other end of the line began.
"That's an order," she said harshly. "There's already chaos going on, and I'll need to be moving fast. I'm more concerned about your safety than mine. Your primary duty as my security is to keep alert for danger so others around me don't get hurt. I'm walking into a situation where I'll be surrounded by danger, so there's no need to be warned that it's there. I won't get hurt, you can. Continue to search the fields without me."
"Ma'am, if someone shoots a gun at you at point blank range even you can be hurt. You aren't invincible."
"If someone is bound and determined to get that close to me they'll do it in a planned and controlled setting, not in a situation like this," she countered. "I'll take my chances. Do as you're ordered."
"Yes, ma'am," her security head with displeasure, before the line hung up.
She withdrew her magic from trying to search the fields. The prolonged use had already made her very tired, and if she had to do more prolonged use out in the crowds she may yet end up planting her face into the cement. Hopefully she could regain some of her magical stamina on the run over there, but she wasn't positive that would be enough time. It didn't matter though, her mama, and possibly the ponies of Riverview, needed her. All she needed to know was that as she set off at a gallop towards where the riots had been breaking out.
Jessie stared at the window as the rain finally seemed to have stopped, leaving clouds so dark that it seemed like it was night. The storm had picked up out of nowhere and had raged for several minutes with so much intense lightning that the sky had been too bright to look at. Both her and Jordan had been frightened by it but Jackie had reacted like it was the greatest show she had ever seen. What the pegasus didn't like was the fact that the storm had knocked the power out, and the only sources of light were the windows and the occasional red emergency light in the hallways. Ms. Rosetta, the demons, Robby, and Layla had somehow slept through all of it.
"Fuck!" Crystal growled loudly from the teacher's desk. The bodyguard then looked over at them and flattened her ears. "Pretend you didn't hear that. I said fudge if anyone asks."
Jessie looked at the lone adult awake. "What's wrong?"
Crystal pushed the desk phone away with annoyance. "The school phone lines are dead, and I don't know why. Even with no power we should have the phones working. On top of that I always get abysmal signal on my cell phone in this place, and can't keep a bar up long enough to make a call. We're effectively cut off from communicating or finding out what's going on out there." She looked at Jessie. "You're a genius, got any idea why the phones aren't working?"
Jessie shook her head. "I don't really know how phones work. I didn't even know they were supposed to keep working with no power. You probably know more about that stuff than me."
Crystal groaned. "Seriously? Nothing at all?"
"I don't really know a lot about electronics," Jessie replied sadly. "I could tell you how phone calls work in terms of concepts in physics, but I don't think that will help."
Crystal shook her head. "No, it won't. Probably silly for me to even think you would. Do me a favor and give Rosetta and Layla a shake. Hopefully Rosetta knows, and Layla has gone here for years, so she might."
She did as instructed, first going to Ms. Rosetta. It took some nudging, but eventually the night pony mare uncovered her head from her wings and gave a big yawn.
"Hey, Rosetta," Crystal called out. "The power's down and phone line isn't working. Shouldn't the phones still work?"
Ms. Rosetta stretched. "The ones in the classrooms won't. They’re on the VOIP system, and no computer means no phone. I used to work at a call center when I was a human, and it did the same thing there. The phones in all the main offices should be working though. Those have direct lines."
"And do you know why the cell coverage is so bad?" Crystal asked, as she held up a leg to show her phone.
Ms. Rosetta blinked and looked at her own phone. "Honestly, I don't know why it’s still bad. There's a blocker that keeps us from using cell phones in here normally; so students can't use their phones in class, but with no power that should be down."
Crystal sighed and lowered her leg. "Well, I'm assuming there's some generator somewhere for a place like this. What should still be working?"
"Not a lot, honestly," Rosetta replied. "Emergency lighting, phones down in the office, the power locks to the main doors. The elevators technically work, but they are programmed only to operate for emergency crews until main power is restored, just finish going to the next closest floor and open up. Intercom system should still be working too. The generator is kind of cheap, and is mainly there to make sure no one gets stuck anywhere and instructions can be given out to students and teachers if we need to evacuate the building."
"This is a big and important school... and its generator can't keep anything useful running?" Crystal asked in astonishment.
Ms. Rosetta shrugged. "It's my mother-in-law you can thank for that. She's cheap and cuts corners everywhere. Why do you think most ponies in this city live in houses made out of literal crap? Think the only things in town she didn't cut corners as much as she could with are the Bastion, hospitals, factories, and the monorail system, and only those because she had to impress federal regulators. You can't build a city this size at the rate she did, and on the budget she set, without cutting corners left and right to where she was meeting bare minimum standards--and even some of those standards were creatively accomplished, as she puts it."
Crystal frowned. "How did she get away with all that?"
Rosetta flicked her tail. "It's not that surprising, ponies out west were remaking everything in Equestria's image. A lot of them still live like that. Sunset promised the government a city, built to be the model of what an integrated city of ponies and humans living in a human way would look like, and she promised to do it relatively cheap. Despite the massive amount spent on this city, she still did it at a fraction of the cost it should have taken. Do you really think they weren't willing to overlook however many corners she cut to get it done? They don't question her miracles, and quietly blackball anyone who does."
"So...nothing is built up to proper standards, and they let her get away with it because it looks good," Crystal said thoughtfully.
"And for the moment, it functions as it should," Rosetta continued. "But all it takes is one major disaster and her cost cutting will come back to bite us all." She sighed. "I'm not saying her ideas are bad. She just doesn't put all the work and money that needs to go into them into them. That's why we are standing in a school with a crappy generator and ponies are living in crap houses, among other things."
Jessie was unsure if she still needed to wake Layla up or not, and she didn't want to upset her new friend by waking her up unnecessarily. Jackie was still standing on a chair, looking out the window, eager to see the sky put on another show while Jordan was looking over the various posters hanging on the walls of the third grade classroom they were staying in. Jessie didn’t have anything to distract herself with and still a little nervous about the sudden storm and the power being out; she wanted some protection. Walking over to where her brother was sleeping, she snuggled up close to him. Without waking he draped the wing he wasn't wrapping over his head over her instead. Even asleep, her brother still seemed to know she was there.
Ms. Rosetta didn't go right back to sleep. She instead walked over to the window and tried checking her phone. She then shook her head in frustration. "Yeah, the block is definitely still up. If it wasn't I should at least be getting some signal right here, even if it wasn't great. I'm clueless why it is still up with the power down, unless those cheap ass electricians wired them into the generator circuit." She glanced out the window. "I can't tell much at all about what's going on from this view. We're on the wrong side of the building to see anything but Skytree and the fields. Maybe I should go check one of the views from the other classrooms."
"No can do," Crystal said firmly. "We're in an emergency situation, that means you don't go wandering off without a guard, even down that hall. When Pin Point and Alexis get back up here for Layla to relieve Alexis we'll let you take a few minutes to check."
Ms. Rosetta gave an irritated flap of her wings. "Don't you think you're being a little anal about that? We're locked tight in one of the most secure buildings in the city. We're perfectly safe."
"It's my job to make sure all precautions are taken," Crystal replied, flicking her tail in turn. "Tempest would have my head if I didn't do it right, and Phobia would do worse than that if something happened to you."
The night pony mare gave another irritated flap of her wings before snapping them shut and sighing. "You're right, I shouldn't interfere with you doing your job. I'm just stressed and going on short sleep. How long until the other guards get back here?"
Crystal glanced up at the digital clock on the wall, which must have been battery powered since it was still working. "Well… now that you mention it, they're running late, and I hadn't noticed while we were talking. Give me a minute--I don't do this often, and with all this magic saturating the area I’ll need to really focus."
Jessie peaked her head up to see what Crystal was doing. It didn't seem like she was doing anything at all. The crystal pony had her eyes closed and face contorted in concentration. Was she trying to dreamwalk while awake? She heard some ponies could do that, with practice. She'd never heard from anyone that Crystal was any powerful dreamwalker though. It then occurred to her that she was overlooking the obvious. Crystal was searching out magic signatures with her crystal pony powers.
Crystal opened her eyes wide and gasped. She then jumped down from her seat at the desk and moved towards the door. "Get Layla and the others up, now! We've got trouble!"
Ms. Rosetta started moving right away towards her foals. Jessie didn't question the order, it gave no room to be questioned. She just started shaking her brother. She caught sight of Jackie and Jordan huddling together at the intensity of Crystal's sudden change in mood.
Layla stirred on her own, and looked up at the crystal pony. "What's wrong?"
Crystal didn't respond to her, instead turning to Ms. Rosetta quickly. "If going downstairs to the offices there isn't an option for getting to a phone, where else can we go? Or is there somewhere these blockers don't work?"
The night pony considered for a split-second before pointing a wing up. "Some of the offices at the top floors have landlines, and worst case scenario the blockers shouldn't work from the roof. What's wrong? Did rioters get in here?"
Crystal gave a worried shake of her head. "Worse than that, your mother and Bill are here, and I'm pretty sure they already got Pin Point and Alexis. They are coming this way. I don't know if they can sense us or not, but they are definitely moving with purpose. We need to get away from here, now."
Jessie shivered as her brother gripped her tightly. The way Crystal was talking she was talking like Ms. Jean and the other pony were monsters. Weren’t they supposed to be safe in here?
Tonya dejectedly looked through Sunset's special contact book for the appropriate phone number for Sarah. The book was kept in plain sight in Sunset's office library normally, though most people wouldn't be inclined to pick it up. The title of the book according to the cover and binding was An Introduction to Library Science Volume Three, the other five volumes of the series were actually present on the shelf, and actually what they claimed to be. They were also written by an exceedingly boring author who brought the exact opposite of flair to the table when trying to interest people in what already seemed a dull subject. Getting through even a page of any of the other volumes was such a chore most wouldn't bother to check if volume three was any more interesting than any of the others. Just in case they did this volume only had twenty pages two-thirds of the way in that were actually dedicated to recording Sunset's contacts.
This was actually one of the easiest books to get information from out of Sunset's library. Her wife liked to hide lots of things in these books, in a variety of different ways. Some had ciphers and text to be deciphered, some had microchips hidden within their binding that interacted with Sunset's special reading platforms in different ways, and some were what they said they were with no tricks or whistles. Tonya herself didn't actually know what all was hidden in Sunset's library, or what interacted with what. She knew randomly experimenting with laying out books on the podiums could go very badly, and wasn't about to try. She knew only this contact book and how to open the vault for sure. That was all she needed to know, and more than she wanted.
She found the appropriate contact. Labeled only as History of Chaco Canyon with a phone number scrunched together between letters to make this section seem like some strange example of book filing. She sighed and looked over the dozens of other entries on the page. She wasn't even sure who half these people were, so there was no point even trying to contact them. She'd need Sunset to figure out who things like The History of Cooking Flour or An Introduction to Making Lead Based Paint could possibly refer to. However, she did know some of them, and would make those calls. Any fool who figured out these were contacts could just randomly start dialing numbers and see who picked up, or simply trace the phone numbers. So it seemed like it was pointlessly made over complicated to her. Sunset had a penchant for doing that with lots of things in her security here, and Tonya imagined that Sunset did it just to piss off any would-be spies, or cause them so much delay they inevitably got caught.
After dialing the number with a wing she sat and waited as the phone rang. It kept ringing for more than a dozen rings before being picked up. "Hello? Who is it?" Sarah's voice came over the line.
"The history of Chaco Canyon," Tonya replied.
"Who is this? You’re not...the one I normally speak with," Sarah asked suspiciously.
"I’m her wife," Tonya replied as she hunched down over the desk. "She has a big favor to ask out of you. Are you alone and free to speak?"
"Depends on the subject of this call. My daughter, Sunny, is visiting, and is in the other room," Sarah replied in a stern whisper. "If it’s about my nephew then this isn't a good time."
"I apologize for the bad timing, but it's kind of urgent," Tonya said in a whisper of her own, just in case her voice carried loudly over the phone line. "Have you spent much time with your other daughter lately, or spoken to her recently?"
Sarah's breath caught. "No, not in the last two weeks, but that isn't unusual. She's out on her own, and likes to have her own space so she can try to focus on writing. Is she in some sort of trouble again?"
"Not as far as I know, but she might have information we need, or at least her special friend does," Tonya replied, trying to keep a businesslike tone like her wife did on these calls. "Has she been getting any heavy activity from that lately that you know of? Twilight Sparkle said that she has. Normally we wouldn't care, but we think it might be referring to something bad happening down here. Twilight doesn't trust us enough to share what's going on, so we're trying to find out if you know."
Sarah sighed over the line. "I'm sorry, but I don't know. She's my daughter, but we aren't really close. My sister's closer to her than I am. Jenny is a shrewd young woman, and I'm very proud of her for that, but I sometimes worry that she suspects what I'm doing with our organization. It makes spending too much time around her uncomfortable sometimes. I'm afraid she'll figure it out and call me out on it to Bob and her sister."
"But you're not afraid Sunny will do the same?" Tonya asked.
Sarah gave a sad chuckle. "Sunny has many excellent qualities, and one of those is being exceedingly trusting. It's surprising she hasn't lost that trust given how many times people close to her have tried to use her. Jenny is the cynic of the two. Both my daughters are very intelligent, but Jenny is far more perceptive of something not being right. I hate keeping secrets from them, and Bob, even if I know what I'm doing is for the best."
"So no use even trying to pry, because she'll probably figure it out, right?" Tonya asked regretfully.
"How important is this?" Sarah asked pensively. "If she figures it out then my reputation with my family might be hurt beyond repair, and that will hurt like nothing ever has, but if somepony's life is on the line I'll do it."
There were times where what someone answered could determine another's fate. She knew that this might be important, and that it could impact a lot of people, but she also knew that she would destroy Sarah's life in the process if Sarah's secrets got out. Sunset might weigh the two and look at the good of the many over the few, but Tonya wasn't her wife. What she saw was a maybe weighed against an almost certainty.
"I don't think it's important enough for that," she replied after a moment of silence. "Thank you for being willing to do that, but it's not necessary. I value your happiness too much to risk it on this. With that in mind, I needed to tell you personally that your services aren't going to be needed anymore."
"What!" Sarah all but screamed, and could be heard immediately muffling herself. "Stay on the line. I need to go do something real quick. I'll be right back."
She waited patiently and could hear faint conversation in the background. After a minute Sarah returned. "I needed to have Harold take Sunny somewhere away from where she could hear this, just in case I get loud. Now tell me why, after all I've done and sacrificed for this organization, you think it's okay to just give me a pink slip!"
"Sunset's retiring," Tonya replied calmly."We don't know for sure who will be taking over, and we're shutting down her network of agents, just in case the wrong person takes over."
"She's quitting? Just like that?" Sarah demanded angrily. "I thought I was working for someone dedicated to advancing the use and applications of magic, not someone who was just going to quit out of the blue! Plus, she funds my research, what am I going to do now?"
"I'm sure your work over the last six years has earned you more than enough of a reputation that someone else will help fund you," Tonya answered, trying to keep calm.
"No one with as deep pockets," Sarah muttered. "And you haven't answered me about why she's quitting."
"I can't really discuss-".
"Oh, yes you will!" Sarah yelled. "Let me make this clear, Tonya Blessing; I have stolen information from my nephew on a regular basis for you, information he only gave me access to because he trusts me. I only did it because I truly believed I was helping make a better world. Do you have any idea how much it hurt to do that to him? Your wife made me believe in the greater good over my credibility with my own family, and now she's saying she's quitting! It was hard enough to look them in the eyes before, and now I'm being told I did it all for nothing? How dare she!"
Tonya lowered her ears. "Sarah, we appreciate all you've done for us, and we have made a lot of breakthroughs with your nephew's work. Your efforts really did help." She took a deep breath. "And you're right, with all that you have risked we owe you a better explanation."
"Talk," Sarah replied.
Tonya looked around the room as she began her explanation. "Sunset had a revelation of sorts. That it was our duty to bring magic to the humans in addition to ponies."
"That's great! I can get onboard with that. I've always been onboard with that to tell the truth. I was never comfortable with her Shimmerist ideals, so if anything, that should only make me more comfortable working with her. I still don't see where that requires she quit," Sarah snapped.
Tonya chewed on her lip. "I'm not sure if you've been keeping up with recent events, but she recently revealed a temporary transformation spell. The side effect of that spell is that humans gain magic permanently."
Sarah gasped. "That's actually great news! I still don't understand why that has her quitting and me being effectively let go."
"She believes that her part in giving humans magic is done. All it’ll take is time now," Tonya replied, then sheepishly rubbed her head with a wing. "But she is also starting to have a crisis of conscious about how she's conducted business, and she's ready to raise a family with me," she spoke for Sunset, not knowing if the last part was actually true or not yet.
Sarah let off a long breath. "Look, as a pony who has to deal with a constant crisis of conscious doing what I do for her, I can understand how that feels. I can appreciate wanting to raise a family too, but this is important work. We are providing new breakthroughs and opportunities for everyone in the end. It needs to continue."
Tonya sighed. "And we hope it will. Wild Growth will hopefully take over for Sunset. If she does you might be able to convince your nephew to work for her in a legitimate way. Wild Growth is a good pony, and I'm sure that she will be someone willing to see things get better for everyone, but she does not approve of Sunset's methods. This is a good thing. No more stealing, and Bob can have access to resources directly. Wild isn't that fond of me, but she'll listen to Rosetta. I'm sure Rosetta will put a good word in for you if you ask her. She might even if you don't, she’s always been a big fan of your work."
"Rosetta's sister would be ideal," Sarah said thoughtfully. "But you said you don't know who will be taking over."
"We don't," Tonya admitted. "We're banking on the fact Wild will see all the good she can do with the chairpony position of SPEC. We can't guarantee that she'll take it, and even if she does there's the possibility the government will want someone else in charge of Sunset's research and development departments. We have no idea what kinds of intentions or directions an unknown figure might have for all those projects."
Sarah groaned. "I guess that makes sense. If Wild Growth takes control I'll suggest to Bob that Wild Growth might be a good pony to partner with. Not having to lie and steal from him will be a relief. Maybe I'll even be able to connect with Jenny some more now that I don't have to worry about her finding out my dirty secrets. I don't even pry directly enough to find out if she's seeing anyone, and I'd kind of like to know what my prospects of getting grandchildren from her are. I worry sometimes she doesn't think I care, or I think less of her because she's human, or something along those lines; all because I avoid her so much out of fear."
"I need to say again, we appreciate you and everything you have done," Tonya said quietly, as she thought of the impacts on Sarah's life. "I know when Sunset first started funding you that you took her aid reluctantly. I'm glad you came around to being such a passionate supporter. I just want to be sure that we repay your efforts by not ruining your family life. Wild will hopefully be taking the reins of SPEC by the new year. You should take your time between now and then to figure out how to sell Bob on working with her. It will all work out in the end."
Muffled voices could be heard in the background again. "Sunny and Harold are back, so I should get going," Sarah said quickly. "Thank you for letting me know about the shake up in leadership, and thank you for caring about my relationship with my daughters and nephew. If this is the last I'll be dealing with you and your wife, then I'll count it as ending on a good note."
Tonya didn't want to say that if Sunset had been on this call instead that she might not have cared as much about Sarah's family relationships. Her wife was great at many things, but she could be callous about how she treated others sometimes. It was part of why Sunset needed her by her side, to remind her wife to show compassion when focused on goals. She hoped that whatever information Jenny had wasn't so important that failing to search it out would come back to hurt them, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt Sarah to find out. Instead she just smiled. "I'm glad. Take care of yourself, Sarah." And with that she hung up the line.
She sagged in her seat as she looked at the other contacts. Just dealing with Sarah had been exhausting. Who'd have thought six years ago that unicorn would become such an ardent supporter of their work? If any of the others were like that she needed to take a break before making those calls, just to try to collect herself.
A quick check of the computer gave her the local news, and it was all bad. Riots had indeed broken out, as predicted. She knew she should probably read the reports, but she really wanted to clear her head first. Instead she got down from her seat and headed out for a walk around the complex. Being bottled up in here was going to be miserable, she couldn't even really stretch her wings, but a walk might help a little.
A short walk down the hallway outside the office brought her into the Chorus room. There were no researchers looking it over today, but the power readouts were still displaying on the screens in lime-green numbers. Still at ninety-eight percent after being fully charged just the day before. They typically had her recharge it when it got down below thirty percent. She hoped she would still be able to help out with this after Sunset retired. It still had a long way to go before it worked, but the idea that one pony could power whole cities, maybe more than whole cities, was something that could really change the world. This would never have been made without Sarah's help, and likely needed someone like Bob to figure out how to finally make work. She hoped Wild did take control, and that Sarah would be able to convince Bob to help make things like this a reality.
She stepped out into the hall while the door for the Chorus room closed and locked behind her. The white floor, white walls, and white ceiling stretched out to either direction, broken by numbered doors and security keypads. She could hear the sounds of humans walking echoing from deep down the halls, but no sound of pony hooves upon the floor. She was a lone pony in the facility right now, and combined with the knowledge she was deep underground, far from the open sky, it made everything feel more lonely and oppressive. A pegasus's place was in the air, not deep underground. It was bearable when she was here with her wife, but alone like she was now it made her feel claustrophobic.
She set of aimlessly in one direction. With how well she knew there halls there was no fear of getting lost. What she didn't know was what lay behind many of the doors. A great many of the projects done here she was privy to, but a great many others she wasn't. This was the equivalent of Area Fifty-One for magic, where science fiction and fantasy became reality. In theory, only Sunset knew what all went on down here, but by virtue of how much went on it was safer to say no one truly knew the extent of the wonders that occurred behind closed doors here.
Magic that could help change and better the world was being developed here all the time, but also magic that could potentially bring about catastrophe. The Chorus was an excellent example of this. It could power an untold amount of things once they finally figured out how to safely do it, but It also was a crystal that held the equivalent power of an alicorn within it, power that if poured into the wrong type of spell could do untold destruction. Other things here had similar duel promise of doing great good or great evil based on how you made use of them. That was why she had cautioned Sunset to be wary of whoever might follow her as head of this facility. Sunset wanted to change the world for the better, to make a new Eden, but someone else might see the weapons potential behind many of these projects.
Her hoofsteps echoed across the halls as she walked and turned to take a stairwell up to another level. The sound of those footsteps echoed louder as she went through the stairwell. Were they always this loud? She'd never paid it much attention because she was always traveling with someone else. She felt so isolated, and alone right now. Maybe some of the human guards from the military would take time to talk to her. Worst case, she could just go back to Sunset's office and start making more calls. Anything to banish the loneliness.
Another hall that mirrored all the others greeted her on the next floor, and she just picked a direction without thinking and began walking. After a minute of walking her ears and tail picked up as she saw two humans in army fatigues coming down the hall.
"Hi, anything interesting to report?" She asked as she stepped in front of them.
They looked at each other briefly then back at her. "No, if there was we would have alerted someone," replied the darker skinned of the two, a man with the name Malone embroidered on his jacket chest. "Is there something that we should be on the lookout for?"
"Um, no…" she replied. "Do you two enjoy your jobs here?"
"There are worse places to be stationed," the other man replied, a light skinned man with the name Smith embroidered on his jacket.
"That's good to hear," she said cheerfully. "What's the worst place you were ever stationed?"
"Mrs. Blessing," Malone said with a suppressed groan. "I realize ponies naturally try to make friends with anyone they come across, but is there something you need? I don’t mean to sound rude but we're supposed to be making rounds."
Her ears and tail sagged. "No, I guess there isn't anything I really need. I'm sorry for distracting you from your jobs. I didn't mean to be annoying."
Malone rubbed a hand across his shaved head. "It isn't really annoying. We don't mind ponies being so friendly. Makes us feel appreciated to have the people we're protecting be so friendly. I got some pony relatives that're much nicer people now than they were back in the day when they were human, so I ain't complain'n. We just have jobs to do. You understand."
She nodded, picking up her ears at his compliment to ponies. "Maybe we can talk sometime when you're off duty. I haven't talked to the soldiers around here half as much as I would like to."
"That would be fine," Smith replied. "But if you don't mind stepping aside…"
She hastily moved out of the way. "Oh, yeah, sorry."
The two soldiers continued their walk down the hall. When they were a distance away they started whispering, but they were quiet enough, and far away enough, that she couldn't make out what was being said. She decided to just continue her walk. Maybe she'd come across some who were standing stationary somewhere to guard something, who would be more open to having some conversation.
Her path through the halls and through staircases continued on for several minutes. On and off she would pass some more soldiers patrolling, but she didn't attempt to do more than passing greetings to any of them. She was dying for some conversation, and the prospect of making more calls was becoming more and more appealing as her walk continued on.
Red emergency lights started flashing suddenly, as the automated voice on the speaker blared a warning. "Emergency. Security breach. Third level, sector two. Emergency. Security breach."
Third level, sector two? She was on the third level right now, but in sector four. She quickly went over the geography of the facility in her head to determine what was in sector two, as she started hurrying back towards the nearest staircase to get off the level. Several human guards came running past her as she did. It was then that her stomach seized up in realization of what was in that area, Poly Glot. It wasn't a guarantee that it was him, but her gut told her that it was. Humans running towards a crazed unicorn of Poly Glot's magical caliber seemed like suicide to her, but she was unsure if any ponies were even available. The military recently started enlisting some ponies now that they'd developed a pony corp in each branch. They even did all they could to encourage enlistment with very appealing benefits, but ponies were largely pacifists. The majority of pony military recruits who actually made it through basic training were night ponies. There were some others, but the numbers were so low that encountering a pony soldier was rare.
A heavy blue gas quickly began filling the hall, and she started running in terror. Gas in the hall usually meant one thing, that the hall was about to be purged by fire in order to destroy whatever had gotten loose or was invading. Why were the soldiers running straight to Poly Glot if the hall was about to be set on fire? She didn't have time to think about it, she needed to get off this level now or she would be purged along with everything else on this floor.
She quickly got into the closest stairwell and slammed the door shut. To her horror the blue vapor seeped through the cracks in the doors like it was seeking her out. Only just now it was starting to register to her pegasus senses that this wasn't gas in any traditional sense. It was something else, something magical, and looking up and down the stairwell she could see that it wasn't contained on just one floor. She racked her brain as she started hurrying back towards where the vault was. Getting out of the facility was a no-go. The entire place would be on lockdown so nothing could escape. She couldn't sense any real gas in the air, so perhaps the failsafe for flame purging hadn't been activated. That was good, because she wasn't eager to be fried to a crisp, but it didn't explain what all this blue mist was.
Having no choice, and knowing that time was a factor, she flew down through the mist to get to the vault. A sudden intense pain shot through her entire body, and her wings froze up, sending her crashing awkwardly down the stairs, tumbling helplessly until she came to rest on the next landing. Pegasi were built to take crashes from minor heights like this, but she didn't take this unexpected landing well at all, and when she came to a stop her entire body was throbbing with pain. She struggled to think though the blindingly intense stabs of pain as parts of her spasmed, twisted, and contorted. Her breath caught while feeling the agonizing sensation of her bones start to stretch and reshape themselves. Spasming uncontrollably, she lay on the floor whimpering and screaming whenever she could find her voice; wishing she would just die.
After what felt like an eternity, the pain suddenly vanished, ending so abruptly and without any lingering effects that she couldn’t help but question if it had ever existed. It hadn’t faded away, it had just stopped, leaving her feeling like it had never happened at all. Only now she felt an alien sense of cold.
Trembling almost uncontrollably, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked down, and then let off a new shriek of terror as she saw pasty white flesh and hands where her forelegs and hooves should have been.