Our new dream, nicknamed 'Loyalty', was incredibly successful. It gave us full control over the military forces at Camp Pendleton, so we finally had our army! Well, not exactly. They were a useful tool, but we needed more.
"A magic mirror?
"Aren't they just used to see the future or far-away places?"
"Traditionally, yes. But they can also be used as portals. It was commonplace in my time to place a hidden magic mirror in a busy hallway. The mirror was actually two magically-constructed mirrors placed with their backs facing each other, and set so that the destination of one was the origin of the other. Each mirror would then show what the other one saw. And as such, the linked mirrors could no longer be seen by non-magical sight. A pony would walk down a hallway and pass straight through a mirror without realizing it. The mirror had spells to detect for whatever we wished for, such as spies or double agents. If a spell found a pony of interest, it would give that pony a magical marker that could be tracked almost anywhere. The pony could then be found and investigated at a later time, or simply followed."
"Interesting. But how are we going to find these people and get them to voluntarily walk through a magic mirror? Once we find them, we won't need the magic mirror."
"Simple. As we are looking for an arriving visitor, and not a traitor that is leaving, we place magic mirrors at the entrances to this region. We then scan all that arrive."
"That's thousands of people every day at each mirror, and dozens if not hundreds of mirrors all around the area. Even if it was possible, that's too many mirrors."
"We only need to concern ourselves with the major choke points leading inward. Remember, the visitor does not know about us nor that we are looking for them. Thus, we do not need to cast a fine net to catch our prey. The lightly-used and unlikely routes to us can be safely ignored."
"I guess so."
"As for a large number of visitors, it might be an issue if we were uncertain as to what we were looking for. However, we are looking for a specific visitor: one that has a high degree of curiosity or determination towards the unusual activities in this area. I can easily add spells to the mirror that look for such thoughts, and will place a magical marker on the being that has those thoughts. We can them investigate the marker at any time."
"I have no idea how any of that will work, but you're the expert on magic mirrors so I trust that you can do it."
"Fair praise from you, my Captain."
"Don't thank me yet, we still don't know if the plan's going to work. How fast can the mirrors scan? We'll have to scan vehicles moving at speed on the freeway."
"Ah, yes. The metal machines on the gigantic roads. I am certain the mirrors can cast the spells fast enough. The spell is not too different from a typical 'friend or foe' spell; we are just using different definitions of 'friend' and 'foe'."
"Hmmm.
"Okay, I think I have a plan. How big can these magic mirrors be?"
"As big as we require them to be. Larger mirrors require more magic to create, but they sustain themselves until damaged or removed."
"Good. So here's the plan. We build hidden magic mirrors at the choke points into the area. We use existing structures if possible, like a freeway overpass. Otherwise, we build our own. The ones we have to build and put up will be guarded by our soldiers, who will be told that the structures are checking for traitors to the government. This fits right in with the Loyalty dream, so they should accept it without issue."
"Agreed."
"The cover story for the deployed soldiers is that they are being filmed for a movie. We make sure the soldiers know that, so if anyone asks they can all tell the same story.
"The mirrors, as programmed by you, will place a magic marker on our 'person of interest'.
"Um, question: if a vehicle has more than one person inside, who gets marked?"
"The spell I planned to use will mark all living beings inside the metal machine."
"Meaning that we will need to verify which markers are true and which ones are false. Can the spell tell us how many markers were made?"
"Nay. Think of the marker like a spray of water; we will know that water was sprayed, but not how many ponies are now wet."
"Right. Nice analogy, by the way."
"My thanks."
"So, we'll have to intercept the vehicle and fine-tune the results. We should hopefully get just a few interesting visitors at first. But the longer we keep the bait out, the more visitors we'll get."
"Aye. At first, we should be the ones the intercept these bureaucrats. And by 'we', I mean 'you'."
"Thanks."
The ebony mare flashed me a toothy grin.
Great. She parties while I do all the hard work AGAIN.
"So, how am I supposed to inspect all the people in the car and figure out the right one?"
"Simple. Subjugate them all, and we can interrogate them one at a time. If there are too many to subjugate at once, I will join you and assist."
"Alright, I guess that works. But how do I get them to pull over, so I can enslave them? I can't just blast them from the sky, our cover will be blown."
"That is your problem to solve. I cannot hold your hoof for every decision you make if you are to be effective as my second-in-command."
"Fine. In the meantime, I think we should take over the leadership of the nearby military bases. We don't need their soldiers, we can use the ones at Camp Pendleton. But taking over their leaders will keep them from asking questions, and might help us find out if anyone else is asking questions."
"I concur. I had thought to subjugate all the soldiers at the military bases we visited, but your reasoning is sound."
"Thanks. Besides, we can always enslave them later if we need them."
"Agreed."
"We should also have the Camp Pendleton Marines figure out the best places to put the magic mirrors. They can also begin to work on the frames for the magic mirrors at the same time."
"An efficient plan, I like it. We should start immediately."
"Sure. Let's call the Commanding General at Camp Pendleton, and get his team started."
The two of us slowly got up off of the throne-couch (we were still full of food, after all), and made our way to the meeting room. Once there, I used the speaker phone in the room to dial up the Commanding General's office. The phone rang three times before his aide answered the phone, and he immediately transferred us to the Commanding General without asking for the passphrase. I explained to the Commanding General what we had in mind for his soldiers, though we told him that we were attempting to detect 'spies' coming into SoCal. Technically true, of course. However, he did not reply right away.
"Minion, are you still there?"
"I'm controlled by idiots."
"I beg your pardon?!"
The Commanding General let out a long sigh.
"My apologies, Mistress and Master. I meant no disrespect. But if this is your best plan, you clearly don't know what you're doing. Let me help you."
Nightmare Moon looked quite offended at the Commanding General's words. So was I, his words were pretty insulting. But I also knew he wasn't a stupid man; he couldn't be if he was placed in charge of Camp Pendleton. So I figured I'd give him a chance to explain himself before Nightmare Moon went off on him.
"Fine, we're listening."
"Thank you, Master. You are clearly looking to draw someone important from Washington DC here to SoCal, someone with close ties to the President. Correct?"
"That's right."
"I can draw that person to me, by creating chaos within the military hierarchy. Once enough chaos and confusion is created, I will be contacted by someone who can eventually deliver you to the President."
"And pray tell, how will you accomplish such a thing?"
"Simple, Mistress. I will deploy my soldiers to places all over the Southern California area, places where the soldiers will be seen by as many people as possible. When anyone asks what they are doing, they will simply say that they are filming a movie. Nothing else. However, I will tell my soldiers that they are there to attract attention, so those involved in the 'coup' will become nervous and act rashly. The eventual media coverage will attract the attention of the bureaucrats in Washington DC. They will contact my office for information, as paperwork must be filed before we cooperate with a movie studio and no such paperwork exists."
"I think I follow you. You'll keep giving excuses every time they call."
"Correct, Master. In the meantime, I will step up the deployments around Southern California. While the cover story of filming a movie is common in Southern California, people will eventually get suspicious the longer the deployments go on."
"And when no one sees a film crew anywhere nearby."
"Exactly. I will eventually receive a call from a higher-ranked bureaucrat, and I will give them a different excuse. This will cause even more chaos. I will continue this charade until I get contacted by someone that can reach the President. If we are lucky, I will be contacted by the President himself, or someone acting on his behalf. I will then offer to tell this person the 'truth', but I cannot divulge the reasons over an unsecure line. I will then ask the caller to meet with me here, at Camp Pendleton."
"At which point, Nightmare Moon and I will be in your office waiting for him. Or her."
"Correct. I will handle all of the details of this plan, and attract all the attention to me and my staff. There is no need to enslave the other military installations, their confusion is necessary for the plan to work. If there is anyone that I cannot handle for some reason, I will contact you immediately.
"That is the plan. What do you think?"
Nightmare Moon was quiet for several moments, as she thought through the Commanding General's plan. Finally, she spoke.
"I approve of this plan. It is both simpler than ours and accomplishes the same goals. Enact it immediately."
"Yes, Mistress. My staff will give you weekly status updates, even if there is nothing new to report."
"That is acceptable. Good night."
At that, I hung up the conference phone.
"Well. That was unexpected."
"Very much so. It seems that this minion has retained all of his mental faculties, and is quite aware that he has been subjugated. Despite this knowledge, he is quite willing to assist us. Even to the point of belligerence."
"Well, I'd guess that the head of a military base has to have an independent streak in order to act without orders if he has to. We did tap into his loyalty to this country, maybe he's just that loyal."
"Perhaps. I do not wish to consider how he would act if he realized that we were the agents attempting to conquer his country."
"Yeah.
"That would be really, really bad.
"So, now what?"
"I do not understand."
"The Commanding General is going to do all of our work for us. No magic mirrors, no investigating visitors, and no conquering military bases. We have nothing to do anymore, except wait."
"Ah, I see your point. In truth, our original plan did involve a measure of waiting but only after a period of action. It seems that we must learn to be patient.
"However, I find myself encumbered by thoughts of betrayal. Betrayal on behalf of the Commanding General. If he decides to betray us for any reason, we would need to flee as soon as possible. To attempt to counter this, I shall set up several magic mirrors in this building. Their sole purpose is to give us advance warning of any such attackers. Hopefully, they shall give us enough warning in order to escape."
"Yeah, he could fuck us over really bad if he betrayed us."
"Agreed. But for now, I shall recall my Camarilla. They can entertain us while we wait. And perhaps form a first line of defense if we are invaded."
"What, those pussies?"
The ebony mare smirked at my comment.
"I cannot argue with your assessment of their bravery. But I can control them via the special shadow parasites inside their bodies, and force them to attack any invaders."
"Huh. That's pretty cold."
"They are naught more than sheep, only having meaning when in service to us."
"I can't argue with that. Though part of me wants to."
"Enough. I shall recall my Camarilla."
And she did. While we waited for the bronies to return, Nightmare Moon set up the magic mirrors she mentioned. The building security was already set up to tell us of any invaders, so we left them alone to do their jobs. We had Janice report on any media coverage of military deployments in Southern California, in order to double-check the reports we got from Camp Pendleton. All that was left to do, all that we could do, was wait. And party, of course.
Time passed. The reports from Camp Pendleton were boring and dull, but they always matched the info we got from Janice so we were pretty sure they were telling us the truth. I finally convinced Luna to try out the video games, and once she got the hang of the controllers Gamer Luna was born. Or would that be Gamer Moon? She was quite fond of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), but she couldn't handle losing and quickly got real salty at the game. Didn't stop her from playing, though.
A few weeks after Camp Pendleton started their campaign, the bronies introduced Nightmare Moon to Thanksgiving and the traditional feast that came with it. The bronies surprised me by cooking a turkey, which was quite good actually. I joined a D&D campaign, run by the bronies of course, which ran daily for months. For Christmas, the bronies bought Luna toys and posters from the video games that she played, and she was very pleased. The ebony mare finally had something to decorate her side of our bedroom with.
When January rolled around, we got a request to call the Commanding General at Camp Pendleton. He asked us to come down to the base, as new recruits had arrived and they needed to be 'brought into the fold' (aka, enslaved). While down there, I found myself waiting in the Commanding General's office in the afternoon with nothing to do. Suddenly, the phone rang. And no one was around. The phone rang several times before I had a sudden urge to answer it.
"Uh, Camp Pendleton."
"Why the heck are you deploying soldiers all over the place?!"
"We're...helping to film a movie, sir."
"Bullshit! I've contacted all the movie studios and none of them have signed a contract with us!"
"I'm sorry sir, I don't know--"
"I demand to know what are you REALLY doing down there?!"
Oh, really? You asked for it.
"I'm not sure if I should tell you, sir."
"SPILL IT, SOLDIER!!"
"We're filming a porno."
"WHAT?!"
I swiftly hung up the phone, and cackled like a madman.
More time passed. I took to flying around the city at night, just to have something to do. I was lucky that my magic kept me in excellent physical shape, or all of this sitting around would have ruined me. Go, magic! If only magic could keep me from getting bored.
More time passed. I had Janioe get me a Netflix subscription and I started binge-watching television programs on my old PC. The superhero programs I used to watch were there, but they didn't hold the same appeal for me that they used to. The stuff the heroes did in the shows used to be so cool, but now they seemed so ordinary. I guess it's because I had become a superhero, doing super things every day. Or was I a super villain? I was the minion of a villain, after all. I tried not to think about it too much.
Sometime in the middle of March, something FINALLY happened. We got another request to call the Commanding General at Camp Pendleton. He finally had good news for us! He had been contacted by one of the President's direct aides, and the aide was coming to Camp Pendleton to get 'clarity on the Southern California incidents'. This was exactly what we were waiting for! The Commanding General requested that we be in his office before 9am the next day, as that was the time the Presidential aide was supposed to arrive. Easy enough to do, though we arrived at Camp Pendleton just before dawn so we could travel under cover of night. Nightmare Moon and I met the Commanding General when he arrived at his office at 8am, and we spent the next hour waiting while the Commanding General did paperwork.
The office was quite roomy, maybe 20ft wide by 30ft in length. The Commanding General was sitting at his desk, which was on the far side of the room. It faced the door to his office, which was on the opposite wall. The desk was ornate and made out of a heavily varnished wood. The top of the desk was covered in papers, a desk phone and a computer screen on one side. Behind the desk were paintings hanging on the plain white walls, and two short filing cabinets were in the back corner. If you were sitting at the desk, the filing cabinets would be to your left. I was standing next to the filing cabinets, while Nightmare Moon was on the other side of the desk. In front of the desk sat two well-used and creased leather armchairs. To the mare's right, and all along the right wall were dark-colored bookshelves that nearly reached the ceiling. The bookshelves were filled with books, binders and some knick knacks that were mostly military-related. On the other side of the room near me was a dark gray couch, with a wooden coffee table in front of it. The coffee table had a drawer in the middle of it, with two empty storage shelves on either side of the drawer. The legs for the table were long and tapered, wider on the top then the bottom. The carpet was light brown, and cut in some sort of short-pile that looked decent but was probably chosen for its durability. There were marks on the carpet that implied that the armchairs in front of the desk were routinely dragged over in front of the couch. The rest of the room was empty.
At ten past nine, the phone on the desk rang. The Commanding General answered it on speaker phone, and we heard an aide say that the Presidential aide had just arrived. The Commanding General hung up, then stood up from his desk and walked past me towards the door. Nightmare Moon and I looked at each other, nodded and then turned invisible. Two seconds later, the door to the office opened and the Presidential aide walked into the room.
The man was somewhat wiry and thin, and carried an air of self-importance around him. As in, he knew he was important and he made sure that you knew it. He was wearing a dark blue suit, black shoes and a dark red tie, with a mustard-yellow vest and a pale blue shirt underneath. He wore glasses with round lenses on his dour face, which seemed to be permanently stuck in a frown. His hair was trimmed short on the sides but long and curly on top, almost like a poofy pompadour. The most unusual part of him was his hair color. For some reason, it was some shade of peach. While I couldn't complain about the style, it seemed very out of place for a politician or political appointee. Regardless, the man swept past the Commanding General and ignored the man's offer of a handshake. Once he was in the middle of the room, the Presidential aide crossed his arms and demanded to get down to business.