Hailing Fog grabbed some rope from her bags. “Sorry about the noise, I’ll be sure to make it up to you.” She didn’t particularly care that they couldn’t actually hear her, the words were more for her sake. She levitated the rope and walked over to Tirek, prepared to bind and gag him everywhere.
He let out an enraged roar and sent out a burst of explosive magic. He was very lucky the torpedo he’d been hiding in had been completely disabled, otherwise everyone present would have been vaporized.
Fog, to her credit, didn’t lose focus on the noise she was broadcasting as she was thrown to the ground. Without even standing up, she threw the rope at Tirek, wrapping it around his neck. She pulled tight: not enough to snap a neck, but enough to suffocate.
His magic was able to burn it easily.
What kind of monster are you?
Tirek opened his mouth.
Fog felt something latch onto her horn. She didn’t waste a moment wondering what he might be doing: she acted immediately. Focusing all her energy into the tip of her horn, she channeled her control over radio waves into a focused, high-energy beam.
In Old Equestria, what she created would have been called a microwave.
Tirek’s face burned as the spell impacted, igniting his beard and charring his flesh. Had he not already been in excruciating pain due to the noise, he might have flinched—but adding more oil to the fire had no effect on his constitution. He opened his mouth wider, allowing the invisible heat ray to char his tongue… as he tore Hailing Fog’s magic away.
Her spell ran out of energy quickly. The light of her horn went next, ending the painful sound. Finally, her cutie mark vanished completely and she fell to the ground, exhausted. “Wh…”
“You won’t live to regret this…” Tirek hissed, hand over his all-but-destroyed face. “Do your kind still pray to Celestia? You might want to start…”
“D-don’t…” the Admiral managed. “She has… allies. They will seek revenge.”
Tirek stopped the spell he was about to cast. “Very well. I shall return to my ‘room.’ Deal with her as you see fit.”
Orange arrived with backup that moment, realizing quickly the fight was over. “Tirek, report to the doctor’s office. She’ll need to have a look at that face of yours.”
“Fine…” Tirek said, stumbling away.
Orange glanced at the downed Hailing Fog. “...This is problematic.”
“Very,” the Admiral winced. “You can’t just attack a Guardian…”
“That’s… right…” Fog breathed, shakily standing to her hooves. “I… will make you pay for this. This…” She closed her eyes, trying not to cry or think about her blank flank. You are more than a child, Fog! You’re not going to break down in front of them. Not in front of ANYONE. “You don’t know the level of devastation I’ll bring to you for this. I brought down the Platinum Family with nothing but my looks and brains, I’ve got connections now.”
“We could just keep her,” Orange suggested.
“No,” the Admiral said. “They’d chase us. They have more subs that are significantly faster than ours. Not to mention they haven’t finished transferring the air, yet…”
“We could give them Tirek.”
“The last thing I want is to let Baltimare get something that powerful. They’re bad enough as it is.”
“We’re better than you,” Fog mumbled. “I wouldn’t let us make deals with demons.”
“He’s not a—”
“Tartarus is a real place, isn’t it?” Fog tried to look accusatory, but her forward motion made her stumble. “An ancient demon sealed away. And you’re working with him. You… you really are an idiot.”
The Admiral scowled. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, then.”
She really never understood our dynamic, did she? Fog laughed bitterly. “That’s… funny.” She sat down, glaring at the ground. “Regardless, your only way out of this is to turn ‘Tirek’ in. We’ll find a way to make him give my magic back.”
“What if I ask him to give it back, and then I let you go?” the Admiral asked.
Fog scowled. “I’m not letting you get away with that demon. I don’t want the world to burn.”
“You’re being melodramatic.”
“No. Unlike you, I actually have some respect for Harmony.”
“Harmony failed us.”
Fog shook her head. “We failed Harmony. We strayed from it, and then the waters and the corruption ended everything.” Fog recognized doubt cross the Admiral’s face for a split second. “...What did you find? Was it the demon?”
“I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“Actually, you do. I may look weak, but I hold the cards here.” Keep breathing steady, stay in charge of the situation. “I like you, and I want you to keep exploring to give me something fun to think about. But if you don’t cooperate… Tirek or no Tirek won’t matter.” Steady. “My terms are simple. Give us Tirek and tell me everything you know about him. Then you go and do whatever it is you were going to do earlier. You still get the air. How’s that sound?”
The Admiral stared at her with a scowl.
“I do not believe we have a choice,” Orange pointed out. “All other courses of action result in them shooting at us.”
“Actually, I don’t think so,” Sparkler said, walking in. “You won’t believe what I just overheard in the bar. Looks like there are some corrupt Guardians out there that don’t like miss goody-four-hooves here.” She tapped Fog’s horn with her hair, grinning. “Your own colleagues hate you and would rather be rid of you.”
Don’t flinch. “...Unsurprising.” Who? Who is it!?
“And, for some reason, they want the Admiral protected.” Sparkler pointed at her friend. “So… I’m thinking we’re in the clear, actually. They really need us to escape.”
“Why?” the Admiral asked.
Sparkler shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t recognize the pony he was talking to, but she could have been from Sanctaphrax?”
The traitor Guardian is a stallion.
“Why are we that important to them?” the Admiral asked. “There’s no big project riding on us right now, aside from Silver, and he’d never bother with anything like this. Meteor wouldn't either, and he doesn’t have the resources to bribe Guardians with… anything.”
“Iota?”
“Iota’s way too straightforward for that,” the Admiral said. “If she’d hired help for us, she would have told us. Or me, at least.”
“A third party wants us alive, then,” Orange said. “Disturbing.”
“At least it’s useful!” Sparkler tapped Fog’s horn again. “It means we don’t have to hand anything over. We’ve got friends on the inside! Sorta. Kinda.”
“There are plenty of Guardians and miners loyal to me,” Fog asserted. “You can’t gamble that your… ‘friends’ will come through.”
“I mean, I’d do it just for a chance to get back at you and all the times you’ve tormented us…” Sparkler pointed out. “But I’m not the one who makes the call. Admiral? Is the risk worth it?”
The Admiral scrunched her muzzle. “For revenge? No. For Tirek? ...I’m thinking.”
“You know…” Sparkler wrapped her hair around the base of Fog’s horn. “I’ve always wondered how you’d scream if I snapped this off… Would it even hurt anymore? W—”
“Sparkler, that’s enough,” the Admiral chided.
“We have her where we want her! Come oooo—”
“Sparkler, no. She may be a brat. She may cause us more trouble than anypony. She’s not trying to take advantage of a conspiracy.”
“...I’m not the Platinum Family,” Fog added, slipping into a meek voice by accident.
“I think your father would disagree,” Sparkler hissed.
“Get off my case, mop-head! I’m not Uncle Gutter, I’m the one who brought him down!”
“A brat and a traitor, really good for y—”
“SPARKLER!” the Admiral yelled. “I know the Platinum Family was responsible for Ambrosia, but they’re gone now. She’s the reason they’re gone.”
“That… just…” Sparkler’s fire went out of her eyes and she hung her head. “I don’t…”
“We’ll talk later. Right now… Orange. Assuming we have friends on the inside, what’s the best way to communicate our intentions?”
“Since we do not know who they are, we have to be discreet.” Orange furrowed his brow. “I suggest leaving her behind in one of the mini-subs. They’ll pick her up and do as they wish.”
“Normally her disappearance would raise alarms…” The Admiral frowned. “But all it would take is one of them saying she intended to stay with us for a time to calm that down.”
“Precisely. So long as we don’t actually take her, they don’t need to chase us.”
“There are too many unknowns.” The Admiral tapped her hoof on the ground. “Way too many. We have to rely on an ally we know nothing about to behave in a way we expect to get away.”
“Take my deal,” Fog said. “It’s a guaranteed way out.”
The Admiral frowned. “...Here’s what we’re going to do. Orange, take her to one of the mini-subs. If nothing in Baltimare asks about her by the time they finish giving us air, we go with your plan. But if we get any indication they miss her, we go with her deal.”
“One of my Guardians will notice,” Fog seethed. “You’ll see.”
“I almost find myself wishing Baltimare’s Guardians have more integrity than this plan needs...” the Admiral admitted. “Orange? Go. I need to talk with Tirek.”
Orange led Fog away wordlessly. She knew it was pointless to talk to him—she knew when a pony was mechanically minded. It happened a lot down in the mines, ponies that just couldn't be worked over.
She needed a break, anyway. She knew she was close to breaking.
Orange led her to the mini-sub and sealed them in.
Fog sat and waited for somepony to come get her.
~~~
Hailing Fog’s tears didn’t come until she felt the mini-sub launch from the Algol.
The Admiral hasn’t received a single communication…
She slammed her head into the metallic walls of the pod, letting out an agonized wail.
Would they have let her just take me completely? Would they let that breach of security happen?
She kicked the wall with her back hooves, shaking the compartment.
I rooted the lie out of this place! I tore it down! Why is it BACK!?
With a scream, she tore a pane off one of the walls, revealing the radio compartment. Of course, it had been disabled. They didn’t want her calling out herself.
I’ve lost everything… my magic, my Gift… all because I didn’t like a secret. A demonic secret! I… I should have killed him. Should have skewered the heart. Or at least tried.
Falling to the ground, she let the tears pool at her hooves.
I’m still just a kid… Why does it all fall on me? Why…
She stopped. Slowly, but surely, she looked back at the radio compartment she had opened. It had been disabled, yes. But there were enough parts there…
What am I doing?
She pressed her hooves to the side of the compartment, assessing the materials she had to work with. The wires were all there, and the pod currently had power…
I’m the radio filly. Special talent or no… I. Know. RADIOS.
With a half-mad giggle, she tore some wires out of the compartment with her mouth, prompting sparks to fly. It wasn’t the smartest thing she could have done, but she wasn’t in the mood for caution. She popped open one of the pod control hatches. The engines were disabled and this wasn’t her area of expertise, so they wouldn’t be of much use. Everything within was hers to cannibalize to make a functioning radio. It wouldn’t be high quality, but she would be able to set frequency using the dials and buttons for driving the pod.
She had no magic, but before she’d gotten her Gift she’d learned how to work radios with her bare hooves and mouth.
I took the Platinum Family out without a Gift. This isn’t a problem. I’ve just gotten too used to it. You don’t need a Gift… it’s just a bonus!
Hailing Fog had no idea how long she worked to get a functional radio, but after no small amount of blood, sweat, and tears she had put together a shoddy metal box with multiple colored wires and one very long antennae. She hailed the Guardian Headquarters frequency.
“This is Guardian Hailing Fog,” she breathed. “Come in, HQ.”
“This is HQ,” a dispatcher Fog didn’t recognize said. “What can we do for you?”
“Patch me through to Guardian Green. He should be in. If not, he’ll be at the bar.”
“I’ll get him. Please hold.” The dispatcher didn’t start playing the infuriating “on hold” music, allowing Fog to hear her call, “Green? Call for you from Fog.”
“All right…” an old stallion’s voice came to the call. “Fog, what is it?”
Fog took a deep breath. “Green, we’ve got a—”
“By the depths, are you transmitting off something your cousin built in her shed?”
“Close enough. I’m stuck at the bottom of the ocean in an escape pod. There’s corruption somewhere in the Guardians. We need to handle this discreetly.”
“...I’m too drunk for this…”
“I know I can trust you. Hurry, please.”
“Only for you, lass.”
“Thanks. Soon, please.” She cut the transmission, a smile on her face. “I’ve still got it. Heh.”