Vespid lifted the syringe. “It’s ready, Tirek. Left or right horn?”
“Left,” Tirek said, putting the book down. He walked over to the table, examining the various ingredients she’d mixed into the syringes.
He found nothing out of the ordinary because there was nothing out of the ordinary to find. She’d used only the proper ingredients to make the proper injection… with the exception of the one mixed with the corruption.
It wasn’t ideal. She would have preferred to directly poison this centaur who dared think himself better than the rest of them, but the risk was too high that leyline would notice she’d gathered an incorrect ingredient. The syringe of wyrdness was the only option she had. Currently, her plan was to “miss” the base of his horn and ram the chemicals right in his ear canal and to the brain. It wouldn’t kill him, unfortunately, but it would definitely cause some immediate brain damage even if the corruption wasn't in there. With the corruption… well, it’d hopefully drive him insane, giving her—and hopefully Sparkler—a chance to finish him off.
They might have been able to do it without the corruption, but Vespid had to give Sparkler a signal somehow and this likely gave them an edge they wouldn’t otherwise have.
An edge against the disgusting centaur.
Vespid kept her face completely level as she imagined Tirek writhing on the ground in agony as she sunk more needles into him. It was painfully obvious that he wanted power from them and Leyline was just a way to do it. There were many of his type working on Sanctaphrax; Vespid had dealt with so many of them. The difference between the other ponies and Tirek was that he had the power to actually do something. With time, he could turn the entire island into an assembly line designed to deliver magic to his fingers. Vespid suspected Iota knew this and was gambling on being able to work with him. Vespid also thought Iota was an idiot.
Contrary to popular belief, Vespid had not become a doctor to watch ponies suffer under experimentation. She was just a firm believer that medical progress required getting one’s hooves dirty.
This was another one of those times.
Just not in the way Tirek thought it was.
“Hold still, I have to get this very precise or we’re going to have to do it twice,” Vespid said. “And you won’t enjoy that.”
“I know,” Tirek growled. “I could do it myself.”
Not an option. “Do you want to argue about the finer points of using your giant hands or my fine surgeon’s feathers?”
“Just get it over with.”
“Leyline, be sure to measure the light output,” Vespid said, jumping onto his desk so she could reach Tirek’s ear. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Leyline said, surprisingly coherent for how asleep he had just been.
“Okay…” Vespid took one last look around. Everyone was in position. Tirek was leaning in, Leyline was ready to record, and Sparkler… was grinning.
Don’t do that, he’ll be suspicious!
“What’s got you so happy?” Tirek asked, leaning in toward Sparkler.
Sparkler’s smile didn’t falter. “This is going to hurt a lot. Have fun.”
“If you survived the procedure, it will be no trouble to me,” he chuckled. “And if we’re lucky I’ll be able to do it without all this mixing using my power. It would be so much simpler if we didn’t have to bother with all these ingredients.”
“Up here,” Vespid called. “Horn. Now.”
“Testy…” Tirek grunted. He leaned in… then leaned away, furrowing his brow. “Hold on…”
Vespid didn’t have any way to know he was in contact with a particular seapony and that this was normal behavior for him. She was convinced he’d found her out, somehow, so she moved to act.
She wasn’t going to get into the ear canal, so she was going to try the eye. It wouldn’t get as far into the brain as quickly, but it would be something.
The syringe embedded right into his pupil, pumping its contents through as violently as Vespid could manage. Tirek recoiled with an agonized shriek, swatting Vespid away like a fly. Sparkler charged, forming her hair into the rarely-used blade and going for Tirek’s neck.
He grabbed her in his magic, freezing her in midair. There was a moment where he tried to let out a biting comment, but he could only wheeze as blood poured from his eye.
It must not have gone far enough in, Vespid realized.
“LEMME AT YA!” Sparkler shrieked. “Ah’ll drive this right down yer throat an’ out yer ass! C’mon, lemme have a—”
Tirek threw her to the ground hard enough to crack the floor. “I was a fool to think I could use you…” He created a fireball between his horns. “There will be no more of this nonsense.”
“Stop,” Leyline declared, holding a red crystal in his hoof. “I will not have you kill her.”
“She—”
“Is a member of Sanctaphrax staff and will be dealt with through the proper channels,” Leyline said, legs starting to tremble. “Stand down and we can… discuss what happens next. Don’t and I will be forced to subdue you and we will discover your secrets through other methods.”
“Perhaps you don’t understand your predicament…” Tirek growled. “You clearly cannot provide me with what I require. Those you trust will seek my death. So I am taking this into my own hands. Comply or I drain the magic spell keeping this rock afloat. You will drown, assuming you find a way to survive the fall.”
“You really can…” Leyline breathed, shaking.
“I would much rather rule this rock… but if I can’t, I will destroy it.”
Slowly, Leyline put the crystal down. “W-what are your terms?”
“Your magic.”
Leyline wasn’t given a chance to respond. Tirek opened his mouth and swallowed every last ounce of magical energy from Leyline. For the most accomplished unicorn of the age, it wasn’t all that much power, telling of the times in which ponies lived.
The elder unicorn clutched his chest as the last of his power was drawn from him, keeling over backward. Instinctually, Vespid ran to treat him—but Tirek swatted her away.
“You killed ‘im!” Sparkler shouted.
“His body was too weak to survive,” Tirek grunted. “He had lived too long.”
“An’ you haven’t? Oi, there’s a hypocrisy right there if I’ve ever he—”
Sparkler’s magic went next. Her body didn’t go into cardiovascular shock, instead she just slumped to the ground, shivering.
Systematically, Tirek moved around Leyline’s office, grabbing every magic artifact he could and draining it of all its power. His eye was still bleeding, but the sustenance was more than enough to make up for whatever he’d lost.
Tirek turned to Vespid. He was about six inches taller than before. “You have no magic for me.”
“That’s right.”
He grabbed her legs in his telekinesis and broke all four of them in unison, dropping her, wailing, to the ground on her back. He kicked the table over, spilling syringes all over her. “Treat yourself with your medicine, doctor.”
The last image Vespid saw before she lost consciousness was of Tirek blasting a hole through the wall.
~~~
“There are a lot of other projects in the Navigation Warehouse,” the Admiral told Rook, fumbling for the key Meteor gave her. “It’s not as impressive as the School of Engineering’s warehouses, but you’ll see an unfinished airship in th—oh. It’s not locked. Maybe Meteor’s already in here.”
Rook motioned for the Admiral to get on with it.
The Admiral pushed the doors open with a loud groan, beaming as she wheeled Rook into the room. “Oh, and those are some of the old ma—”
She locked eyes with Meteor.
He froze, pipe poised above Fog’s shivering body.
“Meteor…” the Admiral said, cautiously. “What’s going on?”
“This filly was laying explosives all over our rockets!”
“Weapons…” Fog managed. “Baltimare. He—”
He brought the pipe down, and she was silent.
“METEOR!”
“She was spitting lies!”
“She doesn’t have a habit of doing that,” the Admiral said softly. “Meteor…”
Meteor’s stern expression vanished and he sighed. He dropped the pipe. “...I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Worry? Worry? What part of this looks like it’s for my sake?!”
“Your support wasn’t enough! There were unforeseen costs and complications and… I needed a patron, and that meant dealing with Baltimare. Iota would never approve a—”
“How’d you convince them to pay you? Not a single pony in Sanctaphrax would!”
“I promised them a weapon.”
Rook, who had previously been a silent observer, visibly perked up at the mention of this.
“A… weapon.” The Admiral tapped the ground with her hoof.
“...Admiral, I know you can be blindsided by your vision, but did you really never consider other applications of the project?”
“It shoots things into space.”
Meteor nodded, slowly walking toward her. “And it can bring them down. Anywhere in Equestria. Falling faster than any bomb ever could.”
The Admiral shook her head. “It’s not that precise…”
“With the discarded ignition cylinder from our satellite, I was able to hit a dead island halfway across Equestria.” He saw her confusion. “Ships were waiting to confirm it.”
“You… you told Baltimare to interfere.” The Admiral’s expression became hard. “
“I told them to ensure you safe passage whenever you passed through their territory. They were to do nothing else.”
“Yeah, well, that filly you’re beating up is one of their Guardians.”
“W-what?”
“Hailing Fog. That kid I keep telling you about. She couldn’t be bought out with the promise of… weapons. Weapons, weapons, Meteor, really?”
Meteor held a hoof wide. “Why not? Every technology comes with its alternative uses! If we go up there, something’s going to come back down as well. We won't have a monopoly forever, and it’s best to get a corner on the market to further more scientific advances.”
“And then islands start shooting rockets at each other! I…” The Admiral put a wing to her head—this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. They were escaping the world, not adding to its problems. “This ends now.”
“They won’t take kindly to their deal falling through…”
“We’re Sanctaphrax, they can deal with it,” the Admiral hissed. “We’re the only ones with working rockets, if they’re such good weapons we can…” She stopped herself, realizing what she was saying.
“And that’s why Iota shut me down when I brought it up with her,” Meteor said, sitting down on a nearby box. “Sanctaphrax is too small to fight a war. And she also spouted some nonsense about war not being profitable. I’ve been in the School of History; war is very profitable.”
“Not for… Sanctaphrax…” Fog grumbled, focus returning to her eyes.
Meteor stared at her in distaste. “You’re a pain in the flanks.”
“Glad to see I’m living up to my reputation…” Fog shakily sat up, holding the open wound on her cheek.
The Admiral trotted up to her, helping her balance.
“...Thanks…” Fog closed her eyes and took in a sharp breath. “Sanctaphrax’s economy works best when all the islands want to pay top dollar. Not when they’ll shoot you for selling to their enemies. Someone’ll try to capture the island.” She opened her eyes, fixing Meteor with an angry fire. “You’ve signed Sanctaphrax’s death warrant. Not to mention Baltimare might not win whatever conquest they’ll start.”
Meteor glared at her. “You’re a child, what do you know of economics?”
“More than you,” Fog muttered, tearing part of her dress off to use as a bandage on her slit cheek. She’d ignored it for too long. “Can you explain the fish?”
The Admiral was thrown for a loop until Rook hissed back at Fog. The Admiral had forgotten she was here. “Oh. Her. She’s… a sane seapony. Led us to Tirek.”
“More and more monsters…” Fog grumbled. “Tirek—”
“I’m not telling you where he is.”
“Why are you so dense?!” The shout drove pain into Fog’s mouth, forcing her to slow down and take a few breaths. “If your precious rockets can cause a war, what do you think a demon will do if given the chance?”
The Admiral glanced at Rook with a desperate expression. The seapony shook her head—but somehow that didn’t fill the Admiral with confidence.
“So, where do we go from here?” Meteor asked. “There’s a deal with Baltimare that needs to go well.”
“Not if we blow them all up…” Fog pointed at the explosives on the rockets. “I’ve set mine. My team should have already set charges on the others. As soon as they confirm I’m safe, they blow everything. All gone.” She glanced at Meteor. “And then you destroy the plans.”
“No!” the Admiral shouted. “We…”
“Is your dream of the stars really worth all this?” Fog asked.
“...We’ll get there eventually, one way or another.”
“Eventually. When we aren’t quite so ready to gut each other’s throats.”
“You and your harmony…”
Fog cracked a smile, though she couldn’t make it very large. “I sure try, don’t I?”
“You cause more discord than harmony, hypocrite.”
Fog shrugged. “Eh, you can see it however you want.”
The Admiral sat down, thinking. “...They’d just try to make their own, now. All we’d be doing was delaying the inevitable.”
Fog growled. “I’ll remove it from my end if you remove it from yours.”
“I don’t think you understand what you’re going up against,” Meteor said. “I don’t just have a few Guardians adhering to this. The primary patron is your boss. She really wants them.”
“I told her not to—” She winced, rubbing her cheek. “I guess if you care enough for your ponies, you want to destroy all the others, apparently. Zippity-doo-dah, there’s no way to win.”
“There has to be something…” the Admiral muttered.
“Baltimare will just figure it out on their own in a few years,” Meteor said. “If I don’t give it to them, they have enough scientists and working theory to make them. And they have enough ponies and resources to forcibly maintain their monopoly for personal use.”
Fog put a hoof to her head. “But, then… we could… twist the…” She closed her eyes, taking in a sharp breath.
“All we’d be doing is delaying the inevitable,” the Admiral said. Silence fell over the group.
Rook tapped on her glass.
“What do you want?” Meteor spat.
Rook wiped the underside of her eyes, placing some of the blood on her hoof. She leaned out of the tank and started drawing on a nearby box. Five pony faces quickly appeared. Rook drew a tall triangle next to each one.
“Selling to everyone won’t work,” the Admiral said. “We already discussed, they’d retaliate against us.”
Rook shook her head. She put her hooves into the water and pulled some out, dropping it in front of the Admiral.
“Give…? Give it to all of them?”
Fog gasped. “Oh. Oh, oh that just might work… Ooooh, seapony, you’re a monster but I like the way you think.”
Rook bowed with pride.
“What’s the point of this?” Meteor asked. “It just sounds silly.”
Fog tapped her chin. “It’s not. Think… if you’re the only one with rockets, you can attack without fear. But if everypony also has rockets… you’d have to be willing to take a counterattack that could hit you anywhere. Baltimare wouldn’t dare risk our precious ruins, Sanctaphrax is so small…” She couldn’t help but giggle. “That’s it! No explosions, no detonation, we just make sure to ship a rocket to every major player as a gift… or at least the plans or something.”
“We’d need to get Iota’s approval…” Meteor mused. “But I’m willing to try it if it keeps you from destroying my life’s work.”
The Admiral looked at him with disdain.
“It’s your life’s work too, Admiral.”
“I never let anypony think of it as a weapon.”
“This is the price of progress, Admiral.”
The Admiral turned away, hissing in disgust. She adjusted her hat. “Fog, can you call your ponies off?”
Fog nodded slowly. “I’m going to need your promise of protection, batty.” She winked.
The Admiral groaned. “You… have it. Though Iota can revoke it.”
“Great! Now, let’s get to Iota, I’m sure we can talk about Tirek there t—”
Cozy started banging on the sides of her tank, grabbing their attention.
~~~
Hey, guess what we just saved, Tirek? Rook asked, more than a little smug in her tone. The entire rocket industry.
Now is not the ti—
Rook and Cozy were knocked silly by the immense push of psychic information. Part of them felt Tirek get stabbed in the eye. Images of Tirek’s pain flashed through their mind.
They attacked him.
Obviously, but why? Was that Vespid?
We need more information. Tirek, wh—
SILENCE! Tirek’s voice came back, but his mind wasn’t calm enough to keep the state of his emotional state from them. They caught a glimpse of Sparkler lying on the ground. Of magic being drained.
Oh no oh no we JUST got the peace! Rook whined. We were going to get to the stars!
A childish thought. Tirek was always going to take control of this place, one way or another, and we knew it.
He’s hurting them. Nopony’s going to like that. Nopony’s going to like HIM. Rook racked her mind. That’s a weakness!
He may be able to control purely through power, though.
Will WE though?
...It seems unlikely.
Then this isn’t acceptable. I’m getting their attention.
We shouldn’t betray Tirek so hastily.
We’ve set up connections and built up a little world of our own here! They trust us, they… Rook waved her hooves around, scrambling for the right thought. We can do more with a group of ponies behind us than one ancient Centaur who wants to rule with an iron fist.
And what’s wrong with that?
Nothing. It’s just not as EFFECTIVE. It is better to be loved and trusted. Then they’ll die for us. Friendship is power!
...Agreed. Move aside, I’ll handle this.
Cozy took control of their body and banged against the glass with as much chaotic energy as she could muster, grabbing everypony’s attention.
“...Cozy…?” the Admiral asked.
Cozy nodded. She used hooves on her head to represent horns. Seeing the Admiral understood she was referring to Tirek, she didn’t waste any time waiting for verbal confirmation. She waved her hooves off her head, followed by tossing her head back as if she had hair—Sparkler. Getting non-verbal confirmation of understanding, she flopped over, doing a dead mare’s float.
“What did he do to her!?” the Admiral screeched.
Cozy opened her mouth and sucked in. Magic drain.
Your solution was charades? I could do charades!
Not angrily enough.
“What’s going on?” Fog asked.
“Tirek just drained Sparkler’s magic!” The Admiral flared her wings. “Where are they?”
Cozy didn’t get to try to pantomime something for Leyline—they all heard the explosion outside. The Admiral could hear the rush of air from a large pipe breach somewhere in the distance.
Fog pulled a small radio out of her dress. “That better not have been you. ...Good. Don’t blow anything up, we’ve got a situation with Tirek.”
They moved outside. Rook had to grab onto the Admiral’s tail to keep from being left behind. They could see smoke rising toward the center of Sanctaphrax, and ponies were screaming.
There was another explosion. To their shock, they saw a significantly larger than usual Tirek jump all the way from the ground to the top of the tallest tower of Engineering, punching through one of the upper walls with ease.
He’s going after Iota, Rook thought.
Obviously. We need a plan and a—where is she going?
The Admiral had taken off at a full gallop, heading right for the smoke.
Sparkler. Right.
She’ll do what needs to be done.
Are you sure it was a good idea to side with these sentimental morons?
Yep! Trust me, it’ll work out.
At this point we don’t really have a choice…
“We need to follow the Admiral,” Fog told Rook. “...You can’t move yourself.”
Rook closed her eyes and focused. Come on, do the magics! A powerful gust of wind surrounded her, coming from behind and blowing past her mane.
Her massive tank of water moved forward at a snail’s pace.
“I may be weak, but I can push something that’s already moving,” Fog said, pressing her back to the glass. With one of her front hooves, she took out the radio. “Coordinate with Meteor, guys.”
“Me?” Meteor gawked.
“If push comes to shove we might be able to use your weapons for some good here.” She turned back to her radio. “Call the Algol and get the Admiral’s personal frequency if you need to talk to me. Otherwise, I’ll contact you through hers.” She tossed the radio to Meteor. “Start fueling, or whatever it is you do to get those sticks in the air.”
~~~
The Admiral ran through Sanctaphrax as fast as her hooves and wings would let her. She needed to get to Sparkler. She needed to get to Sparkler now.
She knew she was close when she found the hole in the glass tunnel. There was enough air in the local pipe system that the air hadn’t thinned entirely yet, but it was cold. She saw a few downed ponies, but unlike many situations she’d encountered on the seafloor there was no blood. For all his talk, Tirek didn’t seem to be very carnage-prone.
The Admiral pushed this observation back into her mind. Sparkler first.
She followed the trail of rubble back to the College of History, finding a hole right where Leyline’s office was. It was on the second floor, but the rubble provided her an easy way to ascend to the ruined space. She saw Leyline first—not a spot of blood on him, but utterly motionless.
“Sparkler?” the Admiral called. “Sparkler!?”
“There…” Vespid grunted, pointing with her wings at the splayed form of Sparkler. The Admiral ignored the pegasus’ injuries; she ran right to the form of Sparkler.
Still breathing—awake even.
The Admiral pulled her into a hug. “Sparkler, it’s all gone wrong. It’s… all wrong.” Tears began to form at the edges of her eyes. “Tirek’s on a rampage, Leyline’s dead, Meteor was selling the rockets as weapons, and… and…”
“Admiral…”
“And I couldn’t see it!” the Admiral wailed. “I couldn’t see it… I wanted it so badly I ignored it and now we’re here and if I’d only seen it sooner this wouldn’t be happening. It’s all my fault and I’m sorry. Everything’s falling apart and I don’t know what to d—”
“Star.”
The Admiral froze at the sound of her name.
Sparkler looked at her with weak eyes and a completely flat mane that laid around her like a pool of blood. “Star, since when have you let a mistake stop you before?”
The Admiral released Sparkler from the hug, quiet.
“We’ve been through worse. Problems that both of us caused, one way or another.” Sparkler laughed bitterly. “Just because it’s close to home doesn't mean we can’t deal with it.” She set her jaw, fixing her friend with a serious expression. “The Admiral doesn’t break down in hopelessness. The Admiral sits back, adjusts her hat, and gets the job done.”
The Admiral sat back. Without thinking, she adjusted her hat. The moment she did so a dumb smile came over her face. “That’s not fair.”
“I don’t have my magic right now.” Sparkler flopped back, letting out an exhausted sigh. “I can’t afford to play fair. And neither can we.”
There was a loud gurgle from outside. Rook? She looked out, seeing Fog and Rook standing out there.
“Hi,” Fog waved. “Made it.”
“How did you…?”
Rook surrounded herself in a gust of wind.
“Oh, right. Tirek mentioned that…”
“Please tell me that’s not Fog out there…” Sparkler grumbled.
“It is. And she’s on our side, for once.”
Sparkler moaned.
“You wanted the Admiral to get the job done, this is how she gets the job done.”
“Yeah, well I don’t have to like it…”
“Glad to be working with you, too!” Fog called, finding it worth the pain to shout a snide remark.
“How good are her ears?”
“Unimportant,” the Admiral said, setting her face. “...What set him off?”
“Vespid and I tried to take him out,” Sparkler said. “Yeah, I know, Vespid turned out to be the good guy and Leyline went to the dark side, surprising.”
“I’m right here…” Vespid wheezed.
The Admiral stared at her in shock, registering for the first time that all her legs were twisted at odd angles. “Holy mother of…”
“I’ll live,” she grunted. “Won’t be of much more help…”
“What did you do?” the Admiral asked.
“Tried to inject a serum mixed with pure wyrdness right into his brain. I got his eye.” Vespid grimaced. “I shoulda been faster… Now he’s doing exactly what I was trying to stop…”
“We need to know how to stop him…” The Admiral poked her head out of the hole in the wall. “Hey! Rook! Cozy! How do we defeat Tirek?”
Fog answered instead. “We shoot him with a rocket. Meteor’s already working with my ponies to get that working.”
“Would that work?”
Rook thought for a second, then shrugged in uncertainty.
“...Anything you can tell me?”
Rook nodded. She pressed her hooves on her forehead, fell over like she’d just been shot, and then spread her hooves wide, splashing water everywhere.
“...What?”
“Defeat Tirek, his magic goes free,” Fog translated. “It’s simple.”
“Ya arrogant know-it-all brat!” Sparkler shouted, crawling over to the hole just to clare at Fog.
“Glad to see you up and about so quick,” Fog waved.
“That’s it. I’m gonna kill ‘er.”
“Wait until after we save Sanctaphrax, hmm?” the Admiral asked.
Sparkler let out a series of grumbles.
“What’s the plan?” Fog asked.
“I…” the Admiral closed her eyes, thinking of everything they had at their disposal. Rook, Cozy, Fog, Meteor… their enemy was Tirek… there had to be something else they had. Something that could combat his magic.
Wait…
The Admiral’s eyes flew open and she grinned. “I’ve got a plan.”