//------------------------------// // 24 - Aim for the Finish // Story: The Amulet Job // by Rambling Writer //------------------------------// “No, Bon Bon, I can’t cast any practical invisibility spells,” said Starlight. “Invisibility’s tricky; the most I can manage is if the pony is standing still. I can do some illusions that kind of look like invisibility, but only from a distance. Up close, you’ll be spotted instantly.” Bon Bon didn’t look away from the blueprints or the notes Sunburst and his group had taken. “Dang. Maybe-” She blinked and looked up, frowning. “How did you know I was thinking about that?” Starlight shrugged. “It seemed like the kind of thing you’d be thinking about. Especially with that look on your face.” “Well, you’re right,” said Bon Bon. Her attention returned to the blueprints. “No offense, but what is it with super-unicorns like you and Twilight? You either know exactly the right spell for the incredibly specific situation du jour or you can’t do anything about it.” “Like I said, invisibility’s tricky. It took Twilight six whole tries to master it.” “Wow. Six? Huh. That is a lot. But my point still stands.” “Yeah. Dunno.” After she, Bon Bon, and Gilda had returned from getting Gus’s key (the copying was already underway), an odd feeling had come over Starlight. They’d done just about all the recon they could do with the casino. There were still some gaps — any locks between the cordoned-off elevator shaft and the vault itself, just for starters — but those gaps were deep enough that she and her team would only be able to deal with them as they came up during the heist itself. Not the best course of action, but she would take what she could get. And with recon done, there was only one thing left to do: plan the heist. That seemed to be the tricky part. Starlight knew she… wasn’t the greatest at being good. But even if this was for a good cause, it was still robbing a casino. Where was she supposed to begin? Outside in? Inside out? She didn’t even know what the vault itself was like. It could be a hallway of magic-resistant flamethrowers for all she knew. But aside from that… Starlight hoped she wasn’t jinxing them by thinking that they had a pretty good idea of the security. It was tough, but it didn’t seem totally impenetrable. Yet, anyway. (Plus, being away from Twilight for a little while and the subsequent reminder that she outclassed most of the unicorns of Equestria, including the ones the security had planned for, was more of a pick-me-up for Starlight than she really wanted to admit.) “What’re you thinking of?” Starlight asked. “Besides invisibility.” If anybody was going to be making a plan, it’d be Bon Bon. “I don’t know. Just… thinking.” Bon Bon shrugged. “Of a plan? Or a scheme? Or a tactical shenanigan? It’s what Pinkie would call it,” Starlight added upon seeing Bon Bon’s expression. “Maybe. Kind of the beginnings of one.” Bon Bon shrugged again. Which meant not really. Starlight had grown quite accustomed to evasive answers while living with Twilight. (Mostly from herself, but Twilight could get cheerfully vague when she wanted to.) Bon Bon was having trouble coming up with a plan and she didn’t want to admit it, especially not to herself. Starlight didn’t blame her. Abruptly, Sunburst came in and sat next to Starlight. “Did, did you know the elevator controls get routed through the, through the security hub?” “They do?” “They do. I was, I was working on sorting through some of, some of the datastreams, and there were four that, that just seemed to be two-digit numbers. A little bit more digging and, and I noticed they corresponded to the elevator floors.” Sunburst shrugged. “So I guess that, that once we hack into the security systems, we can, we’ll also be able to control the elevators.” “Huh.” “Huh indeed,” Bon Bon said. She frowned at Sunburst. “I thought you said that-” “I was simplifying,” Sunburst said exasperatedly. “I assumed you wouldn’t want the full details of all the magic signals getting sent over here. I talked about visuals because that was, those signals made up most of it. Like I said, I’m still, still sorting through everything.” “Huh.” Bon Bon wrinkled her muzzle a little, but seemed satisfied. Sunburst didn’t continue. Did everyone else realize that recon was over? Probably. It was in the ways they just kept trying to fill time. Everyone was looking sideways at everyone else, waiting for someone to take the final step so they all could follow them down. But with everyone waiting, no one ever would. Well, that one might as well be her. Time to get to it. Starlight stood up. “Bon Bon, Sunburst? Get everyone in the living room. We need to make a plan for the heist.” Starlight felt strange once everyone was gathered. Was she still the leader? Everyone was looking at her like she was. Was that just because she’d set herself up as the leader? No one else had. Bon Bon seemed ready, willing, and able to take up that mantle, yet she never actually did. Whatever. Starlight felt confident. Ish. Almost. A huge array of eyes was staring at her. The usual technicolor blend of pony eyes, plus Derpy’s. Thorax’s absolute blues (how did he even see without pupils?). Gilda’s golden ones, which had a subtle difference between pony golds that Starlight couldn’t put her hoof on. All looking at her. All waiting on her for some kind of sign or plan. Starlight took a deep breath. “Alright. So. Here’s the deal. The Alicorn Amulet is kept in this vault, here. The area around the vault is coursing with wind magic. What for, we don’t know, and I doubt we’ll know until we actually get to the vault. The only way into the vault is through a door hidden in a secret elevator shaft, separated from the main shaft by a thick metal lattice and otherwise accessible only from a door in the security area. A door that undoubtedly needs credentials we don’t have to open. Meanwhile, within the shaft itself, we’ve got a laser grid an ant couldn’t crawl through, although it shuts off to allow elevators in the main shaft passage. If there are any locks between the elevator and the vault, we don’t know of them. And cameras are mounted just about everywhere.” She looked at everybody. They were all at least pretending to listen, even Gilda. “Security has been increased since the, um, incident with Thorax and Goumada.” (Thorax, miraculously, didn’t cringe away in shame.) “They’re probably going to be distracted by the anniversary celebrations, but they’re still going to be there. If me or Bon Bon are part of the main break-in team, we can’t go through any of the usual entrances, including the airship port, since Goumada’s security forces are definitely looking for us; we probably can’t even be anywhere near the building on the ground. They’re probably also going to be on the lookout for changelings. Lyra and Rainbow Dash can’t be part of the break-in team at all, because they’ve got to perform for Goumada at the ceremony. And we can’t just fake our way through the door into the employee area because there are guards at that entrance, checking just about everyone who tries to come in. And, within the casino’s grounds, teleportation is impossible.” Starlight licked her lips and swallowed to wet her throat. She really wished she’d brought something to drink. “But it’s not all bad. We have access to the casino’s security cameras, and Sunburst’s sure that if we can get into the security hub again, he can fake the images going out. We also have a key that’ll unlock the door to the hub, assuming we can get there without being spotted. And we have all the gadgets Sunburst designed for us.” Another look over the room. Everyone seemed to be sitting up a little bit more. “This might be our only chance, everybody. We don’t know how soon Goumada’s going to sell the Amulet, and if we screw this up, who knows what she’ll do to us. But we need to do this. We need a plan. And so far, we’ve got nothing. But we’ve also got a week to change that.” She settled back in her chair. “So. Anybody got any ideas?” Silence. Somebody coughed. Then Derpy raised a hoof. The days to the anniversary passed in a vague haze of work and thought. Plans were brought up, discarded, refined, turned inside-out, repurposed, rejiggered, accepted, rejected, hammered out, screwed in, cut apart, stitched together, and everything in between. But they had something workable. Something plausible. Something very touch-and-go, but still something they could use. Everyone had chipped in. Everyone agreed that it was… a plan. Everyone agreed to go through with it, at least. They didn’t even need to go into the casino again or buy anything else to make some other weird device. And so the week passed, both too fast and too slow at the same time. Starlight worked on refinements for their gear, mostly with Sunburst. There wasn’t much she could do, though; you could make a rope retractor only so much better. What really mattered was that it was something to do, something that could keep her occupied. Every second she was occupied, she wasn’t stressing out. She was good at stressing out. She’d learned too much from Twilight. Before she knew it, her time was almost up. It was the night before the heist. Starlight’s nerves were so high and so taut you could use them as a tightrope. The same was probably true of everyone else. An unusual silence had fallen over the villa. Starlight was sitting in the dining room, studying the whorls in the table as a way to keep her mind busy and away from the fact that holy schlamoly they were doing a heist tomorrow. It wasn’t very effective, mainly because holy schlamoly they were doing a heist tomorrow. Starlight’s hoof twitched on the table, beating out an erratic drumline. Her skin felt small, like any wrong or sudden movement would tear it open. But she wasn’t going to be one for sudden movements, not during the heist. Everything would be planned. She needed to be precise. She needed to focus. She needed to keep a clear head. She needed to be ready. Gilda sat down across from her. “Rainbow and I were thinking of buying some beer for everyone and getting drunk. That okay with you?” “Sure.” “Sweet.” An hour-ish later, Rainbow and Gilda had returned with various cases of beer or cider. (Was cider even in season? Apparently.) Everyone was gravitating towards the dining room, waiting for their chance to get stinking drunk (or hopefully just sweet-smelling buzzed) on the intoxicant of their choice. It was almost a party, but just enough of not being a party that they weren’t at risk of Pinkie bursting out of the fridge with two dozen personalized cupcakes. “Alllllllllrighty.” Gilda hefted a case of beer onto the table. “Pick your poison.” The Doctor frowned at the label on the bottles, a frown that deepened with each new case laid on the table. “I’ve never heard of any of these brands.” “They’re craft brews,” said Gilda. “Or microbrews, maybe? Whatever. Privately owned, emphasis on being good rather than chucking their franchise to every corner of the country. I figure maybe they’ll taste a bit less like crap than regular beer.” “And, of course, we got cider!” Rainbow put a gallon jug on the table with a rattle. “It ain’t Sweet Apple Cider, but it’ll be good enough for tonight.” After a bit of hesitation, Thorax tentatively sniffed at a bottle, gagged, and covered his nose. “And ponies actually drink that?” he squeaked. “Sweet hive, that smells like lamp runoff! Only worse!” “I know, right?” said Derpy. “Ponies don’t drink beer because it tastes good,” said Starlight. With all the not-brand names meaningless to her, she decided to drink whichever bottle had the nicest-looking label. “It’s a way to unwind and relax. Alcohol calms you down.” “How can it when it smells like that?” asked Thorax. “It smells like potion failure and self-loathing! I’d never be able to relax if I had to drink that to do it!” “Why are you complaining?” asked the Doctor. He’d already popped the cap off his bottle. “I thought you didn’t eat or drink pony foodstuffs.” “Because in ten minutes, this place is going to smell like a barn! A dirty barn! And I would know, I once spent a week hiding out in one!” The conversation faded into the background as Starlight took a long drink from her bottle. At least they weren’t so on-edge anymore. Maybe they could actually get to sleep tonight. She kept drinking and the not-party grew hazy. She didn’t pay enough attention to remember much of what happened next. Not that there was much to remember, apparently, since once memory reasserted itself, the place was still neat and all the lamps still had their lampshades. She blinked until a group of ponies came into focus. “…need to stretch the time out a little,” Lyra was saying. “That’ll give them more time to rise. But turn the temperature down in the oven, too, or else you’ll burn them.” “Huh,” said Gilda. “Derpy said that, too.” “Well, then, you know it’s good advice!” Starlight nodded vaguely at that. She looked at another group. Or at least, at one pony. Bon Bon was looking up; Starlight followed her gaze to find Thorax standing on the ceiling. “No, I’m not sticky at all,” said Thorax. He pulled a leg from the ceiling. “See? Nothing’s breaking. I just… It’s like I want to walk up walls, so I can.” “Huh,” said Bon Bon, frowning. “That sounds like magic. How do you shapeshift? By just being somebody else?” “I…” Thorax tilted his head. “I guess so. Kinda. Maybe.” “Huh. Get down here. Maybe we can get you to stick to some paper.” Starlight went to the next group. The Doctor was scribbling equations down on a sheet of paper while Rainbow looked on with something resembling interest (which was saying something, given her usual approach to math). “And that thing you’re hitting?” the Doctor said. “That’s the sound barrier.” “I thought that was just an expression,” said Rainbow. She squinted at the Doctor’s scribblings. “The sound barrier’s a physical thing?” “Oh, absolutely. Well, more an emergent property, but most certainly a thing. And, see-” The Doctor jotted something else down. “-if you compress it too much, its thaumic density changes, which…” Rainbow smiled and nodded, but Starlight could see her eyes glazing over. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh.” And finally, Starlight looked at the last two, Sunburst and Derpy. They were deep in discussion, gesturing animatedly. “But according to the Clopenhagen interpretation,” said Sunburst, “the systems don’t have any values before being measured, but then wavefunction collapse-” “I know the Clopenhagen interpretation,” interrupted Derpy, “but it doesn’t provide any evidence for parallel universes! Which I’ve-” “Wait, wait, wait,” said Sunburst, grinning. He wagged a hoof at Derpy. “But it doesn’t preclude parallel universes, either! They just can’t come from quantum effects. And, of course, the Clopenhagen interpretation could be wrong.” “Ooh. Right. I forgot about that.” Everyone she’d gathered, plus a few people someone else had gathered, simply relaxing. Weird to think of how far they’d come. How far they might go tomorrow. Their little dysfunctional team was alright. She needed to let them know. Without thinking much (which was something of a theme with her, even without alcohol), Starlight stood up and tapped her glass a few times to draw attention to herself. Once everyone’s attention was on her, she cleared her throat. “I, um…” Alcohol deviously conspired with her lack of public-speaking experience. “…uh, well, I-” Gulp. “-I, uh…” Persistence broke them up. “I, I just wanted to say, thank you for, uh, for- being here and helping me. I know these last few days haven’t been the easiest, but you’ve stuck with me the whole way through, and, um… Well, just, thanks.” Her face grew warm as she sat back down. “You know what, yeah,” Bon Bon said. She also stood up. “I didn’t think this would be possible, but look at this team we’ve built. This…” She blinked a few times, her eyes not completely focused. “…team,” she repeated. “I don’t think we could’ve collected a weirder collection of people if we trawled everywhere in Equestria, but we’re doing just fine. Good job. Or… something.” “A toast!” bellowed the Doctor, holding his cup high. “To- everyone! To all you wonderful folks! To robbery and adventure and- and- and friendship!” “To that!” yelled Lyra. “And drinks!” Gilda lifted up her own cup, paused, and said, “I was gonna say something sappy and ponyish, but now I just wanna get drunk.” “I’ll drink to that,” chuckled Rainbow. She held up her cup. Everyone made semi-distinct noises of assent as they raised their cups (Thorax grabbed an empty one to look like he was participating). Even Gilda was doing it without too much reluctance. For a brief second, everyone was united in the same (rather silly) desire, doing the same thing, working the same way, thinking together as one. And for that brief second, Starlight’s nerves vanished.