Star Orchid worked through the night. It was a bloody business, ensuring that she saw more of the Devourer than she ever thought she would. There were no ancient magical secrets to discover—the Iron Lord was no hidden Alicorn. It was a good thing she’d been exposed to so much of what happened in the dungeons beneath the castle, or she might not have been able to keep up her composure around so much blood.
Star did not fake some accident to murder the Iron Lord, though it was hard to imagine needing to. Star Orchid might not know the process that created the Unification Army, but it couldn’t be more horrific than what Discord had done. Some part of her still loyal to the life she’d been taught felt some satisfaction there. The Iron Lord tolerated a creature like Discord to dwell below his fortress? He eventually suffered the same fate as so many others.
But maybe just like them, he’d recover. None of those operated on seemed to mind in the end, when they got back whatever abilities they’d lost. Even that little changeling with the broken wings was flying again.
Star knew nothing about medicine, but she followed instructions without complaint. The monster called Discord might want to spread chaos across Equestria, but he kept that chaos out of the operating room.
She worked until exhaustion wore heavily on her, and the job was done.
She couldn’t have said what happened to her. The next thing she knew, somepony was shaking her. She blinked, scanning the world around her. She was on the floor, curled on some folded blankets against a corridor wall. She still smelled a little like antiseptic. “W-what…”
Wellspring stood over her, looking worn. Her mane was shorn aside from half her face, with bandages wrapped tightly there. Her uniform was stained with blood, and she had a strange weapon slung over her shoulder. Apparently, the standard tool for the rebellion, whatever it was. “Star, we need to talk.”
Star sat up, eyes scanning to try and recognize where they’d brought her. But one length of tunnel looked much like another. Just supports along the sides and a bundle of cable running along the roof. She could’ve been meters from the surface, or she could’ve been deep below the Undercastle in virgin rock. “Sure.” She brushed her mane straight with a little magic, meeting Wellspring’s eyes. “This is… about Windbrisk?”
Wellspring settled on her haunches, removing her weapon and leaning slightly on it. For as bleary as Star felt, it seemed this pony hadn’t slept at all. How long had Star been asleep? She couldn’t hear any sounds of distant combat anymore. No tearing stone, no light lances blasting away at rebellion soldiers. Had they somehow won? Nopony ever won against the Unification Army!
“You could say that. He had an interesting story to tell. Then I hear you were down with the Doctor and may’ve saved the Iron Lord’s life. I’ll admit it’s left me with more questions than answers. Why don’t you start by telling me what happened to Ginny?”
“That isn’t her name,” Star said flatly. Maybe if she was a little more alive, she’d think things through, carefully ration information so it couldn’t come back to harm her. She didn’t try. “Ginny’s real name is Geist, have you heard of—” From Wellspring’s eyes, she didn’t need to wait for an answer. Even in her exhaustion, she seemed shocked.
“The assassin?”
Star nodded. “We were sent here directly from Concord. Equestria has been discovering more and more Darktech. The princess thought this meant the ancient Devourers might still be alive somewhere—she thought they were here, working with the rebels.”
To her surprise, Wellspring didn’t react with violence. She seemed perfectly calm as Star admitted to serving the princess directly. It was only her last words that drew a response. “Wait, she knew we were here?”
“Yes. I can’t tell you why she hasn’t moved before now. I replaced her last adviser less than a month before she sent me away.”
Wellspring nodded, looking thoughtful. “Probably Commissar Taproot. He never knew anything useful, but we had an understanding. We took care of the city’s hungry and sick, and he wouldn’t send ponies underground looking for us. He disappeared in the middle of the night a year ago, same day Golden Shine showed up. I guess the princess wasn’t happy about having a pony with a conscience working for her.”
If that was a jab, Star ignored it. She had come here to discover every detail of the rebellion and get the army to murder them all. She probably deserved it.
“Geist attacked Windbrisk. I don’t know much about royal assassins, but I know my own soldiers. Windbrisk is tougher than he is clever. I don’t think he realizes that you saved his life.”
Star nodded. “We sent our first detailed report back to Concord three days ago. We weren’t supposed to write until we knew everything, since you might have mages who could detect the sending spell. I rewrote the report, taking out everything that was true. The princess doesn’t know anything we discovered during our investigation here. At least… not until Geist gets back. I was more worried about sealing the tunnel than stopping him.”
Wellspring looked thoughtful, otherwise silent. Creatures carrying construction materials and weapons passed going in both directions. They stared openly at Star but didn’t say anything. Was her betrayal getting around Stygian’s Gate that fast?
“Why?” Wellspring asked. “Assuming you’re telling me the truth—your mission could be done. I’m sure the princess would’ve rewarded you handsomely for all our lives. With Geist out there, it might still be happening. I don’t see any reason she would spare you after a betrayal. Unless all this was… a way to endear you to us? To keep a pony on the inside until we’re destroyed?”
Star shook her head. “I know you won’t believe me, but… I’ll never be able to go home. Every few days we’ve been here, Geist reminded me what would happen if my loyalty to Equestria faltered. Geist is Equestria’s longest-serving Spymaster. He’s killed hundreds of ponies over the years. And he’s a changeling, so there’s no way to watch for him. I’ll probably be dead within the week no matter what happens.”
Wellspring rose to her hooves and slung the rifle over her shoulder. “There are ponies down here who want me to find a cell to lock you in for a few weeks. If we’re still alive, maybe then we can figure out if we can still trust you.”
Star didn’t move. If you were going to lock me in jail, I wouldn’t be out in the open. Are you going to kill me after all? “What do you think?”
Wellspring shook her head. “If you’re telling the truth, we can’t keep you in a cell. We’d have to break your horn, and that’s…” She shuddered. “Stygian’s Gate used to be ruthless. We saw ourselves as so outnumbered and overpowered that our only hope was destroying as much of Twilight’s world as we could. Only the ponies Twilight had already broken found their way to us.”
She leaned forward, resting a hoof on Star’s shoulder. “What good will it do the ponies of Equestria if we cast off one kind of tyranny only to take its place? We stand for the glories of Equestria’s past, long forgotten by most. A world where Kindness was one of the greatest virtues, not the least.”
She turned away, pointing down the hall. “We barely survived last night. Maybe it was your friend, Geist. Brought the undead down on us. But they stopped when morning came. We didn’t win—we were barely holding the tunnels they’d found. They just turned around and left.”
Discord was right. “How many did we lose?”
Wellspring glanced back, ears flattening. “Too many. Even if it was just a few, it would be too many. Come with me. We don’t have many surface ponies left—our soldiers are strained to the breaking point. I need a partner to come with me to the surface. We’ve received a message, and I don’t want anypony else at risk when we answer it.”
A message? “Not from the Unification Army?”
She shook her head. “Radio. That’s the, uh… I guess you’d call it ‘Darktech’. It’s one of the ways we communicate.”
“What about your vision of the world above?” Star rose to her hooves, stumbling along after Wellspring. Maybe she’d get a chance to see Windbrisk? He had to be around somewhere, right? He’d be stitched back up and helping somewhere instead of resting like he should. “Why send someone, just use your magic?”
“There’s no magic,” Wellspring called. She didn’t slow, forcing Star to hurry along if she wanted to catch up. “No one can use the computer but the Iron Lord. We had some succession plans, but his heart attack came so suddenly… we can’t use it until he recovers.”
Star didn’t have a clue what a computer was, though she didn’t need to know to guess at the implications. “You ponies seemed so clever before. Where’s the strategy in having your most powerful weapon useless if you lose a single creature?”
Wellspring shook her head. “Every member of Stygian’s Gate would be vulnerable if the princess got into our database. Every cell in every city. Anypony else might be a changeling in disguise, or maybe they could be captured and tortured. Not the Iron Lord.”
She didn’t know where they were in the Undercastle, but the path did seem to be sloping upward. The tunnels were filled with the familiar antiseptic odor of Unification Army preservative. They’d managed to kill a few, then. More than some rebellions could claim.
“Right, Devourer. His dark powers protect him from ordered magic?”
Wellspring stumbled, nearly broke into laughter. “You met him. Did you sense any dark magic?” She didn’t wait for an answer—she could see it in her face. “You’ve lived in Concord; you must’ve wondered why we couldn’t heal him. A creature as important to Stygian’s Gate, surely we could’ve found a doctor to help. Even if our resident surgeon doesn’t have the power he once did.
“Magic seems difficult for their species. The stress for a healthier creature might be endurable, I do not know. But his body was so frail—even the princess couldn’t probe into his mind without killing him.”
Star thought better of pointing out how they were giving up that protection now, and it hadn’t even ever helped them. She wanted to go to the surface. Unification soldiers might be waiting, but she’d dealt with them before. So long as they didn’t attack immediately, Star was reasonably sure she could get past a few. It was a lesson ponies learned quickly while serving in the palace, or their service didn’t last long.
“So you want me to help investigate what’s happening on the surface. Even though you know why I joined. Even though you… know an assassin is probably waiting for me up there?”
Wellspring shrugged. “That sounds about right.”
She walked along in silence, waiting for the reason all this made sense. It didn’t come. “So why trust me?” she finally asked. She would’ve shouted if there weren’t so many other eyes on them. Every soldier was watching her. But Stygian’s Gate had lasted this long—she doubted it could’ve if it hadn’t somehow kept up its own security.
“We don’t have a choice. Said it yourself, Star—Geist is already out there. The only hope we have now is that what you know might be enough to make up for what she knows. Maybe we can stop her, or… maybe you’ll be able to prepare us for whatever the princess has in store.” They emerged into the Undercastle’s central hallway, into a room filled with the injured. Ponies lay against the walls, each one sporting various wounds. Most were resting now, with young ponies delivering supplies or caring for them.
“Before we go up there, I just need to know one thing,” Wellspring went on. “Are you with us? Look me in the eye and say it.”
Star hadn’t been able to lie about being a spy—not to Windbrisk, and not to Wellspring. That kind of honesty might be hard, but there were times it was an advantage. Like right now. “I don’t know if I agree with everything you all believe, but I want to stop Twilight from finding you. I think you’ve done…” The words burned as she spoke them. She would probably catch fire any moment just by forming them on her tongue. But she didn’t. “I think you’ve been helping ponies, doing the things I wish the princess was doing. I’ll do anything I can to keep her from finding you.”
“Good enough.” Wellspring gestured again. “We don’t know what we’ll find out there. But it smelled like burning. Your princess sent a wartime army into a city that barely even knows we’re here. We need everypony we can get against a force like that. We can’t match the princess in gall, so we have to make up for our weakness with friendship.”
There was no mistaking where the battle had taken place. Instead of cots for the injured to recover, the ground here was lined with lumpy cloth, occasionally broken by a hoof or some other limb. Even underground, humidity would speed the rot until the caverns were overwhelmed, unless they acted soon. But Star couldn’t smell any of those rotting-flesh odors. The preservatives were so thick in the air here that she had to cover her mouth for a second. These aren’t our dead, this is the Unification Army. They held them off.
Then they passed through a narrow tunnel, blasted away from the other side. There hadn’t been much magic—very few could still cast spells beyond levitation once they joined. She wasn’t surprised to see the doorway hadn’t been opened very far. Thousands of little impacts broke the stone, tiny bits of metal reflecting in the glow of her horn. “What kind of weapon do you have that can fight the Unification Army?”
Wellspring levitated her own slightly off her shoulder, holding it out for Star to inspect. It was dense and mechanical, with a rounded drum on the bottom. “It’s called a rifle. It uses chemistry to propel bits of metal fast enough to kill. It helps that we’ve been preparing for an attack like this. You were going to find us eventually, and when you did…” They emerged from within, into a much wider tunnel. A sewage access from the city above. Just around the corner, Star could see… figures. Massive and hulking, with shells that reflected her horn like dragon scales. They stood near the fort, and so tall they had to stoop in the sewage access.
At least they didn’t attack right away. They were as big as minotaurs and might be just as fast.
Those aren’t Unification Army soldiers. Standard procedure for Equestria’s army facing an entrenched foe would just be to surround and wait for Twilight. These four… didn’t even seem ready to fight. They were certainly big enough for violence, but…
“You two the ones who held back the army?” called a voice, interrupting Star’s meandering thoughts. The accent was strange, but the words were clear enough. If anything, it seemed to resemble the Iron Lord.
“Here we go,” Wellspring muttered. “If you think of anything I might want to know about this—something you know from your time with the crown, something you figure out, you tell me privately. With the Iron Lord recovering from surgery, I’m in charge. I need all the help I can get.”
Then she straightened, bounding a few steps forward until she faced them openly. “We represent them,” she said. “I was fighting, my friend here was working in the hospital.” Wellspring waited until Star had caught up with her, then lowered her voice a little. “Are you the reason we aren’t under attack?”
One of the figures stepped forward into the light. Star couldn’t see any flesh under all that metal, the shell was thicker and more secure than any dragon’s hide. But she could imagine the Devourer shape inside even so. Two arms, two legs, and a curved helmet to deflect blows.
“Incidentally,” the figure spoke with a deep, masculine voice, deep enough to send rumbles through her chest and hooves. “You weren’t responding to our radio messages, and then we saw why. Thought you might be more willing to talk if we took a little pressure off.
That’s one way to call it. The longer these creatures went without attacking them, the closer Wellspring walked. Until they were only a few steps away and could see the group clearly. There were four of them, three several times her size and one that was smaller than its fellows, with armor that was closer to the models worn by the royal guard. There were weapons attached to their armor, like the rifles carried by Stygian’s Gate than anything she’d seen in Equestria.
“We appreciate the help,” she said. “Not just for us, but Hollow Shades. The city doesn’t deserve to burn because we’re hiding under it.”
“Won’t be able to protect it for long,” said another figure. This one sounded feminine, though her armor looked very little different. Maybe some of the colored stripes and symbols were changed. It was the same alphabet she’d seen on the princess’s most ancient relics. But she’d already known to expect that. She would have to tell Wellspring as soon as they had a private moment. “That zeppelin is flying back home to mommy. When Laputa gets here, you’re fucked.”
“A little more compassion, Landon,” said the first. He reached up, fiddling with something around his neck. His helmet hissed, then clicked as he lifted it up and set it down. Then he dropped to one knee, ending up near their eye level.
Yes, this was the same sort of creature as the Iron Lord. Only this skin was dark instead of pale. The other basic features were the same. He thrust one limb forward, gauntlet and all. “I am Yeoman Kondrak. These are my high officers, Captain Landon, Captain Hopson, and Engineer Renfield.”
Wellspring glanced sideways at Star, as if to ask if the exchange was safe. Star could only shrug, confused and overwhelmed. How was she supposed to know? They saved us. That counts for something.
“I’m Wellspring, the uh, current leader of Stygian’s Gate. This is Star Orchid, my assistant. Please don’t call me rude, but… as you say, this is urgent. When Concord arrives, we will all die. Whatever you did to draw away the Unification Army, why? We don’t know you.”
“I can answer that,” said the one introduced as Engineer Renfield. He touched his helmet as he approached, and the solid silver faded to clear. She could see his face underneath now, like Kondrak, but with a general shape closer to the Iron Lord’s if he were a few decades younger. “We’ve been reading construction transponder signals under this location for the last six months. Curiously, the machines refused to be rerouted to other tasks. Do you know why that might be?”
Kondrak rose, though he kept his helmet tucked under one arm.
Star Orchid was just baffled by the request, but Wellspring’s expression remained even, obviously trying not to show any emotion. “If I knew what you were talking about, would you be here to try and take them? We aren’t prepared to give away our machines.”
The machines that Star Orchid had barely even seen. Other than to hear them grinding away at the stone at night and see the Undercastle keep growing. “We are ultimately not searching for machines,” Kondrak said. “But what they indicate. We are searching for a backup of the governing intelligence. Does a mechanical mind help lead your… Stygian’s Gate?”
Wellspring shook her head, glancing to Star for support. From her face, Star didn’t need magic to know she had no idea what they were talking about. What was a mechanical mind?
“No. There are no mechanical minds here. Unless… could they mean the Iron Lord, Wellspring?”
She considered that a moment, then shrugged. “We had one like you until last night. Are you searching for your lost companion?”
“The companions we have lost are long dead,” Kondrak answered. “No, though… you say had? It would be good for us to speak with them. That way we wouldn’t have to explain everything we mean.”
Wellspring pawed at the ground under the force of their stares, before finally answering. “He is… recovering from surgery. His body was failing, so he needed another. I don’t understand how it works, but he… said it might be some time before he is functional again. Days or even weeks. I’m afraid we’re the only ones who can answer your questions right now. I will try to give truth in return for the kindness you showed to us. If I know the answers, they are yours.”
The little band of Devourers shared a meaningful look. Maybe they had ways of speaking to one another within their armor, ways that Star and Wellspring would be powerless to overhear. If so, it would make this negotiation quite unfair.
While they considered, Star acted. There were some things she had to know. “So, the Equestrian army up above us… you scared them off? There aren’t any left in Hollow Shades?”
“Not anymore,” Landon said, reaching sideways to pat something on her side. “There’s some saying about a kind word and a gun, but we skipped the kind words.”
Star stared back, stupefied. “I’ve never… Did you see how they were able to reach so far? I’ve never seen the Unification Army travel more than fifty kilometers from Concord, even at the most extreme. That’s why the princess bothers to train other ponies at all. She needs to leave some behind, and she needs to send some out on missions.”
There was a much longer silence this time, and the Devourers all shared a look. “Now that she says it…” Kondrak muttered.
“We weren’t aware of that restriction,” Landon said. “And no, didn’t see anything specific. Other than their zeppelin. We were itching to shoot it down, but I guess that wouldn’t be fair.”
“It would not be honorable,” Kondrak corrected. “So we did not. Neither is attacking a city of innocent people honorable, however. So here we are.” He turned back, looking suddenly urgent. “Please, it is imperative you allow us to see one of your machines. We need to know where it came from. We search for… relics of a civilization long dead, that the ruler of your world is constantly seeking to destroy. We will not take your machines from you, but we would like to follow the trail of their manufacture back to its source.”
Wellspring nodded. “Would you like to see this?” She slung her rifle off her shoulder, offering it up to Kondrak. Landon tensed, hand darting to the side—but as soon as she realized they weren’t being attacked, she relaxed again.
You must be the bodyguard, here to protect these other creatures. Yet they all seemed like warriors who needed no protection, except maybe Renfield.
The devourer took the weapon in hand, knowing instantly how to hold it. He turned it over, studying something marked into the underside of the stock. “Fabrication print… Emergency Shelter 198.50. Where is that, Renfield?”
The other hesitated, lifting something made of glass into spidery digits and fighting with it for a moment. “Rio, Yeoman. That’s a status-red ruin. Took direct entropic bombardment during the Scourge.”
“And yet.” He held up the rifle, twisting it so the engineer could see, before handing it back to Wellspring. “Thank you for showing me this. You have given my crew and I some hope—something we desperately need. Perhaps there is something we can offer in return.”
“Why run?” Wellspring snapped, without a second’s hesitation. “I’m guessing you’re afraid of the same enemy we are. Help us fight the princess. Then you won’t need to hide from her.”
Kondrak reached up, securing the helmet back onto his neck. “Some of my crew wishes to try. But we must be prudent as well as just. The orbital correction agent wields powers no intelligent creature was meant to hold.”
“You fought her army and won,” Star pressed. “The Unification Army are… so powerful. No enemy ever wins against them. But you drove them off.”
“They didn’t seem interested in a fight with us,” Landon said. “Soon as we showed up, they marched right back to their ship and flew off. Give us a few points for being scarecrows, maybe. But this was your victory, not ours. We don’t have the men or the tritium for a war.”
“What my officer means to say is that our kind has… tried war as a solution to our ills,” Kondrak corrected. “Yet here the world is, ravaged beyond recognition. Trust us in our promise that we fight for the same goal—to rob your tyrant of her fangs and make the world safe.”
Wellspring seemed to falter at the edge of a decision, though Star couldn’t guess what she was thinking. She hadn’t been leading the rebellion herself, after all. She didn’t know all its secrets. Finally, she went on, spilling everything in a rush. “There’s something else you should know,” Wellspring went on. “There’s another like you, one sent from somewhere else. She dropped from the sky onto Hollow Shades about a week ago—probably what drew the army here in the first place. She was sent from… somewhere not far. The one who sent her gave our leader a new body as well in exchange for our help. The Iron Lord has been sending messages back and forth ever since. But when we asked for help fighting Twilight, it denied having the strength. Apparently no one does.”
The Devourers turned again, apparently sharing some rapid, silent conversation.
“The one sent by this… other faction,” Kondrak continued, as though he hadn’t stopped for a second. “Where are they now? If your leader isn’t available, we must speak with them immediately.”
Wellspring shook her head. “They were holding her in the Hall of Justice, on the surface. The metal fort near the center of town?”
“Nothing alive in there,” Landon declared. “Already swept the building. No humans, though. So there’s some good news.”
“We would like a description,” Kondrak said. “But first, please. Take this.” He reached into a pocket, removing a compact piece of Darktech. “When your human wakes, give him this. And as for the rest of you… evacuation seems prudent. We won’t promise to save you from an enemy we cannot defeat.”