//------------------------------// // 25 - Get the Ball Rolling // Story: The Amulet Job // by Rambling Writer //------------------------------// Making good decisions was not high on Starlight’s list of strengths at the moment. Because seriously. Everybody getting drunk the night before they had to pull off some big heist? Yeah, no. She really should’ve seen the hangover coming. Her head was pounding and it felt like blinking was going to give her a migraine. And this was just her. What about, well, everybody else? The plan, such as it was, was already touch-and-go enough without everybody having a headache and nausea and all that stupid crap. So yeah. Getting drunk? Stupid. Seriously. Someone coughed loudly enough to give her a concussion. Starlight somehow marshaled her thoughts into position to guess: Sunburst. Too loud. She jammed her face into her pillow. “Ngguffuh,” she responded, waving a hoof in something vaguely resembling his direction if you tilted your head and squinted. “Starlight,” boomed Sunburst. “Bon Bon. Get up. We, we need to get ready.” In spite of the volume, his voice was strangely muffled, like he was speaking with his mouth full. “Ngguffuh!” Starlight repeated eloquently. “Wha’ she sai’,” mumbled Bon Bon. “Fi’e mo’ min’tes.” “You said that ten minutes ago.” “…I di’?… Fine.” Something thumped, probably Bon Bon rolling out of bed, and Starlight’s head was squished between a hammer and anvil. “W-well, no, I, I just needed to get you out.” “Wha’e’er. …Wha’re y’eating?” “Protein-bar-and-mayo sandwich.” Protein-bar-and-mayo sandwich. Something about that just felt wrong to Starlight. There was no way Sunburst, any sane pony, any sane individual, could create something so horrid, so disgusting, so vile. It… just… eww. That wrongness permeated into Starlight’s brain and managed to drive away the worst of the hangover. Light no longer drove nails into her eyes, and she was no longer getting a between-the-ears enema with barbed wire. She pushed herself up on her front knees and managed to focus on Sunburst. He was nervous and disheveled (so, perfectly normal). He looked alert and already had his blue robe on. And there, encased in his magic, was the horrific thing he was calling a sandwich. Already, in defiance of all natural laws, several bites had been taken out of it. Worse, Sunburst was chewing. Starlight couldn’t believe such a thing was happening. Evidently, Bon Bon agreed with her; they were sharing the same “what the frig?” look. “I’m sorry,” said Bon Bon, “what?” Sunburst swallowed. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” he said. “It’s, it’s not for the taste or, or anything.” He looked at the not-sandwich, grimaced (as it should be), and took another bite (as it should NOT be). “It’s a, it’s a hangover cure.” Even Starlight thought that was too much to cure a hangover. How was such a thing even possible, with that grotesque monstrosity? “Uh?” she asked. “Biology,” said Sunburst. “It’s got fats and carbs and, and proteins to help replenish the, the ones lost from binge-drinking and kickstart the brain. Clears your head right out, especially if, if you drink some water to help with dehydration. Gilda’s making bacon sandwiches for the same thing, but…” He cringed and folded his ears back. “Ugh. Meat.” Meat was still preferable to what Sunburst was calling “food”. And it still seemed Bon Bon agreed. She blinked and mumbled at him, “That’s stupid. You’re stupid.” “Maybe. You know what else I am? Not hungover.” Sunburst took a big bite of his unholy abomination masquerading as a sandwich and chewed, staring Bon Bon in the eye. Bon Bon stared back at him for a moment and tilted her head in one direction. “…Got any other sandwiches?” In spite of almost definitely being an infernal creation of demonic beings from beyond the pale, the protein-bar-and-mayo not-sandwich actually did a decent job of getting rid of Starlight’s hangover. By the time everyone was assembled in the kitchen, she had nothing worse that a mild headache that throbbed infrequently. Everyone else seemed to be alert enough. In the time they had, they ran over the plan again. And again. And again. And again. Everyone knew their parts, but Starlight wanted to be sure. “You know,” she said, staring at the blueprints for the casino, “that’s good, but I think we should go over it one last time.” Really wanted to be sure. Several ponies surreptitiously exchanged glances or twitched. Rainbow Dash started mumbling something to Sunburst. Gilda didn’t even bother hiding her reaction; she glared at Starlight as if the latter had taken up baby-murdering as a hobby. “As if,” Gilda said. “We’ve been over this like five times.” “Four, actually,” mumbled Starlight. “We know how it goes,” said Gilda. “I know my part, I know his part, I know her part, I know her part… We’re going in circles! Our circles are going in circles!” The Doctor cleared his throat. “I, ah, actually wholeheartedly agree with her,” he said. “While checking the plan for flaws and being sure our knowledge of it is tip-top is well and all, there comes a time when doing that is just being redundant. I, for one, think that time came after the second run-through.” “I know every part of the plan,” said Derpy. “And if I know the plan, then it’s safe to say that everypony else-” (Gilda coughed. Derpy didn’t notice.) “-knows it, too.” “Well, it’s, I, just-” Starlight swallowed. “I want to be certain of this. I don’t know-” “Hey!” Rainbow Dash flapped over the table and stuffed her hoof in Starlight’s mouth. “Seriously. You gotta stop worrying about this. We know you’re nervous; we’re all nervous, you’re just the most vocal about it. And if going over the plan four times didn’t help, do you really think the fifth time will? I mean, come on.” “Nnuhngfuhuh,” said Starlight around Rainbow’s hoof. “I know how you’re feeling,” said Rainbow Dash. “Believe me. I know exactly what it’s like to have everypony watching. But you know the best way to get over a problem like this? Get out there and kick it in the flank!” She jumped back, reared, and jabbed at the air with both front hooves. “You think it’s tough? Well, we’ll show it! We’ll make it look easy! We’ll make Goumada rue the day she thought she could steal the Alicorn Amulet! Because we’re the- the- Dang, we never did get a sweet name, did we?” “We had more important things to do,” said Bon Bon, her ears folded back. Rainbow Dash didn’t even turn to face her when she waved it off. “Oh, shut up. Starlight. Seriously. The only way you’re going to feel prepared about doing this is if you actually do it.” Looking down at the plans laid before her, Starlight swallowed again. She didn’t like the feeling, but Rainbow was right. It was like tearing off a Band-Aid: you had to do it all at once to minimize the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. All she could do was hope this didn’t collapse around her ears. Starlight swallowed yet again and (to the visible relief of everyone in the room) rolled up the blueprints with a burst of magic. “Well… let’s do this, then.” Several hours later, Starlight was, along with Gilda and Bon Bon, perched on top of a building across the gorge from the casino. She was looking through a set of binoculars, surveying the casino and getting a feel for the situation. “Any problems?” asked Bon Bon. “No sudden hotel guests?” “Not that I can see,” said Starlight. “All the rooms in the middle of the building look empty and I don’t see any blinds drawn. But…” She pulled the binoculars away and hoofed them to Bon Bon. “Why don’t you take a look?” “Fine.” Bon Bon put the binoculars to her eyes and began scanning the building. Actually starting the heist wasn’t doing anything for Starlight’s heart rate except elevating it. At least in the lodge, they could still theoretically bail. Now, it was all or nothing. Everyone was in position (or at least close), the clock was ticking, and there was an Alicorn Amulet to steal. As Starlight waited, her mind kept straying back to the villa and Gilda’s objections. Gilda hadn’t said much after that. Had it been her usual surliness that made her speak up? Or was Starlight just that much of a nervous wreck that she needed someone to verbally slap her to her senses? Or even a bit of both? Gilda wasn’t saying anything. Starlight was more keen on option one, but the more she thought about it, the more option two seemed likelier. And what better way to kick this whole thing off by having the unofficial leader nearly go to pieces before it even began? Hoo-freaking-ray. Waiting only let Starlight stew on that more and more. It wasn’t a very tasty stew to begin with, and waiting didn’t improve its flavor at all. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she decided to speak up, to try to find out which one it really was. “You were kinda vocal back at the villa,” she said to Gilda. “Yep,” said Gilda. And that was it. Her voice was completely emotionless. She drummed her claws on the roof and didn’t take her eyes from the hotel. “You, uh…” Starlight cleared her throat. “Were you planning on, you know, apologizing anytime soon?” Gilda shrugged. “Why? I ain’t sorry. If I hadn’t spoken up, we’d still be in there. Ponies are too nice for their own good sometimes.” Yeah, that was more or less true, Starlight had to admit. She glanced at Bon Bon, who made the same kind of reluctant admittance face she imagined herself having. “Well, um, alright,” mumbled Starlight. If she was freaking out that much, it wasn’t alright, but she couldn’t let Gilda know just how bad it was getting. “Then, uh, thanks, I, I guess.” It wasn’t much, just something to fill the void of silence. “Uh-huh,” said Gilda, who couldn’t’ve sounded more disinterested if she’d tried. And so the void of silence returned. It wouldn’t’ve been half so awkward if they’d concluded on a different topic. Starlight tried to think up another conversational thread, one that wasn’t quite so dramatic. That was when Bon Bon spoke up. “Hey, you wanna check in on Thorax? Just in case?” Starlight knew when an out was being given to her. “Alright.” She tapped her earpiece. “Hey, Thorax-” “-how’s it going?” “Not bad,” Thorax-Earth-Red said to Starlight-Unicorn-Heliotrope. “No problems.” “Hey, Thorax!” said Derpy-Pegasus-Gray. “Look at those balloons! They’re pretty.” Thorax-Earth-Red winced. “Yet,” he muttered to himself. Thorax-Earth-Red and Derpy-Pegasus-Gray were on the main gaming floor. If the previous days were packed, that was nothing compared to now. There was barely enough space to move. Thorax-Earth-Red couldn’t take a single step without a pony bumping into him, and he had to cling to his bag to make sure it didn’t get lost by accident. Somehow, Derpy-Pegasus-Gray still managed to stay close to him without the aid of her wings. Enough decorations had been put up that it was hard for Thorax-Earth-Red to find his way around the place, even after being in it half a dozen times over the past two weeks. Countless streamers hung from every column obscured the ceiling and banners proclaiming the casino’s first anniversary kept him from looking over the slot machines and getting his bearings. He had only the vaguest idea of where they were. And the noise. By the Hive, the noise. Everypony was saying something to everypony, and it blended together into one loud morass of sound. That wasn’t even getting into the rings and dings of the slots or the slaps of cards or the rolling of roulette balls. Thorax-Earth-Red could barely hear himself think. Fortunately, that also meant nopony had heard Derpy-Pegasus-Gray’s brief slipup. And even if they had, and managed to guess she was talking to a changeling, there was no way they could put two and two together and say he was that changeling. He was an earth pony mare at the moment, with a quiet, subdued red coat and a short dirty-yellow mane and tail. Perfectly normal. His disguise included a magitech-support uniform and a bag filled with convincing-looking tools for his “work”. Hopefully, it’d be enough. As long as Derpy-Pegasus-Gray actually did her job. “I’m gonna go get some!” said Derpy-Pegasus-Gray. “No!” said Thorax-Earth-Red. “Don’t-” But she was already gone. He sighed and continued pushing his way through the crowd, hoping she’d follow him. It was hard to tell with her. Half the time, she was perpetually distracted, but it was impossible to tell what she was distracted by. It could be an interesting picture on the other side of the room, it could be a brilliantly simple solution to whatever problem they were facing at the moment, it could be an internal debate on where Thorax-Earth-Red’s mass differential went to or came from when he changed into somepony smaller or bigger than himself. Which, to be fair, was a very interesting conundrum, but not one that had any relevance to what they were trying to d- “Look!” said Derpy-Pegasus-Gray from behind him, shocking him. “Aren’t they neat?” Thorax-Earth-Red tried to glare over his shoulder at her, but was prevented from doing so by the balloons between the two of them. Lots and lots of balloons. He followed the string down; it was loosely tied around her fetlock and almost looked like a small jostle could release them. They were neat, though, and that just increased Thorax-Earth-Red’s annoyance all the more. “Sure,” he mumbled. “Let’s get going.” He pushed against the crowd some more. “No, wait!” said Derpy-Pegasus-Gray. She reached around his shoulder and yanked him away. “This way! There’s less ponies.” Thorax-Earth-Red stumbled as she pulled him through the crowd. “And just where-” he asked as he struggled to get his hooves under him, “-are we going?” “The edge!” said Derpy-Pegasus-Gray. “It’s easier if you go around the crowd rather than through it.” Indeed, by the time they’d reached the outer walls of the room, the crowd was noticeably thinner and less busy. Of course, “less busy” here still meant “very busy”; even at its thinnest, the casino was crowded and movement was slow. As Thorax-Earth-Red edged around the room, he hoped things were calmer behind the scenes. Things weren’t much calmer behind the scenes. Just because the weather pegasi had guaranteed a sunny day didn’t mean Lyra liked playing outside. She could tune out the crowd noise, easy, but the muffled roar of the waterfall was something else, making it hard to hear what her bandmates were doing and what her instrument was doing. Even without those, the acoustics were all wrong. The few winds the pegasi missed could turn over the sheet music. The sun was almost too bright for her to read the pages. With no defined entrances and exits to a “stage”, band members were running every which way, making last-minute adjustments and getting in everypony’s faces. And as she sat in her chair as third lyre, Lyra’s instrument stubbornly refused to be tuned so a D could be a D. A buzz came through her anklet. “Khhkt. Team Awesome to Team String. What’s your status? Over.” Lyra scowled and turned the tuning knob another degree. “Rainbow, stop saying ‘khhkt’.” She plucked the string. Still a little low. “Khhkt. Team Awesome to Team String. I like saying ‘khhkt’. Over.” “And I can’t hear myself tune when you do that!” hissed Lyra. “Shut up for a moment!” “Khhkt. Team Awesome to Team String. Shutting up. Over.” Lyra rolled her eyes and tweaked the tuning knob another degree. She plucked the string again, and- “Oh, come on!” she whispered to herself. “It was low, I breathe on it, and now it’s high?!” It was strange. Her friends were about to break into a casino’s vault, and she was most upset about her lyre not being tuned. It wasn’t even that important; she wouldn’t be heard much at all, she was third lyre. Third string. Ha ha. Second Lyre danced her way between Lyra’s stand and the chair in front of her and slid into her seat on the left. She scooped up her own lyre and twanged each string in turn. All perfect. No such luck for Lyra. Twist. Pluck. Low. Facehoof. “Son of mmgffl!” “Want some help?” asked Second Lyre, leaning over. “Please,” said Lyra. She hoofed her lyre over. “Mid D string.” Taking it, Second Lyre twisted the knob a quarter-turn to start from scratch. “Not played outside much?” “Not as much as I should.” “Heh. Yeah, tuning outside sucks.” Second Lyre’s horn glowed and the string started vibrating. A pure tone pierced through the air, wavering in pitch as Second Lyre began fiddling with the knob. “Just… heat, humidity, wind, all that crap. Nice day for everything but playing. So, naturally, that’s what we do. Still, we signed up for it, so we’re not really in any position to complain.” Second Lyre frowned and stopped moving the knob while keeping the string vibrating. “That’s a D, right?” Lyra leaned in and tilted her ear towards the string. It sounded pretty darn close. “I think so. Lemme see.” The A string below it had been tuned properly, so she began strumming out a bassline. D, D, D, D-D-D A. D, D, D, D-D-D A. “Perfect. Thank you!” Second Lyre smiled and nodded. “Think nothing of it.” Lyra nodded back and went through a few scales. Yes, everything was in perfect tune. She plucked out a simple s- “Khhkt,” broke in Rainbow Dash, annoyed. “Team Awesome to Team String. What’s your status now? Over.” “Tuned and waiting,” whispered Lyra. “We should be ready in-” A band assistant stepped up to the conductor’s stand, reared up, and tapped at her (bare) fetlock. “Ten minutes, ponies!” “-ten minutes. And why are you asking me? Don’t you have a timer of your own?” “Khhkt. Team Awesome to Team String. Spy communication like this is pretty sweet, no matter how pointless it is. Over.” “Khhkt. Copy that. Over.” Second Lyre threw a Look at Lyra. In the villa, Sunburst and the Doctor looked at each other. “Get ready?” asked the Doctor. “I don’t know, I’ve never done this sort of thing before.” “I, I haven’t either,” said Sunburst. He pushed his glasses up his muzzle and batted at one of the candies on the table in front of them. “Is, is going now too early? Too late? What if somepony notices?” He started to hyperventilate. “What if Thorax can’t get into the security room? What if-” He stopped when the Doctor stuffed a chocolate into his mouth. As Sunburst chewed, the Doctor said, “Okay, so neither of us knows what the bloody Tartarus we’re doing. That means it’s a new experience for both of us, right?” “Uh guff foh,” mumbled Sunburst. “And I know from experience that the best way to learn how to do things is by doing them. So, since we don’t know what to do, let’s do the least bad thing we agree on and learn from it.” Sunburst raised an eyebrow as he swallowed his chocolate. “Then I, uh, I really hope the least bad you’re thinking of is, it’s telling Thorax to get to the security room now so we have time to plant the seeds.” “Oh, absolutely,” said the Doctor. “Splendid, we do think alike. Allons-y!” “Uh…” Sunburst pushed his glasses up his muzzle. Again. “I’m sorry?” “It’s Prench. For ‘let’s go’.” The Doctor grinned. “W-well, um, in that case… allons-y!” Sunburst returned the grin, not quite as confidently. “Fantastic.” The Doctor nodded and tapped the communication gem. “Alright, Thorax-” “-time to get this show on the road.” Thorax-Earth-Red took a few deep breaths. Here we go, he told himself. The door to “backstage” was only a few yards away from him. Of course, a guard-earth-teal was standing watch at it, and a camera was nestled somewhere in the alcoves above. They couldn’t do anything about the camera, and hopefully Derpy-Pegasus-Gray could divert the attention of the guard-earth-teal. Thorax-Earth-Red realized, with some dismay, that they didn’t really have a plan besides “distraction”. He glanced sidelong at Derpy-Pegasus-Gray and opened his mouth. Derpy-Pegasus-Gray was already on it. “Wait five seconds, okay?” she said with far too much confidence. “I got this.” She broke off from Thorax-Earth-Red and headed towards the guard-earth-teal. “Wait!” hissed Thorax-Earth-Red. “What’re-” But she was already gone. Hive dang it, what was with her? The guard-earth-teal just happened to be looking the other way when Derpy-Pegasus-Gray collided with her, hard. The balloons disentangled from around her hoof and drifted up to the ceiling. Derpy-Pegasus-Gray and the guard-earth-teal staggered for a moment before toppling to the floor. “Hey!” snapped the guard-earth-teal as she pushed away from Derpy-Pegasus-Gray. “Can’t you watch where you’re-” And then she saw Derpy-Pegasus-Gray’s eyes. Cue the waterworks. “I am so sorry!” sobbed Derpy-Pegasus-Gray. “I’ve been trying to get better at it, I swear, but ever since the accident, I-” “Hey,” said the guard-earth-teal, in a much less harsh voice, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” She helped Derpy-Pegasus-Gray to her hooves. “Ma’am, I-” “And I’ve been trying to make money for the operation quickly,” wailed Derpy-Pegasus-Gray, “but I can never seem to win anything, and…” Her eyes suddenly grew wide. “You work here! Maybe you could help me-” The guard-earth-teal coughed and took a step back. “I, that’s not what I- Ma’am, ma’am, please- I can’t- Ma’am, don’t, don’t cry- P-please stop-” But Derpy-Pegasus-Gray was convincingly inconsolable and ponies were beginning to stare. And nopony was looking at the door. Thorax-Earth-Red released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Is the door clear on the cameras?” he whispered. “I- Oh, blast it,” muttered Doctor-Earth-Brown, “Derpy’s go-” “GO!” said Sunburst-Unicorn-Orange suddenly. “She, her balloons are, they’re blocking the cameras, and we, we can’t see you, see you all. If, if nopony’s watching you there-” Whether or not Derpy-Pegasus-Gray had planned it that way, that was all Thorax-Earth-Red needed to hear. One last quick look to see if any guards were watching — nope, the few there were all occupied with Derpy-Pegasus-Gray — and he strode up to the door like he’d been hired by the mare who owned the place. He fished the keygem out of his jumpsuit and touched it to the sensor. He held his breath, and- Bee-beep. The light clicked to green and the door swung open an inch. Thorax-Earth-Red quickly pushed his way inside, lightly kicking the door shut behind him. “I’m in,” he whispered. “Great. Sensational,” said Doctor-Earth-Brown. “I presume you know-” “Second hall on the right,” Thorax-Earth-Red said, already setting off, “take it all the way down, go around the corner, first door on the left.” “Yes. Precisely right.” At least he had that much down. Thorax-Earth-Red wiped a bead of sweat as he walked down the second hall on the right. No one, guard or otherwise, had looked twice at him, not once they saw his bag. One guard-griffon-panther-redtailed’s gaze had lingered a bit longer than usual, but she turned away in the end. That didn’t mean his heart rate didn’t pick up every time someone glanced in his direction. He rounded the corner right before the security hub, then did an about-face and rounded it again. Planting himself against the corner, he hissed, “There’s a mare in front of the door. Why is there a mare in front of the door.” “There, there is?” asked Sunburst-Unicorn-Orange. “Oh. Oh, boy.” His gulp was audible through the anklet. “When Bon Bon and I went, she, um, wasn’t there before.” The mare-pegasus-khaki in front of the door looked bored, but she was definitely a security guard. She was standing in the loose, knees-locked pose of somepony who’d already been there a good long while and would be there a good long while longer. “Why’s she there?” Thorax-Earth-Red whispered. “Stepping up security, I presume,” said Doctor-Earth-Brown. “We haven’t been exactly subtle in our preparations. They already know there’s a changeling running around, for starters.” Great. Thorax-Earth-Red ruffled his mane. Think, think, think. He needed to get that guard out of the way, fast. Every second he spent out here was another second he couldn’t spend in there, trying to find the right way to stick the magical doodad into the arcane thingamajig. If he stayed out here too long, he could throw the whole operation off. And any moment now, for all he knew, another guard could come and- Hold on. Wait a minute. Yeah, that could work. And there weren’t any cameras around, either. Maybe… He poked his head around the corner for a few seconds, just long enough to get a good look at the guard-pegasus-khaki’s nametag. Fortunately, he could just barely read it and she never noticed him. According to the tag, she was Watchful Eye. Why were pony names always so on-the-muzzle? At least it made them easy to remember. Thorax-Earth-Red took a deep breath and focused on the griffon who’d eyed him a bit longer than usual. A second later, Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed stepped around the corner and approached Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki. “Hey! Watchful!” he called. Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki turned to the sound. She didn’t look any less bored, but now, Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed could see a slight tension all over. Even if she was bored, she was still very much alert. “Yeah?” “The bossmare wants to see you in her office. I’ll take over for you until you get back.” Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki blinked. The tension increased a little and Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed began to feel little drops of suspicion coming from her. “Really?” she asked. “Did she say why?” “Nope. Sorry,” Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed said with a shrug. “Just that she needed to talk to you ASAP.” “Goumada was pretty insistent I stay here all day,” said Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki. Her voice hadn’t changed, but the suspicion had increased. “And I don’t want to-” She made air quotes. “-‘disappoint’ her.” Right. Goumada-Unicorn-Marble was the controlling type, wasn’t she? Just great. Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed floundered for a second, but Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki’s own statement came to his rescue. “She was pretty insistent you go talk to her. I don’t want you to ‘disappoint’ her that way.” Swing and a hit. The suspicion was replaced with nervousness. Goumada-Unicorn-Marble being the controlling type meant there were multiple ways to let her down. Now it was just a matter of which way was the less bad way. “Well, I don’t know,” said Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki, kicking at the floor. “She was pretty-” Now for the followup. “And if you ‘disappoint’ her because you abandoned your post, just tell her it’s my fault. ’Cause, well, it is.” Home run. “Fine,” huffed Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki. “But don’t let anyone in and don’t leave. Not for anything, okay? This is urgent.” “I promise you, with all my heart,” said Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed, “that I will not leave this room.” Watchful-Pegasus-Khaki nodded and walked off, leaving Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed alone. After waiting a few seconds to be sure they were alone, Thorax-Griffon-Pather-Redtailed touched his keygem to the lock panel. Since they hadn’t tested it yet, he was so anxious that he was still holding his breath when he realized the door had already unlocked. He pulled it open and Thorax-Earth-Red walked into the room. He didn’t recognize a single thing; there were shelves, cabinets, banks of stuff, with wires snaking around the floor and through everything. He didn’t know where to begin. But, still- “Guard’s gone. I’m in.” “How,” asked Sunburst-Unicorn-Orange, “how did you- N-never mind. Tell me later. Now, look at the, at the shelves. Do you see a, an aisle marked ‘Visuals’?” One glance up the rows. “Yeah.” “Alright. Go down that, third rack on the… on the left, yeah. It, it should be marked ‘Floors 11-20’ or something like that. Open it up.” “Visuals” aisle, third rack on the left. The label was right. Good sign. With the help of a screwdriver, Thorax-Earth-Red jimmied the door open and- Gulp. “That is a lot of wires.” “There’s, there’s a lot of information they need to carry. Move the, start moving the arcanoscope. I’ll tell you what to, what to do from there.” Thorax-Earth-Red gulped again and hefted his bag of stuff off his shoulder. He began rooting around in the bag, feeling for the sharp-edged shape of the arcanoscope. But whenever he found it, he kept fumbling it; his hoof was shaking and its blunt shape wasn’t helping things at a- He stared at his hoof. Why was he…? He rolled his eyes. He shifted it to a griffon claw and plucked the scope out in a second. He began moving it around the mess of fiber arcanics as Sunburst-Unicorn-Orange talked him through it.