Chapter Seventeen
"I tried to reason with her, I really did," Dawn said, her voice taking on a remorseful, pleading tone. "I painted her a beautiful picture of what the world could be like, what ponies could achieve, all with just a tiny sacrifice on her part, and hardly even that."
White had risen to his hooves and stood open-mouthed, staring at the statue-still Princess Luna with her blank eyes and the dirty gag tied around her mouth, as if she were some common criminal.
"She became loud and hostile," Dawn continued. "I was worried for my safety. I had to have her restrained. And then, once I had that... well, once I had Princess Luna gagged and held against her will I couldn't very well release her!"
"W-When did you do this?" White asked breathlessly, feeling like he was going to be sick.
"Right before the confrontation with Huldor at the farm. She was very stubborn about not wanting to attend that as well. Poor Princess Luna, still stuck in the prejudices and fears of a thousand years ago."
White could have struck her for that comment, but it seemed an unwise action in the middle of her office, with her two powerful accomplices on either side of him.
"How are they restraining her?" White asked, his scientific curiosity momentarily trumping his horror.
"They're using a technique similar to your telepathy, actually," Dawn replied, pointing towards the unicorns' identical marionette rod cutie marks. "They can use it to make her walk" – Luna took an awkward step forward – "whinny" – a muffled noise came from behind the gag – "and sit down" – Luna slowly, jerkily lowered herself to her haunches – "but not much more than that."
Dawn took a step closer to Luna and looked down at her sympathetically. "This is the first time they've used it on a pony, to the best of my knowledge."
"Yeah," Trapper said gruffly. "These stunts are too risky. It's too obvious she's not moving under her own will."
"And a Princess!" Tamer added. "Even with both of us controlling her I'm getting a headache!"
"I helped these two out of tight legal spot some years ago, back when they were only using their abilities to control animals. Their telepathy works by overriding the mind's control of the body and creating a temporary, very basic mind in its place – which is fine for a hydra, or a manticore, or possibly an earth pony, but it doesn't allow for control of a unicorn's horn. Incidentally, that's why I need you."
White saw Dawn's glasses flash, and he stumbled backwards. "You – you can't possibly expect me to..."
"You are the only one for the job, White. You can reach into Princess Luna's mind and make her use her magic to cut a small, inconsequential, no-bigger-than-this-island slab of rock off the moon and bring it down here, where it can be of some use."
She's insane, thought White. Totally insane.
"I know what that look means, White. I've seen it before, on many other faces. But you – you're more like me than you know. We both want the same thing."
White blinked. I have to save Princess Luna somehow. He considered trying to get into her mind to free her from Trapper and Tamer's spell, but feared what they might do if they saw his horn light up. Both of them had their serious, menacing eyes trained on him.
"We both want progress."
Progress. White supposed that was true, after a fashion. He wanted to revolutionise the way ponies communicated with each other, and that was certainly progress. But he'd never have cut up the moon. That's just crazy!
"And before you tell me that what you're doing is all positive and doesn't hurt anypony, think for a moment about the Equestrian Postal Service. You don't think all that retrenchment was just about affirmative action, do you? They feel threatened by your advances." Dawn stared down her spectacles at White. "Progress has a cost, Mr Noise."
A lump was forming in White's throat, but his face betrayed no hint of it. Gotta figure something out!
"Even your own employees are at risk because of your dedication to progress. I'm sure that whatever you've learnt on your travels will lead to kind of strides in dragonfire technology that eliminate the rare and troublesome dragon himself."
The image of a giant blue dragon roaring in the middle of a city street flashed behind White's eyelids. He saw the sad faces of his more trustworthy employees – of Spaug, Turquoise, and dear old Smooth Scales in Canterlot – faces they made as they twisted pink slips of paper between their claws.
"I don't blame you, White," Dawn said, her eyes going wide with sympathy and quivering a bit at the edges. "You understand the need for progress, and the sacrifices those living today must make for the betterment of those who will be born tomorrow. You get it, White Noise, and that's why you must help me."
Dawn removed her glasses, and the dark lines under her eyes became more apparent. White noticed stray hairs coming loose from her bun, and her lips twisted upwards in a genuine, hopeful smile.
"You must help me. If I fail, there will be chaos and political unrest. Rioting in the streets, souring of alliances, all kinds of evil. Princess Luna will have suffered for nothing. But if I succeed... everything will be better than ever."
Dawn was on the edge of tears, and Trapper and Tamer stood transfixed by her words, their horns glowing as a mere afterthought. White saw his chance.
A faint blue glow was lost in the lamplight. White saw four minds. He honed in on the one being bombarded by green waves of thought from two of the others.
Sit. Sit still. Do nothing.
Princess Luna! Your Highness, can you hear me?!
Now White knew why the Dragon King had been unable to reach Huldor's mind. White barrelled through layer after layer of the same, single-verb commands. Luna's mind was buried deep, but he could find it. It would just take time.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
White's concentration collapsed. The layers closed up. He lost contact, and then he felt a weight on the back of his head.
For the second time in as many hours, White Noise lost consciousness.
***
"Sky! Sibwashie! Over here, guys!" called the cheery voice of Ocean Glider, shouting from the other side of the street.
"Oh, hey Ocean!" Sky replied, her face brightening as she flew across the street and alighted on the pavement. "Say, you haven't seen White around, have you?"
"That's actually what I came to talk with you about," Ocean said, nodding to Sibwashie as he trotted up to her and Sky. "President Dawn told me that she had a business meeting with him early this morning."
Sky smirked. "White Noise, going to an early morning meeting? I'm not sure he knows what the early morning is."
"Well, that's President Dawn for you – inspiring change in the world around her. Anyway, I wanted to say that she'd like to invite you guys to a brunch with her and White, seeing as she's already taken up so much of his time. You haven't made travel arrangements or anything yet, have you?"
"No, no, of course not. We were hoping to travel on the Moonchaser, now that you bring up the subject."
"That's great! I'm pretty busy with my government job these days, so I wouldn't be able to accompany you, but my boat's still sailing between Anchor and Welcome on a regular schedule."
"We're glad to hear it, and brunch sounds fantastic!"
Sibwashie nodded his agreement. He hadn't even eaten breakfast yet.
Ocean, Sky and Sibwashie chatted lightly as they took the short walk to the Port Welcome's governmental office building, which was on the opposite side of the street from the hotel they were staying at.
"They're in the President's office at the moment," Ocean said as she stepped through the door ahead of her companions, waving at the yellow pegasus behind the reception desk. "Let's just go up there now and surprise them! I'm sure President Dawn won't mind."
***
White rubbed a hoof over the bump on the back of his head as he woke up. His neck and back were stiff, as if he'd been sleeping on the floor all night. A glance at the rug beneath him confirmed that this actually was the case.
"Good morning, White Noise!" came the chipper voice of President Joyous Dawn, who stood before his half-closed eyes with her head held high and her mane perfectly styled. "I've got a surprise for you this lovely day... an inspiring surprise!"
Groggily, White raised himself onto his hooves. He scowled at Dawn, but felt too tired and confused to do much else. There's something about waking up in front of a thoroughly awake pony that makes you just know you're inferior, he thought.
"Now, White Noise, I hope you remember the generous proposition I made to you last night – the one where I offered you the chance to play a key role in the technological advancement that will redefine how ponies live in this world."
White groaned, partially from fatigue.
"I do hope you've reconsidered."
Before White had time to reply that he hadn't, Dawn continued. "However, it is unwise for somepony with particular ambitions to put too much stock in the whims of others. I have come too far to back out of this now."
There was a knock on the door. Dawn's horn glowed for a fraction of a second, and then she said, "Come in!"
The door opened. Sibwashie and Sky's smiling faces were on the other side. White's eyes widened in terror. He opened his mouth to scream a warning at them.
A filing cabinet burst open and the room was flooded by an eerie green light. Sky and Sibwashie's faces dropped, and they marched into the room on stiff legs. White rushed forward, forehooves outstretched, to push them back, as if getting out of the room would save them.
White's hooves hit made contact with Sibwashie. There was a surprised yelp as door glowed green and slammed. White felt a pressure in his gut. The pressure increased, and Sibwashie's hefty right forehoof sent him flying backwards.
"Aah!" White's back hit the edge of the desk against the wall and he slumped down into a limp heap.
"Make another move and I'll have Stripey throw you out the window," Trapper said, growling. "And if I see that horn of yours light up again I'll make you jump."
White whimpered, and Dawn pushed her glasses up her snout and continued speaking, as if nothing had happened. "The fate of your friends rests on you doing the right thing, White Noise. Help me in the name of progress, and I promise that no-one shall harm them. Refuse, and the ponies of the future won't be the only ones to lose something."
Tears were forming in White's eyes, and he couldn't tell if they were from pain or stress. "You're a monster. How can you do things like this and act like you're in the right?"
"How can you spend so much time and money looking for more creative ways to fire your employees? These are the questions that a narrow-minded individual might ask of one who can see the big picture. Now come, we have much to prepare for tonight."
***
Sibwashie ran an idle forehoof across the cold steel bars of the cage, making a slow clicking sound.
"Stop that!" shouted Tamer, lighting her horn momentarily. "I'll make you do that with your face if you're not careful!"
Sibwashie sighed. He, White and Sky were trapped in an iron cage in the basement of an observatory President Dawn had had closed for the day. While she set up telescopes and decorated rooms, they could only wait, with no hope of escape. White thought of sending a message to Venkra, but feared what might happen to him if Trapper or Tamer saw his horn glow.
"Maybe the Elements of Harmony'll save us," Sky mused. "Aren't they from around here?"
White cocked an eyebrow. "I heard they lived in Buckingshire."
"You're both wrong," Tamer sneered. "The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony live in Ponyville, and they're a little busy taking care of a pest problem – an invasion of small-minded animals, you might say."
Sky held a hoof to her mouth. "You're responsible for that?"
"Naturally," Tamer replied proudly. "Trapper and I did some very fine work in the Everfree. Lasting, too, seeing as animal minds aren't so quick to destroy our overrides as you ponies."
"What about dragons?" asked White.
Tamer scoffed. "Oh, they're pretty much animals. The spell we put on that Huldor guy stuck and held fast – was a darn shame just dismantling it like that."
White felt a little sick and decided against continuing any conversation with her. He turned to his companions, who offered him sympathetic looks and shrugs.
"I'm gonna miss the moon," said Sky, "or at least I'll miss part of it. Won't it look odd, just hanging in the air with a chunk cut out? Won't that mess up the tides or something?"
White rolled his eyes. "Don't be silly, Sky, everypony knows that's controlled by seaponies."
"Seaponies?" A light came over Tamer's face, and she took a step closer to the edge of the cage. "Did you say 'seaponies'? Are they real, then?"
"Oh, most definitely," White replied, his facial expression deadly serious. "And, from one unicorn with mind-control powers to another, they're pretty weak-willed."
Tamer chuckled. "Wait, you think your dinky little power is mind-control? You think it compares with my skillset?"
"Well" – White gave his friends a sidelong glance – "your boss certainly went to a lot of trouble to enlist my dinky little power to set her master plan into action and, you know, radically change the world."
Tamer grunted. "She's just hedging her bets. Right now, Trapper's busy working on a way to get our powers to manipulate Princess Luna's horn, and if he finishes by tonight, I really don't think President Dawn's going to need any of you."
"That's not going to happen, and we both know it," White replied. "You can't even make ponies walk properly."
Tamer's horn flared into action. "I'll make you walk properly, you little–"
But it was too late. White had already cast his most powerful spell and planted an idea in her mind. The angry expression on Tamer's face dropped and her horn dimmed.
"Actually," she began, suddenly speaking with a much more even tone, "I don't know why I'm doing all this. President Dawn doesn't want money, she just wants ponies to like her. She'll probably give all the food she grows instantly away for free, and pay me and Trapper a pittance."
There was a click and the padlock on the door of the cage opened. Tamer used her telekinesis to swing the door open, and beckoned for her prisoners to come out.
"It'd make much more sense to stop Dawn and turn Princess Luna in for the reward money Celestia's no-doubt gonna start offering once she gets wind of this."
White and Sibwashie tentatively stepped out of the cage, Sky following them at a slightly slower pace.
"What did you do?" she whispered.
"Alright," decided Tamer. "You're gonna help me and Trapper take out Dawn. Let's go."
"Great," White said, casting a confident grin back at Sibwashie and Sky.
Tamer opened the door with a flash of her horn. Her husband and President Dawn stood on the other side. Three mouths fell open in shock.
"Ah!" Tamer gasped, putting a forehoof to her temples. Sparks flew from her horn.
"I'm glad to see you're all ready," President Dawn said. "It's about time to go."
"I'd say it is," said White, menacingly. His horn blazed for just a moment, and then he dropped into a fighting stance.
Sky leaped into the air and dived at Tamer with her back legs. A well-placed kick sent her tumbling into Trapper, and the two collapsed against the wall opposite the door.
"Go! Go!" White shouted, narrowing his eyes at President Dawn, who looked remarkably unfazed.
"All the doors are magically sealed," she said nonchalantly. "What's more, I poisoned your meals."
The three stopped. White remembered the bales of dirty hay they'd been given an hour or so before. He hadn't wanted himself or his friends to eat them, but they were all terribly hungry and had caved.
Trapper and Tamer picked themselves up and laughed at Sky, who could scarcely look up from the floor. She, Sibwashie and White were soon marched away from the prison room.
"I'm surprised at you," Tamer whispered in White's ear, startling him. "That was a clever little mind-control trick you pulled. I'll admit you had me going for a bit. If that business of yours doesn't work out, Trapper and I would be delighted to take you in..."
White shivered. He felt like he was going to be sick.
"Save your lunch for after you force the sovereign ruler of the night to mutilate her moon," Tamer jeered.
***
The telescope had been removed from its usual place in the observatory, and now there was a large gap in the ceiling, showing the last orange-and-red strands of the sunset. President Joyous Dawn stood on a raised platform, looking out at the rapidly falling night.
"Bring out the Princess," she commanded. "It is time to raise the moon."
White, Sky and Sibwashie stood to one side of Dawn, their hindhooves chained to a fence around the platform. Their expressions were stoic, but each one of them was a nervous bundle of stress and fear on the inside.
"D-During all the confusion," White whispered, "I sent a message to Venkra. If we can stall this moon thing for long enough, maybe she'll get here in time to save us."
Sky and Sibwashie both nodded almost imperceptibly, saying nothing.
An irregular clopping and clanging echoed across the empty room as Tamer and Trapper walked on either side of a shambling, chained and muzzled Princess Luna. Her eyes stared straight ahead, unblinking, and she slowly, awkwardly ascended the ramp onto the platform and came to a standstill beside President Dawn.
Trapper and Tamer cut their magic. The Princess collapsed.
"Rise, your Highness," Dawn commanded. "It is time to raise the moon, and then it will be time to make history."
"Yeah, get up!" Trapper yelled. "I don't think you want a repeat of last time."
"Never..." Luna croaked. Her starry mane was limp and she barely had enough strength to stand. It was all that either Sky or White could do to resist their patriotic impulses to rush to her side.
"Oh, I know your stance on my wonderful plan, Princess," Dawn replied. "I won't make you bring me a piece of the moon yourself. I've got another pony for the job. White Noise!"
White cringed at hearing his name. He felt the large, sad eyes of his Princess, and could not meet her gaze. He wanted to disappear.
"Mr Noise, I don't have time for stalling, so I'm going to tell you something I wasn't planning to reveal. I didn't poison your food. Only your friends'."
The room was silent.
"To clarify," Dawn said, in the tone of a particularly bored schoolteacher, "if you don't get into the Princess's mind right now and do what I ask, you will have the singular pleasure of watching them expire, and knowing that it was all your fault."
White gulped.
"Come on, Mr Noise. It's time to make a New Lunar Republic, and with it, a new world."
Sibwashie cleared his throat. In a calm, clear voice, he started to speak in his usual rhyming pattern.
"Joyous Dawn, how far are you going to take this crusade?
Will you murder two ponies? Do think that guilt will fade?"
Dawn sneered. "I do what I have to, Mister Sibwashie. I have an important part to play in the future of ponykind, and if you die, it will be Mr Noise's fault, not mine. You need to rhyme, I need to give everyone in the world all the food they will ever need."
A groan sounded from where Princess Luna lay on the floor. "Compare NOT the SACRED TRADITIONS of OUR ZEBRA FRIENDS with YOUR BLASPHEMY! He rhymes even as his life ebbs away as a courtesy to thee, even though thou deservest none of it! Destroying our moon will bring only pain and–"
Trapper's horn glowed and Luna bashed her own head against the floor. "How's that for bringing pain?"
"Enough of this!" shouted Dawn. "I'm right, you're wrong, and White Noise will fulfill his destiny right NOW!"
Sibwashie remained stoic and stood firm.
"If your purpose is pure, necessary and destined to be
Rhyme of its beauty and meaning, as a last courtesy to me."
Dawn opened her mouth to yell, but stopped before the words left her throat. "Alright, fine," she said. "I will rhyme about it, and you'll see that this is supposed to happen. Ahem!
"There once was famine and drought in Zebrica
And Joy fixed it 'cause she's the bestica!"
Sibwashie raised a sarcastic eyebrow, and Sky stifled a giggle.
Dawn glared at them. "Not good enough for you? Well, try this one!"
With that, she puffed out her chest, lifted her head high, took a deep breath, and punched herself across the muzzle with her left forehoof. Her glasses flew off and shattered somewhere below the platform.
"That's enough poetry for one day, I think," said Tamer, as Dawn hit herself with her other forehoof. "To be quite honest, I'm getting a little sick of her voice. Aren't you?"
A deft right hook sent Dawn sprawling on the ground, moaning in agony. Trapper gave her a swift kick in the midsection before stepping up to stand next to his wife and glare at the surprised prisoners.
"Alright, everypony, here's how things are gonna work from here on out," he started. "There's been a little change of management, but your roles will all stay the same. Stripes and the Bird are gonna sit down and shut up, and Fancyhorn's gonna make with the mindcontrol. Let's get that chunk of moonrock down here and start making some money."
White's blood ran cold. There would be no stalling or reasoning with hardened criminals like these two, and he had no doubt they'd kill him and his friends without a second thought if provoked. They didn't have the same investment in his wellbeing as Dawn did.
With nowhere else to turn, White lowered his head and lit up his horn.
"If either of us get any funny thoughts in our head, it's over for you, so don't even try it," said Tamer. And indeed, a glance at their minds showed them to be producing a torrent of jeers and threats directed at him.
Sibwashie and Sky's minds showed only fear. Princess Luna's mind...
Hello, Princess Luna. It's me, White Noise.
Can you really do it? Can you take control of my horn and make me slice up my own mind?
I'm afraid it's likely. All it would take is the thought of one of Joyous Dawn's utterly sincere, totally convinced speeches about the beauty of the new world she's crafting. I put that into your mind without marking it as a message from me, and you'll think you thought it, at least for long enough for you to cast the necessary spell.
So you're capable of just... changing anyone's mind?
Not anyone's. Dragons are trained to keep out foreign thoughts that don't identify themselves as messages. They gave me the same training, and your sister has it too.
Dragons. Perhaps if I'd been more open to them...
In the outside world, White's ears pricked up to a faint, leathery beating of wings.
Perhaps you'll have a chance to do just that, Princess Luna. I'm not about to betray my country or my Princess. Do you know a spell that can break chains?
Of course I do, but I am weak.
Then I will give you strength.
At that moment, White left Luna's mind, and focused on her horn. But he cast a very different, and much simpler spell on it. A stream of wispy, cyan light funnelled out of his horn and into Luna's.
"He's doing it!" cried Tamer. "He's doing it, honey! We're going to be rich!"
But White wasn't. The stream of magic cut off, and Luna's own horn lit up. With a sound very much unlike the splitting of stone miles and miles above their heads, six ankle-clamps released, and three equines kicked them away.
A column of scorching orange flame shot in through the hole in the ceiling, and Tamer screamed as a purple dragon descended on her.
"Get him!" came a shout, and a flurry of hooves kicked Trapper to the ground.
Tamer's horn blazed at the dragon on top of her, but she could not penetrate Venkra's mental shielding. I can't do it! she thought. I can't do it and I'm an idiot and dragons are so great especially this one!
Before long, Trapper and Tamer were bound by the same chains that had held their prisoners, but the chains were tangled around them in addition to being clamped on their ankles, completely immobilising them. Just to be safe, Sibwashie knocked them both out with a firm right forehoof.
The dust settled. Sky, Sibwashie and White looked at each other's bruised and battered faces, and smiled with tears in their eyes.
"Do not forget about the POISON, my SUBJECTS!" exclaimed Princess Luna, who had drawn herself up to her full stature and was looking slightly regal again.
"That's okay," White replied, "we'll just take the antidote from – hey! Where'd Dawn go?"
"We have to find her!" Sky said. "She – the Princess – the moon – the antidote!"
"Hold your horses, ponies," Venkra said, chuckling and holding out a closed hand. "Luckily for you, I had the presence of mind to bring those oranges along. I know they didn't work for Melvin, but I'm sure–"
Sibwashie and Sky had already snatched the oranges out of her claws and chomped them up.
"Careful! You'll get indigestion!"
"We still need to find Dawn," Sky repeated, juice dribbling from her muzzle. "She's kind of evil."
***
Panting and grimacing, Joyous Dawn dragged herself down the hallway on hobbling limbs. Her snout twitched in the absense of her glasses, and bits of her mane fell about her face.
"That's the last time I give – hrrk – legal consul to anypony facing animal cruelty charges," she muttered. "Now I'm going to have to – nngh – start all over again."
Just then, Dawn sensed a familiar presence. Her horn flashed dangerously.
***
With a mighty buck, Ocean Glider kicked a splintery hole in the wooden door to the observatory. She dashed inside, heart racing. Dawn's going to answer for this, she thought.
Ocean remembered bringing Sky and Sibwashie up to the President's office. She remembered pushing the door open for them, and she remembered the desperate look on White Noise's face as he stared mournfully at them.
Sky and Sibwashie had marched into the room on stiff, unnatural limbs, and President Dawn had slammed the door in her face. She had cried out, and then been kindly escorted out of the building and told to go home and get some rest by Barley. The President was giving her the rest of the day off, the President valued her work, the President was thinking of promoting her soon... and so it went.
Ocean hadn't bought it. She'd seen White's face.
"Where are you, Joy?!" she shouted into the observatory. "I know you're in here, and I know what you're up to! Barley told me everything!"
There was no reply.
"I believed in you, Joy! I still do! Please tell me this is all a big joke! This isn't you, President Dawn! This– hrrk!"
Ocean sputtered and choked as a thick wooden staff pushed itself against her neck. As she gasped for air, something warm and fuzzy pressed up against her flank, and the staff relaxed slightly.
"You're right, Ocean," said a soothing, honest voice. "This isn't me. I don't want to do this, but I have no choice. Now, let's take a walk, and we'll get things all cleared up."
Fear pierced Ocean's chest, and she complied. The two ponies walked awkwardly back the way Dawn had come.
***
"She won't get far," White reassured Sky. "Trapper and Tamer here were pretty rough with her."
"I'll fly up and see if she's left the building yet," said Venkra, already extending her wings.
"Good idea, but be quick."
Venkra saluted gravely before flying back out of the gap in the room's domed ceiling. In her absence, the three travellers were reminded of the striking presence of Princess Luna.
"Are you okay, Princess Luna?" asked Sky.
"We... have survived worse," Luna replied. There were thick black lines under her eyes and her voice was coming out strained.
"Then I take it you're still perfectly capable of bringing me my moonrock?"
The four equines gasped at Dawn's sudden reappearance. Stringy strands of her mane hung over angry emerald eyes. Her breathing was ragged, and her horn glowed blood-red, the same colour as the wooden beam she held against the neck of a frightened, shaking Ocean Glider.
"Ocean!" Sky cried, her wings flicking out instinctually.
"Stay right there and do as I say, or the pony gets it," Dawn growled. "I'll do it, too. I've expended far too much energy on this project just to let it fall apart at the seams now!"
Ocean yelped as the beam pushed further onto her neck. Sky nearly dived off the platform in rage, but Sibwashie held out a foreleg to stop her. There was a glint in his eye and faint smile on his face.
"Princess Luna, you are going to bring me what I want of your own free will, and you are going to do it right now, unless you want another pony death on your conscience! I did not engineer a famine in Zebrica for this!"
White's eyes widened. "You did that?"
"You'd better believe I did! I planned the 'start a farm in the Lunar Repulic' initiative in Equestria, and I spearheaded the postal service retrenchments to get more ponies for it! Guess who delivers rainclouds from Cloudsdale to Zebrica?
"What's more, I had Trapper and Tamer brainwash that dragon into destroying all that farmland to ensure my success, and I distracted the Elements of Harmony so Celestia wouldn't send them to interfere! I have done so much for this, and I. Am Not. Going. To be. Thwarted!"
Dawn pulled the wooden beam tighter. Ocean gagged. Sky screamed. White gasped. Sibwashie glanced upwards.
"Oh president, oh president, look up at the night!
I gaze at the heavens and see all the stars in flight!
"I see the Bit and the Bridle, and the Three-Headed Fly
But I see not the moon; it is not there in the sky."