Luna is a Harsh Mistress

by Starscribe


Chapter 58: Beat Cop

Magpie was the last through the Tower airlock, slamming it shut behind her. If she’d had more magical talent, she probably would’ve put some kind of protection spell on it—for all the good it would do. 

Goldleaf was already way ahead of her, manipulating a set of crystal controls near the wall. A thrumming reverberated through her hooves, bringing with it the acidic tang of acetone on the air. 

“That should keep anything from shadow-stepping through our walls,” he muttered, only the first echoes of exhaustion on his voice. Despite all the magic he’d been using, Goldleaf still seemed remarkably alert. “It won’t help if they sever the O2 or the electrical with the rest of Tranquility. They don’t have to lift a hoof to kill us.”

“I think they already would’ve done that,” Magpie muttered, scanning the Tower. The large structure was open in the center, with decks lining the sides with low railings for flying ponies to cross between them. It was a failed dome after all, with relatively few airlocks.

The gigantic circulation fan high above spun along its regular rhythm, little wisps of white vapor appearing around it before melting away into the rest of the room. Magpie could barely feel the cold, but none of the constables looked chilly.

“They must not want to attack you yet. Or maybe they realize you’re the only ones with any combat ability, and they want to save you for something after the rest of Tranquility is conquered.”

As she said it, Magpie couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. It wasn’t the Voidseekers they were even fighting anymore, not really. Their war was with Nightmare itself. If they tried to defend Tranquility any other way, they were doomed to fail.

“I’m going to take you to the cells,” Goldleaf said, voice almost casual. “Until we figure out what to do with you.”

Magpie stopped dead, laughing loud enough that several creatures turned to stare. “That’s hilarious, Goldleaf. I’m going straight to Bauble, and I dare you to try and stop me.”

She was surrounded by constables—if they all worked together, she could probably be captured and restrained in moments. But they didn’t. The building was panicked, and the ones on her tram looked like they wouldn’t be fighting anypony for a while. They were just happy to be alive.

Goldleaf ground his teeth together, horn glowing a few faint shades. Spells he almost cast, but either couldn’t or didn’t. You just held a shield big enough for fifty creatures and walked two kilometers through the cold. Don’t even try it.

Magpie had other defenses, though none stronger than the nature of being crystal. The first time Goldleaf tried to attack her, he’d discover that for himself. But with a little cleverness, unicorns could still be dangerous to her. They just couldn’t blast the spells directly. 

“Do you think you’ll defy Glossy Bauble as well?” he asked, glowering at her. “My grandfather is old, and not very forgiving.”

She shrugged one wing, so the steel skeleton underneath caught the light in front of him. “Bauble and I have worked together for longer than you’ve been alive, kid. He’s not going to waste my time.”

He didn’t.

Bauble’s office as the Chief Constable was a mess of activity, with creatures clambering and shouting over one another and packed in so close she could barely wedge her way through. Magpie pulled down her robe, so she would be immediately obvious the instant Bauble saw her.

Goldleaf followed her every step, apparently determined to make sure she couldn’t escape her inevitable imprisonment. But so long as he didn’t stop her from saving Tranquility, she could live with the annoyance.

Once Bauble saw her, he silenced all others, smacking one crystal hoof on the deck and glaring around the room. Creatures fell silent one by one, watching him. 

“Magpie,” he said. “The princess sent you?”

She nodded. It wasn’t precisely true, but close enough. “Can you give me a moment, Glossy?”

He did, leading her out of his office through a side-door into his personal quarters. Breakfast sat on his dining table uneaten, though there was an empty pot of coffee in the sink and another already percolating. 

Much to her annoyance, Goldleaf slid through the door right before she managed to close it. “Grandfather!” he called, shoving right past her. “I was on the tram when it was attacked! You must’ve heard by now.”

Bauble lingered beside his portable coffee machine, pouring a glass. He offered one to Magpie, and she took it gratefully. She still didn’t fully believe it made other creatures feel more awake the way they said, but at least the warmth was nice on her tongue. “You’ve interrupted the princess’s own messenger, Leafy. I want to hear what you have to say. But the princess takes precedence.”

“She was there during the attack!” Goldleaf countered. “They recognized her! For all we know she’s the reason it happened in the first place!”

Bauble took a long draft, settling the metal glass down hard enough it probably dented in the process. “Leafy, that is about the dumbest thing you could’ve said. Please shut up and wait for her to finish now.”

He did, though not without a fight. Goldleaf paced before the door, his tail whipping angrily back and forth. But while he might’ve acted like a child, at least he finally shut up.

She explained the tram attack in a minute or two, sticking strictly to the facts. Goldleaf never took his eyes off her, apparently watching for even a slight distortion in what had happened. But she didn’t get into any of her own experience or opinions until she’d finished.”

“Those were the Voidseekers—the ancient immortals who once served Nightmare Moon. There are five still alive, each one empowered with Nightmare’s magic. You should see each one like an army unto themselves—they’re stronger than an earth pony, have centuries of training and practice, and they can all communicate instantly with each other no matter the distance.”

Bauble whistled, settling back in his seat. “Oh, is that all? Our mythology has returned to kill us all, lovely. Is there anything else I need to know?”

Asked that way, she didn’t want to explain. But Bauble was the closest thing Tranquility had to a defense. Even if one lifeline with Tranquility was severed, that didn’t mean they’d just give up.

“They don’t need air, food, or heat. And they can travel instantly between nearby shadows. As for weaknesses, not much. If they ever stand in direct sunlight, they’ll be dead until it’s gone.”

Bauble levitated something onto the table beside him—a wall clock. While one leg of the clock rotated slowly around their 12-hour cycles, another tracked far slower, showing the absolute day and night of the moon’s surface. “I can’t help but notice we only have a day before nightfall. That isn’t a coincidence.”

“No.” How much could Magpie share about the princess’s vulnerability? Bauble was old enough to have met her once or twice, though always in brief and controlled ways. “We know their ultimate goal: assassinate the princess, and use her corpse as another revenant of Nightmare. Everything else they do is in service to that goal.”

Bauble nodded grimly, before lifting a phone off the wall. “Pen, clear every creature from my office. I need to use the board.” Pause. “Tell them we’re working on it! I’ll have a damn answer within the hour.” He hung up. “These ‘Voidseekers’ have been preparing for this for a long time. They knew we start each morning with a brief for all the Constables in headquarters. We have maybe a dozen ponies still on shift in the rest of Tranquility right now.”

“And you believe all this?” Goldleaf finally asked. “Even after what happened?”

Bauble shrugged. “Magpie already explained why she was on that trolley. If any creature is going to know about the Voidseekers, it would be one of them. She’s also your…” He hesitated. “Great-great-great-great grandmother? Does that sound right, Magpie?” He didn’t actually wait for her response. “I’m sorry about Goldleaf, we don’t need the disruption.”

She shrugged a metal wing ambivalently. “He did save the lives of everyone on that tram with his quick spelling. Don’t send him away, so long as he can keep his conspiracies until after we save the princess.”

Goldleaf looked like he might argue with her for a little longer, but he only nodded curtly. 

“If that’s really what they’re after, then I don’t understand what they’re doing. Not understanding my enemy is a terrifying thing, Magpie. Why bother attacking us if they’re as strong as you say? Why not go straight for the princess, kill every bodyguard that stood in the way, and leave again? Either they’re strong enough to beat an Alicorn or they’re not, nothing I have can fight them directly.”

“Because Nightmare is… proud,” she said. “Nightmare Moon defied it for centuries. She chose Moonrise over her personal power. It probably could send its servants to kill her, but it doesn’t because that wouldn’t be good enough. It doesn’t want her dead, it wants to make her into an example.”

Bauble rose, glancing through the peephole before shoving it open and gesturing for them to follow back to his office.

He went straight for the ‘Board’, a full side of his building covered in slightly reflective white. It was divided into sections showing each beat in the city, with names scribbled into their shifts. 

Magpie’s eyes gravitated towards the “ground-level” beats, and wasn’t surprised to see all her worst fears confirmed. Not a single two-pony team, and only one constable on duty this early in the morning. Few creatures lived down so deep anymore, but the ones who did would have no support from the Constabulary.

“Are you sure about that?” Bauble asked. Not skeptical exactly, but careful. “If we make assumptions about the motivation of our enemy and use it to make decisions, we open ourselves up to serious vulnerability. If we’re wrong…”

She marched right up to Bauble, looking all the way up into his eyes. “I had it in my head for centuries, Bauble. I know the way it thinks. It doesn’t feel emotions like we do, it’s dominated by them. It doesn’t even care about Tranquility, really. All that matters is getting back at Nightmare Moon.”

“How do we stop it?” Goldleaf asked from beside the board. “There are nine ponies still in Tranquility right now, between Moonrise and Starseed. What are they supposed to do against mythical demons?”

“We can’t stop Nightmare directly,” Magpie explained. “Not even an Alicorn could do that. We have to kill each of the five Voidseekers, or at least take away their connection to Nightmare.” She fumbled in her satchel, removing the Void Compass and settling it on the desk. Darkness swirled within, though it moved in the same pattern, trending towards the bottom.

“If the princess dies, then there’s nothing any of us can do—she’s so powerful that Nightmare just won’t be stopped. But I don’t think it will kill her until it can convince her that it’s about to destroy Tranquility.”

“What about her bodyguard, uh… Penumbra?” Bauble asked. “She was their best warrior, wasn’t she? Can the Nightmare control her as well?”

Magpie opened her mouth to say no, then hesitated. “She can resist it, but she isn’t free of its influence. Having her near the princess probably…” She trailed off for a moment, growing faint as she realized the implications. “Nightmare can see and feel everything she does. It can use her to watch the princess’s every move. Buck.”

“This just keeps getting better.” Bauble turned, glaring out the window onto a shadowy surface covered in craters. The sun was already growing long, even if they weren’t in darkness yet. Soon enough they would be, and Nightmare’s powers would grow. “There are five unkillable warriors stalking Tranquility. Our best weapon against them can’t fight them effectively, and might be sharing information with the enemy. What do we have?”

“Us three,” Magpie said. “My husband. The constables aren’t helpless either, even if they aren’t as good as Voidseekers. It’s not their fault they’re all so young.”

“Those do not sound like winning odds.” Bauble slumped back into a chair, eyes fixed on his shut office door. His secretary might’ve cleared his office well enough, but how long until the Constables themselves were too nervous and afraid to wait there. “If we activate everyone—every horse off the beat for twenty years, anyone with the training to shoot a gun straight, we have a hundred mares and stallions. Maybe we could make a difference if we were still in the city, but we’re not.”

“We can walk everyone back,” Goldleaf said. “There are enough of us with air shield spells, Constable. Cross back into the city, hold the heart, hold the airlocks, and sweep from one side to the other following that… compass the crystal pony brought.”

“I can’t wait here either way,” Magpie said. “I need to reach the princess, separate her from Penumbra. If we can keep her hidden, we split Nightmare’s focus. More importantly, we stop it from being able to choose to end the conflict by killing her.”

“Yes, we’ll have to fight our way back.” Bauble levitated over a sheet of paper and a pen, and began scribbling orders. “We’ll arm and fight our way back to the city. If we die, then we die defending the ponies we’re sworn to protect. But your mission is just as important, Magpie. As you say—the princess is everything. I’ll find one of my best officers to send back with you. Unless you can tell me you’ve finally completed that training.”

“Nope.” Normally she’d be cheerful about it, but now she couldn’t help but feel bitter. Bauble had been right about the eventual need to defend herself. She’d known it then too, but she’d counted on the systems they’d built to do all the protecting.

“I’ll go,” Goldleaf said. “Don’t tell me I can’t, Glossy. I’m the most experienced District Captain, and the best fighter you have. The only way for one pony to make a difference is if it’s a pony like me.”

The constable ground his crystal teeth together, before nodding curtly. “My petulant grandson has a point, Magpie. You’ll find no better fighter here, if you can stand him.”

Magpie rose to her hooves. “On one condition. I don’t want to waste any more time explaining how loyal I am to Tranquility or justifying what I’m doing. Give Goldleaf here explicit orders to obey my instructions.”

“Done.” Bauble scribbled a little more onto the page, then held it up for Goldleaf to see. “Everything she just said, those are your orders now. You do what she says, you don’t question her. Otherwise, you can fight with the rest of us.”

Goldleaf fumed, pawing at the ground with nostrils flaring. Finally he nodded, barely restraining his frustration. “I will obey your orders, Constable. If that means obeying her, then I’ll do what it takes to protect Tranquility.”