//------------------------------// // 4 - The Best-Laid Plans // Story: Secrets in The Stars // by CommissarVulpin //------------------------------// The steady clip-clop of hooves echoed off ancient stone walls. A unicorn wearing a dark cloak made her way down the corridor, the weak light from her horn providing the only illumination. Dark streaks on the granite bricks indicated where torches had once burned; the wall sconces now stood empty. The unicorn reached a heavy oaken door banded with wrought iron and pushed it open. These halls were remnants of a darker period in Equestria’s history, one of war and fear. The cold stone dungeons, yawning in infinite blackness, seemed to whisper the screams of those ponies who had suffered here countless centuries ago. Some of the chambers bore bloodstains that proved notoriously difficult to remove; almost as if the structure itself was tainted by their memory. They had once gathered beneath Canterlot; the ancient royal city, long since exhausting any horizontal space to expand, began building upon itself, leaving a labyrinthine network of catacombs and warrens of the undercity. Meeting so close to their professed enemy, while satisfyingly ironic, was objectively foolish. Their new leader, mindful of the ever-present danger of discovery, had motivated them to move somewhere more remote. This place was about as remote as one could get, if the chill in the air and the hoarfrost on the walls were any indication. Most of them did not even know where the dungeons were; there were no windows, and any exits were solidly barred. Entry was granted by teleportation circles scattered across the country. They would only work if the pony in question carried a talisman, unique to each member of their order’s leadership. Arrival would be met with an array of wards designed to detect the traveler’s true identity and hold them in place; they would only be released upon presentation of their talisman and recitation of a pass phrase. There were doubtless other wards, more subtle, but these were kept hidden to mitigate the possibility that the unworthy could gain access by forcing a single member to divulge her secrets. Secrecy was the new policy of the Children of the Night. Their previous attempts to usurp the unholy monarchy of Equestria, despite enjoying extraordinary success at first, ultimately ended in failure. But like the hardiest of plants, their roots had survived, and they continued to grow beneath the surface. Their strategy now, under a new leader, was to silently consolidate their power. Let the false goddess believe them to be dead. They would continue to manipulate their way to power behind the scenes, planting operatives in corporations and government offices, and setting their plans irrevocably in motion. Only then would they tip their hoof, show the world their strength and the power of the true goddess of the Moon. A final door stood between the unicorn and her destination. She pushed it open and entered the wide, circular chamber, making sure to close it behind her. The light from the enchanted orbs ringing the walls was just enough to make out five others gathered in a half-circle at the center. She could also see their leader behind the podium, facing them all. The hood of his cloak was pulled back, showing the unicorn stallion’s dark blue coat and black mane, trimmed short. She was not the last to arrive. Although there was no punishment for being last, she did not like to be, due to a subconscious sense of punctuality, perhaps. She took her place in the circle. They were eventually joined by two others to make nine. Their leader levitated a book from the podium in front of him and opened it. He turned to a page near the beginning of the tome and began to read aloud to the others. “Our Mother, who sleeps in the sky, guide us on the path to righteousness.” As one, the other figures chanted a phrase in Old Ponish: “In umbra Luna est.” The leader spoke again, with the chorus chanting between each phrase. “Forgive us our sins, and empower us to spread Your word of truth.” “In umbra Luna est.” “We carry out our holy duties in Your name: to smite the wicked and depose false goddesses.” “In umbra Luna est.” “We remain faithful that you may descend, and cast your silver light upon the worthy.” “In umbra Luna est.” The leader closed his book and replaced it on the podium. “The hour approaches. We are close to fulfilling our destiny. Our brothers and sisters are gathering in Vanhoover. The designs for the Armillary are ready. Our faithful at Roughshod Firearms have set aside several hundred weapons and over a million rounds of ammunition. Within a matter of days, our fleet will take to the skies and descend upon the unholy city the Sun Tyrant has allowed to be built upon Her throne.” Their leader paused before continuing. “There is one thing yet to do, however: we require three more spell matrix crystals for the Armillary. Our brothers at the salvage yards could acquire them easily, but they are useless if imprinted with a teleportation spell. No, these must be fresh.” He turned to the unicorn, and she felt the fur at the nape of her neck stand up under his gaze. “You have served me well in the past, and so I entrust you with one more task. There is a shipment of spell matrix crystals being transported from the mines tomorrow. Could you plan for the…reallocation of a few of them?” The unicorn nodded. Despite his euphemism, she knew exactly what he meant and what she needed to do. “It will be done, Master.” “Outstanding,” their leader said with a smile. “Fillies and gentlecolts, the stars are aligning and guiding us on our holy quest. I have absolute faith in every one of you, and all of our disciples, that you will play your parts perfectly when the time is upon us. “May Luna’s light shine upon you all.” One by one, the hooded ponies turned and filed out of the room. *** Evergreen poked her head into the oncoming torrent of icy air and took a deep breath. She always felt more at home in the cold, and the frigid air filling her lungs was invigorating. “How can you stand that?” She heard Dusty call from behind her, shouting over the wind blowing past the troop shuttle. Evergreen pulled her head back from the open side door and turned around. She saw Dusty regarding her with a disbelieving shake of his head, and Strawberry simply giving her an amused smile. They both were wearing thick winter clothing, including face wraps and goggles. Evergreen’s garb was light by comparison, though she still wore goggles; she couldn’t risk an errant snowflake in the eye during the mission. Evergreen shrugged in response to Dusty’s question. “I dunno. I like the cold.” Dusty shivered. “Ponies weren’t meant for this weather. I can feel my lips chapping just looking at you.” The three occupants in the troop bay braced as they felt the transport bank to the right. Evergreen could see the craggy slopes of the Yaket range through the window in the door on the opposite side, the grey rock dappled with snow. “I’m coming up on the target now!” Leeward called from the open door to the cockpit. “Get ready to jump!” Evergreen pulled open the side door and leaned out again. In the distance ahead of them, she could see the sleek, high-speed train, running on rails that wound their way along the mountainside. That train carried their haul: pristine spell crystals, fresh from the mines, yet to be imprinted with a spell matrix. Evergreen heard the kinetic thrusters increase in pitch as Leeward pushed the troop transport to rendezvous alongside the train. There was no risk of being spotted; the locomotive was completely automated. They wouldn’t notice their missing cargo until it arrived at its destination, provided they didn’t do anything monumentally stupid like crash the train. With practiced ease, Leeward deftly maneuvered the transport to hover less than a meter above the train as it flew down the tracks at 250 kilometers an hour. With a mechanical groan the rear ramp winched open, followed by a blast of mountain air and a flurry of windblown snow. Evergreen, Strawberry, and Dusty quickly made their way down the ramp and hopped the short distance down to the roof of the train. Once they were all aboard, Evergreen put a hoof to her throat microphone. “Alright Lee, we’re on the train!” “Copy that!” came the response as the transport pulled away. Leeward retreated the ship to a safe distance, but still kept pace with the train. Careful not to lose her footing on the slick metal roof, Evergreen made her way to an access hatch. Dusty shattered the latching mechanism and yanked it open with a quick spell, and Evergreen couldn’t suppress a smile. Her unicorn friend had never been the most dexterous with his spellwork, but when it came to brute force he was second to none. The three ponies dropped inside the train and shook themselves a bit, grateful to be out of the buffeting wind. Dusty pulled his goggles off and let them dangle around his neck. They all knew what to do next. One by one they traveled between cars, making their way to the locomotive at the front. Once they reached the controls, Strawberry crouched down next to one of the consoles and pulled a tablet from her jacket. She plugged it into a data jack and tapped at the tablet for a few moments moment before cracking a wide grin. “I’m in,” she said dramatically. Evergreen and Dusty both rolled their eyes. “Brace yourselves,” she continued. “We’re about to lose a whole lot of—” She was interrupted when they all almost lost their balance at a sudden change in the train’s speed. It wasn’t, however, slowing down as they had all expected; no, the train was speeding up. And quite dramatically at that. “Woah!” Evergreen heard Leeward shout over the radio. “What’s going on down there? The train just kicked into high gear!” “Strawberry, what’s going on!? I thought your virus was supposed to slow the train down!” Strawberry’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t know! I don’t know why my code isn’t working right!” In desperation, she yanked the cable from the console, but the train’s speed didn’t change. Dusty ran up to the operator’s station and pulled the throttle lever all the way back, then mashed some buttons before giving up and turning back to the others. “I’m completely locked out! Does this train have an emergency brake or something?” “Kinda,” Strawberry said meekly. “’Kinda’!? What do you mean, ‘kinda’?” “There is an emergency brake, but it’s tied into the main control system. If we’re locked out, we can’t activate it. There’s no manual backup.” “Who the fuck designed this stupid… okay. Work the problem.” Dusty paced in a few tight circles before rounding on Strawberry. “Can you fix your virus?” he asked. Strawberry quickly shook her head, making her cream-colored mane flip into her face. “I don’t have any of my editing software with me. And even if I did, I couldn’t debug a complex computer virus while we’re hurtling through the mountains! We don’t have that much time!” “Well then shut it down or something!” Dusty demanded. “I can’t!” Strawberry shot back. “That was the entire point of the virus, to lock it out so the controllers couldn’t get the train moving again once we stopped it. But that means that nopony has access, not even me!” “Who the hell thought that would be a good idea!? You should have designed a back door, or something!” Strawberry dropped her tablet and leapt to her hooves. “Oh, look who’s suddenly the software expert! I’d like to see you develop a virus that can invade a sophisticated PTC system in a day!” “HEY!” Evergreen shouted. “That’s enough! Every minute you two spend bickering, this train just gets faster. We still have a job to do.” Strawberry and Dusty looked at her and nodded. Evergreen heard Leeward in her ear again, more worried this time. “Hey, can you guys hear me?” “Yeah, we hear you. Some technical difficulty with Strawberry’s control virus.” “I’m sorry!” she heard the mare wail. “Well, you’re pushing 300 now. Any faster and I’m going to have trouble keeping up. Plus there’s some bends in the track up ahead you might be worried about.” “Copy that. How soon until the next curve?” “Based on your current speed, I’d say…about five minutes.” “Alright. Strawberry, stay here and see if you can regain any kind of control of the train. Dusty, with me. We’re going to have to get these crystals passed to Leeward on the move.” Evergreen pulled open the door and stepped across to the adjacent car, watching the sheer rock face fly by on one side and the nauseating drop on the other. They passed through the cars until they reached one stacked with wooden crates. Dusty pulled one open to reveal their prize: a single huge quartz crystal, roughly hewn into a teardrop shape. It was carefully packed and padded with sawdust to avoid damage during transport. Dusty let out a low whistle. “Look at that beauty.” Evergreen looked up to the ceiling of the car and saw another roof access hatch. “Dusty, if we get you up there, can you use your telekinesis to pass the crates into the ship’s hold?” she asked. “If Leeward can hold her steady I should be able to, yeah,” he replied. Evergreen helped move the other crates around to form an ersatz staircase up to the hatch. Dusty clambered up the crates and stuck his head out of the hatch, pulling his goggles back on to shield his eyes from the wind. “Alright Leeward, here’s the plan,” Evergreen said over her radio. “We’re in the fourth car back from the locomotive. Pull up above us and Dusty will throw the crates into the ship through the roof hatch.” “Copy that. The next turn is coming up soon, so get ready,” Leeward responded. Evergreen saw Dusty duck back into the train car, his eyes wide. “Shit, he wasn’t kidding. I gotta get down before—” he was interrupted as the train suddenly hit the left-hoof turn, causing all the contents of the car to shift to the right. Evergreen swore she felt the car itself lean to the right as well. Dusty cursed as he lost his footing and tumbled down the pile of crates and landed in a heap on the floor. “Ow.” “Are you okay?” Evergreen asked as she ran over and helped him up. “Yeah, I’m good,” he grunted. “I’ll be feeling that tomorrow, though.” “That was pretty sketchy, guys,” Leeward said over the radio. “I don’t think the next one will be so gentle.” “We’ll deal with that when we get there,” Evergreen replied. “Are you in position?” “Just about,” came the reply as a shadow moved over the roof hatch. “You’re gonna have to make it quick. I’m almost maxed out on my throttle here.” Dusty climbed to the top of the crates again, took one of the crates on the floor in his magic, and pushed it up through the hatch, poking his head through after it. “Okay, lower the ramp!” Dusty said over his own radio. “Almost…got it! Here comes the next one!” Dusty ducked back in and grabbed another crate, then pushed it through the hatch before standing back up. “There’s another turn coming!” Strawberry’s panicked voice suddenly burst over the radio, moments before the entire car heaved to the left. Evergreen heard Dusty cry out in alarm, followed by a dull thud as something heavy bounced off the roof of the train car. There was no questioning it this time; the train was definitely leaning towards the massive drop, far enough that the wheels on the right-hoof side were probably off the rails. Evergreen looked up and saw Dusty bracing himself against the roof hatch with his forehooves as his horn lit up with a yellow glow. Soon the entire train car was wreathed in the same glow, and Dusty grunted with effort. His forehead beaded with sweat as Evergreen realized he was using his magic to keep the entire train on the tracks. After what felt like an eternity, the glow faded and the car leveled out again with a crash as the wheels fell back on the rails. “Is everyone okay?” Leeward asked. A chorus of affirmative responses followed, including a shaky “yes” from Strawberry. The poor girl had probably pissed herself, Evergreen thought. “A little more warning would have been nice, Lee!” Evergreen called out on the radio. “Sorry! I was only paying attention to flying a fifteen-tonne troop shuttle at three hundred kilometers an hour right next to a train!” Noticeably exhausted, Dusty picked up another crate and passed it through the hatch. “There. Second crate aboard,” he said after a few seconds. “Another curve ahead,” Leeward warned. Dusty nodded and braced himself against the roof hatch, before lighting his horn and enveloping the train in magic again. The train heaved to the right this time, and Evergreen felt the wheels pick up off the tracks once more. With a wordless yell of defiance, Dusty poured more power into his telekinesis and kept the train from tilting any further. Evergreen heard the screech of steel on stone as the sides of the cars dragged against the cliff face. Finally, Dusty released his hold and let the cars slam back on the rails. “Okay…last crate…” he panted. “You can do this Dusty,” Evergreen encouraged. He managed a weak smile, but didn’t respond as he shakily levitated a third crate and pushed it out through the hatch. After almost a minute, he let out a tired breath. “Alright, that’s the last one.” “Outstanding. I’ve got some good news and some bad news,” Leeward said. “The good news is that there aren’t any more sharp curves for what looks like a few kilometers.” “What’s the bad news?” Dusty asked. “The bad news is that I’m at full throttle now, and the train is still speeding up. You’re going to have to get off fast, or you’re not getting off at all.” “I’ll go first,” Dusty said. “I can help levitate you up if you need it.” “No offense, Dusty, but I don’t think you’re fit to levitate anything right now.” He gave her another smile. “I know you believe in me. So I don’t need to believe in myself, I just need to believe in the you that believes in me.” Evergreen wondered how that could possibly make sense as Dusty climbed through the hatch and onto the roof. She heard a thud and scraping noise, and realized that Leeward had probably dropped the ship’s ramp right on the roof to give Dusty the best chance of climbing aboard. “Okay, I’m on!” she heard Dusty call over the radio. “Take Strawberry and move back a few cars! Leeward can’t keep up anymore!” Evergreen moved through the train cars towards the front of the train, trying to ignore the mountains flying past noticeably faster, or the chunks missing from the sides of some of the cars. When she reached the locomotive, she found Strawberry curled into a trembling ball in the corner, her tablet forgotten on the floor by the console. With a pang of concern, Evergreen knelt by her side. “Strawberry? Come on, honey, we gotta go. Let’s get you off this train.” Strawberry said nothing, only curled tighter on herself when the train leaned around another slight curve. Evergreen stood up, took a breath, muttered a quick prayer to Luna (the real one), then leaned down and shouted in the mare’s ear. “STRAWBERRY SURPRISE! ON YOUR HOOVES THIS INSTANT!” Strawberry yelped and jumped to her hooves so fast Evergreen was afraid her head would hit the ceiling. She stood there like a deer caught in headlights, as if seeing Evergreen standing there for the first time. “Come on! I don’t know about you, but I want off this wild ride!” Strawberry nodded quickly, then scooped up her tablet and stuffed it in her jacket. With a nod, Evergreen turned and jumped to the next car. She heard a whimper behind her at the door, and turned around to see Strawberry petrified at the small gap. “Don’t look down. Just step across. You can do it, I know you can.” Strawberry tore her eyes from the tracks below and focused on Evergreen, then with a few preparatory breaths, stepped over the gap and through the open door. “See? Just a few more of those and we’re home free,” she said. Strawberry didn’t look entirely convinced, but at least she wasn’t a quivering wreck anymore. “Leeward!” Evergreen said into her microphone as they continued to move through the cars, “How far back do we need to go?” “Ten cars should do it, as long as you make it quick!” She heard Strawberry give an audible gulp, but she didn’t say anything else. Wordlessly, the pair moved through car after car. Some of them were empty, but most were filled with more crates of spell matrix crystals. “What a shame,” Evergreen mused. “This many crystals would have fetched a king’s ransom.” At the tenth car, the two mares stacked the crates into a small pile up to the ceiling. Strawberry winced every time the train leaned on a corner, and Evergreen couldn’t help feeling worried herself. She climbed to the top once the crates were stacked and pushed the roof hatch open. She could see the rear of the ship ahead of them, with the ramp open and Dusty standing inside. The ship was pushing toward them with alarming speed. Upon sighting her, Dusty turned towards the cockpit and shouted something. “I’ll keep her as close to the deck as I can,” Evergreen heard Leeward say on the radio. Evergreen climbed back down and motioned for Strawberry to go up. “You first.” Strawberry needed no other convincing as she scrambled up the crates, but froze with her forehooves on the roof and her hindlegs still planted on the top crate. “Strawberry?” “I…I can’t.” “Yes, you can. You’re getting in that ship if I have to grab your ass and chuck you in there myself.” She heard Strawberry make a sound that might have been a laugh, or maybe another whimper, but she took the hint and climbed the rest of the way onto the roof with wobbly hooves. “She’s on board!” Evergreen heard Dusty shout over the radio a few seconds later, and she allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. Her relief was soon interrupted, however, by a squeal of metal and a crash as the ship’s ramp collided with the open hatch and smashed it shut right over her head. She heard several curses over the radio, followed by “Wait…that gives me an idea. Evergreen! Move to the last car!” She did as she was instructed, moving several more cars back until she was at the end of the train. She once more stacked up a few crates and pushed open the roof hatch, to see the rear of the ship rapidly approaching from several cars ahead. As the train pushed its way beneath the ship, Leeward maneuvered it so that the lip of the ramp caught in the gap between the car three cars ahead and the one behind it. It slid slightly from side to side, but seemed to hold. The extra load on the train caused it to slow substantially, and Evergreen almost slid off the roof. “Hot damn, that actually worked! Okay, Evergreen, we’ve only got one shot at this.” Evergreen carefully walked along the peak of the roof until she reached the gap between her car and the one ahead of her. It took every ounce of her self-control not to look at the tracks below as she took a breath and jumped. Her hooves made contact with the roof of the next car, and her legs splayed out as she struggled to retain her footing like a foal trying to ice skate for the first time. One more jump, then two, until she was almost to the ramp, still wedged between cars, grinding slightly as its pilot desperately tried to hold it steady against the constant motion of the train. “It’s now or never, there’s a tight curve ahead!” Evergreen dropped all pretense of caution and galloped towards the ramp. She could see Dusty leaning out the back of the ship holding his hoof out, the other grasping a roof strap. She was only a few meters away from the ramp when the train hit the curve, and several things happened at once: The train whipped around to the right, and the laws of physics yanked the tops of the cars to the left. With a final shriek of grinding metal, the edge of the ramp popped free from the gap between the cars. And with a cry of “SHIT!”, Evergreen was thrown from the roof and began to plummet through the icy air, down into the mountain valley below. She was able to see a faint yellow aura forming around her body, but it wasn’t enough to slow her descent. Just as she was making peace with her inevitable demise and uttering her final prayers to Luna, she felt a pair of hooves wrap around her barrel. She looked up and saw Leeward, face contorted with effort and wings beating furiously, arresting her fall. Slowly, they stopped falling and began to ascend. “By the stars, girl! You need to lose a few kilos,” he grunted. Despite the situation, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Hey, I’m just big boned.” Somewhere below them, an enormous racket sounded from where the train impacted the valley floor. Evergreen chanced a look down, and saw only a heap of twisted metal scattered across the snow. Leeward flew them up back up to the tracks where, exhausted, he dropped Evergreen and then collapsed into the snow, panting heavily. Evergreen perked her ears at a low whine in the distance, and lifted her head to see the troop transport making its way back over to them. It swung around and backed up to the ledge then dropped the ramp, revealing Strawberry standing in the bay, eyes wide and pale as a sheet beneath her fur. “I think this mission just took a decade off my life,” she said weakly as Evergreen and Leeward trudged aboard. Leeward replaced Dusty in the cockpit and began to fly them away, and Evergreen strapped herself into one of the jump seats along with her other two allies. She looked at the three wooden crates strewn haphazardly on the deck. “But I think it was worth it,” she finished. *** Midnight clouds drifted across the sky, mottling the light from Luna’s moon. A beam of this light fell through a high, barred window into a lonely stone room. A single unicorn sat in the center of the small room, unmoving, as a stick of chalk wreathed in cerise light flitted its way about, making marks on the walls, floor, and ceiling around her. This room bore many marks. Some were old, carved into the stone or painted in a liquid that had dried to a dark brown. Most, however, were new, scribed by the crimson unicorn in the center of the room. She turned her blindfolded head to follow the chalk as it swept across the walls, mumbling quietly in words nopony would ever hear. When Luna’s moonlight had been replaced by Celestia’s sunlight, the crimson unicorn was gone, replaced by a group of others. The first to enter the room was a unicorn stallion, midnight blue with a close-cropped black mane and three overlapping circles upon his flank. He took in the designs, marked on every surface of the room, careful not to smudge the chalk lines on the floor with his hooves. Most of the markings formed words, lines of text scrawled at various angles seemingly at random. The moon came in. I saw it. I saw Her light. We must join and walk together in the light. It burns Evermore as it dips below the sea. Judgement lies near. When the shadow ascends and swallows the Light. A Prophet in white. He knew there was a meaning, a pattern. Once he had the chance to study them further, he knew that her predictions could be found encoded in these messages. Unfortunately, he feared that he would not have enough time to go over the writings with his usual meticulousness; his plans were being set into motion and required much more of his direct attention. One of the lines caught his eye, if only for the fact that it was repeated several times across the walls and ceiling. Beware the Six “Interesting,” he muttered quietly to himself. Some of the chalk lines formed abstract patterns he could not discern the meaning of. There was one design, however, he could recognize. It was drawn on the wall immediately opposite the window, in such a way that the beams of sunlight would illuminate it perfectly. The stallion found the hint of a smile creeping onto his face – almost as if she knew, he thought, before adding, Of course she knew. She always knows. You needn’t lose faith in her, Syzygy. “What is it, sir?” One of the other ponies asked, who had entered the room behind Syzygy. The design depicted a unicorn, covered head to hoof in a long cloak, hiding his eyes from view. He held what appeared to be a long stick or staff in his hooves, with five other sticks standing behind him. What was curious about the drawing, however, was that it was entirely upside-down. Syzygy had to cock his head to one side to properly make it out, and to see that there was a Roaman numeral six below the figure. “I do believe it is a rendition of a tarot card. They have different meanings depending on whether they are upright or inverted.” Syzygy turned toward the others in his group. “Take photographs of the entire room. I want every square inch documented. Once that is done, copy down every line of text.” The other ponies nodded and began to file out of the room to collect their camera gear. “And one other thing,” Syzygy added, “I would appreciate it if you could look up the meaning of that tarot card.” The pony nearest him uttered a quick “yes sir” and continued out of the room. Syzygy paused to look around the room a moment more, then followed the others out of the room. The ponies ahead of him turned right, but he turned to follow the stone corridor to the left. A few steps took him to another doorway, blocked with a heavy timber door banded with iron. The bar across the door glowed with a pale blue light and swung out of the way. The door, in turn, glowed the same way as he gently pushed it open. His treasure sat in the middle of the windowless room, staring upwards in the direction of the sun, almost as if she could see it. Her breakfast sat untouched on the floor before her. He knew she could hear him walking towards her, but she didn’t react. Her ears didn’t even move. He sat beside her, pressing himself up against her diminutive frame. He said nothing for a long time, simply enjoying the warmth of her body against his. “Do you remember?” he said, almost in a whisper. With a barely-perceptible shake of her head, she indicated that she did not. That was okay though – she almost never remembered. “You drew a tarot card last night.” She finally spoke. The sound of her voice made his heart flutter. “The spirits must have said something important.” After a long pause, she spoke again. “I wonder what it means.” “I do not know yet,” he said. “I was hoping you could tell me that.” She turned her blindfolded eyes to look directly in his. “Do not tell me what I wrote.” The fur on the nape of his neck stood up. He raised his hooves in a defensive gesture. “I wasn’t going to. I just hoped the spirits would have allowed you to remember, is all.” “If the spirits have deigned that I do not remember the visions, then it is for a good reason. I have told you this.” He sighed. “Yes, you have.” She turned to look back up towards the sun, but there was no light or warmth to be found in this room. After a few more moments he stood and left the room, closing the door behind him. As much as he wanted to be there with her, there were more important things that needed doing right now. He strode down the hallway with a renewed sense of purpose, into the room where the others were diligently taking photographs of his beloved’s writings. A grey earth pony stallion wearing a tactical vest and a sidearm loitered against the wall, standing guard in duty if not poise. “Blackwater,” Syzygy said. Upon hearing his name, the grey stallion straightened up. “Sir?” Blackwater was ex-military, dishonorable discharge of some sort. Syzygy had long ago abandoned any attempt to get him to remove the vest or sidearm; it almost seemed like they were extensions of his body at this point. But he was loyal as long as the paychecks cleared, and could get the other mercenaries to fall in line, which was the only thing Syzygy cared about. “All of the cargo ships are already in orbit, aside for two. There was a delay in the shipment, and they will be loaded up tomorrow morning at Vanhoover. I want you there personally to oversee the operation.” “Yes, sir.” “Wheels up at six o’clock sharp. I want this going off without a hitch, understood?” “Understood.” “Good. I’ll arrange personal transport for Crimson and myself and rendezvous with you in orbit to coordinate our jump.” “Copy that.” Syzygy once again entered the hallway, this time encountering his wife’s doctor. The large mare held a syringe in her mouth. “Chlorpromazine?” He asked, to which the doctor nodded. “Give her extra amobarbital tonight. I’ll be taking her into space tomorrow morning. I’d like you there to monitor her.” The doctor simply nodded again before pushing her way into Crimson’s room.