//------------------------------//
// Chapter 37 
// Story: Sleeping in the Light 
// by Wheller 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 37


Kelso opened her eyes. Much to her surprise, they were back in the Ghastly Gorge Industrial Complex. It was over; they were done watching the memories that the Unknowable Mare had been showing them. Not a moment too soon. Kelso brought up her Police Information Processor, darting her eyes back and forth to bring up the clock, 0432. Oh and she felt it, she was exhausted, she was ready to collapse and go to sleep right here if not for the simple fact that they needed to get the hell out of here.

0433, people would be starting to show up for work in a couple hours, and they fully intended to be long gone by that time. Kelso glanced around at her friends, all of them looked absolutely exhausted, with the exception of Pinkie Pie; the obnoxious pink party pony was smiling brightly for some particular reason. ‘Okay then... now that’s over with...’

There was a flash of blue before her eyes, and before she knew it, Pinkie Pie was on the ground. Fuck! Kelso had almost completely forgotten about the Unknowable Mare, she was now on top of Pinkie Pie, attempting to strangle the life out of her.

‘I... was... not... done... yet... FACEDANCER!’ The Unknowable Mare cried out in anger as she struggled to choke the life out of Pinkie Pie. Kelso and company’s jaws dropped wide open, dumbstruck by the event. Kelso instinctively lashed out at the Unknowable Mare, leaping at her and knocking her to the ground.

‘Get off her!’ Kelso cried out as she tore at the Unknowable Mare’s face, slashing the bandages that covered her eyes.

‘No! Stop!’ The Unknowable Mare cried out as the bandages fell away.

Kelso was surprised to discover that the Unknowable Mare had kind eyes. Incredibly ironic considering her behaviour, they were a deep blue, and they looked up at Kelso with confusion.

‘You... you’re not dead...’ the Unknowable Mare said with confusion in her voice.

‘Uh... no’, Kelso said, raising an eyebrow. ‘No I’m not’.

The Unknowable Mare was silent for a moment, and glanced around to the others in the room. ‘I’m... looking at all of you, and you aren’t dying...’ she said again, this time, sounding more confused that before. ‘They told me... they told me if anyone looked into my eyes that they would die’.

‘Who told you this?’ Kelso asked.

‘Doctor Fontaine...’ the Unknowable Mare said as her voice trailed off. ‘She lied. Obvious now, don’t know why I’m so surprised, should have known, looked into their minds every day, but never bothered to see’.

‘Who are you? What’s your name?’ Kelso asked.

‘... Siddley’, she said softly. Kelso offered her a small smile and allowed her to rise to her hooves. Siddley took a look around the room, taking in her surroundings, she took a good long look at Kelso, and then to Viola, and then the rest of the group. ‘I know what you plan’, Siddley said as she sat down on the floor. ‘I will not stop you...’

‘Hey! The way I see it, you’ve got just as much reason to dislike FutureTec as the rest of us do! They lied to you about your eyesight!’ Pinkie Pie cried out, causing Kelso to jump in surprise. Kelso looked over to her, to discover that the pink party pony was unharmed, showing no physical signs of assault, must have been something to do with the mare’s changeling physiology.

‘Perhaps’, Siddley said with a shrug before picking her bandages up and tying them back over her eyes. ‘Perhaps I may help you. In any case, I will do things as I always have, in my own way. You should leave now; it will not be long before FutureTec’s employees come to start their day of work’.

...

Kelso kept her eyes closed as she sat back in her seat. They had since departed from the Ghastly Gorge Industrial Complex, and they had all piled into the prison transport truck that they had taken to get here in the first place. The more Kelso thought about it, the more that things didn’t make sense.

She was exhausted, but her mind was far too active to allow her to sleep. She looked up at Pinkie Pie, who was sitting doubled over in the seat next to her, fast asleep. Did changelings even need to sleep? Or was this just a case of the memories influencing actions? Kelso didn’t know. Probably would never know. Changelings never left their regime, and she would likely never meet another one. Or at least, not meet another one and know it.

She thought back to the confrontation between Siddley and Pinkie Pie, and the more she thought about it, the less it made sense. There was something going on between the two of them, almost as if they had a certain history that the rest of the group was not aware of. The reasons for which, they would probably never know. More likely than not, Pinkie Pie didn’t remember her past with Siddley, and Siddley was pretty much guaranteed not to share. At this point? Kelso had no idea what to even make of this Siddley / Pinkie Pie conflict. Maybe there was more to find out. She would have to do some digging, that was for sure, but then again that was her job, that was what she was good at.

She’d start tomorrow; she was far too tired to think about this anymore tonight. She closed her eyes once more, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

...

The transport truck made a detour to drop Sparky and Dizzy off at Sparky’s house in Freetown. Sparky pulled up the time on her MIP, almost 0530. Oh today was going to suck, she had to be up and out of bed for work in three hours. She swiped her MIP over the door lock, listening to the small electronic whir as the door unlocked for her, and slid open. Sparky and Dizzy quietly shut the door behind them, and trotted upstairs, hoping that they didn’t wake up Grandma V in the process.

Dizzy had been staying at Sparky’s house since their return from Tartarus, Dizzy had explained that she wasn’t ready to go back home to New Maneaan yet, and since the two had entered a relationship with each other during their transit to Tartarus aboard the Anatoliy Leninov, she especially wasn’t sure how the others of her faith would react to her being in a homosexual relationship.

Sparky had understood Dizzy’s hesitation; family meant a lot to both of them, and the last thing that either of them would have wanted was to lose them.

‘Hey, Dizzy? Is everything okay? You’ve been awful quiet these last couple of hours’, Sparky said with a frown.

Dizzy looked up at Sparky with a frown as she sat down on Sparky’s bed. ‘I’ve been thinking about what Surprise said... about God being something we made up to feel better about ourselves...’

Sparky sighed and sat down on the bed next to her. ‘Come on Dizzy! We’ve had this conversation before, Surprise is crazy, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, If there’s any truth to what she’s saying, then it’s that God isn’t quite what you expect him to be, doesn’t mean that there is nothing out there’, Sparky said offering Dizzy a small smile.

Dizzy looked up at Sparky brightly, leaning forward and giving the mare a tight hug. ‘Thank you... Sparky’, she said softly.

Sparky placed a hoof on Dizzy’s head and lightly ruffled her mane. ‘You’re welcome... now come on, let’s go to bed; tomorrow is going to be an even longer day if we don’t get any sleep... Station BRIGHTHOUSE is supposed to make the announcement tomorrow’. Sparky said with a smile.

‘Sparky... you’ve been keeping this a secret for months... tell me? Please?’ Dizzy asked, offering up her best puppy dog pout.

‘Ah! Too adorable! Fine! Fine!’ Sparky said playfully pushing Dizzy away. ‘FutureTec’s been tracking a large mineral rich asteroid that’s going to pass between Belleau and our moon, Selena in five months. We’re planning to bring the asteroid; dubbed X57 into orbit, where we’ll strip mine it for resources, this is big, because the asteroid is rich in helium-3, and I don’t need to tell you that our planet basically runs on it, It’s going to be a big day...’