"How are you holding up, young lady?"
How am I holding up, he asks. I look ugly with my mane and coat shaved off. How does he think I'm holding up? "Miserable. The headaches are lessening, but I keep trying to throw up when there's nothing left to throw up. And they're not letting me have any chocolate milk, either." I'm losing muscle mass just lying here. "Going to need to get back into shape after this..."
Ignition was unmoving as they continued to speak in low tones to prevent any hospital staff from overhearing them. "You were warned about the side effects of their treatments."
Quarter rolled her eyes and took a sip of water from a cup held between her hooves. "Yes, I know. I know. Doesn't make it any more irritating to deal with. It's bad enough that I missed my memorial service. Couldn't be there for Carrie."
"Attended your own services before?"
"Many times. It always feels very awkward. ...Though also darkly funny."
"Hm. Any objections to the orders so far?"
A slow head shake. "None. I agree that #5's usefulness wasn't going to last much longer. It was nice to have her around while it lasted, but her mental state was a risk. I'm not going to lose any sleep over her loss. There are other potentially powerful unicorns out there that can be swayed. It's just a matter of locating them the next time I have reason to travel."
"What are your thoughts on Captain Armor's interference?"
Of all the ponies to ruin a perfectly good victory... "I feel it illustrates exactly why we don't need Canterlot throwing wrenches at us. Deploy a squad of Chamelogs from here to there. You're familiar with their specs, so you know what they can do. Arrange them across Equestria in such a way that we can learn of any unexpected trips. Make sure they stay clear of any hostile fauna or specialized spells that might detect them." Excellent spies. They're unwieldy in combat, but then that's not what they're built for.
"As you wish. If we can keep Canterlot distracted by their project, so much the better."
"It would be a hoot if it succeeded. The robot goes home, we neutralize the Ghost, and that leaves the air clear between the two cities." Wishful thinking. Transition between far-off universes is going to require more magic power than even Celestia possesses, and thanks to the Crown Jewels we're the only ones who have it. This isn't anything like that rumored mirror. "How long before the prototype is finished?"
"I've been assured that it will be completed in the next day or two. Longer if we want to definitively ensure that nothing will malfunction."
R&D's been working themselves to the bone. I'll have to give them a few weeks' vacation after the coup is complete. "And your next meeting proper?"
"Two days."
"Whereabouts of our remaining elites?"
"Agent #6 has remained at Maximum Millions. She has assured me that her captive did not get any information as to their hiding place. #7 has parked himself in the hidden entry tunnel in case Leviathan discovers it. Agents #8 and #9... or rather just #8, pardon me... have confirmed that they're training out of the public eye and mastering the tools at their disposal."
Figures that Calico would want to tour her future paradise before it opens. I just hope she plays it smart and doesn't try to get in the way while the goods are being brought in. And Bushwhacker loves dark areas, so his hiding place doesn't surprise me. "Just #8? What was #9 doing when you contacted them?"
"...Humming a song of pure narcissism and self-indulgence," Ignition answered, words packed to the brim with distaste. "I cannot in good conscience repeat the lyrics in full."
Quarter didn't hide her disgust. For Luna's love, not that song. "He calls it his personal theme," she complained. "He was humming it when I first established contact with him. It was disgusting then, and it's disgusting now. ...But that's not important. What is involves our move against Celestia. It's going to have to be put on hold for now."
"I suspected as much. Our adversaries are the cause, I'm presuming?"
"Correct. Our attempts at stopping them both have been stymied repeatedly. If we launch our attack on schedule, the prototype will be destroyed and the Crown Jewels stolen without anything gained. We'll take this time to perfect the weapon and get everything ironed out the way it's supposed to. In addition, approve any remaining drone designs that pass your inspections and allow their construction." I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not becoming apprehensive.
Ignition nodded as he made mental notes of those orders. "#8 was wondering how we're going to strike back against our enemies after the losses we've incurred. I have a few ideas if you want to hear them."
Quarter considered this for a few moments before shaking her head, much to Ignition's obvious surprise. "You've been working the hardest out of all of us, and you have no idea how much I appreciate that. But once operations resume, I'll be doing the rest of the scheming until the job's finally done."
She hadn't said anything about it, but Ignition probably suspected that Quarter was disappointed in him for letting himself be manipulated by Gray. "Fair enough. I fully admit my recent planning was not up to standard."
Quarter shrugged off his admittance. When she'd said earlier that she had no objections to the orders he'd been giving, she was serious. "It's clear I've been overworking you." Security duties, R&D overseer, guiding our forces, acting as the public face of the corporation, looking after me and Carrie on top of that... that much work would exhaust anypony, myself included. I'm surprised he can keep going sometimes. "You'll be relieved from looking after the agents upon my return. No changes in pay and benefits. Focus on your other work. That sort of organization is what you're best at."
"Most ponies in your position would think little of firing their subordinates for their failures," Ignition commented appreciatively. "...Or worse, come to think of it."
"Most ponies obsessed with power wouldn't have my standards," Quarter returned. "I'm out to prove myself a better ruler than Celestia, Ignition. Killing my subjects isn't going to help my case. Abducting them already pushes it close to the breaking point." She blinked as an idea finished forming. "Though speaking of 'abduction', I think we should revisit an old project that we'd abandoned. Have you ever read through the Zoolinef file?"
"That one was concluded long ago. I didn't see much point in perusing it when you hired me."
Quarter took another sip of water and glanced at a wall clock. "We have a minute before Carrie gets here. I'll give you the cliff notes. Four decades ago via a false identity, I stationed some of my team in Diarchs and had them develop a way to alter pony biology. The eventual goal was to allow animalistic transformations that would let them keep their mind and identity. Other races, Equestria's most dangerous creatures... anything would've been fair game. I would have used them as part of my final strike against Canterlot.
"The team spent years developing several different formulas. Unfortunately, the drug that showed the most promise failed on account of it altering the mind with minimal changes, if any, to the body. I 'fired' the department by giving the Police an anonymous tip and letting them rescue the test subject." Only two of the scientists have been released since then. One's switched to a more benign career, and the other died a year later. I doubt the first one ever learned whose payroll she was on, so she's a non-factor.
"Forgive me for getting ahead of you, but what does this have to do with our enemies?"
Quarter paused, trying to swallow back the bile that had arisen in her throat and keep herself from throwing up again. She didn't continue until she laid back against her pillow, still feeling nauseated. "I hadn't paid much attention to who the child was back then. Anypony would do. After the case was closed, I dismissed her from my mind for years. I took another look when I eventually heard about an MRPD officer whose approach to life and crime was animalistic. My research told me it was the Zoolinef guinea pig."
Ignition's frown deepened. "...Gray Ghost."
"I love it when our thinking is parallel. The old reports showed that a common house cat was used as the basis for that particular drug variant. With all of this in mind, do we know of any specific weaknesses we can exploit?"
"Agent #7 noticed during the abduction that the Ghost is afraid of dogs," Ignition suggested. "She refused to attack when he took the form of a Mastiff."
"Of course. That's one possibility." Quarter's smile was a thin but devious one. "Although..."
A nurse poked her head into the room. "Excuse me, Hazelnut? Your sister's here to see you if you feel up to it."
"Always am," Quarter said in a normal tone. "We'll continue this later," she hissed again as soon as the nurse looked away. "Trust me, you'll like it. But if I can suggest something?"
Ignition leaned forward, ears pricking up as he listened to what she had to say.
...
...
Caramel stepped back for a moment as Ignition trotted out of the room, muttering about uppity children as he went. "Um, why did he storm out like that?" she asked when she got close enough to talk quietly.
Quarter would've shrugged if she could. "I suggested that he should find himself a wife," she admitted. "He told me to give it a rest." Though to be more specific, I told him to consider asking Calico out on a date.
"You... don't really believe he's going to do that, do you? He's never struck me as the romantic type."
"Not really, but you do agree that he needs to loosen up a little, right?"
Caramel nodded firmly. "I have no doubt."
To: R.D.
Ponyville
Many thanks for the pep talk. It was sorely needed. Be thankful that you weren't able to deliver it: the aftermath was a mess. You'll be hearing about it soon enough, if you haven't already.
Please pass along my appreciation to those in Ponyville for their support. And if I may ask a favor, there are two ponies there by the names of Applejack and Fluttershy whose letters were received and valued: if you could give them my thanks for me, that would be great.
Leviathan
To: Leviathan
c/o The Pyre of Fears
I am writing this on my aunt's behalf. She hasn't had much time these past few days to compose any letters, so she asked me to do it for her.
Per your request, we spoke with Miss Startide regarding her alleged experiences in this other world she talked about. Her memories needed jogged a few times, since they happened shortly after she graduated from CSGU, but she was able to share quite a bit. Here's the summary.
She described it as a world of bipeds. The experiment that brought her there placed in her in a spacious home populated by four of them. Three of them were robotic, from what we could determine: she kept using phrases such as "unrealistic life" and "living without living". They possessed a remarkable degree of intelligence and autonomy. Two were child-sized by their standards, but stood as tall---if not taller---than the majority of ponies. One of them was the "other blue robot" Startide had been going on about. The third was a comparative giant, green and bulky "with a strange face". All of them were friendly and eager to help when they found her.
The fourth was a flesh-and-blood being called a "human". Startide described him as stout, with "a real cloud of a beard". The child robots were his creations, his pride and joy. She needed a few minutes to recall their names: the scientist Dr. Light, the children Rock and Roll, and the giant Auto. (I needed to double-check the spelling on that name.)
The one called 'Rock' had a secondary name that the others often referred to him as: "Mega Man". I'll confess to being confused about the meaning of that first word. The second makes sense given the name of Dr. Light's race, but it still feels strange.
Startide recalled that they did their best to make her feel welcome, even while they sought to help her return to Equestria. Rock's optimism was in part what kept her going. They eventually enlisted the help of at least one other scientist and a large group of other "unrealistic lives", and with a lot of research and effort they combined technology with Startide's magic to open a one-way portal back home.
She has not returned to that world since. According to her, that experience taught her to be more cautious about how she utilized her magic. At some point she decided that a cushy life in a large town or city wasn't for her, and she retired to a rural community to become a grocer.
Celestia plans to talk to her again soon about the methods used by Dr. Light's team. Between them and what I'm told the researchers are digging up, I believe we'll have a way home for you soon. Hang in there!
Princess Cadance
To: Blue Raspberry
From: Ebony Evening
Hi. I'm sorry I took so long to talk to you since your graduation party, but things have been busy. Raspberry, I'm very sorry for stealing that slice of cake. Please don't stay mad at me.
...
...
To: Eebon
From: Bluey
What are you talking about, girl? I got over that a LONG time ago! But never mind me, what about you? I heard that you'd gotten kidnapped! That's nuts!
...
...
To: Blue
From: Ebony
Yeah, everything happened how the newspaper said it. I'm okay, I wasn't hurt or anything like that. But it was still a rotten experience that I don't want to go through again.
...
...
To: Eebon
From: Bluey
What are you doing dropping letters in my box for? Get over here and let's hang out a while! Tell me everything!
...Dear Journal:
...I met a strange pony recently, and not just in looks. I've never seen anyone get so worked up over my silence like she did. It was funny at first, but eventually it was just annoying.
...Should've told you: I was kidnapped. Don't be so shocked.
...I created a new Solitaire game. I was bored, so I taught the strange pony how to play it.
...I confessed to her why I choose to be emotionless. She was quiet for a while after that.
...She asked me for help with something. She had panicked and stolen an icebox in Canterlot once. She believed it only cost three bits, but they claimed it was 3,800. She wanted my opinion on why they were chasing her.
...I thought about it, then asked for paper and a pencil. I tore off a piece, wrote down '3,800', then bunched up the paper so that only the '3' was visible. It was the only thing that made sense to me.
...For some reason she looked haunted when I did that. I didn't see her the rest of the evening. I swear to Celestia that I heard her crying about something in the middle of the night.
...She packaged up the pie she'd been eating, gave it to me, and dropped me back home. I didn't have any more, but my family did.
...I was interviewed by the Police. I gave them my observations. I doubt they'll look at what I said too closely, but something about that over-emotional idiot worries me. I'm keeping my eyes open for her.
...I like the Police Chief. He looks like the sort of pony that could take you out for a mint.
...Enough about me. How are you doing? Want to know how to play my new game? I call it "FreeCell".
...Fiver
Sometime later at a certain store in Canterlot, four ponies looked up from their work when a sack arrived in the mail. When they opened it, they were surprised to find that it was full of gold and small gemstones, along with a note that read: "Double what I owe and then some for the stolen fridge. --Calico Driftwood". When they counted everything up, they estimated the total value to be around 8,000 bits.
The owner recalled that experience not-so-fondly, and he talked it over with his three employees. Eventually they shrugged and let it go. They had long since recouped their losses from that theft---it had been a while---but if the culprit was willing to pay them in full plus extra, they weren't going to argue.
Gray's hooves drummed a steady beat on the sidewalk as she galloped around the block. The two newest residents of Flower Row were close behind.
This had been their routine they'd settled on. Fleetfoot's shore leave had ended and she'd returned to the Wonderbolts, but not without leaving instructions on how to continue their workouts. The morning following the family being reunited, Gray took it upon herself to offer what training she could to Leviathan's recruits. Stretches, runs and high-speed, twisted flights in the morning, a healthy lunch with a few hours rest, and a trip to the local gym for access to their weights and punching bags in the afternoon.
There likely wouldn't be enough time for any serious gains to be noticeable, and they wouldn't be moving like tremendous machines anytime soon. Still, every bit counted. The time would soon arrive when they would be thankful for what little they'd attained.
Of course, not everypony was taking it as seriously as they were. Pure Energy saw them running and joined them without hesitation. Several adolescents on scooters got it into their heads to follow them when they saw Energy having fun. Others saw them running and decided "hey, it's a nice day for a gallop" and did the same. A few more saw the line of ponies going around the block and thought somepony was in trouble, so they followed along to see who was being pursued.
Eventually Gray took a quick look back to see what all the noise was about, and did a double-take to see nearly forty ponies strung along behind them---one of whom had a golden retriever running alongside him. Squealing in panic, she bumped her speed up a gear and took off. Maverick and Magnum did the same, making token protests. Pure Energy laughed and pushed himself to keep up, while the rest of the line followed his lead.
...
Across the street, Ebony was catching up with the friend she'd apologized to. Fiver and Zig-Zag were accompanying her for the sake of having something to do. The galloping, shouting, and barking got their attention, and for a short time they watched the line circle around the block.
A snack vendor wheeled his cart down the sidewalk near them. "Special on ice cream cones today," he offered. "Anypony want some?"
All of them agreed. After all, what was entertainment without a quality snack?
...
Motion caught Gray's eyes: one of her neighbors from the corner apartment building was leaving with her little terrier in tow. The dog excitedly yapped when it saw the ruckus approaching, pulling on its leash to try and join the chase.
Gray hissed with fear and slammed on the brakes instinctively---but ended up paying for it. Levi's recruits crashed into her, and they yelped as they were bowled over. Most of those behind them weren't able to stop or evade, starting a chain of collapses, a chorus of cries, and a cacophony of crashes. Only the golden retriever, the terrier, and their respective owners avoided getting caught in the pileup.
With some struggling---and some convenient amnesia where her skill set was concerned---Gray woozily pulled herself free from the pile. Meanwhile, the retriever either didn't have any part in the traditional dog-cat rivalry or didn't recognize her unique traits, for it bounded towards her with a happy bark and a wagging tail. Gray had enough time to whimper and raise her hooves to try and shield herself before the retriever jumped on her, pushing her onto her back and deluging her face in doggy kisses and slobber.
The retriever's owner laughed. "Aww, lookit that. Jolly-boy likes you!"
"Get this loving lummox off of me!"
...
Thankfully nopony was seriously hurt, and most of those involved were bemused at worst from the experience afterward. A few were outright laughing. Gray never did; in the aftermath, a unanimous decision between her and the recruits was made to have the workouts at Bronclyn High's track instead.
Two pegasi who were part of Manehattan's weather team talked to each other.
"Hold up a second, Blue Streak. Are you saying we actually got a letter asking if we do requests?"
"Yeh. From that robot, if you can believe it. Weird, right?"
"'Requests' ... Seriously, do we look like DJs? There's a system to how we work!"
Silence.
"So... what was her request?"
"I can't read you sometimes, boss. ...Okay, okay, don't give me that look! ...Anyway, the letter said she wanted a light rain over 319 13th Street sometime in the future. She didn't say what for."
"Any weather events on the schedule?"
"Not until next week."
"...Alright, we'll grant her request. But for future reference, Blue Streak, we are not going to make a habit of this. You got it? Good. Now, grab somepony who isn't working right now and hop to it."
...
...
That afternoon Leviathan dozed on the Pyre's roof, her helmet next to her and her hands behind her head. Beneath her was the largest beach towel the local stores had available. Over her was a rain cloud that spanned the length and width of the rooftop, dropping precipitation at a light but steady rate. On her was a content smile.
Near the cloud, the weather ponies responsible debated what to call this. They couldn't safely call it "sunbathing", and "rainbathing" just sounded silly, so...