//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Pathfinding // Story: The Depths of Discovery // by Seamserb //------------------------------// Incident Report 1/4/00 EN/R/E/C EXTREME CONFIDENTIALITY. ANY NON-AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ACCESSING THIS FILE WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED AND SUBJECT TO MANDATORY RE-EDUCATION. SPAV-3 and Escort travel through planned route of Charlie Compound outer zone. Operational objective is to clear out Hovel Tribe involved in previous incident (See: Incident - 12/29/99 - EN/R/H/C).  SPAV-3 and Escort are stopped by obstruction on the path. Indeterminate but sizable quantity of Hovel warriors ambush SPAV-3 and Escort from nearby cliffsides. Ground below and around SPAV-3 and escort begins to collapse, presumably from excess of rapidly moving weight above. Ground fully collapses. SPAV-3 and deceased members of Escort descend off the cliffside.  Within SPAV-3, unidentified Hovel POW (Earthen, mare, orange haircoat, yellow mane, muscular build) renders two Enclave combative-personnel unconscious, before being engaged by Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle. POW begins to strangle Pathfinder. Sudden lurching of SPAV-3 throwing both POW and Pathfinder off balance. POW and Pathfinder briefly work together to try and open the emergency sealed side-door. POW and Pathfinder rendered unconscious from SPAV-3’s descent off the cliffside. No more footage available.  Crew Log Major Pane (CO, MIA) Driver Hitte Brakes (KIA) Co-Driver Flore Ret (KIA) Combative Cran Eyter (KIA) Combative Jare Head (KIA) Combative Nay Palm (KIA) Combative Urey Nator (KIA) Combative Stew Bid (KIA) Combative I.P Freely (KIA) Combative Deyz Nats (KIA) Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle (Recovered) Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle recovered at SPAV-3 wreck-site exactly three days after descent. Minor injuries present, but mainly unharmed. POW's body has not yet been found as of 1/4/00. POW Presence within SPAV-3 presumed to be the reason for Incident - 1/4/00 - EN/R/E/C.  Tracking and recovery of POW is considered a top priority as of 1/4/00. Twilight silently sits at one side of a small table. A ceiling lamp shines above her head, with a small droning. While being interrogated wasn’t her first thought of what would happen when being returned to the Compound, she honestly can’t say she’s very surprised. She’s heard before that this sort of thing happens during ‘incidents’ to most ponies involved, even if they’re the victims or something similar. They even confiscated her satchel for the time being. After being extracted by the Enforcers, she was sent to the medical wing for a brief check-up. Thankfully, nothing was wrong with her besides some superficial scrapes and bruises. However, they barely gave her a few minutes to rest before they plopped her down here. Her bandages still feel fresh on her face and head.  Twilight looks at the room around her. It’s sterilized and flat, little more than a metal box with a table and chairs. She scans around the walls and ceilings a little, not able to spot a camera or anything like that; but she doesn’t doubt that there’s one anyways.  Her eyes have trouble staying open. She wishes they gave her a few hours to sleep on an actual bed.  She isn’t sure what questions they’re going to ask, nor what she should expect. Answering as truthfully as possible should hopefully minimize any potential issues. Although she does wonder who is going to be doing the interrogating.  Right on time, the reinforced door swings open. Twilight slightly leans over, seeing a figure emerge from it. Her tired eyes widen a little.  A tall and sharply dressed unicorn comes into view, with a gentle looking demeanor. Her silvery coat and purple mane contrast against her black uniform.  “Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. I’ve heard quite a bit about your escapade.” The commander says with a smile. Twilight immediately recognizes her as Commander Moonlight Raven — the leader of Charlie Compound.  She’s seen or heard her before through means such as posters or broadcasts, but she’s only ever witnessed her in-person once or twice, and only through impersonal speeches addressed to the entire Compound at-large. It’s almost surreal seeing her so close.  She stares at the commander with a bit of a deadpan face, unsure of what to say or do. Should she salute or something? She’s not a soldier, though. What should she— Raven interrupts her train of thought, magically pulling out the chair for herself before taking a seat. “How are you feeling?” she asks, with a tinge of care.  “Fine, I guess. Kinda tired.”  Raven nods slightly. “I can imagine. Why, for an Aspirant such as yourself, it’s honestly a miracle that you survived relatively unharmed.”  Twilight’s face goes blank. She completely forgot. If an Aspirant in the final step isn’t able to complete their first expedition for whatever reason, it won’t count towards becoming a Pathfinder. Is Raven seriously saying that she had to deal with all that crap and it didn’t even matter?! Twilight probably would've screamed if she wasn’t face to face with the most powerful person in the entire Compound — and also that she’s probably being recorded. She shakes a little, trying to compose herself.  “Y-yes… a miracle…” she croaks.  The commander lightly smirks.  “I’d like to discuss some of the events of the past few days, if that’s alright with you?” Raven asks, phrasing the question like Twilight has a choice in the matter. But the unicorn has a feeling that she doesn't. “Okay.”  Raven wastes no time getting into the meat of things. “When Co-Driver Flore Ret hit SPAV-3’s panic button, it began the emergency recording log. I saw in the footage how a few soldiers were apparently physically striking the Hovel prisoner, but not what led to that occurring. Do you know what happened before that moment?” Twilight thinks. She remembers the soldiers telling her how she’d be ‘re-educated’ for ‘sympathizing’, with no reason besides listening to Jack’s story.  Should she tell Raven what Jack told her? There’s a chance that Raven is bluffing her, and actually has the full video log. If she doesn’t answer fully or truthfully then that could bring her under suspicion.  “Due to feeling like my presence in the expedition was unreceptive by the soldiers, I decided to want a one-on-one ‘interview’ with the prisoner, with the soldiers leaving me and her alone—” “That’s against protocol, though.” Raven interrupts.  Twilight blinks. “Well, I didn’t know that.” She lies. “Surely it should've been the soldiers responsibility to know, though?”  Raven squints slightly.  “Go on.” “After the soldiers left us, the prisoner began to tell me some crazy story about how the Enclave was the aggressors, and how they were the victims. I didn’t believe it one bit.”  Regardless of how Twilight actually feels, she decides she shouldn’t even be tempting fate about the Hovel stuff, especially when she doesn’t know how Raven personally feels about the matter.  Raven chuckles slightly.  “A classic Hovel lie. They always claim that they’re innocent, instead of the bloodthirsty barbarians they actually are.”  Well, at least Twilight knows where she lies on this subject now.  “During the ‘interview’, the soldiers were actually secretly listening in using a discarded radio, and burst out of a back room of the SPAV when they heard something they didn’t like. That’s when they began beating the prisoner. A little after that, a spear flew into the cabin and hit the pilot, and that’s when the emergency button was hit.”  Raven shakes her head slightly at the incompetence of the soldiers, but appears to condone Twilight’s retelling of events. “During the attack, I saw that you and the Hovel appeared to get into some sort of fight. After she got the upper hand, it appeared that the two of you briefly worked together to try and escape the falling SPAV.” Raven leans in slightly. “Care to explain why you did so instead of continuing to try and incapacitate the prisoner?” she asks, a bit more serious. Twilight sweats a bit. She needs a compelling and reasonable answer. “I decided that the information I gained from the interview was worth getting back to the Epistrey at any cost. Even if it required working together with an enemy to ensure my survival. Of course, I planned to get away or kill the Hovel if we managed to escape from the immediate danger.” “Hm.”  Raven leans back, expression softening slightly. Twilight can’t tell if she was fully convinced, but at least she came up with something. “During the crash, the recording systems were shut offline, I assume from damage to the SPAV itself. This means we were unable to see what happened during the two days you were stuck at the bottom of the cliff-side. When the Enforcer teams actually did reach the cliff-side, we found that the Hovel was nowhere to be seen, alive or otherwise.” Raven narrows her eyes. “I noticed that the Hovel appeared to sustain much more serious damage during the tumble than you, and I presume that you managed to regain consciousness before she did.”  Twilight internally groans. Did Raven seriously think about that off of pure intuition alone?! “If you DID regain consciousness before the Hovel… why did you not kill them? A few Enforcers spotted you using a flintlock against that… what was it… Dust Sucker. Surely you could've just strolled over to the Hovel and executed them, yes?” She asks, a bit suspicious.  Twilight gets nervous again.  She could try to say that Jack actually woke up before she did, but then it wouldn’t make sense why she wasn’t killed while defenseless. Regardless of what Raven claims the Enforcers did or didn’t see during the extraction, she’s sure that if they did spot Jack, they would've killed her immediately, making her think they never saw Jack at all. But there’s one more piece — the camera. Raven says the camera went out, but she doesn’t have any idea how true this is either. Twilight also doesn’t know WHERE the camera was positioned within the SPAV. Assuming it was still active the entire time, and also located somewhere at the front of the SPAV and facing towards the back, it would've seen everything she did with Jack.  The talks, the meals, the entire fight against the Dusk Sucker. Twilight banks on the camera being in one of the corners, presuming that since both the back and front were ripped off during the tumble, this means the camera, whichever corner it was, would've likely been torn off too. If she’s wrong about this, then she’s screwed. “I woke up before the Hovel did, yes, but they woke up shortly after, and began being aggressive. I decided to not fight it out, and instead used the flintlock to scare them off from the wreck.” Raven raises an eyebrow. “And you let them leave instead of… disposing of them, why?”  Twilight internally curses under her breath. She misstepped. She needs to recover this somehow.  “I was worried I would miss the shot. If I did, I would have surely been an easy victim to the prisoner. While I do know how to reload the flintlock, I’m afraid that I don’t have the practice to reload it in time to deal with a charging assailant.” Raven, albeit seemingly a bit disapproving, seems content with this explanation. She pushes out her chair and gets to her feet. “Alright. This concludes our discussion. After this talk is properly logged, you will be free to go.”  Twilight knew this entire discussion would be recorded, but still grimaces internally. She needs to tread lightly to avoid poking holes in her own story now. As she turns to depart, she suddenly stops for a moment, before smirking. “Oh, and by the way. Due to your extraordinary bravery in light of this experience, I’ve decided to go out on a limb for you. I’ve put a personal commendation on your log… Pathfinder Twilight Sparkle.”  She turns back to the door, before leaving the room.  Twilight perks up a little, mouth agape. Twilight groans in relief as she enters her new Pathfinder quarters, dropping a few of her moving bags. Finally, she can wind down.  She immediately throws herself onto her new bed, sinking into the mattress a little. She hasn’t slept in an actual bed in… well, three days. Which isn’t really that long when you think about it, but still! She rolls on her back, head on a pillow. She honestly wishes she could fall asleep right now for somewhere between twenty and thirty hours, but the interrogation is still fresh on her mind.  Did she answer the best she could? Was Raven being nice just to lull her into something, or is she actually like that? Was Raven being truthful about what she did or did not know?  Her mind racing, one thought suddenly pops to the front of the rest. A sudden realization. Why would Commander Raven specifically point out her being an ‘Aspirant’, if she personally promoted Twilight to being a Pathfinder? Did she only do it because of how she answered during the interrogation?  Did she do it on purpose? Twilight can’t imagine why she would do that. It made have unneeded stress, and she feels like she could have answered better without it.  Unless… making her stressed was the point.  What if Raven wanted her to slip up about something?  Twilight still can’t imagine why she would do that either. To her knowledge at least, she hasn’t done anything to draw any suspicion. She tries to shake it off.  For all she knows, she could be overthinking it. Maybe the opposite is true, and Raven only told her she was a Pathfinder at the end in order to prevent anything like giddiness getting in the way of concise answers.  Besides, if the Commander of the compound thought she was a Hovel sympathizer or traitor or something of the like, she’d probably have Enforcers banging on her door right now. Trying to shut out the thoughts, Twilight retrieves Smarty Pants from one of her bags, before wrapping herself up in some covers. She manages to fall asleep surprisingly quickly. BUM BUM BUM BUM An indeterminate amount of time later, Twilight’s eyes shoot open to the sound of banging on her door. The blood vessels in her eyes are clearly visible.  Half awake, but her mind racing as twice as fast as before, she begins to panic.  Is this it??? Is she going to be taken away for re-education?! In auto-pilot mode, she leaps out of bed. She’s about to jump out of her window, before a shred of sane thought pulls her back.  She decides to at least see who it is before deciding to jump out a five story building.  Scampering to the door like a ghoul, she creaks open the door, looking out a bit fearfully.  Instead of being met with the Enclave Army, she sees Golden Harvest standing there, looking worried.  Twilight feels a bit bewildered. “Wha— Gold? What are you doing here? How are you even at the Pathfinder Wing—” Golden nearly sends Twilight flying with the speed at which she throws open the door, immediately scooping Twilight up in a hug.  “OH TWILIGHT YOU’REACTUALLY ALRIGHT I THOUGHTSOMETHING SUPERBAD HAPPENED TOYOU—” “Too.. tight.” Twilight gurgles. Golden isn’t even squeezing that hard, it’s more like Twilight herself feels like a loose bag of bones and skin right now. Golden quickly lets go with a ‘sorry’, letting Twilight step back a little in confusion. Sure, she and Golden are close friends, but they’re not really on ‘hugging’ terms. She’s not really sure why Golden did that.  “Why are you here, Gold..?” She realizes after she said it that it sounds a bit rude, but she’s a bit too tired to make herself sound pleasant right now. Golden doesn’t seem to notice, or care, though.  “Once it got noticed that your expedition didn’t return on time, everyone started to get worried! I thought you died or something!” Golden says, a bit relieved.  Twilight looks a bit bewildered. “How do you even know about that? Aren’t you a farmer? No offense, but I thought they kept stuff like that under wraps.” “Believe it or not, the agricultural wing actually has a very elaborate gossip network. We probably hear things earlier than most of the other wings.” she says with a wink. “But don’t tell anypony told you that.”  “Oh. Thanks, I guess? I’m uh… glad you’re… okay too?” Twilight isn’t really sure how to respond, really just thinking about going back to bed. She begins to slowly and awkwardly close the door, but Golden gently grabs it, stopping her. “Do you think you could tell me what happened?” she asks, curiously. Twilight frowns.  She wasn’t explicitly told to not tell any other pony about what happened, although it was probably implied. And the last thing she wants to do is have to recount her somewhat-false version of events again, and possibly mess something up.  Twilight imagines Golden might be the type of pony who couldn’t keep something secret very well.  “Uh… I can’t. I signed an NDA—” “A what?” “Basically I just signed a form that says I can't tell anyone about what happened. At least, not right now. Sorry.” Twilight lies. Golden frowns a little, but can't argue with that. Her eyes widen a little. “Oh! Almost forgot. Brought something for you!” She says, pulling out a small basket and handing it to Twilight.  A bundle of corn bread and a small smiley face note.  “Greaaaat. Thanks…” Twilight says, trying not to visibly grit her teeth. “Well, anyways, I’m glad you’re back, safe and sound. See you around, Twilight.” she says, fully closing the door. Twilight waits a few seconds, making sure Golden isn’t about to bust down her door a third time or something.  After the coast looks clear, she sighs loudly and jumps back on her bed, again. She feels a bit bad for lying to Golden, but that small feeling of guilt is immediately drowned out by a much stronger one of exhaustion, with Twilight falling back asleep. Twilight wakes up with the artificial lighting of the Compound shining on her face. Now that she’s well rested, she’s able to think clearly. And think she does. She honestly should be elated that she’s finally become a Pathfinder. The Twilight from a week or two ago would've been jumping for joy. But right now, it feels bittersweet. It's unbelievable that just a few days could have shaken up her worldview so much – her perception of the Enclave. The way the soldiers treated her on the SPAV. What Jack told her. The possible mind-games Raven had going on.  The Enclave has always leaned on the authoritarian side. Something something small price to pay to maintain order or whatever. But the things Jack said… that’s going way too far. That’s basically genocide.  Twilight knows that Jack isn’t even a reliable source. Of course she would say that the Enclave are the aggressors in everything, just like how the Enclave says the Hovel  are the aggressors in everything. It would be completely irrational to base anything on her word. But there was just something about the way it all happened.  Maybe it’s because Jack actually came to help her.  Or maybe it’s because she was finally able to pin a face to the actual pony, instead of just seeing some nebulous stereotypical barbarian in her mind when she heard the word 'Hovel'. Twilight realizes she won’t get anywhere or anything done simply brooding on this. She needs concrete facts. Information. Knowledge.  Luckily, she’s just been granted the ability to access things that might help her. Twilight gently removes various bandages, cleans and washes her face and mane, and generally just freshens up a little. She’s looked like a complete wreck these past few days, but she can finally look presentable now.  She dons her new Pathfinder outfit, a sleek gray and black jacket, and white under-shirt. The insignia of the Enclave lies on the side of one of the leg sleeves, a white three-pointed star. Twilight can’t help but smile a little as she inspects herself in the mirror. She’s never been the vain type, but she admits that she looks good.  (Possible) Atrocities be damned, the Enclave sure knows how to dress.  She slips on her trusty satchel, before leaving. Twilight immediately takes notice of the differences between the other wings and the Pathfinder one. While the other ones are by no means ‘bad’, the Pathfinder wing blows them out of the water. As opposed to wood and stone, Twilight can see the various halls and tunnels are instead mainly metallic, and even nicely decorated somewhat similar to the Epistrey.  Speaking of the Epistrey, it really is just right there.  Looking over a balcony on her floor, she sees the Epistrey merely a block or two away from the exit of the Pathfinder wing. Very convenient.  She glances at the wing on the opposite side of the Epistrey, the Aspirant wing. The damage from the explosion a few days ago is all but repaired by now. As she continues to move through the wing, generally just exploring what it has to offer, she passes by some other Pathfinders here and there. A few give her some noticing looks. Can they tell that she’s new? Or maybe do they know what happened with SPAV-3? Probably no point to dwell on it right now. She eventually enters some sort of large chamber, sort of like a smaller version of the Compounds main nexus, but for the Pathfinder wing in specific. Every wing has one, but just like the previous areas, it’s much more elegant and high-quality than the other common areas.  Twilight passes by more Pathfinders still just relaxing about and talking with each other. Should she talk to them?  Aside from her regular social anxiety, she doesn’t want to risk possibly saying or doing something potentially wrong. She’ll hold off on that part until she gets some more experience. Besides, nothing wrong with a bit of looking around.  She suddenly notices one smallish structure a short distance away. It’s built into the wall itself, with a small currently—opened shutter at its top. There’s various tools and other items on counters and hanging behind on walls. Some sort of equipment store? Twilight frowns. She’s never been one for fighting, but it’s clear that being a Pathfinder might be a bit more dangerous than originally entailed… her mind drifts back to the various fights she had with Jack and the horrific encounter with the Dusk Sucker.  Something small wouldn’t hurt. Nothing wrong with self defense. Twilight approaches the counter. An earthen stallion sits on the other side, leaning back with a tooth-pick in his mouth. He doesn’t look like a Pathfinder, which would check out considering he’s working the desk. He notices her coming over with a small glance of his eyes, sitting up and taking the tooth-pick out, somewhat casually. “Greetings, miss. What can I do for you?” He has a relaxed, but still focused tone. “Hello. I’m looking for something I could use for self defense. Do you have anything in store?”  The shopkeeper nearly laughs. “Anything in store? EVERYTHING is in store. Everything here is dedicated to making your life easier, and making the lives of whoever would oppose the Enclave harder. Or non-existent.” he heartily exclaims. Someone certainly enjoys their job. “Hm. What about a firearm?”  The shopkeeper raises an eyebrow. “A unicorn looking for a gun? Never seen that before.” Twilight frowns. Is he talking about her horn?  She rolls her eyes slightly. Non-unicorns don’t get how hard it is to actually do stuff like that. It’s a classic case of survivorship-bias, where the best unicorns are also the ones with the best magic, and also the most famous, and now every random pony thinks every unicorn can shoot lasers out of their eyes or summon hellfire or something. The shopkeeper just shrugs. “Alright. How’s this?”  He pulls out an obscenely large gun, nearly the size of the table itself. “This here is the Ravager Mark 9. Breech loader. 3000 Joules of stopping power. Pierces plate armor like butter.” Twilight’s eyes nearly bulge out of her head looking at the massive firearm. “How exactly is this something for ‘self defense’?” she asks, a bit bewildered. “Well. You point it at whatever is making you need to defend yourself, pull the trigger, and now there’s nothing you need to defend from.”  Twilight frowns. “Yeah… how about something more conservative?”  The shopkeeper nods, and puts the gun away. He takes out a moderate sized case, something the perfect size Twilight is looking for. He opens it, revealing a comically small gun which takes up nearly none of the actual case. It’s smaller than a hoof. “This here is the Pinner. Reliable, very easy to hide.”  Is he messing with her? “How about something… LESS conservative?” Twilight asks, starting to get a bit annoyed.  But the shopkeeper looks as genuine as he did at the start. “Hm. Alright. Here.”  He pulls out a moderately sized pistol “This here is a special import from the Terminus Guild, a Ritt. Single-shot. They love these damn things. Personally I think they’re sort of a bust, but whatever.”  “How do you reload it?”  The shopkeeper seems a bit surprised at Twilight’s intrigue, but compiles. He pops open the cylinder, or more accurately, the square. Within the four-sided chamber, there's a single slot for a bullet. He mimics putting one in, closing it, and then pulling the hammer. “Loaded.” he says.  Twilight’s impressed at the speed compared to a flintlock. Those things take forever to reload.  “I’ll buy it.” Twilight says.  The shopkeeper smirks. “Aight. That’ll be 3500 bits.”  Twilight nearly chokes on air. That’s way more than she was expecting.  She groans slightly, but pays the bits. The shopkeeper takes it with a smile. “Here. I’ll even throw in a free holster, some ammo and the Pinner for you.” Twilight accepts the holster and ammo, but looks at the Pinner with some slight confusion. Is this actually a gun and not some gag? She just takes it anyway. “Pleasure doing business with you, miss. Come again whenever you have a problem that needs dealin’ with.” He says with a smirk.  Twilight dons the holster under her jacket and slides the Ritt inside. She honestly feels a bit awkward. Hopefully she can improve her magic in the near future to not have to carry a gun everywhere like a cow-pony.  Deciding she’s seen enough of the Pathfinder wing, at least for now, she heads back to the Epistrey. She’s still curious what those rooms past the front desk are like. After a very brief walk, she’s back inside the interior of the Epistrey. She recognizes the same clerk from there. Half of his face is bandaged up, with some visibly severely burned skin around them. The other half looks miserable, but less like he's sad and more like he's angry. He notices Twilight approaching him, and just looks at her. The two stare at each other for a second or two.  “Hey. I was wondering if I could go over—” “Pathfinders can freely enter or leave the back chambers as they please. You don’t need to ask.” he bluntly says, seemingly noticing her position. Twilight just nods, and walks past him. Poor guy. He probably didn't deserve whatever happened to him. The back chambers are less impressive than Twilight expected, although she isn’t really sure what she was expecting to be honest. It looks very similar to the common area of the Pathfinder wing, just way smaller, much more refined, and a bit more… focused?  Nopony is really lounging around, they’re all doing something or going somewhere. Most of them are also Pathfinders as well. As she’s looking around, a trio of Pathfinders suddenly approach her. She’s taken a bit off guard. “O-oh! Hello.” Twilight says.  “Greetings. I take it you’re new, here?” A stallion unicorn says. Twilight’s heart sinks a little. “How did you know?” She asks, deciding to rip off the bandage fast. “Quite a few of us heard about the SPAV-3 Incident. We recognized you from some of the recording logs.” the same unicorn says. Twilight internally groans. Great. The first Pathfinders she meets personally have seen her scream and fight with a knife like a psycho. “We were just wondering if—” Another one of the ponies, a mare Pegasus, suddenly gets in the way.  “Did you win the fight?” She asks. Twilight looks a bit surprised. “Flitter! That’s not the proper thing to ask!” The stallion unicorn says. “Whaaat? I don't see a problem with wanting to know the full picture, Comet!”  “I'm curious too.” the third pony says, another unicorn. Comet Tail groans. “Please excuse my friends. They’re just wondering what happened after the recording log went out… about the same time the SPAV began to fall fully.” he says. Twilight slightly raises an eyebrow. Surely these ponies couldn’t be something like secret spies probing her for information or something… right? “Well… after the SPAV fell off the ledge, the Hovel and I were sent flying and hit the wall, hard. Jack’s face wasn’t looking—” “Who’s Jack?” Flitter asks. Twilight eyes widen. She misspoke.  “Er… I meant smack. The Hovel smacked face-first into the wall and got knocked out cold.”  “So you won?” Flitter asks. “I… guess?” Twilight says, unsure. “Yes! I told you, Rare!” Flitter says, poking the other unicorn. Rare find grumbles as he hands Flitter some bits.  “So rigged.” He says. Comet Tail flicks both of them magically. They both let out an ‘ouch’ as they rub their chins. “Anyways. You seemed to hold yourself pretty well during all that. We’d like to know if you’d want to join our squad?” Comet asks. “Squad?” Twilight asks, unfamiliar. She knows what the word means, but not the exact context in regards to Pathfinders. “Team, basically. You’ll work with us, and we’ll work with you. It’s a co-operative effort.” Comet says. The other two ponies nod. Twilight thinks on it. Having some more friends wouldn’t hurt, nor would having some more experienced Pathfinders helping her learn the ropes. She just hopes these guys aren’t secretly really bad at being Pathfinders and are only recruiting her because nobody else wants to join them. That would be way too cliché. “Sure. Why not?” Twilight asks. The trio smiles.  “Great! If you need any help you can come find us. We’ll look for you if we need you. My quarters are room 401 in the Pathfinder Wing, and I know where Flitter and Rare, in case you need them.” Flitter and Rare Find nod. “Will do.” Twilight says, with a smile.  As the trio leave, Twilight bites her lip. She can’t slip up like that again. Hopefully none of them think anything of it besides a simple mistake. She tries to get back on track. Using some convenient signs placed around, she navigates to the ‘Information Registry’. She was expecting something similar to the clerk, or even something like a library, but she’s rather confused and surprised at what it actually looks like. There’s multiple secluded chambers connected together, each only looking like they’re large enough for a single pony. Some of them appear closed and sealed.  She eventually finds one that’s open, and quickly realizes they actually ARE only for one pony. Inside is a small room with a chair, table, and some strange device attached to a screen. She sees some instructions on the side, reading them out.  “Close and seal door… take seat… channel magic into the receiver to navig—” She squints further at the words. “What.” She has to channel magic into this machine? Cautiously, she does so. Her horn glows as a light stream flows towards the machine. Suddenly, the screen turns on. Twilight metaphorically feels around for a little bit. She can’t explain it well, but she somehow inherently knows how to control the screen's contents. It’s like an entire library of closed books has been funneled into her mind, and she just has to open them with her thoughts.  It’s a strange feeling – having all the information in your head, but only being able to actually access it by looking and reading at a screen like normal. She briefly wonders how non-unicorns would even access this, but decides that isn't important right now. After combing through some categories and subcategories, she finds what she’s looking for. Information about Hovels.  Surprisingly, they’re actually separated based on different tribes. Twilight somewhat expected them to all be lumped together into one generalized blob. Near the top of the alphabetical list, she sees it. ‘The Annui’ Opening up their file and reading their dossier, she notices many vague and threatening statements. ‘Kill on sight.’ ‘Incredibly dangerous.’ ‘Cannot be reasoned with.’ Attached to the file are dozens, possibly HUNDREDS of related Incidents. Skimming a few of those, she sees that most, if not all of them are incredibly gruesome or violent. And the Annui are the aggressors. Twilight just looks in disbelief. Jack told her the Annui only ever attacked for serious reasons, or in self-defense. This tells a different picture, though. There has to be a reason. What if Jack just didn’t know about these??? Or what if she didn’t know the full extent? Most of these are dated quite a while before Jack likely was alive. No matter the case, whether or not Jack was lying about the Annui being innocent or not, this does corroborate Jack's claims that they’re always attacked. Although, she sees that maybe there's a reason why… Hopefully, she can get to the bottom of this, eventually. Commander Raven sits alone in her personal quarters, in near total darkness. The only light in the room comes from a large screen in-front of her. She glares at it with a deathly intensity. On-screen appears to be various still-images of Annui ponies. In the center lies the largest image by far, the face capture of an orange haired and yellow maned mare.  She can’t help but chuckle to herself, a bit manically. Soon enough, she’ll finally have her long awaited revenge on that entire clan of deplorable scum. The Annui will know her wrath.  And she knows just the new Pathfinder, also wronged by the Annui, who will surely join her...