//------------------------------// // AD 2155 part 2 - Secrets and sins // Story: Mankind Triumphant - Relic // by Dafaddah //------------------------------// Based on The Conversion Bureau: Mankind Triumphant - Relic - Chapter eight: AD 2155 part 2 - Secrets and Sins by Dafaddah Author's note:  Heap Big thanks to Microshazm for editing.   --- “Victoria cantered down the corridor, a vacant smile on her muzzle. She had noticed that a smiling pony was essentially invisible to the human staff, and could essentially go anywhere in the house without being questioned. She winced internally every time she passed her fellow pony staff along the way. They too had had their intelligence dimmed as part of the modified ponification process, and in the case of the males had also been gelded. Those responsible will pay a price!  She got to her destination and knocked three times on the door with a yellow forehoof. Victoria wasn’t expecting an answer so late in the evening. Usually the Littons spent this time of night watching movies or engaged in other entertainments. She turned the knob with her mouth, and let herself into the Littons’ office. Once inside, she held up a pendant she had found hanging on a chain around her neck. It had mysteriously appeared there after her last interview with Princess Celestia. Somehow, she knew what it was, and how to use it. Victoria stroked it once and felt the presence of the princess. How eerie! she thought. “Well it’s pretty new to me too! But I’m glad it works,” said Celestia’s voice in her head. Hello, your majesty. Wow! This is better than in a spy movie! Victoria grinned ear-to-ear. Can you see what I see as well? Celestia’s voice again whispered gently in her mind: “Yes. In fact I can experience all your senses. But you’ll only hear my voice. It will be less confusing for you that way.” Victoria went to the desk, where a standard workstation icon floated a few inches off the surface. She placed her hoof in the icon and it expanded into a standard display. Uh,oh. This is going to be slow going if I have to type everything one key at a time with my hooves, though Victoria. “I can activate the keys for you telekinetically, if you tell me what to type,” said the Princess. Great! Victoria touched the id entry field on the panel. Type “wallbanger”, please. The letters magically appeared. She touched the password entry field. Type “Sasha123”. She tagged the enter button, and Litton’s home screen floated over the desk. Success! That bastard Harvey never even thinks twice about logging-in right in front of his pony slaves! Too bad for him... Victoria stumbled mid-thought, and blushed.  Oh, I’m sorry I used that type of language, your majesty! She was amazed that she had become so squeamish about even mild cussing. She heard Celestia’s chuckle echo in her mind’s ear. “Despite appearances, keep in mind that I am not in my first millenium. Don’t worry my little pony, I’ve heard worse.” The background screen showed the feeds from security cameras placed around the house. It was set up so that each window seemed to be following a specific human around the house. None of the feeds showed ponies. Ha! Even the house AI has been instructed to ignore ponies. Isn’t that interesting?! Vicky smiled as she explored the Littons’ files. Thirty minutes later, the smile turned predatory when she was able to locate records on a series of financial transactions that occurred on a monthly basis. This is interesting, Princess, she thought. It would appear the Littons’ have established a contact with a person working for Sachs Heavy Industries, in the Eastern Alliance. Technically that’s treason. The amount of money involved makes it very likely clandestine. Also, the Littons are only acting as brokers, the real buyer is registered as a numbered account. “Can you list the dates of the transactions?” asked Celestia. Yes. Victoria touched a tab with a hoof. The list appeared onscreen. “Each transaction happens exactly two days after my blood has been harvested from the Treasure Chest,” said the Princess. “I believe it is too strong a coincidence for it not to be linked. It would seem someone in Sachs Heavy Industries has been selling some of my blood with the Litton’s acting as their agent in the Western Ascendancy.” Victoria was surprised again at the strength of her emotions. Tears began to fall past her muzzle onto the desk. If only I had been able to discover this before I would have been exonerated and I would not have been ponified! “It is my hope Victoria, that you can find some solace in the fact that you are no longer alone. There is admittedly little I can do, but what I can do, I will,” vowed the Princess. Vicky felt ashamed. She did not want to give Celestia the impression that she was so self-centered, or ungrateful for what she had already received. And she was very grateful to have gotten her full faculties back. You have my gratitude both for giving me hope and my mind back. But gratitude is not enough... “ She had a sudden thought. Princess Celestia, how would you like to own a company? Her predatory smile returned. *** It was the second night in a row Victoria had been in the Littons’ office. So far she had set up a company technically owned by Harvey Litton but under her direct oversight, and transferred assets to it from the Littons’ other holdings via complex transactions effectively making them untraceable. As a former auditor, Victoria knew all the tricks, and she used the knowledge to her fullest advantage. Princess Celestia now had access to sizeable financial assets! Victoria was now going through the rest of the information base stored in the system. She had avoided looking for the files on her daughter Chloe so far. She dreaded what she might find there. Finally she located the files from her trial, and the transfer of guardianship of Chloe granted to the Littons by the trial magistrate. It was all done “in the interest of the child’s welfare, given the close relationship of the defendant with the Littons.” Seeing the words on the screen brought a sour feeling to the pit of her stomach. There were additional files, video taken of Chloe after her arrival in the Litton home. Several of the first such showed Chloe either crying or angrily demanding for her mother. She wept seeing these, but she could not stop herself from viewing them. Several of the files showed Chloe and Sasha together. It warmed her heavy heart to see how Sasha took charge of Chloe, doing everything a young girl could think of to make Chloe feel welcome. She was glad. She had liked Sasha very much before her intelligence was restored, and had hoped it was not just an artifact of having been dumbed down. Then she came upon one recording showing Chloe alone with Harvey. She raised her hoof to stop the stream, but hesitated. She had to know. She let the video run. It was in the girls’ bedroom, with Chloe face down in bed, obviously having a cry. Harvey sat down on the bed next to her. “Hello Chloe,” he said. “Why are you sad? Don’t you have enough toys to play with?” “I don’t care about toys.” Chloe voice was muffled by the pillow, but she could still hear the unhappy tone. “Oh, well what do you care about Chloe?” “I want my mommy back!” said Chloe with a sob. “Oh, sweetie. I’m afraid your mommy’s gone. And there’s nothing I can do about that.” He stroked Chloe’s hair when she continued to shake and tremble as she cried. Victoria watched, horrified as the traitor’s hand gave comfort to her daughter. “I know that Sasha and I can’t replace your mommy. But, sweetheart, you have to be strong now. Your mommy would have wanted you to be, did you know that?” “What do you know about my mommy?” cried Chloe. “We were friends at work, Chloe. I knew your mommy pretty well. I know that she wouldn’t want you to be sad. So how about you and me and Sasha we go drink some hot chocolate together. Would you like that?” He gestured off camera. Sasha approached the bed and took Chloe’s hand. “Come-on Chloe. Bubbles makes really good hot chocolate,” said Sasha with enthusiasm. Chloe looked up at her. Her face was wet. It took her a moment, but then she sniffled and nodded. “Okay,” she said almost inaudibly. “Great, let’s go to the kitchen. Come now, hold my hand.” Harvey got up and led the two girls out of camera range. The video ended. Victoria stared at the screen for a long time, highly conflicted. She wanted to hate Harvey with every fibre of her soul. But after seeing this, she just... couldn’t. She sighed, shut down the workstation, and left the office. *** Vicky busied herself tidying up the girls’ room as Sasha was late getting into bed. She seemed to be working up the courage to say something. Chloe was already asleep and snoring peacefully. Finally, Sasha spoke up. “You’re Vicky. But you’re not Vicky.” Victoria didn’t let her smile slip. “That doesn’t make much sense, Miss Sasha.” said Victoria. “You know I saw you last night. And last, last night too. You gave Chloe a kiss on the forehead. Why didn’t you give me a kiss too?” When Victoria didn’t answer, Sasha continued. “And you don’t look... fuzzy... like you did before. You look sharp now, when you think there aren’t any grownups looking.” “Miss Sasha, I...” Victoria didn’t have the heart to lie to this child who had done so much for Chloe at a time when Victoria herself could not be there. She sighed, and decided to drop pretenses. “Sasha, I’m Chloe’s mommy. I was turned into a pony.” Sasha’s eyes grew wide. “I thought only bad people were turned into ponies.” Then her expression warmed up and she gave a brilliant little girl smile. “But all the ponies I know are really nice!” “Sweetie, sometimes the explanations adults give are not the whole truth. Some things are pretty complicated and sometimes grownups don’t have the time to explain.” Her ears drooped. She felt ashamed for all the times she had done the same. “But, Sasha, I don’t want to lie to you. You were so nice to Chloe when she came here. I want you to know that I am very grateful you helped her. You are a very good person, Sasha.” She held the girl in a tight hug, and then kissed her on the forehead. The child produced another dazzling smile. “I knew you were a good person, even before when you were fuzzy.” She hugged Victoria back. “But why are you hiding it from the grownups?” “When they turn people into ponies they’re supposed to become... fuzzy. They mustn’t know that I’ve gotten smart again, or else they’ll take me away, and I’ll never be able to see Chloe again. Sasha, you must promise me that you won’t tell anyone about this. Not even your mommy and daddy. Can you do that for me?” The young girl looked very serious. “I promise. But what about Chloe? Does she know you’re her mommy?” “No she doesn’t. I’m going to tell her when the time is right, but right now things are very dangerous for her too. So I have to ask you to keep this a secret even from Chloe.” Sasha was quiet a moment. “So that’s why you kiss her at night, when she’s already asleep.” She looked Victoria in the eyes. “Doesn’t it make you sad?” Victoria hugged the child again, her vision blurred as tears started forming in her eyes. “Yes, Sasha, it makes me very sad. But it makes me happy, too. Because at least I can be close to her. And now I’m glad to be close to you too. You’re a bright girl, Sasha.” She released the child and sat on her haunches. “Now it’s time for good girls and bright girls to have their naps.” She tucked-in the cover over Sasha. “Sleep well, sweetheart.” *** That night Victoria had only a few volumes of archival storage left to check out. Most was related to various engineering projects. Boring stuff, until she happened upon a set of files referring to subcontracts from a Project Eris. She rubbed her pendant and felt Celestia’s presence join hers. “Hard at work again, I see, Victoria. What have you discovered?” asked the Princess. This project timeline is just weeks before Judgement Day. It’s the project that built the Treasure Chest. It states that the box was actually made from the powdered remains of a statue that had been stolen from Equestria. See here, she pointed a hoof, it says this was the statue of “Discord” does that mean anything to you? “Yes, it does.” There was a sadness in the Princess’ voice such as Victoria had not heard before. “They killed him.” Killed? Do you mean this statue of Discord was a person? “Yes, Victoria. He was my brother. But he became quite... dangerous to others. I did not have it in me to end his life, so I turned him to stone. It is one of the saddest episodes of my life. And now, if I understand this document correctly, his body was used to build the box that now contains me. I live surrounded by the remains of somepony I loved.” Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry, your majesty! Victoria was aghast at her discovery. “Please don’t be sorry. I least now I hold one piece of the puzzle of my capture and the destruction of Equestria. I thank you for discovering such important information, sad as it is. But now, I will leave you. I’m afraid of must grieve for Dexter yet again,” said the Princess. Victoria felt Celestia’s presence fade. *** Harvey Litton was talking with his customer by phone. “Yes. I have dispatched courier with the package. I think you’ll really like this one.” He laughed into the handset just thinking about it. “What do you mean?” replied the voice at the other end, unemotional as it always was. “Oh, you’ll see when he gets there.” “Yes. Do not be late, as this will be the last of our transactions.” Now it was Harvey’s turn to be puzzled. “Last? Don’t you want any more?” he asked, beginning to feel sick to his stomach. “We have secured an alternate supply source. Good bye.” Harvey heard a click as the call was ended. Well then. Let’s see how the HLF will appreciate having its shipment of Princess Celestia’s blood delivered by a pony! thought Harvey. He swallowed. An alternate source. Shit, this is beginning to get scary. *** In the Treasure Chest, Celestia lit a small magical light. She examined the sides of the box. They were a featureless white, giving no clue of their provenance. Her head lay upon the floor of the box. Upon the remains of Dexter. Celestia did something she had not for years: she wept. Oh, Dexter! She had already reconciled herself with the fact that he along with everypony else in Equestria was assuredly dead. She now knew his death had preceded Equestria’s by some weeks. It should not matter, but it does. Celestia lit the light and again stared at the walls of the Treasure Chest. It matters! It matters because... ? The realization hit her harder than she thought anything possibly could. It matters because a piece of him is here with me: I am no longer... alone. For the first time, the walls of the Treasure Chest seemed warmer to her, not just the cold walls of a dark prison. *** “HE SAID WHAT?!” shouted Loretta. She pushed Harvey away from her and jabbed him in the chest with one finger. “Do you know what this means?” “Yes, of course I do!” argued back her husband, looking to see if there was anyone else within earshot. Luckily, the living room was large and otherwise deserted. He calmly crossed his arms and leaned back against the bar. “Winston sent us a discreet warning. We are vulnerable. We have to find a way to turn what we have into a poison pill toxic enough to make sure they don’t try to get rid of us the same way we got rid of Victoria. I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon.” “And have you come up with any bright ideas?” Loretta slumped onto the nearby sofa. She covered her face in her hands. “The only thing we have is the link to Sachs Industries. And that’s a real double-edged sword.” Harvey paused a moment. “Look, we’ve been through tighter spots before, we’ll get through this one. Just for security’s sake I suggest we take the girls and disappear for a week or two.” “Girls? Are you seriously saying we should bring that brat with us?” Loretta looked at him as if he was crazy. “She’s part of our insurance. We’ve discussed this. I’ll have Vicky prepare their things. We’ll leave in the middle of the night and take a flight to Canberra. I can arrange it to be completely quiet.” She looked up at him in misery from the sofa. “Sure. And of course we’ll take the bitch along with her brat. Go ahead and set it up. I’ll go pack my things.” She rose slowly and walked out without saying another word. Harvey took out his phone and typed a code, and then walked behind the bar, opened a bottle of his favourite whiskey, and poured himself a large tumblerful.  *** Celestia saw her human self sitting with her sister in the observatory of Canterlot castle. It was one of her very favourite places. They rested on large comfortable cushions next to the parapet, the unmatched beauty of Equestria spread before them while the scent of jasmine tea perfumed the air. “So that is how they built a box that could contain my head and isolate my magic. They made it out of Dexter’s body,” said Celestia matter-of-factly, then she took a sip of her tea. “What a pity,” replied Luna. “And now you’re reminiscing about your dead brother with your imaginary sister. At least you haven’t turned this into one of your horrid puns.” “Oh, were he here, I’m sure Dexter might say that he always had a place for me deep within his heart.” Celestia batted her eyes. “I take it back.” “Well, as you know, you can’t take it with you. And in the case of Harvey Litton, our little pony Victoria has actually taken a big chunk of his estate and put it under our control. Sister, we finally have capital again!” Celestia was surprised how important this seemed to her. “And what good does this do you when you’re stuck in a chest?” asked Luna archly. “Money is the root of all evil, sister, except when I have it! I will see if I can use it to improve the lot of my newfoals. But I have yet to really make any clear plans on what to do.” “Something will come to you Cely, it always does.” “Yes, I guess so. If only because I for one am certainly not going anywhere.” “Ha, ha. But you're wrong. This is where your sister reminds you to think outside the box." Luna batted her eyes while swishing her tail coquettishly. "How is that?" asked Celestia, trying to keep a straight face. "You have a potential friend in Victoria. Why haven't you tried to get closer to her?" "I... That's a very good question, Luna," said Celestia, subdued. "Humpf! You're trying to elude a sister who isn't even there. How about you answer my question this time?" "I'm... afraid." Celestia looked down at her hands. Her very human hands. "I've lost everything I loved. It is very hard to expose myself to this hurt again."   "She who risks nothing has nothing,” replied Luna. “Perhaps you are right,” whispered Celestia. Luna-in-her-dreams approached and hugged her human shaped sister. “I am right... as usual.” She gave a sisterly smirk. Celestia recalled what she had told Victoria: Remember, you are no longer alone. They gazed out over Equestria in peaceful silence. And neither am I, she realized.