“Then just tell us what level it’s on dear.” Rarity said comfortingly.
The young soldier’s lip quivered, and Twilight couldn’t blame him. He was barely old enough to be called a stallion and this was a difficult situation for anypony to be in. Slowly he leaned back against the toilet and drew in a small breath, trying to look brave as he thought. Pinkie’s crossbow let out a soft click as she readjusted the weapon, causing the boy to flinch. Finally he averted his eyes, “Level seventeen.”
Rarity looked him over closely “You realize that if at any point we find out you lied to us, she’ll be back.” A hoof pointed towards the pink pony, her crossbow still sitting level with his face. A wicked grin on her maw promised she wasn’t squeamish about pressing that lever.
“I’m not!” A stern look from Rarity and a threatening click from Pinkie’s crossbow instantly caused his voice to cut off. Slowly he swallowed, then started again, softly. “I’m not lying. It’s on level seventeen but there’s no way to get anything on that level. Everything is monitored all the time, you’d need an army to get anywhere.”
With a nonchalant nod Rarity handed him a vial. “Well that’s our problem, isn’t it dear? Now drink up.” The marine slowly put the vial to his lips, then hesitated, causing Rarity to raise an eyebrow. “Really, if I was going to feed you something lethal, don’t you think my pink friend could take care of that for me?” His eyes flicked to the bolt, sitting in the grooves waiting to perform it’s singular duty, and then he drank.
“Alright girls.” Twilight said in a hushed voice, “It’s on level seventeen. You’ll have...twenty minutes, maybe. This needs to happen fast, so get in place as fast as you can.”
Rainbow gave a smirk and a nod. “C’mon Twi, we’ll be fine. These guys are chumps next to the Apple Clan, and I used to get into their places all the time.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow and stood as Pinkie dropped. Her crossbow replaced Pinkie’s pointing threateningly at the colt’s face “Yeah, and you learned it all from some dirty lycan didn’cha?”
Twilight shot a guilty look at Pinkie, but the comment didn’t seem to phase her. With a thump the marine fell against the floor, the corner of his eyes twitching. “I think he’s out.” Twilight said “Go on, in an hour we’ll all be on a pod with the elements. Discord won’t be able to stop us then.”
The girls exchanged their goodbyes, but quickly left, leaving Rarity and Twilight alone in the bathroom. “What do we do with him?” Twilight asked, moving to Rarity’s side.
“Twilight, this is the main deck, only the night watch are here. By the time they find out he’s missing it’ll be too late. Also, this is the mare’s room, there aren’t a lot of mares doing night watch for the marines. We’ll stuff him in a stall and get out. Now take off his pants.” Rarity quickly began pulling his shirt free.
Twilight’s face flushed, “H-He’s barely old enough to be called a stallion.”
A slow, drawn out sigh escaped Rarity’s lips as she put a hoof to her forehead, “His uniform Twilight, it’s a disguise.”
Twilight’s face burned hotter as she kicked herself inwardly for being an idiot, “Right, I meant he’s so young his uniform probably doesn’t fit.”
“I think it will, now help me take off his pants.”
Twilight grunted in irritation as she peeked out the door for the hundredth time, watching carefully for any sign of a visitor. She had been standing guard for three minutes before Rarity finally finished. They had lost three minutes that they needed to get to the level seventeen security center. Twilight didn’t understand the details she put on—did she really need darkened eyes or a less shiny more weathered coat? She had the uniform, wasn’t that enough? Did she need to waste those precious minutes fussing over details like that?
With Rarity’s assent they finally left the bathroom and slipped between patrols to the stairs leading below deck. This station was simple enough, a single massive platform on the water with multiple decks below. Level seventeen would be the sixteenth under the water, hundreds of feet below the surface of the water. The design’s bottom floor held a storage space for spell energy that provided power to the entire place. Lights, automated doors, floodgates... everything was powered from there. It was an impressive display getting all that energy to perform so many different functions. The mage towers had designed most of it, but the most impressive thing was not how it was stored, but how it was charged. It was said bases like these were powered by Celestia herself stopping and personally charging it enough for years to come. This way if it was ever taken by an enemy they would be able to use it for a year or two at most before the lights went out and the place became a deathtrap. It was supposed to stop ponies from trying to depose the princess. It would be amazing just to take a look, just to see what kind of...no, no that wasn’t what they came here for.
They walked down multiple flights of stairs, occasionally passing a worker or a soldier. Each time a worker asked, Rarity would say Twilight was a newbie marine and they would lose interest. Each time a marine asked, Rarity told them she was “one of the eggheads” they brought in for the projects on level seventeen, and that seemed to be enough. It was actually a bit scary how easily she was able to walk right past everypony, was this the extent of their nation’s security?
With a small amount of searching they finally found their way to their destination, the office of Admiral Chase. As they approached the two intricately carved oaken doors the pair of armored ponies flanking it stood warily “What is it?” one of them demanded.
Twilight’s eyes raised as Rarity’s voice took on a completely different accent and a tone of bored indifference, “This here’s a pony from one of the mage towers. Something about some new project, I think it’s important, I don’t know. She wants to see the Admiral.”
The guards looked to each other before looking over Twilight. “What’s in the bag miss?”
With a polite smile Twilight turned so he could get a better look, “A bottle of wine, a gift from the Canterlot mage tower. I’d appreciate giving it to him in person.”
“You’ll need to give up a your spell components, and we’ll have to check you for weapons.”
“Again?” Twilight asked, but gave up her spell component pouch as he searched her for weapons, luckily she didn’t carry any. Finally the stallion opened the door to reveal the admiral sitting at his desk, head buried in a stack of papers. He was an older pony, his wrinkles skin hidden mostly behind a greying bushy beard. Light brown fur covered his entire body, well what she could see over the desk.
“Admiral.” Rarity said, standing at attention and giving a formal salute.
The admiral barely looked up, giving a half hearted salute in return “At ease, what is it?”
“This is Miss Twilight Sparkle of the Canterlot mage tower. She was sent over here to work on a new project.”
Admiral Chase pushed aside a paper and looked up “Why are you telling me? Shouldn’t you be bringing her to Commander Bells?”
“Commander Bells already checked her out sir.” Rarity said “I’m to bring her to her quarters as soon as possible, but she insisted on giving you the gift she brought.” The lie seemed to flow so easily off her tongue Twilight had to look hard to see her friend inside of this other pony. They hadn’t even known of this Commander Bell’s existence until ten seconds ago, but the words were said, and now every pony within earshot believed she was legitimate. It was a startling look at how easy it was to fool ponies...well, how easy it was for Rarity to fool ponies anyway.
Twilight stepped up and set the bottle of wine on the table, “I just wanted to let you know what a privilege it is getting to work on this project.” Pink eyes flicked quickly over his head to the portrait behind the admiral. It looked like it would barely fit through the door it was so massive, but it held what she needed. The picture was of the admiral himself in a dashing uniform standing on a rock overlooking the ocean. Oh yes, that would do.
“You’re welcome Miss Sparkle, and thank you for the wine. However, I am dreadfully busy. I’m sure Commander Bells can get you started on the project tomorrow.”
“Of course.” Twilight said, turning and finding her way out of the room. Without resistance she was given back her spell pouch and let go. Rarity took the lead from there and led her on. Without a second glance they walked all the way down to the seventeenth level and out to the security room. The moment nopony was looking Rarity picked the lock to a supply closet and ushered Twilight inside.
Rarity shut the door behind Twilight and whispered “Did you get a good enough look?”
Twilight nodded.
“Good, then get to it.”
With a deep concentrated breath she began a quiet breathy chant. Slowly the light around her began to shimmer, and her eyes began to glow a pale white. Her skin began to shift and stretch, slowly pulling out into wrinkled bags. On her face the fur grew rapidly and formed itself into a thick beard. From her nose to her tail all of her fur shifted into a dull brown with the exception of her new beard that took a light grey. Her legs cracked softly as they grew and she sprouted several inches uncomfortably. Slowly her stomach shrank—no, not shrank, sucked in. She could still feel it, just cramped. Any other day she might have been disheartened at her weight, but today she had more important thoughts on her mind.
Her clothing wrapped and warped. It’s colour quickly shifting into the stark blacks the picture showed and the various medals popped into existence. Red quickly filled in the spots it needed to as her coat of arms and rank insignia flourished. The light died down and Twilight turned her head about, looking at the strange new body. “Well?” she asked, “How do I look?”
Rarity’s eyes rolled “Like an old stallion with no sense of humor and whose sense of style is dominated by his noble masters.”
“Sooo....”
“Perfect.”
They shared a smile before Rarity pushed the door open. “After you, admiral”
“You know how dead we’d be if they caught us, right?”
“For impersonating an admiral in the Royal Equestrian Navy? You don’t say.”
Straightening her back, Twilight cleared her throat and walked past her friend into the hallway, a moment later Rarity fell into line. Suddenly Twilight’s mind filled with thoughts she wished to ask the mare, thoughts she didn’t dare utter while in disguise. Thoughts like, how the hell are you so calm? Why is the world suddenly so hot and when did the air get so thin? The air had surely gotten thinner, that’s why she was having such trouble breathing. Rarity opened the door to the security office for her and everyone was staring at Twilight, they all saw right through her, they knew.
Slowly Twilight strut into the room, taking careful consideration as to how she held her back. She needed to act like she belonged here, no, that others were barely worthy of her presence. That meant whatever she wanted to do she shouldn’t think about the churning horrified feeling in her stomach. Another thing she shouldn’t think about was the fact that if anyone asked any sort of questions she was going to be swinging from a hangman’s noose for espionage. Oh Celestia! She was going to die! She was thinking about how she was going to die! That made the churning in her stomach feel worse! That feeling was the thing that would betray her and get her killed! Now she was worried about being worried, and she knew she was worried! Oh this is how it ends, getting murdered because she was so worried about getting murdered!
“Admiral,” Rarity said, looking smoothly to Twilight, “There’s a problem with the power grid. I’ll need to check each relay to make sure it isn’t coming from one of these.”
Twilight sighed and shifted her gaze over to Rarity, then back to the room, “And how long will our work have to be held up for the sake of your trivial tests?”
“Only fifteen minutes sir, it’s a fast test, but it is important.”
“Alright, everypony listen up!” Twilight called, turning every head in the place. “Apparently there’s a problem with the power in this room. I’m not about to have any of you making it worse! I want all of you out of here so that our technician isn’t tripping over any of you while she does her job. Take a coffee break or something, but if any of you aren’t back in fifteen minutes so help me Celestia I’ll have your hide!”
The room was filled with irritated glares as lab coat wearing ponies stepped away from their controls and started out of the room. Formally Rarity strut ahead of Twilight and puffed her chest out at one of the ponies “Do you have a problem with the admiral’s orders civilian?”
The pony stopped, clenched his teeth as though thinking of something to say, then let it go. “No. But I’m sure our technicians could have taken care of whatever it is. We don’t need the military looking over our equipment.”
Rarity opened her mouth but Twilight raised a hoof to silence her, “The boy has a point, their people do know the operations of these devices more than we do. Please fetch your foremost expert on the operation of these devices to double check our work.”
The pony looked to Rarity with a smirk, then gave a small bow to Twilight before strutting out of the room. The minute the doors closed Rarity and Twilight ran to the panels and began looking them over. The entire interfaces were etchings in wood next to stacks of paper indicating the function of the switches.
“Found it!” Rarity said with a smile, sliding a hoof across one of the switches. A soft click and hum were followed by the floodgates sealing over the doors leading out of the room. The gates were solid metal and designed to keep the crushing pressure of the ocean out, it would take awhile for anypony to punch through.
As the doors slid shut the mare’s eyes met in triumph, Twilight’s mouth twitched to a smile “We just took control of a security station in a military outpost! Just the two of us!”
Rarity let out a giggle as she looked back to the panels “Yes, we are quite amazing aren’t we? But do try to focus Twilight, we need to be gone before they break inside.” Smiles on their faces, the pair went back to scanning the panels.
Twilight’s eyes focused in on one panel that simply contained a map of the floor and a series of lights in the rooms. Perhaps some sort of detection system? Letting security know where there were ponies in case of an emergency? Almost every room was lit up. That would make sense for now. Twilight turned her attention away as Rarity called out “I found the floodgates for this floor, did you find out how to get everypony out?”
Hesitantly she looked the controls over once more, but something on the wall caught her eye. A glass shield protecting a single lever underneath the sign “Emergency.” That seemed to fit the bill. Twilight raised a hoof up and stomped the glass, shattering it. Then she took hold of the switch and with one pump of her hoof, flipped it. Instantly the white lights everywhere turned a bright red and a loud piercing tone ripped through the floor. Twilight let out a yelp and flinched as the tone blared in and out of existence.
Hastily she ran to the window overlooking the floor, more red lights dominated the world below. The floor was filled with marines and lab coated ponies scurrying out of rooms and rushing in various directions. Each of them practically tripped over the other as they scurried to the stairwells in a desperate bid to escape the “Emergency.” Twilight’s gaze shifted over to the panel with the map, one by one each of the lights went out until only two remained. “That should do it.” Twilight told Rarity as she turned back to the switch on the wall. As she pulled the switch back to it’s starting position the lighting returned to normal and the howling alarm stopped. With a sigh Twilight rubbed her ears, watching calmly as Rarity engaged the floodgates and sealed off the rooms downstairs.
Silently Twilight watched the window, shifting uncomfortably as her reflection dissolved from that of an elderly admiral into that of a scared little filly. She was shaking with adrenaline and fear, her rapidly beating heart mirroring that of the pounding of the battering rams slamming into each door of the security office.
After a moment her heart skipped a beat. A smile formed on her face as she saw her four other friends gallop into view and look up to the window at her. She waved and they waved back. Goddesses she wished the abject terror would stop fraying her nerves. “Where are they!” Rainbow called up to her, sound muffled by the glass.
Rarity strode up next to the terrified mage and set a hoof on her shoulder with a reassuring smile. Then she turned her attention to Rainbow “A big room on the opposite side of the compound! Next to the botanical labs!” Rainbow was silent. Rarity’s face scrunched up for a moment before she stuck a hoof out. “That way! Next to the room with plants!”
Rainbow nodded and turned back to her friends, speaking quietly, then looked back to Twilight “Hang in there, we’ll get them and get out! Be ready to get out!” Twilight could only nod, she’d already found the switch to unlock the escape pods. It seemed they were always unlocked, the switch existed specifically to stop someone from using them to escape. As soon as she had appeared, Rainbow Dash and all of their friends disappeared down the hallway.
Things were going perfectly. They’d taken control of the security room and the entire floor the Elements of Harmony were stationed on. They couldn’t hold it for any extended period of time, but they’d done it. All they could do was sit and wait. So that’s what they did. Occasionally their eyes would meet, but what could their mouths say that their eyes didn’t. This was insane, and they were scared. Each minute that passed was another stomach boiling minute of torture as the pounding on the doors intensified. Luckily, something happened to break up the monotony.
A resounding pop filled the room followed by a loud clang, as though somepony had tipped over their cauldron mid-brew. Swiftly her head reoriented itself to the source of the noise and she found they were no longer alone. Where none had been before stood two ponies. The first was a stallion with a greyed mane and a white lab coat, the symbol of Viceroy Shadowflame emblazoned on the lapel. The other was a larger stallion clad in full plate armor. While the first cowered and shook unsteadily, the armored warhorse stood unconcerned and looked about. His armor was black save for the coat of arms on the front. The crest was that of a red outline of a shield with a red cloud imposed on it. Twilight had come to know that symbol well as of late, the symbol of Viceroy Shadowflame, this was a Zephyr Knight.
Of the ponies in the room Rarity was the first to move. The mare gracefully leapt into a sideways roll and a flurry of knives showered his side of the room. The knight stood still for a moment as the multitude of blades bounced harmlessly off of his armor, accompanied by a series of pings. As the last blade hit the floor his visor slowly turned to look at Rarity “Throwing knives? Really?” Incredulity evident in his tone, “This is enchanted full plate. A heavy crossbow would be lucky to get through, and you’re going to throw knives?”
With a determined look in her eye Rarity pulled the trusty combat dagger and began nimbly darting about in a curving charge. Her target reared up on his hind legs, paused, then struck forward with both hooves. She was still six feet away when he attacked but still she reeled. The small room instantly became a flurry of white as papers from everywhere whipped off of their desks and clouded the room. Twilight’s mane whipped about her ears and eyes as a sudden rush of wind invaded her. With a surprised look on her face Rarity was blown off of her feet by a sudden burst of wind and sent flailing across the floor to be stopped rather roughly by a wall.
With a grunt the white mare picked herself off of the floor, only to get caught by the charging stallion. A half ton of warrior and metal collided into her before she’d had a chance to steady herself. His armor plated shoulder caught her underside and smashed her into the wall forcefully; Twilight was certain she heard the sound of snapping bone. Rarity gagged as all the air in her lungs were forcibly removed. Her tongue fell out of her mouth and drool ran down her cheeks. Only seconds after she had been hit her eyes had teared and water ran down her face.
For a moment the knight lowered and pulled back, letting Rarity’s limp body collapse onto his shoulder. Then he reared up and tossed her over his head into the air. Swiftly he returned his forelegs to the floor and bucked. Again his strike came nowhere close, but again she flew. Her rag-like body was caught in the blast of wind and flew straight away from him. In seconds she was propelled into the ceiling on the other end of the room, where she collapsed to the floor as gravity retrieved her. Twilight could still hear the muted sounds of choking sobs as her friend tried to retrieve her breath.
Having utterly wrecked Rarity in under fifteen seconds the wall of steely death turned about, affixing it’s visor on Twilight. Casually it started towards the mage. Twilight felt a chill run through her as she abandoned her spot and rushed to Rarity’s side. Relief flooded through her as the knight took the barest interest in watching her go, then moved to the controls with the white clad stallion.
“What did she do?” The knight asked.
The scientist looked over the panels for a few moments, “She’s activated all the floodgates to the testing level. All our marines are sealed outside.”
“The Elements of Harmony?”
“They’re sealed too...but there’s activity in the botanic laboratory one lab over. They might be trying to smash through the wall with something.”
The knight nodded “Well it won’t matter now. Unseal the floodgates, we’ll have a contingent of marines in there before they come close. Prisoners if they can, corpses if necessary.”
Panic flooded through Twilight as the lab pony started working his hooves over the panels. This was her plan that was falling apart. First she got everypony trapped in this world by her need to play a stupid game, and now she was going to get them killed with her stupid plan. No, no she needed to protect them. It was too late for her, and it was too late for Rarity; but she had to fight for the rest of her friends that still had a chance.
Quickly she reared up on her hind legs and pulled a pink pebble out of her spell component pouch. Within seconds she held a swirling pink bolt in her hands. “Don’t you dare!” she said, “Step away from the panel now!”
The knight looked back at her, she swore she could hear an amused snicker. Slowly he trotted towards her “Come on, at least the knives stood a chance. You’re just embarrassing yourself.”
Twilight held up the projectile. It was a weak spell, amounting to little more than a punch. However it’s weakness gave her perfect control of the little missile, there wasn’t a chance she would miss. “Last chance.” She said quietly, her hooves shaking.
The knight sat, “Go ahead. I’d seriously consider if it’s really worth it though.”
So Twilight did. The little missile hung in the air as she thought. After a moment she had made her decision. Yes, it was worth it, a hundred times over.
The little pink missile leapt from her hooves and zipped towards the knight. Inches from his face it changed course, skirting around him and towards the lab pony. It unerringly flew between his legs and smashed into the console, which went up in a shower of sparks that sent him reeling. The lights on the board flickered once, then died.
A blackened helm looked back, then returned to Twilight. In an instant the warhorse crossed the room and swung. The mage uselessly held up her hooves and let out a cry as she was slapped with a mailed hoof, sending her sprawling. Silently the knight stalked over to her and slapped her again, forcing another yelp of pain out of the mare. Limply she lay as she was dragged across the ground and shackled to the wall. Uselessly she watched as he tore her spell pouch away and moved off to shackle Rarity without any resistance.
Finally finished securing his prisoners he moved to the lab pony and watched him work in vain to fix it. “She’s interrupted the power flow.” The lab pony informed him, “It didn’t do any real damage, but it’ll take a half hour for me to establish the connection again.”
The knight sighed angrily and turned around, “Well get started. I’m teleporting into the botanic laboratory to deal with them.”
The lab pony stopped, “You can’t teleport in blind! You have no idea how many of them are in there.”
“There are five, and the only one that is even remotely threatening is a Starsoul Knight. I’m the commander of the Zephyr Knights, she doesn’t stand a chance.” His head turned to regard Twilight again, “I’ll try not to kill them if they surrender.” With a resounding pop the plated fiend vanished. Half an hour, that’s what she’d bought her friends. As she lay on the floor nursing her aching jawbone she had one thought. It was still worth it.