She had not felt normal all week. Things were going well on the Order's end. Their experts were sneaking in visits every other day, and together, they were making astonishing progress. Consultations on complications and particularly nasty variables in the experimental accelerator gems planned for Celestia were so much faster and clearer without the barrier of time and hoofwriting - the fact that consultations were taking place at all meant that her R&D had been recognized as worthy partners. Obviously this was good. So why did she feel that something was wrong?
Ponies that can phase through matter. Teleporters. Wouldn't be surprised if they had some kind of sonar-pony too, thought Caughlin grimly. They could have been watching us all this while. Probably have been. Maybe if I catch one coming through the roof next time, I should try out a reality bubble to see if he gets stuck halfway... She quickly quelled the thought. That was simply immature. Actually, I haven't used my spheres in a while, have I?
The only other application she made her magic serve was levitation, and she had not been doing much of that either. With the amount of free space suddenly halved, it was wisest to not tamper with space, both thaumatical and physical, in case somepony got hurt. Still, she could feel the build-up of unused magic itching in her horn. Nature's course or otherwise, it was annoying, like a particularly persistent pimple. I wonder if Celestia would suffer this kind of problem. Magical build-up, huh.
Fuhrich had suggested that they take Celestia out of the den for excursions when possible, to give her a greater sense of space. Caughlin did not like the idea of letting young foals out into the chaotic world above, even if guarded, but it was a better alternative to cooping her up. He had also said something on the pains of faster growth, and she had agreed to it, but what had it been again? She couldn't remember. That was odd.
"But if you can take her out, then why not us?" Whooves had asked.
"Well, teleporting through a magic barrier isn't easy," Furhich explained. "Discord set up one around this area, right? But he himself teleports in and out, so that means there's a loophole, one we've found. But maneuvering it takes much more stamina, and even more if carrying somepony with you. It's easier to carry a foal, since there is less mass involved, yet even so I think we'll need at least two ponies to carry her out."
"Then what about your, ah, phasers? The ones that can go through walls?"
"They can't carry anypony. They're only good for surveillance," said Furhich with the slightest smirk on his face. "And sudden entrances, of course. But not transport. That's why I had to strut my, ah, 'powers' in front of Discord to get here. I never told you, come to think of it - basically, I made it seem like I was phasing in and out of rock while Discord was in the vicinity, knowing that it would amuse him enough to make me part of his collection. I couldn't have gotten in here any other way."
The sting from the word "collection" aside, Caughlin was content with staying underground. She realized that she had never really thought of escape, since life was busy enough with science and, now, Luna. But Whooves had been whisked away without warning. She could understand where that desire to re-surface came from. Maybe when this was all over he could take her to Manehatten - that is, if Manehatten was still standing.
"Caughlin? Er, Caughlin?"
"Hm? Oh, yes, Whooves," said Caughlin, snapping to attention. "What is it?"
"How do I resolve this here, uh, time-tension with reference to a moving frame of reference?" asked Whooves, planting a worksheet in front of her ruefully.
"Well, it's quite simple. You just have to, here you go, start off with the stationary frame formula..." The problem, while not elementary, was not complicated. It felt like second nature almost, drawing additional lines and the occasional formula in a smooth flow of ink and explaining along the way - a correcting factor here, a rearrangement there. "Once you've rewritten the formulae, you just have to find which tensions oppose each other, and they cancel."
She tried to smile as she made a flamboyant cross over the two equivalent variables, but her eyes blurred and she felt herself slide on to the table with her leg.
"Caughlin! Are you okay?," asked Whooves, leaning down quickly.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm good, Whooves." She waved him off and blinked hard. Back to normal now.
He stared at her with a frown, but when she returned it in full force he nodded and buried his head in his work once more. Suddenly he shot up and exclaimed, "Oh, wait! Darn! I forgot something, and it's in your room, Caughlin. Come on with me and unlock your door, will you?"
"My room? Left something? I can't remember..." But then again, you haven't been remembering a lot of things lately.
Sighing, she let him lead the way. She ignored the inevitable sniggers from the next table as she followed the agitated stallion down the corridor, through the door...
And she was suddenly inside, pushed roughly on to her bed, Whooves blocking the way to the door, when they had been nowhere near just a second ago-
"Whooves?" she asked, panic rising in her voice. "What are you-"
"Shh," pleaded Whooves. "Just, dammit, Caughlin, hear me out, okay!"
"I...okay, Whooves," said Caughlin, getting off the bed and circling him a safe distance away. "But you had better start explaining to me what's going on."
"My pleasure," he said grimly. "But first I need you to work a reality bubble."
"Why?" asked Caughlin suspiciously. "Listen, I guess this is some sort of elaborate prank, and even if you're trying to cheer me up I don't-"
"Shut up and just do it!" shouted Whooves, his voice cracking. That had never happened before; she would have laughed, if not for the rawness of his voice and the dead serious look he was wearing.
She was about to snap back at him, but the shouting hurt unexpectedly. She could feel her irritation rising; whatever had possessed him had better leave soon, or she was going to kick it out with him. She snorted, rolled her eyes and complied. Her horn glowed. As the magic began to channel she felt her head throb again.
"You can do this," drifted Whooves' voice through the pain. "You can. Just push through the pain. Get it done. For my sake. For everypony's sake."
"I don't know what you're going on about," mumbled Caughlin, now straining to get the strands of magic together. This was strange. Normally it just flowed to her so easily. "I..."
"You can, that's all you need to know."
"I..." She wanted to pin Whooves down and demand a proper explanation, but the worry filling her took priority. Why wasn't it working? With clenched teeth she pushed harder. She could feel the pain burning between her eyes, but it felt just within reach. The magic was welling up inside, close to bursting, but something was holding it back. She just had to push, push!-
With a huff and a wild swing of her forelegs, the sphere burst forth and engulfed the room like a burst dam. And suddenly it was lifted, all of it. The pain, the muddle-headedness, the tiredness. It was so shocking that she fell down from the clarity flaring behind her eyes.
More importantly, she remembered, and the recollections began pouring in.
"Tell me what you know," said Whooves hopefully.
She sat still, gathering her thoughts and joining the dots. Images flashed by. Fragments of sentences drifted. Scenes put themselves together but failed to complete, like Luna's jigsaw zoo, doomed to forever be a distant visitor and half a lion missing. Yet as they piled up, she could make out something of a picture, and there was only one possibility.
"Furhich used a memory hex," she whispered, her voice escalating. "He used a bloody memory hex. On me, on you, on all of us. He ambushed us and used a bloody!-"
"Shush, Caughlin, you don't want him to know you know," said Whooves hastily, a hoof on her mouth.
She batted it away and swung around for something to prop herself up. Focus. Now. Pull yourself together. She closed her eyes and waited for the wave of feeling to wash over. All she could hear was breathing and her heartbeat.
"I...thank you, Whooves. I had no idea." Caughlin swallowed hard. That was the point of memory hexes, after all - a comprehensive, detailed over-weave of past recollections. Her thoughts were rushing in all directions, but at least they were coherent now. Amidst the billowing, the first sensible thought ran to the desk of her mind and slammed down on the reception bell.
"Luna?"
"Luna is, well, immune," admitted Whooves. "The memory hex did nothing but put her to sleep. Not that they know, of course. I've told her to play along. It's like a game for Mommy, I told her. And she has to play it really well because that's what Mommy wants." She could not help but notice how he was scraping the floor with a hind leg.
"And you?"
Whooves slumped on to a chair. "I saw it coming a second before. A book mentioned it before, how funny is that? The colour of hexes, I mean. It was bright green-and-purple. When I saw it, it just kinda hit me - well, not literally, but - in the midst of the hex hitting my brain, I shifted back." A hollow smile spread across his lips. "Not just me, the whole den. Four seconds. A new record. It's amazing what fear does to you, eh?" He gave her a painful grin. "Then as events progressed again - you know, you jumping on him and telling me to move - I pretended to trip and faint. Furhich didn't suspect a thing."
He sounded weary all of a sudden. "It's been ten days, Caughlin, with everypony clueless as to what happened. I was so worried, so afraid. What happened if Furhich went and did this, or did that to you? You're his biggest threat, of course. He's probably only keeping you alive because everypony, Discord included, would notice if you were gone. It was all I could do, acting dumb while stopping myself from exploding and sending him to kingdom come. I'm not even angry any more. I'm just so... relieved, I guess."
Caughlin took this all in mutely. She waved for him to go on.
"Anyhow, I've done my best to watch out for things. I took a gamble with you and the reality bubble. It was the most horrible moment of my life, worse than when Discord found me..." He was looking through her now. His legs hung uselessly at his sides. "Wondering whether you'd lose your brain like you said you might a year or so before. You know, when he hit you with the image thing? Whether I'd... prefer you alive but confused, or back to normal but possibly dead." He shook his head, tried a grin, and drew his hooves back on to his lap.
"So far Furhich hasn't done anything out of the ordinary. It seems like he just wants to get Celestia done," continued Whooves. "I don't know what he's planning after that. By the way, I had to guess too that his memory hex was something Discordian and not magical. If it was magical, well, you know...I'd have lost you forever. And I wouldn't have a clue what to do." He shook visibly as he said the final words. "It was so bad, I had nightmares of you and him. But thank the Creator, thank Discord, thank anypony up there that you're all right, Caughlin."
He looked deep into her eyes, and she into his. The next thing she knew, he was in her embrace, bringing a rich warmth on and into her chest.
"You stopped calling me Doctor. I realized that I like being called Doctor." She could hear the smile in his words, and drew him tighter. "Damn, Caughlin. Just, damnitall. What do we do now?"
She let go slowly and wiped the last tears from her eyes. "I'm not sure. But we will do something," she said quietly. "We have to find a way to free our colleagues and get them out safely. And we can't hurt anypony either."
"Not even Furhich?"
"Well, maybe a little for him," said Caughlin, sighing. "But we can't resort to violence. The reason being, we don't know how many ponies Furhich has with him. If they're harmed, there might be more coming for us. And I refuse to stoop to their level. If we're going to make it out of this, we have to do it the right way."
"Right isn't easy," groaned Whooves. "I'm not even sure whether right is possible."
"But it's what makes us different from them, Whooves," she said, nuzzling his mane. "Remember what we're teaching Luna? We can't go around being hypocrites. We'll never be able to live it down. We're living for the future, for all the little things. And this is one of them."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Appreciate the little things," said Whooves, laughing now. "But hey. You have to take your own advice too."
"Since when have I ever not appreciated the little things, Doctor?"
"Well, here's one for size," said Whooves, leaning in with a smirk. But because he could make contact, Caughlin nudged him away with a sly wink, and he toppled face-first on to the edge of the bed.
Act normal. Our first advantage is Fuhrich underestimating us.
The two ponies re-emerged into the brightly-lit hall. A pony leaned forward and gave Whooves a nudge and a wink, to Caughlin's disgust. Others came forward with reports and data for her to review, at least having the decency to hide their sniggering.
Don't prod, pick out. Fuhrich may be the perfect puppeteer, but his lackeys may still slip up. Don't ask odd questions. Analyze and compile.
She walked over and began talking about the guise spell for the chamber with Fuhrich, whether there was anything left to cover, only to "discover" that it had been settled and prepared yesterday. She laughed it off and blamed it on her less-than-optimum state of mind.
Be prepared. I have my bubbles, and you have your time shift. With our powers we can already reverse most fatal situations. But don't use them until somepony is at risk of death.
That night, at dinner, Caughlin invited Fuhrich to deliver a short address to the R&D department, which he graciously accepted. He expounded on effort, work and unity to defeat a common foe, and extended yet more thanks for their generosity on behalf of everpony in Equestria. There was a smattering of applause. Even hexed, the ponies did not take well to speeches, it seemed.
We have each other, and we find the counter-spell, and either stop the second alicornification or save Celestia, we'll get our family back together again. And that is going to be our greatest motivation, our source of strength and our final goal. I don't care if it's selfish; Equestria can wait. Family comes first.