Alistair stared out silently at the foreign chamber, query and intrigue in his eyes as they floated to and fro from the room’s center point. Straightening himself, he turned around to where Shale stood behind him, stoically inspecting him and his reaction to the space she’d brought him to.
“Is this it?” he said studiously. “This is what you wanted to show me?”
Shale nodded evenly. “Yes, this was our destination.”
“And…” he looked around the space another take, “is this it then? I don’t see much of anything around.”
“Do you?” she said coolly. “Inspect the space once again, pay attention to anything out of the ordinary.”
He didn’t see much of anything odd about the chamber itself, minus its complete contrast to the rest of the mountain’s underbelly. For one thing there was not the pitch black darkness that had soaked every corner of the stony expanse, but instead a bright bluish light that cascaded out magically from the chamber’s gleaming sapphire ice walls.
The chamber itself was positioned in a circular fashion, with a low roof and a single exit leading out into the passageway that had led them there.
One of the walls at the near back of the small room seemed to be missing a considerable chunk of its outer ice structuring, with even brighter blue light seeping out from the vacant space. A few paces away from the large hole in the wall was an odd patch of a spongy black substance of some kind, caked along two of the wall corners and seeping up towards the ceiling. It was frosted and cracked along the edges giving evidence to long environmental exposure to the mountain’s controlled but still cold temperature.
“That black material,” he remarked, “what is it?”
“Look closer.”
The gunk did look familiar to him, maybe more recognizable if not for the age to it, but he couldn’t help but recall seeing it somewhere before. It had a lunar look to it, with several gaping holes asymmetrically around each side with large jagged points jutting out at random. It looked insectoid to him, but he knew all to well that in no way could any bug that big could be native to the arctic vortex they were in, the climate simply uninhabitable to such primitive creatures.
“I don’t understand, is there something I should know?”
Shale grimaced, some discomfort coming from speaking about the foreign mass. “It’s from a large and simple-minded species in the distant nether-regions of the planet. For one who lives in Equestria, you should most certainly remember their reemergence.”
Alistair’s eyes widened. “The Changelings.” he concluded with a whisper. “They were here…for the treasure. Where is it now?”
“Gone,” Shale said coldly, taking a few steps back from behind him. Wishing to speak further on this he turned around and immediately felt a painful slam of something dense and metal against the side of his head. Lurching sideways, he collapsed silently to the floor, feeling any even greater darkness seep into his eyes.
--------------------
It was difficult carrying the dead weight of Alistair along her back through the shadowed tunnels, even more so while remembering the precise way to get back to the entry sanctum. But as Shale neared the small opening out into the massive stone and ice atrium, she gingerly slung Alistair back onto the floor and simply dragged his small body along with her.
Coming out to the wide open space, she could clearly hear the still clashing and clanging of sword versus sword, no doubt the human’s griffon companion still refusing to abandon her pointless fight.
And sure enough there she was, still in the center point of the chamber, still impressively holding her own against at least twenty other agents and their assortment of bladed weapons. Thirty other agents lay sprawled across the floor, small and large cuts across their body’s as they moaned and griped in pain. Thankfully, there appeared to be no mortalities.
Walking into the brighter light that shone down from the high roofed chamber, Shale casually dragged the unconscious Alistair behind her, waiting for the foolhardy griffon female to finally notice what had become of her friend.
After a few more moments of rigorous sidestepping, countering, and her own hurl of offensive strikes, she briefly cast a tactical glance toward the placidly standing Shale…and the motionless Alistair who lay beside her.
A thousand different emotions flashed through the griffon’s eyes as her own assumption of what had happened set in. Settling on one of both rage and despair, she raised her sword barbarically above her head.
“Murderer!” she screamed in anguish, charging toward Shale with her sword outstretched in a wide swing.
Waiting for the creature to be just within reach of her, Shale gracefully sidestepped the griffon’s charge and swung her own hoof around right into amalgamated creature’s jaw. Buckling backwards while clutching its face, the stunned attacker slashed madly with her sword, unable to focus properly though the ringing in her skull.
Taking the advantage, Shale briskly leaped forwards into the air and planted another hoof strike to its face. The griffon stumbled back again, as Shale followed with a well placed hit to its stomach and finished with a devastating mule kick to the griffon’s shoulders. Collapsing harshly to its knees, Shale grinned with a glowing sense of victory.
“Murderer…” muttered the griffon weakly, looking down dismally at the floor. “You killed him…you killed my friend.” The griffon looked up at Shale with a fierce fire through eyes that nearly caused her to shudder in fear…nearly.
Shale, her wits fully gathered, glared back. “He’s not dead, he’s unconscious. Despite what you may or may not want to believe about my own code of ethics, I don’t kill without a good enough reason.”
“You’d make one up,” the griffon spat. “I can see it in you. You’re nothing but a psycho. You try to act all intelligent and calculating but you’re really just a punk who’s good at tracking people down and hurting ‘em.”
The griffon’s voice rose with an ever-increasing confidence. “I swear, when I get the chance, I will hunt you down. You think you can just do this to me? To my friend? You’re wrong. I’ll get the chance, and when that day finally comes I’ll—”
Shale slammed her foreleg’s elbow atop the griffon’s head, sending the bold female crumpling to the ground without another word.
“The day will finally come when you shut up,” Shale finished with a sneer, turning away from the unconscious griffon.
Shale briskly made her way over to the large cluster of now absently standing agents at the far side of the chamber, with several caring to their wounded comrades still laying on the floor.
“Who is the highest ranking of you all?” she asked tightly, not in the mood for having to locate the second in command herself. She never was in much the habit of learning her subordinates’ names, not specifically caring who they where, only wishing for them to fulfill whatever task she gave them.
“Me ma’am,” called a familiarly shrill yellow colt who slowly limped up to her. “Is there something you request?”
“Yes…” she said casting a look down at the helpless bunch of ponies not skilled enough to evade the griffon’s attacks. “How soon can we get the wounded into a transportable state? I’d like for us to be at least three miles out before those two wake up.”
The yellow colt pondered this and did his best to nod attentively. “From what I’ve seen so far it should take us no longer than thirty minutes to get everypony in working order. However, it may take us a bit longer to cover that sort of distance, even if the weather is permitting.”
“Alright,” agreed Shale, “that should be good enough. The pick up point is just down the ridge, but I assume we’ll be late on arrival as well?”
The colt nodded.
“No matter, we’ll definitely make it by nightfall.”
“But ma’am,” responded the colt shakily, feeling a vulnerability from questioning a superior agent’s judgment. “The human, shouldn’t we just take him with his? He seems in a feeble enough state.”
Shale shook her head. “Our mission was never to take him with us, only to interact when the time was right. The Night Lords have their own plans for him, not us.”
“And what if he comes after us?” the colt pressed. “Would we be able to stop him from doing any more damage?”
Shale smiled a wolfish grin, one that dripped with satisfaction and confidence. “I wouldn’t count on him following us, not after the conversation we had between one another. He’s already starting to see things properly.”
She looked back over to where the boy still laid, his head gently resting against the cold stone floor, looking ever so peaceful in a distant slumber. Smiling to herself, Shale knew what great things the boy would be destined for, all thanks to her guidance.
Turning back to the colt she patted his shoulder gratefully. “Go get some medical attention agent; you’ve earned it and you need it. I’ll deal with things from here.”
Saluting to her graciously, the yellow colt scurried back into the cluster of shuffling ponies.
Shale stood back, casually observing the fine progress her agents were making. A positive flow of happiness coerced through her body, lightening her mood even more than before. She recognized this feeling, understood and appreciated it whenever it made itself clear to her. It was the feeling of success.