"Artemis! Twilight!"
Bit dragged me through the sky. Her flight was powerful, but clumsy. Still, my grasp on her wrist was firm and we moved quickly. I simply clamped my eyes shut, and let the backwash stream through my hair.
"Something happened with Bodkin!” My comm sparked to life. “A moment ago, he suddenly—" Krrrsssssh…
"Artemis! Can you hear me?"
"—interference! I'm trying to calibrate for—"
"Dang it!" I squeezed Bit's wrist, and she accelerated. Our comms were malfunctioning, but we had a vague destination. I'd heard half the address, and Bit could scan the communication spell.
"What the hay?" The plan had obviously broken down. As we got near, I realized just how extreme it was. Bit landed on a building near our target, and I tried to analyze what I saw. "What are those?"
Spiked crystal balls were floating above several city blocks. They were each several feet in diameter, and drifted in uncertain patterns. Arcane circles formed and reformed on the ground, constantly changing. It was obviously an area-effect spell, but I couldn't grasp even a hint of it’s purpose.
Krck. " - Wes! Bit! Sta - " Krak " - inefield! "
"Woah! Mines? That's… yuck." I rubbed my forehead, trying to think. We'd acted on the assumption civilian lives tied Bodkin's hooves. A minefield in downtown Canterlot defied that. This was an absolute worst-case scenario, tactical destruction spells in the city. A little discouraging coming directly after a victory, though it was small.
"Because Chrysalis escaped." Discouragement tinged Bit's voice. "Bodkin knows. Something changed."
"Blech, you're right." I wracked my brain. "We need clearer communications with Twilight and Artemis. Thoughts?"
"We could use a line-of-sight spell." Bit surveyed the area. "They should be nearby, likely in… that." She waved towards the drifting traps.
I felt a phantom tap at my temple.
"Oh, hold on. Artemis is near enough to start the link." I'd re-targeted her this morning, since she was the only team-mate who could reliably lend me power. "Yes?"
"Wes! You're staying back? Good! How'd things go with Chrysalis?"
"Your sister has her." I packaged the main points of our fight, and pushed them across the link.
"Woah!" I felt her surprise, as a block of knowledge materialized in her brain. "That is… woah."
"Oh, yeah. I never showed you that." I grinned. "It made collaborating with Twilight interesting. Can I get a breakdown from your end?"
"Sure… I'll just tell you. We found Bodkin soon after we split. I think he hoped Chrysalis could stall us; he was pretty frustrated by our arrival. I engaged with Twilight’s support. We did well, pushing him significantly, but then he deployed this."
"There's no way a pegasus cast this! It's a minefield?"
"He didn't cast it. It's a recorded spell, an artifact from the old Crystal Empire." I felt her frustration. "It's called a Shard Field, a thousand-year-old military spell that's brutally effective and ridiculously overbuilt. I bet Sombra designed the original. He can probably make them in his sleep. At least he hasn’t upgraded it. I think."
"You know how it works?" I grasped at the straw. "Can you crack it? Disable it? Something?"
"Maybe from the outside." I could almost feel her grit her teeth. "We had a nifty trick, back when we first fought Sombra. When it's cast, the safety mechanism generates the unlock code using the environment. If we knew they were being cast, we had a spell to hijack that. We could set the de-activation sequence to anything. Sombra never caught on. Too bad that’s useless here."
"You're annoyed because you've dealt with these before, but since we didn't plan for it, you're trapped."
"YES!"
"Woah, calm! It'll be okay."
"You don't know that! While we're trapped, Bodkin will accomplish his REAL objective! We can't stop him; we’ve got to focus on escape and deactivating this. Shard Fields chain-link explosions! Alicorns might survive, but shrapnel will cover half of Canterlot! Cowardly hostage-taking cur! Splintered spawn of a timberwolf and - "
"Okay, okay! Sorry, I didn't intend to be flippant." I sighed. "I understand your feelings. But! We got Chrysalis! Unless Bodkin pulls something fantastic, we've deprived Sombra of an asset equalling one of his lieutenants, and we've got information. We've badly needed information since the very beginning. Chrysalis is stupid, but sly. If she didn't latch onto every interesting fact she could, I'll eat my hat."
"You don't wear a hat."
"Heh. Bit can make one. Feel better?"
"No. Just calmer."
"Wes." Bit tapped my arm, and I looked up.
"Oh, sorry." I frowned. "I'll relay for you in a minute, okay? Let me finish - "
"No, not that." She waved impatiently to the street below.
Painted on the pavement, directly under where we stood, was a squarewave and an arrow. I wouldn’t have seen it without looking nearly straight down.
"Oh, hay."
"What's up?"
"Artemis… how much do we trust Squarewave?"
"Not much. Why?"
"Do these minefields have a safe path?" I pushed an image of the sigil and arrow across the link.
"Yes. Several. The key would set them." I felt her ponder for a moment. "Don't."
"Right, but…" I paused, considering. "Dang, I’m tempted."
"Not worth it. We hardly know the guy."
"I know, I know." I sighed. "Okay, this is ridiculous. Artemis, can you direct us to a spot for line-of-sight? If we set up a relay, Bit and Twilight can contribute."
"Good idea. Head…. Seven degrees counterclockwise."
"Okay." I surveyed the landscape. "Bit, take us... there." I pointed to a handy roof. She nodded, and grasped my hand. For a moment, we were airborne.
"Can you do a line-of-sight communicator?" I asked.
"Maybe." She frowned. "I'm not sure."
"Then let me." I drew my wand and sword, and spun a sound spell. Focusing on the emerald cut the power by orders of magnitude. "Okay." I passed her the projector; a small green dish hovered at the end of the handle. "Keep this pointed at them, and we can talk. They're…" I turned, shading my eyes. "Over… there… " My voice trailed off.
Artemis and Twilight were standing side by side, watching each other's back. But that wasn’t why I paused. On a nearby building, visible only to us, was another squarewave. It was rougher, with an arrow pointing left, directly at a strange, spiky pattern, swirling and intricate, with just a hint of tribal influence. It was scrawled all across the building, spreading smoothly across bricks, windows, and the door. It even dripped onto the street. I recognized it instantly. It was a tree-shadow, a Pattern.
It looked strangely fuzzy around the edges. I started for a good ten seconds, unsure of what that meant. As I watched, a strand broke up, slowly dissolving into nothing. Like the pattern Cog's appearance produced, this one was fading.
"Sir?" Bit gave me an apprehensive look.
"Can you see that?" I rubbed my eyes. Another small chunk evaporated. It was fading very slowly. The Patterns indicated magic. Was it fading because that was gone? When was it removed? Could I trace it? Could I extrapolate -
"See what, sir?"
"That!" Bit eeeped as I yanked her close, laying my arm along her head and pointing to the Pattern. "That, that! There's a Pattern there, I think it might be—"
"This is Princess Celestia. All Canterlot Agents, report in." Celestia's voice came clear across my comm, interrupting us. The line-of-sight relay picked up her voice and directed it to our friends, despite the interference from the Shard Field.
"Uh-oh." Artemis' sounded worried. "That's bad."
"No kidding." Pattern forgotten, I released Bit. If Celestia was using the comm override, she really needed us. Something was seriously wrong if she'd already dropped her cover as Lahar.
"Wesley Kilmer, reporting with Queen Tezeca Bitterbloom."
"Artemis, reporting with Princess Twilight Sparkle."
"I'm glad I got through." Celestia's calm voice was taught with stress. "This situation is developing rapidly. An unidentified agent, likely Bodkin, used ancient Crystal Empire tech to penetrate one of my secure facilities. He exfiltrated before I could respond. We have to assume he's achieved his target."
"Buck," Artemis breathed. I heard Twilight gasp in the background. "Any idea what?"
"I'm cataloguing as we speak. Chrysalis is secure, and I have support inbound. I called to warn you! He's headed your direction. Expect—"
KRACK - A - THOOM! Thunder echoed from a blue sky. I looked up. A blast wave washed across the city, as a dark shape streaked past. By the jagged contrail, Bodkin had broken the sound barrier and was accelerating. In his wake, a spray of dark shapes appeared. As I watched, they grew, and grew, and grew.
"—trouble." As she finished, crystal golems rained around us.
"Princess Celestia, Bodkin's gone." I fell into a fighting stance, but didn't grab my sword; Twilight and Artemis needed to hear this. "He left us a slew of golems to fight, though, and we're stretched thin."
"He deployed a Shard Field to trap Twilight and me." Artemis' frustration was clearly audible. "We're locked down hard and helpless, without even a decent option for teleportation."
"I'm routing support to you. Keep the golems from triggering the minefield at all costs." Celestia's voice might have betrayed a touch more stress. "Advise me as you can."
"Yes, ma'am." I snagged my sword, and leaped from the roof. We couldn't waste another moment. I landed hard; thankfully, most of the golems had been dropped in a carpet-bomb pattern. They didn’t surround us. Bodkin was flying fast when he loosed them; they'd spread across the neighborhood in a loose smear. I struck a stance, interposing myself between the minefield and the oncoming enemies.
They leveled their barrels, and nearly wasted me.
"You're being reckless, sir." Bit slammed down before me, erecting a shield of pure chitin. I gasped in relief as crystal bullets zinged from her defense. "If you don’t think ahead, you hinder us all. I’m the leader. Hold back, and plan me a course of action. "
"Hah." I puffed out a breath, and nodded. I'd leaped without looking. If she hadn't caught my mistake, I'd have been in serious trouble. "Okay, hold them a moment."
"I'll do my best." The zings changed to crunches, and she winced. "I'm poor against squads, sir."
"Right," I mumbled. "Artemis!" I called across my comm. "Link!"
"Right." The link formed. "I thought Bit was leading?"
"She's delegating. If you can, switch to a unicorn alt!"
"Good idea." The link stretched and warped strangely. For a second, my perception of Artemis flickered and spun; she seemed to ooze into three, then blurred and smeared. Behind her fragile façade I glimpsed impossible depths, calm and vast voids speckled with comet fire and dusted with frozen helium. The dark silhouette of a pony filled my mind, filled with glittering stars. Hugeness and silence overwhelmed me, until everything snapped back into place.
"Wes?" She was back to… well, maybe not 'normal', but at least baseline. Everything pegasus was gone, her wings replaced with a horn.
"You're gigantic."
"Focus, Wes. We can talk diet advice later." Her amusement was palpable, and I tried to withhold chagrin.
"Sorry. Right. First order of business; shields." I asked for power, and she complied.
"HAH!" I forced magic through my wand and a dark blue shield, cut with orange crackles, sprang up. Bit relaxed with a sigh as I took over defense. Crystal projectiles spattered the field with deep thrumms, throwing ripples and failing to penetrate.
"Good job." Bit smiled at me. "What's the plan?"
"This is as far as I've gotten." I grinned ruefully. "How many did Bodkin drop?"
"Scores." Bit grimaced. "And they're bigger and stronger than we've faced yet."
"Of course." I groaned. "Of course. Hey, Squarewave!" I threw my head back, and yelled to the sky. "I'd appreciate a hand right now! Can you do something useful for once?"
"Focus, Wes. I think we've gotten all the help we can from him. Maybe he's played out."
"No, that can't be right. He's powerful! He knew where to spot—" I cut off. The Pattern. He'd known where to spot the Pattern. Which was pretty strange, because until now, I had been the only one who could even see the Pattern. "Hold up…"
I was missing something; something important. I could feel it.
"Wes!" Bit jerked me back to reality. "They're moving!" The golems were big, the size of a small car. They were made from the same slabby dull crystal as before, but were more squat and menacing. Windigolems never had faces, but these totally lacked heads. They were simply rounded blocks, with a leg on each corner. Long barrels were mounted on their backs, crude attempts at guns. They reminded me of tanks. Four-legged tanks. Marching at me.
Crude, but effective.
I quailed as another round of bullets shattered against my shield.
"Okay. Okay! First plan. Try the obvious thing." I shifted my sword from my hand to my aura. A half-dozen tendrils of blue magic attached to the handle. The Screaming Emerald had been a gun once; it could be one again. Bit nodded approvingly, and her form flowed. Tentacles whipped out, anchoring her to the surrounding buildings. A surprisingly large barrel sprang from her shoulder.
BO-BOOOM.
We fired simultaneously. Thunder echoed in the narrow street, and the first wave of golems crunched to dust. I gathered my energy to fire again, but when the dust cleared, the golems were gone.
"They're moving." Bit retracted her supports, folding her weapon away. "They're circling. Clockwise. Surprisingly fast, for such large constructs."
"They're learning?" I frowned, and we took off at a dead run. "Or somepony is commanding them."
"No way to tell." Bit grabbed my collar, and hoisted me into the air. "Doesn't matter."
"Right." My morale sank further. I looked down as Bit landed. We’d moved seven degrees back. The squarewave we'd seen below us was here, still pointing into the minefield. I grit my teeth. If we could disable the Shard Field, we might have a real chance.
I scuffed the sigil with my foot. It was blockier than I'd thought. Down, right, up, right, down; a simple sigil. But the second ‘right’ was longer here, and the the 'cup' on the end was squished. It almost looked like… like…
"Duck!" Bit called. I dove as a zooming golem tried to decapitate me. My sword spun up, bisecting it.
"Artemis, look at this." I shoved the sigil at her. "Does this look like—"
"—the Little Dipper." She finished my thought, curious. "Down, over, up, over, down. That's the Little Dipper. Good grief; remember the note? Squarewave said 'Trust your lucky stars'. He wants you to follow that. Were all the sigils like that?"
"No…" I thought back. "They became more and more recognizable." I blasted another golem. They were combining punishing barrages with crippling close assaults. Bit and I were fighting back-to-back, and they were pressing us hard. If they'd gone straight for the minefield, we'd have been sunk; but either the commanding intelligence was too stupid to understand, or too proud to ignore us.
"Weird.” Artemis had no distractions on her end. “Seriously weird. The only ones who should know about that are—"
"—you, me, and the Elements. The ponies at my Hearths Warming Pinkie Pie Party. But that's not all. Earlier, I saw a sigil pointing to a Pattern.” I pushed her an image. “Squarewave knows things he shouldn't. He knows what we call him. He knows my guide star. He can see the Pattern. If I didn't know better, I'd be forced to say there's only one conclusion."
"You're Squarewave?" Artemis' thought was incredulous. "That's impossible."
"So's the rest of this."
I fought in ferocious silence for a little.
"… maybe I spoke too quickly.." Artemis wrapped up a bundle of thoughts, and pushed them across the link to me. “Maybe that idea’s not as stupid as it seems.” As her ideas unfolded, my incredulity grew by leaps and bounds.
"No way. No actual way." I considered it again. "No literal actual way. That's impossible." Her suggestion was pure baloney. Ridiculous. Beyond foolish.
"You could test it." Her suggestion was innocent. I hesitated. That would be easy enough, but…
"If it is right, I'd need to leave Bit alone here." I looked to my assistant.
"She'll be fine. You're holding her back." I grimaced at that; it was probably true. I shattered another golem and thought. This was crazy. Ridiculous. Impossible.
I drew a clear space around me with my blade, and reached down for a cobblestone.
It came up easily in my fingers. Someone had lifted it recently. I turned it over; on the bottom was the Little Dipper, what we'd been calling the Squarewave Sigil.
<"Fuck!"> I swore vehemently.
That was proof… or close enough. I looked up. The golems were coming. I needed to act, and I needed to act now. If I made a single mistake, the Shard Field would go off. Fighting golems hand-to-hand was a stopgap measure, and a poor one at that. But Bit could hold. Bit had to hold. I wouldn't be gone long. Artemis was right. She had to be right.
"Alright, let's do this." My thought was grim. "But give me a moment to explain."
"Be fast, Wes. The longer we draw this out, the more likely disaster becomes."
"Bit!" I smashed through a golem, placing my shoulder next to hers. From my position, I could cover her, and she could cover me. It was easy for me to read her intentions. Her movements flowed as I predicted her actions, following her blows and movements with ease. "Bit, I need to move closer to Artemis!"
"Huh?" She faltered in mid-strike, and I picked up the slack. "But—"
"I'm holding you back!"
"No Wes, you're—"
"Just, let me talk!" She fell silent. We dove behind cover as the assault slackened. "Listen, Bit. You don't need me here. You’ll fight better without having to protect me." Hurt shimmered in her eyes, and I choked on my words.
"She doesn't want you to leave! She feels abandoned."
"Thank you, I realized." My thought was acid, and Artemis retreated.
"Look, Bit." I shoved our situation down, and spun her to face me. "You're… grown up. Self-sufficient. Powerful. I don’t need to protect you. Right?"
"Right." She forced the word. Her eyes cut me, but I continued. She didn't need me. She'd realize that.
"If I leave you, you'll be better off. You're stronger than me. I'm not helping. I need to go. You can handle this, right?"
"Yes." She looked down. I could hear the golems advance. Artemis was calling, but I suppressed her.
"I've got a plan, an idea. I think I know what's going on. I can resolve this. But… I need to leave you. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Look at me, Bit." She wrenched her eyes up to mine. She didn't need me. I wasn't abandoning her. I needed to convince her that was okay. "You're an adult. You're strong. You're independent."
"Wes, I—"
"That is a good thing.” My words were forceful. “Don't ever doubt it!" I raised my sword, pouring Artemis' ample magic into it. The blade flared, and the Emerald started shrieking. It would hold, even without my input. "Listen, Bit. You're strong. Believe it. I'm not doing this because I want to leave. I need to." Puzzlement appeared in her eyes. A round of shells whipped past. "I'm asking because you're strong. I can rely on you. I can ask for your help."
"Huh?"
"Bit, you're no longer just someone I protect. Now, you're someone who can protect me. Someone I can entrust with responsibility. I need your help! Guard my back. Defend, so I can work." I grinned wide, a ferocious smile. "Bit. I'm asking you to step into danger. Fight for me."
I spun my sword, offering her the hilt. Her hurt dissolved into a wide-eyed wonder as she finally understood. Ever since we’d met, she'd wanted more from me; more trust, more responsibility. Now I was offering, and she hadn't even asked.
"Yes!" She snatched up the blade, and held it high. It flared green. "You can count on me!"
"Good." I nodded once, and spun towards the sigil and arrow painted on the pavement. "I'm off. Guard my back." With barely a hint of hesitation, I dashed into the minefield, following the path of arrows.
"How close together do we need to be?" I was sold out. There was no turning back. I'd entrusted myself to Squarewave, and decided to believe Artemis' crazy theory. I skidded to a stop on the next sigil, spinning to dash after the arrow. So far, I hadn't triggered any mines. Three turns in, and I was still alive. More evidence.
"We need to be touching, or it won't work."
"Alright." I pulled power through the link. Pure magic couldn’t speed me as fast as pegasus power, but I could re-enforce my legs, lungs, and heart. I paused to glance back. A flare of green showed the power in my sword was holding; Bit ought to be okay. I really had held her back.
"Hurry, Wes!" I returned to my course, really leaning into my run. Finally, I sprinted into the area where Twilight and Artemis were standing. It was a clear zone; the Shard Field dappled the surrounding area, but avoided them.
"Wes?" Twilight looked up surprised, as I dashed around the corner.
"Yup! Okay, Artemis; I've tested it twice, and both came up positive. Let's go for broke."
"Right." She drew a nervous breath, and flared her magic. It coalesced into a glowing sphere, and tentacles of power snaked away, snagging the floating mines.
"What are you doing?" Twilight's voice quavered slightly.
"Disabling the Shard Field." Artemis' voice was distant.
"But we don't know the code!" Twilight gasped.
"Right. We're going to guess." I put a steadying hand on her neck. "And we'll get it in one go. Because we're the ones who set the code."
"What?" Twilight frowned. "Princess, you said we needed to cast the foiling spell before it was in place! How can you—" She cut off, as Artemis’ interface spell started spinning, knocking out random numbers. We couldn't just guess all zeros; it had to be a possible sequence, or the Field would never have activated. I frantically memorized them. Pulses traveled the interfacing threads, and one by one, the crystal mines went dark and fell from the sky.
"I guessed." Artemis shrugged. "The only stable loop was me guessing right." She grinned fiercely. "Now we're going to set things in stone. Let's do this, Wes."
"Right." Keeping one hand on Twilight, I tangled my other in Artemis' mane. "Go!"
"Here goes nothing." Her horn flared. I felt a surge of power across the link. There was a flash of brilliant light, a confused impression of movement, and the distinctive yank of a warp.
"Why didn't you just teleport out of the Shard Field?"
"No clear landing space. Remember, you need to see your destination."
"Oh."
"This spell is different, though."
I sighed, feeling tension fade as the world re-formed around us. I found a scrap of paper in my pockets, and scribbled down the deactivation numbers I’d memorized.
"Well, yeah." Around us, ponies were walking through a busy street. The sun was high in the sky. Everything was calm. There were no golems. None of the wreckage we'd created with our brawling. After all, it hadn't happened yet. "Oh, Twilight didn't come." I sighed.
"That was expected. She's already used this spell once."
"Right, right." I looked around. "What was this called? Starswirl’s Chrono-melter?"
"Chronometer. Remember, it's not a time-travel spell."
"Yeah." I rubbed my nose. "Yeah, I know. It's just… such a strange concept."
"Time is strange." Artemis shrugged. "Let's check we arrived correctly." She trotted down the road, heading for a newspaper stand. I followed. She picked up a paper, skimmed it, and passed it to me. "Looks like we're good. Three days in the past."
"This is ridiculous." I groaned, and started pacing in circles, trying to think. "Your solution for me being Squarewave and not knowing it was time travel?"
"It worked, didn't it? You picked up that cobblestone, and I disabled the Shard Field. Besides, it's not—"
"Right, right. It's not time travel." I waved a hand. "We're not actually changing the past. All of this happened already. We're just… experiencing it out of order? Like Twilight did, when she first used this spell. It's… reverse-predestination. Yuck. That sounds just as stupid the second time."
I cradled my head in my hands and tried to think it through again. Squarewave had known things he shouldn't. I was the only one who knew those things. Artemis had warped us back in time… sort of. Everything I'd experienced was locked into place, so now we needed to do everything Squarewave had done, because I was Squarewave. When we had, we'd warp back to the future, creating a stable time-loop.
Since only one loop was created, and only stable loops could be created, we couldn't actually change the past. But then, we didn't need to; we just needed to make sure everything we'd seen actually happened. We knew the directions Squarewave - me - had given, and the code to disable the field, because we'd experienced it. It was locked into place. We were doing the locking.
"Blech." I thrust the confusing mess from my mind, and tried to focus on concrete actions. "Okay, this is giving me a headache. I hate not-time travel."
"Still, it's what we've got." Artemis dropped the paper, and turned away. "Now, I need to get a Shard Field foiling-spell together. What do you need to do?"
"Write one, two… three notes?" I frowned. "Deliver one to myself, and hire two couriers. I need a can of spraypaint, and to set up some time-delay stuff.”
"Right. Let's do this." She snagged me with her aura, and started tugging me down the road.
"And afterwards, let's never use this spell again." I caught up to her, and she released me. "Time Travel is entirely too confusing."
"Well, it seems each pony can only cast it once. Or only under specific conditions. It's not well understood, and it’s not—"
"Right, right. Not time travel." I crossed my arms behind my head, and leaned back, staring up into the sky. "Whatever. Not-time travel is even more confusing."
"You're done?" She frowned at me.
"Yeah." I pointed to the cobblestone I'd just pried up, spray painted with the Little Dipper, and replaced. It was the same one I'd snagged during my fight with the golems and Bit. I'd been checking whether someone would know I'd pick up that exact stone. It had been enough to convince me Artemis' not-time travel scheme was correct. I had known I’d pick up the stone, because I had picked up the stone. Or something like that.
"We're not warping."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Artemis rolled her eyes. "Are you sure we've gotten them all?"
"Hmm." I thought back. "One note to myself, pointing to Bit's café. One note to you, same. One courier for the first fight. One set of timed invisible spray-paint arrows for the second fight. Another courier for the third fight. Arrows for the minefield, and a cobblestone to show this is the right plan. Oh." I frowned. "There was one more." I turned. "Seven degrees counter-clockwise… can you get us up there?" I pointed to a distant roof-top.
"Sure." Artemis grabbed my sleeve, and wrapped us in her magic. We wafted across. "Why here?"
"I painted one last one, over there." I pointed to the Pattern. It seemed much crisper. "Oh, interesting. It looks different now."
"What are you talking about?" Artemis shot me a curious glance.
"Let me show you." The link started, and I let her borrow my eyes.
"That's… the Pattern?" She hesitantly accepted the images. "It's… weird."
"I know. You know, you’re the first person besides me to actually see one in the real world? I'd like to ask Cog why, but… yeah. Here." I tossed her the spray paint. "Put a big squarewave and an arrow on that house next door, pointing right at the pattern."
"Sure." She lifted the can in her aura, and floated it towards the target. It was done in a moment.
"Still not warping."
"Still obvious." She rolled her eyes. "Again, have you forgotten anything?"
"Hmm." I repeated the itinerary in my head. "I don't think so."
"Hold up." She frowned. "You put up a squarewave." She pointed. "But did you investigate the Pattern? Why point to it?"
"No..." I frowned. "I didn't. But before, it was fading somewhat."
"Fading?"
"Yeah, bits were disappearing. It was smaller, and I watched a chunk fade out."
"Like the magic was gone? Like you'd… already done something?" She cocked her head. "Maybe…"
Our eyes met.
"Now?" I quirked an eyebrow.
"Well, we can look." She floated us off the roof. "Let's head over and find the focus."
"Hello?" I knocked on the door. "Anypony home?"
"Hold up." The link broke. Artemis concentrated a second, and shook herself. Her pinto coat dissolved into mist, and when it cleared, she was taller and more regal, sporting wings and a horn. "I'll go first. Let me do the talking."
"Um." I imagined the Royal Capslock Voice, and shrugged. "Alright." She wouldn't hurt anything.
"Hello?" A unicorn opened the door, eyes widening as he looked up at us.
"GOOD MORNING, CITIZEN!" Luna's greeting pinned his ears against his head, and he fainted dead. "Ah." She smiled. "It would seem the way is clear."
"Are you doing this on purpose?" I shot her a suspicious glance.
"Who, me? Cute, fluffy, little blue me?" She widened her eyes innocently. I chuckled.
"Of course not; how silly of me. The very thought is ridiculous." I bowed extravagantly, waving her forward. "After you, milady."
"Hold up." I raised a hand, and Luna stopped. "It's in there." The house we were in was fairly small. We hadn't even needed another of Luna's 'explanations'. We were walking past a door that led up into the attic. The Pattern spread across plain oak planking.
"That was fast." She turned aside to crack it open, peering through. After a moment, she resumed her limiting disguise, and we stepped in.
"Woah." The whole room was covered with the Pattern. Everything had a twisting, curling overlay. "This is super trippy."
"Let me see?"
"Sure." I opened the link.
"Woah. Super trippy." Artemis scanned the room. "It centers… there?" She pointed across the room, directly for a small box. The pattern swirled inwards around it, disappearing under the lid.
"Yeah." I walked across the room, but hesitated before touching it. "Should we do this?"
"Yes." She nodded. "This Pattern… it's yours, somehow. At least take a look. It's tied to you, and tied to Cog. And that ties it to your memory. Remember what Cog said?"
"I've got one chance to remember." I drew in a shaking breath. “I need to grasp it with both hands." I flipped the chest open and peered in.
"Hah." Artemis glanced in. "Well, it's obvious who did this."
"Cog."
The bottom of the box was carved with innumerable gears and mechanisms, interlacing machinery carefully rendered in soft wood. The pattern flowed up the walls of the box, spilling over into the room around us.
"That one's loose." I pointed. One of the gears was turning, ever so slowly. A faint radiance emanated from it, and every twisting thread of the Pattern twined into its base. "Should I?"
"Both hands, Wes."
"Right." I drew a deep breath, and reached in carefully. I could barely fit my wrists inside. I steadied my fingers, and wrapped them firmly around the gear.