//------------------------------// // 24 - Silent as a Knave // Story: Synch // by sunnypack //------------------------------// It was Twilight, no wait, it was twilight at Canterlot castle and Celestia had finished yet another day court shift. She yawned and stretched her wings. Outwardly, she looked as calm and composed as ever but within her heart felt uncertain and it wavered. It had been almost a week since she had sent Twilight on her mission and she had not been able to contact her. Her worries were not helped by the return of the odious ambassador Rex, who postured and threatened to rescind agreements and accords over petty strife and perceived attacks on his character and race. Most ponies would be wary but ultimately welcoming given the chance, but Rex was an unpleasant character making it difficult for her ponies to be cordial with him. Even Celestia found that her normally deep well of patience (that is if she wasn’t dealing with pranks from her sister) was drained. It didn’t help that Rex were one of the only willing ambassadors from the diamonds, most would keep to themselves, and that even as terrible as he was diplomatically he was actually one of the better ones offered. So Celestia endured him but worried about her prized pupil from the moment she stepped from day court or a meeting chamber. Luna at least, had come up with good news. “Tia, Tia! I’ve got good news”, she called out excitedly as soon as she was permitted past her sister’s bedchamber doors. “I have found out how to track the null being!” Celestia gaped at Luna. “Did we not establish that that had been impossible?” “Nay, dear sister! Impossible is impossible! Improbable it was.” Celestia didn’t bother pointing out the paradox in her sister’s statement. Luna continued trotting on the spot, “We- I have visited the finding spell and they were simply going about it the wrong way.” Celestia looked into her sister’s eyes, responding, “And how have you solved that problem, Lulu?” “Oh it was simple, dear Tia! The spell was based around searching for the null magical signature.” Celestia’s eyes widened in comprehension, she knew exactly what Luna was talking about. “Of course! Why did I not see that before? It would have nothing to latch onto in the first place.” She frowned. “That still means that the spell will not be able to detect the null’s presence.” Luna danced in excitement. “’Tis where my genius simply outshines yours, dear Tia”, she teased, sticking a tongue out. “Oh get on with it, you!” Celestia replied irritably, inwardly she was excited. “I simply send out a pulse of magic, a wave designed to send pulses back to me every second. So as-“, Luna explained, before being interrupted. “-Soon as it reaches the null it will stop reporting back and you will know the exact distance and placement of the null being!” “That is right Tia and I will also put a magical charge in each tracer wave, so that it can tell if it had stopped reporting due to magical interference instead of being erased!” Celestia gaped at her sister, it seemed she had thought of everything. “There is one problem though, dear Lulu”, Celestia replied. Luna nodded, her expression turning serious. “The power, correct?” Celestia waited as Luna composed herself. “We will need the Crystal Heart”, proposed confidently. Celestia's jaw dropped. “WHAT?” ----- The first step of the plan, befriending a diamond dog, went almost insultingly well. The diamond dogs, though initially appeared to be simple and straightforward people, actually had a complicated hierarchical system. Each ‘pack’ had a ‘super pack’, which was governed by a ‘beta council’, which in turn was ruled by the ‘alpha’ of the domain. Alphas did not interact directly with other alphas due to the very real possibility of war breaking out. Within a pack, a leader, unusually selected not by strength or dominance but by cunning and intelligence, would be deferred to but was by no means an absolute leader. Order was maintained by mob rule and those that did not conform were quickly singled and shunted out. Diamond dogs had specialisation like any sufficiently advanced civilisation. There were those in charge of gem sniffing, guarding and all manner of other monotonous duties like tending to the slaves or guarding them as they worked. Taking care of the slaves were one of the most boring jobs that a diamond dog could be given and I quickly found out that they would usually strike up a conversation with the prisoners, provided they did not stop working. Most ponies that were enslaved were compliant but definitely not happy and would refuse to talk to the dogs as a matter of principle. Of course, I had harboured similar feelings to these dogs, but whether it was due to me being a human or that it was because I shared a similar figure with these dogs, or because the ponies would not talk to them, they began to eagerly converse with me. Gruff was the guard dog responsible for me, he was big and friendly but always wore a permanent scowl. Unexpectedly, his manner had reminded me of Dmitri (or the dog I had briefly before it died of old age) and I had to swallow back a pang of homesickness. I found out from Gruff that his family had lived in the Equestrian Gem Hills since the founding of the diamond dog pack. Confused, while swinging a pickaxe, I had asked him why he was stuck guarding me when he so obviously had better talents. Surprised, he asked me what I meant. Confused, I pointed out that his massive physique would make him better suited to guarding the pack leader or perhaps ‘recruiting’ (I barely refrained myself from yelling enslaving) other ponies on the surface. He had entertained the notion for a while but it turned out he just never really thought about it and never had any ambitions beyond guarding, eating, sleeping and generally being content with life. I nodded but asked of him what he thought about doing something greater. I impressed upon him the wide world of science. My fascination with discovering something new, my glowing pride when I got something to work and my inspired awe when gazing upon the works of my people. Oftentimes when he conferred with me about this subject he would listen enraptured, fascinated by my account of atoms and molecules and chemistry and physics and biology that encompassed the world laws of the universe. He nodded quietly as I explained certain facets of social psychology (it had been a necessary sit in when Paul made a joke) and philosophy (that Emilia had been keen on). It was not long before I was barely doing work at all and we just sat there talking. Nobody came, even though my quota had steadily dwindled (they just thought I had been getting sicker) and it was unthinkable that a diamond dog would show sympathy for one of the slaves. There had never been a single being that thought to make friends with their captors. Daily (or was it nightly?) I was reminded of my purpose as I was led back to our cell. The two guards were getting increasingly fatigued but Twinkie, Solid Evidence and Iron File had been left behind, to be sent to work when we had ‘expired’. Besides, Gruff had told me it was risky to let the unicorns out of their cells, especially if they were fully recovered, they were fresh out of inhibitors, which I assumed inhibited magic. We had continued the routine of work, eat and sleep for almost four days now but today I had finally reached my goal. Over time, a small mound had been building up in the corner of our cell, it looked innocent enough, just a different coloured rock and dirt and the diamond dog guards whenever they thought to pass by or give us meagre food and water would pay it no heed. Twilight and Solid had been unable to use magic, though I didn’t know why I had been counting on them. It was surprisingly easy to talk shop with magic when everyone here believed in it. Twilight had complained that the bars had blocked enchantments within the cell. Even if they stuck their horns out they would only be able to make a big flash or perhaps a small intense flame, not enough to damage anyone and the short range from the inhibiting bars would ultimately stop further enchantments. We only had one chance at this, so I had to get it right. I gave them a short update and signalled to Twilight, wanting to confirm points in my plan. She still did not know what we had been up to and I had been cautious not to tell her anything until we tried to escape, after all if they started torturing, we would lose everything. Paranoid, I knew but unavoidable, I was meticulous. Twilight shuffled over to me, stumbling slightly with the heavy chains. I gave her a sympathetic look but she shrugged it off, interested in what I had to say to her. “Hey Twilight, you said before you could produce maybe a small intensive flame before, right?” I asked, gesturing to Solid’s horn in the corner. Solid caught the gestured and frowned but didn’t say anything. Twilight nodded, unsure where I as going with this. “You could but I don’t see-“, she began but I cut her off before she continued, eager to present my plan. “You see that pile over there?” I had indicated to the off coloured dirt in the corner. Twilight nodded. “That’s a mixture of aluminium powder and iron oxide or rust powder” I explained, grabbing a handful and trickling down. “Thermite?” Twilight whispered urgently, suddenly understanding. “But how did you get this?” I chuckled. I certainly underestimated Twilight’s scientific knowledge. I wonder how she knew so much? “After befriending a receptive diamond dog guard I convinced him to move me to the smelting furnaces, they're only interested in steel so there’s some slag run off for aluminium, silicon and some other elements. Rust is fairly easy to come by if you have the patience to scrape it off. I simply told them I would polish their weapons (though they are just stone spears, what's up with that?), armour (which was steel) and upkeep their shackles (which were iron, talk about inconsistency) under the pretence of helping the other prisoners with comfortable shackle-wear.” Twilight’s eyes widened and she gave a squeal of delight. “We really have a chance of breaking out of here!” she yapped excitedly, I shared her enthusiasm but reined it in a little, glancing at the door of the cell. “We’ll wait for the guards to check up on use before they retire for the night, pretend to sleep and then execute the plan”, I put forward. Pinkie had been listening in, though I never saw how she got close without me knowing. “Ooooh!” she exclaimed. “Pretending is so much fun! I'm a good actor.” She pretended to faint. I grinned. “Thermite is very hot and very bright but it works very fast, it'll have to be done before the next guard comes up, hopefully the suppressing bars will weaken or dispel completely once we break them, but I'm not holding out on that just yet”, I told them, Twilight and Pinkie nodding sharply, although Pinkie was still pretending to be unconscious so she waved a hoof and went back to being out cold. “Alright Twilight, tell the others of the plan and I will explain how to escape with the two guards. Send them over when you're done.” “Got it”, she replied trotting over to the rest of the gang. Pinkie seemed less like she was pretending and more like she was sleeping. After receiving the gist of the plan, the two guards trotted over. It had dawned on me that I have never asked of their names. Feeling a little guilty I introduced myself. “So we haven’t met properly, what are your names?” I inquired, sinking down to my haunches. Just because I didn't do nearly as much work as the others didn’t mean I still wasn't tired. The grey pegasus on the left, the one I had spoken to whilst calming down Twilight addressed me. “Name’s Hardy Greaves and this here is Lightning Shield”, I nodded at Lightning and Hardy, later I would question their strange names but they didn’t seem so different than the descriptors for other languages after all my name was derived from ‘white bell of truth’ so I couldn’t really complain. “Okay Hardy and Lightning, can you airlift us out of about ten metres?” “Airlift?” queried Hardy. “Metres?” posited Lightning. “Really?” I asked back, but refrained from going any further. “Okay barring S.I. units let’s say it is about- ” I quickly calculated “ –seven or eight ponies high?” “Airlift means to carry us while you fly.” Hardy and Lightning nodded. “You mean a wing lift?” Lightning corrected and I rolled my eyes. “Yep. Okay there’s going to be a side passage after we exit the main warrens. From there, there is a disused furnace with a vent that leads outside. It’s going to be sooty and most likely messy so if we can spot or if we have cloth on hand we can cover our… muzzles and move on up, any questions?” “Only one”, Hardy said. “What are you?” “I'm a scientist”, I replied with a wicked grin.