Chancellor Fishberry strolled up, facing across the stone from Saikano. She looked insanely out of place, wearing her noble silks and threads in the center of such a desolate plain. “You've been silent as of late, General. We were starting to wonder if we were alone.”
“I concur.” Secretary Sharp Quill also appeared, his purple eyes producing an eerie sheen in the darkness. “There have been multiple incidents in the capital these past two days.” He kept trotting closer... closer. “If the pressure is up here, I shudder to imagine what slim control you have over the Soul Sentries at best—”
“Do not move any further!” Saikano shouted. “Stay back! Keep your distance!”
The other two stopped dead in their tracks. Soon, the three stood equadistant from one another in a triangular pattern, with Shepherd's Rock acting as the impregnable divide. Rainbow Dash watched in silent curiosity, barely producing a single breath.
“I... did not wish to alarm you,” Sharp Quill said.
“He's right, though,” Fishberry remarked in a dull tone. “We must keep a firm distance. We all know what's at stake if we don't.”
“It... It's just been so difficult as of late,” Sharp Quill muttered.
“You've been around that Prince too long,” Saikano said. “Fathering him has softened you.”
“You would do well to remind yourself that it works the other way around,” Sharp Quill said with sudden menace. “If it weren't for me, Saikano, none of this would be possible.”
“Then perhaps you should be the one in charge of the Sentries!” Saikano growled. “It's trouble enough to maintain the perimeter without having to answer to the Cartel every damn day—”
“Will you two calm yourselves?!” Fishberry insisted. “Don't you see what's happening?! We've been turned against one another! They're attempting to weaken every facet of this initiative. If we cannot cooperate, then the plan cannot go into motion. Then all will be lost.”
Sharp Quill shuddered. His gaze fell. “They... they broke into my office. They did some snooping around.”
Saikano squinted his good blue eye. “Who's 'they?'”
“I am not entirely sure. Maybe it was an entire group. Maybe it was just one infiltrator. But whoever they are...” He motioned his antlers at the doe. “They did the same thing to Fishberry's office.”
Saikano turned to look at her from across the Rock. “Is this true?”
“I'm surprised you didn't sense it,” Fishberry said. “Your Sentries came in to intercept the infiltrator. They did not succeed.”
Saikano sighed. “It's my fault. I had a meeting with the Cartel earlier. If I had been meditating along the perimeter instead—”
“Do not blame yourself,” Fishberry said. “They've been distracting us on all fronts.”
“Do you know who they are?” Saikano asked.
“Not entirely. But I have every reason to believe that they're connected to the governor of Bountiful.”
Rainbow Dash held her breath, ears twitching.
“You mean Duchess Arcanista?” Saikano remarked.
“Affirmative.”
“I've heard news of a royal ambassador whose speech shook up the Council today.”
“That was a member of her entourage.”
“One of the false Xonans?” Sharp Quill remarked. “Those whom you wrote me about?”
“Precisely.” Fishberry nodded. “The child pretending to be a 'Princess' matches the description that given to us.”
“Which description?”
“You know fully well, Sharp Quill,” Fishberry said. “The ones that she gave us.”
Rainbow's lips pursed.
“That's rather coincidental,” Saikano remarked.
“Why is that?”
“Because the chief issue that the Cartel have been yammering about is the interference by the Noble Jury,” he said. “We all know that they've been choking the Green Bandits resources beyond the West Gate.” He turned to stare at the other two figures. “But what if they've spread their operations abroad?”
Sharp Quill's muzzle hung open. “You mean they've split up?”
“Given their past with her, it would make sense,” Fishberry said, glancing at the other two. “They'd be desperate enough to split their numbers.”
“Then that makes them an even greater threat than before,” spoke Sharp Quill. “Think about it. They outnumber us.”
“Not exactly.” Fishberry looked at Saikano. “The General still has his Sentries.”
“If you want me to use them, then I have to be minding the perimeter.” His brow furrowed. “I can't keep playing ambassador to the Cartel.”
“You're the only thing that holds those imps in check.”
“It matters little,” Saikano said. “They're going to double-cross us no matter what. Their ambition is to conquer all of Val Roa.”
“Then what's important is that we let them go as far as we want,” Fishberry said. “And then you can crush them, Saikano.”
“What's the state of the armada as of today?” Sharp Quill asked.
“I ordered one battleship to stay within our borders,” Saikano said. “I sent a skiff back with the payment for the nagas' skystone. Once Haman has made the exchange, they'll send the next two vessels. They should be within Val Roan airspace in time for the Coronation.”
Rainbow's ears folded back as her face paled. She struggled to keep from breathing too hard as her blood ran cold.
“Then, as far as the Cartel is concerned, they're bound to deliver on their end,” Sharp Quill said. “Not even a ship like the Noble Jury would be a match for that much fire power.”
“Still, we need leverage against them for when the day comes that we act on her behalf,” Fishberry said. “This should be our last meeting before the Coronation. I've come up with solution to the false Xonans. At these specific times, I need both of you to be—”
Rainbow Dash suddenly couldn't hear what she was saying. As a matter of fact, she couldn't hear anything. A strong pair of hooves had wrapped around her from behind.
“... ... ...!” The mare sputtered for breath, wrestling with a savage weight against her back. She couldn't see the shadow of her attacker in the darkness of evening. She thrashed left... then right. The pegasus couldn't budge. Whoever had pounced on her, it was someone well-trained and well-prepared for this sort of an assault. As Rainbow felt her lungs quivering from a painful lack of oxygen, the world blurred. She was being suplexed to the ground, and the blow was powerful enough to knock out most living things her size.
Rainbow's whole body sparked with stabbing pain. Somehow, she had remained conscious. The Yaerfaerda symbol spun against the black canvas of her eyelids. She was facing east, being rolled across the stone. She felt the body pressed on top of her... the sound of shackles and tight rope. She was about to be bound.
Gritting her teeth, the mare did something she knew her attacker would not expect. She stretched her pegasus wings out at full length.
“Guh!” a feminine voice grunted, being knocked back.
Rainbow inhaled, standing up. She heard the scuffle of hoofsteps bounding towards her. Nimbly, she flew up into the air, backflipped, and came down upon her attacker.
Only once she had her forelegs thrown around the assailant's neck did she realize that it was no deer—but a pony about her own size. The equine was clad in ink-black cloth from head to tail. Rainbow wasn't the only one sneaking out there that night.
Normally, Rainbow would have yelled something into the attacker's ear in order to intimidate her. However, she didn't dare make a sound for fear of the three conspirators' hearing something. Even then, the pegasus' heart palpitated. She craned her neck towards Shepherd's Rock, desperate to hear what the group was mumbling about Arcanista and the “Xonan” entourage—
Rainbow lingered one second too long, and the pony in her grip bucked its rear legs hard into the mare's lower abdomen. Seconds later, the equine performed a magnificent round-house kick of its front hooves.
Rainbow took the impact in her chest. She lost all the air in her lungs, collapsing immediately. Whoever she was fighting, the pony wanted this battle to be silent too. Rainbow crossed her front legs in time to block the attacker's pounce. Together, the two rolled and wrestled across the stone, almost stumbling out into the open where the meeting was transpiring. Through the fitful struggle, Rainbow caught random words, things like “stage” and “underground” and “Tundra.” She cursed mentally, gnashing her teeth as she writhed and squirmed in the attacker's grip. At last, with a red-and-yellow flicker to her eyes, she thrust her neck up.
Flash! Rainbow's pendant briefly strobed in the desert night. The attacker got a face-full of the blinding harmonic glow. In a mix of shock and pain, she reeled back and shrieked out loud.
The voices at Shepherd's Rock silenced in an instant. Then, seconds later, Fishberry's voice: “Did you hear that?”
Sharp Quill: “Saikano, that sounded like—”
Saikano: “Impossible.”
Fishberry: “Even still—”
Saikano: “Yes yes. I'll go see.”
Rainbow gnashed her teeth, looking left and right. She heard the hoofsteps drawing closer... closer. Out of options, Rainbow hugged her dazed attacker tight and flapped both wings with a thunderous thrust. Fwoossssh! She skyrocketed, ascending into the dark night's sky within the span of a blink.
Shepherd's Rock had become a distant speck. Up high, Rainbow hovered, panting. She gripped the shivering assailant as she squinted down at the desert plain. There was no way of telling if the three figures were still there or not, and Rainbow wasn't about to risk getting within viewing distance to find out.
“Darn it!” her voice cracked. “Darn it darn it darn it darn it darn it!” Gritting her teeth, she frowned at the masked pony in her grasp. “You... ya little ninja turd! Do you have any idea... any idea what you've done?!”
“I've stopped an injustice!” the mare spat. “Whatever you were planning, it won't work!”
“What do you mean what I was planning?!” Rainbow hissed. “Those creeps are working for the Queen of Bad Days and you're babbling to me about 'injustice?!'” The pegasus stared her down menacingly. “You've got ten seconds to tell me who you are before I drop you like a bad habit!”
“Do your worst, monster!” she shouted back. “But as God is my witness, I'll haunt your accursed body from the grave if you so much as try assassinating my father again!”
Rainbow's lips pursed. “Your... father...?” Her eyes blinked, and amidst the starlight she envisioned a branch of antlers laced with metal. “... ... ...Midnite?”
The pony in her grasp stiffened.
Rainbow snaked a hoof up and yanked the equine's mask off. A dark-coated mare with a charcoal-gray mane glared back. “Midnite Bastion...?”
“How the Hell did you know my name...?” the pony growled, her eyes glinting like hard diamonds. “Who are you?!”
“Sister...” Rainbow's jaw tightened. “You're looking at one really...really ticked-off pony...”