//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: The Great Conspiracy // by YoungQuillMaster //------------------------------// Twilight woke up slowly, feeling light headed, very dizzy, and quite thoroughly confused, not to mention the aching pain in her chest. She attempted to get up, only to have a hoof nudge her back down. She looked over and saw a grey stallion shaking his head at her. She didn’t recognize the pony, but then she saw the pendant hanging from his neck. “D… ouch…” She fumbled, realizing her mistake in time to stop from saying Dusk’s real name. “N-Nightshade, what happened? Where are we?” She asked her adopted brother. “After the prisoners escaped you attempted to go and help the search, but it appears you had a few too many blasts to the chest.” Dusk explained. “You went into cardiac arrest. You gave us quite the scare for a moment there with you not giving any response.” “I went into… cardiac arrest?” Twilight questioned, looking at the clean room around her. It made a bit more sense now why she was in this place without recollection. “How did you get me back?” She asked while looking down at her chest, more to be able to see her coat color without the armor’s spell. It was a vibrant crimson and her tail was black with a thin red stripe running through it, quite fitting for a Boysenberry. “He resorted to a magically induced manual signal to your brain to restart your heart. After that I had to perform CPR on you to get you breathing again.” Dusk explain. “When you woke up you mistook me for your hubby.” He said with a smirk, and to the questioning gaze of Twilight. “Seriously, you’d think that I’d look different enough from Dusk for you not to mistake me for him.” Twilight suddenly realize what he meant, and blushed in shame at her stupid slip up. “S-sorry, I guess I was really out of it back then.” Twilight replied in embarrassment. Suddenly there was the sound of somepony clearing their throats on the other side of the room. Twilight craned her neck and saw a pony standing with a clipboard grasped in their magic along with a pen that bobbed up and down behind it. The medic walked up to the two with a blank expression as he read over the papers. “Not to interrupt this oh so touching moment, but there are a few matters that must be attended to.” The physician stated, flipping to the next page, reading it over quickly. “So by several accounts you are brother and sister, correct?” “Yes, that’s right.” Dusk replied. “We’re actually twins.” He continued. The doctor grunted as he turned to the next page, reading over it quickly. “According to a fellow guard, you had a bit of training in the Royal Guard, approximately a year and a half by his account of what you said, is this also correct?” The doctor asked. “Yes, that’s right… why exactly are you asking these questions now?” Dusk asked, attempting to use one of the mirrors on the far wall to read the papers with little success. “Well, ever since our two new leaders declared open usage of real names, we’ve been forced to make records for everypony, while as before we simply had a slip of identifying paper that responded to a spell a certain way, but now we need physical documentation of every guard and high ranking member of the order.” The doctor explained. “And since you were taking those two prisoners away, you are now some of the last to receive your papers.” Dusk and Twilight looked at each other, and even though they had flat expressions, their eyes were showing the joy that they felt at how they were already being accepted into the ranks of the guards. “Right, sorry we didn’t come sooner.” Twilight said. “We were going to get the papers when we got the alert that the prisoners had escaped from their cells, so we started the search and were the ones to find them. After that we were told to take them to…” “Alright, Boysen, he knows what happened next.” Dusk said with a nudge. “Now let’s leave the doctor alone while he fills out the papers.” Twilight huffed, looking away from Dusk, acting a bit upset. “Wait…” Twilight began, slightly apprehensive, while turning back towards Dusk, “What about our cards?” Dusk looked at her with a smirk, and then back at the doctor. “I believe that has been already taken care of.” Dusk stated. “We found their chard remnants and small piles of ashes where we were jumped.” He turned back to Twilight. “It seems some of their bolts hit us just in the right way to catch the papers on fire.” “Yes, that will also be something addressed with these new pieces of identification.” The doctor stated, filling out several more blanks. “We’re devising a new fireproof casing for them, thus making magical bolts unable to destroy them.” “That’s good. We wouldn’t want the papers to be destroyed before the ponies carrying them.” Twilight joked, gaining another shove from Dusk and a stern glare. Twilight again looked away, acting as if she didn’t even care. “I find this quite interesting…” The doctor commented as he flipped to the next page, reading over it while taking his pen and filling out a few spaces. “What exactly do you find interesting?” Dusk asked. The doctor looked at the two ‘siblings’ over his spectacle with a smirk before going back to his papers. “How you two can bicker so much at times, both by what I’ve seen and heard reports of, and then can go into saving each others’ lives. You might think that the other wouldn’t give a care if their sibling died with such a relationship as yours.” The medic stated as he continued flipping through his papers. “Even though Boysen can be harebrained and stubbornly stupid at times,” Dusk began, gaining the angry huff of Twilight, “She’s my harebrained stubborn idiot, and she’s my sister.” Twilight looked back towards Dusk with a look of surprise. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to her without repercussions.” “As I said, you two have a very interesting relationship as brother and sister.” The medic said. “Also, Ms Boysenberry,” The doctor began. “Yes, what is it, doctor?” Twilight asked, not knowing what the doctor might be thinking. “It was mouth to mouth CPR.” He stated plainly, flipping to the next page on his clipboard and filling out a few more blanks. Twilight stared at him blankly, blinking for a few seconds, before she realized what he was getting at, and so sprang into her part. “Yuck!” She shouted, rubbing her foreleg across her muzzle with great fervor. “Disgusting, gross!” She continued, muffled by her own hoof. “Nightshade!” She shouted, glaring daggers at him, he smirked and raised his shoulder in a shrug. “Hey, it’s CPR; do you think it works on the cheek as well as on the mouth?” Dusk stated nonchalantly. Twilight huffed, crossing her forelimbs. “If it makes you feel any better I had a mint before doing it.” He jived, only gaining another disgusted huff from Twilight. The doctor continued to smirk to himself as he filled out a few more blanks, occasionally asking a question or two, like date of birth, location of birth, allergies and such, before continuing making out the papers for the two ponies. Eventually the stream of questions came to a close, and the doctor left the room to get the official forums made and the identifications made for the two ponies. Dusk walked around the perimeter of the room, making sure there was no way for anypony to be listening in on their conversation. “So you really saved my life out there?” Twilight asked. Dusk turned back to her and walked up to her bed, sitting down on his bed which was right beside it, separated by a small walking space. “Yeah, you went into cardiac arrest so I had to do something quickly, and so I just did what I remembered from Artemis’ medical lessons.” Dusk stated. “The really weird part is that the field medic seemed like she was surprised when I told her she was doing something wrong and gave her a better suggestion.” “Well, it is understandable to be surprised to be receiving competent instruction from somepony you never expected to have such knowledge.” Twilight pointed out. “As far as she knew, you were just some guard you had received a massive injury that was frantic to save his sister, and you still were able to help in some way.” “I guess that’s true enough.” Dusk agreed. “But they really should invest in better field medics if they want to keep ponies alive. She was content to continue using the defibrillator even though it wasn’t giving us anything. It was only when I suggested manual magical transmission did she even seem to consider it.” “Well, you know as well as I that that operation has several adverse affects on a pony’s system. She had no way of knowing that I’m a bit more on the side that it would take an extremely powerful shock to cause the same damage to me as a normal jolt to any pony of the street.” Twilight stated. “She might have thought of it, but was just waiting for a next of kin to give permission, but when you upright and told her to do it without being asked if you consented caught her off her guard.” “Maybe, but I still think they should have a bit more proactive group of medics in the field if they want to keep ponies alive longer than past their first serious injury.” Dusk stated. “I don’t want to have to explain to everypony why you died because some field medic wasn’t adequately trained to handle a situation like yours.” “Well, we’ll just have to be more careful then.” Twilight stated. “I doubt we’ll be shot by Celestia or Artemis ever again.” Dusk nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, I guess that method of joining the guard was a bit… harsh.” Dusk said. “But it was effective enough for its repercussions.” Twilight nodded, sitting up in her bed, only to have Dusk gently put her back down. “Dusk, I… I mean, Nightshade, I can’t stay here forever.” Twilight reasoned. “Let me get up and walk around, I need to know my surroundings. I can’t let my heart stopping hold me back.” “Boysen, I need you to stay here for the very reason you just suffered a cardiac arrest only two hours ago.” Dusk said. “You shouldn’t be this fit so soon after such a life endangering condition.” “Nightshade, I feel fine, just… just let me get up and going.” Twilight pleaded, pushing against Dusk’s hoof with little success. “If I stay here they’ll get suspicious. I need o go and protect my cover, or else both of us will be discovered.” “Our cover is the very reason you need to stay here.” Dusk reasoned with her. “Boysen, you just had an episode of cardiac arrest. You shouldn’t be alright, so I need you to stay here.” Suddenly the sound of the door opening behind them put Dusk’s mind on overdrive. “Sis, you need to stay here and rest, you aren’t stable enough to even try to stand.” “I’d tend to agree.” The doctor concurred. “Ms Boysenberry, you just had your heart stop for, approximately, a minute and a quarter, and then had deoxygenated blood pumping through your veins from ten second after that. Those factors alone are pretty damaging to a pony’s physiology, not even taking to account that you were struck down by this world’s two strongest beings, which in itself is a miracle that you made it through. You’ll need to rest for at least a month, and in all likelihood, much more than that, just to be sure that you are completely well.” The doctor explained. “Once the heart fails it might still have problems and might even go as far as to stop again, and a good number of patients who get hit by the second never get to see the third.” “Listen to him, Boysen, you need to rest, trust me, and if not me, trust him.” Dusk pleaded. “I know you want to be back on duty as quickly as possible, and trust me when I say I know why, but you and I both know that neither of us can take on those two alone.” Twilight sighed and went limp in the bed as Dusk retracted his hoof. “Fine, I’ll rest up, but I don’t want you running off to avenge me while I still can’t keep up, alright?” Twilight bargained. Dusk nodded before turning to the doctor. “Do you have our papers ready?” He asked the medical pony who walked a bit closer o the two. The doctor lifted his clipboard again, looking between the two ponies. “Yes and no.” He replied, gaining the questioning glances of both ponies. “You see, I just really had a burning question I wanted to ask you, Nightshade, before I put the final touch on the identification slips.” “Yeah, and what might that be?” Dusk asked, unsure of what the medic had in his mind, a feeling that at one time had been familiar, only to have it thrown away upon meeting Twilight. “Well, according to reports on the events that transpired during your sister’s cardiac arrest, you showed great amount of competence and confidence while ordering my field medic.” The doctor explained. “First thing I’d like to know is where you got such training.” “Well,” Dusk began, “When my talent of mixing herbal remedies came to light, my father sent me off to the university in Canterlot to study advanced medicine.” He explained calmly. “There I learned a few ways to treat patients in critical condition that didn’t have the time for my remedies to be brewed properly.” Dusk looked towards Twilight with a smirk on his snout. “I also might have shown a few things to Boysen, but that’s for another day.” “Might have? You taught me everything until I got it down to a T and them even farther.” Twilight groaned before rolling over, giving a quick glance towards her cutie mark, which was a small bush that had berries on it, quite a bit different from her usual star with sparkles, but while looking down her side towards it, she noticed her armor was gone, but her wings were still not showing. She flexed the wing that she wasn’t lying on, and found that the covers over where her wing should’ve been moved as if there were something moving below them, leading her to believe that it was yet another part of the disguise spell. “Well, now that that’s out of the way,” The doctor continued, “The second question is this: would you be willing to join the medical core? With your skills, you could very well save the lives of many injured ponies on the field or here in the medical bay.” Dusk looked in surprise at the doctor, but then shook his head. “Sorry, but I can’t accept. I might now emergency remedies for critical conditions, but I am really quite rusty after joining the guard on all the uses of the items in a medical kit.” Dusk replied. “I haven’t had too much experience in the field anyway, and I’d probably do more harm than good by administering cure based on eye evaluations without proper medical examinations.” “I’m sorry to hear that, I still think we really could’ve used you, but still, if you don’t want to I can’t force you.” The doctor stated, scratching a few last words into the blanks of the cards and the papers that hung from his clipboard. He slipped the small cards into protective cases and levitated them to the two ‘siblings’. “Here you are, just remember that whenever someone needs more extensive verification of your presence as part of the guard you can come to me.” “Um, one small question, doctor.” Twilight said, looking over the card that bobbed up and down in her blue field of magic. “Why exactly are these records being kept in the clinic’s area?” She asked, looking around at the gray room around her. “As I’ve told many others with the same question as you, Ms Boysen,” The doctor replied, turning towards the ponies again, “It is because they also contain medical information, such as allergies and such, which are essential for treating ponies effectively. Imagine if we thought you might have contracted rabies and gave you the shot to counter act the disease without knowing if you had a reaction to it. If it ended up you really were allergic to it, we’d only know after you started having a reaction, and by then it’s a bit late.” “I see, thank you, doctor.” Twilight finished. The doctor nodded to the two and walked away, flipping through some more papers while filling some of the empty blanks. The doctor left the room, closing it softly behind him. Twilight and Dusk looked at their cards, each containing name, rank, birth day, cutie mark, eye color, coat color, mane and tail color, and a serial number. “So, I guess I’ll see you later, Boysen.” Dusk said, slipping his card into his armor. “Just take it easy, you need to keep up appearances, and right now the best way to do that is to actually act like you’re trying to recover in an uphill struggle instead of having such a large amount of magical energy inside of you that you can just up and run after being revived.” “Alright, Nightshade, see you when you get back.” Twilight replied, retreating farther underneath the covers while trying to get a bit more comfortable in the rather crudely made bed. “I’ll try to act like I’m recovering, but no promises that I’ll do a convincing job.” Dusk nodded and left the room, hoping to meet up with his newly made friend. “And you actually let them stay?” Solaris asked incredulously. “Need I remind you that they were not only your former students, but are also part of the Equestrian monarchs?” Luna nodded in agreement to her male counterpart’s statement. “Yes we realize that and all of the entailed dangers that come with this mission, but they also knew all of that and fully accepted it.” Celestia replied. “They believed that we needed inside eyes and ears to what this Alliance was doing. They are doubtlessly already fully accepted into the ranks of the guards.” “And what if they aren’t, suppose they need to send a message, but can’t because they don’t have a messenger dragon.” Luna questioned pointedly. “There seems to be parts of this plan you have over looked.” “Actually, no, we haven’t look over any points that you have mentioned thus far. Spike and Spine volunteered to be captured while spying after hearing that Twilight Sparkle and Dusk Shine were both inside.” Artemis countered. “So know you’re sending in two more subjects of Equestria in there just to fill the holes to your Swiss cheese of a plan?” Solaris asked sharply. “If it is necessary to make this plan full proof, than yes, we’ll make sure every eventuality is prepared for.” Celestia replied. “This operation is very, and I repeat, very delicate and requires the utmost care to execute properly.” “Next thing you know,” Solaris groaned, “You’ll be plugging the whole of Twilight and Dusk’s absence with your niece and our nephew disguised as them.” “Actually, they are already in place for that very mission.” Artemis replied. “They’ll make it harder to pin anything on the real Twilight and Dusk by tying together all loose ends quite nicely.” Luna and Solaris gaped at this revelation, not sure if they were egging them on or if they were actually serious. “You mean to tell me that you sent our prince of the Crystal Empire and you princess of the same into an already overcrowded area that is getting more and more filled with ponies of some importance or another?” Luna gawked. “Quite, as we said, this is a very delicate situation and must have every eventuality planned for unless we want all of them to be caught.” Celestia replied. “We even have a whole company of earth ponies and another of unicorns and a third and fourth company of pegasi of the royal guard out there, constantly avoiding the enemy patrols, ready to jump into action and take the castle at any moment.” “Are you serious? In our time as royals you’ve come up with some harebrained ideas that had more holes than I care to recall in hindsight, but this one is so far the opposite that there is no way it could turn out nicely for anypony.” Luna stated. “Please, just let Dusk and Twilight do their thing without so many eyes watching and so many hooves to keep track of. If you wish to let those two do their thing, than let them, but don’t involve so many others.” “We are only doing what we feel is necessary. Being as we have so many important ponies in one basket, we have placed a safe amount of guards around the perimeter and have sent in the messenger dragons to ensure that we can maintain constant communication.” Artemis stated. “If any of the ponies there were not necessary, we’d recall them with all haste.” “But since all of them play an important part in this we can’t safely recall them.” Celestia continued. “We need Dusk and Twilight to help us understand the workings of the Alliance for an inside perspective, we need Spike and Spines as to modes of communication, we need the fake Twilight and Dusk there to ensure that nopony suspects the real ones, and we need the guards in case we get caught and need a quick evacuation.” Solaris and Luna sighed in defeat. “Fine, do as you think is right.” Solaris stated. “When I came over this way I didn’t expect to be thrown into a mess of convoluted planning.” He groaned. “Trust me, when I called you I didn’t intend for you to have to.” Luna assured. “In fact, when I called you these two weren’t even out of the Alliance’s hold.” “So,” Artemis interrupted, redirecting their attention, “Are we agreed that none of us will interfere in the plan unless our intentions are revealed to the Alliance?” Everypony nodded and murmured their agreement. “Alright, the pieces are in place; let us all hope that there are no incidents during the course of this plan.”