“Alright, then...” Eine paced across the throne room, his yellow eyes narrowing. “Assuming the worst-case scenario is true, and my most trusted advisor is a traitor, then what exactly are you and your fellow allies intending to do about it?”
“Well, stop him, duh.” Kera rolled her eyes.
“By eliminating him?”
“Huh?”
Eine's breath took on a sharp tone. “Do you intend to kill Secretary Sharp Quill?”
“What?! No!” Kera immediately squirmed in her dress. “Er... we m-might kinda sorta kick his flank really hard, but—”
“Just who is the savage here, I wonder?”
“Look. If Sharp Quill is working for Chrysalis, then it couldn't possibly be by choice. I mean... she's a freakin' meanie! Not to mention ugly as butts.”
“Wait...” Eine blinked. “So you're saying that Sharp Quill is a victim here? A prisoner to Chrysalis' will?”
“Yes! A gazillion times, yes!” Kera smirked. “Don't you get it, Your Majesty? We're trying to save a whole bunch of deer here! We didn't come to Val Roa with a plan to split it apart! That's what Chrysalis is trying to do! She's got all the right deer doing all the wrong things and we're wishing to put a stop to it!”
“And after all is said and done...” Eine took a deep breath. “What then? Do the Xonans become stewards of Val Roa and start ruling my nation by proxy?”
“No?” Kera grimaced. “Heck no, dude! For serious...” She frowned. “Who in the heck has gotten you so paranoid about—like—everything?”
“Ever since the death of my mother and father, Sharp Quill has constantly been educating me on the evil tactics of foreign nations. He tells me to be constantly vigilant, guarding myself against outside incursion and... the will... of deviants...” His words trailed off a shuddering expression as his pupils shrank.
Kera simply stared at him with a dumb grin.
Blinking, Prince Eine plopped back on his petite haunches, sitting at the foot of the steps beneath the throne. “... ... ... butts.”
In the hallway outside the throne room, Ebon Mane paced and paced.
After several minutes and no word from Kera, he scuffled to a stop, sighing bitterly. He turned and glared at the door to the throne room. A pair of guards stood at attention, gazing steadily ahead and past him... perhaps even through him.
“I don't suppose His Majesty is due for a royal bathroom break anytime soon?” Ebon droned.
The guards continued their wordless stance.
“Nnnngh...” Ebon facehoofed, careful not to pop his fake horn loose. “I wish they had sent the Constable with us,” he muttered, turning around. “What I wouldn't give for some antlers to bore a hole in the wall and hear what she's saying to him.”
“A curiosity we both share, I'm sure,” Secretary Sharp Quill said.
“Oomf!” Ebon bumped into the elk's chest. He looked up... up... and jumped back with a slight yelp.
“... ... ...” Sharp Quill's purple eyes narrowed. “I don't believe I've had the pleasure of an introduction,” the Secretary said. “Nor the pleasure of having participated in your invite.”
“Uhhh... uhm...” Ebon shivered, struggling to maintain his tattoos.
“A member of the Xonan entourage, if I'm not mistaken?” Sharp Quill slowly trotted forward. “You seem rather anxious, good sir. Am I to imagine you've been separated from the Monarch you've been charged with accompanying?”
“I...” Ebon took a deep breath. Clearing his throat, he stood up straight. “I am responsible for looking after Princess Kera Tin Mehjj throughout the course of her ambassadorial duties, yes.”
“How quaint.”
“I'm also her protector and interpetor and advisor—”
“A quality we both share.” Sharp Quill said with a nod. He paced behind Ebon as he continued speaking. “I'm certain you believe me when I say that there is absolutely nothing we both wouldn't do when it came to the security of the soul whom we profess fealty to.”
“Er... yes...” Ebon nodded, gulping. “Absolutely.”
“So, then, it begs the question.” Sharp Quill came around, lowering his muzzle so that he glared into Ebon Mane's face. “Why was one of us not allowed the right to perform our role?”
“Uhm... I beg your pardon, Secretary?”
“If Prince Eine of Val Roa truly sought audience with your Princess, then I should have been notified of it. As an advisor to your own monarch, it would have been the respectable thing for the Xonan delegates to have made sure that the entire Royal Palace was informed of your arrival.”
Ebon's eyes darted aside. Fumbling, he eventually said, “My duties require me to be at my Princess' beck and call at any time.”
“As well as you should.”
“It's a relationship built on trust and respect, without which I cannot function as a Xonan advisor.” He slowly looked up, staring into Sharp Quill's face. “Tell me, Secretary, which of those two things do you find yourself lacking—that the honorable Prince of Val Roa would have to resort to inviting a guest without your knowledge?”
Sharp Quill blinked, his ears twitching.
Metal rattled quietly. One of the guards had fidgeted for the first time in hours. Silence swiftly resumed.
Ebon Mane smiled. “Perhaps you should humbly ask him...” His eyes narrowed. “...after he's done speaking with my Princess, whom I can't allow to be insulted by any kind of blatant interruption.” He nodded. “No offense intended, Secretary.”
Sharp Quill leaned back. His nostrils flared, but he nevertheless hummed in a calm voice: “No offense taken, Advisor.”
“I really th-think you should leave,” Chancellor Fishberry grumbled from her side of the desk.
“Sending me away won't stop anything,” Arcanista said, her eyes heavy and firm. She stood in the center of Fishberry's office, staring down the frazzled doe. “What's begun here in Val Roa is a veritable monsoon of distrust. Yesterday, Princess Kera sparked an insatiable fire in the hearts of all representatives who have been dancing mindlessly to your tune for years, Chancellor. And when the citizens of this kingdom want answers, they're going to need the truth... not more of your superficial nonsense.”
“You're the one making things up, Duchess!” Fishberry snarled. “You're the deceiver here!”
“Am I?” Arcanista trotted closer, leaning against the desk with two hooves. “Is that why you're afraid? Because you think that I somehow have the power to take the masses away from you? Chancellor, I'm only one Duchess. You have a third of the Val Roan Government under your hoof. You could make me disappear in a blink. You have made me disappear before!”
“Just leave already—!”
“Perhaps what really bites you is the fact that I'm onto something! And if I can see through your paper-thin masquerade, then just how swiftly will the public disentegrate your shroud from the inside out?!”
“There is n-nothing to fear!” Fishberry began breathing rapidly. She shuffled papers across the desk and then re-shuffled them with absurd precision. “I am in c-control!”
“Really?!” Arcanista gestured. “Look at you! You're a mess! You're coming apart at the seams!”
“I have b-been...” Fishberry winced, sweating. “...head of the High Council for y-years...”
“What were you promised, Fishberry?” Arcanista frowned. “What's in it for you with whoever you're working for? Power? You have power!” Her eyes narrowed. “Or perhaps it's something a bit more... magical?”
“That's it!” Fishberry shot up to her hooves, awkwardly knocking her chair over. “I'm calling security—Gnnghh...” She suddenly clutched her head, wincing. “What...?” She blinked, staring off into the distance. Seconds later, she growled. “Then just forget him and burst your way into the throne room for all I care!”
Arcanista blinked. “Throne room...?”
“Just leave me be!” Fishberry grunted to the walls. “Isn't it enough that she's requiring more from the installation—” Her eyes crossed, and she pressed her hooves to her skull. “Grnngh... for God's sakes, not now!”
“You're even crazier than I thought...” Arcanista murmured. “For years, I've dreamt of this moment, of forcing you into your own corner, making you face what you've done to me and my brother.” She slowly shook her head. “But I didn't expect this...”
“Your...” Fishberry glanced up, sweating. “Your brother?”
“Duke Floyd of the House of Sehlp.” Arcanista barred her teeth. “The representative from Bountiful whom you extorted.”
“Another one of your lies, Duchess?” Fishberry growled. “I've had about all I can take of—” Her forehead furrowed, and she grunted in pain. “Arrghh...” Seething, she hissed to the walls again. “Dammit, I said not now! The mare who accompanied the Xonans is here...”
Arcanista's jaw hung agape. “You... really don't remember, do you?”
“I think...” Fishberry wheezed as she limped around the table, her eyes thick and pulsating. “...you should be leaving n-now...”
Arcanista slowly backed up. “And I think you're not the same Fishberry I've always hated...”
Rainbow Dash fidgeted in midair, glancing back and forth down a long, dim hallway. Shuddering, she turned and hissed over her shoulder. “Is it ready yet?”
“For the eleventh time, stop asking me that!” Midnite grumbled, her hooves digging deep into a wall console full of dusty mana conduits. “This stuff is more tangled up than I remembered!”
“Who in the hay did you guys have contracted to build this place? Ostriches?”
“No.” Midnite shook her head. “The denizens of Jared Province live too far away to ever lend their engineering skills, however feeble.”
“Gotcha.” Rainbow suddenly blinked cross-eyed. “Wait... I-I was only joking. You mean Val Roa actually has a village full of sentient—?”
“There!” Midnite pulled a mess of cables out. Turning over her shoulder, she grinned. “Showtime.” Snap! She snapped the cables apart with a mess of sparks.
WRII! WRII! WRII!
WRII! WRII! WRII!
Inside the ritual chamber, several guards jolted. They looked past the green glowing cocoons at a series of red lights strobing across the ceiling.
Half of the recruits fumbled, their foreheads tensing in pain and confusion as their antlers began dimming.
“A fire!” one guard shouted. “From the sound of it, Level Three Threat!”
“We can't interrupt the ritual now!”
“We can and will!” An elk marched firmly across the room. “There're too many sentries in here to lose! We have to evacuate!”
“God in Heaven...”
The elk slapped a hoof over an intercom. “Priority alert! Priority alert!”
WRII! WRII! WRII!
Inside the prison wing, Floydien and Jake craned their necks towards the speakers.
“Scrkkk—Priority alert! Evacuate the compound! Sentries must be preserved at all costs! Repeat! Protect and evacuate the sentries! Level Three Threat detected!”
Floydien shuddered. “Now that is some really loud spit.”
“We can try licking it up later!” Jake began galloping towards the distant hallway. “Let's make like a tree and metaphorically skedaddle!”
“Wait wait wait!” Floydien hissed, stomping his hooves. “Give Floydien back his glimmer shimmer!”
Jake skidded to a stop, grinning slimily. “Hah... silly moose-me.” He trotted back, opened a locker, and produced a pair of antlers. “And here I thought I'd keep one as a memento.” He tossed them Floydien's way.
The elk caught them. “Hrmmm...” He fitted the antlers on, one at a time. “Floydien supposes hairy boomer's flank is large enough for two suppositories.”
“Hey, you're getting healthier by the hour!”
“Watch your spit.” Floydien's eyes flickered bright red as sparks danced between his fitted antlers. “Bring on the trot trot.”
“Peaches!” Jake led the way, galloping down the blaring hallway while Floydien followed swiftly behind.
WRII! WRII! WRII!
Single file, the robed recruits were marched up out of their chambers and led towards a nebulous destination above ground. Vigilant reindeer guards walked up and down the line, shouting orders above the deafening siren.
The facility was so chaotic and bustling that very few noticed the two large quadrupeds snaking their way along the furthest corridors. With very little trouble, Jake and Floydien made their way to their destination.
“Alright!” Jake hollered while the sirens blared around them. “Let's hope the little ladies have a textbook plan to sink this ship!”
“What what what?!”
“I said, let's hope the little ladies have a textb—”
“What what what?!”
“You know what? Forget it. Just stand there and be pretty.” Jake approached a door with a large security lock. “Hello?!” He knocked several times with his heavy hoof. “Is there anymare in there?”
Schwisssh! The door opened from the inside. Jake's knocking hoof was suddenly colliding with Rainbow's head.
B-Bonk! “Oww!” Rainbow's voice cracked as she hovered backwards, clutching her fuzzy blue skull.
“Whoops!” Jake slobbered. “Still, nice firm coconut ya got there!”
“Nnnngh...” Rainbow frowned, but nevertheless motioned for them to follow. “Come on! Midnite's got a way for us to enter the chamber from the side! Then we've got some cocoons to crush!”
“Cocoons?!” Jake grinned, galloping forward. “That's my absolute favorite thing to smash!”
“No kidding...?”
“Yeah. My village was raided by a rampaging gang of butterflies.”
“For real?”
“No ya dingy wing horse! Pencils, if you weren't so adorbs...”
“Mehhh...”
Floydien fidgeted, standing dead-still. He glared off into the distance, eyes blinking contemplatively.
“Hey! Floydien!” Rainbow motioned. “It's the main event! Step to it!”
With nostrils flaring, Floydien marched after her. “Yes yes yes...” Nevertheless, he glanced worriedly about as he traversed the corridor.
Within a minute, the group reunited with Midnite.
The mare stood before a metal door, tapping her hoof anxiously. “Took you long enough!” she stammered, ears twitching to the muffled sounds of the siren just beyond the door. “Are we ready to do this?”
“Just point and click, toots!” Jake said, cracking his neck joints as he arrived alongside Rainbow Dash. Floydien covered the rear. “I've been wanting to kick something hard ever since we came down here!”
“Well, you'll have your chance,” Midnite said. “If we run into any guards, I'll take care of them. You big guys just focus on smashing the big pulsating green things. Rainbow's on distraction duty.” She looked up and nodded. “Right, Rainbow?”
“Right!” Rainbow blurred up to the door. “I go in first. The rest of you, follow me. Okay?”
“Uh huh.” Midnite motioned to the door. “On three. One... Two...”
“Three!” Rainbow and Midnite simultaneously bucked the door down...
...rattling it off its hinges. The four were instantly drowned in noise and static mana.
Squinting into the green anomaly, Rainbow Dash flew out first. Most of the recruits had been herded out of the room. Only a few soul sentries remained, but they were too far away in the enormous chamber to possibly reach them.
“Peace of cake!” Rainbow hollered, grinning ecstatically. “You know what to do, guys! Just take out as many as you can—”
“Uhhhhh... Color Wheel Boomer?”
“What is it, Floydien—” Rainbow turned around, gasping. “Luna Poop!”
An entire phalanx of reindeer guards stood waiting. Not a single one of them was trying to evacuate. Instead, they crouched low, aiming their glowing antlers at the group of four who had just entered the room. “Hold it right there!” the commanding guard shouted.
“Fat chance of that, sunflower!” Jake stormed into the room, dragging a hoof. “Bring it on!”
“Jake... n-no...” Rainbow shivered, hovering low. “This... this is too many.” She gulped. “But... but I don't get how—”
“Who cares!” Jake snorted. “He who bleeds last wins!”
“A noble concept, Constable,” spoke a calm voice from the side. A mighty elk strolled in, glaring at the group with one good eye. “But unsurprisingly fitting, considering whose company you've joined.”
Rainbow's eyes twitched. “Saikano...”
The General craned his neck. “I take it she's told you all about me.”
Rainbow blinked. “Who...?” Wham! A dark pair of forelimbs slammed across the back of her skull. Rainbow's ruby eyes rolled back as she fell to the ground, landing before Midnite Bastion as the mare placed her throbbing hooves down.
“Awww hell...” Jake grimaced.
Floydien glanced at Rainbow, then glared across the way at Midnite.
The mare sighed, rubbing her forelimbs. She stepped over Rainbow Dash's limp body and gazed up at Saikano with a melancholic expression. “Greetings, General,” Midnite said, standing up straight and performing a salute. “Commander Bastion reporting for duty. I bring you traitors to the state.”
Saikano slowly nodded. “Good soldier.”