Midnite entered code after code, resealing the door to the military facility's exit. She shivered the whole time, for just a few feet away—
“Raaaaaugh!” Jake barreled through an entire legion of soldiers. Growling and frothing at the mouth, he swung his antlers left and right, smashing guards against either wall. “That all you got, Prance ticklers?! I've taken down more goblins than your mothers have had enemas just to stand the sight of you! Bring it on! Bring it—”
A buck grabbed around his neck while two others pulled at his front legs. Collectively, the soldiers dragged the moose down to the floor.
A line of guards behind them fired volley after volley of electrical mana into Jake's chest.
“Gaaaaaaugh!” He thrashed and bellowed. “Rrrr-aaaa-haaaaugh!” At last, his eyes rolled back as his nostrils flared at the smell of his own roasting flesh. By the time a proper scar had formed below the neck, he collapsed in a groaning thud, his extremities twitching.
The guards marched forward, rallying around. Several of them shouted Midnite's way.
Calmly, the mare turned around.
A wall of bruised and angry reindeer approached her.
She didn't put up a fight. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath while the first of many cloven hooves flew at her face.
Among the arid mountains west of Val Roa, a single patch of rock pivoted, shifted, and rotated outward. Inside, the metal frame of a passageway could be seen. Floydien emerged with Rainbow Dash on his back.
Gazing around, he gritted his teeth and climbed out the rest of the way.
The sun was setting, and its golden beams split in sporadic patches of black shadow, courtesy of the jutting mountain peaks directly to the west. Floydien trotted forth as if under the shroud of night. The main body of the Val Roan capital glittered in the valley below, a brilliant facade to a dark undercurrent devouring the kingdom from the inside out.
“No... pl-please...” Rainbow Dash hissed, twitching in fitful spasms. “No more... Yaerfaerda...” She wheezed. “I don't want to lose them all over again.”
Floydien took a deep breath. “No no no...” And he began carrying her east down the sloping rock and into the valley abroad, making his way towards the Plaza Topaz spire in the thick of the city.
“Word's coming in from General Saikano in the military training center,” a guard said, his voice carrying across a dimly-lit detention cell deep in the belly of the High Council building. “They've captured two of the four suspects who've infiltrated the compound. He intends to interrogate them to ascertain the reason for their treasonous actions.”
Chancellor Fishberry listened in silence, gazing at the unconscious and bound figures of Duchess Arcanista and her servant Mamunia. The doe's ears twitched as she finally said, “I know.”
The guard squinted at her. “Chancellor...?”
“We won't get to the bottom of this until we question everyone,” Fishberry said. She turned towards the guard. “Prepare to have these two escorted to the military training center for Saikano to process.”
“But Chancellor...” The guard shifted nervously. “This is a representative from the province of Bountiful. Doesn't this fall under the vote of the Council?”
“We're experiencing a crisis of National Security.” Fishberry sneered. “I am the Council.”
The guard took a step back, trembling slightly. “I meant no disrespect, madame. It's just that—”
“Enough.” Fishberry took a deep breath. “Summon an entourage. I shall escort these traitors to the compound myself.” She marched firmly out the room, grumbling. “And if Secretary Sharp Quill sends a messenger here, tell him that I am holding up my end, and he should hold up his.”
“Chancellor?”
“He'll understand.” Fishberry's orange eyes glinted in the manalight as she made an exit. “And so will she.”
Trembling, Jet slipped her way through the elaborately curved streets of Val Roa's Sandstone District. She paused to catch her breath, leaning against a sloped wall of polished brass and bronze. She tilted her naked chin up, her mane disheveled and frayed to a wild degree.
Just around the corner, she heard thundering hoofsteps. Nearby citizens turned from gawking at her to glance at an approaching line of galloping soldiers.
Wincing, Jet dove into a dark niche between two spiraling skyscrapers. She crouched low in the alleyway, peering out while she shivered.
She watched as two full lines of guards galloped by—both Soul Sentries and non. A carriage rolled in the thick of them, and through one window Jet swore she made out the deadpan face of Fishberry. The entire entourage was rolling its way southwest, far beyond the downtown district of Val Roa.
Jet bit her lip. After mustering strength with several deep breaths, she finally dashed back out into the street and galloped desperately for Plaza Topaz beyond the next block of bronze buildings.
Ebon Mane slumped to his knees in the middle of a large dining room. He was a twitching, convulsing mess. Rivulets of flame billowed out of his mouth and eyes as he struggled to keep cohesion.
In the distance, waves of searching guards marched through the hallway, sweeping the palace from top to bottom. Their voices barked orders to one another, echoing closer and closer to Ebon's position.
The changeling reached forward with webbed black forelimbs. He made contact with a chair positioned along the back wall of the slender room. Pulling himself, he jolted to see that he was staring into a random mirror hanging from the wall. In it, he could see the length of the barren dining room table and the various portraits of royal deer strung up beyond. His gaze focused on his own face, the blank eyes and the pale fangs dripping out of his mouth.
Ebon shook, seethed, and concentrated.
Layer by layer, his face rolled over with lavender fuzz. A violet mane dangled off his crow while weak purple eyes gazed back.
Shivering, he reached a hoof forward, pressing it against the glass. After a shuddering sigh, he pulled his limb back and ran it across his own cheek. He knew it wasn't real, but it was enough to stop the quivers. He closed his eyes, inhaled, and gazed once more at the reflection.
“I adore you,” he said in Eagle Eye's voice. “I know you're not here, but your love is enough to give me strength.” He gulped, and the unicorn in the mirror bore a hard frown. “I will make it through this. I won't let Mother win.” He stepped back, standing in the middle of the room. “And you and I will be together again.”
After that was said, the changeling tilted his head back. A large pulse of green flame billowed in the center of the dining room. When he next opened his eyes, he was only mildly surprised to see a random reindeer guard staring back at him from the mirror.
Within seconds, a group of soldiers burst into the room. “You, there!” one shouted. “Why'd you break from your group?! Did you sight the abductor in here?”
The reindeer turned, looking back. His dull eyes blinked.
“Well?!”
“No...” The buck murmured in Ebon's voice. He cleared his throat. “But I was ordered by my Captain to stand guard here while the rest of my company searched the next hallway.”
“Very well then. We'll lend them our eyes!”
“Aye.”
They rushed past him, taking a half-minute to clear the other end of the spacious room. Once they were gone, the reindeer turned to once again peer at the mirror. For a moment there, his coat struggled to ripple back into a lavender sheen. He fought it, gnashing his teeth. When at last he had full control, he reached up and tapped the antlers sticking out of his skull. Upon touch, one fizzled out in an ashen cloud of green flame, but swiftly reformed.
For a brief moment, a smile even flashed across the guard's muzzle. Nevertheless, he steeled himself, pivoted about, and galloped out in the opposite direction that the group had passed through.
“Rainbow? Rainbow Dash?” Bellesmith spoke into the microphone of Props' communications array. “Rainbow, are you there?” She tried different channels, causing the soundstones before her to flicker in various spectral flashes. “Floydien? Floydien?”
Pilate stood behind her, silent, still.
“Rainbow, this is the Noble Jury. Do you have a status report?” Belle bit her lip as she started to shiver from her ears down to her tail. “Rainbow... are... are you even there?”
There was no reply.
Gently, Pilate rested a hoof on the mare's shoulder. Belle placed her own hoof over his as she hung her head, shuddering.
Behind them, the tome flickered inside its cage, steady—but dim.