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*ONE WEEK AFTER THE SECOND BATTLE OF PAX*
“Everything’s alright, sir.”
The two unicorns finished the security check and, satisfied with the results, saluted Enigma. The pegasus waited for the protection circle to disperse and walked towards the exit.
I need a shower, he thought as he entered the corridors of the fortress, and then something to eat.
It was early evening and it seemed only the guards were on duty, the rest of the inhabitants either deployed in the field or already asleep. Enigma idly considered how few of the imperial soldiers could enjoy the luxury of having a permanent place to sleep like this.
Then again, how many of them get sent to the fiercest battles, day after day? Most ponies never experience long distance teleportation, and I go through it daily. I suppose I’m lucky to be a scout, rather than one of the direct combat types like Lightbringer or Obsidian.
He reached the locker room and walked in. Finding the place empty, the pegasus relaxed, magic flowing through his body, opening all the clasps keeping his light armor in place. He removed the pieces of metal from his body, setting them next to his locker.
I’ll clean it up after I’ve eaten, he decided, taking off the last piece, the gorget holding his focus. Opening the locker, he stuffed his equipment inside and retrieved a small bag of cleaning utensils.
***
The hot shower soothed Enigma, putting him in a good mood. He was still tired, but the tension was gone and he had managed to get rid of all the random dirt and blood splatters, returning his grey coat and mane to pristine condition. Having finished, he used a simple spell to repel water from around himself, drying his body instantly.
This is so much better than just using magic for cleaning, he thought, opening the locker, the bag in his teeth. I’ll just drop this and take Hope. No changelings since Stormfront's death, but that’s no reason to get careless-
He froze, looking into his locker. On top of the pile of armor pieces stuffed inside, there was a folded piece of paper.
That wasn’t here before. Has somepony been digging through my things?
Enigma quickly checked the contents of the locker. To his relief, nothing was missing. Putting the bag back to its place, he retrieved the gorget and clasped it around his neck, then grabbed the paper and unfolded it
* Come to storage 20b at midnight tonight *
Enigma frowned. What’s going on?
***
Several hours later, Enigma was moving through the storage section of the fortress. Should I hide? he thought. I technically have the right to be here. My work with the intelligence division gives me the privileges. That and there’s nothing important here, mostly food and bedding. All the lab supplies are in the underground levels.
Skulking around the fortress wasn’t anything new either. With all the kids taking part in the project, minor breaches of procedures used to be a daily occurrence.
I still remember teaching Surprise how to get apples from the pantry without the cooks noticing, Enigma thought to himself. Is this her doing? Much as I like surprise parties, I hope she won’t pounce on me like the last time. You’d think she’d remember how sharp her fangs are.
Just then his ears caught the sound of approaching hooves. This brought him back to reality, his musings instantly forgotten.
On second thought, whoever left that note obviously wanted secrecy. Stealth it is.
Reaching towards Hope, Enigma focused his energy inwards. He only used the smallest amount, enough to silence the sound of his hooves and hide his smell. Then it was just a matter of using his natural talent, expressed by the clouded moon on his cutie mark and honed through hours of training. Unlike the living quarters in the main building and the high security areas below, the storage rooms weren’t permanently illuminated, nor particularly tidy. There were also some barrels there, left by some lazy servant after their contents had been used up. More than enough places to hide for one who knew how.
As the patrolling guard approached, Enigma ducked into one of the corridors, using a discarded box as cover. He waited for the light of the unicorn guard to fall into his hiding spot, his grey coat all but invisible in the deep shadows. The beam swept right next to him, but his assessment proved right - the guard wasn’t thorough enough.
Ok, I’m in. I’ll have to report the mess here later. It’s an inexcusable security flaw, he thought as the guard went on his way.
Continuing deeper into the storage area, he started looking for storage 20b. He had checked the map beforehoof of course, but the darkness made the layout of the building much more confusing than it had seemed on paper. Finally, he decided that magic was necessary. Since using a light was out of the question, he used a spell to expand his senses instead.
Whoa!
As soon as the enhanced senses activated, Enigma saw a spell surrounding him. It was a simple confusion effect, meant to direct ponies away, spreading like a spider web from the room he guessed to be 20b.
I’ve been training against stuff like this, he thought looking at the door. I managed to get to the right place before I even noticed it. But that guard probably misses the last intersection altogether. Who could’ve done it?
He focused on the nearest line, examining it for familiar traits.
Libra?
Filled with a sudden bad feeling, Enigma pressed the door knob and pulled the door open. There was a soft, teal light shining inside.
“So, it is you,” said Enigma, walking in and closing the door behind him.
Inside there were five ponies waiting. Libra was standing in the middle, her horn providing both the light and the camouflage spell. Around the white alicorn, there were three unicorns; Absinthe, Evening Embrace and Gloria. The last member of the group was Lightbringer. The pegasus was sitting on a crate in the corner and seemed to have just finish cleaning his wings.
“Good evening, Enigma,” said Libra, nodding at the pegasus. “It is good you could make it. It took us three days to be here all at once.”
Enigma looked around. All the ponies were looking at him intently.
“Since Absynthe hasn’t brought his harp,” he said, “I assume this isn’t a party. Care to tell me what is going on here?”
Lightbringer snickered. Libra did not look amused. “We wanted to talk to you, Enigma. This war isn’t going as well as we’d like to.”
“It never does,” answered Enigma. “But I guess you mean specific things. Like your fight with Ignis?”
The alicorn clenched her jaw. “Yes, Ignis. With my power I could fight against his Ambition, or against his dragon, but not both. And that’s just a tip of the iceberg.”
Absinthe moved from his spot and approached Enigma. “See, everypony thought that once we finish Dr Bright Mind’s work and create our super weapon, it will all be over. But now everypony is pulling all the stops. Those windigos we fought at Nevercrest? They’d never have dared to unleash them before. But there have been some reported just this week. Zebras are playing with magic they used to be too smart to touch, diamond dogs are digging up their hidden stashes to buy up dragons to their side...”
“Simply put, The Elements will not be enough,” finished Libra. “Just a week ago, we almost lost the Emperor. Verba was there to save him, but he can’t be there every time they take a shot. . Despite all of our best efforts, a single slip-up is all it might take for the Alicorn Empire to fall.”
Enigma looked at her thoughtfully. “And you have an idea on how to change that.. Let me guess, you want your foci to get empowered too.”
“We can do better than that,” promised Libra. “Gloria, tell him.”
Libra and Absinthe stepped back, making space for the yellow unicorn to take the spotlight. The mare smiled at Enigma. “We have examined our foci. As it appears, Justice is another one that operates on multiple frequencies. If we perform another Splice, we could bind our foci to it to create another synergic set.”
Though this intrigued Enigma, he kept his expression neutral. “So, Passion, Wisdom, Respect, Empathy and… I guess, Hope? All bound together to create Justice? Is that what you’re getting at?”
“Yes,” said Gloria, “We’ve considered Courage, but Dusk… he may have grown out of being a bully, but he isn’t exactly a team player either. He might not synergize properly.”
“Don’t you think this isn’t a topic for a secret meeting?” asked Enigma, frowning. “You three should be discussing it with Indicina, not me. She’s the head of the project.”
“Bah,” said Absinthe, his goatee bristling, “Indicina is crazy.”
“We’ve tried to talk to her already,” said Gloria. “She had a panic attack. She started raving that the Splice was a mistake in the first place. She’s not going to repeat it and told so to the Emperor. She said he agrees with her. As it stands, the project is over.”
Libra’s wings spread in anger. “We risk our lives daily for the Empire. She had one brush with death and is too cowardly to risk again. Even after the Elements saved us from certain doom already. And Obsidian, so blindly in love, took her side. He threw me out of her office. He tried to use his truespeech to convince me.”
“It didn’t work,” added Gloria. “He wasn’t telling the truth. The Splice can and will be repeated.”
Enigma raised his eyebrows. “Against the Emperor’s orders?”
“Don’t question our loyalty,” said Lightbringer, rising from his crate, shaking his mane. “We’re ready to sacrifice our lives for the Emperor. We won’t let him suffer defeat just because one coward would rather lie to him than do the same.”
Enigma met his gaze with a glare of his own, but before either could say something more, Evening Embrace stepped between the two of them. “P… Please, don’t argue. We’re fighting for the same cause.”
Lightbringer slumped back on top of the crate. Enigma sighed loudly and turned towards Gloria again. “So, what’s your plan, Gloria?”
Gloria nodded to Evening Embrace, with a smile. “Thank you, Eve. We needed that.”
She then turned to Enigma. “Eve and I have spent a lot of time working with Indicina on the relay. You know it was Eve who came up with the harmonious synergy. We know enough that we can attune the relay to new frequencies, as long as we have six foci to bind. That’s one technical issue there’s no getting around.”
“What about the power required?” asked Enigma.
“I’ve run the calculations,” said Gloria. “The leylines in here and the Tower of Thought are not enough. We’d need to use Nevercrest again. From what we know, the enemy has not restored the research lab after we wrecked it - it should still be abandoned and available to use.”
Enigma smiled. “And the safety measures? Some of the devices we used the first time would not be reusable.”
“True,” replied Gloria. “But now we know exactly what’s coming. We should be able to channel all excess energy safely away, even if we’ll have to improvise a little.”
Enigma stepped back, taking another good look at all the assembled. Then his smile disappeared like a candle light blown away.
“You’re all fools.”
Silence fell. Evening Embrace seemed to shrink, hiding behind Gloria. Lightbringer and Libra rose to full height, wings spread. Gloria and Absinthe just stared at Enigma in silence .
“Let me get this straight,” said Enigma, pacing through the room, “You five are planning to desert your posts, abandoning the soldiers whose lives rely on your support. Then you’re going to steal some top secret military equipment and take it into enemy territory, to perform an hours long ritual that will be felt for hundreds of miles around, with nopony to protect you as you stand in the circle. That’s enough to get you all court-martialed to oblivion, even before counting the fact that you might be killed or captured by the enemy before you’re done, or just fry if anything goes wrong with the ritual.”
Gloria was the first to respond. “That’s why we need you. You’re in the intelligence division. You can find out when there will be an opening. You can get us teleported. Guarding the ritual is not an issue. If we can only get to Nevercrest, its leyline has magic to spare. We’ll just channel it into a barrier. And you can trust me and Eve on the ritual itself. It will all be under control.”
Enigma walked straight at her, glaring, his fangs bared. “Are you even listening to yourselves? This is madness. All this idea can bring is death to you and all who rely on you.” He closed his mouth, then breathed deeply, calming down. “I will have no part in this. I won’t tell anypony about it, but you must never mention it again.”
“So, you want us to die a slow death?” spat Absinthe, standing to Gloria’s right. “We should just follow orders like good kids and wait for the Empire to lose the war, then make a heroic last stand somewhere, like Golden Bell and Bianca?”
“No.” replied Enigma. “You’re to follow orders and trust your commanding officers. You are to have faith in the Elements of Harmony to turn the war in our favour. You are to do your very best doing your part, so others can focus on theirs.”
“Easy for you to say, drinking tea with the buffoons from high command while we fight for our lives.”
At that Enigma spread his wings, facing the unicorn. “Perhaps Respect wouldn’t be the weakest focus here if you actually had any. I risk my life as much as you do, flying without support where you’d go with an army.”
“Enough,” said Libra, her voice stern. “As Eve said, we’re on the same side. Absinthe, control yourself, please. You’re in the wrong here, even if we all feel as you do. And Enigma… you must understand. We are fully aware that this plan is crazy. But the Empire needs another asset dearly. There is too much at stake not to do all in our power to win this war. I’m aware you may have no family to fight for. Then think of your comrades who have fallen already. Can you afford for their deaths to be in vain?”
Absinthe scowled, but moved aside. Enigma folded his wings, turning towards the alicorn. “I know how you feel, Libra. But I refuse to watch my friends dying pointlessly.”
“W… what about your other friends?”
It was Evening Embrace. Everypony turned to look at her.
“You never… told us where you’re from… or even your real name,” continued Evening, “but we all know you grew up on the street. Surprise... told us you met an old friend. He’s in the army now. They all are, aren’t they? That’s how the guard keeps peace in the slums, conscripting all the boys so they don’t cause trouble.”
Enigma frowned. He didn’t like his secret being revealed, even if wasn’t a difficult guess. It was also the longest he had ever heard Eve speak. “What of it?” he asked.
“They don’t have foci,” said Eve, “They’re not ‘special forces’. They’re ordinary soldiers, the kind that die by the hundreds whenever a big battle happens. Do you know how many of them are still alive? How many will survive next week? Next month? Won’t their deaths have been pointless if... if we can prevent them?”
After fifteen seconds that seemed like an age, the pegasus turned away and headed for the door. “This discussion is finished,” he said over his shoulder.
“This war can’t be won without Hope,” said Eve behind his back. “We... can't do it without you.”