//------------------------------// // XXIX - Alliance On The Horizon // Story: Mortal Coil // by Reeve //------------------------------// Reaching the house I had seen Feather Duster disappear inside without getting seen by the guards turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. Twilight Sparkle had been able to give me a worn, brown cloak identical to the one she was wearing, however as we made our way through the streets, I wondered if it wasn’t more suspicious to see two ponies wearing identical cloaks that hid them almost entirely than it was to see just another white unicorn with a purple mane. For the most part we managed to avoid the patrols and found routes that didn’t take us past soldiers standing on guard, but our luck ran short just before we reached our destination. “Hey, you there!” a voice shouted behind us. I glanced back to see two fully armoured guards walking swiftly towards us, my first instinct was to make a run for it, but Twilight gripped my shoulder and held me in place. “I’ve got this,” she whispered as we both turned to face the guards. “Is there a problem officer?” “Lower your hoods,” one of the ponies ordered gruffly. “Both of you!” “That won’t be necessary,” Twilight replied, a faint purple glow illuminating beneath her hood. “We are not the mares you’re looking for.” “Come on,” one of the guards said to the other. “These aren’t the mares we’re looking for.” With that, they turned and began walking away from us, as if the whole encounter never happened. “Did you just mind control them?!” I asked in amazement. “No, it was a suggestibility charm,” Twilight explained as we carried on walking. “Only works on one pony at a time.” “Then how did you…” I began, feeling a little confused and out of my depth. “I only used it on the guard who spoke,” Twilight explained. “But when he repeated my words to the other guard, the charm passed on. I was counting on that, but that’s why the spell is risky when dealing with more than one target.” I was most impressed as we carried on our way to the house; it seemed I had an affinity for picking up companions who were experts in their own fields. As we neared the house, I was glad to see the street was pretty much deserted, there were some ponies walking about much further down the street, but they were too far to see what we were up to. We slowed down as we neared the house, it was just as I remembered it, small and squat with all the curtains drawn shut. Twilight glanced at me and I nodded in confirmation to which she crept up to the front door and lowered her horn to the lock. “Hmm, that’s odd,” she whispered to me as her horn glowed briefly before going out again. “The door’s unlocked.” We both shared a brief look of concern before positioning ourselves on either side of the door. “Three, two, one,” Twilight whispered before casting the door open with telekinesis and leaping in. I was right behind her, jumping into the front room of the house, my sword drawn while Twilight’s horn shone with a brilliant light. There was nopony in the room, but it sure looked like someone had been there recently. The table had been upturned, the drawers on the desk and cabinets had been pulled out and some thrown the floor, the carpet had been pulled up in places and the furniture had been ripped apart. Twilight walked into the middle of the room, looking around at all the destruction while I closed the front door behind us. “They must have moved on,” I said, no longer whispering as I glanced at the stairs. “Do you think they’re hiding?” “Hang on, I’ll cast a life detect spell,” Twilight replied, releasing the energy that was still building up in her horn. Just like the trinket I had used in the sewers when going to destroy the Dreadnaught, this life detect spell could only be seen by the one casting it. Twilight looked around the room, apparently seeing nothing before she turned her gaze to the ceiling, at which point her eyes went wide. “Above…” she tried to shout, but it was already too late. The ceiling over my head exploded in a shower of splinters and wood chips as the figure dropped down behind me, pulling me into a vice like grip before pressing the blade of their short sword to my throat. “You really shouldn’t have betrayed us, Rarity,” Sufferthorn said through gritted teeth as she pressed the blade up against my neck, making it slightly difficult to swallow the lump in my throat. “Suffer…” I tried to say. “Sufferthorn… what are you doing?!” “What I should have done the moment you stepped on that barge,” she replied. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted, but Maverick wouldn’t listen, well now he’s going to see you for traitor you are.” “Let her go!” Twilight demanded, her horn lighting up as she took an aggressive stance in the middle of the room. “Twilight Sparkle,” Sufferthorn said, as if only noticing her for the first time. “I never would have guessed that the leader of the Solar Empire was you, and there I thought you were more loyal to the Princess than anypony, or perhaps you think you’re doing all this for her.” “I don’t know who you are,” Twilight responded calmly. “But I am here to stop the Solar Empire, not lead it.” “Tell that to Maverick when he gets here,” Sufferthorn replied, using her free hoof to pull out a small crystal which she threw onto the ground where it shattered. After several seconds there was a flash of golden light as Maverick teleported into the house, looking around in confusion at the scene before him. “Sir, I have apprehended the Solar Empire agents,” Sufferthorn informed him. “They had fled when I first arrived but foolishly returned, they must have thought they could ambush me.” “You knew about the Solar Empire?!” I exclaimed, feeling the blade loosen slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” “Lady Sparkle?!” Maverick said in disbelief, ignoring my outburst. “You’re behind this?” “I am not,” Twilight replied calmly. “I am here under Princess Celestia’s orders to find and bring an end to the Solar Empire.” “She’s here to help us you fools!” I snapped at them. “She doesn’t want to take over; they want the same thing we do, to form an alliance.” “That’s right,” Twilight agreed. “The Princess supports your desire for self-governance, but we still wish to remain allies.” “You support us?!” Sufferthorn repeated, almost laughing at the idea. “Is that why you declared war on us?” “That was never our intention,” Twilight bit back. “The Princess and I tried to prevent the war from occurring in the first place.” “You mean to tell us that Princess Celestia couldn’t stop her own country from going to war?” Sufferthorn asked sceptically. “Yes,” Twilight began, sounding irritated now. “Because despite what many ponies seem to think, Equestria is not a dictatorship. Princess Celestia may be the monarch, but we have a government comprised of nobles and dignitaries from all across Equestria. The Princess and I may have wished to give Panchea its own government, but the rest of nobles refused to allow it, they believed it would make Equestria look weak if we gave into their demands. We were trying to convince the majority to support the plans for giving Panchea independence, but your leaders became impatient and threatened war, a challenge that many of our nobles were more than happy to meet.” “Then how did you know to come here?” Maverick asked, gesturing around us. “We have been investigating the Solar Empire for some time now, and we only recently discovered this was where their agents were hiding.” “Rarity followed one of their agents back here after her first mission,” Twilight explained. “She and I just met a short while ago; she told me this information when I explained my mission to her. Speaking of which, let her go this instant!” “Sufferthorn, do as she says,” Maverick commanded. I felt the blade lift away almost instantly and Sufferthorn’s hoof push me roughly away from her. “So you discovered this place after your first mission?” Sufferthorn repeated. “That was quite some time ago, and you didn’t think to bring it to our attention, so how am I supposed to believe you when you say you aren’t secretly working for the Solar Empire?” “Because you never told me about them!” I snapped back at both Sufferthorn and Maverick. “After everything I did for you, you still didn’t trust me enough to let me know that the Solar Empire was out there. Well look what happened as a result, if you had told me, I would have figured out what Feather Duster was doing here and I could have told you what I’d seen. You would have discovered this place ages ago and you might just have caught them before they moved, but because you didn’t trust me enough, now you have nothing and the Solar Empire is still out there!” There was a very long period of silence following my outburst; even Sufferthorn looked taken aback by my sudden assertiveness. “You’re right,” Maverick said at last. “We should have trusted you with this information, if we had we might have had something to show for it, but now…” As he hesitated, Twilight came up and checked my neck to make sure I was alright, there was only a small cut left. When Maverick was done contemplating, he turned to Sufferthorn and addressed her. “We’ll take the search from here,” he told her. “We have no further leads anyway; you can head north and take care of that other problem.” Sufferthorn cast me one last glare before giving a short bow and marching from the house, leaving Maverick to turn to us. “I’m… very sorry for this confusion Lady Sparkle,” he began. “And you too Rarity, after all you’ve done for us you shouldn’t have been treated like that.” “So what happens now?” I asked him in a cool voice. “Now, I would like to have a talk with Lady Sparkle about the possibility of combining our efforts to stop the Solar Empire,” Maverick said, giving a hopeful look to Twilight. “Perhaps we could also talk a little about this alliance? I can teleport us all back to the barge if you like.” “Very well, take us to this barge of yours,” Twilight agreed. “But keep in mind that while I speak on behalf of the Princess, I cannot make decisions on her behalf regarding something as major as an alliance between our countries.” “Of course Lady Sparkle,” Maverick replied, his voice returning to its normal sickly sweet tone. Stepping forward, he invited us each to place a hoof on his shoulder. As we did, his horn shone with a bright gold light and we were teleported from the house to the cabin of the barge. “Rarity, you wouldn’t mind giving us a moments peace, would you?” Maverick requested. “I’m sure you can appreciate this will be a very private conversation.” “You would do well to keep Rarity involved with this kind of discussion,” Twilight reprimanded. “She definitely seems to be one of your more rational agents.” “It’s quite alright Twilight,” I assured her. “I’m sure he’ll tell me all the important things afterwards, right?” “Of course I shall,” Maverick promised. “I won’t be making the mistake of keeping information from you again. Speaking of which, when we are finished here I need to debrief you on what happened at Arclight.” I gave a curt nod and made my way over to the ladder and descended below the deck. I was relieved to see Stranglethorn sitting on one of the beds, sketching away at something. He saw me approaching and gave me a small smile and a nod in greeting. “Hey Stranglethorn,” I greeted, sitting on the bed next to his. “It’s been a while, how are you?” He gave another nod which I assumed meant good before he frowned, as if just noticing something for the first time. He did a slicing motion across his throat before pointing at me; I was confused for a second before I realised he was indicating the small cut Sufferthorn had left me. “Oh, this?” I said, pointing at the insubstantial injury. “You can thank your crazy sister for that, she thought I was an agent of the Solar Empire.” Stranglethorn frowned even more at that, before reaching under the bed and pulling out yet another lockbox. I got the vibe he had those stashed everywhere as he pulled the key out from behind his ear and opened it up. He kept the lid sitting straight up so I couldn’t see the contents as he rifled about them, finally producing a small unlabelled tub which he passed over to me. I opened up the tub and reared back as an awful, pongy smell hit my nostrils, inside was some white salve which absolutely reeked. “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass on this…” I tried to say, but he began rubbing his own hoof over his neck to indicate that I should apply it to the cut. “If you’re sure.” I pulled off my boot and gathered a small dollop onto my own hoof before rubbing it in to the cut. I didn’t feel anything as I did, no soothing sensations, but no stinging either, I just closed the tub and hoped it would do its job if I waited. I tried to pass it back to him but he shook his head, the same way he did when I tried to give him back his knives. “You want me to keep it?” I interpreted, to which he nodded. “Are you sure you won’t need it?” He pulled out another identical tub to indicate that he really didn’t need the first one back, so I put it into my bags. Before I closed my bag, I noticed my sketchbook which I hadn’t used much since I got off the boat, pulling it out I passed it over to him. “You look like you’re running out of paper in that one,” I said, pointing to his own sketchbook which he was almost at the end of. He accepted it and flicked through the first few pages that I had actually drawn anything in, he nodded approvingly at the various dress designs I had created before coming to the copy of his signature wreath of thorns. “Oh, that,” I said, having completely forgotten it was in there. “It was after the Glean incident, I made a copy of your symbol… it felt important at the time.” Stranglethorn stared at it for a moment before pulling out his notepad and quickly jotting something down and passing me the piece of paper. I read it over, discovering that it revealed the reason Stranglethorn had killed that innkeeper. “He was harbouring a Solar Empire agent?” I asked, making sure I wasn’t reading it wrong. Stranglethorn nodded in response while I thought it over. “Did you learn anything from the agent?” I asked, to which he shook his head. He wrote down the single word ‘escaped’ on another piece of paper. “Somepony escaped from you?!” I said in disbelief to which he nodded solemnly. “But hey, don’t feel bad. Twilight Sparkle is upstairs, she’s going to be helping us catch them, so if you describe this agent to her she might be able to identify them.” Stranglethorn contemplated it briefly before nodding, giving me another smile in return for my idea. The rest of my wait passed by in silence, minus the sound of Stranglethorn’s quill scribbling across the paper, but I found that noise oddly relaxing. After a while however, Maverick called down to request my presence in the cabin, as I ascended the ladder, I saw him and Twilight shaking hooves over something, although neither looked particularly enthusiastic about it. “Thank you for your time Lady Sparkle,” Maverick said. “We will be in contact shortly.” “Until then,” Twilight replied before she noticed me and her expression brightened considerably. “It was a pleasure seeing you again Rarity, I hope we won’t have to wait another month before our next encounter.” “Nor do I,” I replied, noticing how put off Maverick was by Twilight’s change in demeanour around me. “If I don’t see you for a while, good luck with your mission.” “You too,” Twilight concurred before making for the cabin door. Once she was gone I took my usual seat opposite Maverick. “Now Rarity, it’s been quite a while since our last meeting,” he began. “Stranglethorn said you would contact me,” I pointed out. “Did you run out of things for me to do?” “Not quite, it’s just been difficult to find anypony not up to their eyes in work who could go fetch you,” Maverick explained. “But it would be just like you to seek us out on your own initiative. Now, about your mission in Arclight, Stranglethorn filled me in and I just want you to know that we don’t blame you for what happened, you could never have predicted things would take that turn.” “I’d like to think you don’t blame me,” I retorted. “Considering I wasn’t the one who killed him.” “Well quite,” Maverick replied dismissively. “Now Stranglethorn reported that you did not find out who he was in contact with, is that correct?” “Well yes, but since then I’ve been looking into myself,” I explained. “You have?!” Maverick exclaimed, grinning widely. “You really are becoming a valuable asset.” “Yes, isn’t it nice you stopped Sufferthorn from chopping my head off?!” I replied snidely before carrying on. “I actually had a run in with the assassin who killed Arcana, we believe the ponies who hired her are also the ponies who Arcana was working with and they wanted to have him silenced before he could reveal their identities to me?” “We?” Maverick repeated. “Yes, the assassin and I have been working together,” I continued. “The ponies who hired her tried to have her killed afterwards, so now she’s helping me. We returned to the place where they tried to kill her to search their bodies for clues…” “Their bodies?!” Maverick exclaimed. “But someone had moved them before we got there,” I said, ignoring his interruption. “We did manage to find a scrap off one of their robes however, and I was able to identify it as the work of a designer I once knew before the war. It was our only lead, so we went to Pivot to find her… but something terrible has happened in Pivot.” “Yes, we know all about that,” Maverick acknowledged. “You… you know?!” I almost bellowed. “Why haven’t you done anything about it?!” “We have been,” Maverick replied calmly. “We knew the Children of the Earth were marching on Pivot, that’s why I called Stranglethorn away from you to help with the preparations. We’ve been gathering all our remaining troops in Glean; Sufferthorn is headed there right now to lead the attack against the invaders.” “You knew about the Children of the Earth as well?” I growled. “Just how much is there you aren’t telling me?!” “Nothing else, I promise you,” Maverick assured me. “As for the Children, they’re a cult based in Cragsburg, led by some fanatic called Gaia. They’re mostly harmless, and they’ve kept confined to Cragsburg until very recently.” “Mostly harmless?!” I repeated, my voice shaking with rage. “I saw what that mostly harmless group of psychopaths did! They rounded up all the unicorns and pegasi in the city and cut off their horns and wings in the town square!” “They did what?!” Maverick shouted, his face draining of all colour. “You didn’t know?!” I shouted back. “They are torturing and killing, even earth ponies who refuse to join them. They’re even selling some ponies to zebra slavers after they mutilate them; I had to kill one of my own friends to put him out of the suffering they subjected him to!” “I… I don’t… I didn’t…” Maverick stammered, his calm and controlled composure shattering. “My friends and I managed to rescue some ponies,” I told him, trying to calm down. “But there are still hundreds in Pivot who need help.” “Of course, of course,” Maverick agreed quickly, trying to regain control of the conversation. “Sufferthorn will be marching on Pivot soon; I’ll send a messenger to explain the new situation to her. We’ll get doctors on the scene, we’ll make this right.” “I hope so,” I replied, unable to stay angry at him anymore when he looked so lost and out of his depth. “And what about us? What are we going to do?” “Actually, this news makes your next mission all the more important,” Maverick stated, his voice recovering slightly. “I’ve been planning this for some time, but with the possibility of an alliance with Equestria on the horizon, it’s more important than ever that we deal with the Liberators once and for all. This news about the Children of the Earth is all the more reason that we need to stop fighting and start working together.” “You want to negotiate with Typhoon?” I asked, genuinely surprised. “Not quite,” Maverick began slowly, looking me dead in the eye. “I want you to negotiate with Typhoon.”