//------------------------------// // XXXVIII - The Job Never Ends // Story: Mortal Coil // by Reeve //------------------------------// Things were very different on the beach as the sun rose high in the sky and the three of us returned, we had made a brief stop at the barge but found it empty. Since Maverick had not yet heard about the Blueblood’s true plan, he would presumably come straight out instead to see if we were successful in our mission. Indeed as we arrived, I could see him dishing out orders to several ponies in steel armour who I presumed to be Rebel soldiers. Sufferthorn said she would take care of delivering the bad news while we saw to helping the others. The beach looked very different from when we crashed Blueblood’s meeting, there were now several large tents pitched out of the way of possible tide flow, and there were roughly a dozen ponies in sailor jackets moving about. As I looked out over the ocean, I could see a large transport ship anchored some ways out with a couple of wooden lifeboats bobbing back and forth to the shore. I made a beeline for Applejack who sat on the sand, her helmet replaced by her Stetson and her claymore lying idly next to her. “Hey Applejack,” I greeted wearily as I dropped down beside her, giving her a spook. “Land's sake Rarity, don’t sneak up on me like that,” Applejack chided, before brightening up. “Glad to see you’re okay, but I knew you wouldn’t have any problem taking care of those bombs.” I looked down at the sand, guilt burning inside me. “We didn’t stop them,” I admitted dully. “What?!” Applejack exclaimed in a horrified voice. “We were too late,” I stated miserably. “The Fort was destroyed; a lot of ponies got out in time, but… it turns out a lot more were too late.” “Ah… ah’m sorry Rarity,” Applejack replied awkwardly, clearly having a hard time digesting the new information. “But don’t you blame yourself, you hear? Ah’m sure you did everything you could.” I decided not to get into how I spent more time fighting with Typhoon than trying to evacuate ponies, it still hurt to think about. I didn’t even know if he made it out in time, as a pegasus I doubt he would have had much trouble, especially with that pegasus door in his office, but a small part of me hoped he hadn’t made it after everything he had done. “How’s everything here?” I asked, glancing about us. “Who are all these ponies?” “It’s goin’ well,” Applejack answered. “And they’re Twilight’s crew, that’s her ship over there. She signalled it just after you left, they came ashore and we all started sorting out the prisoners. Most of them have been transported across to the ship already, but some needed treatment, Fluttershy’s helpin’ out in one of those tents.” “Is Twilight on the ship?” I questioned, looking at the incoming lifeboat to see if she was on it. “Yeah, she went over to personally check that Blueblood was secure,” Applejack replied. “Ah’m sure she’ll be back soon.” “I suppose I’d better talk to Maverick,” I said with a sigh as I forced myself up. “Forget him, debriefing and all that junk can wait,” Applejack replied with distaste. “No, I’d rather just get it out of the way,” I told her before setting off to find where Sufferthorn had walked went. I saw the pair quickly enough, but as I drew closer it became clear that something was wrong. Maverick was shouting, and to my amazement, Sufferthorn simply stood paralysed as he did, an odd look on her face. “I don’t want to hear any arguing!” Maverick yelled, fuming with anger. “You do not undergo such a large operation without my approval, ever!” Sufferthorn didn’t respond, she didn’t look like she was capable of responding. “And to make matters worse, you failed!” Maverick continued, that caused Sufferthorn to flinch noticeably. “I expected better from you Sufferthorn, now stay out of my sight for a while.” With that, Maverick turned and stormed off towards the tents, leaving Sufferthorn standing stock still. I walked over to her, I had never seen her so shaken or... vulnerable. As horrible as she could be, she always seemed in control of the situation, the fact that she was taking things this badly really worried me. “Uh, Sufferthorn?” I began tentatively. “Will you be okay?” She looked at me briefly, opening her mouth as if she wanted to say something before turning and walking off in the opposite direction of Maverick. I watched after her for a few moments until she came to a stop and sat down, staring out at the ocean. I hadn’t a clue what was going on or how I could fix it, but I had a good idea where I could start. Returning to the camp, I poked my head into each of the tents until I found Stranglethorn helping one of the sailors apply magic binds to some of the unicorns prisoners. “Strangle, could I speak to you outside for a moment?” I asked. He could probably tell from the sound of my voice that something was up, so he excused himself without speaking and followed me outside. Once outside I pointed over to where Sufferthorn sat in the distance, Stranglethorn frowned at the sight before looking to me for an explanation. “Maverick was yelling at her,” I informed him. “He seemed really angry about what happened at the Fort, when he left she was really… I don’t know, but I’m a little worried about her. Do you think you should maybe talk to her?” Stranglethorn nodded and went off to see what he could do, I wasn’t sure if it would amount to much, but I got the impression that he would be the only one who could get through to her. With that sorted for the time being, I turned my attention to finding Maverick. He ended up being inside the medical tent, using his magic to aid Fluttershy in bandaging up a mare’s leg, he didn’t look too pleased about it, which made me wonder why he was there at all when it was clearly not his scene. “Ah, Rarity, good to see you,” Maverick greeted, drowning out Fluttershy’s own greeting. “I heard about what happened over at the Fort. Terrible shame, but still, try not to worry about it.” “That’s not what you said to Sufferthorn,” I pointed out coldly. “In fact, you seemed pretty determined for her to worry about it.” “Yes, but you must understand that Sufferthorn has had years of experience,” Maverick reasoned. “And she is my highest ranking officer; you on the other hand are relatively new to this line of work. If there’s a failure, then the blame lies in the one in charge.” “Doesn’t that mean you’re to blame, not Sufferthorn?” I asked, obviously baiting him. “Let’s not fight Rarity,” Maverick said calmly. “Especially not after your great success at this very place last night. Some of the ponies you captured have been practically clambering over one another to sell out the remaining agents’ names and whereabouts, it won’t be long before the Solar Empire is a distant memory. After your mission last night and the unfortunate incident involving the Liberators, I have every faith that our alliance with Equestria will be official very soon.” “So what does that mean for us?” I asked curiously. “Do you not need my services anymore? Am I going to get paid for everything I’ve done?” “Your payment is in the pipeline,” Maverick said hastily. “I’ll get back to you about that before you know it, as for your services, I believe there is still much you can do for the Rebellion.” “Right, I’m listening,” I replied warily as I held up the injured mare’s leg while Fluttershy worked, Maverick clearly having forgotten what he was supposed to be doing there. “With the Solar Empire pretty much dealt with,” Maverick began, ignoring the annoyed grumbling of the injured mare as he paced around the tent. “And the Liberators sufficiently damaged that they might no longer be a threat, I will be returing to Pivot to re-establish our base of operations there. Our next major goal is dealing with the Children of the Earth, and to do that, I need one of my most trusted agents to travel to Olympus.” “Am I to assume that trusted agent is me?” I asked sarcastically. “And what is this trusted agent expected to do at Olympus?” “What do you know of the Dragoons Rarity?” Maverick asked. “Not much,” I admitted. “I’ve gathered they’re another faction that split off from the Rebellion, based in Olympus and led by your ex-marshal, Iron Sights.” “That’s all accurate,” Maverick confirmed. “We already discussed how he tried to burn down your friend’s farm, among other incidents that resulted in me having him demoted. He didn’t actually leave the Rebellion for a while after that, no he stuck around as a low ranking officer, stirring discontent among many of the troops. He began to plant the idea in their minds that it was the soldiers’ right to reap the benefits of their own fighting, that nopony should gain from war if they did not personally fight in it.” “So he was trying to get them to turn on you and the others?” I questioned. “Indeed, he hated me for striping him of his rank,” Maverick continued. “It was obviously a ploy to regain a position of power, and unfortunately for us, it worked out in his favour. A huge fraction of our army began a strike; they refused to follow orders given by anyone other than fellow soldiers or officers who still fought on the front lines. Before long, Iron Sights convinced them to split off altogether, to claim Olympus as their own free city, it was lucky the surrender was already pending or the Equestrian army could have crushed our remaining forces after that.” “I don’t get it then,” I muttered. “If Iron Sights made himself the leader of these Dragoons, why would his soldiers continue to follow him? Does he still fight or something? How does he earn their loyalty now that the war is over?” “That’s actually the whole purpose of the Dragoons,” Maverick explained. “You could say they’re a system designed to keep Iron Sights in control. Basically they were created with one central tenant, strength is everything. If you prove yourself to be the strongest, you make the rules, and every member of the Dragoon army hold this single rule as the highest authority. If somepony wants a raise at work and their boss says no, they fight, and whoever proves themselves to be the stronger one gets what they want. “If an old mare is sitting on a seat and a young stallion wants that seat,” Maverick continued. “He need only demand it, and if the mare refuses to meet his challenge she is proving herself to be the weak one and must give into the demand. If somepony disagrees with Iron Sights' method of leadership, they need only beat him in a fight and they would officially be the new leader of the dragoons, fit to make every decision for the great army at his command. That is life in Olympus now; needless to say it is absolute chaos. Everypony is at constant war with each other, the strong constantly oppressing the weak until someone stronger arrives to oppress them.” “That’s terrible!” Fluttershy exclaimed, finished with her patient. “And I thought the Liberators were crazy,” I added. “So how have they not pushed out from Olympus? A group like that, you’d think they would revel in the idea of taking over other cities.” “We were concerned they would early on,” Maverick agreed. “But it would appear Iron Sights is content to remain in Olympus. Despite being challenged by somepony every other day, he has never been beaten and overthrown. He might be afraid that if he pushes his luck and goes to war with the rest of us, he’ll finally meet his match and lose everything he’s built. Their tenant harkens back to their attitude during the war, that all the hard work was done by soldiers on the front line, not generals and politicians sitting safely back at the headquarters. Iron Sights made them see that they could fight to gain power for themselves, not for anypony else, and that idea is what they all still live by now.” “And you want me to do what exactly?” I asked in a bewildered tone. “Because if your plan involves bringing down the Dragoons by having somepony defeat Iron Sights and then remerge them with the Rebellion, then you’re talking to the wrong mare.” “No, no Rarity, nothing like that,” Maverick assured me. “No, you shouldn’t have to do prove yourself stronger than anyone for this mission. Besides, if I wanted Iron Sights overthrown, I’d send Sufferthorn; if I wanted him eliminated, I would send Stranglethorn. No, I want you to play to your strengths and talk to him.” “Sure, I’ll ask him how his day has been and offer him a good deal on his next suit commission,” I replied sarcastically, getting a giggle out of Fluttershy. “You know I’m talking about negotiations Rarity,” Maverick specified with an amused smirk. “You did well with Typhoon; you might be even more successful with Iron Sights.” “Same deal then, you want the Dragoons to ally themselves with the Rebellion to fight the Children of the Earth?” I questioned. “Whatever you can get him to agree to,” Maverick replied, not sounding overly interested. “If you can ensure he won’t be attacking us anytime soon, great. If you can get him to dissolve the Dragoons and remerge with the Rebellion, incredible. Whatever you think you can get, take it, but there is one other, more important thing I need you to find out. You recall your mission in Arclight?” “Oh,” I breathed, realising what he was getting at. “You want me to probe him and see if he knows who Arcana was communicating with?” “Very astute Rarity,” Maverick complimented in a tone that made me want to take a bath. “Arcana ran his orders through Iron Sights, he might be involved in whatever Arcana was up to, or he might have been ignorant, it will be your job to find out.” “Sure, I guess I can handle that,” I agreed. “I hoped you’d agree,” Maverick said, pulling something out of his jacket pocket. “This is a cloud walker amulet, simply turned the stone to activate it, but use it sparingly as it only has limited duration.” I took the amulet from him; it resembled a pebble set into a gold dish. The stone itself had an upside down feather carved into it, I tested it by turning the stone so the feather was the right way up and I felt the whole amulet heat up in my hoof. Turning the amulet back off, I draped it around my neck before looking back to Maverick. “Um, excuse me, Mister Maverick,” Fluttershy jumped in in a quiet voice. “Would it be alright if I went with Rarity during this… mission? I can already walk on clouds so it’s no hassle, you don’t have to give me an amulet, and I already promised Rarity that I would stay with her.” “Oh, uh…” Maverick began, hesitating slightly. “You know dear Sister; this isn’t really the kind of thing you need concern yourself with. It’s an awfully long trip and it might be dangerous, you could instead come to Pivot with me and wait for Rarity there, your company would be greatly appreciated.” If I wanted to take a bath after receiving a small compliment, I could only imagine how Fluttershy was feeling after being addressed that way in that… voice. As the good friend I claimed to be, I leapt in to rescue her from the situation. “It’s alright Fluttershy,” I told her quickly. “You can come with me; after all, the High Priestess might be annoyed if you changed company without her permission.” “Oh, yes!” Fluttershy agreed, trying hard to hide her relief. “Sorry Mister Maverick, but I’m afraid the High Priestess would not allow it.” “Oh, um, sure,” Maverick replied, clearly irritated, but like Fluttershy was trying to hide it. “That is, of course, perfectly fine Sister, I wouldn’t dream of telling you what you could or couldn’t do. Now if you’ll both excuse me, I have other business to attend to. When you are finished your mission Rarity, you should return to Pivot to report your results.” With that, he left the tent leaving me and Fluttershy feeling very uncomfortable. “Um, Rarity…” Fluttershy began in a worried voice. “Was he… I mean, did he just…” “Uh, try not to dwell on it,” I suggested. “I know I’ll be trying very hard not to. So how are you? Is everything going alright here?” “Oh yes, I’m fine,” Fluttershy said in a much more pleasant voice. “Nopony has been hurt too badly, what about you? What did he mean when he said ‘failure’ and ‘unfortunate incident’?” “We… didn’t stop the bombs,” I admitted, glancing away. “We managed to evacuate some of the Fort, but lots of ponies… didn’t make it.” “Oh, I see…” Fluttershy replied in a barely audible voice. “I should go see if Twilight is back,” I said hurriedly. “Will you be okay here on your own?” “Oh yes, I’ll be fine,” Fluttershy assured me. I turned and left the tent, almost running straight into the very mare I was looking for as she made to walk in. “Oh, Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed upon realising who I was. “I just ran into Maverick, he told me what happened at the Fort, I’m… sorry.” “It’s okay,” I lied as I led her away from the medical tent. “We saved plenty of ponies, just…” “Not enough?” Twilight finished. “I know it’s not easy to feel like you let anypony down, but you mustn’t blame yourself. The blame lies in Blueblood and his subordinates, you tried your best to save those ponies, nopony could have asked any more of you.” I was briefly reminded of what Autumn had told Applejack and I on our way to the Bask, and I gave Twilight a weary smile. “Thank you Twilight Sparkle,” I said appreciatively. “So how is everything going here? Maverick said some of the prisoners were agreeing to talk.” “Yes actually,” Twilight confirmed. “As soon as they knew the Princess was aware of their actions, some of them couldn’t spill the beans fast enough. Most of their agents had been gathered last night, but there are still plenty of low level agents, much like Feather Duster who are still in the various cities. Rebel agents have set out already to bring them into custody, they will be transported back here, and once all the Solar Empire agents are loaded onto the ship… then we’ll be leaving.” “You mean, you’ll be going back to Equestria?” I asked uncertainly. “I just got tasked with going to Olympus, there’s no way I’d get back before you left.” “Then this might actually be goodbye,” Twilight murmured. “Maverick is pretty eager for me to talk to the Princess about the alliance, I had wanted to stay and help purge the rest of the sleeper agents, but he insisted he would take care of it.” “Hey Twilight,” Applejack greeted as we neared where she was still sitting. “Oh, hello Applejack,” Twilight replied warmly. “Will you be going to Olympus too?” “Olympus?” Applejack repeated in confusion. “What are you…” She drifted off when she realised what that meant and she looked straight at me, a disappointed look in her eyes. “You’re goin’ on another mission?!” she asked in disbelief. “Rarity, you’ve done enough, it’s time to call it quits.” “You know I can’t do that Applejack,” I stated as we both sat down beside her. “The Children of the Earth are still a threat; someone has to do something about them.” “And why does that somepony always have to be you?” Applejack asked, to which I didn’t really have a good response. “You know what, never mind. Ah know there won’t be any talkin’ you out of this; just make sure you come back to the farm first chance you get.” “I will,” I promised, mentally shifting my future meeting with Maverick back a few days. Fluttershy joined us after a short while, and the four of us sat and chatted for the remainder of what might be our last day together. Although we tried to keep the conversation focused on brighter topics like our work and families, things eventually drifted towards the incident at the Fort and I was forced to tell them the full story. “And the next thing I knew, I was just lying in the courtyard,” I finished. “So you teleported then?” Twilight questioned with an approving nod. “I’ve never teleported before in my life,” I pointed out. “Ponies are capable of amazing things when faced with death,” Twilight explained. “Being able to cast powerful spells without any training is just one of the things ponies have been known to do in their last moments.” “Afterwards I felt… awful,” I told her. “Like all the life had just been sucked from my body.” “You overspent yourself,” Twilight continued. “Everypony is capable of utilizing magic, really, every living thing is. Most ponies believe only unicorns can use magic, but it only appears that way because they naturally possess much higher levels of it. I’m sure you must know this much Rarity, surely you’ve used so much magic before in one go that you’ve felt drained.” “Yes, I did,” I confirmed. “The first time I was at Applejack’s farm, we were attacked by a group of deserters from the Rebel army. By the end of it all I could barely lift a pencil, but what’s weird is, nowadays I use that same amount of magic and it causes me no bother.” “That’s because you’re using your magic more regularly,” Twilight explained. “The more you use magic, the higher your magic level grows, so the more you can use before you begin to feel drained. You once told me that you never studied magic very much, and I could believe that because your magic level, despite how rapidly it’s increasing, is still relatively low for a unicorn your age.” I frowned at that and my shoulders slumped. “It’s nothing to feel bad about!” Twilight rectified quickly in a panicked voice. “Really, it’s not a bad thing. The point I’m trying to get at is, there will always be a point when you feel drained, it’s your body's way of telling you that using any more magic could be harmful. Sometimes however, you can use so much magic in one go, that you reach the point of feeling drained and go straight past it, at that point you’re overspending, and the more magic you use… well, the more likely your body is to give out.” “Can that be fatal?” Applejack asked in a concerned voice. “In extreme cases it can be,” Fluttershy replied, no doubt having read about it in a book or seen it first hand when treating somepony. “Teleporting actually costs a huge amount of magical power to do,” Twilight informed me. “Which is why it’s not more common. When you teleported to save your life, you overspent yourself and that’s why you felt so… lifeless. Interestingly, it’s not the first time you’ve done it, although you might not remember the other occasion.” I frowned at Twilight, completely clueless as to what she was getting at. “You remember what Maverick told you after you were made to attack Typhoon?” Twilight began. “He said you used powerful spells that he never knew you were capable of using. Blueblood may have had the knowledge to cast those spells, but it was still your body doing the casting. You’ll also recall what we learnt from Sundial when you questioned him about that pony they killed on the ship.” “They were experimenting to see if the caster's will could override the body’s naturally defence mechanisms,” I recalled. “Exactly, and their experiment was a success,” Twilight stated. “So when Blueblood was controlling you, he could cast all his most powerful spells, and your body couldn’t stop him even when he began overspending it. That was one of the reasons that when you woke up you were feeling so bad, that and the mind control spell in general.” “That’s… very interesting,” I admitted, it was indeed interesting even if it was a little confusing. “Twilight… if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your magic level? I mean, you teleport without any trouble, and you were using some really powerful spells last night and yet you look fresh as a daisy.” Twilight blushed slightly at that last part, the other two nodded in curious agreement however. “I’m not actually sure what my magic level is,” Twilight replied, although I didn’t believe her for a second. “I admit it’s pretty high, but then I have been training under Princess Celestia since I was just a filly.” There were plenty more questions I wanted to ask Twilight about herself and her position as Celestia’s student, especially if that would be the last time I saw her for a long time. However I couldn’t bring myself to, it all felt to personal and invasive, but I assured myself that there would be opportunities in the future. With a possible alliance between our countries, Twilight Sparkle might visit more often as an ambassador of some kind. As the day went on and Fluttershy and me prepared to leave, Twilight came over to us one last time to say farewell. Once all was said and done and we had all hugged and said goodbye, Twilight gave me a curious look, as if she were trying to decide something. Eventually she just smiled and turned to leave, stopping briefly to look back over her shoulder and say one final thing to me. “I knew I saw something in you.”