Vinyl kept her eye on the people below. She expected them to panic. She wanted them to panic. That would have been better than what the people were doing, staring at the sky like idiots with their mouths open. She couldn’t blame them; it wasn’t every day the bulk of the Solar Empire parked over the city. “Vinyl,” Octavia said, “what’s going on?”
“Are you kidding? Look at the damn sky!” Vinyl barked.
Octavia winced at Vinyl’s tone. “I meant, is there anything going on in the news?”
“Oh.” Vinyl put her goggles on and wordlessly flipped through different networks. “Nah, doesn’t look like anything just—”
“ATTENTION CITIZENS OF MANHATTEN. I AM GENERAL RAINBOW DASH. BY ORDER OF OUR EMPRESS, THE GLORIOUS CELESTIA, ALL NON-AUGMENTEES ARE TO PRESENT THEMSELVES TO THE NEAREST SOLDIERS TO BE CONDUCTED TO A SAFE LOCATION. I EXPECT FULL COOPERATION. ANY FORMS OF RESISTANCE WILL BE NEUTRALIZED.”
Dash’s message was still echoing through the city as Vinyl slowly took her goggles off and put them on her forehead. Octavia’s mouth was hanging open and she stared at the descending dropships with dread. Their white and gold paint made the city look like they were being bathed in milk and honey. “Not exactly subtle, huh?” Vinyl asked with a nervous laugh.
Octavia spun and fixed Vinyl in her gaze. “I have to go. I have to go, they’re going to find me here!”
“What?” Vinyl asked. Octavia was running to the door before Vinyl understood what was going on. “Hey, wait a minute!” Vinyl called and chased after her. Octavia’s fingers had just brushed the doorknob when Vinyl grabbed her from behind and spun her back into the apartment. “Holy Empress, you lost it fast,” Vinyl said, keeping herself between Octavia and the door.
“Move aside, Vinyl!” Octavia cried.
“We both know I’m not gonna do that.”
“Why? Didn’t you hear them? They’re not playing around, Vinyl. They will kill you if they find me here!”
“They’re not going to find you here. Remember those devices your dad had installed?”
“You don’t even know what they do! They could be turned off right now!”
Vinyl winced. Maybe she shouldn’t have told Octavia about her lack of knowledge on the technology she had suddenly put so much faith in. “That doesn’t matter,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm. “If worst comes to worst, I still have the pistol.” That might have been the worst thing I could have said, Vinyl thought.
“Oh, yes,” Octavia said, waving her arms frantically. “Of course, how could I have forgotten the pistol and your excellent marksmanship? Forgive me if your pop gun does not inspire confidence, Vinyl!”
Vinyl opened her mouth but Octavia interrupted. “Let’s face it; there is no reason for you to stop me. I am a grown woman; I can make my own decisions. You have only kept me here because you wanted to keep your paycheck. Although I enjoy your company, I think it is time for all of this to end,” Octavia ended with a haughty sniff.
“YOU think we can just end this?!” Vinyl yelled, throwing her arms into the air. “Alright, if you want to talk about personal reasons, let’s talk about them! You’re right; all of this is because of your dad. Whoop-de-do, that’s old news.” She took a step towards Octavia, never breaking eye contact. “But if I let you go off with them, then who has to deal with the angry guy? Me. If you go, I should just put this gun to my head. Bass Leader has connections and I don’t doubt he’ll fuck my life up big time if you go. So sit down, shut up, and eat some pancakes.” Now that Vinyl had expended some of her frustration, she realized that she had backed Octavia up against the wall.
They stared into each other’s eyes, preferring silence to reign between them. Vinyl could hear and feel the reverberations shake her very core. “Come on,” she said and walked back into the kitchen. “No point in worrying about it now. It’ll take them a day or so to get here.”
“How do you figure?” Octavia asked, still standing against the wall. “There are ships all over!”
Vinyl pulled a plate out of the cupboard. “Hell if I know,” she muttered, bringing the pancakes to the table. She was suddenly tired and doubted her ability to stop Octavia if she ran again. Vinyl wasn’t even sure if she cared at this point. Using her fork, she cut into a pancake and forced the food into her mouth. Funny, she was sure she had been hungry a few minutes ago. Octavia’s nerves had finally passed over to her, Vinyl decided.
“Fuck,” Vinyl said and brought her fist lightly down onto the table. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Octavia had been watching the troops outside, but turned around and now stared at Vinyl. Vinyl felt the eyes on her, but she didn’t care. “Fuck, fuck, FUCK,” she continued. When she saw a small dent in the table from the fork, she let the utensil clatter to the floor.
“Vinyl?” Octavia asked. She had stepped closer to her friend and into the only lit area in the apartment. Vinyl looked up, unsure of how she looked but certain she was pathetic. “I’m sorry, you were right,” Octavia was saying. “I was being completely selfish earlier. You were right, if I left, I am sure my father would have killed you.” Octavia kneeled, her purple eyes wide. “I am so sorry that I almost did that, but I am so scared. What are we going to do?”
Vinyl wanted to say something, but to her surprise, she found herself pulling Octavia into an embrace. She felt Octavia’s arms latch across her back. They sat still for a while, neither of them bothering to listen to the sounds coming from outside. They would get through this, Vinyl thought. She realized that her shoulder was gradually becoming wetter, and Octavia’s body wracked with sobs. “Hey,” Vinyl said, trying to keep her voice calm. “It’s gonna be alright. If they come, they come. I’ll be ready for them.”
The words were weak, Vinyl thought, but they calmed Octavia down. All she needed was some encouragement. Octavia broke the hug and, once she was standing again, asked, “What do you have in mind?”
Vinyl winced at how weak and broken Octavia sounded. “Well, I was thinking that you could hide if the soldiers come.”
Instead of a scathing counter-argument, Octavia asked, “Where?”
Vinyl thought. The apartment, though comfortable, was pretty small. They were going up against soldiers that had been breaking into houses for a month. Where wouldn’t they look? What trick hadn’t they already seen? Bass Leader had said that something had been installed in her apartment to help them out, but she didn’t know what it was. Octavia frantically shook her shoulder and said, “Listen.”
Outside, they could hear people moving about and knocking on doors. Soldiers already? The two women stared at each other in horror while the neighbor opened his door. Next door, they could hear the soldiers’ muffled steps searching every inch.
“How about you hiiiiiiiiiide,” Vinyl drawled as she scanned the apartment for a safe spot. Suddenly, she saw a section of the floor rise up on its own, revealing a convenient hole, “there.” Relief flooded through her system and she shot out of her seat and ran to the hole.
“Where did this come from?” Octavia asked.
“No idea, but I’m not gonna complain. This is a meat locker, Tavi. It’s like, if they’re using scanners to find people, this will block the rays or whatever. Most importantly, you’ll be safe. Now get in.” Vinyl’s teeth were starting to chatter and her fists were probably turning white. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. When would the soldiers knock on their door? She walked to the refrigerator while Octavia got into the meat locker. To Vinyl’s chagrin, all of the cheap beer was gone. She grabbed for a soda instead, in hopes that it would calm her down.
Octavia was settled in to the locker when Vinyl got over. A thought struck her then, and she picked up the pistol. “Here, take this with you,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t have a permit,” she said and shoved pistol into Octavia’s hands. Before Octavia could say anything more or give the gun back, the floor began to close. “It’ll be okay,” Vinyl said before the hatch closed. Once the floor was seamless, Vinyl realized that maybe; just maybe, it wasn’t the best idea to give a gun to a panicked girl enclosed in a tiny place. “I’m an idiot,” she groaned. Her self-reprimands were cut short by the curt knock on the door.
Taking a deep breath, Vinyl walked towards the door. This is it, she thought as her stomach did somersaults. Showtime.
Cloud Chaser crossed her arms across her chest while she waited. The owner was taking their dear, sweet time and her patience was almost nonexistent. She had already gone through 20 apartments and was not eager to start on the 21st or any that followed. Bored, she shifted her weight and knocked on the door again, which immediately opened. A young woman with spiky, blue hair and dilated red eyes stood before her. Cloud Chaser cleared her throat and, in an attempt to sound pleasant, said, “My name is Sergeant Cloud Chaser of the 15th Hunter platoon. May I come in?”
The young woman winced and gave her the once over. She had probably never seen a soldier in uniform outside of a movie. Cloud Chaser sighed; at least the woman didn’t have the lustful gleam that her neighbor had. But in the course of the Reclamation, she had gone up against all sorts of people. It was only a matter of time before she pegged the young woman in one of the categories. “Yeah, sure you can,” the woman mumbled and stepped aside.
As soon as Cloud Chaser stepped through the threshold, she immediately smelled pancakes. Her stomach rebelled at the scent and gave a loud gurgle. The young woman raised an eyebrow, but soon returned her gaze to the floor. Cloud Chaser turned away to hide her blush. “I’m sure you know what this is all about?” she asked.
“Of course,” the woman said while Cloud Chaser gave the apartment a glance. “It’s kind of hard to miss the ships in the sky.”
“Yes,” Cloud Chaser drawled. The room was cleaner than the last apartment. The couch looked like it was well-used and had a large over-night bag on it. “Tell me, does anyone else live here?”
The question seemed to knock the woman off guard. “Oh, yeah, sure,” she said, “but she’s never here. Sometimes I forget I have a roommate.” Cloud Chaser raised an eyebrow and turned back to her investigation. The constant pancake smell made her stomach rumble again, but she ignored it. The young woman was still talking, but Cloud Chaser had tuned her out, going about her job by opening all of the cabinets in the kitchen.
The charts displayed by her augments danced over several scents in the air, but the graphs and Cloud Chaser’s stomach were focused on the pancakes. Finishing her examination of the kitchen, she crossed to one of the closed doors and found herself in a bedroom. “When this roommate of yours is here,” Cloud Chaser said, “where does she sleep? You only have one bed.”
“On the couch, usually. Like I was saying, she’s probably too wasted to care. I once found her in the hall and—” The woman was droning on again and Cloud Chaser immediately ignored her. She didn’t spend much time in the bedroom, and she reluctantly went into the bathroom. There were more important things to focus on, Cloud Chaser thought, like getting out of that complex and getting some food. The pancakes still lingered.
“Alright,” Cloud Chaser said. “I think I’m done here.”
“Uh,” the woman said, “it’s been a pleasure?”
Cloud Chaser raised an eyebrow, but settled that the awkward woman didn’t deserve a response. She turned smartly on her heel and walked out, her stomach rumbling.
Vinyl nearly fell to the floor when Cloud Chaser was gone. Was that really it? Were they in the clear? She chugged her forgotten soda and felt the drink melt her nerves. That wasn’t that bad, she thought. Feeling better, she walked to the meat locker and frowned. She didn’t know how to open it. As if reading her thoughts, the hatch opened on its own.
Octavia sat up and, looking at Vinyl, said, “I could hear everything you said down there, and that was the worst excuse I have heard in my life.”
“Hey,” Vinyl said, pretending to be hurt, “at least she didn’t ask me about my crazy whore of a roommate too many times.”
Applejack stood in front of the window, shoulders hunched. Now that she was alone, she had discarded the mask she wore around the troops. To them, she was confident, powerful, and always had a solution to any problems in the field. For them, the orders that they had received a month ago were seen as a god send. Applejack didn’t have the heart to tell anyone her true thoughts, how this whole mission, though beneficial to some degree, was most likely a sham. She looked past her reflection and at the stars. She was doing her best to ignore the giant red planet. Her mind flickered back to Twilight’s office.
She had been there countless times, for reasons both official and personal. Nothing had been amiss that time. She had walked in, gave a salute, and stood stock still until Twilight had gotten annoyed. But there had been something off about Twilight. Usually, they were so lively around each other, but Twilight had seemed sad.
“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” Applejack had asked, stepping around and taking a seat on the desk. “Is it Rainbow?”
“No,” Twilight said, shaking her head. She turned off her augments and Applejack did the same. “Well, partly. I gave her orders an hour ago, but that’s not important right now. Your orders, on the other hand…” Twilight trailed off.
Confused, Applejack put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and put on a reassuring smile. “C’mon, Twi, they can’t be that bad.”
Twilight took a deep breath and, putting her hand over Applejack’s, gave the orders that Celestia had dictated. When she was done, Applejack’s smile had lost a touch of its vibrancy. “So, a trip to Mars, huh?” Applejack asked, pushing her hat up to scratch her head. “That’s odd.”
“I don’t know what the Empress is thinking sometimes,” Twilight sighed. “But I guess she knows what’s best for everyone.”
“When do I leave?” Applejack asked.
“Immediately,” Twilight muttered. The word had pierced Applejack’s heart, and she could only imagine how long Twilight had been thinking about it. She frowned, and part of her wanted to rebel, but she could see that any such actions would only hurt Twilight.
Putting on a smile, Applejack said, “It’ll be over before we know it.”
Twilight’s grip tightened over Applejack’s hand until it started to hurt. “I’m going to miss you,” she said weakly.
Applejack managed to keep her smile intact in the face of the tears threatening to burst through. “I know,” she drawled.
The doors behind her opened and closed, pulling Applejack out of her memories, but the feeling of the kiss they had shared still burned her lips. In the reflection she could see Rarity staring at her. Not wanting to turn around and reveal her blush, Applejack remained silent.
“Is everything alright, darling?” Rarity asked, taking her place next to Applejack.
“Of course not,” Applejack said, turning away from the window to look at her friend. Despite the long course of their mission, Rarity still managed to keep her uniform fresh. Her being oozed a complicated desire to always look fabulous, something that Applejack never understood.
Rarity turned her gaze to Applejack and asked, quietly, “You miss her, don’t you?”
“Every day,” Applejack said and put her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. Rarity had always frowned upon Applejack’s jacket, saying that the uniform was fine on its own. Applejack had ignored her friend’s prissiness and eventually Rarity had accepted that the jacket wasn’t going away.
“But I’m guessing that’s not the only thing on your mind,” Rarity said, raising a perfect eyebrow. Seeing Applejack’s hesitation, she said, “You can tell me, dear. I promise the troops will never know.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust ya,” Applejack began. “I just don’t know. This might sound pretty dumb.” Rarity didn’t move and made no indications of speaking. “Alright. I guess I’ve just been thinkin’ about the mission. Why would Celestia need you, me, an’ Fluttershy out here? I don’t know, all of this just sounds suspicious is all.” Applejack thought about how stupid she sounded while Rarity processed the words.
“You need a break,” Rarity said with a smile. “And as the CO, I grant you a week on leave.”
“CO? Rarity, we’re the same rank.”
“Applejack, darling, I am giving you a reason to go back to see Twilight and you are going to argue?”
Applejack chuckled and shook her head. “Nah, I probably shouldn’t, not when you put it that way,” she said and turned back to the window.
Rarity, still smiling, nodded. The two of them stood in companionable silence, watching ships go back and forth from Mars. Finally, Rarity said, “Provided that you two can stay out of the bedroom long enough, please find out what’s going on back home. I fear that your suspicions will keep me awake tonight.”
Blushing, Applejack turned and walked towards the door. “No promises,” she called back.