Looking over the map, Silver could see a fairly detailed portrait of Equestria from the times he'd seen similar maps before even coming there, though there were many more maps, noting towns and even cities simply not considered important or interesting enough to make the cut for the show. Some of them were circled. Ponyville was one of them.
"I am aware of your recent developments." He looked across the table at Silver. "Auntie has loose lips around those she chooses to hold dear. You've seen death itself, though I wonder if that made you stronger, or weaker. I would rather not have you here. Infiltrating this group is difficult and slow enough as it is. Your presence means we might be able to push forward the plans, but it could also get all of us killed for the trouble. I gather abandoning the child is not an option?"
Silver raised a brow at him silently. It was answer enough.
"As I thought. Very well. I'm not entirely without feelings, but there is more at stake here than either of us, or your foal. These ponies have a web of influence criss-crossing Equestria and even beyond. They are a dangerous blend of competent leadership and fanatically loyal workers." He leaned back slightly. "On the good side, they do think Celestia and Luna are good rulers, They just think they're being misled by certain forces, you included."
He spread his hooves. "Which brings us to the first option. I 'interrogate' you. 'break' you, and you are 'reformed'. You will need to be a good little mare and shed all of your 'sinful' ways. If you can act convincingly enough, they may even return your foal to you, but then you're in. You're a part of this, and will be expected to act in their best interests."
Silver shook her head slowly. "That sounds like an option, yes, but where would that leave Samantha? She's only being kept alive as leverage against me, and if I turn, then why would they need her?"
He let out a slow sigh. "She was rash and bold, and it's put her in an uneasy position at best. If you are truly reformed, you should have no further interest in her, at least in the fashion they think you do now."
Silver stomped a hoof on the rug. "She's bright, smart, and curious. She should be doing great things, not working in shady laboratories. I'm not interested in her as a lover to begin with. I want her to be able to explore the universe, to discover and catalog to her heart's content. Is that 'sinful'?"
The prince took a slow breath, eyes closed a moment before he refocused on Silver. "Tell me clearly, do you love her?"
"No!" Silver huffed. "I like her. I said I'd be her friend, and she deserves it. She needs a friend, a real friend, ready to call her on bad behavior, celebrate her victories, and everything else." She put a hoof out. "Can't I have a friend that's just a friend?"
He smiled thinly. "Can you? I don't pretend to understand your origins, Silver Star. You weren't a pony to begin with, but you are obviously striving hard to live by some of our highest ideals, and yet, failing in such dramatic ways." He rolled a hoof. "You have to understand, the average citizen is barely aware of the sentiments you aspire to, but never fall close to as far as you have. This makes you quite a complicated pony, to me, and them. It's what makes you dangerous. According to some, you may be gazing at my well groomed form with some amount of lust."
Silver wanted to laugh at that moment. Her poor impression given by the show itself combined with his recent actions had made him quite low in her attractive list. She managed to contain the urge, barely. "I'll pass, thank you."
He raised a brow. "Then will you be my friend?"
Silver tilted her head slowly. "Honestly, I don't know you. Did Celestia mention what I knew before I came here?"
"She said you had an uncanny oracular ability, but that it had passed."
She nodded lightly. "That is a fair summary, but leaves some bits out. I still know many things, just not of the future. I knew who you were, Prince Blueblood, because of them. I saw your time at the Gala, when Rarity was trying to get your attention and failing."
Blueblood snorted softly. "I tried to hint her away so many ways, but that mare... She was quite stubborn, until she decided to vent at me, though that at least got rid of her. Do you hold that event against me?"
"No." Silver smiled a little. "Rarity had unreasonable expectations. Neither of you came out looking perfect, but she started it, ultimately. Enough of that, what would the next option be?"
"Don't like that?" He tapped on the map, over Baltimare. "Next option, we send you to one of our major facilities, to be imprisoned in much more secure conditions. If you thought it was stifling here, that place will make this one seem like a vacation. They will press you. They will try to break you. They may succeed."
"That seems like a non-option, what makes you even consider it?"
He leaned forward. "I can have your foal sent there as well. He will be used to shatter your will. If you can do something with that, harmony watch over you, but you will be out of my reach and contact. You will be on your own."
Silver licked over her lips as the gravity of the option became clear, It was risky, It was terribly risky. "And Samantha?"
He held up a hoof. "She will, without doubt, shatter, like a hammer to glass. She's too fragile in her better days." He put a hoof over his face. "Would that we could unwind her sudden rebellion. Well, do you want that?"
Silver grunted with frustration. "You know she's harmless."
"Do you know her so little?" He raised a brow at her. "She's quite deadly, skilled, and ready. She almost got me with one of her needles before I got her. No, she is no innocent filly, just an unhinged mare that you feel especially sorry for." Silver did feel sorry for her, and began to show it with soft trembles that ran through her. He put out his hooves. "Did I mention you were a paradox? No, a paragon, and wretchedly disgusting all at once."
Silver leaned back with her eyes rolling. "I've done things, but I learn from them. I'm not the 'stud of the land' anymore. I have a family, and I want not a single pony other than them. I'm here because I took the high road. If I was the monster they claimed I was, I would have reduced that house to ash, the pony inside included. But not before I got everything I wanted to know out of him, one painful fact at a time." She glared at the prince. "Do you think I'm not capable of it?"
"The fact that you are is one of the reasons you are here." Blueblood rose to his hooves. "It is also a reason you've been assigned to ponies that know precious little more than what they personally oversee, such as myself. Destroy us, if it makes you feel better, but it won't get you closer to your foal. Now, I have one more idea, if you care to hear it?"
Silver sank to her belly. "Go ahead... I'm sorry. I know you aren't personally responsible for this. It's just... Wouldn't you be frustrated?"
"Do you think I'm not?" He tapped his forehooves together lightly. "My progress has been stymied more times than I wish to admit. I'm afraid even Auntie's lost hope of me making any significant headway. The fact that you were sent to me is a sign of how little they think of me. They may even be hoping you lose your temper and reduce me to ash. But I'm invested. They know me too well. Either I succeed, or I run far and fast enough and hope to lose them, and I don't plan to run."
Silver pushed back to her haunches, nodding firmly at Blueblood. "I understand. Does your third idea get you there?"
A smile spread on his snout. "You do understand. Plan #3, I die." He rolled a hoof. "Or, at least that's what we tell them. You reduce this center to rubble, and go to the address of another agent I know. You arrive, angry, only to be stopped by my sudden reappearance. I subdue you, with great difficulty, and use the event to claim only our great and illustrious leader can be reasonably trusted with you. It will require you to put on quite an amazing display, both here and there, and put the fear of harmony itself into them. You must resist and repel any attack made on you until I make my move, and even then only with great reluctance. You must let them throw their best at you, and crush them. You are an alien, and an alicorn, and so much more. Are you ready to be the monster they fear?"
Silver considered in quiet a moment. "Samantha could flee in the chaos, I gather?"
"If you don't crush her, what she does is none of our affair, ultimately. If she flees, that is her prerogative."
"Can I warn her?"
"Extremely ill-advised. She could talk, or be made to talk. If we go with plan #3, it will be here and now. You won't leave this office without blowing the door or the ceiling away and making your own exit."
Silver frowned softly. "What stops them from murdering my foal the moment word of this gets out?"
"What stops them from doing so anyway? This way, they may want to have the leverage against you and think they may need it. Right now, you may give the impression they don't need your foal to keep you in line."
Silver stomped a hoof. "Is this really the best way? I don't want to be a monster."
"Sometimes the world needs a monster..." He looked up at Silver. "Will you make me be one for you longer?"
The words struck true and Silver unfurled her wings slowly. "I will not harm anyone in this building."
"You don't have to, but don't leave it standing."
She took a slow breath and closed her eyes, marshaling her power and quickly doing a mental rundown of the unicorn alphabet that set much more securely in her mind than it had a year before. "I pray this works. I'm not usually much of a praying person, but this... Please let it work."
She shot out her wings taught and exploded in light as her magic reached out. She could find three servants, the guard, Samantha, and Blueblood. She wrapped each in a silvery sphere of power before the rest of the seeking energy exploded outwards, cutting ribbons out of the stone of the fortress in ragged gashes. Parts of the building fell, but it wasn't enough. With a hiss of expelled power, she realized the ring that had held her horn had shattered around her, unable to hold back her full power. The rushing magic joined the explosive power and the portion of the building beside her shattered, falling down into a cliff she hadn't known was there. The way out was clear. "This better work." With a few flicks of magic, she shredded the ceiling, causing it to fall in around Blueblood in a convincing display of a struggle before she launched herself out into the sky.
~Give me the address.~
She could feel him startle at the sensation of her mental message. ~Oh! Like Auntie Luna. Here. Go swiftly, but not too swiftly. Arrive tomorrow.~
Silver soared high above the clouds. She had a destination, and a definite thing to do. It felt good to throw off the shackles of waiting for fate to come to her.
She would put on a mighty performance.