//------------------------------// // Chapter 32: That Which Binds // Story: Harmony Theory // by Sharaloth //------------------------------// Overuse of the Elements has another possibly dangerous side-effect. The propensity for large concentrations of magic to warp bodies and minds is well established; one only has to look to the classical examples of Tirek growing to immense proportions or Sombra becoming a living shadow to see how the abuse of power can radically alter a pony’s form. The Elements share in this. Once a Bearer draws deeply enough on their Element, they undergo a strange transformation. This change is, in itself, extremely powerful and extends to both spiritual and physical realms. There are, however, a few differences from the mutations seen with other magics. For one, unlike with powerful dark or light magic, it is not actually the power of the Elements that causes the change. Rather, the change is how the body alters itself to deal with the extreme amounts of power flowing through it. Essentially, the Elements don’t do it to us, we do it to ourselves. Second, the Elements do facilitate this change, even if they are not the cause of it. In a manner I am still uncertain of, they allow the transformation to occur without the usual pain or stress to living tissue. This lack of trauma is especially notable in how easily a Bearer can then convert back into their original form, with negligible lasting effects. Third, the resulting transformed state is highly individualized. Two different ponies harnessing an Element’s might can be altered to fit radically different forms, despite the power itself being identical both times. It seems that the form the Bearer takes is ultimately a reflection of their state of mind. I first encountered this metamorphosis when the Element of Magic was stolen by another, Sunset Shimmer, who somehow gained Proxy status and attempted to wield it. The place we were in was inimical to most magic, however, and as a result she had to pull a great deal more energy through the Element than I had ever attempted before outside of a Harmony Event. The subsequent changes she underwent caused her to appear demonic: with crimson skin, leathery wings and hair like burning fire. Her power in this form was such that she was even able to transform others into similar shapes. In addition, the transformation seemed to come with a megalomaniacal loss of reason. I was fortunately able to stop her without any casualties, but her metamorphosis should have been a warning to me. A sign to look deeper. Sadly, I did not. When my friends and I eventually hit that level of draw from the Elements, I didn’t even consider it similar to what had happened with Sunset Shimmer. The changes we underwent were so drastically different from hers that I simply did not see the connection. We took to our new forms with delight. We used them and the power they offered, and only later realized that we were drawing on the Elements to do so. In our ignorance, we even gave it a name. We called it the Rainbow Power. -From the fifth section of Harmony Theory by Twilight Sparkle Chapter Thirty-Two: That Which Binds “Stick this to the ceiling, he says,” Charisma muttered, brow furrowing as she concentrated yet again on her impossible task. “Like it’s going to be just so easy. I’d like to stick him on a fucking iron spike.” Charisma let out a snarl of rage and effort as she bent all her will towards the little plastic syringe that had so far resisted her every effort to use the supposed powers of the Element of Loyalty. Before he’d left her to ‘practice’, Cash had spent some time explaining just what Loyalty could do: “Loyalty is a binding force,” he had told her. “It brings things together and holds them together. By the same token, it can also tear them apart. Think of it like having two magnets. Hold the magnets one way, and they’ll click together neat as you please. Flip one around, though, and they’ll push apart. Loyalty controls which way that magnet’s flipped. Now, in reality Loyalty doesn’t work that way at all, it’s actually about directionality and metagroupings and a lot of crap that won’t help you one bit. But I think the magnet thing will work for you because the metaphor extends to, well, just about everything.” “Like ponies.” “Like ponies,” he had agreed. “I tell a mercenary soldier to be loyal to me and, like that magnet, his will, his mind, will be stuck to me. Nothing he can do about it, I’m just suddenly the most important person in his life.” “And then he dies.” Cash had shrugged. “Ponies don’t really handle that level of focus very well, especially not for sustained periods. There should be a way to do it that won’t kill whoever you aim it at, but I haven’t figured it out. The reverse works the same way. Use Betrayal to make someone turn against, say, his government, and he won’t be able to be loyal to them ever again. The magnet’s been flipped, instead of sticking he gets repelled. The end result is the same, they can’t handle the strain, and they find some way to kill themselves.” “Unless they’re ‘special’ somehow, like me and you,” Charisma had said, remembering their conversation in Precious Corners. “Yes, but that’s not something you have to worry about. I don’t think manipulating ponies is going to be your strong suit.” He had let out a dark chuckle here, something that had sent an involuntary shudder through her wings. “No, focus on the physical for now. Binding and unbinding objects. You should be able to do all sorts of nifty cool things. Harmony Theory calls it ‘affixing relative positioning and large-scale entanglements’, but what it really means is sticking things together and breaking them apart. And don’t be too limited by that, either. Loyalty can control things like gravity and chemical bonds and the nuclear forces that power the sun.” “That sounds like a lot of power for one little necklace.” In truth she didn’t think he was telling the half of it. When she had used Loyalty to shut down whatever Rarity and the other mare were doing, she had caught a sense of the power she’d been wielding. She couldn’t really understand it, couldn’t hold it in her head, but it had left her with the sense that what he was saying was only the tip of the iceberg. “It is,” he had replied. “Which is why we start small. With you making this,” he patted the syringe, “stick to that,” he pointed his hoof at the ceiling. “I’ll leave you to it. Holler if you need anything!” And with that he had gone and left her to her frustration. She sat on the bed, still stained with blood and sweat from her injury and subsequent healing, and stared at her target until her eyes felt like they would dry out and shrivel up. She tried everything she could think of, running through all the focus and meditation techniques she had learned in an attempt to control her Talent. They hadn’t worked for that purpose, and proved similarly useless here. Still, she knew the power was there, hidden somewhere in the depths of the red gem at her chest. She could feel it in a way she couldn’t fully define. It was like the smell of a storm before the clouds rolled in, or like the moment before a fight: violence and energy straining to be unleashed. All it would take was the right trigger, and she knew that energy would be hers. Finding that trigger was, however, turning out to be an exercise in frustration. Coming to the limits of her patience, she struck out at the syringe, slapping it aside to clatter into some dark corner of the swaying truck. Then, for good measure, she pounded the spot on the bed where it had lain, screaming at the top of her lungs as she did. When that didn’t quell the roiling fury in her gut she branched out with her targets, slamming hooves against the frame of the bed and the metal walls of the truck. The deep hoof-shaped dent she left in the wall made her pause, staring at the damage in a moment of shocked wonder. While it was sturdy vehicle, the ambulance wasn’t truly armored, but it wasn’t exactly thin-walled either. She should have broken her leg leaving a mark like that. She flexed her hoof for a moment, and there wasn’t so much as a twinge from it. A glance at the bed showed that she had done similar damage to its frame, bending the metal like taffy. She hadn’t even noticed how much force she was putting into the blows, and the realization that she possessed such effortless strength left her staring slack-jawed. The ambulance shuddered as it slowed to a halt. She barely noted it, trying to gauge without moving exactly how much stronger she had to be to accomplish what she just had. She had to be on par with a Strength Talent earth pony, at least. Somewhere deep inside her a surge of bloody-minded glee threatened to overpower her anger. Her thoughts were interrupted as the door opened and Max Cash heaved himself up into the truck. He took a long look at her, then at the state of the bed and the wall, before letting out a strangled giggle. “That is not going to buff out.” “Sorry,” Charisma said, not even bothering to sound like she meant it. “I can’t do it, Max. It just isn’t working, no matter what I do. I’ve been trying for… how long?” “A day, day and a half,” Cash replied, wiggling his hoof in uncertainty. “Really?” Charisma had to pause to take a deep breath as she processed that. “A day and a half? I thought it was a few hours! How the hell have I been sitting here for a day and a fucking half! I haven’t even eaten anything!” “Which reminds me, the doctor said you’d need to keep your energy up,” Cash said, opening up to one of the cabinets built into the side of the truck and pulling out a package of military-style rations that he tossed onto the bed in front of her. “You probably don’t need it as long as you’re wearing Loyalty, but better safe than starving.” She looked at the rations for a moment, then knocked them to the side with a snarl. “I’m not hungry.” His eyes widened at that, but his smile didn’t even twitch. “Let me guess: you’re having inadequacy issues?” “A day and a half,” she muttered, shaking her head. “I’ve been trying that long and I’ve gotten nowhere. I can’t make a stupid syringe move. I can’t even get this thing to glow!” She touched the ruby pendant, feeling again the sense of power throbbing just below the surface. “Yeah, that’s a problem,” Cash said. He sounded mildly interested, like she was complaining about the weather. “We’re kinda on a tight schedule.” Kill him now, her Talent demanded, and she had a harder time than usual pushing the impulse away. “How did you do it?” she asked. “Do what?” he asked, giving her a look that was so devoid of guile that she knew without a doubt he was toying with her. Her ears folded back as her eyes narrowed at him. “How did you get the Element working?” A slow smile warped his face, and there was something mad and deadly that danced behind his eyes. Her heart sped, a cold fear stealing over her. The inside of the truck was suddenly a strange place, as if she had lost all sense of size and distance. If she got up and walked to the door, she didn’t know if it would take two steps or two thousand. “You don’t want to use them like I do,” he said, and let out a bubbling giggle that echoed strangely, like many voices laughing at once. Charisma flinched away from that sound, shutting her eyes hard against the vertigo that threatened to send her tumbling to the floor. When she opened her eyes again the truck had returned to its proper proportions. Cash was still smiling, but it had lost the disturbing otherworldly quality. For a moment she was still seized by a crawling fear that made her wings shudder, but she swallowed hard and took hold of herself. Rationalizing the whole thing as just another side-effect of her magical healing wasn’t entirely convincing, but it let her move on. “Then how?” she asked. The anger was gone, but the memory of frustration was more than enough to heat her words. “I’ve tried every meditation and discipline exercise I know, and nothing has worked. I can’t figure it out, Max. Help me.” He regarded her for a long moment, then walked over and hopped up to sit beside her on the bed. She tensed at his closeness, but didn’t shy away. “When I was a colt,” he began, not looking at her. “The school I went to wasn’t very large. Horseshoe Valley being a relatively small community, there weren’t enough children to support more than a few classes. So each class had a range of ages in it. Sometimes I’d end up sitting next to ponies four years my senior or junior.” “I’ve been there, Max, I know how small it is,” Charisma said, hoping to speed him up. He chuckled. “It’s grown a bit since then, actually. You never saw it before I started pouring money into the place.” He shook his head, his horn lighting as he magically drew a slender shard of crystal from his saddlebags. As he spoke he spun the crystal in front of him, letting the light of his magic glint off its facets in slow magenta flashes. “Big Jim was a couple years older, actually. You’d be surprised at the effort it took to keep him in school until I was ready to move on. He was never really as dumb as he assumed.” Take the crystal and shove it into his open mouth, her Talent roared. Aim for the roof of the mouth to penetrate his brain. She shook the urge away, instead just giving him a nonplussed look. “I don’t need to hear about how you got James to flunk algebra, Max. There had better be a point to this story.” “There will be,” he said, glancing sidelong at her. “Just listen.” She snorted, but nodded for him to continue. “As I was saying, there were all sorts of different ages in our classes. Sometimes a pony would have brothers or sisters in the class. One particular family had three colts, each only a year or two apart from each other. Not only were they brothers, but they all looked alike. Same colors, same physique, same attitudes, practically triplets despite the years between them. When they got their Glyphs it was even worse, since they all had the same Talent. Working Stone, written right on their hips just to confuse the rest of us even further. It only made sense, of course. The family worked in a quarry, and the boys were absolutely expected to take up the trade. Still, it would have been polite for them to have at least something to differentiate themselves. “Now, I didn’t interact much with them. They were, frankly, bullies. Earth ponies from a proudly working-class family, they didn’t care much for an intellectual unicorn like myself. I confess I didn’t make much effort to change their minds on that count. I don’t think I even bothered to learn their names. To me, they were just interchangeable classmates, better ignored than acknowledged. That changed one day when our class was discussing Talents. We’d all got our Glyphs by that point, and the teacher was explaining to us how they were all unique. As applicable as that statement was to myself, I couldn’t help but notice how it didn’t make sense for those three. Their Talents were as identical as the rest of them, how could they be unique? I decided I’d see for myself if there really was a difference. If they really were unique.” He took a deep breath, his smile turning wistful. “I couldn’t really just ask them to demonstrate for me, of course. So I followed them to the quarry one day, then chose a spot to hide and watched as they worked. It became obvious very quickly that I wouldn’t get any great insight by watching them go about their normal chores. Talents are best realized by innovation under pressure. Fortunately, an opportunity presented itself. “Their beloved father suffered a terrible accident: an explosive he’d been setting to crack the stone went off early, and the results left him buried under tons of rock. The boys were distraught, panicked. They were the only ones close enough to help and their father’s voice from beneath the stone urged them to save him, that time was running out. That’s when I first saw proof that our teacher had been right, that our Talents really are unique. Each brother had a different idea of how to rescue their father. Each used their skill with stone, but in entirely unique ways. One proposed using picks to break up the rocks so they could be cleared away. Another insisted that they needed to drag over a crane to shift the boulders away whole. The third was sure that by digging into the ground they could open a path for their father to squeeze out. Three different solutions, each with an equal likelihood of working, from three otherwise identical ponies.” He chuckled and stared at his spinning crystal. She waited for a long beat before realizing that his story was over. “So, did they manage to rescue him?” she asked, already sure of what the answer would be. “What, their father?” He let out a dismissive titter. “Oh, he was dead the moment the explosive went off.” “Of course he was.” “The hard part was making sure all the rocks actually buried him,” Cash said, grinning. “It wouldn’t have worked nearly so well if they could see a part of him sticking out from the pile.” She sighed. “So what was the point, Max? How does that help me?” He hummed in mock consideration. “Oh, right. I did promise you a point, didn’t I?” Then, with blurring speed and a flash of magenta light, he buried the crystal point-first in her left hip, right in the middle of her Glyph. She moved without thought, her reaction coming before she had even registered the pain. She slammed him into the wall, wings flashing out to pin his forelegs wide. Her own forehooves grasped his head, one settling on his throat while the other pressed at the base of his skull where it met his spine. He didn’t resist, didn’t so much as flare his horn, but his eyes glared at her with an insane intensity. It was that look, and the icy spike of fear that came with it, that allowed her to regain control of herself. She stopped herself from pulling his head free from the rest of his body, but it was a near thing, and they were left in a strained tableau of barely suppressed murder. “We’re all… unique,” he choked out. She eased her grip on his throat. “We’ve all got something that makes us a special little snowflake, even when all else is equal. The Elements are the same way. The way one person uses them is going to be fundamentally different from how another does it. That difference isn’t in the Element, it’s in the pony. It comes from the part of them that is unique, that is special.” He pulled the crystal from her leg, floating it up between their faces. Blood covered half the slender crystal, falling from its point in thick drops. “What makes you special, Charisma?” She watched a drop of blood form. Her blood. A little piece of death spilled into the world. It was so red. It hung on the cusp of surrendering to gravity’s pull, shaped like a teardrop. Like her Glyph. Like the amulet that hung around her neck. They were the same, she realized. Connected in so many ways. Bound. The drop of blood fell from the crystal, and she caught it in the air. Her eyes widened as she stared at it, the perfect sphere of liquid held in place not by any force of magic or nature. Slowly, carefully, she took one hoof from Cash’s throat and touched the floating drop. It splashed against her hoof, sliding along its smooth surface easily. Then, when she took her hoof away, the blood dripped off to gather and once more hang in the air, defiant to gravity. No, not defiant. She could sense it, an almost intuitive understanding of what had happened that she was sure she could never put into words. The drop didn’t defy gravity, it was that gravity had changed for it. No longer a force that pulled it towards the earth, gravity was now a force that pulled the blood in that drop to that one place inside this truck. It was bound in place and, unless she decided to change that, it would remain there forever. She staggered back, letting Cash fall. He slumped down, staring at her with a grin so wide it looked painful. She couldn’t spare more than a stray thought for him, though. Her mind was taken completely by a flood of new sensation. Loyalty blazed, tinting everything a bloody crimson, and in that light she saw the world anew. In one sense, she didn’t see anything different, to her eyes nothing had changed. Yet she saw everything differently, a whole new range of senses opening up to her like a flower unfolding in the light of the sun. The scene hadn’t changed, but everything in it had taken on new and incredible meaning. She could see the pull of the earth most clearly, the bond that kept all things falling to the ground. She could see the bonds that kept a thing in its shape, could tell that there were deeper levels of bonds that, if she concentrated very hard, she was sure would reveal themselves to her. Every object was tied to every other by a billion strings, a universe of connection that she couldn’t even fathom. The Element revealed it all to her. She looked down at the necklace, and she was almost blinded by how brightly it shone. The bond between her and the Element was strong, stronger than gravity, stronger than the strange forces that danced just outside of her conscious perception and held the universe together. That bond didn’t stop with her, however. She could see it extend beyond her, ultimately terminating far, far away. She could feel the other end of that bond, the beating heart of a living pony, the brilliant life of the mare that haunted her dreams: Rainbow Dash. There was another bond from the necklace, this one strange and twisted. She didn’t understand what she was seeing when she looked at it; it was like a hall of mirrors, reflecting in on itself endlessly. What she did understand was that this bond connected the Element to Max Cash. She could feel him, much like she could feel Rainbow Dash. She could also feel the other Elements at work in him, but only distantly. They chewed at the fabric of his being like maggots consuming a corpse. She was struck again at the sense that he was being hollowed out, that the stallion was merely a shell of who and what he had been. Stronger than ever, yes, but with every passing moment there was less substance to him. She didn’t know what it meant, but she was sure he didn’t have much time left. She wondered what would happen to her when he was gone, then dismissed the thought. He had made his promises to her, and she knew that he would keep them. One way or another, it wouldn’t matter. He was speaking to her. She nearly decided to ignore him, caught up in the awesome power of what she was sensing. She could feel her own loyalty to him, though, a bond that was surprising in its strength, even as she understood how tenuous a thing it was. So she reluctantly pulled her attention from the vision the Element had granted her and focused on him. “... split off and probably drove off a cliff or something,” he was saying. She shook her head. “What?” He cocked his head to the side. “Back with us?” She frowned. “I’m a little distracted, Max. Just back it up and say it again.” He shrugged. “I was just telling you how we’re out of minions.” “What do you mean ‘out of minions’?” “Well, all the soldiers who got out of Orion City with us are either dead, or soon to be dead,” he replied. “We’ve been followed by RIA spooks pretty much the whole way, and they’ve been sacrificing themselves left and right to make sure I get where I’m going. Right now I’m down to you and the guy I left in the driver’s seat for this rig who, when I left him, was slowly chewing his own hooves down to nubs.” She flinched in disgust at that. Cash nodded sagely at her reaction. “Yup, when it comes time to get out and walk, he’s not going anywhere. Now, that’s the bad news. The good news is we’re about an hour and a half outside of Hoofprint. We’re close, Charisma. A day, maybe two, and Fluttershy will be mine.” The last comment made her pause. There was something in his voice as he said it, some strange emotion she couldn’t quite place with him. “Fluttershy?” It was the second time she’d heard that name from him. She didn’t know what it meant. “Is that what I said?” He laughed. “I meant Kindness. Anyway, you should get practicing. Once I get Kindness, phase one is over. I’m gonna need you ready to go once phase two begins.” “And what is phase two?” she asked. “If I’m going to be a part of it, I need to know.” “Oh, you’re going to love it,” he said, tittering as he pulled himself upright. “There’s gonna be blood and death and all the precious things that warm your psychotic little heart. But that’s for later. I want you focused on the here and now, Charisma. You’ve got a long way to go yet and I don’t want you daydreaming on me. So don’t worry your pretty head about it, you’ll know everything soon enough.” She let out an annoyed grunt at that, but didn’t press him as he left the back of the truck and climbed back into the cab. They were underway again moments later. Charisma closed her eyes and fell back into the power of Loyalty. The bed where she had lain broken and barely alive not so long ago was her first target. She found the part of it that bound it into a whole, then, with a glee that was almost childish in its intensity, she tightened those bonds. The bed collapsed into itself, crumpling like a wadded up piece of paper until it was a ball of steel, fabric and foam barely a foot across. She knew she could take it further, crushing those strange bonds until the whole reached some point of ultimate collapse, where bonds themselves were unnecessary. She didn’t, but the potential was certainly there. She twisted her gaze to the machine that had kept her breathing. There were bonds throughout it as well. Instead of tightening them, she took hold and stretched them out, loosening the definition of the whole until the entire machine simply crumbled into its component parts. Bits of plastic, glass and circuitry scattered across the floor. These in turn became new targets for her growing abilities. She attacked the debris with fervor, twisting and pulling at them without moving a muscle. It took more effort than she had imagined, and half of the time she tried nothing happened, but slowly she felt out the shape of her new power. She set pieces to orbiting her, attached more to each other in strange configurations, reduced one to dust and flattened another to the floor so hard it nearly broke through. She wondered if this was what unicorn telekinesis was like, and immediately knew it wasn’t. This was a power unique to the Elements. Unique to her Element. And she was barely scratching the surface of what it could do. Finally she turned her sight back to the connection between herself and the Element, and to the pony at the far end of that bond. She breathed deep, calling an image of that mare to mind. It came to her so vivid that she felt like she could reach out and run a hoof through that prismatic mane. She grinned, feeling them drawing closer to each other, an inexorable pull that no amount of physical distance could lessen. Whatever else, they would meet again, and soon. Perfect. *** ”Hey, hot stuff” *** Rainbow Dash jerked up, held in her seat only by the steel pressure of strong orange hooves. She bucked against the restraint, wings snapping and battering the pony holding her down. “Rainbow Dash, calm down!” Applejack snapped, catching her attention. Dash’s struggles paused as she realized who it was she was fighting against. “Take it easy now, sugarcube.” “What… what’s going on?” Dash asked, eyes wide in confusion. “Where are we?” She looked around and found herself sitting on a bench in the back of a moving truck. For a moment she had a strange sensation of doubled vision, as if she were seeing two different places at once. In one there was debris scattered everywhere, as well as cabinets built into metal walls. The other was larger, the sides lined with hard benches and the canopy only thick canvas stretched over a steel skeleton. In that moment she couldn’t decide which was real, but a blink later there was only the one with the benches remaining. Across from Dash, Gamma leaned towards Straff, who was sitting next to her. “Did you see?” “Of course,” he replied, his brow furrowing in worried thought. “We’re headed into the nightlands, remember?” Applejack said, easing her grip. “You nodded off a few hours ago. We were lettin’ you sleep, but you started flailin’ and screamin’. You darn near knocked the head off the pony next to you.” She indicated an earth pony soldier who was sitting on the floor near the rear gate of the truck, a bloody gash across his skull being seen to by another soldier. He stared back at Dash with a mixture of disbelief and fear. “Hey, uh, sorry about that,” Dash said to the injured soldier. He looked to Straff, who translated the apology into Lunar. Then the soldier quickly nodded to Dash and very pointedly stopped staring at her. “That’s not all,” Gamma said. “Tell her, Miss Applejack.” “Tell me what?” Dash asked as Applejack frowned. “Come on, tell me what?” “Your eyes, Dash,” Applejack said. “As you were wakin’ up they were glowin’. Like mine did before, back at Spike’s place.” “I am very curious as to what that could mean,” Gamma said, leaning forward. “Tell us, Agent Dash, what were you dreaming about?” Dash drew herself up and thought about it. The drive to Orion City was very long and very boring. Dash could have made the trip by herself in no time, but the trucks had to travel the long way across the mountain range separating the Everfree Verge from the rest of the nightlands. If the seating had been more comfortable, or if there had been more windows for her to watch the passing scenery it would have been better, but, sadly, neither of those things were available. Instead, she had been forced to sit on a hard bench as the trucks bounced and bumped over open ground and through rocky passes for hours. More than once she contemplated just taking off to practice some tricks while the trucks made their mind-numbingly slow way to the city. A cold look from Gamma stopped her every time, the spymaster seeming to somehow know when Dash was at her wit’s end and needed a reminder of why she was sitting still. The end result was that her body was sore and her patience was thin, but she had eventually managed to ignore the jouncing of the truck and fall asleep. A quick look around showed her that Star Fall and Astrid were both curled up closer to the cab of the truck. Star Fall had managed to sleep through Dash’s rough awakening, but a flash of gold beneath a cracked eyelid told her that Astrid was aware and watching. Dash wasn’t surprised that Star Fall was completely out–she was still tired from their trip through the Everstorm, and she’d spent the first few hours of the trip filling Gamma and Straff in on what had happened in the sunlands during her ill-fated wedding. News of the King’s death set off a round of rapid-fire conversation between the two spymasters, with Straff eventually heading up to the cab of the truck to speak on a radio in Lunar for half an hour. It was only when Star Fall got to the part about Twinkle Shine and Umbra being one and the same that Gamma’s composure cracked. It was only for a moment, but Dash had clearly seen a look of confusion and deeply personal hurt cross her face at the revelation. None of that was visible now as Gamma’s gaze bored into Dash with an almost physical intensity. “Charisma,” Dash replied finally. The memory of the enforcer’s words still echoed in her head. “I dreamed Charisma was wearing the Element of Loyalty. Using it for… something, I don’t know what.” Applejack gave her a surprised look at that, but before Dash could wonder about it, Straff and Gamma were talking. “Is this a vision or just a dream?” Straff asked, his controlled voice unable to completely mask the worry that flashed in eyes that were almost a twin to Gamma’s. “To my knowledge, Agent Dash does not know about my suspicions regarding Charisma’s enhanced abilities.” “What else could you see?” Straff asked, directing the question at Dash. “Uh, I don’t know?” she replied, shrugging. “There was this truck, it looked kinda like an ambulance, and all the stuff inside it was broken up or something. I think Cash might have been there? It’s all kinda… out of focus? I guess? I think she, um, I think she punched a dent in the wall.” She thought about it for a long moment, wracking her memory for details. It was all fading, though, drifting away from her like any other dream. Except for those last few words. They burned hot and bright in her thoughts. A threat, a promise, a plea. Somehow all three at once. “What kind of wall?” Gamma asked, leaning forward intently. “It was metal. Like, steel or something. Painted white.” “Not impossible for her,” Straff said. “But not likely, either,” Gamma added. “Added to the strength of Agent Dash’s reaction, I am inclined towards this being a vision.” “Unfortunate,” Straff said, huffing in understated annoyance. “I was hoping her lack of superequine abilities at Senator Birchfield’s mansion meant you were wrong.” “Perhaps after failing to acquire one of the Elements, Cash has decided to take his efforts to the next level.” Straff nodded slowly at that, and the two spymasters fell into a contemplative silence. “How are you feelin’?” Applejack asked in a low voice, taking the now vacant seat next to Dash. “Weirded out,” Dash replied. “What do you think, AJ? Was I having some kind of crazy vision?” “I think none of us have remembered our dreams before this.” That brought Dash up short. Her eyes went wide as she thought about it. “Yeah. You’re right. What does it mean?” “I don’t know, sugarcube, but I think it’s just as important as us not rememberin’ has been.” Dash had nothing to say to that, and so she resettled her wings and leaned up against her friend. Applejack leaned back, and so the two of them stayed, propping each other up as the truck rolled and bounced its way across the landscape towards the distant lights of Orion City. *** Orion City seemed endless from what little could be seen from the sheltered back of the truck. Dash wanted nothing more than to take to the skies and see the whole thing from on high. She wondered if it would be like the Solar Capital, with its bright lights, flashing signs and incredibly tall buildings in a cluster that eventually levelled out to a vast sprawl of houses. She was denied the opportunity to find out, however, as the truck skirted the built up downtown sections and brought them to a squat, unassuming building on the fringes of the city. The local RIA headquarters, where their friends were already waiting for them. The building was bustling with activity, but they were given no time to be curious about it all. The soldiers provided a living curtain between them and the operations of the headquarters, hustling them through the hallways before sending them through a pair of heavy doors into a room built like an amphitheatre. It reminded Dash of the Professor’s classroom, rows of tiered seats and desks leading down to a small stage with a podium and a screen that was pulled down to cover chalkboards. There were a dozen others scattered about the room in small groups. Gamma and Straff immediately split off to join one of them, murmuring to each other in low voices. The rest of their attentions were immediately captured by a sharp gasp of delight. “Dashie! Applejack!” A pink blur of happiness crossed the room, moving faster than even Dash’s eyes could follow, and slammed into them with a tackling hug that knocked them onto their backs. Pinkie Pie squealed in delight and dragged her friends close, squishing their heads tight to either side of her own. “I’m soooo glad you’re here!” “We’re happy to see you too, Pinkie,” Applejack said, returning the hug and smiling. “Yeah, we were missing you pretty bad.” Dash said. “Sorry you had to get caught up in all this, though.” Pinkie pulled back from her crushing hug, her eyes wide with excitement and a luminous grin on her face. “Are you kidding? Why would I want to miss it? We’re having a super future adventure, and almost all my bestest-best friends are here!” Dash’s ears drooped as she was caught between two warring desires. She wanted Pinkie to stay happy, but she also knew that with what they were facing it couldn’t last, and the sooner that balloon was burst, the better it would be. “It’s not… Pinkie, it’s not always… fun.” Pinkie just laughed at that, the sound so familiar and so pure that the breath caught in Dash’s throat. “That’s why you have friends, silly! So the not-fun parts aren’t as bad. Like, look! Look! I got shot!” She shimmied upright and poked a hoof at the small round scar on her side. “I call him Frank, the winking bullet wound. Show ‘em, Frank!” With a rippling contortion of flesh, the scar winked at them. “See? With my friends here, that doesn’t hurt nearly as much!” “I…” Dash started to speak, but immediately found she had no will for it. So she just shook her head and allowed a smile to warm her cheeks. “You got it, Pinkie.” Pinkie flipped off of them and immediately turned to Star Fall, who was staring at the exuberant mare with wide eyes. “Oh! Oh!” Pinkie squeaked, bouncing in excitement. “I know you!” “You… do?” Star Fall asked, wincing as Pinkie’s voice hit a painful pitch. “You’re Fallen Star! Rarity told me all about you!” Pinkie replied, and then she was suddenly at Star Fall’s side, lifting up a wing and staring point-blank at her hip. One eye actually seemed to bulge out of its socket as she examined Star Fall’s cutie mark. “Yup! That’s a Magic cutie mark if I’ve ever seen one. And since Twilight’s Magic cutie mark is the only other one I’ve seen, I actually have seen one! So now I’ve seen two, and that means I’m double sure!” She cartwheeled away as Star Fall snapped her wing back to her side, eyes darting around in violent confusion. Astrid twitched violently, her eyes tracking Pinkie with an expression of confusion and a touch of fear. “You… I… What?” Star Fall stammered. Dash couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry about it, Star. Pinkie Pie’s a lot to take in the first time.” “Have you guys seen Spike?” Pinkie asked, rolling to a stop next to Applejack. “He got cute! Not that he wasn’t cute before, but that was in a chubby-wubby-huggable little Dragon way. Now he’s cute in a big-buff-hunky-warrior-lizard kind of way!” Dash’s eyes went across the room, where the Dragon in question was sitting in an oversized wheelchair, one leg encased in a steel-bound cast and a dozen bandages wrapped across his body and limbs. He saw her looking and gave her a smile. Then he opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out at her. Dash was confused by the gesture until she saw the gleam of metal thread holding a hole in his tongue shut and her eyes went wide. He pulled his tongue back in and grinned before tilting his head up and showing her the second set of stitches on the underside of his jaw. “Damn!” she said, not sure if she was more horrified or impressed by the sight. “What the heck happened to him?” “Charisma happened,” a familiar voice cut in. The group turned to see Rarity striding towards them. Dash had to do a double take at what she saw. Rarity’s usual bouncy curls had been tied back into a single braid, and her makeup was a darker tint, accenting her eyes even more than usual. Her clothing was a variation on the combat gear the RIA soldiers wore, black and functional with only hints of the seamstress’ telltale flair to show that it wasn’t a stock uniform. She’d accessorized the outfit with a black beret that didn’t quite hide the angry scar that started just above her left eye. The result was like seeing a whole new Rarity. She was still beautiful, still graceful, but she seemed older and dangerous. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash, I’m so terribly glad to see you both, I don’t know how to express it.” Applejack stared with open-mouthed awe at their friend. “Wow, Rarity. Why the new look?” Rarity laughed, turning to the side to show off. “You like it? Very spy-chic, don’t you think?” Dash felt a part of her she hadn’t even been aware of relax at that. A moment of reflection let her realize that her relief was because even with the scar and the harder appearance, her friend hadn’t changed. As soon as she was done showing off her outfit, she turned to Star Fall and dropped into a practiced bow. “Your majesty. I’m sorry I had to miss your wedding.” “You don’t have to bow for me, Rarity,” Star Fall said. “And please, you are a friend, just call me by my name.” Rarity smiled proudly at her as she straightened, as if she had expected nothing less. “As for the wedding, when you get the full story of what happened there, you might be glad you were on the other side of the Storm. First, though, what happened with Spike? Gamma and Straff did not say much.” Rarity’s smile fell and her eyes took on a dark cast. “Max Cash assaulted the mansion where Pinkie’s statue was held. We… we had to fight.” A shadow passed over her face, an expression that Dash would never have understood before she’d had her own encounters with the brutality this world was capable of. Rarity took a deep breath, smoothing her features to a schooled neutrality. “We were doing fairly well until Charisma appeared. She… shot me.” She reached up and touched a hoof to the scar. “Spike got hurt protecting me when she tried to finish me off.” “The more I hear about that mare, the more she sounds like a whole mess of trouble,” Applejack said, shaking her head. “She sounds like a total super-meany-pants!” Pinkie concurred. “You don’t know the half of it,” Dash said. “She’s crazy.” “She is compelled to kill,” Star Fall added. “When she was part of the Kingdom military, she was in therapy to help control her Talent. I’ve read the transcripts of those sessions. They are very disturbing.” “I don’t doubt that,” Rarity said, tugging her beret so it covered a little more of the scar. “Still, she’s only a minion. It’s her master we need to be worried about. I had the displeasure of a short conversation with Max Cash, and there is no doubt in my mind that he is the true threat we face.” Dash shivered, remembering her own close encounter with the stallion. “He didn’t… did he do anything to you?” Rarity gave her a questioning look as she replied. “Not as such, no. It was just that his very presence was dreadful. He said he had something for me, and the implication in that gives me chills even now. I think he meant Generosity, and after seeing the results of uniting Pinkie with Laughter–” “I melted a hole in the city!” Pinkie chirped, though an element of sadness had tainted her otherwise happy demeanor. “It wasn’t your fault, dear,” Rarity assured her. “It does, however, make one think, doesn’t it? If Pinkie’s Element reacted this way, what does that mean for the rest of us? What if Cash manages to force those pendants around our necks.” “He won’t have to force you,” Pinkie said. All the humor was gone from her voice, her mane drooping along with her mood. Dash understood. She remembered when Cash had pulled Loyalty out of his saddlebag all those weeks ago. The fear and desire that had warred within her. The pressure that had kept her eyes locked on the lightning-bolt gem, the undeniable, impossible need to wear the necklace again. “We’ll put them on ourselves,” she said. They stood in contemplative silence for a long beat. Even Pinkie Pie allowed herself a moment of genuine stillness before she visibly collected herself and offered all of her friends a wide smile. “It’s okay,” she said. “We’ll beat him. It’s what we do, right girls?” “Right,” Dash said, flexing her wings. “That chump is doomed!” “Indeed, darling. Every Element he’s taken has only made his downfall more certain.” “Eyup,” Applejack said with a determined nod. As one they came together, wrapping forelegs around each other in an all-encompassing embrace. Star Fall and Astrid were about to step back before hooves reached out and drew them into the group hug. “You guys are part of the team, too,” Dash told them, grinning. Star Fall grinned back, and Astrid just accepted it with a shrug and a roll of her eyes. “Yeah,” Dash whispered to herself, combining it with a silent prayer to whoever was listening. “We got this.” *** “Sir, I need to speak with you,” Calumn said, catching Straff’s attention. The Director’s eyebrow quirked as he took in the cloaked Changeling. Calumn’s wounds were healing, but his carapace was still cracked and broken. Changelings made ponies uncomfortable at the best of times, but the way he looked now would be downright horrifying. Straff’s reaction was characteristically understated, but that would not be the case for most ponies. To forestall any unnecessary hysterics he had borrowed Rarity’s ballistic cloak and wore it with the hood up. “Excuse me, but I need to see to this,” Straff said. Agent Gamma and Senator Birchfield looked at Calumn. Gamma took his injuries with a calm nod of respect. Birchfield flinched back hard, his wings giving one abortive flap as his body instinctively tried to flee. “Of course,” Gamma said. “Senator, let’s discuss the particulars of our agreement over there.” He gave a slow nod, staring at Calumn even as he was led a few rows of seats away. “I’m quite frankly surprised that you’re up and moving,” Straff said. “From the looks of things you must be in considerable pain.” “I’ve been better,” Calumn replied. “But you’d be surprised what a little friendship and a lot of morphine can do.” Straff allowed himself a small smile at that. “I’m sure. If you’re here to ask if you’ve won yourself back into the good graces of the RIA, I’m afraid that is far down my list of priorities right now.” “No, I’m not worried about that,” Calumn said, though he had to admit to himself that he was rather concerned. “I need authorization for something.” Straff’s smile faded and a frown took its place. “I cannot allow you to feed on citizens to heal faster.” “Not that,” Calumn said quickly, shaking his head hard enough that he felt the pain through the drugs. “I need authorization to use a Mirror Crystal and to perform a high-level bonding.” He braced for the response. A Mirror Crystal was one of the precious few remnants of pre-Schism Changeling civilization. It could augment a Changeling’s powers, temporarily boosting them as if they were fully fed on love. However, there were only three such crystals left, and they had finite uses before they were depleted. A high-level bonding was essentially mind control, the complete subjugation of another’s will. It was incredibly illegal. He was asking a lot for a Changeling who was still technically a rogue. “You want to use a Mirror Crystal to thrall someone?” Calumn was thankful that Straff was a reasonable pony, and expected his subordinates to be reasonable as well. It meant he was letting Calumn explain himself instead of outright rejecting the request and refusing to hear any more. “No, sir. I want to use it to defeat Max Cash.” Calumn sketched out his plan to Straff, who took it in with a calm thoughtfulness that boded well for Calumn’s chances. When Calumn was finished, Straff spoke. His words were slow and carefully chosen, and Calumn knew that his answer would determine if Straff allowed his plan to proceed or not. “When you were lying there in your hospital bed, wondering whether the next person you saw would be the one who took you to die, did you think about escaping? Running away?” Calumn couldn’t help cringing a little at the question. He didn’t even consider lying, though. Even if Straff didn’t catch it, that wasn’t the kind of person Calumn wanted to be. He pulled up his courage and kept eye contact with the unicorn spymaster. “I thought about it. I even figured out how to do it. Blaze had talked his way into my room, so I could have gotten him on board. I knew I could use him to get past the guards. Not through the door, of course, but he’s got a… strange talent for finding rappelling gear in the oddest of places. Apparently there was some in a storage closet that he somehow wandered into while looking for where they had Spike. He’s my friend, he would have agreed to anything I asked for. I could have been gone for hours before anyone noticed.” Straff nodded slowly. “Which means you could be hours away by now, with the rest of us dealing with a crisis that leaves us no time to hunt for a missing Changeling. That’s the kind of head start that could get you to the Zebra Nations free and clear, beyond anyone’s ability to track you down. Yet here you are. That says a lot, Calumn.” “Cash needs to be stopped.” It was all the explanation he thought it needed. Straff’s lips thinned to a grim line. “Of course.” “It’s a gamble,” Calumn said. “But it’s the best chance I have to get close. Whatever we end up sending after Cash, Blaze and I need to be part of it.” “Very well. I’ll authorize the Mirror Crystal and the bond.” Calumn sagged with relief. “Make it work, Calumn. And do not miss the opportunity when you have it.” “Yes sir.” Straff pointed his horn across the room where Detective Hard Boiled’s copper gaze was watching their exchange, Traduce at his side. “Talk to her. She might have something to help with the pain.” “Yes sir,” Calumn said again, and Straff walked down to where Agent Gamma and Birchfield waited. He let out a wheezing sigh and waved Traduce over. He’d like to think the hard part was over, but he knew that this was just the first hurdle. Convincing Straff was difficult, yes, but he knew all too well how hard it was to fool Max Cash. He could only pray to Luna that his gamble paid off. *** Hard Boiled watched as the princess from another nation and the heroes from another time met, and decided to have a group hug. It wasn’t what he’d been expecting, but on reflection he decided that with Pinkie Pie there it couldn’t have turned out any other way. While a part of him was wary of the imposing presence of the Griffin, or wondering about the new princess he had never heard of before, only one of them really held his attention: the blue pegasus with the rainbow mane. Rainbow Dash, or, as he’d been calling her in his head, the impossible mare. He hadn’t believed Officers Flash and Forrest, but he’d seen enough now that, looking at her with his own eyes, he had no trouble with the thought that she could break the sound barrier as casually as he walked across a room. He wrenched his gaze away before he was caught staring, and ran a tired hoof through his short mane. His body still felt like his hooves were made of lead, and there was a persistent ache sitting just behind his eyes that Traduce wasn’t able to do anything about. On the upside, he’d actually managed to get some sleep, and he’d be in much worse shape if it wasn’t for those few hours of stolen peace. On the downside, he’d woken to find the world was already moving on, and he’d have to play catch up. The destruction of Senator Birchfield’s mansion while he was ostensibly in charge had probably taken his career with it. The papers were screaming about the ‘terrorist attack’ in the heart of Orion City, and his name had come up. Even if he wasn’t ultimately blamed for it, the story would spread and become political poison. He didn’t know how to feel about that yet. He’d never had big ambitions, but a larger office and a heftier paycheck were on everyone’s wish list. He figured he was just too burned out by everything else to work up the energy to care at this point. When it was all over, he’d have time to figure out where to go from here. He smirked as a thought crossed his mind. If nothing else, there were always ponies who would pay for a private detective with his skills. The idea had a certain undeniable appeal. Traduce had been there when he woke, of course. She claimed that she had slept while he did, but somehow she’d had time to make him breakfast, collect messages for him, and contact the RIA so that she knew to bring him to this meeting. He knew she had to be eating more than just his pain to keep up her level of energy, but he didn’t ask about it. They’d come to a good place in their relationship, and he didn’t want to go spoiling things so soon. She seemed to sense that his thoughts were on her, and looked up from the conversation she was having with a cloaked figure that HB belatedly recognized as Calumn. She said a few words to the other Changeling, then trotted over to stand beside him. “I caught that,” she said. “Caught what?” “That suspicious look you just gave me,” she replied. “Even if I hadn’t seen it, I can feel when your emotions shift in my direction. You think I did something wrong, but you don’t want to ask me about it.” HB grunted at that. “Must be nice, knowing when someone’s thinking about you.” She gave him a smile just dripping with sarcastic irony. “Says the pony who knows every secret with a glance.” He tipped his horn in acknowledgment. “If it’s bothering you, ask me.” “You’re too… awake,” he said. “And don’t give me that line about sleep deprivation training. There are limits to that sort of stuff, and you’ve gone way beyond them. That means you’ve been feeding on someone.” “Is that all?” she asked, letting out a small laugh. “I have been taking in some of your feelings for me, that’s true.” She not-so-subtly brushed her flank against his. “But only what you’re giving me yourself. The real secret is her.” She nodded at Pinkie Pie, who was gesturing wildly while talking in rapid-fire Old Equestrian while her friends watched with grins on their faces. “They’re all strong, but she’s just pouring out enthusiasm and joy, I don’t even have to try to tap into it. Feeding from her is like drinking from a firehose, all I have to do is open wide and hope I don’t burst. I was just telling Calumn to give it a try. He needs all the power he can get to heal from what Charisma did to him.” HB relaxed a little at this. He didn’t know that absorbing any of Pinkie Pie’s emotional energy was … healthy, but it certainly explained Traduce’s ability to be chipper. He surveyed the room, taking in everyone gathered there. “So we’ve got a group of heroes from the past, a princess, a Griffin, a Dragon, a Storm Guide, a pair of Changelings, a Senator, an RIA Director and whoever that is he and Birchfield are talking to, and a detective. All in one room. Why do I get the feeling this is all one big joke that I’m not going to get?” “That’s probably Pinkie again,” Traduce said with a snicker. “And the mare Director Straff is talking to is Agent Gamma, the head of the Solar Secret Service.” HB let out an impressed whistle. “We’re really consorting with the enemy here. Wonder how it’ll play out on the Senate floor?” “With luck, not at all,” Traduce replied. A moment later Straff and Gamma broke off from talking to the Senator and headed towards the podium. “Looks like we’re about to get started. Let’s grab some seats.” HB followed her, letting her choose a spot three rows back from the podium. The seats were hard and uncomfortable, which came as a small surprise to him. He’d always imagined the RIA would spring for quality furniture. They were the first to sit, but everyone got the message quickly enough, and took their own places. “Thank you all for coming,” Straff began. His horn lit with a magnesium-white flare and the room lights dimmed while a projector started, the screen behind the stage filling with an image of the RIA logo. “Before we begin I would like to offer formal greetings on behalf of the Republics Senate to her Highness Princess Fallen Star of the Solar Kingdom, as well as her entourage. While your entry into our country was illegal, Senator Birchfield has agreed to waive any charges on his authority. Please do not fear that you are being held hostage; you are free to go at any time.” Star Fall stood from her seat and made an elegant and clearly rehearsed nod of her head. HB didn’t need his magic to see the implications there. It was an acknowledgement built on hierarchies, from one pony to someone far below their station. It pricked at Hard Boiled’s deep-seated Republican values, but he took a slow breath and forced himself not to react. The Kingdom was practically a different world, it wouldn’t be fair to hold her to nightland standards of civility. “Thank you Senator, Director. Considering the purpose of my visit, however, I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere.” “Thank you, your highness,” Straff said as Star Fall sat back down. “Secondly, we do not all share a common language. The Princess has offered to translate into Old Equestrian for those who need it, I ask that everyone make allowances for her to make such translations, and that you be patient while she relays any comments or questions that arise.” There was a murmur of assent, and then Straff’s horn lit again and the image on the screen changed to the grinning face of Max Cash. “The purpose of this meeting is to decide on how to confront and neutralize Maximillian Oswald Cash,” Straff began. “Everyone in this room has been involved one way or another in his schemes, and has a stake in his defeat. My own involvement started twenty years ago, when I began tracking his movements and trying to uncover grounds to have him arrested and put away for good. In this, I have failed. Now it may be too late. “We all know the basics: his criminal empire is vast and extremely well-funded, his interests strange and varied, and his closest associates among the most dangerous people on the face of the planet. As he presents a threat to both the United Lunar Republics and the Solar Kingdom, his capture is now a joint operation between the Republics Intelligence Agency and the Solar Kingdom’s Secret Service. The first of its kind in history. I don’t think anyone in this room has any doubt that Cash warrants it.” There was a grim silence as he surveyed the room and found no objection. “Agent Gamma, if you will?” Gamma stepped up to the podium as Straff withdrew. “Despite both our best efforts, neither the Secret Service nor the RIA have ever been able to uncover Cash’s plans. The events of the past few months has changed that.” The image changed to a colored drawing of five golden necklaces and a crown, each with a helpful label putting a name to them. The central feature of each piece of jewellery was a gem, each a different shape and color. HB recognized the blue balloon and pink butterfly immediately. He recalled the static snap of energy as Pinkie Pie had taken it from his grasp, and the terrible light that had consumed Birchfield’s mansion. He wouldn’t have believed a simple necklace could be that powerful only a week before. The thought of five more of them sent a cold shiver down his spine. “These are the Elements of Harmony,” Gamma continued. “Six artifacts of immeasurable power from before the Schism, each with its own character. Twilight Sparkle decided that they were too dangerous to be used, and so devised a way to keep them safely out of the wrong hooves. They were locked onto statues crafted by Master Spike, and enchanted to be practically invisible. However, that invisibility could be overridden by a book Twilight wrote called Harmony Theory. Somehow Max Cash came by a copy of this book, and has been systematically hunting down and acquiring the Elements. He so far has three of them in his possession, and only narrowly missed gaining a fourth. “Each Element he gains provides him with unknown, but inarguably dangerous powers.” Straff changed the image again, this time to a picture of a half-burned pony in dark military fatigues. He was being strapped down to a bed, struggling wildly. The photo had captured the moment where he had spit something bloody at one of the ponies restraining him. HB stared for a moment before realizing with a shock that it was the soldier’s own tongue. One of the ancient heroes gasped in dismay. “This is an aftereffect of their use. Specifically, the results of using the Element of Loyalty to forcibly convert someone to Cash’s service. This, and the other abilities the Elements give him, render Cash all but untouchable. Any normal force sent after him will likely end up in a similar state to this unfortunate stallion.” There was another moment of silence as the spymaster let her words sink in. “However, his releasing of the Elements has also had another effect. With every one he takes, the statue that housed it somehow comes to life as the former bearer it depicted.” Straff took her cue and changed the image to a picture of Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash from when the Solar King had revealed them to the world. “These resurrected heroes have all the power of a pre-schism pony, and I believe they also retain a connection to their Element. When Cash turned the Element of Loyalty against Rainbow Dash, it did not convert her, instead causing a kind of seizure. From discussions with Master Spike, I believe this seizure was the result of feedback between Element and Bearer; in this case, between Agent Dash and Loyalty. This opens up several possibilities for combating Cash, beginning with the conjecture that the other resurrected heroes would be wholly immune to such influence without the feedback effect, unless attacked by their own Element. That is an opening that can be exploited. Similarly, there is the possibility that the heroes may usurp control of the Elements from Cash entirely. Though with the… extreme reaction that occurred when Pinkie Pie donned the Element of Laughter, I believe we should not attempt this unless safeguards can be put in place to prevent another such incident. Regardless, this gives us options. Finding a way to combat the Elements is of utmost importance because with the destruction of Twilight Sparkle’s statue in the Everstorm, only one remains: Fluttershy and the Element of Kindness.” “This last statue was discovered recently by Lieutenant Hard Boiled,” Straff said, stepping up and shifting the picture to a map where the rough location of Fluttershy’s statue had been marked. “It is deep in the southern jungles, and that is where we believe Cash will be heading. It has been just over forty-eight hours since Max Cash assaulted the mansion of Senator Birchfield, which means he is likely only a day or two away from gaining the last available Element of Harmony.” “We have to go after him!” Rainbow Dash cried, jumping up with wide wings. She was speaking in Solar, and without his magic HB had to wait for the translation, but her meaning was clear long before her words were. “I’m afraid that’s not feasible,” Straff said. “Reports say he’s moving nonstop to the south. Every asset we’ve attempted to stop him with has been attacked by his fanatics. By this point he’s in Hoofprint and probably started down the river. Even our fastest transports won’t make it there before he’s had a couple days to do whatever he wants. No, the best option is to plan for when he comes back up this way.” “We can’t let him get his hooves on Fluttershy!” Dash insisted. “Agent Dash!” This was from Gamma. HB turned on his magic to follow the conversation better, knowing this part of the exchange might not get translated at all. Information flooded in, mostly from the others in the room, but more than he expected from Agent Gamma. She was presenting a cool demeanor, but with his magic he could pick out the little tells of anxiety. She was worried, and not about what they were talking about here. There was something else that was occupying the back of her mind, something that was having a deep emotional impact that she was struggling to contain. He filed that observation away for later, deciding to talk to Straff about it. “While I understand your concern for your friend, it is simply not possible. You may be fast enough to reach them in time, but the rest of us are not. If you’re considering going alone, let me remind you that Charisma may be able to match you physically now. Remember how you fared against her last time. Think about how it would play out if she were up to your level.” Dash flinched back, looking torn. Then her jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed and HB saw the gleam of iron determination flare in their depths. “I can take others with me.” HB’s magic found no subterfuge in her reaction. She meant it. Applejack’s eyes went wide and she laid a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Whoa, now, sugarcube. There’s a lot of folks here, you can’t carry ‘em all.” Dash’s wings slumped a bit, then sprang back up. “Well, yeah, not everybody. But, um, I could do a few. Like, seven? Eight?” HB frowned at that. It sounded like a statement of insane bravado, but she didn’t believe it was an exaggeration. Her only hesitation came from not being sure exactly how many ponies she could take. How strong was she? “I assume you’re not talking about carrying seven people on your back,” Gamma said. “How do you propose to do it?” “We use a chariot,” Dash replied. “A chariot?” “Yeah, we used to pull big loads through the sky all the time back in Ponyville. Hell, even Fluttershy could pull a wagon around when she wanted to, and she’s the weakest flier I know!” “But Dash, this ain’t some amble over to Froggy Bottom Bog, this is more than a thousand miles of hard flyin’. You’re fast, alright, but you ain’t got the stamina for that kind of race.” “I can do it,” Dash insisted. “I must agree with Applejack, darling, this may be too much, even for you, Rarity added. “No, guys, I can do this.” Dash turned to the Princess. “Star, you can do a levitation spell, right? Something to make the chariot lighter?” Star Fall’s brow furrowed in thought. “I can, but I’d need to be constantly feeding energy into the spell or it would stop.” “So you come along. And Astrid too,” Dash hastily added as the Griffin gave her a warning glare. “That’s two.” “I suppose this is happening, then,” Gamma said, quirking her eyebrow. She turned to address the rest of the room, switching back to Lunar. “Agent Dash says she can get a team to Kindness before Cash gets there. There are no guarantees you will make it on time, and even when you arrive you will have to contend with Cash, Charisma, and any others they’ve paid or coerced into fighting for them. That said, any chance to stop him is worth taking. Who would like to volunteer?” “I’ll go,” Calumn said. He looked pointedly at Straff. “I’ve come up against both of them before, and I think I have a way to at least slow them down.” “Granted,” Straff said with a curt nod. “I’ll go too,” Trail Blazer said, though HB could tell it was with prompting from Calumn. “Charisma doesn’t want to kill me all that much, and that’s oodles more than I can say for anybody else in this room. Plus, I’ve always wanted to see the jungles. I wanna swing on some vines like they do in the movies.” HB was almost surprised to find his hoof in the air. “I’ll go. I can see through that illusion trick Cash has. I might be the only one who can.” “That means I’m in as well,” Traduce said. “Then I’ll be the seventh,” Applejack said. “Pinkie and I should be going as well,” Rarity said. “Especially if Miss Gamma is right about us being immune to the Elements.” “You were shot in the head two days ago, Rarity,” Applejack said, giving her friend a nonplussed look. “Y’all ain’t healthy enough for a decent fight yet.” Rarity tsked in annoyance, tugging her beret over her scar. “That goes double for you, Spike! Don’t think I didn’t see you raisin’ your claw there!” Spike sheepishly put his arm down. “Look, Rarity. Pinkie’s still findin’ her hooves in this new world, and no matter how it goes it’s gonna get nastier than… well, it’s gonna get nasty. We got our seven, and already I think it’s too much for Rainbow Dash to be pullin’ all by her lonesome.” “We just got back together! You can’t think splitting us up so soon is the right thing to do!” “I…” Applejack hung her head. “I know it ain’t right. But the only other option we got is waitin’ until it’s too late.” “Then wait! We’re stronger together! That’s what our friendship has always been about. That’s what brought us to the Elements of Harmony in the first place. Wait, and we’ll find a way to stop him together!” “I didn’t let you wake up alone, Rarity,” Dash said. “I won’t let that happen to Fluttershy either.” Rarity huffed in protest, slumping in her seat and glaring at the ground, but she didn’t continue the argument. “Is that settled?” Gamma asked. Dash looked to Rarity, who refused to meet her gaze, but still gave a stiff nod. “Yeah, we’re good.” “Then we should act without delay,” Straff said. “While those who volunteered head south to cut Cash off from the last Element, the rest of us should be putting our heads together to figure out a way to stop him if they fail. We know that Cash is ultimately going to head back north, to the remains of the Crystal Empire. There, he will have the capacity to project the power he’s gained across Equestria, and perhaps the entire world. I do not have to tell you how bad this would be. To that end, we will stop him before he crosses the Storm. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. Max Cash must be stopped, and if possible the Elements of Harmony need to be brought under our control.” He paused, and Hard Boiled could see the aggressive worry gnawing at his composure. It mirrored Gamma’s hidden state of mind in many ways, but it was fed not from some personal hurt, but by a kind of existential horror that HB’s magic couldn’t parse. “Because Cash is not the only threat we will have to face.” The projected image changed again. This was a picture of a vast thunderhead over the ocean, flashes of lighting flickering through it. The image changed to a blown-up view of the same cloud. Standing atop the thunderhead was a single figure, wings stretched wide against the wind, horn glowing with a black aura that was palpable even though this grainy image. “She’s coming,” Straff said, and HB felt as if his blood was freezing in his veins. He recognized the mare in the image immediately. There was no pony alive who wouldn’t. The Gray Mare. The Destroyer. Nightmare Umbra. *** “So, what do you think?” Cash asked, stepping up next to Charisma at the bow of the boat they had hired to take them down the river. She tilted her head to him, looking towards the four thuggish ponies at the back of the boat with the corner of her eye. The smiles they were sending her way were as pleasant as a grease fire. “I think they’re going to try to kill us.” They probably thought they were being sneaky, but their intent might as well have been broadcast with a flashing neon sign for how easily she saw it. She knew how she would do it. Get them far enough from civilization that their bodies would never be found, then a few moments of swift violence. She’d target herself first, because if you want to keep your crime quiet you always target the ones who can fly away first. Then she’d hit Cash with everything she had. If these would-be murderers were smart, that’s the way they would do it, too. The very fact that they were going to try it showed that they were not that smart at all. “What, these fine, upstanding citizens?” Cash snickered. “I would never have imagined. No, I was referring to your new toy. Getting the hang of it yet?” Charisma sighed, of course Cash wasn’t interested in the people who wanted them dead. He never was. “Three times out of five I can get it to do what I want,” she said, reaching a hoof up to touch the teardrop ruby at her chest. A thought occurred to her. “Do you think I can zap these guys like what you did with the soldiers? We could use the cannon fodder.” “I don’t know,” he replied with an infuriating smile that said he actually knew very well. “Can you?” She paused for a moment, thinking about it, trying to commune with the Element. The answer that came to her was too complex to be a product of her own imagination. She was bound by the physical, it was her focus, her Talent. Her mind was not malleable enough to allow her to mold another’s. “No,” she said with a frown. He’d been right when he had told her as much earlier. “Can you?” Cash let out a short bark of a laugh. “Not as long as you’re wearing it. I can trick them with Deceit or appeal to their greed, though. Probably won’t get the same results, but close enough for criminal work. I might do that. Or…” He drew the word out, his head tilting and his eyes rolling to her. “You could get in some more practice. Something more in your milieu.” Charisma caught his meaning. “You want me to kill them with the Element of Loyalty?” He shrugged. “Or with your hooves. I don’t care how, so long as you use the Element somewhere in the mayhem. Just, you know, don’t break the boat? We kinda need it.” “You know I could just carry you,” Charisma pointed out. “I’m strong enough now.” He sucked in a hissing breath. “I don’t know about you, but the last time we did that? Yeah, not so comfy. If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to go with the boat on this one.” “Whatever you want, Max,” she said. “Now, am I killing these guys or what?” “I think we should let them make the first move. Give them the chance to do what they were paid for.” Cash grinned. “And then you can kill them.” “What if they live up to their end of the deal?” He shrugged. “I don’t see how that changes anything.” She sucked in a short breath as her heart skipped a beat. “Damn it, Max. Why do we always have to draw it out like this?” “Drama, of course!” “Of course,” she repeated, sighing. She turned away from him and stared out at the passing river, falling into the strange altered perception that Loyalty allowed her. She looked at the water and could see how it was bound to the ocean and to the clouds and to the blood that pumped through her veins. She wondered what would happen if she started breaking those bonds. Would the river flow backwards? Would the clouds burst into one great gush of rain? Would she dessicate like a corpse left in the desert? “Screw drama,” she snarled, whipping around to face the thugs. They grinned at her, running lascivious eyes over her flanks. Attack the largest one first her Talent urged. Kick him into the water. Take to the air, gain speed, then drop on the one at the wheel as he turns to look. Snap his neck cleanly, leave him draped over the wheel. Attack both remaining thugs simultaneously. Use wings to distract and hooves to strike. Aim for throats or knees to disable. Once one is disabled, focus on the other until dead, then kill the last one. “A good plan,” she murmured to herself. “But how about instead I do this?” She focused on one of them, and then she made the water betray his body. The result was instantaneous and spectacular. It was like the stallion had been some overfilled water balloon that had been popped. The aft of the boat was splattered with so much red that the blinking eyes of the other thugs stood out in incredible contrast. Despite the breeze from the speed they were going, she even felt a few drops spatter her. The shockingly thin body of the stallion she had killed crumpled to the deck, the red moisture that had just evacuated it actually spreading away so as not to touch the corpse. She laughed. It was as pure and unfettered a laugh as she could remember having since Trail Blazer had left her. Next to her, Cash sighed. “Fine, but I’m not driving with the seat all wet like that. You made the mess, you get to sit in it.” “What the hell?” one of the thugs cried out, his voice made high and quavering by fear. She decided he was next. She launched herself forward, grinning as a frisson of joy went through her. All three remaining thugs flinched back, which was more of an opening than she ever needed. She crouched, her hooves sliding on the wet deck, and hit her chosen target low, lifting up and flinging him over the side of the boat before he had a chance to react. Still seeing the bonds of water, she then did to him the reverse of what she had done to the first stallion. She didn’t pause to watch, but as she turned away she could see tendrils of water reaching up from the river to the doomed pony, finding any opening it could to force its way inside him. The other two were staring in open-mouthed shock at her, and she could see in their eyes how fear was now ruling their minds, paralyzing them. She laughed again, reaching out and wrapping a foreleg around each of their necks. Then, with just a simple squeeze, she crushed the life out of them. Her body sang with delight. She was practically dancing as she threw the corpses overboard. The one she had dessicated didn’t even make a splash, the water parting for it and closing after without touching the dry flesh. She looked back to Cash, who was regarding her with the expression of someone tolerating the antics of another. “A little messy, but good on you for making it work. Now, if you’d like to take the wheel before we crash into the riverbank, I’d appreciate it.” Charisma smirked at him, ignoring the demands of her Talent to destroy him. Then she bound the blood and gore to the river so that it flowed overboard and left the boat cleaner than it had been when she’d got on. Cash’s eyebrows went up at that, and he made an appreciative sound before turning back to watch the passing riverside. She slid herself into the pilot’s seat and set to steering as the last of the shivering tingles of happiness filtered through her. They were almost there.