The Equestria Diaries

by Istaran

Chapter 20: Sharing intelligence

Zeke and Robert awoke before the sun rose. It felt like it was overdue, like when a winter morning drags on in darkness before the sun finally takes its place well after the day has begun. They were awaiting a summons to talk with Shining Armor and give him vital intelligence about the war in the south, but since they were no longer sleeping, they got to speaking.

The small guest room they had been granted had a bed, a couch and a small table. Zeke had slept on the couch, giving up the bed to the one who had all the vital intelligence, but now they both sat on the couch, with Zeke's feet resting on the table, next to their bags and the inert spider. Both could do with a shower and fresh clothing, but their suite didn't have the facilities, much less a suitable wardrobe.

"So who are we going to Vanhoover to hook up with?" Zeke started the conversation.

"Her name is Angelica, and I can't promise you'll hook up with her, but I can't promise you won't," Robert replied with a wink.

"Oh? Is she as beautiful as her name implies?" Zeke grinned.

"I can promise you'll like what you see."

"Nice.~ So.. what's her Item then?"

"A working internet connection," Robert answered with a shrug.

"What? Really? How's that work?"

"How's your little pieces of cardboard make real magic? I don't know. She has a little wireless router thing that somehow gives a wifi connection to Earth. Doesn't have to be plugged into anything either. Pretty good speeds, too, or so you guys say. Any of our phones can connect if you have her password. And I can get it within three tries 90% of the time, if we don't ask. If we ask and she says no, she always changes it to some random garbage."

"So.. what, we could talk to our friends and family back home?" Zeke asked, excitedly.

Robert shrugged dismissively.

"How can you be so nonchalant about something like that. It's awesome!"

"For you maybe. My friends back home kept asking the same questions every time, until I just stopped trying. And the only family I care about is he-..." Robert trailed off and his face darkened as he remembered his mother's recent change of fate.

They sat in silence for a while before Zeke piped up with an idea. "Hey, why don't you teach me how to use your ocarina thing? At least the reset song."

"The Song of Time? I'm not sure if it will even work for anyone other than me.."

"Well? It'd be worth a try, I mean.. if something happens to you. Maybe if someone else plays it you'll get your phone back in the reset?"

"Or I'll still be the only one changed, only now I'll be dead, or whatever? Or worse.."

"What's worse than dead?"

"Well.. I have thought about this a few times but.. well, what if it resets me back to how I started, and then everything goes the same way as the first time, and this whole thing just becomes one giant loop? At least as long as I change every time, I know there is something distinctly different, a fixed progression of some kind. That helps me to have hope that some day we'll manage to do it right."

"That's.. yeah, that's pretty deep. I still think you should at least teach me the notes. As long as your okay, I'll leave it be, but if something does happen to you.. desperate gamble time, agreed? I mean.. even if it is an endless loop.. if we don't try and you just never get to reset, this is our last run anyways. Right?"

Robert thought about it quietly for a while, before digging into his possessions for a pair of ocarinas. He passed one to Zeke and kept one for himself. "Alright, let me start by teaching you this song. Repeat after me.." He showed Zeke how to play a short sequence of notes that repeated itself. A simple little ditty with an upbeat sound.

After a couple tries, Zeke played it on his ocarina, only to find himself caught up in the song, dragged into a longer melody that expanded out from the notes. As the song completed, he was a bit disoriented to see that Robert had moved back to sit on the couch, and was talking to Dust Bowl, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "What.. what just happened?"

Dust Bowl jumped in surprise, falling on his tail end before calling Zeke's name in joyous surprise.

"Dawn just happened," Robert replied, and reached out to swap ocarinas. "That song rips you forward in time until the next dawn or dusk, whichever comes first. It can be a good way to lay low for a while, but it can also leave you vulnerable to an ambush, especially if your enemy knows what you can do. Don't worry, you've only been gone a few minutes. Your friend just stopped by to see if we wanted to go get some breakfast."

"Well, I guess now we know the instrument will work for me. Alright, now teach me that reset song, and we can be on our way."

They passed the non-magical ocarina back and forth a few times, as Zeke got the handle of the notes, committing them to memory. Dust Bowl and the spider watched quietly until they were done.

When they walked out into the halls, there was chaos everywhere. Guards and other ponies were scrambling about, the guards notably more armed than usual, quite a few carrying stacks of weapons to equip the others. The trio did their best to avoid being trampled as they sought out someone who might be able to tell them what was going on. They spotted Shining Armor in a courtyard, and Robert led the way up to him, waiting for him to finish ordering one of his subordinates before trying to gain his attention.

"Captain Shining Armor, sir!" Robert began. "I can see you are busy, but we have vital intelligence about the capabilities of the enemy to the south which you need to hear, sir! We had expected to hear from you about a meeting this morning to discuss it."

"I'm afraid I know all too well what the enemy is capable of. I'm guessing you didn't get the news then."

"No sir, what news?"

"The enemy moved on our southernmost fortress, the Alamare, last night. Princess Luna and Queen All Heart took a contingent to drive them off, but it didn't end well. Queen All Heart perished in the battle, along with all of the fort's defenders and most of the night guard. Princess Luna returned, alive, but so exhausted that she had to get Princess Celestia to lower the moon for her."

"That's.. that's horrible!" Zeke responded, before noticing that Robert had taken off running. Trading a look with Shining Armor and Dust Bowl, they all quickly moved to follow.

Rounding the corner, Robert drew his blade with a guttural war cry as he lunged at Princess Luna, aiming a leaping overhead slash toward her neck. As Luna's green magic trapped him in midair, Celestia rounded on him with fury and disbelief.

"What is the meaning of this?!" the solar diarch asked, barely refraining from a deadly counterattack of her own.

"Luna's.. magic.. isn't.. green!" Robert managed to get out, despite the crushing grip.

"Green? What are you talking about?" Shining Armor asked as Zeke drew his cards, summoning a pair of lions that growled at Luna's flank, preparing to pounce.

Celestia cast quickly, opening her eyes to the magic around her, and then rounded on her 'sister'. "You're right, Lulu's magic is deep blue." Her own bright magical aura wrapped around the imposter, held at bay by a wall of green. "We trusted you, and you betrayed us? Why? Was it all a ruse from the beginning, Queen 'All Heart'? Guards!"

From all around, a wave of guards closed in to subdue the Queen, only to in turn be subdued and disarmed by a second wave of guards from behind them. The lions joined the fray, dispatching one of the traitorous guards, while another vanished from sight in a flash of blue magic. The queen took flight, green flames washing over her as she reverted to her natural form. Holding off Celestia's attack was taking too much of her focus, and Robert dropped to the ground, quickly sheathing his sword and drawing his bow.

"Why? It was simply too good of an opportunity to pass up. To dine on one Princess' love for the other? Priceless! I never expected to be revealed so quickly by some leaf-clad simian, however. So now I guess it's the time for ultimatums."

Celestia stomped the ground. "Fine. Surrender and we'll let you live in our dungeons. Simple enough ultimatum for you?"

"You overestimate your position here, Tia. I've had most of the night to prepare for this. Your guards are almost all in the dungeons already." As if to confirm this, the sounds of dozens of crossbows being brought to bear resounded from around the courtyard, where another, larger wave of 'guards' had arrived. The angle they were aiming was clear; the flying Queen was well above their line of fire. Celestia, Shining Armor, Zeke, Robert and Dust Bowl, were not.

"Think this through, Queen," Robert hissed. "You need Celestia if you want to have any hope of fighting off the armies that are coming for us. You can't control the moon, much less the sun. And you already know your forces aren't enough without the Equestrian guards assisting you, that's why you came here in the first place. Back off now, tell us what you did with Luna, and maybe we can still work together to all survive this war."

"What I did to Luna? Why, all I did was lie about having gone with her. The poor dear charged off on her own, even dragging a thousand of my loyal drones to their doom! By the time my forces and the bulk of the night guard reached the fortress, poor Luna was nowhere to be found, and the fortress was overrun. Dear Lulu may still be out there, somewhere, but I wouldn't count on it. Those the enemy kills fade from this world quickly enough, the lack of a body to bring home offers only dim hope."

"Enough!" Celestia declared. "Will you stand with us and avenge my sister and your home? Or tear us apart with in fighting so the enemy has little left to mop up? Your treachery is not forgiven, but we cannot afford to be divided at a time like this!"

Queen 'All Heart' flittered to the ground, somberly. "We will stand, as we have stood, as we entreated yourselves to stand. We will take Luna's place guarding the night, and fight by your side as we promised. I am sorry for.. endangering our alliance. It was reckless of me, as reckless as your dear departed sister and her ill fated heroism. Drones! Release the guards. We are done."

As the tension slowly began to defuse, Shining Armor turned to Robert. "I think it's time for that intelligence report of yours. If the Princess and Queen would join us?" he said, still eyeing the Queen warily, like he wanted her there more to keep her from being out of sight than to share.

---

Dopple had been in a pretty good spot. The day guard's spear had been wrested free and pointed at his own neck, while Dopple's own crossbow, primed and loaded, was at the back of his head. The pony's fight had fled him, and Dopple had nothing to do but keep up the threatening pose while keeping an eye out for any threats that might turn toward him. The solar princess was tied up with his Queen, and unlikely to spare him a thought. One human was helpless in midair, and the other.. was playing card games? And what were those lions doing here?

A dull, pearly white orb floating near the human had lit up, then a second bluish orb joined it, appearing out of nowhere. The blue orb dimmed for a moment, and then the entire world turned blue. When the light faded and he blinked away the jarring transition from daylight to spell-light to darkness, he found that he was home. [FUCK!]

What had been a good position was suddenly the worst position imaginable. Or thereabouts. He was suddenly hundreds of kilometers away from his soon to be victorious Queen, in the very tunnels his people had recently abandoned. Directly ahead, barely visible in the darkness, was one of those freakishly deadly dogs of war. It hadn't noticed him yet, but he estimated a few steps forward would be enough to seal his fate. It was a curious thing about these dogs: they could stare right at you, but if you were even one hoof too far away they wouldn't know you were there. Get too close though and they would rush in for the kill, no matter what you disguised yourself as.

The solar guard was gone, or rather left behind, but Dopple still had his spear, his loaded crossbow and a quiver of bolts. That was something at least. He dropped the spear, levelled his crossbow at the dog, and froze in indecision. Once the first quarrel was loose, the dog would be coming for him, he knew that much. Was his aim true? Would he be able to reload quickly enough to finish the dog before it reached him? How many hits would it take to go down? Would others notice his attack and converge? He briefly considered just letting that standoff go on indefinitely. Finally he decided living in terror until he starved to death was a fate worse than the dog would give him.

The first bolt hit true. The second as well. There wasn't time for a third, so he hastily dropped his crossbow and stabbed with the spear. The dog fell in a blood mess, which faded from reality as he caught his breath. One down. That wasn't so hard. He didn't see any more dogs, and he didn't hear the telltale bark when their unseen master gave them orders. Dopple collected his spent bolts and carefully began to search the tunnels ahead.

Comments

[Morning Dusk]

Why do I feel that dopple will be important later?

[Istaran]

He's a Chekov's Drone?