The Good, The Bad and the Princess

by BorealStargazer

Twelve

“Is that true?” umbrum's hideous face recoiled, drawing away from the windshield into the cockpit. The shadowpony watched her with unblinking smoking clouds of widened eyes.

“Memory embers cannot be forged. Not yet, anyway.”

“You know what I'm talking about,” shadowpony's features melted like a chunk of butter. “Did you really do this?”

“Celekh... My incarnation was called Nightmare Moon. Time might have erased the reasons but still, ponies don't easily throw names like this around.”

“And you did plunge them into the nightmare?”

“Not ‘the Nightmare’,” Luna corrected. “Creating an all-encompassing dream which is still adapted for each and everypony is an inconceivable feat, even for someone like me. I plunged them into their own nightmares. All at once. All of them. Simultaneously. Small worlds tailored to the minds of their unwitting authors. To think of it,” her eyes grew bleary, she managed a sweet dreamy smile, “it wasn't that hard. All it took was pulling the plug.”

The smoke inside the vehicle cockpit was settling. The monstrous skull-head of the shadowpony shrinked again, resembling a simple earthpony one.

“You... you...”

She moved with blinding speed. The hooves wrenched lever clutches around the axes and Sokolka rotated its manipulators, grabbing Luna under her forelegs. The princess knew her armor had quite the mass, yet the vehicle raised her like a thistle. The umbrum pushed forward, pressing the pedals, and iron arms crunched the alicorn into the canyon wall. The cabin moved right up to her, Celekh's muzzle hanging in front of her own.

“You're a monster. A rabid thing, you sick filthy bitch!”

The headphones screeched yet Luna turned her head blindly to where she believed Serenity was standing.

“Cease fire!” she roared. Then added quieter. “Sticks and stones, captain. Words are my responsibility. Moreover,” she looked at Celekh again. Skinny face looked back at her with luminescent pits of eyes, her nostrils above the clenched teeth blowing out puffs of smoke, “our good Celekh is right. A sick filthy bitch,” she recited, as if savoring it. “A worthy, if slightly belated title.”

She nodded, never drawing her gaze away from her opponent, the windshield still separating them.

“Thy mistake of yours is a minor one. I was a monster,” she casually smiled, seemingly nostalgic. “I'm better now.”

“Was?” she managed, for once, to puzzle the umbrum with this. She looked at her, baffled, even the grasp of her manipulators weakening in confusion.

“As I was saying, we're birds of a feather in a sense. I'll take a risk and assume we both are in pain. It can come from many places and take many forms, but pain is pain still.”

“What do you know about it?” Celekh snapped.

Instead of an answer the princess enveloped her horn in a soft twilight glow, pulled a small white can with thread lid out of her saddlebag and raised it to the windshield, struggling with the gushes of wind.

“Shadow, isolate a channel for me and Celekh. Remember the thing?” Judging from how the shadowpony gave container a sullen look, she did. “You should find a better hiding place, really.”

“How did you?”

“Lash asked for my assistance with the search in your room. Yes, I have been there. No, he doesn't know. If I... maybe I would hide things like these in the same place,” she smiled weakly. “The question is, do you know what it is? For how long have you been taking the pills?”

“Two months,” Celekh muttered at last, looking at the princess with her lifeless eyes.

“Are you aware of the side effects?”

“Nausea, headaches, tachycardia,” shadowpony grumbled. “Nothing fatal.”

“On the contrary,” the princess sighed. “This class of antidepressants actually has a curious principle of work... especially when you are not under medical observation. According to one of the theories, sedative effect is the first to kick in, so it suppresses anxiety and fear. Including the fear of death. I suppose I don't have to explain the threat for patients prone to suicide?”

“You didn't look like a suicide pony,” Celekh snapped.

“Because I directed my pain outwards,” Luna agreed. “You, though, carry your pain with you. And it corrodes you from the inside like an alkali. Forgive me if I withold my enthusiasm, but I like your option no better than I like mine.”

“Would it be better if I murdered Lash?” the shadowpony winced. “Oh, I probably could. All the newspapers would flash around with headlines about an ‘umbrum agent killing a war veteran’.”

“Are newspapers all that bothers you?” Luna clenched the vehicle's manipulators with her hooves. Hanging like this wasn't very comfortable, and when you are pressed against a wall, the wings only impede turning around.

“The Frontier was at war... is at war with the Umbrum Empire for several years already, regardless of whether Equestria or the Empire itself acknowledges it. Even if I served in the Repiblican army, appearance is the only thing many ponies see,” the umbrum smiled sarcastically. “I have ‘enemy’ written on my forehead in bold. Even more, one captain of security dying isn't much of a loss. You cut off one head and get two new instead. But if there is an investigation...”

“...for example, looking into the death of a civilian worker and vehicle destruction assumingly attributed to gross derelictence of duty...”

“Oh, stop it, you. Number Three here is a trusty ol' one,” the shadowpony leaned back and rubbed her head against the headrest. “With my modifications its chances to survive this storm are pretty good.”

“Civilian death it is then,” the alicorn sighed. “And this civilian has ‘enemy’ written on her forehead. Why do you think Lash can't simply cover it all up?”

“Dogrose explained the efficiency of reports to supervisors quite well. Covering up a dead body isn't that simple. Even if we're talking about the Frontier.”

“This plan is stupid.”

“It's the only one I have,” Celekh shrugged, seemingly tired.

“An ennobled self-destruction. How nice,” the princess snorted. “How about continue living for a while, for a change? I have two bodies not far from here, and I wouldn't mind some help delivering them back to the base... if you don't want to meet afterlife in a company.”

“Two of your Guard?”

“Two of the captain's security team,” the princess shook her head.

“Tails and cruppers. Lash is quite a stallion,” the shadowpony grumbled. “Could he really care I don't make... Wait, ‘bodies’?”

“One of the exoskeletons had its battery damaged,” Luna winced. “Before they left the facility, it seems. We had to reroute energy from the other one, but both guards ended up unconscious. Why?”

“Whom did he send after... us?” the umbrum's narrowed eyes glimmered dangerously .

“Lieutenant Trowel and private Autumn Leaf. Wait-”

Celekh crashed her back into the stone. Looks like the sound of her teeth gritting could be heard even from behind the two-layered glass.

“You. You and your bucking generosity, princess,” Luna's title was almost a curse on umbrum's lips. “He would never send anypony after me. And your little stroll gave him an opportunity to tie up loose ends.”

“Explain youself, damn it,” Luna spat. “You think...”

“I know,” the umbrum cut her off, baring crooked teeth. “Those two are doomed. Or at least the lieutenant. Did you ever think about how could I get clearance to leave the facility in the middle of the storm? A clearance with captain's unique digital signature on it?”

“Wait. Lieutenant Trowel is the captain's second-in-command...” Luna felt her thoughts running with feverish speed, checking what she just heard against what Dogrose told her.

“Exactly,” the shadowpony grinned angrily. “Meaning if the captain is plastered senseless... or has an acrobatic appointment with some mares... or is busy accompanying the unexpectedly visiting princess of Equestria...”

“Somepony has to sign the documents. And ponies are security's weakest link,” Luna echoed, repeating something the blue radio unicorn said a few hours ago. Then added thoughtfully. “Using digital signatures by any other person than its owner is strictly forbidden.”

Celekh shrugged her free shoulder.

“If you start breaking the rules, may as well start breaking them all.”

“Did Trowel know of the captain's liberties with the budget?”

The shadowpony sighed heavily.

“Knew? This obliging hell of a bore had his cut in the deal. All the officers are knee-deep in it... senior officers at the very least.”

“You're talking as if he's already dead,” Luna noticed.

Celekh did not reply. Still, after a few moments the vehicle drew back, releasing the princess' armor, and the latter crashed heavily at the bottom of the ravine in a rather nonroyal manner.

“I will not go back,” her voice dully gritted in the headphone.

“Those two will die.”

“Can't you just blink them back to the facility yourself?” the umbrum hoarsely managed. “You're a princess, Tartarus claim you! A fucking alicorn!”

“The storms here, it appears, have some very unpleasant side effects,” Luna informed, her tone deliberately casual. “Suppressing any teleportation spells, for example. It was a strain enough to levitate them to a cover.”

There was a drilling grind, heard even through the howls of wind muffled by filters. Some umbrum gritting her teeth, maybe? Luna could not tell for sure. Cockpit of the vehicle was once again a swirling darkness, almost as if the driver decided to hide from foreign eyes behind the smoky veil.

“You will be just as guilty in their death... princess.”

Luna gave only a short nod, acknowledging that.

The shadowpony's silence lasted for eternity. Then Sokolka stirred its driving gear with effort, pressing herself closer to the ground.

“Climb up,” Celekh commanded in general channel, brief and lifeless. “It'll be quicker.”

“Can you find the way?” the princess inquired, raising herself on the manipulator hanging low.

“Will do. Never thought I would need to. Where is that cover of yours?”

After Flashlight had sent her the coordinates and she set the return route, Sokolka straightened up. It seemed three exoarmors dangling from it didn't slow it one bit.

“Hold tight,” the shadowpony advised, pressing levers with both hooves. The vehicle roared, drowning the storm, and surged forward, rowing the sand with its legs.

“Did you know, princess?” the umbrum broke the silence first, falling back to their private channel. “Did you know I would choose that?”

“No,” the princess shook her head, turning to face her. “Knowing is my sister's playground. A stake based on ultimate knowledge ruins the game. I prefer intuition.”

“And if you wouldn't be lucky?”

“Intuition and luck are not one and the same, Celekh,” Luna answered. “Yet now my intuition suggests 'tis another question that really troubles you.”

Umbrum's eyes sank in the dark holes of her skinny pony muzzle. But when she looked back up at the alicorn, Luna saw the light, still lingering inside.

“It was all pointless, wasn't it? All that...” the shadowpony grimaced, “adventure?”

“It depends, really,” Luna countered seriously. “You know, I happen to like that plan of yours. It isn't so bad.”

“You claimed earlier it was a very stupid plan,” the umbrum reminded.

“I still do claim that. Yet for a plan to work 'tis not necessarily required to be a clever one.”

Her neighbour stared at her, confused. Yet Luna noticed more than that. There was a gleam of a different light in Celekh's eyes. A distant yet familiar one. A gleam speaking of hope.

The princess did not wait for this light to fade.

“Your plan had a good chance of success. It still has. Yet I would like to make some alterations if I may,” she shared her modest smile with the umbrum. “As your friendly freelance editor.”

Author's Note:

You have unlocked [Reflection]: make your foes think about their bad behavior.

Bonus points for all the references in this one, for there are aplenty.

NB: I thought it unnecessary at first, then decided to include the (mostly obvious) warning anyway. This story is not a guide on psychotropic drugs. If you expect imaginary pony substances to be described absolutely accurate in a medical sense, think again. And if you are interested in actual medical aspects, I recommend "Feeling Good" by David Burns. And consulting your doctor if you have one.
Better safe than sorry.

Comments

[Blaster M]

Lots of ways that conversation tree could have gone wrong. But it did not.

[BorealStargazer]

8335421
I honestly don't know just how much I abuse the suspension of disbelief here. Hard to say when you're the one writing the stuff.
Are there any serious problems?