• Published 7th Mar 2018
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The Virgin Company (currently editing) - Pone_Heap



The story of a Pegasus lieutenant, his beloved platoon, and their piece of the Centauri-Equestrian War, decades ago.

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The Infernal Line, Chapter 1: Essential Elements

The platoon displayed mixed reactions to learning they planned to set a firetrap of Hellish proportions for the Centauri Army. It could be said the concept of such a terrible thing was foreign to almost all of them… But Zip ensured them it was the best plan, and they’d see it through together—though he wasn’t entirely sure of his own words, there.

But the platoon went to bed on full stomachs, knowing they only had a couple hours to go until they’d mapped out the pass, which they still planned to utilize as best they could, and that they had something far more fearsome in store for the enemies of Equestria. It gave them a different measure of peace-of-mind, realizing they would definitely stall the centaurs when the horse-monkeys found themselves alight…

The morning after Pvt. Blood Sapphire’s demonstration in the mud, Jacinta stated the unpleasant truth to 3rd Platoon’s commanders and staff, “Our inventory… we have 165 swords of varying lengths… Most of them are short-swords.”

Amethyst—the new plan yet unknown to her—was still out on assignment with Cpl. Stardust Painter, Spc. Hemp, and Pvt. Mercury Rise, and as was normally done, Cpl. Lily Hawk sat in for her.

The plain (but pretty) ex-nurse scowled, “And of course, we don’t have any actual projectiles in numbers worth talking about, thanks to the infinite wisdom of Gen. Rocky “Asshole” Creek…”

Zip quelled her rumblings; he knew she was tired, and she’d only whined about a few things the entire time they’d known each other, “What are we going to do with guns, Lily? The unicorns don’t really need them, and the rest of us can’t exactly hold them…”

Jacinta continued scanning their list of supplies she’d put together, “I can see Lily’s concern, Lieutenant… We need metal to create our magic conductors, and we’re better off using a sword than something that’s actually useful… something we could more easily fight with.”

The statement wasn’t untrue. There were only a few ponies in the entire platoon that would have a chance fighting a centaur with a sword… and only because these ponies were a little north of powerful in their own right.

Despite their needing metal for the project—dubbed Project Phlogiston by the strategists in Canterlot—Zip refused to see a single pony without a sword. It was arguable that they even bother keeping and maintaining a weapon. One stallion joked they needed the swords to fall upon when things were especially hopeless… It wasn’t appreciated, but it rang true.

Zip’s assertion, when questioned, was that none of them were helpless, and he expected them capable of mighty feats when put against the vacuum… In other words, he figured they were better off with a sword in mouth—or in a magic aura—than without.

Blood, the head of Operation Phlogiston on their side of things, had become one of their leaders despite his rank, “SSgt. Petals, Cpl. Hawk, we’ve discussed this: 111 swords are more than enough metal to build what we need. 54 short-swords—maintained by each of us—won’t hurt anything.”

Zip recalled that almost immediately after his bold declaration to Canterlot, Blood had puked between his hooves—a side-effect of the anxiety he felt, despite the bluster he put on. He was glad to see his private feeling better.

Unaware of Zip’s mullings, Blood continued, “The issue we’re facing is increasing the magic-conductivity of the material. We can set up a forge in the vented cave—work at night so the smoke isn’t seen—easily enough, but there’s little to do with normal forged steel.”

The magical properties of their swords were practically non-existent. They needed copper, silver, gold, and lead to create the necessary alloy to see their plan come to fruition… to build the conductive stakes, magic-amplifier, and the multi-channel board to connect it all. The few ponies with any of these precious metals in their possession didn’t even have enough to consider processing it, so the sparse wedding-bands and charms were safe.

Blood’s “partner-in-crime”, Pvt. Linseed Oil rattled off why they needed these four elements; he was no unicorn, but he knew a thing or two about the properties of metal in magic, “We need silver for the ‘brainpower’, gold for the real power, copper for the directional energy, and lead for the establishment and grounding. All are great conductors, besides lead—can’t take the heat as well to be used for that, specifically…”

Zip had been paying attention to Blood and Linseed explaining these things, “And you say we could do without silver…”

Blood crossed his hooves, not looking happy about their predicament, “Right, sir… The element silver wouldn’t be absolutely necessary.”

Specialist Silver Duster hadn’t been paying the closest attention, quietly going over a list for Jacinta; she looked up, “Yes?”

The ponies did a take, and they eventually chuckled. All the talk about the element silver had her hearing her own name every 10 seconds.

The little unicorn blushed, “Sorry…”

Blood shook his head, “It’s alright, Spc. Duster… I’m the same, I guess… Hard to talk about working and fighting without bringing up ‘blood’.”

“My brother and me are the same with ‘wire’,” Spc. Trip Wire giggled.

Sergeant Razor Wire clapped her on the back, “Damn right, sis…”

“Not so hard, Razor…!” Trip’s voice was jolting as her brother continued to pound.

This had them all laughing harder. The brief levity pulled them all from the doldrums, and they felt a little better.

Zip took charge again, “Blood… have you learned any more about possible lodes of these?”

Blood blew out a breath, “The river doesn’t have much, as far as a lode goes… The best we could do is enchant a bunch of swords or something and see what they can ‘attract’ in the flow of the river, but there’s just not enough to utilize. This mountain range is young, in the grand scheme of things, and it would take a lot of digging to find anything of substance; weathering makes it easy to find things, and we don’t have much of that around.”

Zip grimaced, “So… finding it here is a no-go.”

“Unfortunately, sir,” Blood looked at his hooves; he was displeased with himself. “I was overzealous… thinking we’d have the resources right under our hooves… I can’t exactly pull what we need up out of the ground, as with oil.”

Maybe he had been a little overzealous… in thinking it would be immediately findable and usable, not that he could be blamed entirely… Most geologists had it forced down their throats that the Unicorn Range was chockfull of precious metals. But the ones that wrote the books and stated the ‘facts’ had never been stuck in some cave, while a killing army camped just north of them.

But Blood wasn’t at all overzealous in the ease and feasibility of the project. They just had to get the metal from somewhere else.

Zip nodded to the group as a whole, “Well, we discussed this, even early on, after Blood suggested it. We need to talk to Amethyst.”

Silver sat upright, ready to take notes, “Ready, sir…”

Before turning to Blood and Linseed, Zip said, “Thanks, Silver. Blood… Linseed… you’ve calculated?”

“Yessir,” Blood pulled out a sheet.

“Jacinta, make a copy, too,” Zip told his direct subordinate.

“Right, Lieutenant.”

Blood looked over his work, “Okay… here’s what we need. If they can cobble together a cart, we might not even need to scrap our swords, though they’ll be finding more cast iron than forged steel. Gold and silver will be harder to come by, but that just means we have to get a little creative; there’s plenty of it up there. Sgt. Flare and Cpl. Painter know how to render it, and they’ll be able to.”

There was a ruined city, just northwest of them, full of destroyed infrastructure and all sorts of abandoned shops and factories; it seemed a waste to not use the scrap. Plus, the most specially trained soldier west of Canterlot was leading three of the best soldiers west of Canterlot on their job, just outside of Port City; the task was manageable.


Since Amethyst had to maintain silence at all parts of the day—barring emergencies on her end—Zip had to wait until the specified time for contact. He also had to run things by Canterlot.

This gave him time to have lunch without many distractions. Zip sat with Blood, and they had a less than casual chat.

Zip wanted to know something; he spoke quietly, as to not let their neighbors hear, “Private… What you told us yesterday… Was burning the nest the operation that saw you and your crew underground a week?”

Blood tiredly denied it, “No, Lieutenant, that was a collapse brought on by a simple rock-fall gone awry. Dealing with dragons is a dangerous business, as you know, and we saw lots of mishaps. We were pioneers, sir… and much of what we did was the first time a pony’s tried such a thing. That was just one of many things I’d rather not remember…”

Zip decided to shut his mouth; it was less than appropriate lunch chatter…

Silver came up behind Zip, “Sir…”

The lieutenant turned, “Yes, Silver? What do you need?”

“Princess Celestia wishes to speak with you…”

Zip was passing some unidentifiable, chewy substance between the sides of his mouth; the stew wasn’t the best that day, “This early?”

“They’re advancing their schedule, sir… You have our report ready, so you can take care of what we must. Plus… there’s something else that will need time, I'm told.”

Zip’s thoughts hung on her last words, but he swallowed the “whatever the Hell it was” he’d been gnawing on and would worry later, “I understand… Thank you, Silver. You’ll join in, too, for this one. Sorry about cutting your lunch short.”

“It’s fine, sir. I finished eating.”

“Okay… please get things ready.”

“Yessir.”

Zip watched Silver go; he turned to his other staff, sitting at the next table, “Jacinta, Trip, we have to get to the meeting.”

Jacinta stood without protest, drinking the last bit of stew she had.

Trip wasn’t pleased, “This early?! I just started eating…”

“You heard me, Trip, and I’m pretty sure you heard Silver,” Zip drawled. “You can bring your lunch along; the princess won’t mind.”

This appeased the little Earth pony, and she did as she was told.

In their “comm room”, Silver had already opened their transmission.

Celestia looked upon them. With her was Gen. Fiddler Dream and a couple higher-ups.

The princess glanced around, a small, tired grin evident in the corners of her mouth, “It appears I did interrupt your lunch… I’m sorry…”

Trip looked a little guilty; it did seem a little out of place for her to be stuffing her face, “I’m sorry, Princess… I’m…”

Celestia shook her head, the grin more evident, “Don’t worry, Trip… I once ate doughnuts in front of Zip, while he met with me…”

Trip almost spat out her lunch, “What?

Jacinta and Silver couldn’t believe it either. Celestia just giggled.

Zip blushed; it had been weird for him, “I’m glad you contacted us, Princess… We’ve completed the survey, but we found nothing more than we already determined was usable. We’ll be keeping those plans on the table. Regarding our recent strategy, we’ve run the numbers, and we’ve come up with a list of what we’ll need for Project Phlogiston.”

Celestia turned down her dials, now serious, “I see.”

“But we’ll be unable to find everything we need in and around our location. We simply don’t have the means or the time to obtain gold, silver, copper, and lead in the amounts needed.”

Celestia sighed, “We were afraid of that… I’m going to have a talk with the ponies that ‘preach of plenty’ in the Unicorn Range…”

Silver, being the walking encyclopedia she was, said, “It’s not that there’s not plenty, we just can’t access it in time.”

Jacinta bopped Silver on the back of her head, “Hey…”

Silver rubbed her noggin; she spoke to the princess, rather than Jacinta, “Sorry…”

Celestia shook her head, “Oh, I understand, Silver… We had hoped you wouldn’t have to reach out for supplies.”

Zip stared at the visage of Celestia, “That’s the situation, Princess… We need to send Amethyst and her crew into Port City for a salvage operation.”

“Yes,” she acknowledged. “This is most unfortunate, but there’s little else to do, I’m afraid.”

Zip knew it sucked, but it was feasible, “All of them—gold, silver, copper, and lead—exist up in Port. Gold and silver will be harder to find, but we don’t need much of it. It’s copper we’ll need plenty of, and we could find all we’d possibly need in the plumbing of just about any building. Lead’s easy to find, too, in the forges.”

Celestia was satisfied, “Good, I’ll leave you with that.”

Zip was taken aback; they’d just started speaking, “Princess? That’s all?”

“Relay the materials and calculations to Gen. Dream… His engineers will look through and proof them.”

Zip had forgotten the general was even there, he’d been so quiet.

Celestia had one more thing to say, “And once you send them through, the general wants to speak with you… alone, Zip.”

Zip’s gaze turned to the general; he was stone-faced. By the time he looked elsewhere, Celestia was gone and so were Canterlot’s commanders, besides the general.

“Specialist Duster…” Gen. Dream said, his eyes never leaving Zip. “Please place the documents beside the crystal ball. That’ll do.”

With Zip, Jacinta, and Trip watching, Silver did as she was told. The lists and calculations levitated, glowed, and were rifled through. They were being scanned.

As the papers rested, Gen. Dream nodded, “And we have them. Please, ladies, I must speak with Lt. Screamer. Spc. Duster, please put up a sound barrier as you go.”

Silver felt a pang; something strange was happening. But she put up the barrier and began to move. Noting the general’s eyes still hadn’t left Zip, the girls filed out, concern in their eyes.

But Zip barely noticed them leaving; his eyes hadn’t left the general since he’d asked Silver to set down their work.

Something… Something was going on, Zip realized. But before he could dwell on this fact, Gen. Dream spoke.

“We know you’ll likely be hurting for the four metals you need, even with your plan to enter Port City… I can help you with that, Lieutenant.”

Zip asked, leery, “How so, sir?”

The general stated without preamble, “Beneath the North Port branch of the First Equestrian Bank, there’s a cache of gold and silver… enough to rebuild Canterlot twice over.”

“You couldn’t have let us know there was such a thing just lying around? When we were demonstrating this? I know you and your command were already thinking about where we’d get all the materials we need.”

“It never occurred to me one needed any special kind of metal to control and amplify magic, Lieutenant. And most ponies were rather speechless, anyway. I doubt most of them were thinking clearly.”

“Yeah?” Zip didn’t like this.

General Dream was irked by Zip’s fresh lack of decorum, “I just said… I don’t know much about it, Lieutenant, so I didn’t think about it until an engineer brought it up to me. I’m a soldier like you… not some genius.”

Zip wasn’t sure if that was a dig… but he took it personally, and it showed, “Yes, we’re most fortunate to have ponies like them on our side… So… why couldn’t the princess tell me this? Why was this pawned off on you?”

Something stunk, and Zip knew it.

General Dream gawked… Zip’s defiance was coming pretty thick.

“Even the princess didn’t know until this morning; I’m one of… several—in the world—that knew,” the general’s nostrils flared. “It’s one of our greatest national secrets! How do you think the evacuation would’ve gone… how the moving of supplies would’ve gone if the soldiers and civilians knew such a thing existed? That’s why we keep some secrets very secret.”

Zip waxed cruel sarcasm; for some reason, his frustrations were boiling over, “Oh, yes, your priorities have never been up for question.”

General Dream hissed, “You dare bring that up to me, right now?”

Zip was pissed… and what he wound up saying just sort of poured out of his mouth.

“Oh, I fucking do, sir…” Zip glowered. “You signed the order, after all, among others. It disgusts me to the bottom of my heart you and the scum that made that decision didn’t suffer in his place…!”

Zip couldn't believe those words came from himself... It was far worse than him calling Gen. Creek a "motherfucker"...

This was over the line and Zip knew it, but it was just him and the general… and Zip would probably be dead in a month, anyway. The lieutenant was beyond caring about some things. But he’d never forget what happened to Cpt. Basket Weaver. He’d never forget that the government was ready to let hundreds of thousands of ponies starve that winter to retrieve some cranes and dock-lifts. And he’d hold it against the army for the rest of his days.

The general winced at the harsh words… and knew they didn’t come from a completely unwarranted place; he gave in, “History… History will know what happened there; Princess Celestia will see to that. I… give you credit that some of us are still alive and free. I… I know you convinced her to not punish us… or to hold off on it, at least. We’ll pay for what we did, Lieutenant… but that’s for another time.”

Zip managed to cool his jets, “Yes, sir… You’re right.”

This was no apology; it was merely acknowledging they had more pressing things with which to deal.

“My command—besides being too stunned to do much at that display—didn’t bring it up immediately because we never imagined anypony would venture back into the city. They weren’t able to process it at the time.”

“I still need to task them with the job,” Zip said. “I’m sending Sgt. Flare into Port City. The fact we’ll be able to find some gold and silver as ‘easily’ as this is most welcome.”

The general grimaced, “You’re taking an awful risk, Lieutenant… The mare you’re putting your faith in is floundering. You won’t tell anypony, but it’s obvious—especially to the princess—that something is very wrong with her.”

Zip wanted to ask if there was any other choice than to send in Amethyst and her crew… He had his own concerns about her.

But the lieutenant instead said, “Don’t underestimate Amethyst Flare, sir…”

“And don’t overestimate her, Lieutenant,” Gen Dream responded. “She’s not only slipping, she’s slipped; that’s why she was sent to Port. If you knew the things I’ve learned about her, you might not-”

Zip interrupted, “I trust Cpl. Lily Hawk.”

“It shouldn’t surprise me that young mare would poke her nose where it doesn’t belong,” the general looked as if his own house was falling down around him. “And you trust too willingly, Lieutenant; a nurse is a technician, not a doctor. She doesn’t have the knowledge you might think she does, no matter how smart she seems. And do you know why Cpl. Hawk wound up joining the military?”

“I trust Lily,” Zip insisted; he was getting angry again.

“She lost her license, Lieutenant… She made a mistake—a costly one.”

Zip wasn’t thinking, “What did she do? Say the stuff in the bedpans was Tenochtitlan food and sell it on the streets?”

The general stated coldly, “She accidentally administered bupivacaine by IV to a seven-year-old filly… when the situation called for a simple saline solution.”

Zip startled; he inquired, “What’s bupivacaine?”

The general scowled, “Something to never be administered intravenously. It’s an epidural… Oftentimes, it’s injected into the spine to ease the pain of childbirth… It destroyed that filly’s heart and she suffered a painful death, with no hope of resuscitation!”

Zip felt his balls pull up; it was the first time a stallion’s words had ever done it, “How? How did that happen?”

“Your corporal was severely hungover… possibly still drunk… from a wild night on the town. As I said, it was a costly error… She had the promise of becoming a great physician one day, and she blew it because she was especially stupid one day. The army needed ponies with medical experience, and she entered the army in a plea deal. Had she not, she would've sat in prison until she was Sgt. Flare's age. Cpl. Hawk wasn’t always the collected mare you know; it was the military that straightened her out.”

Zip, his stomach never very settled as of late, felt queasy, “Why are you telling me this?”

“To wake you up, Lieutenant!” the general barked. “What is it they say about Port City?”

Zip had heard and recited it more times than he could recall, “That it’s a dumping ground for the army’s problems… and the ponies too valuable to get rid of, but they can’t be left in ‘normal’ positions…”

“And don’t you ever forget it, Lt. Zip Screamer!” Gen. Dream thundered. “You seem to do that an awful lot…! Most of them are there because of something relatively harmless… but a few of them should’ve faced the noose, Lieutenant, rather than be set loose out there—not so much in your platoon, but certainly in others. If you'd actually read everypony’s files, you’d feel a little different about many of them. The only reason I’ll allow Sgt. Flare to undertake this is because there’s no better option, not that I can really stop you…”

Zip realized… he’d only ever looked at a pony’s file if he had some concern. And he’d had fairly few.

“Do you understand me, Zip?”

It was the first time he felt the general had spoken to him as an equal, in saying his name; Zip gulped, “Yes, General. I understand you.”

“Good,” the general’s manner indicated things had just changed between them. “See it done, Lieutenant. I trust you on the matter. I trust you to trust yourself… and to know who to trust.”

Zip’s throat became tight, “Yessir.”

“I’ll be sending the coordinates for the vault to you in the next minute; have a sheet of paper ready to receive,” General Dream could be seen reaching for the crystal ball to “shut it off”. “Sgt. Flare will be able to decipher it.”

“Will do, sir,” Zip was already reaching for a blank sheet of paper.

“And… one more thing, Lieutenant…”

“Sir?”

What met Zip’s gaze was something he’d not soon forget.

The general’s eyes were welling up, seemingly out of nowhere, “I know how fortunate Equestria is… to have had a pony like Cpt. Weaver looking out for our best interests… Sometimes, Zip, I don’t know what’s right and wrong, anymore…”

The crystal ball blanked out, but it first sent the coordinates of the vault.

Zip, stunned, sat for a very long moment. He felt… unreal.

And Zip realized something… The general had thrown him a bone! Zip hadn’t realized it, but the general knew the young officer needed to vent. And he’d let him.

The Pegasus knew he’d said some pretty awful things… and he was filled with something rather foreign, something that was hard to recognize.

It wasn’t guilt that Zip felt… but rather a deep, indescribable, profound gratitude. He felt… better… more prepared. The general had more than one purpose in their one-on-one encounter, it was clear.

He’d gotten the young Pegasus to think. Amethyst had stolen a lot of paperwork from the battalion headquarters and the hospital. She’d personally carried it all, saving it from the prairie fire. The couple of bags containing the files on most of the platoon were sitting relatively unprotected in the “comm room”, along with her other effects, while she was out on patrol with the other three. Shit, all of her stuff was only a few steps away…

It baffled Zip, that such things would just be sitting there… where anypony could just look at them. And it wasn’t that Amethyst thought nopony would have the balls to cross her, that somepony would look at her stuff, which a lot of them were very likely terrified to even consider doing.

It was as if Amethyst… wanted somepony to look… that she wanted him to look. And this scared Zip, considering what a mess she was when confronted with any aspect of her sad past.

Zip’s stomach flip-flopped… Maybe the general was right… that she was…

He shook off the growing sick feelings inside himself; there were other things to do! He had to get the list together for his meeting with Amethyst.

As earlier stated, Amethyst and her crew didn’t even know they had a new plan, so he’d have to share that… Also, he had to figure out how to tell her about the secret treasure hoard barely anypony on the planet knew about.

He figured, at least for the time being, to not share that—the part about the treasure—with his other ponies. Even in the crazy situation they were in, if somepony got it in their mind to go looting… He didn’t want to think about it… what would happen.

Before, Zip had felt guilty about not sharing things with his platoon. Now, he felt next to nothing. He’d be playing things a little closer to the chest, he concluded.

Still, Zip determined he’d have to look through the files… of all his ponies. But… something told him to wait. Amethyst would be able to pick up on it… She’d know that he’d looked through her true file, which in his heart he was sure—he’d bet his life on it—that she’d saved and was sitting in her bags with the others. She’d know he’d finally looked at others’, as well, and that his “delusions” of his beloved platoon were dashed.

Yes… he’d wait.


At the allotted time Amethyst was supposed to call in, Zip waited.

Usually—though it was hard to refer to meeting with Amethyst’s party as such, seeing as they’d only been scouting out the centaurs a few days—Zip and his staff would meet with Amethyst and her crew.

Zip elected to meet with Amethyst alone. He had what he needed to share with her, and he even had Silver put up a sound-bubble to give him privacy.

She had nothing new to share with him… just that the centaurs seemed to hate the weather even more than the ponies…

But Zip had a few things to share.

“I have more to tell you than I did yesterday, that’s for certain…” Zip sat in the dimness of the comm room.

“You don’t look too eager to share it, sir,” Amethyst was uneasy.

“The geological survey is over… We’re stuck with what we’ve known for several days, that our options are limited.”

“Yes…” Amethyst frowned. “What kind of idea have those two privates come up with now?”

Zip might’ve laughed if he didn’t feel so overwhelmed, “This was more Blood’s idea, Amethyst. Canterlot jumped on board immediately, and so did I… Thermal warfare…

Her eyes widened, “Oh, my… It’s come to this…”

He didn’t enjoy the green showing behind her gills, “Yes, Amethyst, we’re going to use the oil-saturated landscape against them. And I’m putting all my faith in that it will be effective.”

Amethyst cringed, “Well, sir, you’re right to be confident. Fighting with fire is the most destructive, gruesome tactic we can readily use…”

“But we can’t get everything we need down here…” Zip tiredly waved the sheet of paper he was to transfer to Amethyst. “I’ve got a list of supplies we need.”

“If I’m envisioning what you’ve all come up with, I can’t imagine you’d find the right conductors just jutting out of the ground…” Amethyst smirked, disgusted with her own grim amusement. “Well, Blood’s a pretty smart fellow, Lieutenant… I’m sure he figured things out pretty quickly, once we had a plan.”

“Yes… magic-conducting stakes, a whole network of grids…” Zip rambled, becoming quiet. “Blood said he could control the pass as if it was a stove-top.”

Amethyst screwed up her face, “And he could, Lieutenant. I know what he’s doing… It’s something I’ve never dared employ myself… no matter how desperate things got.”

Zip’s gut was doing the flip-flop, a lot of things weighing heavily on his mind, “Until yesterday… I’d never have imagined we’d commit to such an undertaking. It’s… something we can’t come back from…”

“War is Hell, Lieutenant… Don’t dwell on it.”

Zip silently agreed. But something else was on his mind.

He dithered, “When blood showed us... Princess Celestia… she didn’t order us to pursue this—she asked us… In fact, it was more of a vote.”

“And…?”

Zip stared at the floor before meeting her gaze, “And I just can’t figure out why…”

Amethyst stared at him a moment, her eyes betraying something he couldn’t recognize, but he knew was meaningful.

She put forth, “You know as well as I do, Lieutenant, that Celestia isn’t a goddess. She may be immortal—I don’t know—but she’s just a pony… like us. Is it about ‘sharing responsibility’? Is it a matter of her wanting to partially wash her hooves of this…? Perhaps. I don’t know.”

“Should we concern ourselves with it?”

“Dunno…" she mused. "Me? I wouldn’t worry about it… unless she starts making bad decisions, rather than uncertain ones. We’ll know if that happens.”

“You weren’t there, but I spoke for you. I said you’d be for it… I’m sorry.”

Amethyst shook her head, “No, you were right to do so. I’d have agreed.”

Zip set down the sheet of paper and then a second one, “I have another assignment for you, in addition to the list of supplies.”

“And what would that be?”

“You’ll be able to decipher this, I was told; I’ll send it through.”

Zip placed the sheets exactly, and the crystal ball glowed.

Amethyst, ready with paper of her own, received the documents; she flipped past the list of supplies, “Gold, silver, copper, lead… I guess tin isn’t necessary for this…”

As Zip figured, Amethyst knew what was going on. Even if she hadn’t attempted what Blood had cooked up, she knew what it entailed.

Amethyst flipped to the other sheet; she read it a moment, and her jaw dropped, “Port City has one of these?!”

Zip knew at once she’d figured it out, “If you mean ‘the hidden vault with enough riches to rebuild Canterlot twice over’, then yes, we did have one.”

“Oh, wow…” Amethyst’s eyes continued to search

“Can you determine its location?” Zip had no doubt she could.

“Yes, sir…” she said breathlessly. “I can… This is astonishing…”

“I’m sure you know well enough where to find copper and lead… Anywhere with plumbing and a forge will get you those. That’s where you’ll find the more precious metals… Also, if you can find some forged steel that’s not too heavy, do bring it.”

Amethyst took to the other list, “Yes, Lieutenant, it’s all here. Blood was very thorough…”

Zip sat up straight, “I want you to go tonight, if it’s possible. Linseed predicts the weather will shift again in a few days, so we need to get started, in case the centaurs decide to move abruptly.”

“Yes, sir… I know it won’t take but a few hours to assemble the conductive stakes, but we’ll need time to assemble the grid and the controls.”

Zip had told her all she needed to know, but there was still something else on his mind. He didn’t say, but hiding anything from Amethyst wasn’t exactly easy.

She picked up on it at once; she cocked her head, “What’s wrong, sir?”

Zip didn’t see any point in hiding his concern, but he wasn’t overly specific, “It was Gen. Dream that told me about that vault… He said even the princess didn’t know about it.”

Amethyst looked sad, “There are few ponies that do, Lieutenant… I know they exist, but not where…”

Zip barely heard her, “He… woke me up.”

He was surprised with how upset he suddenly felt.

Amethyst could see the tears forming in the corners of his eyes; he was hurting.

Gulping, she said, “I… I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours, Lieutenant.”

Funny thing is he believed her; she chose not to see, despite what she may have suspected.

Amethyst’s voice came choked, and it wasn’t unlikely she knew what Zip was about to do… that he was set on learning why she’d been shipped out to Port, “I trust you, Lieutenant… 3rd Platoon trusts you… Celestia trusts you… Cpt. Weaver trusted you… and it looks like Gen. Dream trusts you. Do what you know to be right…”

Zip sniffled, “I’ll try…”

She managed to smile warmly, “I know you will, Lieutenant… You always do, and you’ve never let us down.”

“I don’t know about that…” Zip sighed.

“You’ll do fine, sir…”

He blinked hard, “And I’m sure you’ll be able to do what you need to… you and our three friends.”

“I have faith in them, Lieutenant. I wanted them along for a reason, after all.”

“You’d better get going, then, Amethyst. Be safe.”

She was thankful, “We’ll do what we can, sir… And… Lieutenant?”

Her voice caught him off-guard; it was pleadingforlorn

“Yes, Amethyst?” he sat stiff as starch.

She was on the verge of tears, “Please… Zip… If you do go through them… try to remember… you can’t imagine what some ponies have been through… Don’t think too ill of them… of… of…”

Amethyst couldn’t bring herself to say “me”.

And she didn’t, for she closed the connection as she burst out crying, leaving Zip alone in the darkness.

Author's Note:

Check out the Appendix for The Virgin Company, updated as the story moves along. Includes character designs and platoon arrangement. Contains spoilers.


Awright! Time for a new "arc" in the story! With Amethyst's crew on location, they must prepare to enter a place unknown to all but the very few. And Zip will face things he's overlooked.

How will they fare?


If you haven't, please take a look at Larkspur Blossom, my first story. Lt. Screamer is a hero of the main character.

And please look at my adventure story, Princess Essenta. A princess goes on a "fool's errand" to prove to her worth, picking up interesting friends along the way.

Thanks for reading, and take care.

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