A Method to his Madness

by Luna-tic Scientist

20 -- Case Nightmare White

"I had almost hoped my sister was correct, and that the zebra and gryphons were behind these events," Luna said, pulling the door open and stepping through into the corridor, a trembling Libi leaning against one flank. "But it is not so. I believe that Discord is using a prison in Razorclaw as a base of operations. He has chosen not to confront us directly, but to pull away the foundations of what makes us such a threat to him. Only when our harmony has been thoroughly destroyed will he be truly free." She gently pushed Libi over towards Neighmann, who rushed over before she could make more than a step. I'm sorry, my foal, but it was necessary.

"What do you plan, Princess?" asked Chirr.

"Given the rate that this infection spreads, I need to act immediately. Chirr, you will remain here with Neighmann and Equilibrium and keep them safe--" Chirr opened his mouth to protest, but Luna cut him off. "--and I mean it this time. Do not try and follow me, especially if I do not return."

Chirr looked very unhappy. "Then what am I to do? Just wait here until the clouds turn pink and start to rain chocolate?"

"I think not." Luna pulled off her secure communicator and passed it over to Chirr, who winced as she clipped the oversized device to his tufted ears. "You will wait thirty minutes, then use this to contact the Panopticon; it will take you straight to Director Topsy Krett. Tell her 'Case Nightmare White,' code aardvark-ampersand-wildfire."

"...and what will that do?"

"My sister and I both have contingency plans for eventualities such as these, but it will not be pretty. Director Krett will give you your orders." And then all my children will die, because Celestia will certainly do the same thing, if she hasn't already.

Chirr clicked his hooves in salute and Luna nodded in return, then formed the correct patterns in her mind and pushed--

~~~discontinuity~~~

--materialising neatly before a large, ornate door somewhere in the depths of the Palace.

The pair of unicorns guarding it had obviously felt the portal terminus form and had shouted a warning to their pegasus comrades. All four ponies had spread out to cover a semi circle around her arrival point, polychromatic light already starting to flare from the two magic users. Spears were levelled, secured into the lance mounts on the pegasi's armour. These were ceremonial weapons but still perfectly functional; the tips were single crystals of water-clear sapphire enchanted to penetrate force fields and ceramic armour alike.

The shock on the Guard's faces was almost comical, and Luna nearly threw back her head and laughed out loud. "I commend your alertness, but who exactly did you expect to teleport in? There are maybe a dozen unicorns in Canterlot who could manage this feat, none of whom could get in through the Palace's barrier."

The Guards looked uncertain, the spear tips wavering and casting splintered points of light on the walls and ceiling. "Your H-Highness, Princess Celestia ordered that no pony is allowed into the vault without her express permission," one of the unicorns said in a trembling voice.

"These are the standing orders in the event of the Defence Act's conditions being met. Stand aside." Luna seemed to grow a little taller and a little darker, shadows condensing in the corners even with the brilliance of the corridor lights. The Guards twitched, but didn't move. "Celestia and I are equal in our authority. I will not ask you again..." Her voice trailed off into a hiss. And if they still don't move, what then? How many more ponies are you going to hurt to achieve your goals? Luna smiled gently at the thought. What a foalish idea; as many as it takes.

Her unintentional grin seemed to have the desired effect, even when her threatening posture did not; the centre pair of Guards fell back, opening the way for her to pass,

"Excellent. You are a credit to your unit." A flicker of magic and the door swung open, revealing a small room with another set of doors, these less ornate, but far more solid-looking. Luna closed the outer doors in the faces of the uncertain Guards, then applied her magic to the lock on the master vault. This whole facility was built to house the Elements; the walls were seeded with spellcraft devices designed to block teleportation and remote manipulation or viewing, while the main door would only open to a select few ponies, as well as herself and Celestia.

Her magic filled the little room, overpowering the subdued lighting set into the corners. Lines of violet traced complex networks over the circular vault door, causing embedded arcane mechanisms to light up in turn. A few seconds of this and the hair-fine crack around the rim of the vault pulsed a bright apple green and the whole panel pulled back into the wall and rolled sideways.

Inside were a number of plain shelves covered with black velvet, each holding one or more artefacts too dangerous for any other facility, or too valuable to risk losing. A black metal circlet, too large for a normal pony's head, its inner surface studded with tiny jewels that glowed in complex patterns. A grey and red unicorn horn, strangely curved. A glass bottle filled with ordinary-looking black seeds. A set of six perfect spheres, three crystal bubbles containing a glittering point of light, three plain grey globes, one hemisphere intricately patterned stone, the other in shadowed darkness... and they weren't here.

"Wasted too much time, I should have come here first," Luna muttered. When did you take them, Celestia? As soon as we had our conversation, or had Discord's touch made you suspicious even before then? There was a change in the air and Luna stiffened slightly, before wheeling around and scowling. "Why are the Elements not in the vault, sister?" she demanded. "They are not to be moved without agreement from both of us."

Celestia stood in the doorway, sans regalia. "Are you alright, Luna?" She waved a wing at the Night Princess' dusty and waterstained coat. "Your deliberations seem to have been quite stressful." She cocked her head to one side. "I also see that you have prepared yourself for battle."

"I am in no mood for pleasantries! Celestia, where are the Elements?" A quick check with her shadow sight showed that her sister had done the same; her body was layered with enchantments to the point where she seemed to be made of molten gold.

"I moved them, for safekeeping. I suspect this vault is not as secure as it needs to be against a determined foe." Celestia smiled gently, but her eyes were calculating. "Come, sister. We need to discuss our combined response to this crisis."

Luna was suddenly very conscious that she was standing in a magically shielded room, the only entrance blocked by one of the most powerful beings on the planet. Too much like a trap. "Yes, Celestia. You should have talked to me first," she said wearily, taking a few steps forward. "It's almost like you don't trust me." Luna kept her face as expressionless as she dared, allowing a trace of fear to colour her tone. It's what she'd be expecting.

"Nothing of the sort, but these are dangerous times... and such information should only be passed directly."

They walked in silence for a few minutes, leaving the guards standing in front of the resealed vault door. Luna watched Celestia out of one eye, wondering what her sister was going to do. The other mare seemed completely at ease, as if this was nothing more than a stroll through the less occupied parts of the Palace. Finally she couldn't take it anymore. "Well, where are they?" she demanded.

Celestia paused, one hoof off the ground, then turned to face her. Gone was the calm smile, replaced with a look of deep distrust. "Don't take me for a fool, Luna. What were you doing in the detention block a few hours ago?"

She's never going to tell me. The revelation hit Luna, and for a moment she wondered why she'd ever thought it could be otherwise. Obviously Celestia knew she'd been held in the cells; the Guard would have reported it immediately. So much for any hope that the unicorn was purely under the influence of the spell. It can't be as simple as just making a pony hate, but must cause them to align behind a sufficiently strong leader. It matters not; I must at least try to convince her.

"Sister, the contagion runs deep inside Canterlot, and I have discovered not only where it is from, but how to cure it."

Celestia nodded, but her ears folded back in anger. "You should not have wasted your time on these things. I told you I knew that already. It is something monstrous out of the Zebra Alliance's arcane laboratories. Our forces will be ready in a few hours; soon we will strike at their centres of power and discover what they have done."

Luna felt like whinnying with frustration. You are still in there, you must be. "This is not something they are capable of; the threat is far more severe than that. Discord--"

"Discord is still locked in his relativistic prison, you know that! There is no way he can do this." Celestia snorted in disgust. "I can't believe you would stoop so low, trying to distract me when it is vital we act immediately. If you are going to persist with this ridiculous fantasy, I'll--"

"You'll what?" Luna said challengingly, but she had a sinking feeling exactly what her sister had in mind. Imprisonment again; for how long this time? What would I have done if I had won all those years ago? The sick dreams of the Nightmare still haunted her sleeping hours on occasion; there was nopony to protect her from those. She knew full well what she'd have done. Celestia would have been blasted to atoms and the sun would be extinguished like a candle flame and converted into a gateway for Discord's escape.

"It will be for your own good, Luna, and the good of Equestria; we all have to make sacrifices. When this is all over you'll see reason, I know you will."

"But I have proof -- Director Neighmann has noticed a number of anomalies that can only be explained by Discord's escape." Fight this sister, for the sake of us all, fight this!

"The same Neighmann who assaulted and half killed his assistant? No, sister, he is as infected as the rest of our unfortunate ponies and cannot be trusted."

She is so certain she is right, Luna thought, if only I could hold her down like Equilibrium... That idea was a fantasy; they were very evenly matched and any fight would destroy most of Canterlot city if she didn't take steps to draw Celestia out. So now I'm planning violence against my only remaining family. "Trust me, then. I have seen the data, I have seen inside Equlibrium's mind, cleaned away the taint of Discord's touch."

"Then the data is wrong and you are mistaken. I trust my own senses, and I know that Discord is still imprisoned. We put him away, and we would know when he escaped. This has been the case every time, has it not?"

Yes, but Discord is not stupid! Luna wanted to scream, but Celestia had that fixed look on her face that Luna recognised of old. "I will not help you with your war. The zebra and gryphons will fight -- you've seen the Panopticon's reports, you know what they've been doing after we did our little changeling stomping exercise. You may well survive, but our ponies will pay a terrible price."

Celestia's face grew stern. "Luna, I have had enough of this rebellious behaviour. In times of war it is treason to go against the will of the Crown."

"Just listen to yourself! I am also the Crown; the whole point of our rule was that we balanced each other." Luna was shouting now, ears back and wings flexing in agitation. "I can not commit treason against myself!"

"It is clear that I made a mistake in ever trusting you, Luna," Celestia said coldly. "Your emotions always did get the better of you. You never did learn from your mistakes, and now you are making the same ones all over again. It's exactly this that forced me to banish you last time -- I'll do it again to save our ponies from your madness."

"My--" Luna stood there, momentarily speechless by the enormity of what her sister had just said. "You do remember what caused...?" Celestia's expression became fixed. She's not listening at all. "You are the one who's going mad; the same plague that is running wild has got to you, and you have comprehensively failed to recognise it within yourself."

"So that's it, is it? I was going to return you to the detention block, but I can see that will not be sufficient. Don't worry, it won't be like last time, I'll bring you back when it's all over."

With a string of pops like distant fireworks, six hoof-sized spheres -- all six like miniature suns -- appeared from whatever place Celestia had hidden them and began to orbit lazily about the Day Princess' head.

She's bonded to all of them-- Luna backpedaled frantically, but the magic hit her like the sudden crack of a whip.

===

Luna saw the Elements appear and a terrible bolt of déjà vu nearly paralysed her. Not again, I'm not going to be sent away again! That first time was etched in her memories like a midnight landscape illuminated by a lightning flash. Every detail, from the crackle and boom of distant magic as their forces clashed, to the smell of stone dust in the gutted remains of their once-proud castle on the plains. The clearest were the emotions; her own hate and fear, contrasting with the expression of despair and resolve on Celestia's face.

For a moment there was the false hope that the Elements would not respond to her sister, that they would somehow be repelled by a soul ruled by hate and anger. This was the comforting lie they had spread to the world, and the reason that the Elements were kept in the most secure vault pony science and magic could manufacture. It had never been the case: the Elements were magical tools made long ago by something so powerful as to be incomprehensible, and they would respond to whoever knew the trick to operating them.

That the first blow didn't strip away her shields and bundle her up in a rainbow cocoon of magic was a source of distant shock to Luna. Her layered defences did what they were designed to do, turning from vague, cobwebby things to a solid shield in less time than it took light to travel the distance between the two ponies. Claws of pure force and tendrils of paralysing electricity closed on that shell and shattered, the energy emerging as heat and motion.

She didn't use them... she must be trying to be gentle. The thought was fleeting and Luna didn't spend the time required to analyse it. She could have deflected the power off in opposing directions, remaining near Celestia for her own counter strike, but she chose to use it instead. The wall behind her, almost a meter of dressed basalt taken from the deep tunnels, blew outwards like it was made of foam. Luna flew backwards with it, skilfully surfing the turbulence behind the shockwave and opening the distance. Lightning stroked the walls and floor, and every light in the Palace went out as an electromagnetic pulse fused wiring and burned-out semiconductor junctions.

Using her own magic, Luna smashed through service corridors and deserted store rooms, heading for the surface and hoping that nopony was standing anywhere along her route. The now dark labyrinth of the Palace filled with high-velocity stone fragments as she accelerated, carving out a worm-tunnel through the ancient building. The dust was suddenly illuminated by a hot, white light shining up from behind, her shadow forming a sharp-edged pattern through the haze.

Breaking through the next wall, Luna emerged into one of the large ballrooms that were spread throughout the lower floors of the Palace; a light and airy room, delicately furnished in the amber and gold of a sunset around the walls, complemented by a dark roof covered with patterns of glass and crystal designed to catch the light and mimic a star-speckled sky. It had been commissioned by Celestia in the years leading up to her return from exile, and had been one of her most cherished gifts -- one of those things that showed to the world how much faith her sister had in her ability to change and overcome her inner demons.

Luna darted sideways, familiar with her sister's way of fighting. A globe of light, as bright as the sun, burst out of the tunnel behind her. Luna's view of the world wavered and distorted as her shields diverted the excess electromagnetic energy away from her body, but the rest of the room wasn't so fortunate.

Paint blistered and exposed wood charred and burst into flame, turning the far end of the room into an instant conflagration. The compact sphere of plasma, confined under enormous pressures by the ferocious magnetic fields generated by Celestia's magic, curved around and headed straight for her. Luna reached out and twisted the magic underlying the impossible physics that was holding the weapon together.

Celestia fought her, adapting the arcane patterns to resist the disruption, but Luna could tell she wasn't really trying too hard. One minor alteration slipped past her sister's defences, creating an imbalance in the fields holding the plasma confined, something that rapidly went out of control and caused the whole thing to unravel.

The plasma bolt exploded with a flash and a crack that made Luna's ears ring even through her layered defences. The shockwave blew out the ornate doors and stripped the roof of its glass ornamentation, gutting the room and removing anything recognizable. She really is going easy on me, Luna thought, there's still something of my sister fighting behind Discord's influence. She focused her own power and cut a large hole in the roof. More effort and a flick of space-time collapsed her tunnel into a twisted pile of wreckage. It stood no chance of actually stopping her sister, but it might slow her down enough that she could break contact.

There was a wrenching twist in the middle of the room, a fast-blooming distortion that stretched the quantum foam and sucked it away along a direction not describable in terms of up-down or left-right. Instinctively, Luna reached out and smoothed away the half-formed wormhole, breaking the teleport terminus before it could stabilise. With all the magic being employed, Celestia really needed to get close enough to actually see her to use the Elements, something Luna intended to make as difficult as possible.

Without hesitation, Luna launched herself for the neat hole, accelerating far faster than any pegasus could manage. More magic, and objects in front of her muzzle were grabbed and shunted around her body at ever-increasing speeds. Within a second she'd cleared the outer wall of the Palace, her sonic boom rattling windows inside the pink shell of the force dome. The spellcraft defence systems sunk deep into the mountain responded to her telepathic call, opening a brief hole in the field, just long enough for her to pass through.

The Palace field was designed to be a barrier to arcane, as well as physical, forces, but Celestia could teleport through it just as easily as Luna could. Behind her there was a flash of light and Celestia materialised, her body radiant and bright enough to cast hard shadows among the towers and battlements. One swift glance was all Luna took the time for, then poured all her strength into speed and fleeing Canterlot like a bullet from a gun.

How long before she-- Complex magic started to form, the space-time shaping patterns of teleportation, but instead of trying to stop the spell, Luna created her own, matching Celestia step for step. Teleportation wasn't very energy intensive compared to some of the things she could do, but it did take skill. This would take a lot of skill and more than a little luck... The wormhole terminus started to form and Celestia disapp--

~~~discontinuity~~~

--Luna reappeared outside the doors of the Chaos Institute, immediately falling to the ground and folding her wings. It was a matter of moments to collapse her active defences, and before she had gone a dozen paces her mane had faded and lost its starry depths. Nervously looking over her shoulder, she trotted into the institute to be greeted by a suspicious-looking Chirr.

"What happened to you, Princess?" he asked carefully, placing himself between Luna and the still seated pair of Neighmann and Equilibrium.

"A little teleport tag with my sister. I have suppressed my connection to the moon so she will not have an easy time locating me. I tried to reason with her; it did not go well."

Chirr's ears flattened and he stepped out of Luna's way. "What does this mean? Is there to be war between you again, along with all the rest of this?"

"Only if she catches me." Luna sagged slightly, her head lowered. "Discord's plans run deep this time; had he manipulated both of us there would have been war for sure, and of a like you've never dreamed. Imagine two Nightmares, one dark and one light, evenly matched and out for each other's blood. We would still be fighting over the ruins of this world a century hence."

"All of the chiropt will be with you, for what it's worth."

Luna's head came up and she stared fiercely at her Night Guard. "Yes, and I thank you for it." The first thing I did was give them their freedom, release them from the geas that bound them to the Nightmare, and they will still follow me to the end. "You and your kind are the hope of Equestria, and I know your fellows are doing their best to dampen the worst excesses of this madness." She stepped forward and bent her head to nuzzle his cheek. "I will do everything in my power to do your loyalty justice."

Stepping back, Luna mock scowled at Chirr. "Enough of these distractions! Come, there is work to be done and not much time. You too, Neighmann and Equilibrium." Motioning the chiropt to open the door, she swept down the ramp to the centre of the Monster Room and stared at the six metal plates embedded in the floor around the statue of Discord. Now, how much of this do I need to take? "Director Neighmann, you are the most familiar with the construction of this room. We are going on a little trip and I need to do some packing...

===

Twister lay slouched in the command stall, gazing past the great cloud vistas before the Friendship Express without really looking at them. Orders are orders, he reminded himself, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. At least the rest of the crew can blow off a little steam and complain. The reports of what might be in that Razorclaw prison made him sick to his stomach, but there was the rest of Equestria to worry about. The last conversation he'd had with the FOAL team commander had been especially taxing; they had the best local knowledge of any of his teams as well as the will to go in. Trailblazer had not been happy when he'd finally been turned down, although he'd hid it well.

The intel coming back from the Panopticon didn't make good reading. There was no end to the strange mental plague that had arrived with the Canterlot Dreaming; soon it seemed that the whole country would be affected. Which raises another problem, he thought. It's obvious that some in the chain of command have changed -- can I really trust anypony on the mainland? Have to do what's right, protect Equestria from anyone wanting to take advantage of the situation. The chain of logic was inescapable -- there could be no rotation of personnel, no face-to-face contact at all, until there was a fix for the problem.

Still lost in his thoughts, Twister started when a loud beeping cut through the air of the command deck. Windows ringed with flashing arcane warning signals bloomed over his console and he gaped at them for a second before his mind caught up. "Defence, report!"

"Thaumic spike, sir, levels still rising. Centred on hangar one, just forward of frame fifty. The cameras are giving me nothing but static. Active defences are running but whatever it is has already bypassed most of them."

A quick glance at the status screen showed that the lieutenant was quite correct; nothing but a fuzzy, static-ridden violet glow filled the camera view. The defence systems were fighting the magic, but whoever was running the spell was reacting faster than the banks of carefully tuned crystals were able to. A shiver ran down Twister's spine as he read the thaumic pattern analysis system's conclusion. They're trying to set a teleport terminus, anything could be sent through-- "Security teams, prepare to repel boarders in hangar one! Set battle stations." I only hope it's an assault squad, and not just a bomb...

There was a flash of light on the screen and a shudder ran through the aircarrier. Twister felt his insides clench, waiting for the groan of metal twisting and breaking as the Express was gutted by whatever weapon had managed to penetrate her defences. Nothing happened, and he looked back at the camera view in time to see it clear and reveal an unmistakable silhouette.

Relief washed through him, followed immediately by annoyance. "Captain Flint, you have the bridge. I need to attend to our royal visitor."

===

Luna stood in the cavernous space of the Friendship Express' number one hangar and fought for breath. The aircarrier's arcane defence systems had proven to be quite a challenge to penetrate; teleportation by its very nature was a delicate process and required a level of precision above and beyond most other magics. Couple that with the need to compensate for the significant velocity difference between Canterlot and her mid-ocean target, and Luna had been at the limit of her skill for this particular task. It was only their power circle that made it possible at all; I must mention this potential security flaw to the designers.

All around were hard-eyed military ponies, their stern looks slowly changing to wonder and confusion as they realised who she was. Luna lifted her head and raised her wings. "Permission to come aboard?" she asked, in a voice that rang out over the assembled ponies.

A mauve pegasus with admiral flashes on his collar flitted over the heads of the closest security team and landed with a slightly out of breath flutter in front of her. "Permission granted, your Highness. I am Admiral Twister, commanding the Friendship Express. What brings you to this corner of the world, if I may be so bold as to enquire?" His eyes roved over the little group she had brought with her, lingering on the six large and concrete-covered metal boxes in an untidy pile to one side.

"Admiral Twister, my apologies for this unannounced visit. Under the Defence of the Realm Act of 997 I need you to turn your command around and head at full speed for Razorclaw. I have a vital mission for you."

Twister looked up at her with a blank expression. "I see. One moment please." He turned his head and nodded at the security team leader. "You are dismissed. Thank you for your speedy response." There was the flutter of wings and the clatter of hooves and within seconds they were all alone in the centre of the hangar deck. "Princess, my orders come directly from the Panopticon and Princess Celestia, who has also invoked the Act. Could you please explain the change in priority?" Seeing her thunderous expression, he continued hastily. "Not that you don't have the right, of course, but a confused chain of command is a deadly thing."

It is not enough that I order this pony; he is already suspicious. Luna stayed silent, then nodded. "I understand your confusion. Tell me, Admiral, have your last orders made much sense to you? What about the news coming out of the Palace, or the actions of my sister?"

"It is hardly my place to question orders from the Palace, or the actions of Princess Celestia."

"Indulge me, please." She must know where I am by now, but what will she do? Luna had made her initial escape by jumping at the exact moment Celestia had teleported; while the transit was effectively instantaneous, distortions at the exit provided a small window during which the teleportee was essentially blind. Not so this last jump -- it had taken so long to get through the aircarrier's defences that she'd been half afraid that Celestia would arrive before her. Luna's wings started to twitch with impatience at the pegasus' thoughtful look.

"It seems unlikely that a plot by the Zebra Alliance at this scale would go unnoticed, and I know that they are not exactly allies with Hookbeak or Goldenwing, given the number of trade disputes recently. If it is a conspiracy then the Panopticon has been very lax. You sister seems... very set on her conclusions, although no evidence has been forthcoming."

"My sister has the same disorder that many in Equestria are suffering from. She cannot be trusted to make the right decisions."

"Princess, I will be blunt. You have a certain... historical precedent for rebellion. Why should I take your word for this?"

"If I was in the throes of the Nightmare, that comment would have earned your destruction. If I could not have your loyalty I would rip apart this machine and then drown the earth ponies and unicorns in the ocean." Luna's voice remained calm, but her insides were churning. "Then I would have run the pegasi through conversion forges to swell the ranks of my chiropt. You I would have saved for last, so you could watch." The things she had done all those years ago were still stark and fresh; it would be so easy to fall back into threats and viewing other ponies as mere insects to use and abuse as she wished. I must be calm... how to convince this pony that I am sane?

Twister stared up at her, unmoved by the threat, then nodded. "I daresay all that is correct, Princess. However, I will need a little more than that."

He tests me. "Your honesty and suspicion is well placed, Admiral. My sister is convinced that the Zebra Alliance is behind all of this, that there will be a general invasion. As a member of the Admiralty Board, you are privy to the high-level intelligence briefings -- has there been any sign of a military build-up? It would be impossible to hide such a thing from us. If you want confirmation from another source, contact Director Krett at the Panopticon; she is also working on this problem."

"I'll do just that, Princess. I also see you have Doctor Neighmann with you... I take it our old friend is involved?"

"The signs are all there; the Lord of Chaos is not predictable so it should be of no real surprise that his tactics have changed. I also have a witness--" Luna extended a wing in Equilibrium's direction. The mare was still glued to Neighmann's side, casting wide-eyed glances around the Express' hangar deck. "--who also knows something of the internal layout of the target."

"That's the pony the gryphons used to infect the Dreaming, and you brought her onto my ship--"

"She is perfectly safe, although traumatised by the experience; I stripped away Discord's influence myself."

Twister sighed, his anger subsiding as fast as it had arrived. "Very well. In that case I will need to talk to both of them; we already had plans to assault the prison before our orders were changed. I will have them updated after I have spoken to Director Krett. Who is the chiropt?"

The tension inside Luna abruptly released, and she sagged slightly in relief. "Thank you, Admiral. This is Sergeant Chirr; I place him at your disposal." Chirr stamped one hind hoof in salute as Luna gestured at him. "His clade are immune to the effects of the mental plague, something that your teams on the ground may find useful. Admiral, my time is limited and there is a risk Celestia may track me here. While you are debriefing Neighmann and Equilibrium I need to speak to your engineer and as many combat unicorns as you are planning to put in the field."

Twister tapped at his collar and muttered something into its communicator. "It is done. I take it you have something to protect us from the plague?"

"I do, but the engineer first; I have a present that needs to be integrated into the Express' systems."

Twister eyed the mixture of metal and rubble that lay to one side. Thick cable bundles the characteristic golden hue of high temperature superconductor were tangled over the pile, hastily cut or ripped from whatever housing they'd been attached to. "Oh, I'm sure Manny Fold will be delighted."

Comments

[ascendant]

So those M6 sarcophagi went from extremely suspicious to featuring a flashing neon sign. Wha'd'y'all think it'll be? Zombie ponies? HALO-style uploaded cloned brain AI? Actual brains in jars?

[Luna-tic Scientist]

9969021
Well that all depends -- what would a near immortal, ten kiloyear-old, occasionally genocidal pair of small 'g' goddesses do if they are desperate enough?

[Blaster M]

9969021

uh..............

...sure you're commenting on the right fic?

[ascendant]

9969137
I dunno man, Spike is conspicuously absent so the edge says brains in jars but the scifi says AI.

[Q07]

I'm glad that Celestia is still at least somewhat inside trying to be a good Pony. I shudder to think what she could have done with all the elements.

[Cedric Bale]

9969137
I want them to have something to do with the Mane 6, if only so that Twilight can have some kind of a role in this story, even if only posthumously (I'm still sad she's come and gone before the story even started). But at the same time, if that's the case, it's probably some ethically horrifying for-the-greater-good thing, ala—

How many more ponies are you going to hurt to achieve your goals? Luna smiled gently at the thought. What a foalish idea; as many as it takes.

[EverfreeSparkle]

Chirr clicked his hooves in salute and Luna nodded in return, then formed the correct patterns in her mind and pushed--

~~~discontinuity~~~

Ohhh, that brings me back. With how often they teleported in the other stories this is pretty nostalgic.

[Silver Flare]

I should have said this earlier, but

Topsy Krett

?

Oh you...