Welcome to a New Kind of Tension
When the alarms go off in the middle of the night, it's rarely good news. I certainly knew this one well, given my historical propensity to be jolted awake by noise (thunderstorms were horrible in that regard). So for an alarm to suddenly jolt me awake was pretty bad for my mind, to be honest.
As I woke up, I glanced at the clock in confusion and saw the time. It was only three in the morning! Brilliant. This just had to happen during Tirek's hour, didn't it?
In case you're not aware, pegasi have this curious supersticion that the time of 3 AM to 3:59 AM are spooky, and are somehow owned by Tirek. Curiously, few of them seem to have any awareness of who Tirek was, suggesting that the historical figure has somewhat faded away into legend and become a myth of sorts. I sometimes wonder if the other races are still out there, simply waiting to be discovered by us once again.
Anyway, the alarm continued to sound loudly. There was even a voice. "INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. ALL ASSETS MOVE TO CAPTURE AND DETAIN INTRUDER. INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. ALL ASSETS MOVE TO CAPTURE AND DETAIN INTRUDER."
This was pretty bad. I pushed open my doors after rolling out of bed, and then found Pipp stumbling out of bed, looking pretty exhausted. "Whatsh's going on?" she asked, yawning as she did so.
I glanced back. "Something about an intruder. We should probably go and look."
"Why did they have to intrude at three in the morning?" Pipp grumbled, but we got on our way regardless. The place was already chock full of soldiers standing on duty and heading about. I could hear some shouting from nearby, but it was hard to make out. My brain hadn't completely switched on yet, and as a result not everything was being processed correctly. We made our way around a bend, noticing most of the commotion was coming from the cable room.
Well, I did. Pipp seemed confused. "Who would steal something in the cable room?"
"Perhaps the intruder is there?" I suggested, as we stepped into the room. And sure enough, our intruder was there, suspended from wires.
Colonel Opwinden seemed to be annoyed with them. "You, miss, are in a lot of trouble tonight," he said. "Haul her in."
As whomever they were was hauled in, I spotted mom retreiving the crown from a bag on the thief's back. "Mine," she said. "We shall deal with you in the morning. In the meantime, place her in the cells. Colonel Opwinden, see to it that this is done."
As the Colonel led the prisoner away and the guards returned to their posts, we both made our way back to our rooms as per mom's orders. As was usually the case, my mind was buzzing with questions. How had we been broken into? What was the identity of the thief? And what did they want with the crown? It was all quite perplexing.
The next morning, I attended the court, as mom had instructed me to. I was fully expecting it to be boring, but the interrogation of the prisoner would allow me to put some of my fears to rest. The musicians were already playing as we 'flew' in. Unlike what I'd seen previously, the court was not in its full regalia (thank Faust. That stuff is seriously hot and uncomfortable).
The first order of business was, of course, the prisoner, and mom wasted absolutely no time in getting to the main portion of the discussion. "Guards, we have the prisoner to attend to. Remove her goggles so we can get a better look at her."
I wasn't entirely sure how she'd deduced she was female from looking at her, but presumably she had some knowledge I lacked. I hadn't heard the prisoner speak, after all.
Sure enough, the guard removed her helmet, and the entire court gasped in surprise- including myself, albeit not for reasons you may expect. The prisoner was Misty! What was she doing here so far ahead of schedule?
"What is wrong with her face?" asked a noble. "She has something on her forehead!"
She's a unicorn, you dolt, I thought to myself as the interrogation went on. It was as if many of them had never seen a unicorn in the flesh before. I mean, I technically hadn't, but let's not split hairs here.
"A unicorn? Here? In the Palace?" mom asked, seemingly legitimately concerned about where this was leading. "How did she get in? How did she bypass security?"
"My team are still trying to establish how she bypassed security, Your Majesty. Please accept my apology for this most severe of slip-ups."
Mom attempted to ask Misty questions, but the guards weren't exactly helping. This was degrading into a farce pretty quickly. I was soon brought back to attention by another command.
"Zephyrina, ensure that the equipment in the cells is in order. Pipp, I want you to monitor communications. No news of this must get out, understand?"
I pretty quickly figured out that this was our cue to leave, and with a heavy heart I made my way to the cells. Truth be told, I'd love to talk to Misty myself, but probably not in the way they were imagining. I suspect it was the bright lights and dark room type of interrogation.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered the interrogation room and adjoining prison cells were absolutely luxurious. It looked more like a spa than a prison. I checked through all the equipment, which consisted of kit like movie players, a vibrating chair, and even some fruit. The window could be bigger, but that was out of my control. Having completed my investigation and ensuring all was in order, I took this as a chance to sneak out. I mean, if they were busy with Misty, I could check out the outer areas of the city and enjoy what sites it had to offer.
Time to see what pegasus biology can do, Enough theoreticals, practical testing. I hopped onto a rock, and leaped forward. I locked my wings into position, and quickly gained speed on the dive. The wind roared past my face and brushed through my fur. The adrenaline was pumping through my body as the ground rocketed closer. As it approached, I pulled up as best I could and touched down. Well, the confirms one of my theories. We could glide, just not very efficiently. I trotted forward and leaped down a canyon before flipping in the air and touching down on the ground.
Suddenly, I heard two voices talking in the canyon, and I dived into an alcove to avoid being spotted. My eyes widened when I saw them passing. I thought I knew who they were, and hid in there to try and confirm who they were.
One of them called a stop and began to speak to the other. I tried to get closer to listen to their conversation, but that only seemed to make them more concerned. It didn't help a rockfall started, which would panic most ponies.
I wanted to escape the rockfall as well, so I leaped forward, bounding between rocks and walls to try and get as much speed as I could to avoid it. I have to admit it was pretty exciting to be dodging all of this rubble. If this was what we could do without magic, imagine what pegasi could achieve with magic returned? And if these two were who I thought they were, that moment was closer than ever before.
I noticed both of them pulling themselves over. Clearly they weren't from here if it took them that much exertion to pull themselves up that small cliff. I leaped up it, my hooves and mouth effortlessly gripping the rockface, then launched myself up into the air, flaring my wings out as I flew into position in front of the sun.
The two figures screamed as I touched down and leaped forward between several rocks, executing rolls and jumps as I touched down, and finally got a proper look at the two.
Sunny Starscout and Izzy Moonbow stood before me, and I was secretly happy. Things were going to plan after all.
"An actual pegasus," Sunny said. Seemingly she wasn't familiar with me yet. I can work with that.
"Sunny and Izzy?" I said. "Huh. They're right on schedule."
Just then, I heard two guards clanking around the corner, and made my way to the cliff edge. "I'll see you two in the throne room," I said to the pair. "Just don't tell them you saw me."
Izzy said something else as I plunged down into the cavern system. I made my way back around another route, knowing another way into the palace from around here. I had a very important mission. Firstly, I had to inform Pipp of what was going on.
And second, I had to put the second stage of my plan into motion. No matter how long it took.
Well, quite the bumper chapter, this! Three entire storylines intersecting as the story moves forward! For those wondering, Misty, Sunny, and Izzy are from these stories:
The heist response and interrogation are from the first, whilst the latter two have only just arrived. What sort of shenanigans will happen with all of these figures?
Tirek's Hour is a reference to the idea that 3AM is the Devil's hour, when spooky things happen. This is used as the basis for an entire subgenre of YouTube videos which depict strange things going on at that time (usually stuffed toys coming to life). I have been awake at 3AM several times, and I can confirm nothing spooky has happened... yet.
Next time: Time to talk!
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The next chapter has arrived.
REALLY good work on this latest chapter. Definitely liked the effort going into the characterizations and future chapter set-up. Absolutely loved the reflections on "Misty's" early arrival as well as the guards' reactions to that. The nods to how luxurious the interrogation room and cells are were also really good. That's in addition to the encounter with "Sunny" and "Izzy" (who, unknown to "Zipp" at the time, DO know her but are "sticking to the script" for the time being because THEY don't know that SHE knows).
VERY MUCH looking forward to more of this.
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Myself and Jimmy fully intend to keep this series going at the current high standard.
nice chapter mate
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Glad you enjoyed it.
That sure explains the alarm.
It's a horn!
I still can't get over this. Why have a prison of its technically is not one?
can do.*
Right on time.
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1. It does.
2. Where's the clip from?
3. As the narration indeed notes. Then again, I come from the country where a group of people once hanged a monkey as they thought it was a Frenchman...
4. Well, if your secrets are exposed, at least the prison cells you'll get put into will be nice and luxurious. Besides, there are prisons in the real world which feel more like hotels than, well, prisons; these are usually found in countries where the primary function of a prison is to rehabilitate an offender than punish them.
5. Corrected.
6. That they are. And this hopefully means that key scenes in The Misfit and Izzytastic make more sense now.
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The clip is from owl house. Season 3 episode 2 For the Future to be exact.
Also true about the secrets mention.
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Thanks for the explanation.
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Np
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Indeed.
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That's rather what we were going for.
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The genderswap element will become a larger part of the story later on. There is a plot reason for it; we just haven't got to that point in the story yet.
>Tirek Hour instead of witching hour
Eeeh. There needs to be some kind of understanding of him, even if it's an incorrect and simpifie done. I'll say they think he's a boogeyman or an evil spirit.
Cable Room? As in the wiring closet?
Wait, you SAW the intruder. "our intruder was there, suspended from wires." so did you not recognize them? OH. She was in disguise? I hadn't assumed a disguise. Must've been a pretty thick helmet to hide the horn, or maybe you just thought it was part of the helmet? A description would've gone a long way here.
Uh oh, what is Misty doing here so early?? Surely we can start to suspect that she's a human too? ...no? Tom? You don't suspect so?
Also dang, Tom either didn't remember or wanted to say the exact lines. So she's not trying to be exact... conveniently, she's still in the right place at the right time though!
I think I would've preferred understanding what Tom is planning or thinking more. The beginning of the story we had Tom's thoughts on the situation but as time has gone on, I feel like a little bit more information is being withheld as she goes about doing things. I would love to hear her thoughts a bit more instead of learning why she's doing things as she does them. Either way is valid but starting with such an open book and her becoming more reserved is a bit frustrating but maybe an intentional personality change?
Still! This is interesting. Sunny and Izzy seem to be right on script and Misty is clearly going off script and we have Zipp who seems to be loosely trying to keep things going. We got a hint earlier that she might be trying to do the movie but better. I wonder if that's why she's being less careful...
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Probably.
They are intended to be the same location, although the cables/wires were reworked a bit as they would not work properly if built as depicted in the film.
You'll have to read Rebirth of Magic: in the Mists to find out why Misty is here.
Zipp does have her suspicions about what is going on, but cannot be 100% certain as of yet.