Broken Mirror, Part One

Blueblood's Manor,
Archer

"Wow..." After hearing Dad's story, it just made sense why Steeljack marched off when I asked him about Las Pegasus.

"Now you see why I wouldn't talk." Steeljack walked back outside and grabbed an open chair next to my father.

"How much did you hear?" Asked Dad.

"Enough." Steeljack looked at me with a rather soft gaze. "I still have nightmares, if you could call them that. That first pony I found right off the elevator trying to rip my throat out... Having to bash his head in to save my own skin. The dozens of others that came after me..." I nodded, feeling sorry for the stallion. "Now why didn't you tell her what I said during the interview?"

My father shrugged. "That part isn't my story to tell."

"Fair enough."

"Well? Are all of you done yet?" Dusk was standing in the door looking rather bemused. "Lasky and Palmer just got here if anyone's interested."

"Sarah's here?" I got out of my seat and ran inside. The Captain was walking around the foyer examining some of Blueblood's artwork...

"Looking for someone?"

I whipped around and looked up at the imposing woman standing over me. "Maybe..." Who am I kidding? "It's good to see you again."

Sarah just tussled my hair and smiled. "Did you keep all of the letters?"

"They're in a shoebox in my armory." Said Dad as he walked up. "So I hear that someone got a promotion..."

"Promotion?"

Sarah nodded. "Made Captain of the Infinity. Tom recommended me after he took Lord Hood's place on the Security Council."

I nodded in approval. "So who got your job?"

Sarah just shrugged. "I let DeMarco and Thorne deal with the Spartan branch these days."

As we walked off into the dining room, I noticed Dusk off to the side talking to someone I didn't recognize. He was a disheveled looking green unicorn, definitely out of place for a party like this. I walked in and hid behind the doorframe, using the years of lessons that Dad had given me in gathering information.

"-the plan?" I heard Dusk ask.

"I don't know..." I heard the unicorn mutter. "The Division already has the wire factory locked down, access to our armory... Dusk, they disarmed the Havoc." Wait, did he say Havoc?

"Shit... That was our last trump card Specter."

"I know."

"...Let me get this done. Gather up the Shadows and meet at my villa. You remember the hangar access code?"

"Still Spirit of Fire?"

"You know it. I'll tell Dart it's time to come out of retirement." As Dusk's footsteps came closer to the door I managed to slide off to the side near my father.

"What was that about?" He whispered.

"Something about a wire factory that's been captured and coming out of retirement."

"Wait, the factory?" Dad asked. "What did he say?"

"I heard the pony he was talking to say that The Division already had it under their control..." I stopped for a moment and thought back to our earlier discussions. "But Dusk made it sound like The Division was on his side when we were talking earlier..."

Dad pursed his lips in thought. "That's what we all thought..." He back his sleeve and tapped a few keys into his Pipbuck. "He knows something else. Did he mention that pony's name at all?"

"Specter. That's the name I heard."

"Specter?" Dad went back to his pipbuck and typed some more keys in. "Dusk said he died in the aftermath of the battle in the Canterlot Ruins."

"So he's hiding something?"

Dad nodded. "I've already got one of my contacts looking into it. He say anything else?"

"He wanted some ponies to meet him at his villa. Said the password to the hangar was Spirit of Fire... But where did he put a hangar?"

"I don't know... Let's just get through this dinner and we'll worry about it later."

I didn't say a word as we both sat down next to Mom. “So what's going on?” She whispered.

“No clue.” Dad muttered. “Sky and Felix are en route to Dusk's villa to investigate.”

“Should we be worried?”

“Honestly? I don't know...”

“Looks like everyone's here!” Yelled Dusk from the head of the table. “I know it looks like I just took over Blueblood's dining room for dinner... Which I did, but as usual I have my reasons.”

“Did Dart finally convince you to get out of that office and socialize for a change?” I heard Dad ask.

Dusk just shrugged. “I get out enough as it is, but what do I tend to excel at?” He just looked around the room. “Anyone?”

“Hair brained plans?”

“Right on the money gramps.” He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a black box, but held it close to his side. “Dart, how long have we been dating again?”

“Ten years, give or take a few months?” She asked. “Why?”

“I’ll keep it simple.” He flipped open the box with his thumb and gave it to Dart. “I’ve waited too long to give you this.”

“Is that what I think it is?”

Dusk nodded and knelt down next to his marefriend. “Will you marry me?”

Dart just smiled and cupped Dusk’s chin with lidded eyes. “Did you even have to ask?” She leaned in for a kiss and held the motion before a sarcastic clapping came from the other side of the room and drew all of our attention. Dusk and Dart both got up when they saw the stallion standing at the opposite door.

“I guess congratulations are in order?” He was an old stallion, eyepatch over his right eye, roughly shaven with a white coat.

“Kovac…” Growled Dusk. “What are you doing here?”

This ‘Kovac’ character chuckled. “Just wanted to stop by with an old mutual friend of ours.” He turned through the doorframe and threw a body through it. It was the stallion that I had seen Dusk talking to earlier. He groaned as he turned over and groaned. “Everyone here remember Specter?”

Dad looked over at Dusk and glared. “Definitely looks like he died to me.”

“Not now Cosmo.” Dusk reached behind his jacket and seemed to grab something. “You have some serious balls coming here.”

“You had some serious balls for running back to your little paradise.” The stallion retorted. “Let’s fix that, shall we?” He whipped out a pistol and cocked it back.

BANG!

Dusk flinched when the gun went off, but he was never hit. Dart fell to her knees clutching her gut. “Dart!” He knelt down next to her and pulled her hands away from the wound.

“5.56 caliber. Hollow point with caustic coating on the round.” Called Kovac. “Until next time Dusk.” With that, the stallion teleported away and left us all stunned.

Steeljack was the first to move, rushing over to Dusk’s side and handing him a stimpack. “He said the round had a caustic coating on it?”

Dusk grabbed the stimpak and jabbed it into the flesh near Dart’s wound. “He did.”

“Then that won’t last.”

“I know!” Snipped Dusk.

“Any ideas then?” Groaned Dart. “Dealing with bullet wounds isn’t my specialty.”

Dusk was silent until he grabbed a knife off the table. “Just hold still.” He used the knife to open the wound back up and slid his pinky. Dart squirmed as Dusk felt around the wound. “Shit… Too many fragments for me to pull out.”

Steeljack jabbed Dart with another stimpack to reseal the wound. Through the damaged dress her flesh shifted and blistered as it stitched back together. Its color didn’t return though, growing slightly discolored from the acid coated fragments of metal lodged in the cavity beneath the surface. “She needs a doctor. Now.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

Twenty Minutes Later

Dusk stood over the corpsmen as they worked, having turned Blueblood’s dining room table into a surgical station. Dart had already passed out from the pain, although the since the medics had arrived fifteen minutes ago they had the fragments removed and were cleaning the acid from the wound before finishing their work. “Will she be OK?” I asked.

Dusk nodded. “She will be.” He turned his attention to Specter, who was slumped against the wall. “Did you get the word out?” He nodded.

“Yah… The Guardian should be spun up and ready by the time we get to the hangar.”

Dad finally must have had enough and slammed Dusk into the wall, picking him up by the collar. “What is Havoc? And how does The Division factor in?” He pushed Dusk farther up the wall. “Well?”

“The Havoc is a mining-rated nuclear device that Lord Hood supplied after Dart and I returned. It was my failsafe should Kovac and his forces find the mirror we destroyed and get it in working order again. I had it buried deep enough under Manehattan Wire so that it would vaporize the portal in the basement while bringing the building down on top of anything that’s left.”

“So your trump card was a nuke?”

Dusk only nodded as Dad let him slide down the wall. “The Division was never anyone else’s problem. Dart and I gave Kovac too much information because I thought we could be trusted… And he turned around to use it against us. All of you thought West Wind was bad? De Witt? Maybe even Phalanx?” Dusk rose to his feet and brushed off his jacket. “They’re nothing compared to Kovac. He’s an absolute monster.”

Specter managed to get to his feet and grabbed Dusk’s shoulder. “We’re leaving.” In a flash, the two teleported away. “Archer?”

“Yes Dad?”

“I’ll give you three guesses to where they went.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

Just Outside of Dusk’s Villa
One Hour Later

Dad had shut the headlights off and threw the jeep in neutral as we coasted into Dusk’s driveway. There were two figures standing at the door. One was holding a light, while the other was hacking away at the panel next to the front door. One of them… Well, he definitely wasn’t a pony. “Any luck Felix?”

Felix… He’s an odd one. A fox with a knack for hacking, if there ever was one. Dad recruited him in the aftermath of the attack on Vanhoover years ago, and he’s become the go-to stallion for breaking and entering. “I’d like to say so…” He muttered in that Trottingham accent of his. “But that would make me sound optimistic. He secures the joint with a biometric lock, and I can’t break it.”

Sky finally looked over at my father. “I do keep my skeleton key on me.”

Dad seemed to stop for a moment before he shrugged. “What else do we have to lose?”

Sky pulled a grey package out of her ammo pouch and fixed it to the door before ushering us away from the door. “At this point? Nothing.” She hit a button on her own pipbuck and the front of the house erupted in a cloud of fire and smoke. “But when are we going to start carrying that liability insurance that I’ve been hounding you about?”

“Two days from never.” Dad led us into the house, stepping over the rubble that was left of the front wall of the house. “Although I get the sinking feeling I’ll be on the hook for the damage anyway.”

I brushed past Dad and headed downstairs towards the armory. Dusk had left the door ajar, so I went right in. The first thing I noticed was that his new set of armor was gone. “Looks like he’s been and gone…”

Dad walked in behind me with a puzzled look on his face. “What are you talking about?”

“Dusk’s armor. He already came and got it.” I pointed at the empty stand.

“Archer… That’s a cabinet.” I couldn’t believe what I head so I walked up and ran my hands over the stand. Dad’s eyes went wide. “All the times I’ve been down here and I never noticed…” A light ray of magic erupted from his horn and one of the cabinets dissolved, replaced with an elevator door. “He hid his backup in plain sight…”

I walked up to the elevator. The keypad was blinking a request for the password, so I typed in what I head Dusk say earlier, and the door slid open. “I guess we’re going down?”

We filed into the elevator and descended into the dark shaft below. After a few moments, light began illuminating the elevator from the rear of the car. “Holy shit…” I heard Felix mutter. Guess we figured out where Dusk was keeping this hangar of his.

“That’s a Sahara down there… And I’m counting what, four sloops?” Noted Sky.

“Propeller-driven aircraft too.” Dad pointed to what looked like a runway with at least a dozen small aircraft parked alongside. “Why does Dusk need all of this stuff anyway?”

“Didn’t he say something about Kovac being his problem?” I asked.

Dad mulled over my words before the realization hit him. “He knew Kovac would come for him and Dart.”

“And this stallion must be bad enough to warrant a private army.” Sky pointed out the small mob of armored soldiers approaching the foot of the elevator to meet us. “I doubt they’re here to give us the tour.”

The elevator shuddered as we reached the bottom. The door slid open the soldiers aimed their weapons at all of us. “Where’s Dusk?” I heard my father growl.

The stallion himself pushed through the crowd. He already had his armor on with the helmet under his arm. Instead of the old blue that the original set had, this set was bright white with red trim. “Well… Welcome to the Grotto.”

Dad walked up to Dusk and stared up into his eyes. “Since when do you need a private army?

Dusk’s expression seemed to soften at the question. “Kovac came here because he wants access to the Nexus…” He waved us to follow and marched off into the depths of the hangar. “But enough of that for the moment.” He motioned towards the sloops parked in their maintenance bays. “The Prowlers came from the UNSC about eight years ago to serve as assault transports. While their armament isn’t worth jack for ship-to-ship combat, the pulse guns make excellent air-to-ground support weapons.” He then waved at the Sahara. “That right there is Guardian II, again courtesy of the UNSC. Far more heavily armed with internally stored turrets set up with belt-fed hydra rocket launchers. Each turret carries two hundred rounds that are reloadable from inside the ship.”

“Anything else we should know about? Those planes perhaps?”

Dusk stopped by the edge of the runway and jarred his thumb. “Old human blueprint. Piston-engine, propeller driven fighter from about five hundred years ago. They called it the Kingcobra. It was simple enough for me to have built in moderate quantities with the material and technology available. They’re my ground support strike fighters. Bofor cannon mounted in the middle of the prop carrying forty rounds of high-explosive ammo, underwing mounts for three 500lb glide bombs and launchers for six 127mm rockets.”

“You still haven’t given me a reason why you need all of this equipment.”

“Do I need to?” Asked Dusk as he walked into an office just off the runway. “I could always just show you.” He pulled a white orb out of the desk and held it out.

“A memory orb?” Dad asked.

“More specifically one with my memories of the leadup to the battle at the Canterlot Ruins and the aftermath. Everything I know about Kovac and the Division… My training, my perspective.”

“Why does it even exist?” Felix finally made himself know.

Dusk leaned up against the wall and rolled it over in his hands. “If I was ever killed, someone else would need to pick up from where I left off, so to speak. This was my way to ensure that my knowledge was preserved so it could be passed down.”

“And you want me to just use it?”

“If you’d like.”

I stepped between Dusk and my father and snatched the memory orb. “I’ll do it.”

Dusk shook his head. “No, I can’t let you.”

“Why not?”

Dusk sighed in frustration. “Because that memory orb does more than just show you what I know… It changes you, imprints my skills and training onto the user so they can act as my replacement, and I’m not about to let a child do that to herself.”

As I turned the orb over in my hand, I noticed a small indent in the side of it big enough for my thumb. “Then you’ll need to do more than talk.” I jammed my thumb into the indent and felt static run up my arm. My legs went limp as I fell to the ground. The last thing I heard as my vision began to swim black was Dusk yelling my name in vain while he tried to catch me.