Arcane Shadow (Re-Written)

As soon as everyone finished eating, Matt willed his shadows forth, and took all of the food trays before making them vanish into the ether for later. Then, he grabbed everyone with his darkness, some of whom protested at first before he told them, "It's harmless, and it'll let us crawl out of the window without opening it." Once the protests died down, the wooden figurines were put away, the map was returned to its drawers and everyone was enveloped with his shadows. As soon as everything had been sorted out, the mobile mass of darkness turned to the window and seeped into the very narrow cracks between pane and frame, and slunk out without opening or damaging the window.

Once the shadow was free of the confines of the office, it angled downwards towards the aerial fortress, and made a direct beeline for its dock. Those within the shadows could see more planes studding the surface of the airship's dock, all adorned with wingless gryphons sporting bandanas, cutlasses, and striped shirts. Some of the gryphons, who were not in planes of their own, called out to someone, who approached the dock as the shadow approached the vessel.

The shadow touched down first, and resolved into a very concerned group of individuals. Spitfire turned to Lance and whispered in his ear, "Are these guys part of your army?" Lance shook his head to answer as the leader of the wingless gryphons, a scarred, bearded male with a purple longcoat adorning his greyed feathers and brown lion's body, a hat with a skull and crossbones, and a cutlass at his hip approached them.

He had a lit cigar in his beak, a scar on his right eye, and bushy brows that did not quite mask the irritation in his good left eye. "What's all this, Brassy?" the gryphon asked, after pulling the cigar out of his mouth with a brown claw to avoid dropping it by accident.

"Well… we were training to assault Redpine right back, and now we're having to change plans somewhat," Lance answered with a frown. "What happened on your end, Tequila?"

Tequila nodded slowly, seeming to absorb the intel. "An' I take it ye know about Redpine's little volcano scuttlin' its army?" he asked.

Lance nodded again. "That's the worrying thing—they performed a ritual to become molten wraiths once it erupted," he answered.

Tequila's good eye narrowed somewhat. He took a hit of the cigar, smoke curling around his beak. "Now that… that's e'en worse news than what me crew reported," he said, his frown deepening. "What's yer plan?"

"This… is going to sound absurd: make a tsunami on one side of the volcano, and a supercell on the other, so that we can hang out the Redpine Flock to dry from both sides," Lance answered. "And if we don't attack, they'll seize up the opportunity." Tequila nodded, and took another hit of the cigar.

"And ye got the firepower fer this weather-based attack… a wise move, Brassy. But that's not all we came to report on," Tequila said, shaking his head. "Last night, me crew reported that shadows were dancin'—on the coast beyond Redpine's horizon. Not only that, but they also reported seein' a cloaked figure with glowin' green eyes on the wings o' their planes, who gave 'em a telepathic command that they were unsure about."

"What was the command?" Lance asked.

Tequila frowned. "We know yer affiliated with a crystal alicorn—return 'er to us at once," he answered. He looked at Natalie and added, "Whate'er the shadows want, they seem to know about ye. I wouldn't heed the command if I were ye, unless ye were goin' to knock some sense into some unlucky bastard." He frowned and let his gaze sweep out over the assembled group. "Now… did any o' ye see such a figure—cloaked, green eyes, leavin' messages askin' fer somepony to be returned or somethin'?"

Blueblood raised his hoof and nodded. "At the time, I didn't know what they were referring to, or what they were after—but after me and my Mythonian brethren came to Fantasia, I saw the figure in Whitefall that night," he answered.

Tequila slowly nodded. "'ave ye seen that figure since?" he asked.

Blueblood shook his head. "I was more… concerned with other matters since," he answered.

Tequila sighed, and took another hit of his cigar before appraising how much of it he had left to burn off. "In that case, we might need to consult the Umbrum. Let us lodge fer the night, an' prepare our assault on Redpine in the mornin'," he said, turning to Lance. Lance nodded, and turned to Matt.

"Shoot your mom and uncle a telepathic message, because now I want to get to the bottom of this cloaked figure issue," Lance ordered. Matt sighed, lit his horn, and did as he was told. In moments, his head lit up with twin auras, and Lance frowned. "What'd they say?"

"They'll meet up with us at the mess hall when dinner hits. Right now, they're trying to not lose their shit," Matt answered.

"Which means they know something we don't," Lance said, frowning. He turned to Tequila. "Oh, by the way—figured out what broke the barrier, finally."

"An' what would that be?" Tequila asked, taking another drag from his cigar.

"Turns out, Godcat Herself did it—NoLegs had summoned Her earlier today to have Her confirm it. She didn't make the barrier, neither did Faust, and Godcat doesn't like what's been happening on Fantasia, so… a few hits, and then, no more barrier," Lance answered. The faces of the surrounding airship crew paled when his words hit them, and all of them traded glances with one another. It wasn't long before the crewhands began muttering amongst themselves.

"So if Godcat didn't make the barrier, then who did?"

"An' why would they make the barrier to begin with?"

"This is bad… really, really bad."

"Aye… now that I think on it, somethin' was suspicious about that barrier…"

"An' if Godcat broke it… does that mean…"

Tequila took a moment to absorb the information. His frown deepened when it clicked. "Which means… the situation's worse than we thought, if Godcat's decided to smite the barrier itself," he surmised unhappily. "Did She say anythin' else?"

Lance nodded. "She was confronted by an Umbrum king, and four alicorns, one of whom She had punished beforehand," he answered. "Said they were the ones to seal Her, and that the Umbrum king had plans for Fantasia—and whatever they are, he's mostly succeeded in them."

Tequila's face hardened. "That's e'en worse… but at least, now we have a potential culprit o' this entire mess," he said, moving to take another hit off his cigar, only to realize there was very little of it left. He procured a piece of paper from a coat pocket, used it to put the stub out, and flicked the stub and paper away. "An' lemme guess: ye now got orders from Godcat 'erself to stop the madpony or else his plans'll succeed." He was answered with a nod from Lance.

"And the thing is, we don't even know what he's planning—but cutie marks, history, and society itself… well, I think you can tell what happened," Lance said.

Tequila slowly nodded. "Meanin', the bastard who damned those very concepts wants nopony to oppose him an' his schemes," he affirmed. "Redpine's assaults e'ery which way might just be a front to distract us all." He shook his head at the unhappy thought. "We'll help howe'er we can, Brassy. 's the least we could do, all things considered." He looked around at his gathered crew. "Ain't that right, fellas?"

"Aye aye, cap'n!" the crewhands barked in unison.

Tequila smiled. "Good. Now then… we hit the mess hall, an' see what the Umbrum lass has to say. I reckon it can't be anythin' good, but bad news is better than no news—means we can prepare ourselves fer the fight ahead," he said. He turned to Lance once more. "An' what about Redpine's… landlubbers?"

"Only two thousand foals were able to be saved, the rest… they were killed by a draconequus, from Mythos… and before you ask, that draconequus has chaos powers, letting him be able to basically ignore whatever Redpine could throw at him," Lance answered. "The survivors are in the medical wing… and it turns out, 'mom' and 'dad' gave me a sibling while I was away."

"Another wee one? Is the landlubber stable?" Tequila asked, his good eye widening.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, but she and the other foals will need to have an extended stay in the medical wing," he answered.

Tequila slowly nodded. "I see…" He turned to one of his crewhands. "Bring Mescal up 'ere, will ye?"

"Aye aye!" the crewhand responded, and she ran off to fetch Mescal, darting off into a door of the aerial fortress that rested near one of the massive cannons and propellers. In moments, she returned with a small, hat-wearing, wingless hippogryph child boasting white feathers and brown fur, and a green mane and tail. "'ere she is, cap'n," the crewhand said.

"Good," Tequila said, turning to Mescal. "Now then: how do ye feel about eatin' in the Aerie's mess hall?"

Mescal smiled, her eyes alight. "I'd eat with the Aerie, if it meant beatin' some sense into some ponies," she said.

"Atta girl," Tequila said, raising a claw to pat her head. He turned to Lance and saw Maria looking at him. "Oh ye: Brassy's got a kid of his own. Why don't you go over, and tussle a little? But remember: no scratchin' eyes out, or anythin' else like that."

Mescal grinned, and pranced over to Maria. The two sized each other up and down. They angled their flanks at one another, sizing up their cutie marks—Mescal had a wrench with a bolt socketed into its jaws, with the bolt itself emblazoned by crystals. Then they sized up other aspects of themselves, before grinning, locking claws with one another, and getting into a thumb war that escalated in seconds. Once they got bored with the thumb war, they tried to wrestle, standing on their hinds to see whose claws could overpower the other. It quickly proved to be a draw however, as neither filly gave the other any room for any pushback, despite Maria trying to use her wings for extra force and leverage.

"Well, they seem to be getting along," Lance noted dryly.

"Aye," Tequila agreed, smiling. "This be better than removin' eyes."

Mescal and Maria looked up at their father figures. "Can we be friends?" they asked in unison.

"I don't see why not," Lance answered, grinning. "You can share lots of things with your friends: how you got your cutie marks, what home is like…" His smile widened. "And of course, how to beat the bad ponies' faces in."

"Aye," Tequila agreed with a nod. "Nothin' like friends to drink with over at the crow's nest."
The fillies squealed in delight, and began to wrestle with ernest. Lance didn't really want to ruin their fun, so he let them go at it—better that the children established boundaries between themselves, than have the grown-ups do so for them. And speaking of boundaries, Lance made a mental note to get in another talk with Maria before bedtime rolled around, about the different kinds of boundaries that existed from peer to peer, and child to adult. The sooner he got that squared away, the better.

A crewhand bolted from the open door Mescal had been fetched from. He ran straight to Tequila. "E'erythin's good to go with the Big Magnum, cap'n! We're locked and loaded!" he reported.

Tequila smiled at him, and produced a cigar and a lighter to hit up some more smoke. "Good," he said as the lighter came to life with a deft flick of his claws. "Make sure the planes are up an' runnin', too—soon, we're takin' the fight to Redpine, an' givin' them absolute hell."

"Aye aye!" the crewhand responded, before bolting to the nearest plane on the airship's dock. The other crewhands followed his lead, and started to do checks on their magitek to make sure they, too, were locked and loaded.

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Dinner rolled around, and Tequila's crew were being noisy as they ate in the mess hall—not noisy enough to start bar fights or the like, but just general sea shanties… well, sky shanties, given the unorthodox 'ocean' they patrolled. As such, their tunes gave the Aerie's soldiers a much-needed laugh, while also confusing the hell out of the ponies of Greenwood, Goldenbrick, Whitefall, and a collection of a hundred or so earth ponies and disembodied spirits that kept to themselves.

Anna watched from the booth she sat at with her cohorts. "The Sunnytowners are acting like they've never heard a sky shanty in their lives," she noted.

"Then again, they've probably never heard of sky pirates, either," Natalie added, shaking her head. "Truth be told, we're probably rocking their world right now, in ways we might not understand."

"Ain't that the truth," Lance agreed with a nod. "And we're still getting everyone's information sorted out… we have got to get that squared away at some point."

"I suggest letting them file things away at their own pace. That way, we're not rushing them, and also not babying them every step of the way—and if they turn out to write in ancient alicorn, we'll just translate that later," Matt said, before shoveling some meat into his mouth.

Lance nodded again, chewing on a roll stuffed with some meat and potatoes. He went a little green around the gills, but pressed on with eating. He swallowed before responding, "Gives them time to prepare for their new life here, too. They're probably weirded out that we eat meat, especially since I heard they were formerly zombies." He looked at Anna. "And speaking of the Sunnytowners… why are some of them disembodied spirits?"

Anna wilted a little. "Well… Katie and I might have re-killed them a little too hard," she answered. "Though, Ruby was already a ghost when we got there…"

Lance nodded as he took in the information, as well as another bite of his sandwich roll. "Did she drain those ones like she did Pestilence?" he asked. Anna nodded.

"But only those ones," Anna added. "It kinda got hectic before I thought of something stupid to stop the horde."

"And what was this stupid thing, pray tell?" Matt asked.

"Basically, I revealed my true nature to them, and convinced them to atone for their ways," Anna replied. "I'm surprised it worked as well as it did."

Lance sighed. "Whatever works to diffuse the fighting," he said. "Of course… there's still the issue of them adjusting, but that'll come with time."

Maria was grinning as she ate. "Mescal is a nice gryph; I could play with her all day," she chirped.

"Careful with that kind of language; the sky pirates might see it differently," Natalie said in a gentle warning. She smiled, though. "That said, I'm glad you two hit it off—not many kids your age are keen to make friends on Fantasia."

"Why's that?" Maria asked, tilting her head.

Natalie's smile fell, and sorrow flashed in her eyes. "... because if you make friends on Fantasia, you'll have to deal with the possibility of them getting killed," she said gravely. "The town I was adopted into… I had a lot of friends, back then. But when cutie mark hating maniacs stormed it… the only friends to survive were Lazarus and NoLegs, though I didn't find out that NoLegs had survived until after Matt and I landed in the since-fallen Kitten Kingdom…"

Maria frowned, instantly catching what Natalie was not saying. "Bad ponies took your friends…" she said unhappily.

Natalie nodded. "Worst part was… they made me kill my late friends, for their own sick amusement. And trust me, it was… hard… to make new friends afterwards, especially since ponies looked at me and saw me as a harbinger of hellfire and death," she said darkly. "Even now, I… I still have some issues with making new friends, thanks to those bad ponies. Every time I try… I can hear the bad ponies laughing at me, telling me that I'm a failure and that friends are worthless…"

Maria's frown deepened. Shortly thereafter, her eyes narrowed. "Have you told the bad ponies to fuck off?" she hissed.

Natalie nodded. "Several times. But they keep going, like they've never heard those two words before in their lives," she affirmed unhappily.

Lance sighed and shook his head. "Just you watch—Pinkie'll probably be gunning after your ass too," he said tartly. "It's like every time we say something, she hears it no matter how far away we are from her, or how much noise is in between her vantage point and us. Like she literally has eyes everywhere."

Natalie looked around, wondering if and when Pinkie would hit them up for something. However, she forgot to check on the backside of her booth, and squealed when pink hooves wrapped around her chest from behind and above. She glanced up, and there she was, smiling down at her seemingly without any cares in the sister worlds. "That reminds me, your number came up," Pinkie said cheerfully. She booped Natalie on the nose with a hoof. "I've been super busy making the foals of Redpine smile, but don't worry, Starcovert, I'll make you smile too~" And with that, Pinkie did a backflip off of the booth's backside, being careful to not hit anyone with her hind hooves as she made her jump.

Natalie turned to Lance, processing what had just happened. "H-how… how did she get up here with nobody else noticing…?" she asked, her voice laced with confusion that flashed in her eyes.

Lance took another morsel of food and swallowed before answering. "She dropped from the ceiling," he answered. "She hovered in the air for just a second—long enough to touch down silently." He shrugged. "How she pulled that off, despite being an earth pony, I couldn't tell you."

Maria looked at Lance. "How can she do that?" she asked, pausing to bite down on some more food. "I mean… she's gonna get ponies asking about it if she keeps doing it."

"Trust me, I saw her pull a balloon out of her mane, with her eyes crossed," Anna answered, shaking her head. "In fact, I think she did the same thing for that cannon of hers, back when we had our rather weird group cute-ceañera last week…" She sighed and wilted a little. "Twilight said something about trying to get answers for it herself, and… I don't think she got anywhere with her attempts, either."

"So… Pinkie's weird," Maria surmised. That got a nod out of the adults at the booth.

Lance looked at Matt squarely. "So… are your folks still losing their shit?" he asked.

Matt nodded. "Yeah, like… have you ever been spooked so badly, you want to go to the sparring area to see if venting your fear out helps?" he asked. "They asked a soldier for directions, and… well, they're still there, I think. Whatever about that cloaked figure had them freaked out, I couldn't tell you."

Lance nodded. "And… how old are your Umbrum folks?" he asked. "I know you don't like talking about that part of your heritage, but I just need something for a frame of reference here, because they look as young as you are."

"Five hundred or so," Matt answered. "And because of how long they live, they're pretty much fertile their whole lives once puberty hits, if you're wondering."

Lance sighed. "So… they likely know more than they're letting on, then," he surmised. "But at this rate: any information we can get will still help. I'm surprised that Godcat was willing to hork up some intel Herself, all things considered."

Matt nodded. "We just gotta wait for their spooks to die down enough for them to regain coherency first," he said. "And that's if Luna doesn't talk to them before we do."

"If their spooks are bad enough that they're trying to fight the stress away, then maybe we should leave them alone for a bit," Natalie hedged, pausing to take a drink out of a mug. "Because knowing them, given how old they are… if something frightened them that bad, then it's probably for a very good reason." She ruffled her wings. "And they're Umbrum, so… they're desensitized to quite a lot of things, I would wager."

Lance nodded. "Fair enough," he agreed. "Not many things frighten older folks that much these days, at least, without reason."

"Yeah," Matt said with a nod. "And the few things that do frighten old folks around here tend to be forces they can't easily stop."

"Like Godcat?" Maria asked.

Anna piped up, "Yes, and Akron, and Faust, and the Tormentor enforcer… thingy."

"Ah yeah… the faceless fuck," Lance grumbled, wilting at the mention. "Can we not talk about him while we're eating?"

Anna wilted. "Sorry, sorry…"

Lance sighed, and took a swig from his cup. He took a look at his tray, finding that there were only crumbs left. He downed the rest of his drink and put his cup on the table. "Welp, I'm full," he said. He turned to Maria to see if she had finished her plate, and fortunately she did, chewing on the last morsel as she picked up her drinking cup to wash it all down. He turned to Matt and Natalie. "Did you two visit Rapier yet? I bet she'd love some company."

Natalie shook her head. "Was too busy with the weather training, so no," she answered. "Though, we may need to give her some space—she might react poorly to seeing my wings," she said, spreading one wing out to indicate it with her hoof. "And probably Matt's horn, now that I think about it."

Lance nodded. "I can believe it," he said. "Just check up on her sometime before we head off for Redpine, make sure she's stable and all that—see if she needs someone to talk to before you hit the sack tonight. Unless she's already asleep, in which case, just pay her a visit sometime during lunch hour tomorrow."

Natalie nodded. "Can do," she replied curtly. "I might make sure she has a night light while I'm at it—after being inside a volcano for Godcat knows how long, she might be afraid of the dark."

Lance smiled. "She probably has one already, but sure, add another—it might help," he agreed. He ruffled his wings. "But I think we should get Tequila into the office before bed—go over the plan… well, Shining and Spitfire's plan, with him so he can provide some input."

Anna nodded, and looked at her plate. She scooped up the last few bites into her mouth and washed them down with an almost-spent drink. She looked at Matt and Natalie's trays, and found they had already finished. "Are we good now?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "I could do with some more food, but if I need to, I'll just get a midnight snack later," he answered with a smile.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Bottomless pit," she mumbled.

"What about dessert?" Maria asked.

Lance blinked, and perked his ears. "Oh, yeah… now that I think about it, Pinkie might be whipping up some more sweets…" he mumbled. "She's been doing that every single chance she could get lately…"

"Tell me about it. She might try finding some way of making us smile once Redpine is dealt with… that is, if we end up succeeding," Matt agreed, frowning at the thought. "And now that I think about it, I wonder what prompted her sugar obsession…"

"Maybe she believes that sugar makes ponies happy?" Natalie piped up, tilting her head and putting a hoof to her chin. "I mean, I know it's a fixture in a lot of parties that she throws, but I'm starting to notice a theme with her type of celebrations…"

The others shrugged. "Maybe she really, really likes sugar, and thinks everyone else does, too," Anna pointed out. "I wonder what she's going to do, when she meets someone who can't have any sugar for whatever reason."

"Flip her shit? Find alternatives to sugar?" Matt proposed. He frowned when he imagined the resultant scenario in his head, where Pinkie… couldn't handle the knowledge of someone unable to have sugar for whatever reason. Somehow, the mental image ended up with anvils falling on ponies' heads, and he didn't know why.

"Regardless, we still have a meeting to attend," Lance said, spreading his wings. "We gotta get that sorted out, and see how Tequila could help us out."

"Right," his Lieutenants agreed in unison. The five of them turned to find the soldiers and sky pirates starting to gather trays and drinking cups, preparing to get those cleaned up before they languished for the night. The group followed their cue, picking up trays and cups and teleporting down there thanks to Anna, solely to get that sorted out as well.

Once their trays and cups were stacked with the others at the dish galley, they turned to the crowd to see if they could find Tequila. He was waiting by the entrance, chatting with Spitfire and Shining Armor as they directed him to a cleared-off table. So it looked like they were improvising. Lance and his group trotted over to plop their butts at the table. Shining had once again brought out the wooden figurines, albeit with some more painted in stripes, with little miniature cutlasses adorning their wingless hips, all of them standing on a bunch of wooden airships kind of smooshed together in a vague attempt to approximate a replica of the Big Magnum. "So, I see you've finally finished the food," Shining said dryly.

"Can't blame 'em, it's good grub," Tequila argued, smiling.

"Now, we need to go over this with the soldiers themselves, but we can arrange for that tomorrow evening, when everyone's in the auditorium," Spitfire said, turning to the figurines as Shining arranged them as he had earlier that day. Only now, he had the figurines meant to represent Tequila and his crew set to the side, solely so he could see where they would fit in to all of this. In addition, there were more airships, and wingless figures painted to represent Blue Crow and his group off to the other side. There were new figurines as well, adorned in white, black, and molten red veins meant to represent the lava wraiths. All were beset on a crude ink-stamped drawing of Redpine that was on a piece of wide paper.

"Now then: as we know, Redpine is entirely a winged force, and will probably converge on the pegasi and gryphons making the supercell happen," Shining said, conjuring a riding crop to gesture to the group of figurines in question. "Alternatively, they might split their herd in two in order to deal with our two-pronged attack; therefore, we're going to need to play merry Tartarus with them if we have any hope of succeeding with our plan."

"That's probably where me an' me crew come in: if we attack from the skies on the sides o' the volcano that are not bein' covered by the weather calamities, we can probably give 'em a run fer their bits an' sanity," Tequila said. "Howe'er, there's only so many o' us to go around, an' just as many planes fer our assault—once the dead start pilin' up, we might be forced to retreat."

"But if we attack like this…" Tequila carefully moved the figurines representing his ship and crew to the middle of the supercell formation. "They won't see our cannons coming—the Big Magnum can take quite a beatin', as she has seen us through a hurricane b'fer."

"But that means deploying the planes as our opening salvo," Lance said, looking at the assembled pieces before him. "They're nowhere near as big or strong as the Big Magnum, and once the supercell lands, they're going to go off-kilter if they stray anywhere near it."

"Exactly—an' the planes have guns, an' missiles. They're gonna shred whatever wraith tries meetin' them head-on, unless the bastards can regenerate," Tequila replied, smiling with a glint in his good eye. "Not to mention, the ammunition be devastatin'—if we strike hooves, horns, an' wing joints, the wraiths'll go splat 'fer we can make 'em walk the plank." He looked at Lance squarely. "An' these be lava wraiths, ye? E'en lava hardens—an' they only 'ave so much of it to go around. Assumin' they don't use what they have to regenerate somehow, they'll end up takin' from their stock just the same fer their attacks."

"An' magma comes from the world, ye? Pit them against changelin's an' earth ponies, they'll exhaust their supplies e'en faster. If I don't miss me guess, I'd say that the lava can be dried e'en faster than normal, if enough magic is applied—an' there's only so many wraiths to try an' stop it," Tequila finished, moving some of the figurines with cutlasses and the ones representing Blue Crow's group to the center of the formation and in front of the figurines representing the lava wraiths.

Lance nodded, and put a hoof to his chin. "I hadn't considered that before… maybe we could stop the lava that way, if it doesn't solidify on its own by the time we arrive…" he said in contemplation.

"Aye. Ye notice a lot o' things about the ground, when ye spend more time in the skies," Tequila said, tilting his head.

"Now this could actually work…" Spitfire muttered, putting a hoof to her chin as she contemplated the plan.

"You seem to have a knack for strategy," Shining said, smiling. "Are you sure Lance isn't rubbing off on you?"

Tequila barked out a laugh and smiled. "Pretty certain he's not ticklin' me beard, not e'en a little bit," he affirmed.

Lance nodded, and contemplated the plan. This… this made sense in his head. He could see it coming together now, even as logistics ran their course in his mind. It didn't take him long to come to a decision on the matter. "Any motions to object?" he asked. When none met him, he smiled. "Then it's settled: we will proceed with a four-pronged attack on Redpine once the eruption is over and the smoke from that has cleared. In the meantime, we continue training and monitoring the situation over there carefully in between breaks."

"Excellent," Shining said, sending the figurines and parchment back to the ether for now. "For now, we retire for the night. We have much to do tomorrow." With that, everyone stood up to head to their rooms for the night, eager to set their plan into motion come tomorrow.