Chapter Five: Making a Plan

Amity squirmed in her seat, trying not to look as uncomfortable as she felt inside. Upon arriving so late the night before, the Brotherhood had kindly offered them some food and rest in a spare bunkroom. When they’d awoken that following afternoon, Amity and Charlotte were invited to dine at the head table with the Commander of the Brotherhood’s Elmsgate Unit.

This turned out to be their leading cause of discomfort. At the table they were met with the skeptical gaze of the Commander, who gruffly introduced herself as Thistle. Throughout the meal, not much was said amongst those sitting at the cramped metal table. But Thistle regularly made suspicious glances over at the two mares across from her. It became increasingly hard for Amity to keep her composure as they awkwardly ate.

Even Charlotte, who had wasted no time in diving into her food, was having a hard time ignoring the awkwardness of the situation. She began to fidget in her seat as she ate, and it became worse with every look of disapproval that the Commander shot in her direction.

Commander Thistle’s appearance was no help in the matter either. With her frosty gaze and the numerous scars marring her untrimmed blue coat, her very presence felt hostile. And unlike most of the mares in Elmsgate, Commander Thistle’s blue-grey mane was cut short and left un-brushed. It was far from common to see a mare with short hair in Elmsgate, it was primarily a mark of shame to punish a mare in a rich family for adultery or disloyalty.

“So the old stallion sent you.” Thistle stated suddenly, herself apparently having grown tired of the silence.

“Um, yes. If by that you mean Waterspout.” Amity ventured. Commander Thistle winced at the mention of his name. “I’m assuming you must be the daughter he sent us to find?” she asked. Charlotte ceased picking at her food to listen.

Commander Thistle huffed. “Unfortunately, yes.” The pegasus’ wings ruffled in obvious annoyance. “But we have hardly spoken outside of work since he picked up his little habit…” She explained with subtle tones of bitterness.

“You mean the drugs.” Charlotte blurted out, to the shock of everyone at the table.

“Yes…That. Among other things…” Commander Thistle grimaced and averted her eyes.

Pupils narrowed to anxious pinpoints, Amity kicked Charlotte firmly on the shin. Charlotte jumped and glared over as she rubbed at the sore spot on her leg. But Amity scowled sternly back at her, hoping that her friend could see she wasn’t fooling around.

“Don’t screw this up!” Amity mouthed to Charlotte, who sighed irritably.

“What did I do?” Charlotte whispered back to Amity.

“What? You’re serious?” Amity gaped. “She made a point to not actually say it; clearly she didn’t want to talk about it. Least of all with us.” She whispered furiously.

“About the drugs thing?” Charlotte rolled her eyes. “She needs to know that we know. No secrets here. We’re not below her, even with her fancy title. There’s clearly already too much of that kind of shit around here anyway.” She continued. Eyes wide, it became apparent to them suddenly that Charlotte was no longer whispering, and the Commander’s eyes were fixated fiercely upon them.

With a scowl, Thistle said through gritted teeth: “Why. Are. You. Here?” The entire lunch hall had fallen dead silent, allowing her words to echo ominously.

“My father… Jack.” Amity said bluntly. This clearly grabbed Commander Thistle’s attention, as she folded her hooves up and rested her chin atop them. Her face had grown grim, but clearly intent on listening. “Y-your father was one of the last ponies he had been in contact with before he left. As far as we know, anyway… So we went to see Waterspout at his cell, but he sent us to you.”

After a moment of thought, Commander Thistle replied, “Okay… That at least explains your knowing the password… But I’m still not exactly certain as to why you’re here.” She said evenly. “Jack told us specifically to keep you out of all this. He also said that he’d left you a message telling you to do the same. He said you’d listen.”

“Well… Well apparently he was wrong.” Amity choked, but was trying hard not to show any hurt in her voice. “I’ve come looking for him, and the trail has led me here. Here, where you clearly know what’s going on better than we do.” Charlotte rested a sympathetic hoof on Amity’s shoulder and glowered at Thistle.

“I know you’re trying to be all grown up and official here, but we’ve kind of been through a lot.” Charlotte scowled fiercely, the bruised muscles in her face stinging. “And the last thing she needs from you right now is to be reprimanded for doing what any pony with a heart, broken or no, would do!” Amity was shocked. She stared, unable to find words to stop the argument from progressing.

“Look,” Thistle glared. “I’m not running a charity house here. In case you haven’t noticed, this is a facility dedicated to a special team of ponies with an important mission. We don’t have the time or resources to be helping anypony who just walks through the door!” she slammed her hooves down on the table. The lunch hall remained quiet.

“There aren’t any charity houses in this hellhole to begin with!! Besides, we’re not just anypony!” Charlotte shouted. “We’re the friends and family of Jack O’Lantern! Somepony, who seems to clearly be very important to your stupid little club here.” She continued. “We’re not asking for much, we just wanna know where he went to and why!” Thistle’s eyes flashed dangerously at Charlotte’s belligerence.

“That is classified information. And it will not be given out to ponies we don’t know we can trust.” Thistle hissed as she rose menacingly to her feet.

“Then unclassify it!” Charlotte growled back, rising to look the Commander in the eye.

“Charlotte, please! That’s enough.” Amity said shakily, having finally come to her senses. She put her hooves between the two mares lest it come to blows. With a hardened glint in her eye, Amity continued. “If they won’t share what we need with us, then that’s that. It simply means we don’t give them what they’re looking for.” Standing, Amity calmly righted herself and began to walk away from the table.

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” Thistle spat. Amity froze.

“Your father was caught attempting to break into my father’s office, was he not?” Amity smiled coyly. “He must have had a reason, otherwise why bother? Paperwork, pictures, knickknacks… Hardly things someone from an ambitious group such as this would be after.” She continued, puffing her feathers confidently.

“I’d get to the point, if I were you.” Thistle glared, taking the bait.

“I think he was after something specific. Something not placed in plain sight? Something taboo… Like, notes on a particularly sensitive subject perhaps?” Amity turned a stern glare back towards the Commander, then began to walk on. “Come along, Charlotte. We’ll be leaving then. There’s clearly nothing for us here.”

“Wait! Notes?” Thistle snapped to attention. Running ahead, she blocked Amity’s path. “What notes?” Her cold eyes showed a brief moment of hope before hiding again behind anger.

“Oh, I think you know the ones.” Amity hissed lowly. Maybe Charlotte had been right. “The ones my father wrote. The ones your father failed to obtain. The ones you have been waiting for.” Commander Thistle’s eyes widened, but she remained cold in her expression.

“Let’s go to my office…”

They left the silent, staring crowds in the lunch hall and proceeded to Thistle’s office. It was a modest space that bore about as much soul as its owner did. It was cold, kind of musty, and poorly lit. The flowers in the room had not been tended well and were wilting sadly all along the ceiling. Once the three of them were seated, Thistle spoke into a small intercom on her desk.

“Bring in some hot tea for my guests, would you Peridot?” she asked.

“Right away, sister.” The tinny voice of a mare replied. This seemed to rejuvenate the Commander with another burst of anger.

“For the thousandth time, I said to call me Commander Thistle!” She spat at the meek voice from the speaker.

“… Yes Commander… Sorry Commander.” The young voice spoke. With a gravelly sigh, Thistle shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose between her hooves. She suddenly turned away and began digging through the cabinet behind her.

“Poor mare.” Charlotte whispered to Amity. “If she has to deal with this high-trotting jackass every day.”

“Alright then… To business.” Thistle said as she pulled out a glass and a half empty bottle of liquor. After a moment of thought, she shoved the glass to the floor and took a heavy swing from the bottle. She shuddered a moment and hit the intercom again. “And bring me another glass!” she shouted.

“Okay. You’ve put me in a bind.” Thistle sighed. “We need those notes. It’s vital if we ever want to take out the bastards running this shitty town’s government.” The concerned stares she received from Amity and Charlotte pushed her to elaborate further. With a sigh, she took another swing from her bottle and shook it off.

“So get this,” Thistle explained. “I doubt it would take much convincing for you to believe me, but what if I were to tell you that the ponies governing Elmsgate were the leading cause for most of the disappearances? That this town’s government intends to use water purification against its own population?” She fumed.

“Wait, so you’re saying that the monsters who have been making our lives general hell for generations, are the same assholes kidnapping innocent ponies?” Charlotte’s jaw dropped. “I, but…how?”

“Money. It’s all about cash.” Thistle whispered and leaned over the desk. “They play on the disappearances brought on by our ‘mighty King’. But most of the stallions are sold into slavery at the trade in Brass Town.” She frowned.

“But what about the mares?” Amity asked, fearful of the answer.

“The mares? Well…That’s just it. They just disappear. No traces. They’re simply sent somewhere, never to be seen again. We’ve been trying for years to find out where they take them, to no avail.” Thistle frowned.

“But those notes, the data your father collected, may finally lead us to what we’re looking for.” Thistle had set down her bottle and looked genuinely worried. “The system running this stupid ring originated here of all places, a place where sexism and class tension is already prime… Here, where nopony knows or cares if some lower class ponies go missing.” Thistle’s eyes darkened. “If the Brotherhood is going to stop it, we’ll need all the information, supplies, and technology we can get… So… Is it a trade then?”

“A trade-“ Amity was interrupted by the office door suddenly opening. A light green earth pony mare entered the room with a small tea cart in tow. Amity, shocked, recognized the young mare immediately.

“Ah, Peridot. There you are.” Thistle said, the slightest of smiles actually upon her face.

“Sorry, I’m late sis- I mean Commander Thistle…” the earth pony was fidgety, clearly not wanting to be there. Amity knew her immediately to be the mare from the market who had previously delivered her father’s message to her a few days before. The mare was quick to begin handing out cups and pouring tea.

“Not to pry, but I take it that you two are related?” Amity asked, making Peridot nearly drop the tea kettle mid pour.

“Oh! Um, I-“ Peridot stammered.

“Yes. As it were, we are.” Thistle hissed.. “This is my father’s other daughter, Peridot… She stays here with me as my assistant.” The Commander explained. Peridot shrank back, hiding the subtle hint of tears almost expertly behind a face as hardened as stone.

“Other daughter?” Charlotte was clearly boiling beneath the surface. With a pointed glare, Thistle retorted.

“Yes. His other daughter.” Commander Thistle growled. “And our family business is none of yours. That’s not why we’re here, and it’s not what we’re going to be talking about.” Thistle growled. She intensified her glare enough that even Charlotte seemed content enough to let the subject go.

“Peridot!” Thistle spat. “My guests have been served, you are excused. You will clean this up after we’ve gone.” She pointed to the door, and her sister quickly ushered herself out. For a brief moment, Amity almost wished she could join her in fleeing from Thistle. Kindness and hospitality, it seemed, were words not familiar to the Commander’s vocabulary.

After a tense pause, and another couple of long swigs from the bottle, Commander Thistle spoke again, “So. About the business earlier… do we have a trade? The Brotherhood will give you the information you seek on your father, as well as safe passage in or out of town, in exchange for his notes.”

Amity mentally debated the trade under the scrutinizing gaze of Thistle, and nodded her agreement. “Agreed… On the condition that we receive the info we need on my father first.” Thistle huffed in her disapproval, but nodded.

“Fair enough.” Thistle sighed, “I’m sure by this point, you’re well aware that he’s alive. He never had the intention of leaving without you, but circumstances soon proved… dangerous. He prematurely had to take his leave due to the government’s discovery of a hacked terminal. It, unfortunately, had a safety protocol unbeknownst to your father as he worked. It put the government on his trail, and he was forced to flee before he was finished with his work.”

“What work was he doing for you, exactly?” Amity asked.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself here, kid.” Thistle smirked. “You clearly have no idea who your father really is here, do you?” She was met with an insulted look, and explained. “Your father wasn’t just a scientist at the Water Plant. He was an undercover agent, as well as our Co-Founder. He’s a head of the Brotherhood itself.” Amity and Charlotte sat dumbfounded. Thistle, smiling devilishly, relished their moment of shock.

“Everything I told you about before was his work. He sought the information on ponies who disappeared and anything else we could use to bring the Government down… Apparently he really found something, judging by the frenzy the local Government has been in since then. They’re doing well enough to hide it from the public, but our inside sources say that they’ve been in a tizzy ever since the hack was discovered.” She said with no small amount of pride.

“When he was discovered though, things happened very quickly, we helped him flee town, and he mentioned heading to the city of Everglade, but whether or not he intended to stay there is unknown to us.” Thistle’s face darkened. “The forest is unforgiving, and he refused our accompaniment once we’d reached the forest edge… But assuming he made it, there would be a place to start though. We have a rather small outpost there, and it’s likely he stopped there, at least.”

Still in awe of what she’d just been told, Amity stammered a little, before managing a thank you. She was glad to at least know where he was headed, and they gave them a good lead, but unfortunately she felt little to no confidence in leaving town as she once had. As it approached, the thought of entering the woods loomed more ominously.

Charlotte broke the silence and asked, “So we know where he went at least, what exactly do we do from here?” Amity laid her ears back and shrugged, unsure of the best course of action.

“Well to start, I do believe that you owe me some notes.” Thistle jabbed. With a nod, Amity pulled the notes from her saddlebag, and floated them over to the Commander. Thistle was quick to begin skimming the pages, and the more she read, the more concerned her face grew.

“Oh Gods, oh Gods… that can’t be right…” Thistle mumbled. “Have you read these?” she asked the pair.

“We skimmed the first few pages, but no, we didn’t really have the time.” Charlotte answered.

“He found a lead on the disappearances of mares, as well as a long list of ponies who were sold over the last couple of centuries… there’s a mark here that I haven’t seen since I was very small. But it’s undeniable where it’s from… I just can’t believe that they would have any interest in mares… unless they’ve stopped breeding their slaves.” Thistle shook her head sadly.

“Who are they?” Amity asked.

“They go by the ‘Gilded Council,’ they live in a large city somewhere out in the desert above. They rarely ever reach out to the world outside of their city. They say it’s called the City of Gold for a reason. They’re so wealthy they could afford to cut themselves away from ‘unsavory ponies’, or in other words the poor, and isolated themselves from anypony... Well, Other than those they’d captured or bought as slaves.” Thistle scowled down at the paper. “But as far as we’d known, they’d been inactive in any trade for 20-some odd years now.”

“So why would they be suddenly active again now?” questioned Amity, “It’s not like they wouldn’t already have all that they needed, wouldn’t they?”

“I… I’m not sure.” Replied Thistle. “For all we know, they could have been active in this all along, but there’s no indication as to when their transactions here began.”

“Perhaps even more alarming of a question to me is why exactly are they actively seeking mares only?” Charlotte rang in. “If they were in need of slaves, would they really be so discriminatory as to which kind they got? Wouldn’t stallions be considered stronger workers?”

“That’s also uncertain. They may only need females for breeding purposes amongst their existing slaves.” Thistle nearly gagged at the thought. “We will certainly be looking into why, but the current issue still stands that ponies are being taken to begin with. This is definitely something we’ll need to start taking action on, soon. Then we can seek out the city and hopefully rescue the stolen… Problem is, we have no idea where this city is. Rumor has it that to find the city, you had to have been there before.”

“Well what about the town government?” Amity ventured. “I mean, if all this information was on one terminal there, maybe their location and motives are locked away on another.”

“That’s an idea, but we’re not sure how he got into the first one to begin with. But, say if we can get into the City Hall, it’s likely that the computers of the higher up members may have information like this.” Sighed Thistle. “But getting in is a problem. None of us in the Brotherhood are registered members of town, aside from your father and mine. But they aren’t really an option.”

“Well what about us?” Charlotte glanced wide, eyed between the two. “Amity and I have lived here our whole lives. And while we aren’t in the highest standing, it wouldn’t be weird for either of us to visit town hall. I mean, chances are we were bound to be called in there eventually, right?”

“Well, maybe you anyway.” Amity sneered. “If they’re looking for my father, chances are they’ll be looking for me soon, if they aren’t already.”

“Highly likely.” Thistle added. “If word got out that most of the disappearances here were caused by the government, the town would be in a riot in no time. If they have any reason to believe you know anything, and they will, you’re likely on their most wanted list already.”

“Hmm, what if we dressed up?” Charlotte began fixing up her own disheveled hair.

“Dress up?” Thistle gawked.

“Actually, that might work.” Amity blinked. “I mean think about it, this whole stupid town judges mares upon whether or not they look like they’re upper class. Faces don’t really matter. If we sneak in looking like we have money, only the elite would question it.”

“I don’t know if you need your eyes adjusted, but I don’t exactly look like an upper class mare. I think they might notice the fact that I look like I’ve been run through a shredder.” Thistle scowled, even blushing slightly.

“Well Amity and I could go in alone. Though backup would be much appreciated… is there anypony you would trust to take your place? Someone who can shoot a gun… or hack a terminal? There’s got to be another mare in the Brotherhood who isn’t so messed up… No offense.” Charlotte suggested.

Thistle glared, but scratched at her chin thoughtfully for a moment before a wry smile crept across her face. “As a matter of fact, I think I just might.”

Author's Note

Okay, so it took FOREVER to get this done, but here it is, Chapter 4, with work on Chapter 5 already started. If you liked or disliked this, leave a comment below, I'm always looking for feedback on what could be better, or what people liked. Anyway, have a great day!