Episode 222: Facets

Night or day, Soul Society did not feel the same under occupation. The steel stares of Bowtie’s Zanpaktou spirits could be encountered anywhere, patrolling every street corner or corridor within the Seireitei. Reports of their numbers were difficult to confirm, at best. Luna trusted the skills of those in her Division, and she was having them coordinate as best they could with Daring Do’s Third Division to try and properly assess the enemy’s disposition. The problem was that Bowtie kept rotating the Zanpaktou spirits so that the same ones weren’t always summoned forth, and it wasn’t even clear how he brought them in and out of Soul Society, or how many he had at his disposal.

Nocturne’s best estimates after conferring with the Third Division Lieutenant Quibble Pants was that at any given time somewhere around five hundred Zanptkou spirits were actively under Bowtie’s command, although it was a conservative estimate that Nocturne himself reluctantly admitted could be higher. The majority operated solely within the Seireitei, guarding the Soul Reaper Academy and the main headquarters of First Division with about a hundred apiece, and keeping smaller garrisons at the bases of each other Division of only about twenty five. On paper that gave the Soul Reapers a strong advantage in numbers, but the issue was that the actual spiritual power of these Zanpaktou spirits was as difficult to clearly determine as their numbers. By reiatsu alone, most felt equivalent to Lieutenants, and more than a handful exhibited dormant spiritual pressure indicating near or at Captain level, although those thankfully seemed restricted to about four or five that kept close to Bowtie himself.

Still, even with all seated officers from all thirteen Divisions, there’d be a power disparity unless the Captains could make up the difference, or the full bulk of the Gotei 13’s numbers could be brought to bear. Any plan to oust Bowtie would also depend on dealing with the man himself, a task that would very likely take up the attention of the majority of the Captains themselves, leaving them unable to aid their subordinates against the Zanpaktou spirits.

From a tactical standpoint, Luna had to begrudgingly acknowledge there would be no easy way to do this. Her whole body felt tight with unreleased tension, and walking from the main stairs of the Gotei 13’s headquarters was a stiff affair as several of the Zanpaktou guarding the courtyard halted her. Luna was gradually getting familiar with at least a few faces, although most of the spirits were different than the ones who had been guarding the area the previous day.

“And what business takes you out today, Captain Luna?” asked one of the more familiar spirits, a blunt faced woman with steel gray hair in a wavy pattern that feel down her back, and exceedingly arresting red eyes. Her skin was a dark shade of green, nearly black, and she wore the same style of segmented samurai-style armor as most of the Zanpaktou spirits serving Bowtie, lacquered to a genuine obsidian shade. This one, Luna knew, was one of the small handful of near Captain-level reiatsu, kept largely in charge of watching the headquarters’ entrance.

“Our duties haven’t ended simply because your master has taken up residence here, Taiyoko-sen. I have a meeting with Captain Zecora concerning the distribution of medicinal tablets to my Division for long-term operations. After that I have another meeting with Captain Daring Do on scouting reports from Soul Society’s eastern fringes. In case it escaped your notice, we remain in conflict with the Hollows, and there have been increasing incursions in that region. We Captains may be presently forbidden from leaving Seireitei, but Soul Reapers still must perform their sworn duty, must they not?”

Taiyoko-sen stared hard at her while the rest of the Zanpaktou spirits watching the courtyard adjusted their stances ever so slightly, ready to pounce if called upon. After a moment, Taiyoko-sen nodded and her face cracked into a satisfied expression of ease, “Just grilling you like I’m supposed to. Your Lieutenant already gave me your itinerary for the day. But yes, Master does want us to make sure you’re going where you’re told. Please don’t deviate from your stated duties, Captain Luna.”

Luna just barely kept her own expression in check as she barely gave Taiyoko-sen a nod before brushing past, walking perhaps a bit too brusquely. She heard several of the Zanpaktou watching her go whisper among themselves.

“They sure are antsy, aren’t they?”

“What did you expect? Master is keeping them on a short leash.”

Taiyoko-sen’s voice snapped louder, “Pipe down with the gossip and show a little respect, or I’ll be seeing you both sent back to the forge!”

“Urk! Y-yes ma’am! Sorry ma’am!”

It was an innocuous enough exchange, and Luna didn’t look back as she strode from the courtyard gates and into the neatly ordered streets of the Seireitei, but she mentally filed away what she’d heard. What did being ‘sent back to the forge’ mean, exactly?

Moving more swiftly, now, she went exactly where she’d told Taiyoko-sen she was going; the Fourth Division barracks, headquarters, and general hospital. Meeting locations for the rebellion in planning changed with each such meeting, mostly relying on safehouses and hidden areas, but every now and then they made use of the actual major buildings as a way to keep up the appearance of normal day to day functions. It wasn’t like Luna had been lying. The Soul Reapers still had duties to perform. The living world required constant monitoring for performing Konso on souls, and Hollows remained a threat in every region, even if overall activity in the human world was reduced. That eastern incursion was no lie, either, although reports from the Third Division were a bit exaggerated to give an excuse for increased activity that could give the Captains cover for their meetings.

Reaching the Fourth Division’s hospital, Luna had to go through a similar rigamarole with the Zanpaktou guarding the entrance, although there was no Captain-level spirit present, and she was let through with minimal scrutiny. The hospital itself, and its adjoining barracks, was fairly busy that day. Zecora, now returned to active duty, was busy rebuilding her Division after the casualties Chrysalis had inflicted on it, and multiple classes for newly inducted Fourth Division healers were running. Luna passed several rooms where young Reapers were practicing Kaido, the healing Kido techniques, or taking lectures on spiritual biology and energy flows.

Even under occupation, the day to day didn’t cease. But Luna saw the nervous glances some of the young students were giving her as she passed. It gave her a gut punch of guilt. As if she and her fellow Captains had failed in their responsibility to look after Seireitei. Many had friends or family in the Academy, which remained under heavy lockdown; hostages to the cooperation of the Gotei 13.

Taking a deep breath, Luna entered Zecora’s office, located within the heart of the hospital’s second floor. She only barely felt the hidden traces of the protective stealth wards around the room, and gave the woman standing next to the door a sardonic smirk, “Not bad, Daring, but still detectable if someone sensitive enough came right up next to it.”

Daring Do smiled evenly, leaning against the wall as she knocked a knuckle on the doorframe, “Oh please, you didn’t even sense it until you walked through it, and I got wards in the hallway to warn me if one of those walking rust-heads comes this way. Bet you didn’t detect those, did you?”

“I... did not,” Luna admitted, returning Daring’s look with a respectful nod, “Well done, in that case. I guess your skills have improved since our Academy days.”

“Pfft, okay Miss Stealthiest in Soul Society. Be all polite like that. Man, without Blueblood here, I’ve got no one to bounce off of,” replied Daring in an only half-serious manner, both she and Luna turning to the third woman in the room. Captain Zecora was at her desk, watching the pair with a kind, calm, somewhat amused twinkle in her eyes.

“I am glad to see our troubles have not dampened your moods overly much. There’s already enough of a pale hanging over us all. We cannot take another loss, and with fortune and planning on our side, perhaps we won’t.”

Luna took a deep breath, giving Zecora a critical look, “How is Amore’s condition?”

It was a sensitive enough topic, but the time for such courtesy was lacking, and Luna wanted to be sure of just what they were working with. Zecora picked up on that quickly and wasted no time with meandering around the topic, “Discord and Starswirl may not work well together, but one cannot fault the results of two geniuses. Amore will be able to fight, although there will be danger for her in doing so.”

“Like she’ll care about that,” Daring said, “So that at least puts us up one Captain. What about you? Your issue isn’t exactly a damaged Soul Sleep.”

Nobody could have missed the pinched look of absence, a brief glint of hollow yearning in Zecora’s eyes that passed as swiftly as a cloud of smoke. She settled back in her seat, folding her arms on the desk, “I am best suited to a support role, even if I still l had my Zanpaktou with me. There will be no shortage of need for healers in this rebellion we plan.”

“Sorry, just needed to know where your head was at,” said Daring, “Probably could’ve phrased it better.”

“No need to apologize. I understand. My Bankai could have been quite useful in countering a large force like these Zanpaktou spirits, but we will need to rely on the capabilities of our fellow Captains,” Zecora said, her eyes shifting to Luna, “How has training with your father, gone? I regret I haven’t been able to see him.”

Luna shifted, feeling sore muscles in her limbs, and brushing strands of split, blue hair from her eyes, “Yeah, he isn’t exactly someone we can parade through Seireitei without drawing way too much attention. As for training... eh, this isn’t easy. Anima isn’t quite the same as a Zanpaktou. Isn’t fun to deal with, and it certainly doesn't cooperate. Not sure if I’m having a harder time with it or Celestia is. Not like we can train for long, even with the Reigai standing in.”

“You two have only been at it a little bit, so normally I’d say give it time, but we’re not exactly full up on that resource,” Daring said, scratching her head, “We’re probably going to have to do this before either of you make any real breakthroughs.”

Luna could only nod in agreement. The Reigai could afford any Captain a chance to move around more freely, but she and Celestia were the ones most in need of that, so it had been switching between impersonating either of them over the past day. It was disconcerting to her just how good the Reigai was at it. When it had taken Celestia’s shape, Luna had had difficulty telling the difference, even with her sister standing next to it. She felt... rather glad that the Reigai were a project that had largely been scrapped. Mod Souls had their place and use, but something about the far more capable and clearly sapient Reigai left Luna feeling distinctly out of sorts.

“The timeframe is crucial, I agree. The sooner we act, the better,” she said, pulling out a scroll or two from her haori and spreading them on the table for Daring and Zecora to look upon, “This is the compiled guard and patrol routes of the Zanpaktou under Bowtie’s control. Zecora, you will need to pass this along to the other Captains.”

Zecora memorized the maps at a glance, nodding. She was the key point of communication among the conspiring Captains, since all of them had valid excuses to meet with the head of the Fourth Division for medical checkups or visiting wounded or sick Soul Reapers from their own Divisions housed in the hospital. It made her the perfect one to spread messages and information without rousing too much suspicion.

“I’ll pass it along. Hopefully the others can concoct a plan of attack from it. Hurricane, Thunderhooves, and Sweet Cider are all favoring a dual assault on the Academy and First Division headquarters.”

“Tch, of course they are,” Daring said, “No way it will work if we have to split our forces that much, or move that many troops while under the Zanpaktou spirits’ noses. Bowtie will be on us too fast, and I don’t want to think about what a fight with him inside Seireitei itself will do.”

“Destroy it, most likely,” Luna stated with blunt certainty, “He is of the Zero Division. As strong if not stronger than Scorpan was, and his full power could have leveled most of Soul Society were he to fight in earnest. It’s... likely why he chose to fight Glory so far away from where we could have helped him.”

Silence fell briefly between the three Captains, broken when Zecora took a deep breath, “We will honor him by carrying on the vision of Soul Society that he loved and believed in, not the bastardization of lies Zero Division has woven around us. Daring, Luna, both of you are asymmetrical thinkers... do either of you have ideas I could pass along to the other Captains? Right now, Hurricane’s head on attack is not our best option, I agree. Cheese Sandwich has suggested trying to draw Bowtie away from Soul Society, but we have no notion on how to do that.”

“From what little I’ve seen of him, he seems obsessed with his own version of ‘honor’,” Luna said, lips twisting at the word when thinking of Zero Division, “He might respond to a direct challenge.”

“You mean just straight up announce our intention to overthrow his pompous ass?” Daring asked, but Luna shook her head.

“I believe him when he says he’ll execute the Academy students if we openly rebel. However, a challenge need not involve rebellion. Rather, he may respond to the idea of a sparring match. A duel to test ability. He has an ego, so if someone offers him the right kind of wording in their challenge, it might spark his desire to show off his swordsmanship. Then, the pretext of keeping property damage down could lead to a duel site selected that is away from Seireitei and Soul Society as a whole.”

“You truly believe he’d fall for that?” Zecora asked, “I agree he seems to have a sizable ego, but surely he’s not so foolish as to be drawn away by such a transparent ploy?”

“I dunno,” said Daring, “Dude’s as powerful as him tend to get it in their head that nothing can touch them. A chance to strut his stuff and show off his superiority to us lowly ‘Captains’ might be right up his alley. Heck, if he suspects something, that might only make him go for it more, assuming he can easily take out any rebellious Captains that try to jump him. Real problem is if he’s smart enough to bring some of his Zanpaktou to watch things play out, and to send messages if we do jump him. The Academy will still be in trouble.”

“I think your Division and mine together can handle that,” said Luna, “Between the Stealth Corps and recon skills of your Division, we can surround the Academy before the enemy takes action, and potentially eliminate the Zanpaktou guarding the students before any are killed. Possibly.”

“Yeah, that’s a big ‘possibly’, but might be we can get help from Discord’s Coalition,” Daring said, “Might be if we get Ditzy in on this, we’ll have enough force to blitz the Academy and save the students. Still begs the question of who would issue the challenge to Bowtie? Who would he go for as a suitable person to exercise his skills against?”

“My sister,” Luna said, “I believe none other could provide an enticing enough challenge. it has to be Celestia.”

She was exhausted, her eyes strained from staring at computer monitors and small details on various research devices that hovered over the open components of the Hexenfaust, which lay partially assembled on the table next to her. Twilight had lost track of time, the sterile lab deep within the confines of the Silburn’s lower levels washing out any notion of night or day with its constant fluorescent glow from lights high in the ceiling.

“Coffee.”

It was not a question or an offer, but more like a statement of need as Sugarcoat sat the mug down next to Twilight on the table. The smell tickled her nose and Twilight took the cup gratefully, downing it without much care for the lack of sugar or cream. “Thanks,” she muttered, waiting for the caffeine to kick in as she turned in her swivel chair. She wore a lab coat over her crumbled, wrinkled Quincy uniform, which made Sugarcoat raise an eyebrow.

“Tradition,” Twilight explained, “I also feel more comfortable doing science with it on. And... and Spike really liked to curl up in the folds of the coat while sitting on my lap while I worked.”

Sugarcoat’s visor flickered as she moved up to gently touch Twilight’s arm, “He’s okay. He will be okay, Twilight. Your pup is a tough little guy, and you built him one amazing machine to fight with.”

“A part of me almost regrets building it, because truthfully I wish he didn’t have to fight at all. He shouldn’t have to. But, I couldn’t just ignore his desire to protect the family. He’s not really a pet anymore,” Twilight said, rubbing at her face and looking at the computer monitors once again. On the screen was a kaleidoscope dance of data, waveforms, geometric patterns, and complex formulas.

Sugarcoat looked at it all, her own mind, rather brilliant itself, trying to piece it all together, “Still not sure what I’m looking at, here.”

“How much do you trust me?”

“You kidding? All the way, Twilight,” Sugarcoat stated with the firmness of a dropping hammer, “There may be others around here that are whispering shit about you. Sternritter that aren’t happy with you having the King’s ear. But screw them. I’m on your side, if it comes to a fight, even if it's against other Quincy.”

Twilight’s eyes widened a little, her throat gulping as she stared back at Sugarcoat, “I hope it doesn’t come to that. But, you recall I’ve been working on and off with Adagio?” She glanced about, just making sure no one else was around. The lab was sealed and she’d set up protective wards around it herself, but not too many were fully aware yet of her working with Hollows.

“Uh, Twi, we just finished a major rescue op with the snazzy Espada’s help. Yeah, I recall,” Sugarcoat said, and Twilight blanched, rubbing her forehead.

“Sorry, sorry, just... really tired. Super tired.”

“I get it. Now spill, what’s with the whacky math on the screen here?”

“A few things at once, actually,” Twilight said, pointing out interactions of what to Sugarcoat looked like two different colored waves alternating between eating one another, or mixing together, one red, another blue, the mixtures taking on a bruise-like purple. “First, here are several batches of data I’ve run on the interactions between Hollow and Quincy reishi particles.”

“They don’t get along,” Sugarcoat stated, but she frowned at the data, “But this looks... weird.”

“Well, we’ve been making use of captured Gillians to form the Garganta we use to get to and from Hueco Mundo, but you already know how hard we’ve been working on developing our own portal technology with the use of magic. Well, through my friends from Canterlot High, I’ve learned magic is a fantastic medium for mixing energies, even conflicting ones. I think its the prime basis for how my friends kept getting so strong, so fast, not to mention that thing Discord gave them... oh, did I tell you about the Hogyoku?”

“Twilight, I can barely keep up with half the things you do, let alone anything that whackjob Discord does. Assume I know what you’re talking about and break this down in to easier, preferably faster terms,” Sugarcoat said, voice more amused and endeared to Twilight rather than annoyed. Twilight gave an abashed smile and nodded.

“R-right, so my theory was to use magic as a medium to mix conflicting reishi, and the test results are quite positive. It’s possible to stabilize the reactions between Quincy and Hollow energies, or even Soul Reapers, too. You could mix and match all three! Magic is like the glue that makes it all stick together. Anyway, this is a stable portal waveform, and I’ve already prototyped a device to use. I was using the Hexenfaust as a test bed for mounting the device, so I can make those portals myself.”

She rolled her chair over to the table with the dark purple gauntlet on it, where Sugarcoat saw Twilight was working on a ring-shaped device, consisting of multiple metal segments that curved together and were locked together by chevron shaped, light violet nodes. It didn’t take Sugarcoat much imagination to see where the ring device could be mounted on the Hexenfaust’s shoulder. “So this thing will let you make gateways like a Garganta?”

“Yes. I mean, with magic I can teleport, sure, but these M-Portals, uh, that’s what I call them-”

“I gathered.”

“-yes, they are stable portals I can target to different realms. Normally with teleportation I can only teleport inside a given realm. An M-Portal will let me go to Soul Society, Hueco Mundo... possibly even the Beast Realm,” Twilight finished, her eyes growing focused and heatedly determined. Sugarcoat nodded in understanding.

“It’d mean you and anyone left behind could catch up with those who got stuck in the Beast Realm. But how would you be able to target another realm, exactly? Wouldn’t you need to have been there, to set up coordinates or something?”

“Yes, or rather, I need something that will let me calibrate a portal location. Easy enough for Hueco Mundo or Soul Society, since the Quincy have already been there and I can use pre-set data. But the Beast Realm is a whole other matter. I need something either from there, or someone who’s been there. I was hoping Discord might be able to help me. He knows a lot, and so does Ditzy Doo.”

“I guess you have always been buddy-buddy with them, sorta, when you were still hanging with those Canterlot High girls,” Sugarcoat said, although she quickly glanced away, adding, “I mean, you still are, obviously. Just easy to forget that you weren’t actually brought in to the Quincy until recently. Sometimes it blows my mind how far you’ve come.”

“I still owe you for what you did that first night,” Twilight replied, slumping in her chair as the long hours of work slowly caught up with her, caffeine or no, “That arrow you shot, when the Hollows first attacked. Can’t remember if I ever really thanked you for that.”

“It’s not something you need to thank me for, let alone owe me. I did it because it made sense to kill a Hollow to protect a human. Literally what I exist to do, as a Quincy,” Sugarcoat said, brushing it off and instead focusing back on the monitors, “You said you had several projects on here, right?”

Twilight gave her a rueful look, arms crossed, “I can tell you’re changing the subject, but okay, I won’t lavish you with thanks if it embarrasses you that much.”

“It doesn’t embarrass me, it just...” Sugarcoat waved a hand, for once at a loss for a blunt, simple set of terms to get across her meaning, “A lot’s changed, in a really short time. You gave me my eyes back, Twilight. Not literally, but close enough. We can skip the idea of thanks and who owes what to who.”

“Yeah... yeah that’s fair. Right, so, um, subject change!” Twilight flicked her wrist, yawning and adjusting the screens, which showed an even more complex set of scrolling data, “This ties right in with the M-Portals, because of the way we can potentially mix energies. So, Adagio, she stole a bunch of data from Grogar-”

“Seriously!? That’s ballsy.”

“Er, yeah, ballsy. Um, so most of the data is on Hollow evolution and how it functions and Grogar’s various experiments to push it beyond its conventional limits. Really creepy stuff, for the most part. He’s...” Twilight swallowed bile rising in her throat, wiping at her tired eyes past her glasses, “He’s done some very bad things, to a lot of Hollows, a lot of captured ‘Whole’ souls, and even the occasional Soul Reaper or Quincy he’s captured. Live Quincy. Not one of our souls. But still, he can experiment on a soul, even on a live body. I... don’t really want to recount some of the things I’ve read in this data.”

“Yeah, don’t want to know,” Sugarcoat said with a cold shudder, “I thought Fleur had it bad with that goddamn Guto, but I can’t even imagine what kind of crap Grogar might do to his captives. Makes me respect Adagio a bit more to know she worked her way out of that, even if she is a Hollow. Hard not to think we’re right to just consider them all enemies, even through I know you and your Coalition pals really want this whole thing to turn peaceful.”

“Sugarcoat, the war is literally engineered by the Zero Division to do horrible things. Bad as the Hollows are, we can’t afford to just keep seeing them as enemies. That’s why I agreed to take this data from Adagio and help her and Discord with parsing it out.” Twilight adjusted a few more parts of the screen, showing some rather oblong and intersecting waveforms of energy and some unusual looking figures that made Sugarcoat think of stars and galaxies more than anything else, “Skipping the technicals, Grogar is focused on re-creating a unique Hollow evolution that surpasses all others to date. A transformation more powerful than Resurreccion; the Segunda Etapa. According to his data, it only happened once before. Adagio and Discord are trying to move past his research to get to that goal first, and I’m helping.”

Sugarcoat leaned over Twilight’s shoulder to peer a the data, then look at her sidelong, “So, if you pull it off... what? Adagio gets this super powerful form, and only her? How close is Grogar to figuring it out?”

“It’s hard to say. His data has a lot of dead ends from failed experiments, including one that apparently tried to completely remove Resurreccion from a test subject to boost their more innate Hollow abilities. Some other avenues look... more promising, but this data is also months old, so I don’t know how much further he’s gotten with the help of magic. But I do think we can beat him there, if we have data from the location this supposed Segunda Etapa occurred,” Twilight pointed at a big, cylindrical device across the room with a handle and screen attached to it, “I’m making a detector to search for the right waveforms, which should let Adagio and Discord track down wherever in Hueco Mundo or on Earth the transformation happened. From there, I can gather more direct data using my equipment, and my Schrift. The Variable should let me alter the local reishi density to get a clear look at just what happened when this mysterious, ancient Arrancar transformed.”

“And if it works, boom, we pump up Adagio, and maybe she actually can dethrone the big guy,” Sugarcoat summed up, shaking her head, “And we all hope she doesn’t let absolute power as Queen of all Hollows go to her head, because historically that’s how things go, right?”

“We have to begin extending a little trust, otherwise there’s no way things will get better,” Twilight said, sagging in her chair and taking off her glasses to rub at her face, “It’s not like we Quincy or the Soul Reapers are going to just disarm and trust the Hollows blindly, but Adagio will be a more reasonable ruler than Tirek, at least.”

“Okay, fair point,” Sugarcoat replied, then frowned at Twilight’s sagged form, “Twilight, when was the last time you slept, exactly?”

Sugarcoat’s words almost seemed to go in one ear and out the other as Twilight yawned and went back to her main computer screens, “Of course I also need to finish up a few other projects. The filtration suit is finished for Lighting Dust, but I want a few more tests. Then there’s the improved artificial legs for Indigo, with a few special add-ons I designed for her. Oh, and I’m working on upgrades to your visor-”

“Twilight, I asked when you last slept?” Sugarcoat insisted, not letting Twilight just brush her concern off like that. Twilight paused, blinking slowly, glancing at the coffee mug still idly held in her hand, which she sipped on again.

“I... I’m not sure. There hasn’t been a lot of time. I still need to meet with Sombra, and take him to the meeting point with... with Tirek. And if I don’t finish these projects, I can’t start the next ones. I have to keep working, Sugarcoat. Zero Division, the war, my friends, they need me to help them.”

“Help yourself first,” Sugarcoat stated, “Let me and the girls take over a few of these projects. You wanted us on this research team of yours, so let us take some extra work. We might not be as crazy brilliant as you, but we’re not luddites, either. Get an hour or two of sleep, okay? I don’t even like the idea of you having to be there when the King meets with the Primera Espada. That could go wrong in so many ways.”

“All the more reason for me to be there,” Twilight said, stifling a yawn, “But, yes, I know you’re right. I know it. I should sleep a little. It’s just hard. I have to practically run myself into the ground before I even can sleep, anymore.”

“Heh, well, I’m probably not helping with the coffee, but my first instinct was to help you stay alert, but that was before I got a good look at you,” Sugarcoat said, to which Twilight glanced at her reflection in a nearby reflective piece of metal table.

“Do I really look that bad?”

“I’ve seen worse, but only after the one time we let Lemon Zest get into the instructor’s break room to sneak out some beer. That girl likes to party, but can’t hold it worth shit,” Sugarcoat said, “Practically passed out after two cans, and woke up like a literal vomiting zombie.”

“Vivid,” Twilight replied, deadpan, “Alright, I’ll close up the lab and head to my room. I’ll start delegating a few things to the other girls tomorrow, hopefully after I get back from Sombra’s meeting with Tirek.”

Sugarcoat helped Twilight close up the lab, ensuring the doorways leading into it were sealed shut, warded, and given a triple security check. The long corridor to the lab may as well have been lifted straight from the silver screen of a horror flick about secret government labs, all glass and steel, containing no shortage of security lasers and cameras, not to mention reishi based defenses. Once out of that area, the underground lab section of the Silburn looked much like any other concrete bunker. Even no, Twilight wasn’t sure just how large the Quincy castle was, especially its lower chambers and levels.

Passing a cross section corridor with a red line running down the length of the hallway to the left, Twilight couldn’t help but look that way, where a big steel door with a Quincy cross embedded into the surface, one nearly ten feet across, could be seen. She’d noticed the door a few other times since working down here, and wondered why the cross was black.

“Hey, Sugarcoat, do you know what’s down there?”

“Huh?” Sugarcoat glanced at the door, frowning behind her visor, “I don’t usually come down here, so no, not sure. I mean, all of this level is different lab stuff, from what I know. Must be somebody else’s lab. Hell, for all we know it might be the King’s personal lab.”

“He has one of those?” Twilight asked, “I’d think if he did, he’d hide it better.”

“Well, I mean, that was just me spitballing a guess. Could be anything, Twilight. It’s sealed up tight. I mean, you’re the golden child who’s got the King’s ear. Why don’t you ask him what’s behind the big scary door? It’s either the lab for a secret Quincy super-weapon, or its where the King keeps his hidden sex dungeon.”

“Ewwww, Sugarcoat, don’t be crass!” Twilight said, blushing furiously, then gave a little squeak and looked up into her own head, “You too, Midnight! Geeze, why am I surrounded by hormonal teenagers!?”

“That has to be the least self-aware thing you’ve ever said, Twilight,” Sugarcoat said with a light chuckle, “C’mon, you clearly need sleep, and I need to go smack the others into getting off their lazy butts to get some lab work done.”

“Don’t be too hard on them. Everyone did fantastically in the operation to rescue Fleur De Lis,” Twilight said, “I really wish there was some way I could reward everyone for doing so well. I’m a Sternritter, and so are you. Maybe we could promote them or something?”

“You really are out of the loop, aren’t you?” Sugarcoat said, “The others got positions as first-class soldats, plus special commendations. Far as I hear, their families are over the moon, and Fleur De Lis’ own estate is singing their praises. Yours too. Which is getting some folks very grumbly.”

“Really? Who? I mean, who’d be angry that we rescued Fleur?” Twilight asked, the corridor with the strange, black-cross door still a thought hovering in her mind. Thinking about the Left Eye of the Soul Queen, and Sombra’s penchant for certain secrets, she decided she’d ask him about it when the opportunity presented itself. She trusted him well enough at this point, but if she really was going to keep rising as an authority figure and possibly even one day take charge of the Quincy, she needed to know there were no more skeletons hiding in any closets.

As they hit an elevator heading up to the Silburn’s main floors, Sugarcoat leaned her back against the elevator wall and tapped her foot, “Right now it's mostly the Sternritter that don’t know you well enough, yet. Prim Hairline, Rutherford, Trender Hoof, and Upper Crust form the core block that have been snarking behind your back, talking about how you’ve got too much influence with the King. They have the ears of a few others but nobody that’s openly joined their ‘bitch about Twilight’ clique. Filthy Rich and your dad from the main line of your support, backed by Sassy Saddles, who was friends with your mom, and of course Cadence and your brother... but them not being here is a problem. As for a lot of the others, they’re kind of keeping quiet, probably waiting and seeing how things shake out.”

Twilight felt a migraine-like pain starting to form behind the bridge of her nose, and she closed her eyes with a highly frustrated sigh, “I don’t even want to deal with Quincy politics, but what choice do I have? Maybe I should just talk to them? Let them know I’m not trying to take over-”

“Well, you kind of are.”

Twilight glared briefly at Sugarcoat, but her friend met the gaze and shrugged, “You are, aren’t you? Trying to stop the war, get the King to agree to a full on treaty, not to mention possibly take over from him if something happened to him?”

“I... I don’t want any of that, it’s just sort of falling on me like a... like a really hard test I didn’t prepare enough for. Which almost never happens with me! I’m the ace of tests!”

“Went to the same school, Twilight, I remember. It was annoying. Seriously, you screwed up the bell curve for everyone.”

“Crystal Prep used a bell curve?”

“No, Twilight, I’m joking. I can do that, sometimes.”

“Oh...ahahah?”

“Okay, don’t fake laugh, it just makes me feel sad.”

Twilight still smiled a bit, even if she stifled the laughter. At this point she’d take any reason she could to let out the tension. Sugarcoat’s warning about other Sternritter forming opposition to her just left her palms clenching with pent up anger, and she could feel similar cold ire stemming from Midnight, deep in her mind. With everything going on were that many of the Quincy’s finest still more focused on personal political motivation rather than the bigger picture? Granted, she supposed it was unrealistic to expect things to just change all of a sudden. It was easy to forget that all that had happened since she first joined the Quincy was a span of months, and the Quincy had been born and bred to this war for generations.

Few people responded well to rapid change, and that’s all Twilight, Sunset, and Adagio had been bringing to the conflicted spiritual realms over the past few months. It just would have been nice to have a few more allies, people she could trust, on her side. Sugarcoat and the other Crystal Prep girls were reliable, and Twilight knew she could trust her family. Soarin may have been an ally in the making, but his condition was still essentially in limbo, with Twilight not getting far on a way to save him if she reversed his petrification.

Then there was Sombra. As always, it was so hard to sort out what she ought to feel towards the King of the Quincy. Not a mentor or father figure, for she had both of those in her brother and real father, and friend certainly seemed like a loaded term for her and Sombra’s relationship. Was she his protégé? Confidant? He listened to her; sometimes. He was honest with her; sometimes. He kept things from her; sometimes.

And I still have a group of elite, super-powered soldiers wanting to take shots at me because I’m practically his heir apparent at this juncture, at least in all but official name. Sombra... what do you want from me? I can’t be your daughter reborn. I’m not even sure I can be your successor. All I want is to end the war you, and everyone else has been stuck in for far too long. I just want... I want to go home... to Canterlot, my friends, my life...

She nearly gave a yelp as the elevator doors opened, her mind having wandered, and as she and Sugarcoat exited, she felt a mix of spiritual pressures down the ornate hallway ahead. For as large as the Silburn was, its layout wasn’t particularly complex, so she knew the reiatsu she was sensing was coming from a big, grand hall that connected the castle’s entry foyer to the other main wings. It served as a meeting hall and sometimes hangout for upper ranked soldats and Sternritter alike. On instinct, Twilight lowered her spiritual pressure, and felt a spike of gratitude as Sugarcoat did the same without even asking.

They didn’t sneak forward or anything, but she did use a touch of the Variable to reduce the sound of her and Sugarcoat’s footsteps to nearly nothing as they entered one of the marble archways into the grand hall.

“Just you try it, Prim, and I guarantee you that His Majesty won’t even have to punish you, because I’ll roast your ass for him,” said Spitfire, the Quincy Academy Mistress as heated as Twilight could recall seeing her. Spitfire didn’t have her bow out, but there was an unmistakable aura of heat and barely contained flame flowing off of the fiery woman as she faced down not just Prim Hemline, but the massive wall of hair and jawline that was Rutherford. To Twilight’s surprise, right behind Spitfire was the collapsed form of Lightning Dust, coughing and vomiting on the velvet carpet of the grand hall.

Lightning Dust was wearing a complex suit of hoses and pumps attached to a backpack and respirator of polished ceramics. It was a rig that Twilight had worked on herself, an update to a Quincy medical suit meant to help heal through alchemic reishi water. Lightning Dust needed it just to keep breathing, day to day. The woman’s hair, once vibrant and flowing, was pale, and half fallen out from a scalp covered in unhealthy purple markings. Even her eyes were almost waxen, bloodshot with the effort to just keep breathing. Twilight’s work on a new filtration suit that would incorporate data from samples given by Smooze himself to vaccinate Lightning Dust was nearing completion, although she feared it might not let the woman live for very long if she insisted on getting back into the fight. Which she was, far as Twilight knew.

Sugarcoat made to move, but Twilight held her arm, shaking her head silently. She wanted to listen for a moment or two to see what was happening. She was worried about Lightning Dust, but jumping into the situation might make things escalate.

Prim and Rutherford, not noticing Twilight and Sugarcoat’s arrival, moved apart to slowly flank Spitfire and Lightning Dust, although like the Academy instructor neither had summoned their bows.

“You’re certainly protective of a woman you don’t like, Spitfire. Why is that? Are you, perhaps, already under that little girl’s thumb? We know she’s making a suit to let poor Lightning Dust gasp her last breaths on a battlefield, but the bottom line is that her Schrift should have already gone to another.”

Rutherford nodded with a blunt, rumbling grunt, his voice a baritone set of falling rocks, “Yes! My Yona is the top student at your Academy now that the Sparkle scion has graduated. Her physical strength is greater even than my potential, and she deserves to be the next Sternritter D. Lightning Dust had her time. She is now a weak link.”

“Fuck... off... Ruther..fuuugh...” Lightning Dust tried to speak with a dry rasp, choking on phlegm and bile in her throat. Prim made a scornful chuckle in her own throat.

“Hmph! Look at you, Lightning Dust. Your persistence is admirable, but also utterly misplaced. What deal have you cut with the Sparkle girl to keep your sorry hide alive? Worse, what deals has that poisonous spider made to know how to heal you to any degree? Rumors fly about her rescue of Fleur. Working with Hollows? Just how deep in bed with them is she? Does His Majesty even know?”

“Yes,” Rutherfood said, stomping a foot and shaking the whole hall, “Answer! We’ll make you talk, and Spitfire won’t stop us.”

“You two sure are confident,” Spitfire snarled, her eyes almost turning into solid points of flame, “Prim’s Zero ain’t shit to my fire, and all you can do is become a bigger target for me, meathead! You want to go? We can go! I don’t have to like Lightning Dust to see you’re both full of it and are just looking for dirt on Twilight Sparkle, which ain’t happening. His Majesty trusts her, so we ought to as well. Besides, she took down Sapphire Shores, so what chance do you idiots think you have?”

“There’s more of us thank you think, Spitfire,” Prim said with a smooth, slick tone, drilling pleased unfriendliness into the other woman with just her narrowed eyes, “More and more of us who think His Majesty is... not thinking clearly, when it comes to the Sparkle girl. He’s going to meet with Tirek? That has to be the girl’s influence. He even agreed to a cease fire with the Reapers! This is not normal, Spitfire. For centuries he has been our unflagging leader against the monsters of the spirit world, and in mere months some four-eyed little brat with a fancy bloodline arrives and convinces him to go against what we stand for? Are you really going to just stand for it, Spitfire!?”

Twilight watched carefully, seeing the doubt and moment of brief hesitation in Spitfire. She decided this was the best moment to enter, before Prim’s words could linger.

“If you have questions about me, my loyalty, or my goals, you can ask me directly.”

She strode out with Sugarcoat at her side, the other Sternritter all turning to face her, Prim and Rutherford with hostile tension, and Spitfire with a mixture of relief and a faint cloud of lingering uncertainty. Lightning Dust mostly just coughed and tried not to throw up anymore. Twilight went right up to the fallen woman, kneeling down, “I’m sorry. Sugarcoat, could you help her back to the medical ward?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Sugarcoat said, her visor glaring at Prim and Rutherford as she helped Lightning Dust up. Twilight made a brief use of the Variable on her, trying to tune down Lightning Dust’s pain and the symptoms of the diseases in her blood. Lightning Dust sighed and nearly cried with relief, all but sagging against Sugarcoat.

Prim stepped forward and Rutherford moved to block Sugarcoat and Lightning Dust.

“Not so fast,” Prim said, “Yes, I think I’d love to ask you some questions, Sparkle. Sugarcoat, too, now that I think about it. There are many unanswered concerns among many of us about just where your priorities and loyalties lie. What, with you being so close to that Soul Reaper girl from Canterlot City, not to mention an Espada... why, one might think you’re hardly a Quincy at all.”

“You’re out of line, Prim,” Sugarcoat said, to which Rutherford loomed over her.

“Any Sternritter has authority to question another, as equals,” he rumbled, “We have the right to demand answers. What right does she have to keep secrets?”

“I don’t even need my X-Ray to see through this crap,” Sugarcoat said, “You old fossils are burning up with jealousy. As if you didn’t know the whole function of the Quincy is for the next generation to surpass the current one.”

“Tch, nobody here denies the inevitability of the youthful fruit of the Quincy growing stronger,” Prim Hemline scoffed, “But how can we be idle when some of those youths are not merely growing powerful, but misusing that power to make common cause with our enemies and distort His Majesty’s grand vision?”

With a more wolfish snap in her tone than she had known she had in her, Twilight said, “What do you think we’re doing!? Grand vision!? Sombra is more tired of this war than any of us! I’ve been in it less than half a year and I’m beyond sick of it! My mother and countless others have sacrificed their lives, all for a war that has no point!”

The reiatsu flowing off of her in a thunderhead of invisible but highly palpable potency only added to the crushing pressure already bathing the grand hall. Prim looked somehow satisfied to have gotten a rise out of Twilight, while Rutherford looked prepared to strike someone, yet before violence could spark forth, a voice cut through the tension. It wasn’t one Twilight knew, a richly smooth if somewhat airy male voice.

“Now, now, now, is it really becoming of us to be getting into shouting matches here in the grand hall? Surely His Majesty would be disappointed that his loyal Sternritter are devolving into a pack of distrustful dogs, barking and nipping at each other.”

Twilight felt a strange sensation in the air, something related to an odd reiatsu that... had always been layered on the spiritual pressure is already present? She felt as if it was less a new reiatsu and more a transparent glass, shifting just enough so it was visible to her senses. A man appeared in the space between her and Prim Hemline, causing both women to take steps back.

He wore a business suit rather than a traditional Quincy uniform, although the suit was in the same starkly white coloring, with slick black business shoes and gold buttons. He had similarly pearl white skin, a pair of round glasses perched on a strong nose, pale vermillion eyes gazing around with a glint of smugness. Off colored peach hair in a well coiffed poof adorned his head.

Twilight had never seen him before, but she’d read files on all of the Sternritter to familiarize herself with most of them... yet even then she didn’t know him. Or rather, she hadn’t, but she felt memory stitching back into her brain in an uncomfortable wash of memory. She saw the others shuddering as well, Prim Hemline rubbing her nose and growling, “Goddammit, Svengallop! How long did you use it this time!?”

“Hahah! Not as long as all that, just the few months since our fair and talented peer standing here joined our ranks,” the man, Svengallop said, bowing to Twilight, “Apologies for the late introduction. His Majesty has had me providing intel on Soul Society, while all these crazy events have been unfolding. Sadly, when I’m on assignment, people, even his Majesty, tend to ‘forget’ I’m around until I report back at the appointed time. Otherwise I may have helped you in your little issue with Sapphire Shores. Ahem... Sternritter F, Svengallop the Fade.”

“I know... I know now,” Twilight said, rubbing her temple, “I read your file, but... that’s how your Fade works. Even as I read your file, its memory faded from my mind. Not erasure, just a sort of suppression, until you turned your Schrift off just now.”

“Bravo, bravo!” Svengallop clapped politely, “You’re a dangerous girl, Twilight Sparkle. I wonder what else you’d surmise about my Schrift with a little time? It's a nasty Schrift, to be sure. Keeps me so isolated, hahaha! But anything for His Majesty’s will, yes? A ghost, that can fade from the memories or notice of all who look my way or even hear or read about me! The perfect spy, if inconvenient to contact when on a long term job, what with the lack of remembering.”

“Well if you're here, being loud and noticed, one presumes you are reporting to HIs Majesty?” grumbled Rutherford.

“Precisely! My assignment actually had me slated not to return until next month, but after what I’ve borne witness to in Soul Society, I thought it prudent to cut my spying mission short and report back ASAP. It’s been rather... What's a good phrase? Coo-coo-bananas!”

“I’m sure it is,” said Prim, “But we were in the middle of-”

“Wasting time accosting your fellow Sternritter like bullies on the playground? Yes, I was watching,” Svengallop adjusted his glasses, obscuring his eyes with glints from the lighting above, “I would advise against presuming anything about His Majesty’s will, either of you. Whether one is a traditionalist or an idealist, let us not forget our only true loyalty should be to His Majesty.”

Twilight wondered if she ought to point out how presumptuous that also was, or the fact that Sombra had told her more than once that he hated this kind of blind loyalty. She was also silently and cautiously probing Svengallop’s reiatsu, unsettled by his sudden appearance. His Schrift was worrying. If he could use it to vanish from memory at will, to go unnoticed whenever he wanted, there was no telling who he might spy on or when. Had he really been in Soul Society this whole time, gathering intelligence on the Soul Reapers? And what had he just learned that prompted his early return?

Seeing her chance to disarm the situation further, she quickly said, “I was going to meet with Sombra anyway, so why don’t we go report to him together.”

She shot an apologetic look at Sugarcoat. She had wanted to get a little sleep, but she’d have to lean into using the Variable a bit to lessen her fatigue. She’d planned to use it anyway, to turn a two hour nap into something as restful as a full night’s rest. When used to lessen how tired she felt, it was a bit less effective, but it would do.

Sugarcoat just nodded, still holding Lightning Dust up. Svengallop grinned, as if guessing Twilight wanted to also hear his report on Soul Society, “Marvelous! I’d love to make up for lost time and get to know one of our newest Sternritter. Deepest condolences on the loss of your mother.”

Twilight gave a stiff nod, unable to get a read, yet, on the man. He didn’t seem to be on anyone’s side, save possibly Sombra’s. Prim Hemline and Rutherford flicked looks towards one another, and Prim pursed her lips and with as much dignity as she could muster, she turned and began to walk away, “We’ll settle our dispute later, then. Just know that this matter is far from closed.”

She was intending to just let Prim and Rutherford walk away without comment, mostly because she had literally dozens of better things to focus her attention on, but Midnight, perhaps drawing on enough anger for both of them, briefly slipped a bit of control into Twilight’s mouth, “Why don’t you try asking Sapphire Shores how ‘settling’ a dispute with me worked out for her and her allies?”

“Blast it, Midnight, I don’t want to provoke any more conflict!”

“Little late for that, Twilight, and they started this. I’m just making it clear who’s going to finish it.”

Twilight inwardly groaned, but aside from a murderous glare from Rutherford, and a slight hesitation in Prim’s steps, the pair left the grand hall without another word. Twilight briefly wondered at the hefty anger in Rutherford’s look. Had there been something between him and Sapphire Shores? As if he was reading her mind, Svengallop gave off a dismissive chuckle, “Unrequited crush. Rutherford always has had a problem with going for people out of his league. Still, quite the bite on you, Miss Sparkle. I’m so sorry I missed so much of the fun.”

“It’s been anything but fun,” Twilight said in a clipped tone, turning to Sugarcoat, “Please, take Lightning Dust. If I can, I’ll come by to check on her before leaving with Sombra.”

Lighting Dust hacked and sputtered, eyes wane as she tried to focus on Twilight, “You’re... gonna fix me... right?”

“As soon as I can. Just be patient,” Twilight said, and Sugarcoat hefted Lightning Dust’s arm over her shoulder to carry her away. Svengallop waved a hand in front of his nose, clearly not fond of the smell of lingering sweet and vomit. Twilight had barely noticed.

“Am I to believe she practically took a shower in the Tenth Espada’s filth, and she’s still allowed to walk around, coughing and spewing bile everywhere? What about all of the, you know, horrific diseases?”

“Sombra and I have ensured the diseases won’t spread with a combination of our Schrifts and that suit she’s wearing purifying any liquid particles that get out of her body,” Twilight said with a automatic monotone, having had to say the same a few other times to other Quincy who wondered how safe it was for Lightning Dust to be anywhere other than a sealed quarantine chamber. Fortunately the Variable and the Absolute got along well as powers, letting Sombra and Twilight set up a combo that automatically targeted and filtered out the Hollow disease particles that would normally spread from Lightning Dust’s body. Purifying the viruses from her actually cells was a more complicated matter, but that was why she was working on the upgraded filtration suit for her.

Svengallop eyed her with poorly guarded curiosity, “While I know what I said earlier, it's not hard to understand why so many are taking issue with you. You truly do hold a strangely close position to our King without having any apparent reverence for him, even using his name so casually.”

“Well, I’m getting fed up with having to justify it, so maybe it’s past time I had a chat with all my fellow Sternritter and just aired this issue out,” Twilight said with a heated intensity that was probably as much Midnight as her, “But right now, let’s just go talk to Sombra, before anything else interrupts us.”

There were no more interruptions, just a lot of stress. Twilight teetered a little, steadied only by a small aura of darkness as Sombra seemed to unconsciously use the Absolute to give her a hardened space to briefly lean on. He quickly cleared his throat and sent the tiny aura of black space away as she looked at him. The pair were alone, in the middle of the Sahara desert, which in and of itself should have been a surreal situation, but Twilight was barely paying the hot desert dunes much mind. She knew the logic of the meeting spot. So isolated that if a fight broke out, Sombra and Tirek wouldn’t end up demolishing anything of importance

“You’re distracted,” he said.

“No, really? You’re not? The Zero Division have taken over Soul Society!”

“They are the de facto leaders of Soul Society,” Sombra pointed out, then amended, “But without Scorpan to mitigate matters, I do fear what may come next. In a way, I am shocked they haven’t struck us at the Silburn.”

“Oh god, they could, couldn’t they?” Twilight wanted to curl up and pass out for awhile. She’d gotten one hour or sleep after talking with Sombra, which helped, but her mind was working at an accelerated pace to try and work out solutions to the increasing number of problems being presented to her and... and all concrete ideas were just flitting away like embers in a fire. “Would they send just one, like with Bowtie in Soul Society? Could we take on one of them? You did, a bit, back at the summit.”

“I can perhaps challenge one, and have a coin’s toss chance of victory,” Sombra replied honestly, looking as if he himself were attempt to relax as he clasped his hands behind his back, “If all my Sternritter fought together, there’s a possibility that would tip the balance against one. Coloratura and your father are among my finest, and their Vollstandigs are in the same vein as Sapphire Shores’. That said, you felt their power yourself, Twilight. What do you think would happen if Zero Division sought to destroy us?”

It didn’t even require much thought. She shook coldly, despite the desert heat. “Then why haven’t they?”

“I presume that they want the war to continue, even with the revelations of the Coalition summit. Perhaps they think as long as Bowtie can spur the Soul Reapers to fight, we and the Hollows will fight back by default. Of course, I would assume they also believe we Quincy need no motivation to fight the Hollows, so they have no real reason to want to wipe us out. Not while there’s a chance we’ll still fill up their Hell for them.”

“Stupid...” Twilight muttered, “It’s all so stupid. I need, we need to gather all the Sternritter, Sombra, and talk this out! No more secrets, politicking, or questioned loyalties. We make them understand that we have to help the Soul Reapers free themselves from Bowtie, stop the invasion of Equestria, then for the love of the powers that be have everyone work together to beat Zero Division! It’s the obvious solution, but... but... stupid is happening instead!”

He raised a hand as if to pat her on the head reflexively, then immediately blinked and lowered it, going back to giving the surrounding desert a gloom-filled but alert stare, “Yes, well, I may have cultivated a certain amount of stubborn adherence to hating our enemies among my people for an inordinate number of generations. Fair’s fair that it’s biting me in the proverbial buttocks now that I need my Quincy to... adjust their thinking. I’ll take responsibility for it. We’ll sort things out. However painful that process will be.”

Twilight felt a strange urge to laugh at the absurdity of it all, but was glad to vent a little with him, although it reminded her of what she saw amid the lab levels. “Sombra, today I saw a strange door in the laboratory levels. One with a black Quincy cross on it.”

He choked, or rather made a noise a human might make when accidentally having water go down the wrong pipe, despite his not drinking anything, “Black cross, you say? Oh. That. You, uh, want to know about that?”

“Sombra...” Twilight said, and he scrunched his dark features like a cat about to get hit with a spray bottle.

“You have no idea how much you sound like Radiant Hope when you do that. Please stop. But, yes, I understand. I’ll not keep secrets, and while this technically qualifies as a secret due to its classified nature, you are a Sternritter so that is sufficient. That said, can it wait until after this potentially deadly meeting/ambush with Tirek?”

She stared at him hard for a few more seconds, letting him squirm for a bit, before sighting and nodding, “Fine. Afterward. So where is he, anyway? He said midday, middle of the Sahara. We’re here. If he’s going to either talk with us or spring a trap, this is the time to do it.”

“True, but I don’t waste time with ambushes, and believe or not, Twilight Sparkle, I am a man of my word.”

Twilight and Sombra turned around, where a Garganta portal stood yawning open to darkness as it hung in the blue desert sky. Tirek was striding out, alone, grinning with sardonic pride as the Garganta closed behind him. Twilight suppressed the urge to cringe back. He wasn’t even doing anything but stand there on the air, but his reiatsu was blazing brighter than the sun in the sky, an oppressive force of raw pressure that no word Twilight could think of adequately described. In some ways it rivaled anything she had felt from Zero Division, even its leader Glory, and it was no great mystery why Tirek had been the one to lead the war against the gods, so long ago.

His toothy grin showed just how much he knew his presence affected her, “Nice of you to bring Sombra like I asked. I admit, I half expected to find the whole damn Quincy army waiting for me here. Hah, not that that would give me anything other than target practice, eh, Sombra?”

Sombra’s own face was an obsidian mask of poorly contained hate. Yet the King of the Quincy kept his tone cordial as he unclasped his hands from behind his back in a small gesture of tense readiness, “I am in no mood for your posturing, Tirek. You called me here to speak, so speak.”

“Terse as always. It's a crime you’ve outlasted my brother,” Tirek said, cracking his neck left and right with distinct, gravely popping noises, “I will be as blunt as you like. This needs to be ended between us. Soon I go to either plunder Equestria for its magic, or find my death from its defenders. If I succeed, I will destroy the Zero Division and take the throne of the Soul Queen for myself. You know what will come after, Sombra, the world I will forge with my limitless might. I know you would fight, but...” Tirek laughed with an odd bitterness, spreading his broad, ludicrously muscled arms, “At that point it would be a pitiful battle, would it not? If I gain the power to finally topple Glory, then what challenge would you present me? None! None whatsoever! And what a boring, unremarkable end to our long rivalry that would be! The thought makes me sick.”

Tirek extended a hand, clenching it into a fist as his black on gold eyes bored into Sombra, “I offer this, then, my hated foe, my only remaining rival. Either submit to my rule, and be of use in destroying the Zero Division... or duel me to the death, here and now.”

Author's Note

I was immensely tempted to name episode "222" as "Tuesday", even if there'd be no in story reason for it. Honestly a more Twilight centered episode than originally planned, but the scenes with her had a lot to cover, including capping it off with Tirek's ultimatum. Will Sombra agree to it? Find out next- *checks notes* -time!

As always thanks for reading, folks, and I appreciate any and all comments, questions, or critiques you have for me! 'Till next time.