Document Detail could taste the hayburger that she’d eaten for breakfast through the rad-suit’s rebreather. She wasn’t sure if it was making her sick or hungry, but it was definitely doing something to her stomach. Swallowing against the feeling, she shifted her instruments on her back and glided behind the armored guards who surrounded her. They were moving over the blighted land below at such a fast speed that she couldn’t make out any landmarks, though her pipbuck helpfully kept a map pointer blinking on their destination; Whitetail Woods.
Her research pointed to that place as a key moment in the flight of Princess Celestia after the bombs fell, rumors and whispers from the horrifying ghouls that shambled around the wastes at the base of Neighvarro. They told of a bright light, bright as a star, that flew from the collapsing citadel of Canterlot on the Last Day, arcing across the sky with a blinding trail in its wake, towards the then lush and beautiful Whitetail Woods. It was true that the woods were particularly poisoned compared to the rest of the wasteland, nothing but the most corrupt and demented creatures or raiders lived there, bodies a twisted mockery of what they should have been. Was it to do with the Princess fleeing from the necromantic smoke pouring from Canterlot? Detail wasn't sure if the body of the Princess was somewhere in those woods, but the Enclave meant to find out.
“Deets, we’re coming in to land. We can’t fly over the fumes from the woods, so it’s mudpony style from here on.” Her earpiece buzzed, and the pegasi formation dipped low across what could have been a beautiful meadow if not for the dead grass and skeletons. Landing heavily on the slightly crunchy earth, Deets peered through her lenses at the peculiar forest in front of her. Corporal Sunrise stepped in line, pulling out a madly clicking radiation counter, as if the one on Deet’s pipbuck wasn’t already perfectly clear on how deadly the very air was.
“We got ‘bout half an hour, Deets. Is that enough?”
Detail shook her head, the rad-suit making squeaking noises with the movement. “Not really, but it’ll do.”
The group trotted into the petrified woods, the eerie silence as suffocating as the humid air in her rebreather. Desperate to break the void, Detail cast her mind around for the nearest random fact she could find.
“Did you know that ponies used to run through here every year to shake off the leaves? Whatever happened here turned the leaves to some kind of magical stone. No amount of running would shake these guys off, we found that out last time we came down here.”
Sunrise shook her head, the scorpion tail of the enclave armor swaying behind her with every step.
“Shut up, Deets.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The rasp of the suit and the muffled sound of their hoofsteps were all that accompanied the group as they went deeper into the woods, the squealing of the rad meter getting louder with every step. Finally they stopped, the suits automatically feeding them rad-away through a small tube. That only took care of the radiation though, Whitetail Woods had far more toxic magical energy seeping out from every surface, and they had yet to find out why for certain.
Digging through her pack, Detail bought out a small round metal orb, twisting it and throwing it as far as she could into the centre of the forest where it was still too toxic for them to walk.
“Something happened here, Celestia did something. We need to know what.” Repeating this under her breath like a mantra, she pulled out a portable cloud terminal and began to operate the drone.
“Ten minutes til withdrawal.”
“Roger.”
Detail felt sweat run between her wings, but she pressed on with the drone, watching through the tiny camera for any change in the terrain, any indication of what Celestia did all those years ago. The ground began to look torn, as if peppered by shrapnel and explosions. Whitetail Woods was never targeted by the zebras, why would there be debris here? She moved in closer, looking for clues to piece things together. A twisted piece of metal jutted out from the dirt, catching her eye. Exclaiming in excitement, Detail moved the drone as close as she could, trying to make out the writing on the metal. The terminal in her hooves fizzed loudly, then began to smoke with a deep popping noise.
“Damn!” She threw the wrecked terminal back in her back, storming back to the main group. “Whatever that metal is, it had an output far beyond what our drone could handle. There’s something there, but I need better equipment!”
Sunrise’s face was impassive behind her black helmet.
“Withdraw, squadron. Unless you want to start growing extra hooves where your ears are.”
“Roger.”
Walking angrily back to their takeoff point, Deets kept going over and over the metal object in her mind. It was cylindrical, a bomb for sure. What was it doing in Whitetail Woods? It didn’t seem fully zebra made, or pony, but a hybrid. Maybe a collaborative work with sympathizers? She would have to dig through her library and find some of the older books that weren’t confiscated by the Ministry of Image. They might have some information of the kind of metallurgy used during the war, which would help her pinpoint the maker, or at least the root of where the bomb’s inception began. That would give her a hint of what was in it that made it so deadly. Why aim at Whitetail Woods? There was no strategic value there. What did this have to do with Celestia?
Her mind was buzzing. She was a historian. The Enclave considered what happened at Whitetail Woods history, but history with military value. If they could track Celestia’s final moments, they could find her grave, which might have DNA that could possibly be cloned. A reborn alicorn, a reborn Celestia, loyal to the Enclave! For the Enclave higher ups, this was a dream that Detail could make a reality so the pressure was immense. She couldn’t fail them. Taking back to the air, the squad headed back to Neighvarro for decontamination and to report their findings.
She needed better equipment, and she knew that the pegasi didn’t have it. If they wanted to get the next clue to Celestia, they would have to get some from the ground ponies. Detail didn’t know how, but she knew that without the metal for new equipment, she wouldn’t stand a chance in those polluted woods.
