Following Sleeping Soundly, (August W4)

Heavy hoof steps echoed down the hall, a suited earth pony with a jawline worthy of an Apple clan stallion pushed through a set of doors, two administrators hurriedly followed in his wake. He strode up confidently to the table in the small room and leaned down menacingly over the stallion opposite that wilted under the glare.

“Mr. Freight, I will ask this once…WHERE IS MY SUGAR?

The rigger on the other side of the table quailed and shuddered, on the verge of a breakdown.

“I don’t know why your trailer was empty! I don’t know why this keeps happening! I just don’t know what went wrong!!!”

“Can we make up production,” the suited stallion asked his admin.

“Possibly, Mr. Muffin, but we’ll have to make bran muffins for the rest of the week.”

“Alert our retail partners, and Knight Errant, with luck we’ll avoid repeating the worst of the great muffin riots during the shortage following the crash of '62.”

Elsewhere

A pink mare shrieked as a hobo sank his fangs into her neck. There were no flinches around the table. A cup of steaming coffee was sipped in the quiet of the darkened conference room.

“Resolution on that trid is garbage,” Ness spoke, “Was the downscaled quality achieved through software or through repeated copying?”

“The pattern of transcription degradation is consistent with repeated copying, though a high-end agent could probably simulate the same,” the reedy analyst at the front of the room clarified and stepped back to reveal another half handful of videos and a dozen pictures of purported changeling attacks.

“I assume that the metatag data and model of commlink used for filming has been scrubbed?”

The analyst nodded.

“You’re not giving me much to work with here Echelon Patriot” Ness scribbled a few notes, the pencil loud against the paper.

“I wish there was more to give. We picked up increased activity on the various fringe ‘trix sites starting three days ago, it took some time to recognize the pattern by which time the narrative had just started to gain traction with second and third-tier media and other marginal influencers. Initial investigation confirmed the use of burner accounts, various sock puppet personalities, all tied to disposable SINs that went nowhere on investigation. We initially classified the origin as corporate. The Media Influence team has been busy lately keeping the lid on any push back from our elevated presence in Seattle, and the debacle in the CFS recently concerning that goose chase the ritual magic department went on has further complicated matters.

Standard psych control and 'population reassurance' procedures were implemented immediately. The somewhat inelegant and delayed adaptation from the source of the campaign clued us in that we weren’t dealing with another Corp trying to hit at our prestige. The security measures they’re using are relatively competent and show behaviors consistent with Shadowtrot experience or at least being advised by someone with Shadowtrot experience, but on swaying public opinion this is as they say 'their first rodeo.' We're handily keeping their message neutralized.”

“Aside from creating a Changeling scare in Chicago, there doesn’t seem to be a larger goal,” Ness queried enjoying his coffee, “can we confirm any actual pony victims in all that?”

Ness waved at the wall-sized Trideo.

“No, granted there’s a lot of unregistered ponies in the Chicago barrens, but we can’t match up any actual instances of ponies being attacked. As to the message we've countered that a few Changelings wandering around Chicago are to be expected. It is Chicago after all. We have one of our Intel mares playing the pink victim on a fake SIN, she'll be giving an interview later today praising the free medical care being rendered by Radiant Industries, and expressing her confidence that the changeling that attacked her will be hunted down and destroyed by Firewatch. In the larger scheme, the lack of any larger goal tipped us off that the goal seems to be to get us to redeploy assets to Chicago. In the service of what goal, that’s your job. We have some token assets moving in for the sake of the cameras but we’re not stripping assets from elsewhere.

Ness mused for a moment.

“Shadowtrot experience on a Changeling that explains a great deal…”

“Yeah never seen one of those Orange buggers get up to that before, but there’s a first for everything. On the plus side, eventually there will be a flaw in one of their setups and we’ll trace them or the forger making their SINs.”

Ness stopped mid-action, his coffee stopped halfway from his lips, his brow furrowing deeply.

“Orange you say?”

Elsewhere

“The effort has been most illuminating, but ineffective,” the comment was as flat as an Appaloosa mesa.

“Seven, I wasn’t expecting a groundswell of opinion but any redeployment of RI away from Seattle would be welcome,” Tisiphone inquired hopefully.

“Unlikely, Radiant Industry aligned accounts were prevalent and well established. We are getting shouted down,” Seven curtly waved a hoof to the room full of Workers, their faces awash in the light from the AR carnivals that danced in front of each.

Tisiphone raised a hoof to her head, she should have expected this. Basic corporate operation 101, control what the wage slaves thought, maybe less directly than her usual means, but effective nonetheless. More resources burned for little gain. She put on a brave face. She couldn’t allow doubt to fester.

“Very well, wind down the operation today. There’s little use in burning SINs trying to budge the fat Yak that is Radiant Media from where it’s sitting. This was our first foray on an operation of this magnitude, and Radiant Industries' strength in this arena needed to be tested. Recon is always valuable.”

“My Queen, I think you are being overly defeatist, we haven’t succeeded yet, but a second effort…”

Cameo protested and advocated for a continuance of the operation she had been assigned co-leadership of.

“No, challenging Radiant Pine in a battle of attrition is questionable, he currently has more of everything. In this case, we’re starting from scratch, while they’re activating pre-positioned assets. We will lose that battle, it is only a question of how hard and how fast. We gain victory by finding where he is weak and attacking him there.”

“We can still accomplish something…”

“Cameo, walk with me,” Tisiphone’s tone was clear, the request was not optional.

A worker slightly turned her head until Seven loudly cleared her throat. Tisiphone was out the door into the tunnel. They walked in silence to the council room.

“Are you so mad at me for daring to disagree with you?”

Cameo stood haughtily.

“No, I’m disappointed. Do you have any concept of how many bodies I had to bury to lay the foundations for what we have become? Ponies, Dogs, and Griffins in this age, the entire Hive save three survivors in the last. We have needed to go through all that why?! Because Chitina couldn’t set aside her dreking pride long enough to realize that annoying the ponies in pointless acts of terror did nothing to change the balance of power. She fought a war she had already lost right up to the point where the ponies finally got around to slaughtering her after they were done with the invaders from beyond the stars.

The Orange Queen refused me because I impinged on her narcissistic self-importance. Strawberry Hooves allowed a portion of her own Hive to be massacred in service of her self-importance. The same shadows stalk us always. The body you wear had its genesis in a drop of my blood. The same pride stalks my thoughts, and in that I can understand why this failure stings and why I must guard against it always. You are welcome to counsel and to advise … but if I find you putting your pride above the goal we all swore, in a way that threatens the future of this hive then I will put you down myself. We will break the cycle of purges and achieve a position from which the ponies cannot threaten us again. Almost everything has been in the service of that goal….and I intend to see it done. Pointless waste fighting battles already lost that cannot change the balance of power is utterly meaningless.

You are one of my chosen, our unity of purpose cannot be in question.”

Cameo looked back, the Nymph’s face a neutral mask. After a long minute, she spoke.

“If the Queen has lost faith in me then I must offer my res-“

“There is no time for this!”

Tisiphone interrupted with a sharp shout. She sighed and continued quietly.

“There is no time. Events approach a nexus. The chance to become more than we are, to be more than irritating vermin in the pony's world, to be the counterbalance is waiting in the wings. I need your skills, your ability to lead when I cannot be everywhere. You are my chosen.”

Tisiphone put a hoof on the Nymph's shoulder. From the far door Creeping Bloom walked in with a report. Tisiphone commented barely above a whisper.

“You are intelligent and cunning, you will learn from this. A mistake has been made, it will not happen again. I have nothing more to say, and we will speak no more of this.”

Tisiphone looked Cameo in the eye and then turned waving a hoof to Bloom.

“How goes the work with the gems?”

“Well on one hoof, I've never been cleaner,” Bloom joked, her mane fringe still damp, “but constant decontamination sessions aside, I think we’re starting to get a better understanding of the resonance the gems are exhibiting. The increased latent Mana charge you noted at the temple appears to be tied to the fact that the other gems are likely now active, with the whole set tied quite tightly via sympathetic resonance. I would say that the theoretical power of the whole set is mind-boggling but frankly, I can’t be sure that any of our assumptions are right.”

“…The CMC wants to destroy Luna and empower Nightmare Moon, they could level half the city with the backlash from the ritual spell Vector Sound described. But Radiant Pine seems to be doing something with parabotany. Would he need that much ritual power to grow a second set of the Elements of Harmony?”

Tisiphone mused, Bloom shrugged and leafed through the reports.

“We have nothing to compare to, the data you captured earlier this year is still an enigma, and how it relates to parabotany a mystery.”

“Great,” Tisiphone muttered, “Another mystery next to the one of who Ms. Who works for, and why they would need a massive source of ritual power with the highly sympathetic cores of Pine's ancient defense system.”

Cameo took a seat.

“We still can’t find much information on her or Razorwire. Is there something -….”

Both Nymphs looked on with concern as Tisiphone began rubbing her temples, the conversation interrupted by the Queen's dark laugh.

“My Queen,” Bloom queried, “I don’t understand?”

Tisiphone’s hoof came down hard on the table.

“It is okay,” Tisiphone wearily sighed, “I am angry at myself, not you. Neither of you had even been summoned when I failed to understand that I had what I needed.”

“How long, Bloom, given your observations, to work up the Mana charge needed and prepare a ritual to rift the planes to the wreckage of Firebase HARMONY?”

“With one gem or two?”

“One…the Nightmare Diamond.”

“We’re still unsure what would be needed for such a ritual, but we have continued to look into it based on your standing instructions. The gems could certainly provide sufficient Mana, though no amount of Mana shielding we currently possess would be capable of hiding the Mana spike but theoretically…”

Tisiphone listened intently as Bloom hesitantly listed off a number of steps, her mouth moving fractionally as she mouthed numbers, counting backward. She finally held up a hoof.

“Two weeks…I could have grabbed the Golden Heart, the Topaz, uncontested, if I had simply realized what I do now. I expected that some other piece of ritual arcana would be needed to forge the key to access the metaplane. The cores are highly sympathetic, with two in resonance we could have bridged the planes and looted HARMONY before Pine’s ritual was ready.”

Bloom looked at the reports blankly, finally offering a softer hit to her Queen’s pride.

“You could not have known, and you have said, that the only thing that kept the others from hunting you down in the time before you were ready to summon us, was that you refrained from doing anything that would have caused a major mana spike. Perhaps we should still make the attempt, there could be much of value in HARMONY.”

“Yes and No,” Tisiphone got up and struck the wall, sighing, “I didn’t research the cores much because I risked the CMC tracking them ritually. I didn’t gain the Nightmare Diamond when it was literally sitting in a box at my hooves, stained with the blood of Yakuza ponies that I had just helped kill because I didn’t know it was there and hadn’t yet surmised it existed.

I didn’t get a chance to pull off my half-baked plan to gain the Ruby, the Alicorn Amulet from the Gala because I was half a changeling at that point, and couldn’t win a fight against a single bodyguard. I didn’t gain the Sapphire even when I knew drekking well that it was in the Grocery store because I couldn’t challenge a world-class assassin.

I didn’t gain a secure base because I didn’t have you to help me. Because I didn’t have a secure base I didn’t research the cores, and so I didn’t realize I had exactly what I needed to gain the Golden Heart. There is no point in going to HARMONY now, doing so would only clarify where the Emerald and Amethyst are to Radiant Pine and Ms. Who. He’s had months to recover the Golden Heart, he knew it was there, he built the Firebase after all. Anything of value will have been taken by his mages, we would be picking over bits of twisted scrap if we go now.

Soon has been the bane of my existence. Now…now we will have to fight for the Golden Heart of HARMONY. We will have to fight for the Diamond, the Ruby, and the Sapphire as well. I will send my changelings to battles where not all will return because I have been plagued by SOON.

Cameo got up and walked over to where Tisiphone leaned against the roughhewn wall.

“A mistake has been made, it will not happen again, because you will learn from this. Do not dwell on the paths not taken, lead, and find others.”

Tisiphone turned and nodded. At the far side of the room, Mellow Mite knocked on the door…

“My Queen, you have a call for Glass Darkly. Something about a job for Ms. Who.”

A half-smile curled up the corner of Tisiphone’s mouth.

“Speak of the devil and she appears.”

Later, Elsewhere

“You want us to steal something, from an airplane, that is either going to be at the Radiant Industries airfield in Detroit, in the air, or on the ground at SEA-TAC. That is…that is…,” Gwynn trailed off.

“Difficult,” Split Klaw affirmed surprising Glass Darkly, who had figured the boisterous hobo would take it as a personal challenge.

Vixie was quiet, as was her style, while Glass leaned against the back wall while edIT gave the spiel on behalf of Ms. Who. A few eyes swiveled to the Illusionist who had so frequently supplied a novel way to work around a thorny problem. In that moment Glass Darkly was silent, but it was not the question of how to gain access into the plane being considered.

Later

“You told edIT no? Radiant Pine is almost certainly shipping one or both of the two cores.”

Facet looked over the information that edIT had been forced to divulge concerning the flight’s timing and origin.

“Yes he is, but success by edIT's, and by extension Ms. Who's definition, includes us handing the box with the core to her. Even were Seven's artisan Workers able to fashion a fake, this is Ms. Who, I do not doubt her skill in magic, she will see through it instantly, and immediately know that Glass Darkly has the original. The odds of Ms. Who paying the team at that point are astronomically low. There is the possibility of I, as Glass, intentionally flubbing the mission yet opening an opportunity for the Hive, but this again invites retribution from Ms. Who and risks the end of any future Shadowtrot work. The fallout should I risk the lives of my compatriots knowing they would gain nothing would be harsh and vitriolic. It could even be the end of that team, as I sense they grow weary of the life Shadowtrotting enforces.

It is a core, but at the time I saw no way I could gain the core as part of the proposed Shadowtrot that did not rely on a ludicrously fortunate set of events, or would not invite instant doom and retribution.

However, just because I turned down edIT, does not mean we are to allow the opportunity to go to waste. Cameo Glass, Creeping Bloom, and Lapidary, put together a strike team. We know roughly when and where the plane will be. Everyone not needed for operation of the spa or the temple, and as many spirits as we can manage will intercept it. We’re going to hit the plane and get back the core that slipped through my hooves earlier. Intaglio will continue gathering food at the temple, with Shifting Facet doing likewise for the spa as our stocks remain delicate.”

“Ms. Who will suspect you, we are using information she provided,” Intaglio shifted uneasily.

“She desires the cores, why I don’t know, but us winding up opposed to her was inevitable at some point. I am no fool, Glass Darkly will not be working for Ms. Who again, nor allowing himself to be caught in a confined space with Ms. Who's pet cyber-samurai.

Still, I have some ideas on how we might mitigate the blowback. Radiant Industries just spent the last several days reminding the country that yes, there are Changelings around Chicago. Blues from inside the Zone, and Oranges roaming up from Missouri. They also recently announced the destruction of an Orange Hive colony in Seattle.”

The collected nymphs smiled.

“Will the Orange Queen be taking her revenge,” Cameo purred her question.

Tisiphone looked over her hooves and smiled, “Yes, yes she will.”

Shortly Later, Elsewhere

The two stallions sat at the small café, a half-eaten deep-dish soy pizza on the table between them.

“This stuff kinda grows on you,” one noted.

“I suppose, so glad we’re done.”

Almost unseen both stopped eating at the same time, cocking their heads as if to listen to something only they could hear.

“OH COME ON!”

The waitress jumped, startled at the sudden outburst in the small café, as both stallions exclaimed a protest in unison.

“Is everything alright Sirs?”

“I’m sorry, we're going to need a to-go box. Work just called.”

Later

Glass crunched under suede boots. A Chicago Knight Errant detective fell in alongside.

“It is an honor to be working with you sir. I mean Agent Ness himself-“

“Detective, everyone from the driver to the Radiant Industries sub-orbital stewardess has been plying me with pleasantries today, I need results, who's our third victim over there.”

Ness indicated a pale mare being wheeled out of the condo by an ambulance team.

“Sky Mall, she’s with our retail division, manager in the program that serves ponies traveling via our sub-orbital fleet or long-range transit. The second victim was Octane Fuel, he’s in Chemicals, primarily fuel additives. First was Simulator Sam, he’s with our pilot training school. None of them have particularly sensitive access, but the one commonality other than them being Radiant Industries employees is that unauthorized access to their work accounts occurred shortly after the attack. We’ve frozen access, and there doesn’t seem to be anything terribly sensitive that they were working on, but we’re still running down potential leak sources.”

“Any of them get a look at the changeling?”

Ness gruffly queried, pausing to look at the broken window leading out to the bathroom sized garden the life of a mid-level manager rated.

“Sky Mall said she thought she caught a flash of orange, but she was borderline delirious. Beyond that, not much.”

Ness examined the alarm sensor set into the broken window frame muttering to himself.

“Violent and pointless terror…That does sound like Orange…Give me a moment.”

The world fell away as Ness patched in an encrypted AR call.

“Echelon here, what do you need Ness? I have another call in five minutes.”

“Do you have any leads on the changeling media blitz? I have three traumatized mid-level managers all the sudden. No obvious point in attacking them, and I suspect they deliberately set off an alarm on at least one assault.”

The reply was uncharacteristically sheepish, “Afraid not, they stopped pushing the narrative not long after we spoke last. There’s some emphasis on the Orange Splinter Hive destruction we reported in South Seattle, but we put that out there. Can’t tell at this point if that’s a refocused campaign or echo of the original campaign bouncing around the matrix. Regardless, it would appear unlikely that they would try to draw attention away from Seattle only to refocus attention there.”

Ness was quiet, his expression saying everything that he might have wished concerning what he thought of Echelon. First rule of hunting, don’t spook the prey. Echelon had done his job too well. Not unexpected, Echelon would get a sterling performance review for having quashed the changeling psyop cold.

“Yes, unlikely. What is the main thrust of the conspiracy nuts…?”

Ness went fishing.

“Oh, doesn’t seem related, there’s been a rather entertaining debate raging over a nutcase’s assertion that our reality was formed out of an alien attempt to sell plastic toys to their young females.”

Echelon chuckled as Ness answered solemnly.

“I sometimes fear for our future at some of the deranged madness ponies have dreamt up.”

Ness disconnected the call, and turned to the lieutenant…

“Put out a general warning notice,” Ness commanded, “threat of Changeling activity, target unclear.”

“You mean a Code Yellow? We’ve already got that, we’ve been at Code Yellow for years…,” the detective questioned inquisitively.

“You misunderstand me son,” Ness pulled out his paper notebook, “I don’t think that putting out a Code Yellow at level 1, 2, or 3 will do drek, but I want my hindquarters dreking armor-plated when this blows up under us. Corporate suits won’t tell me what it is that’s so important, feels like their attention is being pulled too many ways at once. They’ve forgotten something important.”

“What,” the Detective asked.

“That just because the majority of changelings are still using a thousand-year-old playbook doesn’t mean they all are.”

Later, Elsewhere

The room was dim, plaswood furniture strewn about. The sole occupants the mare in Radiant Industries approved secretary attire pressed up close against the stallion in the three piece suit. The desk was a messy wreck as she shifted her position trying to get comfortable.

“It’s a lot bigger than I expected,” she whispered.

“I bet you won’t get the chance to see one so massive again for a long time.”

“How can she possibly take it?”

The secretary shifted, angling for a better view, knocking a few holo-pictures of a different mare off the desk.

“She's become quite flexible, she always has a plan.”

“We shouldn’t be doing this here, we're going to get caught,” the mare's eyes glanced nervously.

“You were so eager to break out the hoof-cuffs and rope earlier,” the stallion chuckled.

“Yeah, that was before I saw THAT,” she whispered overawed.

“Ohhh, looks like it heard you, it’s moving.”

The mare gulped.

“Should you or I do the honors?”

The mare looked through the single shared night vision scope, out of the window facing the airfield. Under the glare of sodium lamps, under the sky that was always overcast with a pall of pollution through which no stars shone, a giant armed C-260 transport plane was being pushed back away from the secure hangar. The omnipresent decoration came in the logo of Radiant Industries. Faceless, armored sentries scanned the airfield, forming a loose cordon around the cargo plane.

The room was silent for a moment, then the sound of a bump within the supply closet broke the spell. The mare got down off the desk, and walked over to the door, with a shove she moved a comatose mare that was her twin away from the door and into an ungainly pile with a comatose twin of the manager.

“There’s going to be a pitched fight isn’t there?” The mare reached towards her side subconsciously.

“Yes… I suppose I should count myself lucky I didn’t get shot during the Highway battle. I know that you don’t forget something like that easily. That fight was not frivolous, and I know that she wouldn’t send us to fight a battle she thinks we can’t win… “

“You sure about that?”

“You ever noticed the scar at the base of her neck?”

The mare and stallion shared a look and then jointly nodded, turning back to the window they watched the C-260 taxi it's way towards the runway, past other jets, many armed to the teeth, that sat waiting.

Elsewhere

Facet nodded, listening.

“The scout team confirms the plane indicated by Ms. Who is departing under escort. Everything matches the information Ms. Who gave. My Queen… Tisiphone, we need a final decision.”

Tisiphone looked up from the council room table, from the projected map showing the two heroic Changelings in Detrot that had confirmed Ms. Who's target. To the line of spirits patrolling the UCAS/NeN border, to the dispersed groups of Changelings huddled in hiding places across the Badlands of Montana. The Hive was quiet, the buzzing largely silent.

“I fear this will be the Highway all over again,” Tisiphone took the offered AR panel from Facet with quiet resignation and winced at the estimated specs for the plane provided by the Scouts.

“Possibly, we are stronger, better armed. It will not be easy, it will cost what it will cost.”

“We will not get another chance like this. I knew this was coming, but...

…I must have faith”

Tisiphone got up and stood before the table. For a moment she collected herself. Then she reached out and felt for her scattered children, each a slightly warped reflection of herself. She found them in cold crags, dusty thickets, and in the shadow of dark hills that blacked out the stars. The faint hint of dawn was in the east, chasing their target.

“Children of the Amethyst Hive, your Queen salutes you. I know the last few days have been difficult. I know personally the strain of waiting, knowing what looms. For far too long we have been plagued by time. Always chasing it when it is ever short. After an age of waiting, soon, soon… soon has been our implacable foe as much as the ponies. Today, soon comes to an end. Today, for the first time in an Age we will strike at the heart of Radiant Pine's power. Not to annoy, not to delay, but to shift the balance of power.

Radiant Pine in his hubris created weapons to ensure the eternal victory of the ponies, never imagining that they could fall into the hooves of others. Two of these weapons we hold already through serendipity and guile, now either one or two of those recovered by Pine fly towards Seattle. We will gain Pine's treasure, and the balance shall tilt in our favor.

Never again will the ponies be able to dictate our destruction. Never again will we be forced to go quietly into the night at their pleasure. We fight today not for petty schemes, not for internecine battles of Hive against Hive but for our future, and all futures beyond the horizon.

I do not doubt that you will fight with every bit of skill and cunning. I do not doubt that you will make me proud. The hardest thing is that I cannot go with you for the same reason that I ask you to tolerate the disappointment of fighting this battle under faces not your own. Pine’s minions have tasted my magic far too often. We must still acquire the other cores, but all war is deception, and we are VERY good at it.

We FEED! We BURN! We DECEIVE! Now at last my children. We strike the first blow of a revenge a thousand years in the making. Rise again, the Amethyst SWARM!”

Near The UCAS/NeN Border

“Transport One, this is Rainbow Flight, two minutes to the border, we’re breaking off.”

The two fighter jets waggled their wings and then broke away, accelerating in a turn that would carry them parallel to the border. The pilot of the far larger craft watched wistfully as the Pegasus fighter jock gave a hoof up through the canopy in salute.

“Roger that, Transport One, out.”

“I wish they would have stuck with us…,” the co-pilot rigger noted wistfully.

“You got a bad feeling or something?” The pilot queried, “Besides the Buffalo would threaten us with endless stampedes for violating their airspace.”

“Hard not to, what the Tartarus are we carrying that they’d assign a full security platoon?”

The co-pilot lowered his voice and indicated a hoof towards the monitor showing the cargo bay full with an armored vault.

“Something we’re not being paid to ask about.

“Control, this is Transport One, confirm we’re still showing clear?”

“Transport One, this is Control, the mages are picking up intermittent contact with a few buffalo spirits, but that’s not out of the ordinary. We’re keeping an eye on it.”

“Roger Control, Transport One out….”

“Don’t worry about it,” the pilot noted, “they’ve got this under control.” He waved to the full squad of Radiant Industries mages and security in the jump seats.

“Then why do they look so nervous,” the co-pilot quietly added and noted the first few rays of red dawn starting to paint the wisps of clouds.

A few miles away, a spectral buffalo thundered through the clouds, running parallel to the plane. A slight amethyst glow lit his eyes.

“Picket Line Two, Number 4 here, target in sight…”

“Understood, all scouts converge on route four, all squads into the air, grid B32 is the intercept, Flitterwing out.”

….

“Getting some intermittent radar contacts up ahead. Too small to be planes, birds, or possibly ponies/griffins.”

“Roger that Sweep, Flight Stick alert the mages in the back, get one of them to take a look.”

“Understood Captain.”

A unicorn in light mil-spec stuck his head in the cockpit…

“We got something up ahead….,” the Captain indicated a display

“Can you divert around it?” The mage grew concerned.

“Maybe, can you tell me what it is…?”

The mages’ eyes flared, “buffalo…but that’s a lot of them…they’re quite visible though, not hiding…I don’t buy it though…EVERYONE,” the mage spoke into his mic, “we have trouble front, standby.”

In the hold, the sounds of rounds being chambered, of restraints being loosened echoed off the bare interiors. Radiant mages surveyed the distant shapes on the horizon. In the hold, a rigger checked out the cameras and squinted as he looked into the dawn back to the east. For a moment he started to speak, then doubted he had seen anything. Then…

A spectral buffalo charged out of the sun, its eyes glowing orange and materialized, smashing the camera.

“BEHIND US!!!”

Mages turned as a squad of spirits manifested at the back of the plane. A pony in heavy armor was flung forward. The rigger jacked out just in time to see a buffalo with long piercing fangs dive at him with its eyes blazing orange.

The rat a tat of weapons echoed. Bolts of magic flew, and almost as quickly as the battle had begun the spirits de-materialized.

“Keep them away from the vault!”

The ponies formed a phalanx of armored plasteel around the armored box within the hold.

The lead mage turned in time as a shout came from the cockpit. Proud Banner ran forward and caught a buffalo that was turning black, its eyes lurid orange almost, finished materializing.

“YOU DREKKING CHANGELING FIGHT ME!”

Banner set loose a power bolt that even counter spelled, wounded deeply.

“Revenge will be ours!” The soldier spirit faded out…

“CONTROL, THIS IS TRANSPORT ONE! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK BY CHANGELINGS!...ORANGE CHANGELINGS!”

“Transport One, This is control, Stand by for spirit support, Confirm Coordinates and Number of attackers.”

Another changeling began to materialize, black and orange.

“CONTROL this is Transport One Security, we’re handling them so far, but some back up would be nice.”

“Tranzzzportzzz Onzzz, thzz Cozztrzzz, zzay againzz.”

“What the drek?!” The Captain switched to his external cameras in time to see a changeling spirit slap a small bundle onto the side of the aircraft near the main antenna…another two were beating on the antenna.

“Banner, they are jamming us and destroying the antenna!”

“Like drek they are! Mages! We need that antenna clear!”

The raw chaotic battle quickly concentrated around the antennas, changeling spirits and the Radiant spirits giving each other no quarter. With the movement of a trained professional Banner hooked a line to the plane and opened the cargo door, a hurricane of wind-whipped loose items and shell casings into a whirlwind of chaos. A soldier spirit charged as he turned to find an angle on the Changelings on top of the plane…

A powerbolt sent the spirit reeling, disintegrating as it discorporated. Magic rent the air, the surviving turrets of the C-260 sang relentlessly trying to drive away the attackers. Errant rounds skipped off the skin of the C-260. A mage at the far end of the hold went down as blood ran down his face, as an astral wound opened by a phantasmal attacker. Still…

“We’re winning!” Banner exulted, “Keep it up men, and give these bug bastards a taste of pony steel!”

A repair drone was working its way up the body of the plane through the slipstream, they’d have the antenna clear in a moment. It was chaos but in his favor. Banner finally took a few seconds to regain an idea of the larger situation. The changeling spirits were losing, the mages were better armed. Aside from some worker spirits they hadn’t dealt with yet during the melee hiding around the engines.

Banner’s eyes went wide as his optics made out the shape of a small parcel in the arms of one spirit.

“CLEAR THE ENGINES!”

Banner screamed into his mic, a power bolt that sent a drop of blood flowing from his nostrils destroyed the worker spirit. The parcel began to fall… a few seconds later it exploded….along with the charges attached to the other three engines.

Plasteel and titanium alloys ripped through the wings and body of the plane as engines 1, 3, and 4 disintegrated. Banner turned as the Firewatch soldier next to him was splattered with blood as a turbine blade scythed through the cabin catching a pony. Wings of fire trailed from the shattered engines. Debris fell towards the badlands below.

Banner grabbed at the nearest handhold as the plane went into a nose-down free fall. The Firewatch ponies were well trained, but zero-gravity was never easy. Banner discorporated another spirit but not before two of his stallions were pulled out of the open cargo door.

He fought his way forward…magnetic shoes fighting against the G-force.

“Come on baby, hold together, you can do it…,” Captain Cloud begged, his hoof on the throttle…the sound of engine two screaming as it roared at emergency power trying to keep the plane’s speed above stall.

“You were built by top ponies,” Cloud entreated his plane, “you’re not crashing today, and I’m not dying today.”

Alarms blared as Cloud fought his controls.

“Bypass hydraulic master two, rerouting the APU to the stabilizers, dumping fuel from tanks one and two,” Flight Stick struggled to reach various controls against the G-forces, behind the stricken plane the sky burned. Yet slowly…

Slowly, the plane leveled out.

“You have to get the altitude back up, we need speed!” Banner screamed.

“This thing is barely flying and you want speed?!” Captain answered.

“They’re running out of spirits,” a mage’s voice in the intercom offered hope.

A line of bullet holes stitched itself into the glass of the cockpit window in answer.

“The hammer already did its job, delivering us to the anvil, you’re earning your pay today lads,” Banner took up a position in the open cargo door…and caught the first changeling that approached the surviving engine with a spray of bullets. Pulling on his depleted magic a cylinder of protective white force wrapped itself around the engine. Below the crags of the badlands flew by.

Again, the battle raged. Changelings traded fire with the heavily armored Firewatch soldiers.

….

“Prima we need that engine destroyed!”

Cameo counter spelled a mage and did her best to support Prima who fought a bitter battle at the rear cargo door facing the engine. The hulking soldier’s black chitin was stained with red and green, a hint of progress gave hope until a staccato of machine-gun fire caught the imposing soldier and forced her away, the ponies dragging away the Firewatch member she had savaged. A soldier from Prima’s squad spiraled towards the ground, its diaphanous wings fluttering only with the passing of the wind.

“Cameo, I got this! Keep me invisible,” Digs moved towards the engine’s pylon.

“Digs they have mages, they’ll see you!” Cameo shouted across the hive mind, but still gave the worker her best effort.

“There’s no time!” Digs quickly attached the parcel to the pylon…bullets thudded into the armored wing around her. She paid them no mind.

“I almost got it!”

Cameo desperately covered the worker, bullets thudded into the ponies, but only good hits seemed to do any damage, and the Nymph’s selection of illusion spells was proving only marginally useful. This was not the type of battle that the hive specialized in. The bullets being fired in return were the best Radiant Industries could make, and the cries of psychic pain formed their own terrible music of battle.

“DIGS! The rear turret…,” Cameo cried a warning…

Digs-Like a Unicorn looked up. A second later she slid backward off the wing caught in the slipstream following the rapidly dissipating cloud of green mist, a few holes in the wing where the cannon rounds had passed trailed thin pencil lines of smoke. With an almost disdainful flicker of unicorn magic, the charge was ripped off by a spell and sent flying.

Changelings huddled on the far side of Engine two, finding shelter in that the ponies could not shoot through it, but unable to pierce the barrier. Chuckbug Norris took stock as another group of changelings fell behind as the spirit providing them Movement was popped.

“We need that mage dead…we can’t do this one by one,” Norris implored.

Seven cradled her charge of explosives, “we’re running out of charges.”

Norris looked over the group…and saw the same hesitation that she had seen at the Dockyard.

“The Queen is not here this time,” Norris noted to Cameo.

For a moment Cameo was silent.

“She watches us,” Cameo smirked.

“That she does… SISTERS! A Radiant Mage and his minions stands between you and your future. Will you be beaten off so easily?! The Queen watches, do not disappoint her! Now…SISTERS! With Me! WHO WILL COME WITH ME?!”

A chorus of snarls and buzzes echoed and the swarm surged forward from behind the engine, flowing towards the open doors the ponies fired from. Bullets tore into chitin, but the swarm would not be checked, its momentum carried forward. At the cargo doors, fang and armor met. The first Firewatch soldier was pulled from the opening and sent falling to the ground below.

“FOR THE QUEEN!”

Banner fell back, to the final defense of the vault within the hold. Chuckbug’s armor was rent, she was bleeding from a burst of bullet wounds, a carpet of spent bullet casings rolled around the floor and spilled from the cargo doors, still she and Cameo pressed forward. Victory was….

The whine of a vindicator mini-gun in the hooves of a massive earth pony spinning up was both quiet compared to the rush of air, yet supremely loud.

….

Chuckbug coughed, bleeding…her armor and carapace torn to shreds…

“You’ll never win, Pine destroyed the lot of you before, he’ll do so again,” Banner coughed, his armor studded with several dozen flattened bullets, few strong enough to penetrate. “How does it feel, knowing she sent you here to die, you drekking bug!”

“Liberating,” Norris coughed, “for death is light as a feather, duty as heavy as a mountain, and my Queen sent me here to live.”

The mortally wounded Changeling Soldier pulled a grenade from her pack and smiled. Banner's horn lit with magic as he tried to fling it away, but a second later the surviving security squad was doused with an oily substance.

Proud Banner smelled, “Drek its cha-,” the mage fell silent as his jaw stopped working…the abuse his armor had taken had left multiple holes in the chemseal. Proud Banner fell to the floor of the plane, using his last bit of strength to reach out weakly towards the surviving engine. Trying to maintain the spell. Until…the potassium mixed with the changeling venom began to react with the air and started to catch fire. He watched paralyzed as the spell flickered and died.

Only a half moment later a charge was detonated, silencing the final engine…the sounds of battle falling away. He could only watch in rage as a Changeling scout pulled the wounded Nymph to safety. Again, the cargo hold became a surreal scene as thousands of shell casings, the few security ponies left and assorted bits of gear burned with potassium residue while floating in free all.

“Not like this!” A cry came from the cockpit…A few surviving security team members tried to find safety but as a crag of solid stone rose up to meet the plane the outcome was clear.

A horrible sound of tearing plasteel echoed as the few surviving control surfaces tore away. The right wing, bent then folded back. A few seconds later the low scrubby crags of the Badlands were lit with the fireball as the Transport slammed into the hillside scattering wreckage. Almost immediately the Swarm descended, seeking their prize. Prima followed a worker with a signal scanner that pointed to a piece of wreckage.

With a grunt, the Soldier lifted the piece of metal. In the shadow of the planes' tail still emblazoned with the Radiant Industries logo, as smoke spiraled into the red morning sky, Changelings raised their voices in a chorus of buzzes and exultant cries of victory.

The revealed data and voice recorders were smashed as were other bits of evidence. Seven of Nine found her target wedged between a boulder and the bulk of the plane wreckage. The vault was battered and buckled, but intact.

“Problematic,” Seven’s voice carried a hint of distress as she examined the hardened box, a test with a cutting tool made minimal progress.

“Exceedingly problematic!”

Seven's Hive voice grew agitated.

“Seven, Cameo is out, Lapidary is working the cleanup, how long do you need?”

Bloom’s query carried dread.

“Longer than we have! Does anyone have a charge left?.....ANYONE!?”

A thousand miles away Tisiphone held her head between her hooves, not this, not after she had asked so much of her Hive. To be defeated simply because Pine had massively over-engineered a container. She breathed and willed for something, anything to provide her Hive with the victory they had earned. She felt it again, like the last time she had willed the scales of fate to tip within the Sweetwater data storage room. To that balance, she added her hoof even as she felt her own position within the weave of destiny fray. Against this, she would count no cost, even her personal luck.

A thousand miles away, a Scout spirit, one of the few remaining, doubled back and found a group of lagging Changelings whose own Scout spirit had been destroyed.

“Seven I'm coming! I have a charge,” Mellow Mite breathlessly responded.

“Uh, Sisters, now would be a good time to be leaving...all of Detrot just launched,” The mare in an office building in Detrot whispered in awe at the armada taking to the air.

“Finish what you’re doing and get clear!”

Lapidary ordered, her mind frantically seeking out any wounded Changelings her caretakers might have missed.

Seven with a squeal of glee grabbed the blasting charge from Mellow as the latter swooped in, nearly crashing at her spirit assisted movement speed. Changelings leaped clear as the explosion ripped into a buckled section of armor. Seven looked through the hole and gingerly reached through, grabbing a manacase. A massive backwash of magical energy confirmed the prize was genuine.

Bloom took the case from Seven, chucking it into a secondary manacase, together they rose into the air, all around the Changelings disappeared as a flurry of invisibility spells were cast. Lapidary carried Cameo as they flew towards the shadows in the west.

“My Queen?”

“Yes Bloom?”

“You are one Diamond richer, and today vengeance is ours.”

Later, Seattle

Ness reached for his bottle. It was getting annoyingly empty. His holo AR emitter hummed as several case files were displayed. The trip to Chicago had been a bust as had Detrot. Waste of time that only offered new questions..

A hoof knocked heavily on the door.

“Agent Ness, we’re here to pick you up…”

“You lads here to arrest me or escort me?”

Ness had barely turned when the door clicked, unlocking. He recognized the Firewatch Captain.

“What has happened?” Ness grew solemn as he read the faces.

“We'll brief you during the flight. By the way, you’ve been granted top security clearance….and you can wipe that 'I told you so' look off your face. You’ve got a briefing with Golden Lilly tonight.”

“There’s been no mention of an attack,” Ness queried.

“Because it happened in the tail end of nowhere Montana…Now were you waiting for Radiant Pine, the Protector himself, to get your coat for ya?”

Later

Buffalo stampeded in the distance, yelling their displeasure. A line of security ponies ringed the site. The sky buzzed with a mix of camera and security drones as the suede boots jumped off the helicopter down to the brown tough grass of the Badlands.

“…main crash site is here, the pattern of debris is consistent with a late breakup just before impact. Beyond that, we have debris ranging over 20 miles.”

“Helluva fight…,” Ness felt his heart sink, “this wasn’t necessary. Did they get off a distress call?”

“Started too, then they were apparently jammed. Basic black market model. One wouldn’t stop the signal boosting…”

“But several would.”

“Aye, the station in Weyland picked up bits and pieces but we lost time trying to locate the plane. They were a solid 30 miles off course by impact. We’re still trying to piece together the sequence. The main data drives as well as the voice recorders were all deliberately smashed and burned. It’s morbid but our best records are coming from the on armor storage of several Firewatch Soldiers they threw out of the plane at altitude. They feinted towards the cargo and cockpit to distract the security response while they set the jammers. Then fought a holding action at the jammers while they blew the engines.”

“Changelings have gotten fond of Shadowtrot tactics all the sudden, haven’t they? Which Hive,” Ness walked towards the wreckage.

“Orange, there was a comment on the security lead's audio claiming this was revenge for our recent actions.”

Ness stopped, pausing, “How many dead Changelings then? Where have you put them?”

“We’re still working on that. There’s a lot of blood, most of it hit with C2, but we’ve found no dead or wounded Changelings.”

Ness shut his eyes and grimaced, “I believe this was the work of the Orange Hive like I believe Apple-Zap when they claim they shipped all the Timberwolves to a nice reserve in the Yucatan.”

Later

“Queen, I believe you have healed me enough…,” Prima chuckled from the improvised cot, not entirely keeping the wince from her face.

Tisiphone startled awake, then remembered where she was…

“Only if you promise to stop meeting me like this,” Tisiphone forced a chuckle.

“Soldier’s purpose is to fight. Queen’s purpose is to plan. I hurt on the outside, inside, I am happy.

Tisiphone forced herself to nod, the words were hard to hear, and she was so tired. Changelings lay strewn in every corner, the little infirmary overflowing out into the common area. She nodded and began to pick her way through the jumble of cots, in the corner Frizzle and a few other caretakers did their best to tend to Cameo, the Nymph alive, barely.

Changelings had been filtering back all day, more would likely stream up the hidden access tunnels tonight. She could cast no more healing spells. She turned and headed to the council room. There the map of the battle as pieces had been moved was still laid out…for a long moment she studied it, then wordlessly went to the side where the tokens representing the cores were shown. The Emerald, the Amethyst with the Hive, the Sapphire with Ms. Who, the Ruby the CMC, and the Diamond and Topaz with Radiant Pine. With finality, she placed her hoof and moved the token of the Diamond to the Hive.

Deep within the hive, where they had stopped tunneling a room sat bare. With a sigh, Tisiphone entered it…and walked between the short twin rows of low bundles that lay on the unadorned floor. Each she held a hoof too in succession. They were here, those whose voices she had felt disappear from the Hive mind. Digs-Like-A-Unicorn, Chuckbug Norris…others.

“Thank you, you will be remembered.”

Tisiphone moved to the far wall and sank to her haunches. She wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep when she startled awake, a cup dangled in front of her face, amethyst liquid swirled in it. Turning her head, she made out Facet.

“We’re still rationing,” Tisiphone noted flatly.

“That maybe, but I had several of your subjects swear to me they weren’t hungry.”

Taking the cup in her trembling hooves, Tisiphone debated for a moment, but need overrode philosophy.

“Oh that’s good,” Tisiphone sighed a moment later, disappointed that the cup had only gone so far. A moment of silence passed before she continued.

“The last thing I said of substance to Cameo Glass was chewing her out.”

Facet rubbed the back of her amethyst and blue mane.

“…and would you honor her by moping? Chuckbug Norris led a charge into a hail of gunfire because she believed in your vision. If you believe in it still, then count no cost in pursuing it. A Queen’s will equals all those who would follow her to ultimate glory combined.”

“Help me up then,” asked with a sigh.

“To do what?”

“Actually use the bed Frizzle spent so much time making for me.”

“As you wish…My Queen.”

Later

“We have early reports of a major Changeling attack on a Radiant Industries transport plane, two days ago in the skies over the NeN,” the attractive anchormare reported.

Radiant Industries spokesponies confirmed that a C-260 transport was forced to crash, killing the crew. This comes following sporadic and sometimes disputed reports of changeling activity in the environs of Chicago, along with attacks on Radiant Industries staff around Detrot. While it is unconfirmed, sources close to the investigation have noted that these events followed the destruction of a hive colony in southern Seattle.

The representative from Radiant Industries noted that memorials for the crew of the plane would be made over the next few days with attendance from the company’s executive management. The company further noted, that while the security team aboard the plane was ultimately overwhelmed, they described the battle as pyrrhic for the changelings and indicated that given the extremely high losses suffered by the changelings that the sacrifice of the noble crew would ensure the safety of the general populace for some time to come, and as such Radiant Industries considered the battle to overall be a strategic victory against the Changeling menace.

Furthermore, it was noted that Radiant Pine himself would be personally monitoring the situation until the offending changelings were hunted and destroyed. There was no word on what the plane’s cargo save that recovery efforts were ongoing from the badland of Montana.”

“Wasn’t that the plane Ms. Who wanted us to steal?” Split Klaw asked lazily from a corner.

“I suppose,” Gwynn looked on with disinterest until finally, the chime came, the call from edIT arriving.

Glass Darkly sat at the table, his jaw slightly askew, entire protestations of innocence prepared and rehearsed dying on his lips, unneeded. No pony had cared that the run they had turned down had been hit by changelings.

….

“Why don’t we just shoot the mare?”

Eye of Providence suggested, the new addition to the team arguing for a simple solution.

Split Klaw nodded, caring not one way or the other. Vixie looked at Glass Darkly.

“I’m okay with it,” Glass indicated his assent.

“You usually aren’t, you’ve been callous of late,” Vixie noted at the nominal Buddhist that a long time ago had argued passionately against such indiscriminate killing.

“I’ve been a bad Buddhist of late. Regardless, as token as it is, it pays a debt.” The illusionist answered softly, none able to see the flicker of memory, nor see the row of bundled casualties. Glass Darkly owed a debt of honor to the team of Shadowtrotters that would likely never see work from Ms. Who again, and to make her own contribution. The pay was a pittance, but 5,000 nubits could still buy a fair amount of medical supplies.

The only question now…how long until Radiant Pine and Ms. Who came calling to collect on other debts.

Author's Note

Game Notes: Firebase HARMONY was constructed by Radiant Pine in the prior D&D crossover game. It was a dimensional hopping fortress that included a Core at its heart (The Topaz). The fortress was the site of the final battle of that campaign. Mostly destroyed its wreckage drifted between the metaplanes.

Mission Summary: The team is offered a job to hit a plane transporting unspecified cargo on behalf of Ms. Who. Glass Darkly/Tisiphone is aware that Radiant Pine one or two of the Cores to Seattle for his as of yet unknown project. Unable to reconcile using the Shadowtrot team in a mission with conflicting definitions of success, Glass Darkly simply shows hesitation in accepting. Given this, the other characters decide it is too difficult.

Tisiphone then commits the bulk of her hive into a battle to seize the Diamond. It succeeds, but just barely.

Later, the team takes a fairly basic assassination mission that goes off without much complication. Eye of Providence is introduced as a new team member. Eye of Providence is a technomancer played by the same player that played Silky Sheets and Strawberry Hooves.