The battle raged on. As powerfully as Tirek battled, the kirin, no, nirik, refused to go down quietly. His attempts to rejuvenate himself were short lived, with barely any time to sup on one before several others lunged at him to beat him back. Still, morsels were morsels, and it was enough to keep him in the battle. A pity his forces didn't have that benefit.

Jets of poison and slashing claws dissuaded the charging nirik, but each one that went down, stayed down. Except one. As wide as they were tall, the biped that looked like they made the creature of wax far too close to a heat source fought on as if the nirik had never hurt them. Not one of Grogar's most elegant creations, but effective all the same as it ignored whatever they threw at it and kept right on battering at the defenders with no signs of fatigue.

"Enough!" Rising in an angry swirl of magic, a clap of force threw nirik and monstrous humanoids out of the way as Grogar emerged from his own power. "This brawl ends now."

"With your passing," hissed the large form of Rain Shine, her fury having last long enough for her words to return to her, if haltingly. "Lay down so we can finish this quickly."

Grogar smiled perhaps too smugly as he raised a hoof to his bell and gave it a gentle ring. It lurched with power as it began to siphon hungrily from any creature that dared to pass in front of him, leaving several nirik passed out on the ground, turned back to kirin and powerless. "Mmm. If you thought Tirek was a pain, I invented that magic."

"Wait, you did?" Tirek shoved back a flaming Nirik a step. "You never mentioned that before."

"You never asked, and it still doesn't matter." Grogar rolled his eyes widely. "Now how about we turn that request around. You lay down and I'll be the one showing mercy."

Rain Shine angled her horn at Grogar, flames erupting in a great cone of fury, only to be caught and siphoned into his waiting bell. "Ah, thank you." Grogar took a step towards her, enjoying the snack she was providing. "I said this fight was over. That was not negotiable."

He littered the battlefield with bodies, not dead, but tired and drained. "Hmmph, pretender. You had my trick and you couldn't tame them?"

"I wore them down," grunted Tirek, rubbing at his sore shoulder with quite a frown. "I would have won eventually."

"Perhaps, but we're out of time to wait for that. You!" He thrust a hoof at a passing monster. "Gather them all, get them back to base. You!" He turned to the melted-wax figure. "You performed well today."

The hulking figure grunted. With pleasure? Displeasure? It was hard to say.

"You've earned the rest of the day off. Dismissed." Grogar turned to watch the kirin being dragged away. "Wait a moment." He stopped Rain Shine from being dragged away. "I have something special planned for you. What a wonderfully large and complex aetheric network you have, with a proven throughput and endurance, hm... Such high quality clay, I think I can put this to good work."

Rain Shine grit her teeth with defiance despite her bone weary fatigue. "I will give you nothing."

"You will give me everything. What made you think this was remotely up for debate?" He put a hoof under her chin, smiling at her frown. "Rejoice. I'm giving you back your precious kirins' power." Her eyes lit with a sullen hope. "Oh, not that way, I'm afraid..."

Her scream could be heard for miles around. A pity the kirin were so distant from the ponies they knew as neighbors.

"Welcome back." Celestia dipped her head at the unicorn. "Equestria has missed you."

Sunburst flipped his ears back, making his hearing apparatus jiggle in the motion. "I missed Equestria. Um... It's nice to not be the only thing in the room with hooves, or a horn." He worked his hooves together nervously. "But I'm not here to move back."

"I wouldn't dream of forcing you to," assured Celestia. "But you would be well rewarded for such work. We've bee--"

"--I know, that's why I'm here." Sunburst glanced away a moment. "We have things that need to get up to space, and you're the guardian of that gate, right now... Rumor has it..." He swallowed thickly, aborting his statement.

"Sunburst... We are friends, America and Equestria, not enemies. Rivals, perhaps, but only on friendly terms. They helped us turn our eyes to the stars, and we would gladly return the favor. Now... I can see you are uncomfortable, which is why I brought a friend."

"A frie?--" He didn't get to finish the question, a unicorn popping into existance mid-tackle to pounce him to the ground. "Oof!"

Starlight hugged him tightly from above. "It's so good to see you again! What did they do to you?!" She poked lightly at the strange device on the side of his head. "Or is this a fashion thing?"

Sunburst rolled back to his haunches. "N-no... There was a little accident. I... am deaf, Starlight."

Starlight scowled at that. "When a pony reacts to my question to tell me they're deaf, I'm inclined to think they're lying."

Sunburst pawed gently at the device on the side of his head. "The humans love their technology... This is attached to my insides. It's... like an artificial ear. It hears for me, and passes it along for my brain to figure out, like a real ear. I can hear, but it's not the hearing I used to have. Um... good enough though... Way better than silence..."

Starlight raised a shaking hoof to her cheek, tears welling in her eyes. "My poor Sunburst... Did you tell your mother?" She squinted suddenly. "You do know she will lose every last marble she has, right?"

Sunburst laughed at that, drawing Starlight in for a hug of his own. "Probably... Why I haven't rushed to tell her about that. So, what brings you here?"

Starlight detached and rose back to her hooves. "Is seeing you not enough? It's been way too long! And video calls are not the same thing." She squinted anew. "No matter what you say."

"Hey hey... Just doing the best I can." Sunburst rubbed behind his head lamely. "You're not... involved with the whole space thing, are you?"

"Nah." She waved that away. "I'm in charge of a school these days. It's fun, but work. Fun work?"

"I know that feeling." He nodded with a happy smile. "I'm here for some fun work, in fact."

"Speaking of that," Celestia casually reminded the room she was still there. Turning away, she began towards a new door. "This way. Let me show you what we've managed."

Starlight fell in with Sunburst. "You know, they're not ready to send anything up into space yet."

"I would have been really surprised if they were!" Sunburst shook his head in doubt. "But learning what we're working with is a part of things, so when they had to pick somecreature to head to Equestria and get a first peek, they..."

"They decided, 'Hey, let's send the pony!'," finished Starlight, not needing to hear the rest.

"Basically," laughed out Sunburst, sitting on the floor of the elevator they had mounted. "It's kind of amazing Equestria's in this game."

"I had my own doubts," added Celestia suddenly. "But when America stepped back from the skies, I saw an opportunity, and moved into the space they had provided for us. I hear they are regretting their decisions, but the time it takes for their systems back in order will serve Equestria well. I mean no ill will to America, but having some freedom to stand eye to eye with them is welcomed. If we let them, they will gladly take charge and pay us a premium along the way."

Sunburst sighed slow and deep. "I knew it was a mistake. I urged them not to..."

"That you are a clever pony was never in doubt." Celestia stepped free as the elevator doors slid open. "Let me show you what we have. The offer is open, should you change your mind."

Starlight moved between the ruler and Sunburst. "Way to be no pressure! Don't mind her. She just misses you as much as I do."

So Sunburst got a tour of the facility, still being built, but impressive all the same.

"I have good news, and bad." Chrysalis flashed her feral human grin at Cozy. "Which would you like first?"

Cozy groaned, flopping forward on her desk, hands stretched out towards Chrysalis. "Tell it to me straight, doc."

"You are such a pony." Chrysalis made a noise of disgust, but patted Cozy gently all the same. "Your little adventure could drag on a little longer. Human systems are merciless... but slow. If they have to force you out, there are rules about that. They love their rules. It would take two thirds of them." She held up two fingers with that, along with a fine smirk. "You could avoid that, easily."

Cozy sat up, doing math in her head. "Yeah..." Since the lady-humans didn't take up more than 2/3rds of the house, they could never just outright finish that vote. "So I'm fine!"

"Not quite. It even coming up to a vote is a huge ding on your credibility." Chrysalis snapped her fingers. "You'll be damaged goods. Some of the ones you could influence will stop talking to you at all, and if they don't talk to you..."

"I can't control them," groaned out Cozy, flopping to the desk anew. "This really is mixed news you're giving."

"I did promise that. Now, we tried it your way. We had a good run, even... Stopped them and befuddled them. Good job." She clapped slowly, too slowly. "But I say it's time to beat tracks and not look back. Grogar wants us back anyway. There's not a lot more to be gained here."

Cozy slammed her hands down, propelling herself to her feet in the motion. "Matty!"

Footsteps came closer before the door cracked open. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Ever wanted to see exotic sights?" Cozy circled her desk, passing Chrysalis. "I'm taking a trip to a nice little place. Wanna, gosh, be my buddy? Got one of those extra tickets."

Mateo/Paul hummed. That sounded dangerous, at best. On the other hand... He could get more intel on whatever was going on. "I would need to pack up and get ready before I did anything that extreme."

Cozy casually half-wrapped around him, batting her lashes at him. "Think about it fast, Matty boy. The ticket's in just a few days and I have to go, with you or not."

Chrysalis laughed for seemingly no reason. "Come on, Mateo."

"You'd come along too, ma'am?" The relationship between the two hadn't really become clear. Who even was she?

"I need to be there too, 'Matty', so yeah, I'm going." She rolled her eyes with folded arms. "You coming along or not?"

"I'll consider it." Mateo gave a nod and fled the room. He hurried to the bathroom and slippped inside. A quick check showed he was alone. He dug out his phone, a burner with all of a $20 in minutes. More than enough. He dialed the White House.

He did not get to talk to the president. That wasn't how that worked. He got to make his case to the operator. "Tell her Paul is calling and tell her shalom." The operator placed Paul on hold.

It would be up to the president if she answered the call with that scant information, or he'd have to leave a message at best. "We should have gotten a pass phrase," Paul muttered to himself. What kind of spy operation were they? Well, not a very good one. A former president and a current one, working outside the intelligence community. It was amazing they had gotten as far as they had.

He'd have to have a little more faith.

Author's Note

Grogar is done playing around, me thinks.

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