Loose Ends

"I knew I could count on you," she says, her voice honeyed and deadly. "How long until the device is ready?"

The room is pitch-black, a forgotten, dank chamber deep underground. A remnant of pre-Celestine times, perhaps: a rough, ancient shelter from the depredations of Discord. Her Majesty remembers it, as she remembers all things: with anger and with malice. And her memories, like her hatreds, run long and deep.

"It will be a while yet, my Queen," he replies, nervously readjusting his wings. "Three months if I'm forced to use enslaved unicorns for the fabrication process; less if we can find more cooperative workers."

"I've waited a very long time for this," she replies, her voice briefly hardening. "We've seen what rushing things can do. A few months more is nothing. The unicorns will be sufficient."

"As you command, my Queen," he murmurs, beginning to bow, but she presses on, not yet finished with him.

"Prepare for some new arrivals. The others were successful. They'll be joining you here soon."

"Here, Majesty?" he asks, suddenly concerned. "Right here? So close to --"

"They will all require access to your fabrication facilities, 'Doctor,'" she says, taunting him with the name that was briefly his. "We are not yet finished with the other side, but it's time for this part of the plan to come to fruition."

"Majesty... with five, it will take much more time -- there are so many of us, so near the enemy... might it be wiser to relocate to the Everfree --"

"Enough," she says, green energy crackling like bottled lightning around her vile, ruinous horn. "You forget your place. You do my will, and mine alone. Nothing else matters."

"Y-yes, my Queen," he stutters, bowing in a reflexive cower. "Of course, my Queen. But what if we're discovered?"

She laughs then, the sound unearthly and poisonous in the still air, and he shivers in pleasure and fear as he listens to her words.

"That's what we want them to do, Doctor," she whispers, her green eyes bright with fury and dark magic. "But don't worry. You'll be ready when they find you."