I walked alongside Zhang with only the light of the soldiers around us to see by. Their guns had lights at least, and several of their helmets did too, so it wasn't as dark as it could be. The elevators were out with the power, so we were led to the stairs and started descending down and down and down. I should have been counting how many stairs we went down, but didn't think of that until we were going.

~Pinkie,~ I thought. ~Are you alright?~

~Everything's okay up here. Ponies are nervous about you guys. Everything okay?~

~We're on some stairs.~

I felt the urge to stretch a little, mentally, so I did, reaching for Zhang carefully. She looked around with some confusion, but then relaxed, and her drawbridge lowered. I hooked to it, but was still connected to Pinkie. ~Hello, Miss Zhang. It's me, Aiko. Please don't be scared.~

~Oh oh! It's me, Pinkie!~

She could talk through me? I didn't know that.

~Hello?~ "Hello?" Oops, she was speaking outloud.

One of the soldiers nudged her with a gun. "Keep going, we're almost there."

~Don't talk, just think.~ I smiled at her gently. ~And let's look forward.~ I turned back to the stairs and kept the pace.

~Oh, yes, of course... How are you doing this? Is this unicorn magic?~

~It sure is! Isn't it keen?~

~Pinkie, please, this is her first time. Don't overwhelm her.~

~How is she doing it? She's not a unicorn.~

~I'm with her, and she's with you, so we're all together.~ I could feel Pinkie's bubbliness in her words. She was really excited to have more than one pony in the conversation.

~Oh. We're here.~

We had arrived at the bottom of the stairs and the soldiers led us into a basement area. I assumed it was a basement. There were no windows, but there weren't any on the floor we were on either, but it 'felt' lower, below ground. Emergency lights gave some illumination along the hallway, red and dim.

The soldier at the front of the line opened a door to our left, spilling out bright white light into the hallway. "Inside."

Zhang and I went to head inside when the ground shook in a sudden violent rumble, making us stop and look around.

Pinkie's voice rang in our heads, ~What was that? Did you hear it too?~

We hadn't heard anything. ~What'd it sound like?~

The soldiers suddenly shoved us forward, getting over their aversion to contact with us ponies just long enough to get us in the room and slam the door shut behind us. We could hear them rushing off along with alarmed sounds, but we couldn't see them anymore.

"Let them handle it." We turned to see the man that had escorted Pinkie and I from being interrogated. "The situation is becoming unreasonable, I'm afraid. We'll have to take stronger actions."

Zhang dipped her head towards the man and stepped forward while keeping her eyes averted.

I barely know the man, but wanted to know more. "Are you in charge of the ponies?"

"Only the important ones." He thrust two fingers at us. "Like you two, to start. Miss Zhang, were you aware your little trick with the lights were overloading the circuits through the building?"

Zhang's eyes went wide. She looked up at him then and I could feel the fear and terror building rapidly in her. "I didn't mean to! I promise it. I'll never do it again!"

He held up a hand. "You don't strike me as a terrorist or criminal, Miss Zhang. Your ability is truly worthy of note, and worth the time to examine, but not here, and not this way."

Zhang fell on her belly, promising to be good, but he wasn't paying attention to her anymore, he was looking at me. "We meet again. You hadn't mentioned your curious ability."

Ability? I raised a brow. "To teach?"

He rolled a hand. "Clearly, the horned ones, the 'unicorns', have powers beyond that of their peers. Tell me of them."

I considered that as Pinkie's voice rang in my head, ~Why not tell him?~

~He's not our friend, Pinkie. I don't know what I should tell him.~

~I think he may be more than the noise that's going on downstairs.~

~What?~

"Miss Aiko?" He was looking at me with some concern. How long had I blanked out? "Are you alright? Perhaps we've gotten off to the wrong foot. I'm as close to an ally as you have in this building, at least on two legs. I can't protect you if you keep secrets from me."

I had the feeling he was being sincere, in both ways. There was just a little edge of a threat, one he could bring to bear with little effort. "Sorry, just wondering what all that noise was when we came in."

"Those ears aren't just decorational." He clasped his hands together. "Our men are taking care of it, so put that out of your mind."

"I have no doubt they're doing that, but it makes me worried."

He leaned forward slightly. "Let me worry about what they're doing, focus on yourself, and me. Now, explain."

~I don't think he's gonna to be--~

Pinkie's mental words were interrupted Zhang jumping to her hooves. "They're talking, in my head!"

If he had reason to doubt, my wince probably gave it away.

He frowned a little. "Interesting... Who is she talking to?"

Zhang pointed upwards. "The new one, Pinkie, her friend."

Not much point trying to hide that further. I rolled a hoof. "We have a special bond. I wasn't trying to hide from you, sir, just conferring with her."

"Harmless indeed." He raised a brow. "She's losing her touch. This is your last chance, speak, or your new accommodations will be far less kind."

I swallowed even as I forced a smile, sitting on my haunches. "Let's not jump ahead. I'm still learning the 'magic' of unicorns myself. I can make light." I made my horn glow softly. "Lift things." I pointed to a pen and made it jump and dance in the air a moment. "And, as you've seen, talk to friends. The last is a 'specialty', not something all unicorns can do, as far as I know. The former are generic. All unicorns can do them with practice."

He picked up the same pen I had been twirling and pointed it at me. "Why do you have wings? Most 'unicorns' do not."

"No, though anatomy seems to vary wildly," I said truthfully, keeping the --

"She's hiding something." Zhang frowned at me.

I pulled away from her, mentally, but she didn't want to let go. It was the first time I tried to pull away from someone who wasn't willing, and it wasn't as easy at all. "She's trying to stop me from listening to her."

The leader tapped two fingers together. "Very interesting. You've turned things around, Zhang. Listen to her, and tell me what she won't."

Zhang nodded quickly. "Of course, sir."

It was so easy to forget we were literal enemy agents in an enemy land. "Please, stop that. I'm not lying, so let me have a shred of discretion. As I was saying, ponies come in a lot of shapes. You must have run into them before?"

He nodded. "We have, though the more oddly shaped ones were usually least stable, and there are few of them left. Mostly we have the horses, the pegasi, and the unicorns. None fit between them, like you."

Not even the-- I tried to stop even thinking about it. Too late. "She's hiding something again!"

I heard the sound of a cannon going off in my head. The bridge between myself and Zhang crumbled violently and a sort of tension headache I never felt before washed over me and Zhang both as we winced in horrible pain. Had that been Pinkie? If any pony would have done it...

He was scowling at me. "It was, perhaps, a mistake to give you so much freedom."

"No! Please, we're talking." My vision swam from the forced disconnect, but I had privacy again. "I don't know all the details myself, but some ponies, the small horses, are made to guide the others. I'm one of those."

He raised a brow. "You're a leader of the horses?"

Zhang sank to the ground and fell asleep, or went unconscious would be a more proper description.

I glanced towards her, but he didn't. His eyes were on me. "Yes! I mean, to a point. They calm down around me, and they tend to listen, but I can't order them around and expect them to abandon their values." I spread my wings a little. "Being of three 'types' is the mark of those, it seems? I think? Please, I'm telling you all I know."

The door behind me opened suddenly and I turned, expecting to see a soldier, but it was a pony instead. He had a big goofy smile and looked between us before zeroing in on the only human in the room and charging for him. I dove for him and we crashed against the wall with my weight. "Stop!" My command seemed to penetrate the fog in that feral pony, and he went still under me.

The man set a pistol on the table beside him. "An excellent test, though perhaps a bit reckless in execution. You saved that horse's life, Miss Aiko. Get him to wait outside and sit down and I won't have to use this."

I nervously nodded. I didn't want the pony being shot, especially not for the 'crime' of his disease, as if he asked for it. I whispered gently in his ear. "Come on, let's go outside. Come on... This way." I squeezed him gently, keeping a wing out to block his view of the human. The feral began to follow me out into the hallway, where there were six other ferals sniffing around, and no soldiers. That was a good or a bad sign.

~Pinkie?~

~It's like that up here too.~ I took a moment to be thankful that our links were still intact despite the forceful disconnection of Zhang from our fledgling network.

~Why didn't you say anything?!~ She'd been so quiet just moments before.

~You were busy with mister sour puss! Besides, they're not bothering us ponies. They're a little rude and they'll sniff you in private places, but they aren't hurting anypony.~ I could feel her positive optimism flowing strongly into me, and my mood brightened a bit for it.

"What's going on out here?" The leader had come out behind me, and all the ferals focused on him. Dang it... The optimism of Pinkie only went so far, and I quickly considered my few options.

Author's Notes:

Well, Aiko's in a pickle.

1: Try to save that chinese leader
2: Join the ferals in converting him
3: Just get away!