All was quiet in her quarters after Dr. Luna had left, something Chrysalis was grateful for. Sunset's last words still echoed in her mind which was currently a cacophony of self-recrimination, regret at lost time and opportunities, anger, sorrow, wishful thinking and admissions of tiredness.

But she didn't have time for that. For herself or lost love. She would rest when she was dead, and she wouldn't die until the Elders had been made to pay. She pushed up from her sofa, making her way to sit at her desk and brought up a list of reports.

A flashing message at the bottom right of her screen informed her she had a message from Shen. Another one, that is.

Still.

It was time to get everything back under control and flowing. Too much time had been wasted on remembrance and counseling.

She frowned as she read the messages. Lt. Kelly was out of commission indefinitely, pending a full psychological test of her mental state. Given what Suns—Fugue had made her go through, Chrysalis couldn't blame her at all for having a breakdown.

She tapped her communicator. "Luna, consider this high priority: Jane Kelly needs to be back in action ASAP. Work with her as needed. She's currently in the infirmary recuperating from an overdose, and according to Scootaloo, a possible suicide attempt. You can ask Princess Luna for help if you think that would be useful."

Sure, Luna would be upset that Chrysalis wasn't taking a couple of days off, but taking days off is how the world would end, so she'd have to deal with it.

The next message was from Shen. She and Sweetie Belle had figured out coordinates for a potential location for the Ghost. Shen wanted to take all three Crusaders along to bring the Ghost in.

Chrysalis leaned back, tapping her chin. There were a LOT of questions she had for the Ghost. If it was indeed Adagio, there were even more, but she couldn't just send a bunch of engineers and a TV celebrity to do this on their own.

She tapped the comms. "Ember, get Dragon Team ready for an escort mission to retrieve a VIP. You're taking Shen and the Crusaders with you. Contact Central for details."

"Understood, Commander. Anything we should know in advance?"

"Not right now, but once they are ready, I'll have them break down everything for us."

"Yes, ma'am."

Next message. Volk had discovered a location related to the Avatar Project with the coordinates the Council Man had given them. Whatever the contents were, they needed to be retrieved from the ADVENT Forge Facility. The Avatar Project resonated in her mind as a very dangerous thing to ignore… the Elders were putting a lot of stock into that.

"Deadwood, I want Wolf Team ready for a meeting with me in two hours, be prepared for a dangerous mission. I'll go over the details with you."

"Yes, Commander. We will be ready."

Next message. Tygan's list of possible projects. None of them magical. She hit the button once more. "Tygan, I want you to use what we recovered from the old XCOM base and work on Powered Armors. If your notes and research on the previous armors are correct, you should be able to finish pretty fast. After that, get working on the plasma weapons."

"I understand, commander."

"Commander! This is Estella, with your permission, I have an idea from Sunset's notes on how to help protect our soldiers from Fugue's—"

"We will discuss this first," Tygan interrupted. "I'm sorry commander, once we know more about this and what risks it involves, we shall contact you."

"Thank you, Tygan," Chrysalis said, releasing the connection. She went through the rest of her list, allocating resources and contacting leaders across the world. Just as she was about done, she received a message from Central.

"Commander, the Council Man has requested a High Priority communication."

Chrysalis grimaced. "Make it happen. Join me here in my quarters for the transmission."

"Yes, Commander."

It took Bradford only a minute to get there, and soon they were both watching their old friend in the darkened room. "Hello Commander," the council man said, "there have been reports coming from the city of Cap Spartel, in what used to be Morocco. ADVENT troops attacked the nearby Settlement of Tangier Hollow after an unfortunate out of season flooding."

"Dammit," Chrysalis said, smashing her fist on the table. "We need to—"

"It's too late, Commander," the council man said, "the report came after the settlement had been destroyed… but that is not all."

Bradford and Chrysalis exchanged glances, he was clearly not liking where this was going either.

"Cap Spartel is a dead city now," the Council Man said after a pause. "All inhabitants found so far have been killed. Civilians and ADVENT alike. Security cameras not released to the public captured this…"

The Council Man's image was replaced by the moonlit center of a city where Fugue stood, soon joined by the Hunter. There was no audio, but it was clear from their body language that they were not enemies.

The Council Man returned. "It seems this Fugue being has made it very clearly it is not on our side. The Hunter being there seems to indicate something is going on according to the Elder's plans."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Chrysalis said, "not with what we've found out. We already have a plan for dealing with Fugue. We'll make sure to take her down."

"Very well, Commander," the Council Man said after a moment's pause. "I look forward to hearing of your success. Good luck, Commander."

The screen went black and Chrysalis started swearing, while Bradford sighed. "A whole city. Civilians included."

Chrysalis glared at him. "We can't let this continue. We don't know what they're going to do."

Bradford shook his head. "For now we should concentrate on getting Adagio. Maybe we'll have some answers then."

Chrysalis bit her lip. "Have Luna relay this information to Twilight. They need to know how bad things are getting. We need a solution, ASAP."

"Yes, commander."

Once Bradford left, Chrysalis paced her quarters, before stopping next to the computer and activating a comms link. "Tygan, I want Estella working one hundred percent on the magical defense she was bringing up earlier. Things are getting worse."

"...understood, Commander."

Chrysalis sank into her seat. "Yeah… I can rest when I'm dead. There's too much to do."