Chapter 64: A Plan Set in Motion

James waited in the Council meeting chambers along with all of the other Royal Councilors. Also present were Captain Sunflare of the Celestial Guard, and Captain Silent Watch, Commander of the Royal Intelligence Service. James had already told them why they’d been summoned to the meeting chambers on such short notice. An electric energy of celebration filled the room and it buzzed with muted but excited chatter among the Council members. James, however, sat in silence. Looking around, he noted that Captain Sunflare and Captain Silent Watch were also silent. Like him, he suspected they wouldn’t begin celebrating until Luna was safely back in the castle. No doubt, the two of them were just as aware as he was that there were any number of things that could still go wrong with the rescue operation.

The door opened and Twilight Sparkle entered, along with Captain Stardust, Commander of the Lunar Guard. Immediately, the chatter stopped. The Council members stood in respect of the Regent, while the Captains in the room all stood and saluted. Twilight returned their salute, and as she sat down, so did everyone else. She wasted no time before beginning to speak.

“As you’ve no doubt all heard, Gilda has returned and she knows where Princess Luna is being held. However, the operation to rescue her isn’t going to be easy. The gryphons have a secret weapon we didn’t know about. It’s called cold iron.”

She paused, looking at Captain Silent Watch, as if waiting to see if he would have any reaction to the fact that the gryphons had apparently pulled one over on the Royal Intelligence Service..

“Actually, we did know about it, My Lady. We didn’t know they had already actively deployed it anywhere, though,” Silent Watch stated.

“You did? Why wasn’t I informed in any of my previous briefings?” Twilight asked with just a slight hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Under the circumstances, we didn’t have time to inform you of everything, My Lady. We informed you of what we thought was most important. Weapons that we thought were still in the testing phase and not in actual deployment didn’t seem important enough to spend precious time on.”

“”You’re right,” Twilight responded apologetically, although if Silent Watch had taken any offense at the slight hint of anger in her tone, he had not shown it. “However, this is going to make the rescue very difficult.”

This time, it was Captain Stardust who responded.

“Royal Intelligence has kept us up to date on what they know about cold iron, and we’ve worked with Bat Team Alpha on tactics to combat it. We don’t have any direct way to counter or neutralize it, but we have developed effective tactics for dealing with it.”

“That’s good to know, at least,” Twilight responded. She then proceeded to tell the Council members and captains everything that Gilda had told her. James carefully watched both Captain Silent Watch and Captain Stardust for anything their facial expressions or body language might give away about what they thought the chances of a successful rescue were. But if they had been poker players, they both would have been masters at it. Neither one revealed the slightest hint about what they were thinking or feeling. They only listened intently, occasionally scrawling notes about what she was saying.

“That’s everything she told me,” Twilight said when she had finished telling them everything Gilda had told her. “So what are your thoughts, Captain?” She said, looking at Captain Stardust now.

“I think Bat Team Alpha can pull off a successful rescue. It sounds like the gryphons are relying rather heavily on the secrecy of the location, as well on the protection that they think the cold iron will provide them, and that they are unaware that we know the location, or that we know about cold iron. They are expecting that even if we do discover the location and make a rescue attempt, they will catch us completely by surprise with the cold iron. As it turns out, they are the ones that will be surprised. Plus, if Her Majesty really does have a friend on the inside, and James can communicate with her again and let her know we are coming. Yes, I think we have a very good chance of pulling this off.”

“Can you get in without the outside guards raising an alarm, though? Given that the unicorns probably can’t teleport into the building?” Silent Watch asked.

“We won’t send unicorns in. Unicorns aren’t very well trained in hoof-to-paw combat.”

“But how are you gonna get in, then?” Twilight asked.

“We have a couple of secret weapon of our own that will get us in. Weapons we are almost certain the gryphons don’t know about,” Captain Stardust said with a confident smirk. He didn’t elaborate on what those secret weapons were, and Twilight didn’t ask.

“As long as it will get you in, we don’t have time to go into details,” Twilight said. “If you don’t need anything more from me, you may go plan your mission. My assistant, Spike, is embedded with your Bat Team Alpha unit. Let me know as soon as you are ready to transmit the information to them. I can send it to Spike and they will get it instantly. Also, be sure to let James know so he can contact Princess Luna in the dream world and give her the details.”

“My Lady,” he said, standing up and saluting. Then, he turned and left the room. Twilight waited until the door had closed again before continuing.

“Since we are all here, we might as well make this our regularly scheduled briefing. What other news do we have?” It was Captain Sunflare that responded.

“Two Pegasus Guard messengers arrived about an hour ago. Captain Skydart’s forces were ambushed by a combined force of aislings, gryphons, and dragons. Casualties were minimal, but Captain Skydart was captured. A changeling by the name of Auraria is leading the forces now.”

“Aislings?” Twilight said, her ears perking up in alarm. “Then the barrier has weakened enough and the Beyond has grown strong enough for its agents to enter Equestria and take physical form. Does that mean a full-scale invasion is imminent?” She frowned, turning her attention to Moonsong now.

“Probably not, My Lady,” Moonsong responded, shaking his head. “There are cracks in the barrier, and more are forming faster than we can repair the existing ones. However, the aislings can only come through at the cracks. So basically, it’s like a funnel. Very few of them can get through at any given time. But they can get through, and the rate at which they can get through is increasing.”

Twilight nodded, then turned her attention back to Silent Watch.

“Auraria. What do we know about her?”

“Commander Auraria, twenty-two years old, Division Commander of the First Imperial Army. She’s a prodigy. A military genius by any standard. Began her military training at the age of six, young even by changeling standards. Promoted to officer at seventeen, making her the youngest changeling ever to receive officer rank. Became a division commander at the age of twenty, the youngest changeling ever to receive a division command. Widely expected to be next in line for Supreme Commander of the entire Imperial Army and expected to receive that promotion within the next two years. Her writings on military strategy are required reading for our own students at the Academy who are training to be officers in the Royal Guard.”

Silent Watcher had started giving the information about Auraria without so much as a pause to think about it after Twilight had asked. Nor had he missed a beat or stopped to think while giving it. He had recited the information as easily as most ponies could recite the alphabet. It was obvious that the Royal Intelligence Service spent a great deal of time thinking about and studying this Commander Auraria.

“Well, her qualifications to lead certainly aren’t in doubt, then,” Twilight stated.

“There is no one more qualified anywhere in the world,” Silent Watch responded.

“But can we trust her?”

“As long as she continues to believe that her orders from Imperial High Command are to assist Equestria in our war against the Beyond and against the Gryphon Empire? Yes, we can trust her. But if word reaches her about the coup at home, and she believes that coup is over the Empire’s assistance to Equestria? She’ll have to decide whose side she’s on. If she decides she’s not on ours? Then we’ll have a large changeling army deep inside our borders lead by the best and most dangerous field commander the world has ever seen.”

Twilight’s ears perked up just a bit more, a sign that her state of alarm had increased.

“All the more reason James needs to get back to the Hive and find out what the hay is going on there. But he can’t leave until he hears back from Captain Stardust and he’s been able to contact Luna … Any other news?” It was Moonsong that responded.

“There’s something strange going on inside The Beyond, and we aren’t sure what it means. Our last magical energy probes into The Beyond showed that the energy fields inside are weaker than they were a few days ago.”

“Could the aislings that left the Beyond and entered Equestria explain it?” Twilight asked.

“That accounts for some of it, but we don’t think enough of them have entered Equestria to explain the magnitude of the drop we are seeing.”

“Could The Beyond just be weakening for some reason?”

“It’s possible, but we don’t think so. If anything, we think it should be growing stronger. There’s nothing that would explain why it should be growing weaker. Our biggest concern, and what we think is most likely, is that there’s a larger hole in the barrier somewhere that we haven’t found yet, and that a large number of aislings came through it in the last few days. If that’s the case, they may be hiding somewhere in Equestria preparing to make a large attack. But if so, we have no idea where they are and when the assault might happen. We don’t have nearly enough forces to keep watch on the entire barrier and also fight the gryphons.”

Twilight frowned, but nodded. “Keep on it, and let me know as soon as you learn anything more.”

“Yes, My Lady,” Moonsong responded.

“If there’s nothing else, then, you are all dismissed. Since we used this as our normal briefing, none of you need to show up for the next scheduled one.”

Everyone in the room stood when Twilight did, and the remaining military officers saluted. Then, they all filed out and went their separate ways, James making his way to the Council living quarters to get ready for his trip to the Hive.

Once he was in his room, he took the pack that Rarity had made for him out of the closet and tossed it on the bed. Then he took a couple of changes of clothes out of the closet, neatly folded them, and placed them in the pack. The clothes were warm, yet made of a material thin enough that he could wear them under his Council robe. He’d forgotten what material Rarity had said they were made out of. He wasn’t in his room long before he heard a hoof knock on his door.

“Councilor?”

“Come in, Captain,” James responded, recognizing the voice of Captain Stardust of the Lunar Guard.

The bat pony entered, closing the door before speaking.

“We’ve made contact with our Bat Team Alpha unit in the Gryphon Empire. The rescue mission is set. They are currently two hours and seventeen minutes from the facility where Her Majesty is being held. Once they arrive, they will take five minutes to survey the facility and set up their attack on it. So the actual infiltration of the facility will begin in exactly two hours and twenty two minutes. Note the time right now.”

“Exactly?” James said, raising an eyebrow at the fine-grained estimate he’d been given. At the same time, he glanced at the clock, making a mental note of the current time as Stardust had instructed.

“Bat Team Alpha units are required to make their estimates accurate within plus or minus fifteen seconds. If they say they’ll arrive at a target at a certain time, you can be sure they’ll be there within fifteen seconds either side of the time they gave you.”

“That’s … impressive,” James responded in amazement.

“There’s a reason they are considered the best of the best,” Stardust responded in neutral tone, as if estimates that accurate were the most natural thing in the world for the elite Alpha team.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to give Princess Luna a time that accurate, though. I won’t have a clock in the dream world, and it’s very difficult to keep track of time in the dream world. Hours in the dream world can be just minutes in the waking world.”

“Yes,” Stardust said with a nod. “So it’s important that you establish contact with Her Majesty as soon as possible after going to sleep. You don’t need to worry about giving her the exact times that I’ve given you. As long as they are close, that will be good enough. Trust me, she’ll know when they enter the facility. It will be impossible for her not to.”

“Alright. Thank you Captain,” James responded. He didn’t ask how Luna would know when they entered. After all, if Stardust hadn’t tell him how she’d know, it must mean he didn’t think he needed to tell her how she’d know. That meant Luna probably already knew about this secret weapon that Bat Team Alpha was going to use to get inside the facility.

“Councilor,” Stardust acknowledged before turning and leaving the room. James grabbed his pocket watch, and quickly checked its time against the time on the wall clock. Then, he followed Stardust out. The two of them walked down the hallway for a little ways until James turned down a different corridor, making his way for one of the service entrances out into the courtyard.

The two Royal Guards stationed at the doors leading to the courtyard opened them as he approached. Stepping outside, he pulled his robe tighter around himself against the cold. Ice crystals danced on frozen tree limbs, reflecting the lights of the castle courtyard like thousands of twinkling stars. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a picturesque scene, perfect for some special event such as Hearth’s Warming Eve. But given the ultimate outcome if things continued the way they were, it was an ominous warning of things to come instead. Every new day was a little bit colder than the last. One thing was certain: This rescue mission couldn’t come soon enough. He was pretty certain they had found Luna just in the nick of time.

Of course, the fate of the world, and possibly the fate of the universe itself, still relied on whether or not Luna could raise the Sun. If she couldn’t, then there would be nothing left alive in this world to stop the Beyond from marching all over it. And if Celestia had been right, once the Beyond had conquered this world, it would plunge all the way to the center of the macro pattern and unravel the very fabric of the entire universe, effectively returning it to the state it was in before the big bang. A shiver that wasn’t from the cold went through James as he contemplated that. But at least he had more confidence that the rescue mission would succeed now. Captain Stardust had seemed very confident that his elite team could pull it off.

He approached the stone door of the circular, roofless building again. The one where he’d been initiated into the Royal Council, and the one where he’d made contact with Luna last time. He pulled the door open and entered, closing it behind him.

As before, no magic flowed in the room right now, and given the open roof, it was no warmer in here than it had been outside. Torches flickered on the wall making the steam from his breath visible. The Royal Guards were very vigilant about making sure those torches were always burning. Anytime one was about to burn out, they would replace it with a new one. The gesture was, of course, symbolic, although perhaps also somewhat superstitious in nature. As if as long as those torches burned and their light reflected off the sacred Sun and Moon symbols on the floor, the return of their Princesses was assured.

There was no snow on the floor in here. The guards were also meticulous about keeping snow off the sacred symbols, as well as keeping them polished. The light of the torches danced and reflected off of them like the light of the Sun or Moon reflecting off of a calm lake on a peaceful evening. Indeed, despite everything that was going on, there was a sense of peace in this room. Almost, he could forget how cold he was. Almost.

As before, he walked to the center of the circular room, stopping when he was directly at the center of the Sun and Moon symbols on the floor. He pulled out his pocket watch, quickly noting the amount of time that had passed since he’d checked it in his room. Then he knelt and reached out deep into the ethereal plain between the waking world and the dream world, quietly calling out to Luna.

Immediately, the torch lights seemed to dim and then go out. The symbol of the crescent Moon on the floor began to glow with its own silver light, and he knew that she was there. Warmth filled him as she weaved her spell around him. He closed his eyes, not trying to fight the sleep spell she was placing on him from across the void.

And then, he was in the dream world. Formless mists floated around him, as if he were in a dense fog. But ahead of him, he could see a silver light penetrating through the mist like a lighthouse beacon guiding an errant ship home. He walked, or more like floated, towards the light. Gradually, the mists parted, and the form of the Moon Goddess appeared before him.

“James, it is good to see you again,” she said, walking up to him and nuzzling him on the side of his cheek. Her touch felt almost real, but not quite. It was like a wisp of cotton just barely brushing his face, but then evaporating into nothing almost before he realized it had touched him. It was a reminder that despite the real communication between the two of them, this was still only a dream.

“And you, Your Majesty,” James responded with a nod.

“How is Equestria? And my sister? Do you have a plan to bring her home?” Luna asked with a look of concern on her face. Despite her own situation, her first concern was clearly for her country and for her sister.

“We have a plan, yes. But there’s no time to discuss things now. Bat Team Alpha will be rescuing you in about two hours and five minutes. Captain Stardust said you’d know when they arrived.”

She nodded once, and gave just the slightest hint of a smile of relief. “That is good news indeed. Please let them know that I will be bringing someone with me back to Equestria. A gryphon. So they don’t accidentally attack when they see a gryphon with me.”

“Your friend on the inside?”

She nodded in response.

“I’ll let Twilight know. She can send a message to them through Spike.” He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “Alright then. About two hours … Be watchful, and be ready, Your Majesty.”

She nodded, her image began to fade, and he awoke to find himself back in the cold, circular room. The torches on the wall were burning once again, and the crescent Moon on the floor was no longer glowing.