Celestia's Finest: All Wired Up

[DigoDragon]

"You were the best thing that ever happened to me and there's not an hour that goes by that I don't miss you."

That caught Rose off guard for a moment. She ceased with the lighthearted advice.

The shock wore off and Rose walked over to Sniper. She put a hoof on his back, being careful about his wing. "Hey... I wasn't talking about us with that. Sorry if it sounded that way. Maybe I'm miss-remembering my movie quotes. I just meant... that this love crap is a complicated thing and you've got a job to do. Like you said, she loves the roguish Longshot persona, not the hardened soldier Sniper Scope. Where you're going she can't follow. What you've got to do, she can't be any part of. I'm no good at being wise with advice, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little ponies don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Just be honest with her like you were with me."

[Elbeyon]

Love nods understandingly. "I'm no stranger to drugs or what they do to people. I proud of you for getting clean. The on-going challenge, I can only imagine from what I've witnessed." The LoveBot reaches up to her cheek and gently brushes it. "I'd be honored if I could be a part of your support. Would it be alright if my LoveBot hugs you?" If she agrees, the LoveBot will hug into her other shoulder, different from last time, and run a hoof through her mane.

She feels bad for drawing out this kind of response. "That's understandable." Her mind flashes to the remains down below.

"There is a lot of sand." She chuckles. "It couldn't have all been sand for you though! You must have visited towns, met fasnating new people, and saw some really interesting things along your journey?" Love sighs at the idea of Rose drinking. "Drinking shouldn't matter as long as she can sleep it off before morning."

Love smiles at her. "The poor fellows. They really missed out."

When Scope curses, Love becomes distracted. The LoveBot doesn't react in anyway, but Love looks elsewhere like she is thinking.

[Miltonian]

The zebras are intently looking elsewhere. Slowly, they begin to edge towards the door.

-------------

Sandy takes a deep breath. "Sure," she will accept the hug with only a little trepidation. But she sinks into it, holding Love tight and trembling a little. She pulls back and sniffs. "Thanks."

She takes a deep breath and composes herself. "It was kind of depressing actually. Everypony trying to survive. Scraping a living out of rocks and sand. It's like...it's like those old stories and myths of the underworld, but the sun makes everything hot instead of having a nice cavern roof over our heads." Somepony get this mare to Pinkie Pie. She's in desperate need of a few more smiles.

She shrugs at Love's comment on her love life. "I don't think much about them."

[Elbeyon]

"Yeah, that sounds... rather bleak when it's put that way."

Love rubs her mane. They should switch gears. "Hey, Munes. What do you say about me hopping back in my LoveBot, and we return to the party?" The room is getting a little tense. "I never got a chance to dance with anyone."

[D.KnightSpider]

"I know." Sniper sighed. "I know. It's what I have to do. Thank you."

At this proximity, the desire to wrap his forelegs around Rose battered at him. But knowing where the action would lead gave him the strength to deflect it.

Sniper looked up at the zebras and group at large. "It's alright, every pony. Drama's over and there's no reason to be embarrassed."

Deep breath.

"I'm going to wrap this up, try to talk to Chrysalis and feed Rem. At least she'll have plenty with which to work tonight."

[DigoDragon]

Rose gives Sniper a hug. "Hey, I'm still your good friend and I got you back. I don't want to burn any bridges between us," she says. Rose leans in to whisper. "Rem has a fear of being alone I found out. We're good now though. So, let her know she's in our thoughts."


She lets go and turns to the zebras. "Yeah, sorry. Didn't mean to air some laundry here as the saying goes. Did you all want to get out of the room anyway? I can chaparone you to the party."

[Miltonian]

Sandy chuckles and stretches. "I'd like that. Loosen up a bit, you know?"

---------

Auni's face brightens considerably, as do a few of the others. Anaki, however, looks very hesitant. "Perhaps that is not the best--"

"I will accompany you, teacher," Urur says. A few others, including Auni, nod in assent.

[DigoDragon]

"Let's go. At least for a few minutes couldn't hurt?"

[D.KnightSpider]

"Good to know." Sniper whispered back to Rose.

A keystroke sent Rose an updated copy their reports. A quiet look told Anaki that he understood the feeling of urging responsibility but being ignored.

Sniper stood up by didn't immediately leave.

[Elbeyon]

Love smiles real big as she sees, through the LoveBot, Munes get up and stretch. "Alright! Let's do this! I'll show you how I swing these mechanical hips!"

The LoveBot says, "We need at least two people to remain in the room. We could call Seafire and Brazen back to guard the room."

[DigoDragon]

Rose continued looking through the reports waiting on the zebras to mobilize. She'l probably do a bit of this instead of drinking.

[Miltonian]

The night wears on. Sniper writes his report and goes to sleep. Love and Rose return to the party with the zebras, Star, and Sandy in tow. They stay until it winds down and the kids are led off to bed.

What they do with the rest of the night, and where they sleep, is up to them.

[D.KnightSpider]

Sleeping in the bathroom, next to a corpse that refuses to decay, wasn't necessarily on Sniper's bucket list. But the situation was surreal enough for a retroactive entry.

If nothing else it would be a showstopper of an icebreaker question.

[DigoDragon]

Rose sleeps somewhere between the zebras and the bathroom door. Just in case Sniper's first night with Rem goes too hard on him.

[Elbeyon]

Love will dance with her friends, attempt to sneak in a private dance with Star if possible, and socialize/make friends with the employees while playing games.

The night watch will be made more efficient by Love strategically placing the BugBots instead of dumping them everywhere. A few will be positioned toward Scope so she can watch him as orders dictate. If Rem wakes up at all before anyone goes to bed, she'll wish her a goodnight. She'll wish everyone a good night while she is at it. She'll lay down with Star until she falls asleep. She'll add all of Wire's data to her databases. Write and send her report. When her work is done in the room, she lovingly leaves to do her brownie work.

She works on the elevator and processes the massive amount of data they've collected from their cameras/DW cameras into useful information.

Spoiler: Roll

Show

Dance
(3d6)[11] vs 13 (Dance) +/- Other(s)

[Miltonian]

Love's night shift is very productive. She sorts through the parts, finding what goes where and putting things back in working order. It won't be pretty, but the car will work once again. Soon as that last barrier is removed and they've confirmed that the cables are still attached, they can test it.

As for reconstructing the changeling's activities, Love is able to catch a few moments where ponies seem to disappear for a while and then re-emerge with a bag, a trash can, or something similarly large enough to hold a pony. Invariably, they head towards one specific door and are let in by a security guard. Somewhere in the casino, the changelings are storing all these ponies.

Everypony wakes up in whatever state their night time activities naturally leave them. Rose and Sniper shortly receive a knock on the door and find somepony left them coffee.

Red Tape's reply has come in. "Orders from the top," he says, "Chrysalis is conditionally to be considered an ally. Conditionally. Replacing ponies, even ones such as the ones you're dealing with, is too close to her old tricks for comfort. Talk her out of it, if you can. It's a hard situation, and you have the crown's condolences."

"As a sidenote, Andromeda's performance will be allowed to continue. The crowd will be filled with agents and she will be arrested upon arrival."

[DigoDragon]

Whisky Rose will accept the coffee and return to nice-Rose mode.

She will check on Sniper and see how his night went. *knock knock* "Hey, SniperLong ScopeShot, I need to give you a quick examination. Commander's orders."


Physician check: (3d6)[9] vs. 16.

[D.KnightSpider]

Rose's persistent knocking finally penetrated Sniper's subconscious and informed him it was time to wake. Sheer willpower brought him the rest of the way to consciousness. Finally, Sniper peeled himself off of the floor and righted himself.

One look in the mirror told him that he looked as bad as he felt. Sniper stretched his back and reevaluated himself. Now he looked slightly better than he felt... If he closed his eyes.

"How are you feeling, Rem?" Sniper asked.

He opened the door and allowed Rose entrance.

"We need to hurry." Sniper told her as they began the medical check. "I have to document my conversation with Chrysalis before the details fade from memory."

[DigoDragon]

"We need to hurry." Sniper told her as the began the medical check. "I have to document my conversation with Chrysalis before the details fade from memory."

"You actually... oh. Right then." Rose expedites her examination.

[Elbeyon]

Love leaves a note on the elevator updating her fellow engineers on the progress she has made over the night. Within said note, Love points them to a "secret" stash that contains a personal fruity snack mix. She leaves them a few encouraging words that boil down to how they are on the last stretch of work, them working together, and getting along. She tries to curb her tendency toward the dramatic and personalize the message for them.

She goes to the group's old room, writes her night report, unpacks, takes her bath for the day, yesterday at this point, and slips into their comfortable bed. She snuggles up to Star and waits for the new day to begin. After the two are awake, skipping past the minutia of their morning routine, Love tries to take Star out to the bar to eat breakfast. Love has already served Star her first coffee of the day.

[Miltonian]

Rem pops up out of the ground, bright eyed and bushy tailed. "I feel great!" she says, "Ready to take on a new day."

Rose's examination finds nothing abnormal with Sniper. He's cleared for duty.

Star enjoys her coffee and sends out a squad-wide text. "Well, where shall we meet up for the morning briefing?"

[DigoDragon]

Rem pops up out of the ground, bright eyed and bushy tailed. "I feel great!" she says, "Ready to take on a new day."

Rose's examination finds nothing abnormal with Sniper. He's cleared for duty.

"Good morning, Rem. Glad to see such enthusiasm in you," Rose says in ernest. "Alright, Sniper, you pass the exam. I'm out of lollipops, but I'll buy you a soft drink later. You can... ah, get to your reporting."

She's curious what was said, but decides to wait for the inevitable report. It should have all the interesting minutes on there.

Star enjoys her coffee and sends out a squad-wide text. "Well, where shall we meet up for the morning briefing?"

"Don't see why we can't have it here," Rose replies, squad-wide. "I'd like to get through it and then wrap up our business in this place. I miss the sun."

[Elbeyon]

Love blows on her coffee and watches over the morning patrons. She takes a sip and texts everyone hoof free, "Good morning everyone^☆ Today is a big day! I wish everyone success! A morning meeting in Wire's room sounds about right."

She says, "Rose misses the Sun. Luckily, I have my Sunshine." Love smirks.

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper thanked Rose for clearing him and then got down to business.

"I'm glad everything worked out last night, Rem." He said as he opened the laptop.

The clatter of keyboard strikes filled the air as Sniper began drafting a new report. He picked up his comm. and placed it in his ear.

"It would be best to meet up here." Sniper said into the comm. "We know it's secure and I have a lot to tell you."

He wrote nothing about the Four Stars. He didn't even write and then redact it. The reference was labeled as classified and left at that; he was learning.

[DigoDragon]

Rose sips her second cup of coffee. She's bunching on some kind of trail mix bar she found in her pocket. It looks like it was squashed by her bottom overnight.

"Alright so... business. I haven't confirmed it, but it seems (based on my observations) like most of the employees are willing to stick around here and keep the place running."

[Elbeyon]

She texts to the team, "Roger."

Love will sort out breakfast with the team and meet in Wire's room to start the meeting.

[Miltonian]

Breakfast is a lovely spread of toast, jam, and only slightly irradiated oatmeal, prepared by the loving hooves of the Down to the Wire staff.

Brazen and Seafire have yet to rouse themselves.

[DigoDragon]

"Meh, you'd get this kind of exposure from an x-ray." Rose eats her oatmeal without worry. "Did you get any work done last night, Love?"

[D.KnightSpider]

"Before we get to that," Sniper interjected. "let me give you the breakdown of my conversation last night.

"To begin, I was able to dreamwalk to Chrysalis with Rem's help. So we have that option of communication available to us, which is nice. Chrysalis initially thought that I was a projection of her mind and wanted me to put on a Changeling Guard uniform. I declined and explained that I was the real Sniper Scope, which prompted her to freak out.

"Chrysalis assumed that Princess Luna had bypassed her defenses and found a way to send me into her dreams. She started challenging Luna to a fight and it took a few moments for me to convince her that Princess Luna wasn't behind my visit and that I wasn't angry with her deception. In the process, I learned that all the Changelings she's linked with share the same dreamspace because Chrysalis tried to intimidate me with a Changeling mob. They were most definitely not projections.

"Chrysalis claims to be happy with her present role. She's definitely planning something and wants us to be a part of it. How badly she needs us, I don't know. But I'll get to why she needs us in a moment. I... don't think she's well. She's angry and bitter at Polaris and i think it's unhinged her. She's not beyond help, though pulling her back isn't going to be easy.

"We talked about the future a bit. Chrysalis, well..." the narration came to a stop as Sniper's teeth ground together. He was conflicted by multiple loyalties and directives. Yet, his prime orders won out as he knew they would. "... I'll need your forgiveness. Some of the things she discussed, they're-- they're classified above what I can tell you. I'm sorry."

He paused to check their reactions and get a sense of the atmosphere. It was a difficult thing that he'd just revealed.

[Miltonian]

Star is very quiet through Scope's report. She sips her coffee, but pays rapt attention. When he's done, she leans back and lets out a breath. "Oof. That's...that's not too far out from what I expected," she admits, "But still, to hear it confirmed is..."

She sighs. "So how do you suggest we proceed?"