Author Talk: Since it seems like She-Ra will be ending soon, I thought I might revisit the story and try and see if I could complete before the series draws to a close now that the world is now sort-of shut down. To everyone out there, I hope you are entertained, because I would feel very happy if you are. Please stay safe and remember to social distance. :)

Disclaimer: The following is a fan-based parody. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is owned and created by Noelle Stevenson and the DreamWorks Animation Television Team, and licensed by Netflix. Please support the official release.


The thunder of the engine did nothing to silence the beating of her heart as she stepped onto solid ground, her stomach rebelled against with every step as world swam around her. "Uggggggggh..." Lonnie groaned, clearly her first ride on the beast clearly disagreed with every fibre of her being. This would need to be rectified by more training, Lonnie made a mental note to practise standing on uneven surfaces at a later date so moments of weakness like this will never happen again.

Her temperature rose as she examined the people surrounding her, soldiers mostly, going about the familiar routine of ignoring each other and cleaning their weapons with their helmets off. The flare of light reflected off the greenish surface of the guns held by the two muscular soldiers beside her felt almost threatening. They stared downwards at her from what seemed to be an imposing height as Lonnie fought the urge to hold up her document container in front of her face in anticipation of a potential laser beam to the head, or worse, some metallic projectile. The probing stares of war-hardened vets was, on some level, harsh and penetrating in a way that she had never been on the receiving end of. Once the helmet was on their heads, their expressions remained a mystery to everyone else...and she had never seen anyone taken their helmet off in the Fright Zone.

She quickly willed herself to walk forward, and not pay them any mind. Lonnie, assured herself that she was on serious, official business, after all. She walked up to the Ticket Inspectors, whose head drooped and lay slumped down in their chair. She gave a salute. "Here's my ticket, Inspector."

They grunted with displeasure, their head jerked up at the noise. 'Oh no, they are asleep. And I just woke them up.' Lonnie considered the moving figure in front of her, whose face remained hidden behind the imposing blood-stained helmet.

Having been roused from a rest that was indeed quite sound and satisfying, Lonnie assumed that she would receive a stern talking to, she winced in preparation for a fiery roar of annoyance from the Inspector who was rudely awoken from their slumber...yet silence. The Inspector didn't take her ticket, and instead regarded silently from behind their visor, their expression remained unreadable. And they spoke with a low gravelly voice, "Do you know where you are, girl?"

"I would be in a Horde outpost, correct?" She gulped, and waited for his response.

"Well, yes. You are correct. You would also be correct if you said a barren wasteland. There's nothing here." They sat up slightly, shifting in their chair and stretching in a way that would've certainly have been physically impossible had Lonnie tried to do something similar.

"Well, I thought there's an ongoing roadworks projects going on here." She frowned.

One of their hands slithered beneath their helmet, scratching at something Lonnie couldn't see. The Ticket Inspector looked rather unperturbed, "I saw what I saw. You exit the platform from the third exit on the left, down the stairs, and out the station. If you can see a refuelling station on your right hand side then...you're on your on. I don't know what's out there beyond that point. Haven't been outside this encampment in years, maybe they started developing it while I wasn't lookin' or something. You see anything dangerous: return immediately. I'm not responsible for your safety so...uh, try not to die. It's a dangerous world out there."

"Yeah, I think I know." Lonnie said, she thanked the Inspector and found her way out in a wide open wilderness that left her quite at a loss as to where to go next. She asked around to see if anyone knew about the roadworks project.

"Excuse me," She approached a tall figure who in the process of playing cards against his assigned shift partner before rushing back up in a panic, knocking over the table in the process as the soldier frantically saluted her, bobbing up and down. "But—"

"Reporting for duty sirrah—oh...no, never mind, it's just a junior cadet." He stopped halfway into his rehearsed speech and grunted disdainfully. The timbre of his voice echoing deep from within the recesses of his helmet. He threw his hands up in the air. "Look, just tell me you're a junior cadet before sneaking on me like this! Look what you made you do, knocking over tables and ruining perfectly good games of cards. Well?"

"S-sorry." Lonnie murmured, "Do you know of any construction projects going on in the area? I'm surveying the place to report to my boss, surely you understand that, right? I just want to get stuff done and head back in time for dinner."

"You can leave now," The soldier snorted derisively, clearly unconcerned, "Like I say, there is no active construction projects going on in the area. Never heard nothing in this area. It's not like we would've been able to miss the forklifts coming in and out of the area either, ain't that right, Javier?"

"Too right, boss." The second man chimed in, sharing his opinion. "Hear, hear. Newbie, get away before we make you go clean the toilets."

She sighed, consulted the documents that Ping had given her, and tried to find a possible location for where the roadworks project would likely be.

She tried to remember what the trees looked like on her way in, but found that the foliage gradually blended into each other as distinguishing them became ever more difficult a task. Finally, she just gave up and tried to follow the flattest and most well-trodden trail she could find...it should hopefully lead somewhere. Yet a deeper sense of confusion rose up within her as the absence of roadwork signs fly against every conceivable regulation she was ever taught. Where are the equipment? Why haven't anyone even heard of any plans?

It was more by accident and less due to intent, that she stumbled upon the final straw that broke the camel's back...the last piece of the puzzle that was lying out in the open, waiting to be discovered. So deep in thought, Lonnie almost tripped and stumbled into a large hole in the ground before she finally saw the telltale glint of steel that stuck out amidst the dense mixture green. Shocked, she sneaked forward and saw three shadowy figures talking while furiously gesticulating at things.

"...will it work?"

"We've done...for years...of course it will work..."

"...transport system...f..."

They were too distant for her to hear anything beyond a few snippets that likely could've been out-of-context phrases that merely sounded sinister, but may have only been perfectly explainable in some other scenario. No, she had go closer to find out what they're saying.

She edge closer, and hunkered down beneath a thick trail of undergrowth as she focused absolutely all of her attention on trying to see the faces of the figures conversing and commit them to memory. Finally she started hearing the words more clearly.

"We need to play it safe. The volume we're transporting aren't sustainable! This will only hurt our cause. Give us some more time to review the documentations and destroy the paper trail before we go further." The taller one of the two raised his voice, he was clearly not calm, and yet it was clear that the struggle to maintain a calm composure was becoming ever more difficult for him.

"Nonsense, this will deliver a crippling blow. We will be lauded as heroes!" This voice sounded, softer, less filled with timbre than the man's voice, the voice almost felt...hopeful and pleasant. Urk.

The short one tossed her hands in the air in frustration. "Don't you know what the stakes are anymore? This war won't end unless we take risks, we have been playing it safe for far too long while our people on the front lines are getting tossed into one meat-grinder operation after another! The reward outweighs the risks tenfold!"

"And what then? The refuelling station won't be up and running until at least well after next week, that's not enough time to seed plausible deniability, we need to make sure that there's something for us to fall back on in case the worst case scenario happens." The short man said, "There's simply not enough time for us to create strong position of ingress with a proper plan B to fall back upon!"

THUMP!

Her head rang as she felt the blunt impact of the object collide with her skull, for a moment she felt as though she could see her body from the sky, passively watching herself lying flat on the ground. She tried to get up, and found that she could not.

"Hey! I found a spy here!" A gruff voice shouted from somewhere close by, she couldn't quite be sure whether it was from her left or to her right...all she knew was the sensation of rope digging into her body and a dull, throbbing pain coming from the back of her skull. "What do we do?"

The voice stopped. Replaced with it was the sound of rushed footsteps hurried coming towards where she was.

"Oh. This...is certainly not good." The same disgustingly hopeful and positive voice said, no longer as certain and happy.