[Monthly summary report for Twilight Sparkle]

Your Majesty,

I've compiled the monthly report. Overall, the food situation is far from perfect but so far we've averted famine. The mass production of the automatic farming units is going well and we've been able to begin exporting them to Zebrica. Unfortunately, there are issues even with that which I mention in the "Foreign Affairs" section. As always, full original reports are in the EIS archives.

1 - Food situation

We're cool. My apologies, Your Majesty. As per your orders I'm trying to get into the more nuanced aspects of speech. Still, the brief summary stands. Overall, Equestria is producing enough food to sustain its population now. The unexpected positive side-effect is that the moss-like "matter" grown in the vats exceeds our expectations in terms of how healthy it is (measured nutritional values attached). This has proven to help unicorns recover much quicker than through normal means and has allowed us to stabilize certain areas of power crystal recharging. My recommendation is to keep the "matter" in our diet even in the case of standard farming being possible again, or at least for certain parts of the population like the military and those involved in exhausting magical research.

In short, as far food is concerned, Equestria is stable. Now we can do more to help others.

2 - Heat situation

Good news here as well, if we ignore the fact that we're slowly getting to the point of freezing to death. Keyword - slowly. The new diet is proving helpful to alicorns as well. Instead of two heating pulses per twenty-four hours, princess Celestia is now able to send out three, provided she spends most of her time resting. This has slowed the cooling of Equus down considerably but there's no knowing how long she can keep it up purely on the new diet. My advice is to reroute the remaining supply of cakes to her pantry. She could use more sugar due to the energy she's burning to heat the world up.

By my calculations, we've bought ourselves several more months. The current climate all over the world can be summed up as a standard Equestrian winter. And one final good thing - the lower temperatures seem to be forcing wild Corrupted into hibernation, which means that our supply caravans now have much easier time getting to the south coast. As far as allied Corrupted are concerned, Manehattenites are accepting them into their heated homes or shelters. We might want to do the same in Ponyville and Canterlot.

3 - Internal security

We have a problem. A big one. As someone doubtlessly informed you already, subject AAA34 has escaped from Canterlot. My analysis of the reports and the investigation itself leads me to believe something different, though. Your Majesty, this is for your eyes only. I believe someone high up let the subject go and is interfering with the EIS investigation. Escape based on any security flaw in our system would have certainly resulted in victims and there were none here. Other than the damage to the cell itself, which I'm assuming is supposed to lead us off the trail, there's nothing. So far, the EIS have found no traces of the subject or any expected slaughter.

I will have to look into it personally and I'd appreciate it if you could have someone you trust completely help me.

4 - Foreign affairs

Zebrica:

Improvement? Partial. Relevant? Not exactly.

Our supply of mechanical parts and natural resources is barely staving off the complete collapse of zebra civilization. Over this month, thirty million more dead of cold, previous wounds, and minor civil conflicts. The united front the Northern Coalition states showed when facing warlord Stern is slowly breaking apart as the uneven distribution of resources reveals corruption entrenched in the system currently organized by one central government.

Here's where we can help, though. The main problem is supply caravans being ambushed on the way from the central states outwards so if we established temporary ports along the entire northern coast of Zebrica we could send our shipments directly to the worst affected areas and have them be distributed according to the central government as well as local needs.

The Griffon Empire:

The Empire is in turmoil to say the least. The Irongrip family currently in control of the Holy City is being threatened by the Vash family unifying nomadic clans and southern states in order to gain more territory and key strategic points. The two primary targets seem to be huge dams (map attached) responsible for supplying electricity to both the south and the heartland. So far, that hasn't been a huge issue but our latest reports indicate that the Redtalon family responsible for the recent corruption-causing rebellion has taken over Bloodstone, the capital city of the eastern Empire, previously under Irongrip control. With the Irongrips in trouble on two sides, things don't look good.

(Unverified) EIS reports hint to the possibility that Emperor Cassius is dead and his brother Nicolai is in charge, keeping it a secret from the general population to prevent the situation from escalating.

Rift:

Warlord Sinew has finally accepted a goodwill unicorn delegation from the Crystal Empire. However, as it turns out, the Rift minotaurs have been using customized versions of the farming units already. The northern changelings must have shared the technology with them long before the Crystal Empire successfully produced the first copy. With their geothermal power plants and underground facilities, I can say with a degree of certainty that Rift minotaurs are in much better shape than the rest of the known world.

The Dragon Lands:

No news. Just like with Chineigha, I advise to remove this section off of the list and use it only in case of a relevant change in status quo.

5 - Escaped changelings:

With the exception of redacted, the trail has gone cold in the Griffon Empire. EIS agents have been unable to piece together any relevant information on this subject. However, if I may hazard a guess, the Redtalon presence in Bloodstone might give us a clue. According to EIS reports, Redtalon territories were exempt from disaster aid from the heartland already and the situation had been deteriorating. The thing is that the current heavily redacted reports which the Black Ops shared with us show a steady recovery over the past few weeks. That should not be the case under any circumstances. Upon examining several photographs of the escapees made in Griffonstone and intercepting messages on the Black Ops network, I now believe that the griffon who was travelling with the changelings might have been a member of the Redtalon family based on a rather unique family foreleg coloring. If we assume that, we might also assume that the changelings are still with him and might have brought the blueprints of the farming units to the griffons. While it is only a guess, it's the only situation I can imagine where a civil unrest on such a scale and under the current world circumstances could be followed by positive news.

Still, it's only guesswork.

6 - The Project

Queen Chrysalis' drones have been instrumental in building the particle accelerator facility as quickly as we did. However, without the help of redacted we would never be able to construct the stable power source required to perform the experiments. Redacted possesses a level of knowledge of chemistry which has pushed us in the right direction regarding the project and we can now safely say it is possible to build the initial housing for the project with the newly discovered and synthesised materials. Now comes phase two - the ability for the project to sustain itself. So far, my calculations show that it would be completely impossible to create a fully functional redacted using only physics but with the right kind of magic it could be viable to create a prototype which might last in orbit until we find something better or keep going with occasional injection of magic. The main problem arises with phase three - starting the redacted itself. The energy requirement for the initial ignition exceeds anything at our disposal. After crunching the numbers, even redacted doesn't know of a chemical reaction which would suffice our needs despite her familiarity with Silversmith technology.

7 - Minor news

One - Either Bucket has stopped monitoring our electronic communication channels or I can't detect him anymore. I don't know which possibility bothers me more.

Two - the facility of the project has been breached at least three times. The EIS haven't been able to follow or identify the culprit. I'm categorizing this under minor news because even after we ran over old backups of data we found no discrepancies whatsoever. Same goes for the examination of the outer casing of redacted, which leads me to the conclusion that the intrusions were harmless. The staff hasn't reported anything unusual but our time logs show unexpected access by certain individuals to mainly residential areas. After questioning individuals responsible for the anomalies, they swore they had no knowledge of doing so. Since queen Chrysalis is aware of the project and has no need for further information, my guess is that redacted might have received a visit. My advice is to keep monitoring but not engage the intruder in real time. Attempting to stop these events could possibly lead to conflict and the termination of cooperation from the side of redacted, which is a complication we can't afford.

If I can add my own opinion on the matter, Your Majesty, it could be possible that after seeing the analysis of phase three and its limits, redacted might have reached out elsewhere for technical assistance.

Bookworm.

[End of report]

"You called?" Crimson enters Magpie's office without knocking.

"Yeah, I did," mumbles the griffon sitting behind a desk covered in a mess of papers with his head buried in his talons, one of his forelegs heavily bandaged and smelling of some minty oil, "Why did no one tell me what was really going on under Silas?"

"What do you mean?" Crimson walks over and sits across the desk from Magpie who looks up, pushes a ledger towards her, and sighs.

"The valuables Silas was stealing from the citizens of Bloodstone. Why did no one tell me that thing about feasting in here was total bullshit?"

"Who told you there was anything like that going on?"

"Tashe- I'm a complete idiot, aren't I?" Magpie facetalons and nods towards the ledger, "According to that, the black market stuff paid for by taking valuables away from the citizens was evenly distributed and there simply wasn't enough for everyone without the Irongrip disaster aid. Silas was doing the best he could to avoid famine here because Emperor Cassius didn't send anything from the heartland and things happened so fast I didn't even ask."

"Well..." Crimson scratches her head, "I mean, it's not like we had much information from the fortress itself. Besides, water under the bridge, right? A proper Redtalon's in charge now instead of an Irongrip stooge, we're on the way towards being able to supply food for the city and eventually the countryside and further, and-"

"And there's no way the Imperial army won't come and obliterate everyone within the city limits, and that's if we're lucky," Magpie gives her a bloodshot glare, "And as for the food production," he waves a different sheet of paper in the air, "We're too late! Silver and gold is all but gone, the treasury is empty, griffons have nothing more to give-"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Crimson whistles innocently, "Griffons can be extremely creative when keeping their money is on the line."

"You're telling me that griffons still have coinage stashed away?"

"I'd bet on it."

"We're going to need it. All of it. Three knows how to purify the gold and silver from the coins."

"Which part of keeping their money did you not understand?"

"Tell them to go to the bank and turn everything into bonds or bills."

"They won't like it."

"THEN THEY CAN FUCKING STARVE!" barks Magpie before breaking into a coughing fit, "I'm tired of dealing with bullshit which idiots inflict on themselves. Spread the news, be open with everyone. We need the materials, not their monetary value, or we won't be able to craft the electronics, simple as that. Use the GIL if necessary."

"Is that all?" Crimson frowns.

"Mining operations?"

"Skeleton crews are back in business for the Grand Scar mines. The problem is electricity. We have two coal power plants at our disposal but not enough material to get them running on full. If we switch a second block on each, we'll run out of coal. We'd need to focus on coal mining and production or shut off electricity in the distant parts of the land, neither of which is a great result."

"How are you always ready for anything I ask?"

"I know how to delegate," Crimson smiles, "You should learn that too so that you don't have to drown in paperwork."

Magpie taps his talons against the table.

"Alright then. Get me griffons who know how to translate orders into something useful. I'm going to need a scientific advisor, a health expert, and someone from the local GIL leadership structure. You're my personal secretary who relays stuff because I can't be arsed to run around the fortress looking for the right griffons."

"We need a better name for that position."

"Considering what secretaries do? How about a missionary."

"Har har. Very funny."

"First, get used to that kind of humor, it's all I've got. Second, get the coal mines fully operational. We'll have to rely on basic farming unit production supplied with the rare metals we can get from the citizens. Get all you can, employ Three to assess how much we need to build enough machines to feed Bloodstone… for now. Once we get to the stage where we can start up more reactors in the power plants, get the other mines up and running."

"Will do," Crimson performs a deferential although royalty-mocking bow.

"Good. One thing first, though," he slowly raises his right foreleg covered in bandages, wincing, and unwraps a part closest to his shoulder. Crimson leans backwards at the sight of darkened flesh and withered feathers.

"That's bad. Really bad."

"Excellent summary, Sherclop. I wanted to avoid this but it looks like I lost my coin toss. Get me Three, Thirteen, and a good surgeon."


*Knock knock!*

"Come in!" Magpie stops pacing in front of the burning fireplace in his office. For once, it wasn't because of stress, rather to simply warm up and get the blood flowing. Unfortunately, exactly like during the past few days, the brief exercise only proves that his foreleg is slowly becoming a dead stump despite the medical care he's been receiving.

Thirteen enters, alone.

"Crimson said you wanted to see me."

"You, Three, and whoever is the best surgeon in Bloodstone," he points to his damaged foreleg, starts keeling over, and quickly steadies himself with the healthy one.

"How is it?"

"Just peachy, and by peachy I mean that a peach looks like an ass with a crack and everything is going to shit."

"I… I've never seen a peach."

Magpie takes a long breath in and out.

"I'm sorry," he says, which makes Thirteen genuinely blink in surprise, "Look, I needed to know if you changelings can mix up something better than this herbal nonsense. All it does is make my eyes water," he unwraps the scented bandage and throws it into the fireplace, "Don't look at me like that, I'm supposed to get a fresh one anyway in half an hour."

"Gem probably could but I-"

"Yeah, Gem, Gem, Gem," Magpie growls, "Gem could have probably taken Bloodstone over on her own, she could probably heal me immediately, she could probably brainwash Silas and his soldiers to work for us but she's not here, is she? I'm stuck with you, Three, a rotting foreleg, a starving city, and an Imperial retribution hanging over me."

"I didn't think you cared what happened to you."

"Not to me, to three million griffons, Thirteen. How many dwarves were in your underground hole?"

"I don't know. I don't think it was that many."

"Yeah, I'm responsible for all that and I can't even persuade them to exchange old coins for bills, a valid Imperial currency. All I'm working with are idiots who don't want to sacrifice anything but want their lives saved and go back to normal."

"I want to help," Thirteen hangs her head, "I just don't know how. Three is always busy with the engineers these days, I'm getting hungry without him, and I don't know how to help you. I can't even feed myself here. Gem had lifetimes to learn all she knows and the best infiltrator in the world. I'm… I'm less than two years old and most of the time I was locked up, trained to the point of passing out, and screamed at. There's a mess inside my head I don't understand and can't completely control and I think it's Gem's doing too. I want to help you even if you're incurable… incurable asshole! Whenever I talked to the Hundreds or even Three, they told me that even if they were just drones, dad considered it his job to find the right use for what little they could do. But when I was involved-"

"Alright, enough," Magpie interrupts her in a slightly less aggressive tone, "We don't need self-pity in stereo. I'm just trying to come to terms with probably having to lose a foreleg and possibly the entire population of a city. I'm not cut out for responsibility..."

"You know, maybe not," Thirteen shrugs, "Dad said he never wanted to be in charge and all our changelings say he's the best thing to ever happen to them and they mean it."

"Stop that right now or I'm gonna barf," Magpie rolls his eyes, "So, no healing."

"I could have a look at it but I'm not promising anything. Maybe my instincts will catch on or something."

"Okay, let's leave accidentally biting my foreleg off as a plan B. Alright, any news on the weird changeling tunnel we used to get in here?"

"Uhh, was I supposed to do anything with it?"

"So you're telling me we just forgot about it for two weeks?"

"Yeees? Did you tell anyone to do anything about it?"

"Do I have to micromanage every-" Magpie realizes he's raising his voice again, closes his eyes, and takes a long breath, "Nevermind, this might actually play into our talons."

"What are we playing?"

"Look, a random earth pony janitor mare managed to discover a physical illusion which we could barely get through even when we knew what it was. That's nonsense, straight up. Besides, an illusion like that can't run itself so someone must be recharging it somehow. If you can't mix up some changeling goo to help me then I want you to figure out who is responsible for the tunnel. Since we forgot about it for real, anyone watching us must think we're braindead and probably isn't too far from the truth. An enemy who underestimates us can make a mistake, a mistake we can use. A mistake you can use."

"What about Dust Pan? What if she's the changeling? I do feel a little weird whenever I pass her in the hallway."

"Figure out if that's the case, that's all. How? I don't know, you're the mind-controlling bughorse."

"On it!" Thirteen salutes with genuine enthusiasm.

After she leaves, Magpie looks at his foreleg, sits down into an armchair, and stares into the fireplace.

"A cripple in charge of idiots. Any bets on how soon we're all dead? I'm giving it a month tops."


The next day drags on, filled only with the appointment of griffons who would be responsible for handling individual aspects of the current Bloodstone crisis. At least until the late afternoon when Crimson arrives accompanied by a sleek-looking bright teal pony wearing contracting dark purple winter clothing who gives Magpie a deep bow as he enters the office. For some reason, he looks familiar but Magpie can't quite place it. He uses the bow, though, to avoid shaking the pony's hoof and stands up, reciprocating the gesture instead.

"This is An Shen," says Crimson, "Chineighese disaster relief agency."

"Riiight!" Magpie taps his talons of his healthy foreleg against the carpet, "I saw you in Windy before."

"My deepest apologies, Your Lordship, I must have missed you there," says An Shen in heavily accented but precise common speech and nods with a smile, "Although my caravans do travel through the dragon pass."

"Understandable. It's definitely easier to distinguish and remember a bright and colorful pony in the Empire than just another random griffon."

"Just another random griffon wouldn't have moved on from Windy to become the leader of the eastern Griffon Empire," comments An Shen politely.

"I'm not big on compliments," Magpie tilts his head to the side, "So how are we doing this? Do I sign anything and you just drop off your cargo here, or…?"

"Indeed, there are forms to sign. However, I wanted to talk with you face to face," he glances Crimson's way, "And alone."

"I trust Crimson with my life," says Magpie, "You can say everything in front of her."

"As you wish," he bows again, "On our way here, less than three hours away north from the city in fact, our unicorns' magic detected a griffon presence."

"Soldiers?" Magpie frowns. An Shen shrugs in response.

"Likely, but I can't say for certain. We use wide-area scanning spells to spot general bandit presence as well as Corrupted reaching out of the Windy territory. That kind of magic doesn't allow for detailed observation. All we got was that they were uniformly clothed - black jackets and standard camouflage."

"Black jackets?" Magpie sighs, walks over to the dresser by the wall, and pulls out Tasheed's Black Ops top, "Like this one?"

"As I said, we didn't get the clearest picture but it does seem very similar to me."

Magpie looks at Crimson.

"That didn't take long, did it?" he nods to An Shen, "Can you show me where you detected those griffons?"

"Definitely. Do you have a map around?"

"Yeah," Magpie pulls out a black rectangle of about the size of a standard chess board from a desk drawer, presses a button, and the device projects a holographic map of the Empire. Several taps against the board later, the general map zooms in on Bloodstone and the surrounding area.

"Nifty technology," An Shen blinks in surprise, "Or is it a magical map?"

"Pure griffon tech, although not exactly the kind available to the general public," replies Magpie, "So?"

An Shen carefully points out the supply caravan route and the area where their magic detected the presumed Black Ops presence.

"We detected eleven griffons but they were right on the edge of the range of our magic so I can't say for certain there weren't more."

"Even this is way more help than I could have ever expected. I think I have something your country might appreciate as a gesture of good will."

"I am prohibited from receiving any personal gifts, Your Lordship."

"When I said your country, I meant it. We're currently producing machines which can grow protein-rich food without the need for sunlight. My friend brought the blueprints from Equestria where they're being used at present to avert famine."

An Shen's jaw drops and his breathing quickens.

"Something of such magnitude..." he nearly chokes, "It is taking more and more magic to grow and harvest crops the more frozen the soil is. Such technology would, to be honest, easily save tens of millions, if it's genuine."

Magpie nods.

"It is. However, I might soon be in a position where I need your help."

"A quid pro quo, of course," An Shen smiles, "Classic politics."

"No," Magpie shakes his head, "I'm giving the blueprint copies away no matter what."

"A favor it is then, right?"

"It would definitely be helpful."

"I will report this along with a formal request to my superiors," An Shen bows.

"Excellent," Magpie nods towards the door, "Now, if you'd be so kind and give me and Crimson a moment alone."

"As you wish," with another bow, An Shen leaves the office. Once he's outside, Magpie gives Crimson a joyless smile.

"So here it is - Black Ops on our doorstep."

"Well, it's your call what to do about it now, Your Lordship," Crimson smirks, "Bloodstone stands behind you."

"Call me Lordship one more time and you're fired, specifically out of the biggest cannon in the fortress and into a wall," he rolls his eyes and points at the glowing map, "Anyway, if it's my call then we need to send someone to check it out. Get that military advisor guy you recommended to take care of that. Then find the engineers working with Three on repurposing the assembly lines in order to build the farming units en masse. They should have all the blueprints already so have them give a copy to An Shen. Finally have the military adv-"

"His name is Castor-"

"Don't really care. If he figures out what the Black Ops are doing and successfully stops it then I might bother remembering his name."

"You're terrible at this leader thing, you know?"

"I can leave. I can literally walk out of the city and never come back," Magpie scowls at a wall, "You can release Silas and his soldiers or take charge of Bloodstone on your own."

"Are you telling that to me or to yourself?" Crimson raises an eyebrow, "Look, drop that uncaring persona. If that was the real you then you wouldn't have come here in the first place."

Magpie sighs.

"You know… I really wasn't expecting that being nearly beaten to death by a Corrupted right outside Windy would be the high point of my return to the Empire. On second thought, that's entirely my fault."

"Crybaby."

"Don't you have engineers to find or something?"

"Already on my way, Your Lordship," Crimson leaves, accompanied by Magpie's irritated groan.