Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Sparky was more than a little nervous as they stood in line for the check in counter of the liner company operating the Madame La Salle. The line wasn’t a terribly long one, but she had a feeling the line was going to be here for a while.
Up at the front of the line was a very rich and important looking mare, screaming at the attendant behind the counter in hispaña. Her coat was a light yellow, and her mane and tail a light brown, done up like she should be attending a fancy diner party. Sparky, however wasn’t paying much attention to her, but rather, the person standing beside her. Sparky assumed that the mare was Señora Amarilla de la Manzana, and she was yelling because the section of the Madame La Salle that she had purchased had been divided up and given to them. Sparky was, however, focused on the person next to her, because the person was not a pony, but rather a gryphon.
The gryphon was male... at least her best guess was male; she wasn’t really sure how to tell the difference. This was the first gryphon she had ever seen in her entire life. The gryphon was loaded down with numerous heavy looking bags and suitcases that the Señora clearly couldn’t be bothered to carry herself.
She must have been staring, the gryphon looked directly at her, saying nothing, but keeping direct eye contact. Sparky swallowed hard, smiling nervously and offering him...? Her...? It... a small, awkward smile.
The gryphon continued to make eye contact, not blinking in the slightest. Sparky gave him... her... it a polite wave. He... her... it, continued to watch her for a few moments, before losing interest all together, and looking away.
Sparky breathed a sigh of relief. ‘That was so awkward...’ she said to herself.
‘Might as well get used to it, if that was the plus one Mister Happy mentioned? We’re going to be seeing quite a bit more of him’, Shortfuse said, resting her head on Sparky’s shoulder as she talked. Sparky shifted her weight, allowing Shortfuse’s head to drop off. The pegasus mare stumbled slightly in surprise, garnering a few chuckles from the rest of their party. They were all horribly bored, their flight wouldn’t be boarding for another few hours anyway, and this Señora Amarilla de la Manzana showed no signs of letting up her verbal assault on the attendant at the desk.
The attendant only looked to be half paying attention, likely not even understanding the words that Señora Amarilla de la Manzana spat out at her, offering an occasional ‘I’m sorry’, and ‘we’ve refunded your money fully’.
‘Does she not have to stop and breathe?’ Dizzy asked as she watched the scene continue to unfold. It showed no signs of letting up any time soon, and they had been here about five minutes.
‘Not likely’, said an earth pony in line in front of them. ‘I’ve been standing here fifteen bloody minutes, and she was yelling when I got here!’
The yelling went on another five minutes before the Señora eventually stopped. The gryphon handed her a bottle of water, holding it in front of her mouth and allowing her to drink from at for a few seconds. Once she finished, she turned, giving an unsatisfied grunt. ‘Juan Carlos! Vamos!’ she said as she began to walk away.
‘Si Señora’, the gryphon said, shifting the weight of the heavy bags that he was carrying and walking after her.
‘About bloody time!’ the earth pony in front of Sparky said with a sigh as he stepped forward. He was through the check in with an unreal record of under a minute, as compared to the Señora’s twenty plus minutes.
Sparky and company’s check in was just as quick. The attendant looked over their information and looked at Sparky with a frown. ‘You’re the ones that that mare was yelling about’, she said with disdain.
‘Sorry?’ Sparky asked, feigning ignorance of what the attendant was referring to.
The attendant sighed and cleared them through, pushing the tickets at them, and was clearly ready to call it a day.
Sparky and company gathered together in one of the Twilight Sparkle Aerodrome’s many waiting areas, sitting down in several seats off in the back corner, out of plain sight, using it to gather their thoughts before heading through security.
DC Hopely had taken to standing in a corner off by herself. Sparky watched her as she took a small earpiece out of her coat and slipped it into her ear. Presumably, she was making a call to her ‘guy’ that was going to get them into the Præsidium. Dizzy tapped Sparky on the shoulder. 'Are you getting the feeling that something is bothering DC Hopely as well?' she asked.
Sparky looked back at her nephite friend and nodded her head in agreement. ‘Something is definitely up, she’s been getting more nervous by the minute... you don’t think...?’
‘No, she is on the level about helping us’, Dizzy said firmly. ‘It’s something else’.
‘How can you be sure?’ Sparky asked.
‘I’d be a pretty bad missionary if I couldn’t gauge the intentions of others’, Dizzy said with a smirk. ‘You should go talk to her’.
Sparky’s eyes widened in surprise at the suggestion, Sparky had been a loner for most of her life, what could she possibly say? ‘What? Why me!? Aren’t you supposed to be the one who is good at talking to people?’ she asked.
‘Ordinarily, I would... however, I’ve known DC Hopely for some time... not very well, but when she and DCI Auditore were kicking down my door twice a week, you get familiar with them. DC Hopely is uncomfortable with the idea of my faith, and I’m almost certain that she thinks that after several weeks of endless harassment by her and DCI Auditore that I don’t like her’, Dizzy said with a frown. She could tell that Sparky wasn’t very keen on the idea either. ‘I’d ask Grandma V or Shortfuse, but I don’t think they have the tact for it’.
Sparky looked over towards Grandma V and Shortfuse. Grandma V was fast asleep, snoring loudly in her chair, and Shortfuse was sliding through the holographic menus of her MIP, drowning out the outside world.
‘You’re probably right’, Sparky said with a frown. ‘All right, fine, I’ll go talk to her’.
‘Thank you’, Dizzy said with a smile. Sparky got to her hooves, trotting over to DC Hopely and tapping her gently on the shoulder.
DC Hopely jumped at the touch and snapped around to face her. Sparky too was caught by surprise; there was a thing over DC Hopely’s eyes. Sparky noticed after looking at it for a few seconds that it was a holographic display. ‘Uh... what’s that?’ Sparky asked, pointing at the orange band across DC Hopely’s eyes.
‘Uh... it’s called a Police Information Processor, sort of like your MIP, but far more advanced... it’s a prototype, not expected to come onto the market for another five years or so...’ DC Hopely said nervously.
‘How did you get one?’ Sparky asked out of curiosity.
‘This thing? It’s a relic of my past that continues to haunt me, DCI Auditore... “obtained” some for use in the Serious and Organised Crime Group. Unfortunately, it’s too useful to get rid of. Responds to eye movements...’ DC Hopely said with a frown. ‘Got a small problem, PPS has just issued bulletins for our arrests... oh my’.
‘What is it?’ Sparky asked.
‘Your grandmother... she has quite the police record...’ DC Hopely said. ‘Her entire record is almost a full gigabyte... and... What’s this one from a hundred years ago? 100,000 pounds of property damage... adjusted for inflation?!’
Sparky’s jaw dropped wide open. ‘She never told me that story...’ she said.
‘Yeah... well I’m sure it’s a good one... hey...’ DC Hopely said, her voice trailing off and a small smile appearing on her face. ‘The alerts have just been suppressed!’
‘Uh...’ Sparky began, but was quickly interrupted by DC Hopely.
‘The alerts are still there in the system, but when we go through security, they won’t come up while they’re checking us, it’s looking like our AI friend is keeping an eye out for us!’ DC Hopely said excitedly. ‘Don’t know how long it’s going to last though...’
The orange band disappeared from DC Hopely’s eyes as she walked back over towards the group. ‘Everybody? We need to go and go now!’
...
DC Hopely was right about one thing, going through security was easy and quick. Sparky was a little bit nervous, but that was normal for her, after all, she was about to board an airship. DC Hopely led the way through the Aerodrome as they reached the docking tether for the ship. The Madame La Salle was one of the largest helium luxury airships in the world, operated by Société Aéronautique Cheval, out of the Cheval Fifth Republic.
Sparky put thoughts of the airship out of her mind, trying as hard as she could to focus on the matter before them. The docking tether for the Madame La Salle had its own waiting area, however they had just started calling for boarding. A queue had formed at the docking ramp, and Sparky looked up out the window to see the airship parked outside. She swallowed hard. This was going to be a very long, very difficult flight, and she knew it.
‘Sparky?’ Dizzy asked. She thought about the matter for a moment, remembering back to Sparky’s earlier story of the fate of her parents. ‘You’re afraid of Airships... aren’t you?’
‘Only the ones I happen to be on’, Sparky said, swallowing hard. This was going to be a very long flight indeed.
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Jesus Christ Vinyl WHY
424661
I'm amazed it's only a gigabyte
424811
But-I mean-how the hell is she in so much hot water while apparently she's had the cash to get most of her organs replaced with robotic ones?
424830
it's a police record, it keeps track of crimes, punished and unpunished
as far as we know, she already served justice for all (or most) of her charges
Great. Even after a hundred years, Applejack is still a combative moron. Good to see some things haven't changed.
424811
A gigabyte of mostly text. (Also a picture)
426268
still, good police records take up quite a bit of room, since there's a general known felons section and separate pages for each individual crime report and the occasional case file
So... Twilight Sparkle is the title of a flagship AND an aerodrome. I'm still just waiting for how this all ties together a little more
OK Wheller, should I be reading any of your previous works as a precursor to this?
427779
You don't have to.
But if you're enjoying this, you'll probably enjoy the other things I've written as well.
Way to go Vinyl!! It takes effort to build a 1GB file of text (and one photo)
in your name for the police of tomorrow to remember you by.
I also feel bad for Sparky, having to face her fear so abruptly.
426268
That's just a summary, right? She must have done more.
I really start to like how international this is. And the Apple family still big in business.
Ooh, fear of flying, unresolved issues with Hopely, and the lady they stole their seats from. I wonder if she'll become a major player? Well, onward!
(PS: I'd like to note that your writing seems to be getting better as this progresses.
)
(PPS: Vinyl's record... how am I not surprised?)
(PPPS: We both have Surprise icons! Though yours has red eyes for some reason...)
Okay, figured I'd leave a message in general... reading this one first, haven't read your other stuff. I agree with others that the references are a bit thick for my tastes but whatever. It's neat seeing remnants of the backstory that you've built up with previous stories, and I may go back to read those, not sure yet. Sparky's really interesting and fun to follow around.
‘Everybody? We need to go and go now!’
Has "Everypony" been dropped from the vernacular, or is that a slip-up on your part?
Poor Sparky
So are any of you other stories actually prequels to this, or do they stand in their own "universe"?
Also, that record!!!!
Amicably kidnapped to France by Mormons, with final destination of the USSR. Though if they're not getting violently kidnapped by Russians en route, it does remain to be seen how they're getting there.
Or is she amicably kidnapped by corrupt police at this point?