My boss turned an interesting color when I asked him, but he recovered nearly as swiftly. "Of course, sure... I mean, you're owed enough of it." He glanced away and back at me, so many questions going unasked.
I decided to not let him dangle. He was being a good boss, letting me go in the middle of a huge project he was nervous about. "I won't be entirely off duty. I plan to continue the project. I'll be submitting progress reports and timesheets."
He let out an explosive sigh of relief. "Thank god for the Internet. I mean, you enjoy yourself, but thank you." He clapped me on a shoulder. "When are you going?"
That was a great question that had me snatching out my phone to check. Wow. "Looks... like I'll be paying full price for a plane. I have to get moving basically immediately."
He gave an empathetic laugh. "Family, right? Who else can get you to drop everything and come running? I have one too, I know how it goes." He was already turning away. "Let me know when you get back, obviously. I'll be looking forward to it."
With the recent new income stream, I almost felt guilty knowing the plane ticket would be so small a problem as to be laughable, even with my two +1s. Still, not something to put off a moment longer. I went to my office where the ladies already were.
Trixie looked up with a smile. "We trust everything went well?"
"He let me go," I confirmed as I moved around my desk to get at my computer and immediately pull up a comparison site and get to shopping. Low class, or first class? I glanced up at the two ladies, who were both watching me in kind. Did they know what I was planning? Perhaps they had guessed it involved them. It was their first time flying. I wanted it to be special and as nice as possible.
I booked first class. It included security priority, and I didn't want to subject either of them to airport security any more than absolutely required. "All booked. Looks like it comes with plugs, so we can keep your tablets charged while we're going. You will need your passports. Do you both have them?"
Starlight produced hers first, but Trixie was only moments behind. Trixie popped hers open, showing her picture. "She still thinks this is the least interesting picture they took of her."
I leaned in for a better look. They had managed to get a straight forward shot of her head and shoulders. I wondered how many pictures they had to snap to get her in such a neutral pose. Maybe they got it by luck while she was posing dramatically. "It's a nice picture."
"Do you think so?"
"They had a great subject matter."
Trixie burst into good-humored laughter. "That they did. So Trixie is prepared for this trip? She is not used to traveling great distances without her cart."
"Cart?"
Starlight shook her head. "As a pony, Trixie went everywhere with her cart. It was where she lived and worked."
"This is correct." Trixie sat down as her hands began to work a moment before she stopped. "Use the oracle! She is certain there are crude pictures of it, just as there are of Trixie."
Oracle? Oh, right. I quickly typed "Trixie's Cart" into google, and there it was, both intact and unfolded into a performing stage. "Cute." Like most pony things, it seemed. "That must have been a challenge."
"To pull?" Trixie's smile turned cocky, a subtle difference. "She is stronger than she looks. Pulling her cart is part of her training regimen to keep her fit. She misses it... This time, we will let the cart pull us instead."
Starlight gave a short snort of a laugh. "No wonder more humans seem to get pudgy."
Trixie tilted her head. "You do not like it?"
Starlight realized the mine she had stepped on quickly. "Oh, no, it looks great on you! You pull off the look with class, as usual."
Trixie beamed at the praise. "Your human form is acceptable as well, even if you did copy someone else." She looked over at me. "She swears, you two are too similar."
I was about to object, when a knock came from the door. "Come in," I called. I had no good reason to deny anyone that would be knocking at the office door.
In came a face I hadn't seen in awhile. It was that shapeshifting pegasus, in his human form. "Hello, Miss Frohein."
The other two looked curious. They had never met him, so he was just another stranger. I knew better. "Swanson couldn't make it herself?"
"She couldn't," he agreed, moving to stand in front of my desk. "Things are very busy, thanks in part to you, which we are not upset about. Things are moving, finally." He glanced left and right, to Trixie and Starlight. "I took the opportunity to meet the two unicorns not in our direct care. My name is Simulacrum, and yours?"
Starlight tensed. "Reformed?" she asked in a deeply suspicious tone.
Simulacrum arched a brow. "Well, that proves that nicely. No. I'm not one of... those. I've been on Earth long before that occurred."
I shook my head a little. "Why are we being suddenly mysterious about Equestria? There is no one in this room that merits that."
Trixie tilted her head. "What are... oh!" She leveled a finger at Simulacrum. "Changeling!"
"Subtle," laughed Simulacrum lightly. "It doesn't matter. My master is the United States, not Chrysalis, not anymore." He crossed his arms across his chest. "Can't say I miss her. I've heard some snatches of the great rebellion. Would you indulge me with more information about that? I'm curious."
Trixie waved broadly at Starlight and herself. "You're looking at the two that made that happen!"
Starlight gave out a strained single note of a laugh, a lone 'ha-ah' "Well you don't have to go that far."
"But she will, because it's true." Trixie was looking quite proud. "We did it all."
Simulacrum spied an unused chair where the door would open and snagged one for himself. "Just two ponies? Chrysalis usually isn't that sloppy."
Starlight was shaking her head and waving her hands in a wild attempt to silence an oblivious Trixie that saw nothing wrong in speaking, "Oh, well, Discord was involved too, we guess we should mention."
I put a hand out in front of Trixie. "As fascinating as this is, I trust you didn't come here for that?"
"Straight to the point." Simulacrum fixed me a smile I couldn't take the full measure of. "I like that. It's a great relief, knowing I don't have to walk on eggshells around anyone here. Shame this isn't a completely secure location... Either way, you're poking your nose in about the unicorns, yes?"
I nodded in easy agreement. "I would like their names, pictures, and preferably some assurance of their safety and well-being. An actual visit would be ideal. We've supplied at least that much for the rest."
Simulacrum gestured to Starlight, then Trixie. "Pegasi can be clipped. You bind their wings, and they stay in their pens. Earth ponies, as a rule, same principle. You can handle them like most any other animal or human, keep them confined and safe, for them, for the humans, for everyone. Unicorns... No such assurance. I'm sure you two are quite aware, being one yourself, but most can't do much, but we can't tell what the talents are of any particular unicorn are just by looking at them. How do you keep someone captive that can, in theory, teleport, or shapeshift, or break all the rules humanity knows of the universe? Answer, very, very carefully."
Trixie rolled her eyes. "But they trust a changeling?!"
His grin showed teeth just a little sharper than they should be. "I have sworn my loyalty, and that is no small thing. This is my new hive, and I have no lofty ambitions of working against it. I will obey the laws of it, and help them enforce those on others. But we're not here to chat about me." His eyes didn't leave me, focused. "This is about unicorns. The first one we captured escaped. The second... just about as easily. It wasn't until they got lucky, caught a filly that could barely glow, let alone teleport." He produced a photo from his shirt and slid it across the desk towards me. "Here she is."
The picture was that of a mare, not a filly. It chilled me with the implications. "How long have you had her?" I asked, even if the answer seemed obvious.
Starlight peered at the picture from where she sat. "I think I'm getting an idea what's going on here."
Simulacrum's gaze broke to look at her. "Oh?"
Trixie got a sublime smile. "She thinks she's on the same page. It is little wonder now..."
Why was I the only one being left out?! "Someone want to give me a hint here?"
Simulacrum rose to his feet suddenly. "I should go. A full list of names will be sent. Pictures will require logging into a secure server. That information will be tendered."
I stood up quickly. "They're all safe then?"
He hesitated a moment. "There has been... one fatality. Autopsy suggested it was of natural causes."
My mind flashed with what they would do with a dead pony, especially a unicorn, with no foreign government known about to deal with. I cringed at the imagery of blood and viscera that danced in my mind. They would not let any such specimen 'rest in peace'. Too many mysteries had answers that could be found in its flesh. "I... will need their name too."
"Of course." Simulacrum nodded to each of us and strode from the office with sure steps.
I slumped back into my seat, shaken a little.
Starlight wrinkled her nose. "Not that I plan to go anytime soon, but if something happens, you shove me through a puddle back to Twilight's, alright? Not like corpses care about the side effects."
Trixie's eyes widened. "She does not want to hear her friend even admitting the possibility of ever leaving. You are hereby not allowed to die." She crossed her arms and turned her head away. "Trixie forbids it."
I put up a hand flat towards either of them. "Neither of you are. I won't let it." As if I, a lawyer, were some kind of superhero that could do much about it one way or the other. "Look, what were you two getting excited about there?" I wanted to think about just about anything else. That seemed a valid distraction.
Starlight's expression brightened as she clapped her knees with her hands. "Oh, you didn't figure it out? If that filly's been here for that long to be a mare, and that show you watch is only a few years old..." She rolled her hand as if expecting me to finish it.
"Then ponies predate the show?" I timidly put forward, unsure if that was enough.
"Yes, but we knew that. More than that. The odds that we came here first, but then someone just 'happened' to dream us up, without seeing us? Unlikely." She tapped my desk. "The show is someone telling stories of our world, literally ours. A pony talked to someone and shared stories, and this happened." She flashed a smile. "The show is still being made. The pony is still talking."
Trixie tilted her head. "Wait a moment. If they are... that does not make sense. When they came here, they would stop knowing what was happening, because they would be here, not in Equestria."
Starlight nodded quickly. "An astute observation, which means..." She glanced at me, clearly hoping I'd follow along.
So I gave it my best guess. "Which means there is a pony that can go back and forth already, ferrying information around."
Starlight clapped her hands together. "Probably also able to hide themselves as a human, maybe more than one to keep the secret. This is a guess, mind you. I could be wrong."