//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Spies Aboard // Story: The Engineer’s Wings // by Keeper of time RD //------------------------------// They had expected a commotion aboard the Cloudsdale due to the ongoing repairs, so no pony was surprised to find that there was a cargo plane parked on the top deck, and several strangers about helping with said repairs. As soon as they’d been parked, Rainbow Dash jumped out and asked the nearest pony if Spitfire had returned yet. They confirmed that Spitfire and Soarin had returned the previous day and were currently preparing a proper funeral for Fleetfoot. The whole time Rainbow Dash had been talking, Scootaloo had been gawking at what she saw the minute she’d climbed out of her plane. Namely a strange bug-like pony. His skin was a black chitin shell, his eyes were blue orbs and he had bug-like, transparent wings on his back and a jagged horn on head. And to top it all off, the lower half of his legs sported holes that further made his appearance unnerving. Yet the thing that bothered Scoots the most was that fact that no pony else seemed to notice this type of pony that she wasn’t even sure was a pony, or even care that he was working on the plane next to hers. With Dash’s conversation seemingly over, Scootaloo asked, “What IS that?” The elder pegasus tilted her head askew after tracing where the filly’s hoof was pointing. “Crescent? He’s the equipment manger. I thought you already knew him.” Scootaloo blinked. The creature she was looking at was clearly not a pegasus, let alone the equipment manager. The prismatic glare coming off of every light and shiny surface reminded her of her current eyewear. Pushing her crystal infused goggled up she looked again and saw the brown stallion she knew. Doing a double take, she lowered and raised the goggles a few more times. Looking at him without the goggles he was clearly the pegasus equipment manager. But looking at him through the crystal fused lenses he was clearly something else entirely. While never taking her eyes off of the pony who wasn’t a pony, she finally took the goggles off, held them out, and said, “Rainbow Dash, you might wanna see this.” Dash took the goggles. But she didn’t so much put them on as she dangled them in front of her and tilted her head slightly to look through them. Her eyes widened when she looked at Crescent through the goggles’ lenses. Just like the filly before her, the Wonderbolt pilot did a series of double takes, looking both through and not through the goggles’ lenses. Yet even as she did so all the pieces fell into place in Dash mind. The Staff of True Light, Shining Armor’s betrayal, Gilda’s suspicions. They all pointed to one thing, and they all gave Rainbow Dash the sneaking suspicion that the Staff of True Light had been able to see through illusions, and now Sweetie Belle had accidentally recaptured the staff’s power by fussing its crystal’s fragments to Scootaloo’s goggles. Suddenly, Dash tossed the goggles back to Scootaloo and pounced. “Traitor!” she yelled as she clobbered the equipment manager. That was about the same moment Spitfire came into the hanger. Naturally she demanded to know what was going on. Much to her dismay Dash seemed to ignore her and continued to wrestle the stallion to the floor. It was Scootaloo who responded by running over and offering her a pair of goggles with comically aligned crystals attached to the lenses. “Use these!” the filly offered. Unfurling her wings, Spitfire hooked the goggles on the tip of her wing and then dangled them in front of her face. Much like Dash, she didn’t bother putting them on and just looked through one of the lenses as they dangled just in front of her muzzle. “What the heck?” she muttered, as she saw the same dark form replace the stallion everypony knew as the equipment manager. After a few double takes and looking at everypony else in the room with them, she turned to Scootaloo and asked, “What’s with these goggles?” “Sweetie Belle modified them with the crystal from the Staff of True Light,” Rainbow Dash said. Then looking to the creature she had pinned down she added, “And you just condemned yourself! I felt the way you reacted to that! You ARE a spy working with Shining Armor!” With Dash’s words, Spitfire made the connection and her eyes widened with fear. “This isn’t good. We could be surrounded and we wouldn’t know it!” Then she stopped and thought for a moment. First she had the imposter taken to the brig. Then she tossed the goggles to Rainbow Dash and said, “We need to search the ship for others now! But I can’t go around with something that goofy on. Everypony would know something was up the instant they saw me with those on.” Rainbow Dash looked at the goggles again. With the four-pointed star formation of the crystals fused to the lenses they really did look like the sort of thing only a tourist would wear. A tourist or… “You’re right, chief. Only a filly could wear something like this without drawing attention to themselves. And they are your goggles, Squirt,” she added as she gave them back to Scootaloo. Then looking back to her captain with a sinister grin, Dash added, “And you know… With all the repairs going on, it’s not like the captain of the Wonderbolts has anything better to do then finally give our guests a full tour of our flagship.” Spitfire returned the grin. * * * * * * * The tour found two more bug-like ponies among the staff of the C.S. Cloudsdale. “Changelings, we’re called changelings,” the imposter previously known as Crescent said in response to Rainbow Dash’s more recent attempt at interrogation. “Good, now we’re getting somewhere. Now why were you spying on us for Shining Armor!” The three changelings tossed questioning looks at each other before the one who’d spoken before answered, “If he was one of ours he didn’t bother to mention it to me.” The other two made similar responses. “And yet, you knew exactly what the Staff of True Light was! But I’d never heard of it before he said it! No pony I know has ever heard of it!” “You’d be hard pressed to find a changeling that doesn’t know about the one pony artifact that can reveal our true forms,” the changeling captives’ chosen spokesman offered. Stepping forward, Spitfire said, “I don’t believe you. But if we pretend I did and you weren’t spying on us, then why are you here?” “We’re a harvesting team.” The questioning look from the ponies in the room prompted the changeling to continue. “Changelings feed on love. That’s what we harvest. Why do you think we’re the three most appreciated ponies aboard the ship?” “Most appreciated? Wouldn’t that be the captain?” Rainbow Dash asked. The changeling smiled and, in a flash of green fire, briefly retook the form of Crescent. “Come now, like most of the pilots, even you have a special fondness for the pony who keeps your plane working.” “Or the pony who notices when you’ve had a hard day and whips up a dinner that reminds you of home,” the changeling who’d been the ship’s head chef said. “Or the nurse who tends the wounded with a gentle touch,” added the last changeling. Dash backed away from the holding cell with a sudden look of confusion in her eyes. “Wait, so all you’re trying to do is make ponies happy?” “Your happiness is irrelevant,” the changeling that seemed to be the leader of the three said. “We just need you to send love our way so we can feed on it without your noticing.” As the conversation had been going on Spitfire’s eyes had been narrowing into a scowl. “I think the better question is, where are my actual crew?” she said accusingly. Caught off guard the changeling paused for a moment, the way one does when they need to think out an answer because they don’t think the true, snap answer will go well. Yet at the same time the ponies had seen that this creature was taking way too long to give the answer that he gave. Almost as if he knew that, the changeling sheepishly answered, “What makes you think that there were other ponies to begin with?” “You forgot my dad.” All eyes fell to the orange filly who’d spoken. Shifting her gaze to Dash, Scootaloo continued, “Rainbow Dash, didn’t you say my dad was friends with the equipment manager?” The elder pegasus nodded. “Yeah, I got that impression. He was always hanging out with the ponies he could talk engineering with, instead of us dumb pilots that only knew how to fly planes.” Scootaloo looked back to the changeling who wore the name Crescent and said, “Yet when I met you, you said my dad spent more time with the pilots then you engineers. It’s almost like you forgot you were supposed to be friends with somepony who died before you replaced the real Crescent.” Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash shot accusing looks at the changelings inside the holding cell. Spitfire’s glare returned to deadly levels. The changelings backed away from the front of the cage with as nervous and fearful a look as one might expect from those who’d been caught in a lie to someone that you really shouldn’t lie to. And then the door to the brig swung open. “Captain!” Spinning to face the newcomer, Spitfire’s gaze fell on an innocent victim. “What’s so important that you’d interrupt an interrogation?” she demanded. “Urgent message from Canterlot, Ma’am!” the Wonderbolt communications officer said. “It’s the Crystal Empire! They declared war on Equestria!”