//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Darkness // Story: Secret Search // by computerneek //------------------------------// “You have a secret kitchen…?” “Yes.” “A kitchen.” “Yep!  It’s supposed to be for when I want to surprise somepony.  As for why it has earth pony appliances… when I built it, I thought Pinkie Pie would be using it more than I.” “Oh?  Did she?” She shakes her head.  “Nope. This kitchen has never been used, unfortunately.”  She smiles at the earth pony standing next to her in her first-level basement.  “I haven’t had any reason not to use the one upstairs.” Bonbon trots in, looking over the surfaces- and peeking inside cabinets.  “You keep it clean, though?” “Every week or so.  You can make your candies here, while you wait for the, uh, refurnishing of your new shop?” “Uh, sure, thank you!” Done. Restarting DCC…  Done. Reading DCC Configuration…  Failed: Databanks Not Responding Loading Defaults…  Done. Saving DCC Configuration…  Failed: Databanks Not Responding Reading Maintenance Logs…  Failed: Databanks Not Responding Executing Damage Review…  7.01% --DAMAGE REPORT-- Fusion 1:  13.92% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Fusion 2:  --Hardware Not Found-- Fusion 3:  --Hardware Not Found-- Fusion 4:  46.26% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Fusion 5:  2.01% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Fusion 6:  97.72% Integrity (OFFLINE) Fusion 7:  --Hardware Not Found-- Fusion 8:  61.04% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Fusion 9:  --Hardware Not Found-- Fusion 10:  9.31% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Fusion 11:  --Hardware Not Found-- Main Power Banks:  1.71% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Main Reserves:  5.93% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Emergency Reserves:  --Hardware Not Found-- --WARNING:  POWER SYSTEMS COMPROMISED-- Survival Center 1:  --Hardware Not Found-- Survival Center 2:  73.92% Integrity (0.02% Operable) --WARNING:  SURVIVAL CENTER COMPROMISED-- Medvat 1:  --Hardware Not Found-- Medvat 2:  0.31% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Medvat 3:  --Hardware Not Found-- --WARNING:  MEDBAY COMPROMISED-- Command 1:  0.02% Integrity (INOPERABLE) Command 2:  9.31% Integrity (7.92% Operable) --WARNING:  COMMAND DECK COMPROMISED-- Databank 1:  97.31% Integrity (OFFLINE) Databank 2:  99.27% Integrity (OFFLINE) Databank 3:  Processing… (37.4%) What the…? It’s all she can think.  It’s close to a week after Bonbon moved in; her candy hit the town by storm, so their financial problems are prettymuch solved.  She’s spent much of the last week down here, using her alibi spell as its name each time; once, she even stayed down here for two days in a row.  Turns out her electric kitchen is really easy to burn stuff in; unlike unicorn appliances, they don’t turn off when she turns her back.  At least she caught it before it started smoking each time; explaining the smell would have been a… minor problem. But throughout most of yesterday and, until now, all of today, she was upstairs, without her alibi spell.  She’d left this display with miles of math on it- she’d figured out how to give it addition and multiplication- but now… Now, it’s got all this…  stuff on it.  And the numbers on that final line keep changing every few seconds, incrementing by a tenth of a percent each time.  What in Equestria is it supposed to mean…? She tries striking the ‘Enter’ key. Enter Command: She blinks.  That blinking horizontal line has returned- this time after this prompt, rather than after that interesting arrow.  She tries asking it some questions. What’s that mean? Invalid Command What is a damage report Invalid Command She scowls at the display.  Fix it Invalid Command Repair Specify Repair Target: She pauses at this, and glances back up towards the list…  that percentage is still ticking up.  Maybe… Databank 1 Command Acknowledged. …  And the little arrow reappears on the next line.  Bonus, the percentage has stopped changing. >What was that Command Not Recognized:  What was that Oh.  So it’s gonna play that game again.  She punches in a large number of boring math problems, chasing everything else offscreen, and goes exploring again.  She’d exhausted this display of any more interesting functions she could find earlier… Perhaps she can find something more interesting than hallways of broken lights and boring lumps of metal…? She pushes another door open…  and raises her eyebrows. It’s much the same as the last few rooms, but the great big lump of metal here is not only larger than those in the other rooms but textured…  and not so much a lump as something clearly functional.  Like a giant bottle of some sort.  About time she finds something interesting- she’s been exploring for close to three hours!  … Which makes it close to three days, cumulatively.  This thing is huge. She trots around the thing, looking at it from different sides, and tries a scanning spell.  Like the lumps in those few previous rooms, it’s got some materials in it that resist the flow of her mana.  Unlike them, it’s in a fairly closed loop here, like a bottle, and she can’t find a place to get her scan in. Maybe it’s some kind of mana storage vessel?  That would be… impressive, she decides. Nopony has ever constructed such a device; they’ve only been able to store mana in gemstones- and those can’t hold very much.  Perhaps this is something that can hold far greater quantities than a similarly sized gemstone? … Though, her book hadn’t mentioned anything about mana… To be honest, her book hadn’t mentioned anything about really anything she’s found here.  So, forget the book, she can investigate- Her stomach pierces the silence quite violently, and she chuckles lightly.  “I’ll be back, then.” She turns and trots back out towards her entrance; it’ll be easier to study and investigate on a full stomach. When she gets upstairs, she emerges from the basement to find darkness permeating the house.  After a quick check to be sure she hasn’t been spotted, she closes the door behind her and moves slowly, using a pair of spells- one a sensory augmentation spell, the other an aural dampening one- to navigate.  Her house isn’t normally this dark, even when the lights are off in the middle of the night.  She declines to use a scrying spell; even a very powerful scrying spell such as she can use directly can be felt by unicorns…  and this darkness feels like a spell. She doesn’t feel the ‘overhead’ in the local magic fields produced by a spell-detector spell- so at least that isn’t a problem. Perhaps the spellcaster thinks she’s where her alibi is, providing a music lesson for Cheerilee’s class? She adds a perception filter to her spell stack before she starts searching her home.  It wouldn’t do for somepony to see her with their sensory augmentation spell. The room very suddenly goes dark around her.  Bonbon takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. It helps if she pretends she can’t see because her eyes are closed.  “So, you’re here.” She expects the voice that responds.  “Yes. You’re living with somepony?” Bonbon nods- not that they’ll be able to see.  “Yes. She’s busy right now, we’ll be okay.” “Again, you’re living with somepony?” She sighs.  “She offered to let me stay in her home while I got the shop set up.” “But you finished that.” She scowls at the floor.  “I know.” “Did you find anything?” “Not yet.  I’ve been rather occupied in establishing my cover.” “And this mare isn’t slowing you down, is she?” Good thing it’s dark, Bonbon decides- her conversant won’t be able to see her facial expression.  She keeps her voice carefully metered- and considers her response for a second. “No, she’s not. Rather, if not for Candy Stripes, I would be stuck establishing my cover for close to a month, but I’m almost ready now.” “Ahh.  How long will she be out?” “It’ll be a few hours.” “Then it won’t be a problem if I do this.” Bonbon twitches away from the inappropriate touch.  “Leave me alone.” “Oh?  Then-” “It will.” Bonbon freezes.  She hadn’t expected that voice, not at all.  As near as she can tell, neither had her male conversant. The silence holds for a couple seconds.  Bonbon twists away from a prod at a very inappropriate spot. “Why are you assaulting my friend?” Bonbon’s eyes, already wide open, start scanning the room to find the source of the voice…  not that she can see anything. “Oh shoot!” she hears the stallion mutter, as he runs away. “Hey!  Get back here!” “Aaargh!”  Thump. “Explanation.  Now.” The darkness seems to flicker and disappear.  She searches the room. The dark brown unicorn stallion sitting in somewhat of a heap in the middle of the room looks absolutely terrified…  Which, Bonbon realizes, the magic inhibitor clamped around his horn possibly explains.  It’s a perfect match to the one still hanging on his belt, right next to the empty spot.  His cutie mark, she observes, is a splotch of black on his already dark coat. Aside from herself, that’s everypony in the room.  So, where’s the owner of that new voice she’d heard- Lyra Heartstrings? “Um…  Uh… Um…”  The stallion seems at a loss for words.  Presumably, he doesn’t get caught by outsiders very often; the Royal Intelligence Agency’s contact corps- used to keep field agents in contact with Command- are generally pretty good at this kind of thing. “Now.”  Lyra strikes her hoof on the floor, for emphasis. Bonbon’s eyes lock onto the weak unicorn, standing a couple meters in front of the darker stallion with a terrifying scowl on her face.  Funny, she hadn’t been there a second ago.  Her gaze shifts back to the stallion. “I, uh…”  he begins. “Let him…”  Her eyes shift back to Lyra- but she’s not there.  She concentrates for a second… Ah, there she is- in exactly the same spot!  That is one powerful perception filter.  “Let him go,” she informs her friend.  “We can’t legally detain him.” Lyra looks at her.  “We’re still reporting him, right?” “Of course.” Lyra nods, and the magic inhibitor snaps off from around his horn, returning to his belt as she turns back to him.  “Now get out.” He scrambles to obey, dashing for the front door.  Bonbon spots his horn glow as he goes- probably restoring his disguise.  Shortly, he’s gone. Bonbon lets out a breath.  “Thanks,” she mutters, turning back to Lyra…  who must’ve lost her perception filter. Lyra sighs.  “So, ‘candy stripes’?  What’s that make you?” Bonbon hangs her head.  She hadn’t planned on having her cover blown this quickly…  Though, she could possibly turn it into an advantage.  Their getting caught would go on his performance report, not hers, after all… “Can you promise…?” “Complete secrecy?  Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”  She glances at the door. “I can even fill out one of those NDA things if you want.” Bonbon snickers at this.  “That won’t be necessary. To them, I’m ‘Sweetie Drops’.” A raised eyebrow.  “Like the agent in the news last month?” “I was in the news?” She looks at the door again for a second.  “He was RIA, wasn’t he?” She hangs her head.  “Yep.” “And I showed an agent my secret basement.” “Yep.” Lyra trots over, covering Bonbon in a hug.  “But that agent is a friend now, right?” “Uh…” “Come on- say yes!  I’ll let you live here as long as you like.  … Though, I might need to update some of my security spells.” She just laughs.