>Thank you
You’re welcome.
She smiles, and unleashes her spell. It had taken only a couple minutes to charge this one- and she’d just not only confirmed it safe to release but verified what she needed it to cover.
It’s quite heavy; as a matter of fact, its mass will reduce her ship’s load capacity by something like thirty percent. Not that she cares- the benefits far exceed that impingement. The Secret will still have the airborne capacity for something like a hundred ponies, with supplies for a week. Even with that much mass added, the maximum upwards velocity- and altitude- really shouldn’t go down; her gas bag is big enough for dangerous upwards velocities and altitudes, when unloaded. In short, her ship should behave right about the same, with the added benefit of her… thing. It really needs a name.
Though, now that she’s transplanted its mind onto her ship, perhaps she should call it ‘Secret’?
… Nevermind that it informed her it would likely need a day or two to adjust before it could start doing much in its new home. It had also told her that it would continue to expand its capabilities after that initial adjustment period.
So she abandons the now useless control panel deep in the underground place, returning to her home. She doesn’t expect to head back down for a long time; she just transported out everything useful, after all.
Which reminds her. The trip back from that village- the natives called it ‘Our Town’, but she already knows one by that name- had been… interesting. She’s fairly sure she managed to keep herself hidden from her passenger, but said passenger had been extremely curious. She’d been asked lots of questions- ranging from why the ship’s so big with only one pony aboard to why she has wing care implements. She’s fairly sure she’d managed to pass those off as intended for use by any winged passengers she takes aboard.
The hardest question to field had been why she never seemed to eat. She’d firmly asserted that she does eat, but prefers to do it in private. Her visitor- who had not once provided a name- hadn’t seemed satisfied with that answer.
But now, said visitor is stopping by Bonbon’s candy shop with her ship alibi. Her alibi will be returning to her ship alone, leaving the unicorn with her friend, before she launches.
“Wait, huh?”
Pinkie pie turns towards the ship once again. Earlier, she got the new pony signal in her Pinkie Sense- and it came from this ship. The ship she can count- one- but can’t seem to find, like it disappears when she looks for it. Funny thing is, she can count it, see it in her peripheral vision, turn towards it, and walk, run, or bounce, but never reach it, even if she repeats over and over and over and over and-
“Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow asks, showing up and dropping down to land next to her. “Why are you… Wait. Where’d that airship go?” She looks left and right. “I coulda sworn- There! Huh? But…” She leaps back into the air, twists in place… “There!” She instantly whizzes off in that direction- and swerves with a sudden “Woah!”
Rainbow twists back in midair, whizzing in again… to swerve again. “How-?”
Pinkie Pie gives an enormous smile. “Exactly!”
Fluttershy is next to happen along. “Good afternoon, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash… What are you doing?” She glances around briefly.
“Trying to find this airship!” Rainbow calls down, before whizzing in the direction she’d held her hoof- and detouring upwards at the last second.
“Maybe they don’t want it to be found?” Fluttershy suggests, even as she watches Pinkie bouncing in circles, head snapping side to side in an effort to track the ship.
When neither searching mare has an answer, she continues on her way. If somepony wants to hide an airship, it’s not her business to find it.
“Seriously,” a panting Rainbow grumbles, a ring of clouds placed around the ship she can’t find. “Why can’t I find it?”
A wild Derpy appears!
… and crashes into the ship’s enormous gas bag. “What…? Who put an airship in the middle of… Oh.” The wall-eyed pegasus smiles sheepishly. “Of course an airship would be in the sky.”
“That’s the point,” Rainbow retorts, dropping down to pause next to her. “It’s docked here, but I can’t find it!”
“Huh? I thought I was higher… You can’t find it?” She blinks bemusedly at Rainbow. “I just crashed into…” She looks around. “... Where’d it go…?”
Rainbow gives her a flat look. “III’m getting Twilight.” She draws out the I.
She trots gently next to the unicorn that had interacted with her through the trip. She’d seen the unicorn changing her own appearance- though it felt more like she’d been supposed to see her doing that. Now, her savior is a light blue unicorn with green-and-white striped mane. Both before and after that transformation, she’d shown a penchant for teleporting around the ship when out of sight.
But while ‘Blueberry Punch’ turned ‘Candy Stripes’ might have been quite the active unicorn, she had been imperfect.
Candy Stripes must have assumed she’d be as good as most of the rest of the Contact Agents- who don’t need to worry about information gathering. Contact Agents normally only have to stay out of sight and follow their designated Field Agents with a fairly standard tracking spell. They wait for the Field Agent to be alone, then step in and present themselves. No nosing around, no information gathering.
But not her. She, one of the most experienced Contact Agents in the force, wants to become a Field Agent. As a Field Agent, she would then be allowed to do that nosing around.
Of course, it not being in her job description doesn’t stop her from practicing. She might not be able to report anything she finds, but she sure can find. She’d used that skill- rather than waiting at her Agents’ requested contact locations- to spy on them beforehand.
That’d been how she caught them.
That’s also how she caught a few dozen agents in her past. This party had reacted fast enough to catch her- but she had teleported away. Thank Celestia she’d refused to stop studying magic, even when her job got tough! She’d been worried about how long it would take to escape- her ability to do so was not in question- when she’d run across ‘Blueberry Punch’.
But anyways, Stripes must have assumed she’d be a typical Contact Agent, because she had penetrated the Secret pretty easily. A quick spell here, and a quick spell there. Never when anypony was nearby. Stripes must have believed she’d noticed the wing wax and asked about that; no. She’d found a mint-green feather, now hidden in her mane, and looked for the wing wax.
She’d also scanned the entire ship, throughout her time aboard, and hadn’t found a single strand of purple or dark blue hair on the ship, as she’d expect if Blueberry Punch was to live there.
What she’d found instead was fur-length hairs to match the feather, plus some light blue and white hairs more suited to a mane or tail. This, of course, matched the colors she’d glimpsed when she hid herself in a closet once. She hadn’t been able to get an actual image through the tiny crack, unfortunately.
There had been one extra color in that glimpse, though- an emissive gold, the exact color of Stripes’ magic aura.
From that, she’s fairly certain that Stripes isn’t actually a pony, but rather a magical projection by this other pony. This other pony that has either an identically-colored pegasus twin, or both wings and a magic aura. She can’t bring herself to even think about what that might mean.
Oh- they’re entering a candy shop. The shop owner, a white earth pony with dark blue and pink striped- and very curly- mane, is sitting behind the counter. The only other occupant of the room is a unicorn to match the observed color profile aboard ship- mint green coat, light blue and white striped mane, golden magic aura- is sitting on a stool next to the counter, playing gently on her lyre.
The shop owner looks up, opening her mouth- but the unicorn speaks up first, smiling up at the not-so-pony she just came in with. “Fancy seeing you here, Candy Stripes.”
She finds herself wondering how this unicorn knew who Stripes was- maybe she’s been here before?- but no matter, the effect was instant. The earth pony’s expression went from a friendly greeting to surprised to apprehensive while the name was being spoken.
Stripes, of course, trots over to the lyrist to chat… About the weather. Interesting.
The earth pony, after a second’s pause, steps around the counter and approaches her, an eyebrow raised.
She raises her hoof, putting on a smile. “Hello,” she mutters.
The earth pony touches the hoof, and her eyebrow twitches. “Agent Sweetie Drops,” she states, dropping her hoof back to the ground. “I hear you need something?”
“Uh… yes.” She glances at the lyrist and her companion. “In private.”
With a nod, Sweetie Drops- a fitting name, given the cutie mark- leads her into the backroom, closing the door behind them, before prompting her with an eyebrow.
“I’m Contact Agent Purple Acorn. I…” She proceeds to tell the field agent in front of her about what she’d discovered back in that awful town. She leaves out the ship and everything that happened aboard.
Naturally, the field agent reviews her evidence, and questions her rather extensively on her previous interactions with those agents, before assembling a report for Command. She’s not privy to the contents of that report; unfortunately, that’s kept secret even from the contact agents. Despite this, she has to work to suppress a smile when Agent Sweetie Drops allows her to see her stamping the outside of the envelope… and in so doing, marking it as information on the possible mutiny of another agent, for the direct attention of the Director himself. She must be confident of the accuracy of her report to be marking it like that; if it turns out to be fake when the Director opens it…
Agents had been imprisoned for less.
But it lets her completely circumvent the entire Contact Corps office. By RIA policy, any message bearing that stamp is carried directly to the Director by the Contact Agent that brought it in.
Of course, Agent Sweetie Drops instructs her to take it directly to the Director- and not to give or show it to anypony along the way. If somepony challenges her right to deliver it without showing, she is to bring it straight back- at which point Sweetie Drops will come with her to ensure the safe delivery.
This wording raises warning flags in her mind- normally, she’s supposed to show the stamp at the security checkpoints as her authorization for passage. The only reason she wouldn’t…
Is if she suspects the mutineers have support from Command personnel. In that event… “Okay, but how do I pass the security checkpoints…?”
“Request a private audience with the Director. If you’re denied, come back and get me.”
Nod. “Yes ma’am.”
“If you do come back for me, play customer and ask for ‘Sweetie Drops’.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The lyrist is working sales, behind the counter, when they reemerge into the filled shop. Agent Sweetie Drops smiles at this and steps up to help out once again; presumably, there’s an agreement between the two mares, related to the shop. Probably falls under the ‘cover clause’, allowing Field Agents to reveal their identity as such to one or two non-agents in order to maintain their cover while on assignment.
She smiles, buys some candy (the stuff smells amazing), and heads for Canterlot.
By the time Twilight shows up by the ring of clouds, Pinkie has disappeared- and she finds nothing unusual about the circle. Not only that, but nopony can count any airships.