//------------------------------// // Chapter 19: Deployment // Story: Secret Search // by computerneek //------------------------------// “Wow.” That’s all any of the three could say. Alpha had led Vinyl and Fluttershy back to the medbay, where the box housing Rain hadn’t changed- save that the displays were using plain Equestrian.  Then, in response to one of Alpha’s comments, one of the spider things had shown up and led them to the control room. Which, she decides, must be a second control room.  Not only had the door opened smoothly, but the seat- and several of the displays- are in pristine condition. Then, it had responded to her question, once she’d punched it in.  She’d asked it, What happened? The wall of text is…  Long, stretching across three screens.  And in Equestrian this time, so she doesn’t have to worry about words she doesn’t know. …  For the most part.  Turns out there’s a few words it can’t translate. But it does have a lot of words she does know.  She’s even able to recognize a few of the events it mentions. There’s a few others she doesn’t recognize.  Like ‘Executing evasive maneuvers’. Or ‘Allowing hits’, or perhaps ‘Launching against Pursuers’. As she reads down the list, though, she’s able to gather up the gist of what happened, how quickly it had made its decisions…  and why it had made them. They spend a couple minutes in silence, reading. “Um,” Vinyl eventually breaks the silence.  “Who’s controlling this thing…?” Her eyes probe across the lines telling the story of when- and how- it knew she was okay to release. Alpha smiles, chuckling lightly.  “Nopony is,” she answers. “It did all this on its own.  Where it got the power to do it, I have no idea.” She looks at the screens.  “Though, I have to admit, it would be nice if it was a pony.” “Ahh…”  Vinyl casts her eyes back up at her horn, focusing for a second.  It sputters a little, but dies. Alpha hasn’t been able to manage even that much.  “I wonder how good it is with magic…?” Alpha tilts her head.  “I don’t think it’s actually used magic before…  But it did invent a spell for me not too long ago.” “Oh?”  She looks at the screen for a second.  “Some kind of display and/or acceleration spell?” She actually laughs this time.  “Nah. I call it the signature spoofer…  A spell that completely- and temporarily- changes the caster’s magic signature.”  Her grin widens. “If I combine it with my modification to Starswirl’s self-projection spell, I can be two different ponies at once- literally!” “Starswirl’s self-projection spell?  That’s been lost.” She snickers, declining to answer verbally as she turns to the keyboard. >Show my alibi spell The shifting wall of text disappears, leaving two empty screens…  The third one has an image on it- a spell matrix. Alpha points a hoof.  “Found it!” Vinyl’s jaw drops.  She stares for a few seconds. “...  It was hidden in here…?” Shake.  “No- I found it in a book.  This is my modification of it- the one that lets me project something different from what I am.”  She smiles. “Like how Candy Stripes has a different color scheme than I do.” Vinyl looks at the screen for several long seconds.  “That looks like it takes a lot of power to cast,” she mutters.  “Only a really powerful Unicorn could do it… You said this thing invented an impossible spell?” She tilts her head.  “Yeees?” she asks, drawing it out a little bit. “Can it optimize this one?” She looks up at the screen.  “Good question…” >Can you make it better Indeterminate >Give it a try Design task accepted. WARNING:  Design Task 0008 Failed:  Insufficient data for spell matrix improvement. “I guess not.” Vinyl scowls.  “Drat.” Alpha tilts her head.  “Insufficient data… Hmm…” >What kind of data is missing Indeterminate >What information do you need Indeterminate >What kind of information might be helpful Indeterminate >Can you at least try to help me? Affirmative. > She slams her forehead down on the keyboard.  “We’re not going to get anywhere like this.” Nine unchained innocents had been sent back to the door.  Nine ponies gallop through Lyra’s basements and hide out in her living room, fearing re-capture. The tenth one, showing up shortly behind the others, walks calmly through the living room, navigating directly to the front door.  Ponies stare as the unfamiliar mare goes. One even tries to stop her.  “Wait! They’ll just catch you again if you go out!” The mare pauses in her walk, turning to face Time Turner.  “I’ll be fine,” she states. “They can’t catch me.” It takes him a couple seconds to recover- she sounded so certain- before he moves into her path.  “No- you’ll only get hurt! The Princesses will-!” She pushes him easily aside with one foreleg, reducing him to a shocked stare, as she resumes her course.  “They can’t hurt me.” Nopony moves as she steps calmly outside. She closes the door behind her.  Just like all the hidden doors she’d secured on her way upstairs, even the limited security value this door affords is better than the flat zero of the still-wide-open hatch down below. She surveys the street in front of her.  Twenty-seven unicorns, thirty-eight pegasi, fifteen earth ponies.  Of which, six unicorns, three pegasi, and four earth ponies are hostile, the rest are controlled.  She has elected not to count the various ponies outside the circle; until the energy field emitter is destroyed, the chance that they will be able to afford assistance is negligibly minute.  Until then, she need only consider them as potential targets for the control spell. Most of them, anyways- five of them, gathered at one edge of the circle, bear similar signatures to the one on Command 1 that the control spell hadn’t worked on.  The chance that they can’t be controlled is almost certainly high. All eighty ponies within the circle are staring at her.  One of the unicorns had thrown their Imperius Curse at her.  It had bounced off the armor hidden under her fur, after which they had started staring. The purple one of the five uncontrollables, the alicorn, is taking advantage of her distraction, galloping for the emitter.  Calculating from expression, stance, and various other body language clues, this pony probably believes it can disable the emitter. This could be advantageous.  If the emitter is preserved, it can be analyzed…  and a defense can be built against any future such emitters.  Even a bypass. “Good morning,” she states- even though it’s clearly evening.  The alicorn’s ear twitches, but otherwise stays focused. All eighty targets’ ears all point directly at her. She spreads her wings.  “Good night.” Her feathers vibrate against each other, clicking, hissing, sliding in perfect harmony. Dust and dirt shakes itself free of the roadway, leaping into the air.  At least seven windows break; a pot falls off a shelf somewhere. Seventy-eight of her targets collapse, screaming out as they wrap their hooves about their ears.  The control spell remains unbroken; the two remaining targets are both hostiles, not controlled. The alicorn reaches the emitter, touching it with its purple horn.  Tapping into its magic flow, presumably looking to shut it down. The remaining pegasus takes to the air in alarm, diving towards the purple alicorn in an attempt to disrupt the effort.  She twitches a wing, releasing a single feather- and the green pegasus shortly falls out of the air, tumbling into her sonic cannon’s effective zone before screeching to a halt- and mimicking the other ponies already in the zone. The other one is a unicorn.   He immediately throws up a shield before directing his horn at the alicorn working with his device.  She flicks up a hoof; the shield is transparent. One short energy surge, reducing her depleting power cells from very low to critical, and he takes a dirt nap in the middle of his second spell.  The laser stun bolt was certainly effective. Her sonic cannon is beginning to lose strength as she runs entirely out of stored power, resorting to live solar production.  At the same time, though, the emitter finally goes offline- and blows apart. Oh well- at least the pieces should still be analyzable; it doesn’t look like any of them were bent significantly, only shattered. Then the pieces turn to cheese.  No analysis obtainable from that.  Oh well, maybe next time. Her mission accomplished, she relaxes her wings, folding them neatly against her sides, and moves to stand next to the door, waiting for a recharge before she returns inside.  Her head shifts slightly as she idly watches the proceedings.