//------------------------------// // 8: Our Friends Who Smile // Story: Auroras & Souls // by Blues Rider //------------------------------// Chapter 8 Spike took a look at the old town hall. The front steps had been inverted. Instead of leading up to the veranda porch, they lead down... to a basement? Spike questioned. He took a step closer revealing to him the concrete steps that sunk underground. He took the stairs one at a time, and approached the underground room with caution. Black concrete surrounded the walls and ceiling of the room. Along one long wall sat all the technical buttony machines and tape recorders Doc used on a daily basis. On the other side was an alcove with, what looked like a smattering of assorted inventions made of metal wires and ... lights and... things. “What is this place?” Spike asked the rather tired looking Doctor. doctor of what? Spike pondered, 'Whoves' is not the most obvious giveaway to the pony's profession considering he wasn't a real doctor. “I can’t tell you.” he replied candidly. And now Spike’s enthusiasm and confusion became more. Confused. “How long has it been here?” “I’ll save you the hassle. I can’t tell you anything about this place. Apart from what I need to tell you right at this moment.” Doc trotted on from the stairway to the wall of tape recorders and flashy buzzing instruments. Spike stood at the doorway and investigated what he could about this room. He heard a click and swiped his head back over to Doc, noticing two of the tape reels on one of the machines were now in motion. “I’m a member of S.M.I.L.E. and my primary post in Ponyville is for the purpose of protecting both Ponyville and princess Twilight from threats, more specifically, we are the defence between Ponyville and dangerous monsters and magical beings.” His tone was serious but his shaggy look helped comfort Spike. “I am usually stationed here with regular contact from Special agent Sweetie Drops and Training Agent Golden Harp. However at nineteen-hundred hours this bunker's urgent alarm sounded and sealed off our entrances and exits to Ponyville. Since then I have lost contact with Sweetie Drops and Golden Harp.” Spike listened intently to all the information that he was being bombarded with. Doc turned and started winding one of the tape reels slowly backwards. Also clicking some buttons. Spike didn’t even try to understand. The hum of the tape reel lay in the room's atmosphere as Doc started talking. “S.M.I.L.E. started in aid of protecting Canterlot and Princess Celestia as she hauled the burden of both the Sun and the Moon. However we now tend to have branches in most parts of Equestria. Just before our urgent alarm sounded, an old colleague who moved to CAMO division of SMILE in the Crystal Empire sent through this message:” Doc hit play and then turned back to Spike, pricking an ear up once more at the message from The Crystal Empire. The same anguished, rough, trebly colt voice that Doc had listened to so much was projected from the speaker in the wall once more. “Slice Ray to all SMILE stations. Crystal Empi ..e..S..d.er..att..k...br...re..urn..d ...sss..a....as... take...zzzzzzzzzzzzz.” Doc stopped the tape and Spike picked up another hum that seemed to underlay the underlying hum of the tape recorder. “So this is about the Crystal Empire! We had suspicions but that confirms it!” Spike became excited at the prospect of being one step closer to solving this mystery. “What else did he say?” “We lost contact with Undercover Agent Slice Ray at seven-0-three. We had received nothing prior to this and there have been no communications since.” Doc seemed visibly struck with the thought that this agent could have been attacked or lost. It clearly meant more to him than just a colleague. “Seeing as there is nopony else left in Ponyville and I’ve had no response from HQ or CAMO I’m employing you as my second.” “Oh thanks.” Spike rolled his eyes sarcastically at the backhanded comment. But then, it was no time for hostilities either. “Will you accompany me with my research and help me discover what has happened?” “Sure, of course I will.” Spike said as he caved in to Doc's intense wave of business. “Ah, great! Right. So first of all we need to properly try and clean up this broadcast and figure out exactly what Slice Ray says behind all the interference. And also if there’s anything you might know that I don’t know, please mention it, as we're working on the same side.” Doc slipped back into his frantic habits and started fiddling with the equipment behind him. Spike helped by holding one of the tapes Doc had just taken off the reel to reel tape recorder, Doc set up another machine in the wall for cleaning the sound of the tape. Spike started rattling off the day’s events as to fill Doc in with the things he might not have been aware. Some parts of the tape were nearly legible but confirmation was definitely needed. “So your cutie mark map could help us discover what is wrong with the Empire. I’ve been through research training on the Crystal Empire, more is discovered every year. Do you really think that King Sombra could be responsible after last time when I believe it was you who helped defeat him?” Doc was cautious, concerned and investigative somehow all at the same time. “I did defeat him!” Spike pointed out gallantly. Doc was not as versed in Sombra as Spike the Brave and Glorious was obviously. But that did bring Spike to think about what happened when he helped retrieve the Crystal Heart from its hiding place. “WE defeated him,” He corrected himself, “but yes, I’ve seen it, and anything's possible in the Crystal Empire with all that magic Floating around the crystal structures.” Doc nodded, and took on Spike who seemed to humble about the situation. “What is this whole 'SMILE' thing about Doc. Being a Princess next to Celestia, surely you would have let Twilight know you guys might be here to protect her?” Doc thought about Spike’s Question for a second. He shouldn’t answer it, but there was something in the wording that made Doc realise. Maybe he needed to tell this young Dragon, more adolescent now, the truth. So he did. “As I said, SMILE was set up to help protect Princess Celestia. A few years ago, just after Princess Twilight was assigned to Ponyville, a small handful of us were dispatched to ensure her safety in studying here. We had secured the grounds, but for some unknown reason, the gates of Tartarus were opened and Cerberus let out. Along with him came some of the deadliest monsters to roam Equestria.” Spike recalled that moment well. Twilight was going through some kind of time travel paradox and she went a little over the top, running Cerberus all the way back to Tartarus by herself. Then he thought of Tirek and the Bugbear which had also escaped. “I remember that, Twilight ran Cerberus all the way back to the gates and locked them up.” “Yes, well... Just as me and two other agents prepared to run Cerberus back ourselves we received orders from Canterlot HQ that the entire SMILE operation was to be disbanded and all agents were to assume deep cover until otherwise authorised. "You see, the Bugbear in Tartarus was captured by us and with the agency splattered all over Equestria, there weren’t enough of us in one place to recapture it, and we knew it would be out to seek us down, so we had to hide. 'Every last shred of evidence' were our orders.” Spike looked around at the well kitted out room. “So what’s all this then?” he said, directing a claw at all the spy equipment and weird inventions around the concrete bunker. “This is what is left. Plus a few of my own inventions. As you know I have my lab in my house, and anything dangerous or if I need some space, I drag it along an underground tunnel I dug from my personal lab and store it here.” He said also indicating to his own inventions. He then turned and indicated the wall of recording and surveillance equipment. “However most of this is from SMILE. See a group of us couldn’t just leave that life behind, so we simply assumed 'deep cover' even from the other members of SMILE. We used to be part of P.I.&.E.D. squad, or PIED. Predetermined Intelligence and Efficient Defence Squad. We were one of the closest and best trained units in SMILE. "We had been set aside on a lower case mission for a time, which is why we were tailing you and Twilight to Ponyville, although you guys did a pretty good job at fending for yourself – apart from when Twilight went a bit weird one time and tried to infiltrate Canterlot Library even though she’s a student of Celestia, it’s a good thing we tipped off the Library guards on that occasion.” He gave a wink to Spike and then proceeded to fiddle with a few settings on the de-static machine, letting Spike take it all in as he set the tape in motion he walked back, and sat in a spinning chair near the speaker in the wall. “Anyway, yes, so we didn’t fully disband, we simply remained here, kept intact as much of the equipment as we could, as a 'just in case' and left it at that. Until a few years later when you finally managed to defeat the Bugbear and, so it seems, the last of the escaped creatures of Tartarus. "At that point, we had the idea to kick start SMILE back into action. The small group that we are, we split into factions and started running small divisions from the main areas of Equestria. We renamed each squad too so that they were now located with their respective towns. "Me and two others stayed here in PIED, now Ponyville Intelligence and Efficient Defence. Two others went to restart CHQ. Canterlot Head Quarters. Slice Ray and Berry Bug created CAMO, Crystal Anti-Monster Organisation. And a few others scattered around elsewhere.” Spike was wide eyed at the tall tale of this secret organisation he never knew existed but had also been here the whole time, just in-case anything went AWOL. It was all so much to take in, he just needed to stand up and walk around the room a bit. There was indeed history in this room. Spike turned back around to Doc, who was sat patiently for either Spike or the de-static machine, he wasn’t too sure. “So why haven’t WE heard of you. Like I said, Twilight is a princess and if you used to work for Celestia, shouldn’t you inform her of your presence too?” “Well if I’m honest, it took a lot longer to get set back up again. We didn’t want to inform the princesses until we could prove SMILE could be back in business and do the job properly. Hiring was one of our main problems. We used to have strong links through Celestia with the Royal Guard, Wonderbolt's Academy, Canterlot and Manehatten universities. "But currently our hiring pool is limited by our status. However we have made significant progress in the past months and we were getting somewhere. Until everypony seemed to disappear without a trace. I calculate that since I got that message seven hours should have passed, but obviously they haven’t.” “Ah yes, because Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are affected too and have disappeared. I forgot. The Guard Pegasus Flash Sentry mentioned that earlier.” That news did surprise Doc. “Well that would explain the permanent dusk.” A beep came from the machine behind them. Doctor Whoves flung the end of his long scarf around the back of his neck and trotted over to the machine. In clicking two switches he set the wheels on the machine turning. The tape flapping a bit as it travelled between one wheel, a little box with a slit in it, then out the box and onto another reel. The rustling could be heard from the other side of the room, neither of them wished to make a sound. “SSLICEzRAYzTOzALLzSMILEzSTATIONS.z.z.z.z.z.z..CRYzSTALz.z.z.zEMPIRezzuZndERzzATTacKzzzsomBRazREzztURNnnnnnDzzzzAZzzczztzzzasingzTAKEzzczrzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..................” The two looked at each other. “That sounds worse than it was before.” Spike exclaimed. “There is a lot of background noise, but there is a bit more context. Listen carefully.” Doc wound the tape back and the two of them went about decrypting the static over and over again until they could be absolutely certain as to its message. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+