//------------------------------// // Fly By Night // Story: Glow to the Future // by PerpetualMotion //------------------------------// Twilight leapt into action as soon as soon as she and Cozy Glow materialized at their destination, but the filly had to take a moment to catch her bearings. Even when she had Grogar's magic, she had never actually teleported anywhere. Her group had always simply created portals using the Bell. The sensation of real teleportation was nauseating, like she had just landed after falling a long distance, but without any shock to her hooves. Basically, her stomach had just gone through a whole trapeze routine while she hadn't moved a muscle otherwise. "Snowfall, report," Twilight said while Cozy struggled to keep her dinner down. "All of our records identify the last known sighting of Scales as her getting thrown out of Sweet Pea Solutions headquarters downtown three days ago," the kirin said. "The incident was recorded by the Guard, but SPS declined to press charges, which is why no arrest was made and none of us were immediately made aware." "Did the report say why she was there?" "She wouldn't say, but I think I have a lead." Cozy Glow overheard the shuffling of papers as she finally shook her disorientation and took to the air to see where exactly she was. The room was windowless and somewhat cramped, if only for so many guards and servants moving back and forth between various stations set up on numerous tables. Each table had charts and papers covering it, save for the center one, where Twilight and the rest of the Council stood. That one held a scale model of Canterlot with parts lit up in different colors. The odd shimmering of the model led Cozy to conclude that it was an illusion like Sparky's projections rather than anything solid. "A small team of my detectives recently opened a case investigating reports of unethical operation under several Equestrian corporations, all of which just happen to be subsidiaries of Sweet Pea Solutions." "What kind of unethical?" Twilight asked, narrowing her eyes. "Reports of union busting, embezzlement, and various other potential conspiracies. All anonymous, unfortunately, but just enough for us to put some feelers out." "I see..." "This was all kept on the down-low, but ever since Scales got her clearances, I've caught her rifling through open investigations at least once a week, no matter how many times I've told her that it wasn't her purview. Protesting these kinds of things is pretty much her entire MO, so I can only assume that she saw the case and decided to take matters into her own claws." Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath, obviously rather frustrated. "Hey, it's not your fault," Melodia said, placing a paw on the alicorn's shoulder. "Not even a princess can be omniscient. What matters is how you react to whatever gets thrown your way." "Which is why we need to act swiftly," Snowfall said. His horn lit up, and four columns of light shot out of the Canterlot model, each in opposite corners of the city. "These are the offices of the SPS subsidiaries under investigation. Just give the word and my guards can sweep the premises for any evidence of Scales having been there. It only stands to reason that if she was unsuccessful at the main offices, she'd turn her sights on the others." "There's a problem, there," Beryl said. "Any large scale guard activity will immediately alert SPS to the investigation's escalation. That will drive any illicit activity underground, forcing them to clean up any loose ends. If they are indeed doing shady business, Scales is one of those loose ends. Her going undercover or planning stakeouts is not the only possible reason for her vanishing, and tipping our hand now could put her in danger. You have more subtle agents you can assign to this, right Twilight?" "Everycreature is deployed elsewhere," the princess said. "I've never felt any need for a large clandestine agency. Even the small group I employ now is tightly leashed and monitored for any signs of corruption. Now I almost regret that..." "So, what are we going to do? We can't just wait for a more convenient time!" Melodia was pacing now, the calm and supportive face she had put on earlier beginning to crack. "I... I don't know..." Twilight wasn't doing much better. Rather than concerned, though, the whole situation unfolding before Cozy Glow just made her angry. "Are you kidding me?" the filly shouted, breaking her silent observation that she'd been carrying out since the meeting. "You're the Council of Friendship, for Celestia's sake! Leaping into action should be your first response! None of this gentle tiptoeing around the problem at hoof!" "Watch your tongue!" Snowfall snapped. "This is far more complicated than a child like you could understand." "Oh, I understand plenty!" Cozy shot back. "I remember that centuries ago, when Equestria was in trouble, Princess Twilight and her friends, the original council, always stepped in personally to save the day! They never sat back and rested on their laurels! You all inherited their titles, and you," Cozy glared straight at Twilight, "have clearly lost your touch." "You are out of line, assistant," Snowfall said. "Go do something useful and out of the way, or-" "She's right, you know," Sable said, finally speaking up and cutting the kirin off. The raven had been silent this entire time, though not for lack of input, Cozy surmised. "There's no one more suited to tracking down Scales than the six of us! She needs us, and we need her. What claim can we have to being defenders of Equestria if we can't even step in to defend one of our own? Just tell us what we need to do, Twilight!" "Okay." Twilight sighed. "I didn't want things to come to this. It's true that once upon a time, the council was more... hooves on. But good people got hurt. Over and over again my friends got hurt. The skills necessary for adventuring and governing don't always come in tandem, so I decided that the council should focus on the latter... and I'd figure other things out myself. If you don't want to do this, I won't force any of you. Danger isn't what you signed on for, so-" "I'm in," Beryl said, not even letting the princess finish. "Y-you always know you can count on me," Melodia added shakily, still pretty nervous. "It's about time!" Sable said. "I'm here to serve, my princess." Snowfall capped off the little display of solidarity with a bow. "Thank you, all of you." Twilight smiled for the first time that night, taking a moment to reminisce before continuing. "Alright, team, here's the plan. We need to canvas all four of these offices simultaneously, so that everycreature has the chance to gather at least some information in the case of one of us arousing suspicion and putting SPS on guard. We're going to need a way to get everyone in and out quickly and quietly, though..." "Teleportation would probably be the way to go, but most modern security systems will detect that and sound the alarm," Snowfall said. "You wouldn't happen to have any, uh, alicorn workarounds, would you?" "No, but I think I know who does. Everycreature stand back. This spell is a little... intense. It's been ages since I last cast it." The council scattered and all of the other activity in the room halted as Twilight's horn lit up, steadily glowing brighter and brighter until its aura took on a multicolored hue. After a few more seconds of charging the princess fired a beam of rainbow light in front of her, which in turn formed a swirling vortex of color. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the light show dissipated, revealing a rather bored looking draconequus lounging in an arm chair and reading a newspaper." "What the hay is that?" Melodia exclaimed, though the new creature didn't seem to care or notice. "Well, well, well, we're getting rather desperate, aren't we, princess?" Discord said without even looking up from his paper. "Honestly, if it weren't for your visits with that permanent house-guest you've saddled me with, I don't think I'd ever see you." "Everycreature," Twilight said, ignoring the jabs as she struggled to catch her breath, "this is... Discord, Lord of Chaos," . Discord stood up, his chair and paper vanishing with a snap of his fingers, and took an overdramatic bow. "Discord, a member of the council has gone missing, and we need your help to find them." "Finding creatures isn't really my thing, you know," Discord said, looking around and sizing up the various councilors. He paused upon noticing Cozy Glow, a brief moment of surprise giving way to a sly smile before he continued speaking. All Cozy could do without blowing her cover was glare back at him. "Knowing where things are is so... orderly." "We need to bypass some security systems, and they won't be calibrated to detect your chaos magic. All we need from you is a little help getting us where we need to go." "Breaking and entering, princess? How scandalous! Say no more!" Discord stared at the map on the table for a moment. "Let's get you all where you need to be, shall we?" He raised his talon to snap once more. "Wait! We haven't finished-" Twilight never got to finish the sentence, as Cozy Glow and the councilors were all yanked across space to their new destinations. Sable had been teleported places plenty of times before. Many of her subordinates at the agency were unicorns, and her secretary in particular was a lifesaver when it came to getting places on time. This was far different, though. For one, unicorn teleportation typically preserved momentum and orientation, while Discord's stunt had resulted in Sable finding herself hurtling sideways through the night air. She managed to flare her wings and right herself before she careened into the side of a building, but her new partner in crime wasn't quite so lucky. As soon as Sable was reasonably sure she wasn't going to crash, another flash of light revealed a small, pink pegasus a fair distance above her, now dressed in what seemed to be an old-timey burglar's outfit. Unfortunately, Cozy Glow also appeared upside down, causing her previous hovering action to send her into a hard, panicked downward spiral. "Hold on!" Sable called after her, immediately tucking in her wings and entering a dive. Initially, Cozy was falling faster than gravity could possibly take her, but her flailing and attempts to flip over soon slowed her enough to catch up. Once she was close enough, Sable flipped forwards, grabbed onto Cozy's new black turtleneck with her talons, and flared her wings, all in one smooth motion. The air resistance threatened to strip the pinions right off her wings, and hardly slowed the much larger pegasus's descent. Okay, now for the hard part. I am so going to hate myself for this later... In conjunction with flapping her wings, Sable concentrated hard on moving Cozy, focusing energies within her that were only barely there to begin with. Slowly, she felt her burden lighten. Not by much, but just enough for her physical efforts to have an actual appreciable effect, giving the pegasus just enough time to turn over and regain some semblance of control before the pair had a rough and tumble landing on the concrete below. The two struggled to their feet, and Sable immediately wanted to just lay down again. Cozy, on the other wing, used her first upright moments to scan the alleyway they had landed in and dart behind the first dumpster she saw. "You... You okay?" the raven asked through gasps for breath. Cozy only answered with sounds of heaving and retching. "Teleportation sickness. Fair enough." Plenty of creatures had low tolerance for being blinked across space, and Discord's version was rougher than most, to say the least. "...S...able..." a voice that sounded like the princess's crackled out of the air, like a bad radio transmission. After a few more seconds of static, it finally cleared up. "Sable, are you there?" It took a bit for the raven to locate the source of the voice: a black collar that was now around her neck, blending into her plumage. A collar? Seriously? Does that mishmash of parts think I'm Twilight's pet? "Yeah, I'm here," she answered. "Cozy Glow, too. She's just a bit... out of it, at the moment." A particularly loud hacking sound from behind the dumpster confirmed the sentiment. "She'll be fine, though." "That's good to hear. Discord may have gone about this in the least convenient way possible-" Sable could feel Twilight glaring at the chaos spirit without even being there, "-but he was at least kind enough to outfit everycreature with what he deemed to be appropriate gear, including these magical communication devices." "Just let him know that his tastes in fashion are trash." "I'm on the line, too, you know!" Discord's voice cut in. Neither Twilight nor Sable paid him any attention. "Anyway, here's where we're at. Everycreature has arrived at their destinations within security perimeters more or less intact. You and Cozy, being the fliers of the group, were sent to a building containing the offices of Swift and Clear." "The aeronautics company?" "Indeed. Their offices are on the top floor of the building. They have a private heliport there they use for testing. I'm going to trust your judgement here on just how far you go searching for clues, but you have to re... ber... care... Scales-" Twilight's voice faded into static before cutting out abruptly as the line dropped dead. "Hello? Twilight?" Sable waited in silence for a response, but nothing came. "Crap. That is not good." "Discord isn't exactly known to be the most reliable creature," Cozy Glow said, finally emerging from her hiding spot. She had discarded the black beanie the draconequus had provided her, displaying the now mangled curls of her mane as it drooped over one of her eyes. "Let's hope that that's all it is, then," Sable said, before realizing how weird the statement was. "Wait, what do you know about Discord? Tonight was the first time any of us on the council had ever heard of him, much less seen him." "I just like my obscure history, I guess," the filly said nonchalantly. All Sable could do was stare blankly and wonder at the incongruity of the excuse as Cozy continued. "And what about you? You certainly made quite the about-face tonight." "What's that supposed to mean?" "You were ready to kick Scales off the council earlier, but you leapt at the opportunity to come to her rescue." "Look, just because I don't think she's fit for the council doesn't mean I don't care what happens to her. Twilight was right about one thing: her heart is in the right place. If she's in over her head because of that, then we at least owe it to her to-" Sable stopped herself mid sentence as a light tinkling sound echoed through the alleyway. "What's-" Cozy began to say. "Shhh!" Sable raised a wing and silenced the foal, keeping her ears peeled for any more noise. Sure enough the same sound rang through the air a moment later, much louder this time. "Is that... glass?" Cozy whispered, spinning around to face the noise. Nobody was there, though something was certainly sparkling on the ground. The pair moved closer to examine it, and sure enough, it was broken glass. Broken glass that had fallen from the sky. That can only mean... "Somebody is way ahead of us here," Cozy Glow said, finishing Sable's thought. "We need to move. There are way too many things piling up too quickly for this to just be a coincidence." The raven unfurled her wings and took to the air... for all of a second, immediately face-planting back on the pavement. "Really." Cozy said flatly. Sable was glad she wasn't a mammal, or her face would have been bright red after that display. "I... I think I pushed myself a bit too far catching you. Burnt out my magic." "You have magic?" "Everything has magic. How do you think us winged folk sit on clouds? Or pull something large through the air behind us? I just have... less than a pony would." Shouldn't she know that? As Sable puzzled over this, Cozy extended a foreleg, prompting a quizzical head tilt from the raven. "I can still fly, remember? Just climb on and I'll carry you." Sable nodded and hopped on, clinging to the back of her sweater much like before. Even as Cozy took off and climbed towards the top of the building, though, Sable couldn't help but be completely baffled by the foal. Nothing about her makes sense! She's far too young for the job she's been hired for, but even then she has massive gaps in common sense knowledge. If she was some backwater yokel that Twilight found potential in, that'd be one thing, but she certainly doesn't act like one, and also has incredibly specific knowledge of things that don't make sense for her to know. And then there's her demeanor... Sable looked Cozy over, paying close attention to her body language. She was no detective, but reading physical expressions was essential in her line of work, especially since she'd had to learn that kind of empathy from scratch. A wild raven could only read other ravens, and even then they weren't built for expressing complex emotions, so her base instincts had been useless. She was cheery and eager to learn at the council meeting, but that all dropped away when she snapped at Twilight. And now even that anger is gone. She's serious, and restrained. When she was falling, she didn't scream. She just did her best to right herself, even if she didn't manage by herself. Is this the "real" Cozy Glow, or just another front? And what kind of covert game is the princess playing with her? "Sparky, what can you tell me about the Swift and Clear offices?" Cozy asked as the pair ascended, seemingly to no one. "Uh, who are-" "Stupid thing isn't working!" The filly ignored Sable, instead intent on fiddling with an odd red pendant she was wearing instead. After a few more seconds she apparently did something right, and the pendant lit up, projecting a shimmering illusory message into the air in front of them. "Do I wish to disengage 'silent mode?'" Cozy read, somewhat exasperated. "Of course! Why in the world are you in silent mode?" "The last order this unit received was to 'can it,'" the pendant (Sparky?) said in a very odd, artificial voice. Cozy groaned. "Care to tell me what the heck that thing is?" Sable asked, very confused by this point. "It's an Auto Spell, some gadget the princess cooked up to help me help you," Cozy said, a casual wave of a hoof through the air indicating that she didn't exactly think highly of the idea. "It remembers information and delivers messages, that kind of thing. I call it 'Sparky' because 'Auto Spell' is a mouthful to say each and every time I want to activate the thing." That's... a lot more than anything any past assistants were supplied with... "Can it get a message to Twilight since the 'radio' is dead?" "Probably." Cozy cleared her throat. "Sparky, send a letter to Princess Twilight saying we've spotted a break-in and are moving to investigate." "Affirmative. Transmitting now." "Okay, that should take ca-" "Error. Transmission failed." "What? Why?" "No connection to Princess Twilight Sparkle can be made. Unstable magical signal in vicinity is disrupting all available frequencies." "What is that supposed to mean?" "A dampening spell," Sable said, recognizing the phenomenon. Quickly realizing that Cozy Glow wouldn't have any idea what she was talking about, the raven elaborated. "It's a magical technique that suppresses all external spellcasting and enchantments within its range. I've... never actually seen one deployed before, though. It's seriously high-level unicorn magic, only ever used by the Guard to apprehend powerful magic-wielding suspects, and requires the caster to devote their full energy and attention to maintaining it for its duration. Snowfall talks about the training that he has a specialized squad go through to make use of it from time to time." "That means..." Cozy began, looking up at their destination and audibly swallowing. "This isn't your average run-of-the-mill break-in. There are at least two of them up there, and they're packing some serious magic that they shouldn't even have. I... don't think we're even remotely prepared for that kind of firepower." For the first time since their arrival, Sable noticed Cozy's confidence falter. It was honestly impressive that it took this long, considering how out-there the whole situation had been up until this point. "We need to get out of here." "That would be the first good idea you've had since you got here, fil," said a new, very deep voice, seemingly from nothing. Spinning around, Cozy Glow came face to face with a the signature green flare of a changeling transformation, the entirety of a formerly inconspicuous wall-mounted ventilation unit vanishing, replaced with a more familiar jet-black, chitinous form. Sable caught two more flashes in her peripheral vision, and the soft buzz of insectoid wings filled the air. "But I'm afraid that you're not going to be executing on that any time soon." This is what Twilight meant, Sable realized, creeping dread giving way to primal fear. Her friends got hurt rushing into things just like this. What was I thinking? I'm a pencil pusher, not a warrior! I can't just wake up one day and decide to be Rainbow Dash, no matter how bored I am! I was never going to be Rainbow Dash. Instead, I over-exerted myself on the easy part, and now I'm just dead weight... The raven closed her eyes, shivering uncontrollably, just waiting for the changelings to pounce. "Hey, Sable," Cozy Glow said softly, her voice remarkably calm and stable. "Just hang on, alright? I am not about to lose to a few stray bugs!" The veneer of calmness slipped as she said the last sentence through gritted teeth. The changelings just laughed. "Oh, do you stooges want to know why?" Sable opened an eye a crack, just in time to see the pegasus crack a wicked smirk. "Because I actually have a brain!" The laughter turned to hisses as the insult landed, and the lead changeling tensed up to lunge at Cozy. "SPARKY, BLIND 'EM!" Right on cue, the Auto Spell unleashed a pulse of intense red light that engulfed the alleyway. Sable was largely shielded by Cozy's body, but even then she reflexively shut here eyes tight, colored splotches dancing across her vision. Before Sable could even process what was going on, Cozy rocketed straight up with enough force to nearly rip the raven from her perch. The chase was on, and by some miracle they actually stood a chance.