//------------------------------// // A Secret Plan // Story: The Derpy Protocol: Twilight in the Shadows // by Mockingbirb //------------------------------// The high altitude sonic rainboom had been centered near the town of Hayes River. So Twilight had rushed there as soon as she could. Twilight saw two ponies who she thought she recognized, sitting on a bench in the sunlight. Cautiously, trying not to be too obvious, Twilight sidled closer. One pony was a pale lavender unicorn mare who looked to be in her early thirties, with a blonde mane and tail. Her cutie mark was hidden by the gray teenage pegasus sitting beside her. The teen's mane and tail almost matched her companion's. The teenager's wings were a rumpled mess, with many feathers missing or damaged. What had happened to her? Twilight took a subtle peek at the pegasus' cutie mark. It was a cluster of several bubbles. Twilight wasn't sure whether she should be disappointed that the mark's return might compromise the pegasus' disguise, or pleased that a risky spell ten years ago hadn't disturbed the mare's destiny so severely as to destroy the mark permanently. The pegasus noticed Twilight, and waved cheerfully. "Twilight!" she called out. The unicorn sitting beside her nodded a silent greeting. Twilight walked over and asked, "May I join you?" The seated unicorn answered, "We've come a long way hoping you would." Twilight sat down next to the teenager. "So," Twilight said, "it's been a long time." Twilight whispered, "May I ask your names?" The blonde unicorn replied, "I'm still Far Flying. The name just seemed to fit. And my...daughter here is still Tiny Bubbles." Twilight gave their surroundings a grim, suspicious look. "You thought that was safe?" "Your spell disguised us so well," Far Flying whispered. "I was more concerned to help you find us again when it was time, than with anypony else remembering how we briefly used those aliases in Ponyville. Even when we did, you had already transformed us. I don't think anypony will ever figure it out." "Well," Twilight said grudgingly, "I suppose if you've lasted this long, you're probably fine." But for a moment, Twilight's horn softly lit up, with a small, subtle explosion of magic. "What was that?" Tiny Bubbles asked. "It was pretty." Twilight replied, "Changeling detection spell. Do my kind of work for twenty years or so, and you do tend to develop some habits." "Oooh," the pegasus said. "Not bad habits, I hope." Twilight snorted. "Sometimes I'm not sure. But I'm still alive, so I guess they can't be all bad." Far Flying said, "I think you should be proud of that habit." Twilight said nothing. Bubbles asked, "Why should she be proud? Tell me!" Far Flying said, "Until Twilight invented that spell, detecting a changeling could be very hard. Changelings could infiltrate an entire town, ponynapping ponies and turning themselves into fake copies of the ponies they'd 'napped. Sometimes nopony would catch on until it was too late." Far Flying said with satisfaction, "But now a unicorn who's really good at magic can check a whole crowd for changelings in a flash! And I hear Cheese Sandwich is working on a rubber chicken that does the spell, so anypony will be able to do it." Bubbles said, "Wow! You're so amazing, Twilight!" Twilight harrumphed. Bubbles poked Twilight gently with one forehoof. "Did you hear me, Twilight? I said you're amazing." Twilight sighed. "Okay, I'm amazing." "You don't sound like you MEAN it, Twilight." Twilight sighed. "You know what would have been more amazing? If I'd invented the spell six months earlier." Far Flying said very quietly, "Oh no." "Or if I hadn't bungled Luna's return so horribly. Because if I had understood what Princess Celestia really wanted, and I hadn't sent Luna back to the moon for another thousand years, then Celestia would be better able to stand the sight of me, instead of breaking down in tears every time she sees me. If Celestia could stand the sight of me, I might have found out about my brother's wedding earlier. And when I finally got to Canterlot, and I noticed that my brother's fiancee Cadance was acting so differently from how she'd ever been when I'd known her before? Maybe Celestia would have believed me that something was wrong. Maybe Celestia would have trusted my judgement. "But instead, Celestia just called me a rude...BIRCH. Not in those words, but Celestia can use polite, refined words and make it hurt ten times as much. Then Celestia banned me from Canterlot AGAIN. While Cadance's changeling impostor just watched and laughed at me." Far Flying said in a motherly tone, "Twilight, dear? The whole POINT of a changeling impostor is, it's hard to convince everypony that they're an impostor. It's not fair to blame yourself." Twilight scowled. "If I hadn't already made such a terrible mistake with Luna, maybe Celestia would have trusted me. If I'd thought to invent a changeling detection spell BEFORE I accused Cadance? Then Celestia might have believed me. But I didn't think ahead before I opened my mouth. So after the most disastrous wedding in Equestrian history, and six months of war to recapture Canterlot, and save the princesses from the changeling occupation--" Far interrupted, "You were very brave." "I STILL have a sister-in-law who after being imprisoned for MONTHS in the Lost Crystal Mines of Canterlot, is terribly afraid of anything crystal. And let me tell you, later on THAT didn't turn out well at all." Twilight sighed. "You can call me brave as much as you want." Bubbles said, "Mommy can call you brave because it's true!" "Okay, I guess I'm brave. But I feel like I have the worst sense of timing ever. Like ever since I botched the Nightmare Moon thing--" "To be fair," Far interrupted, "we have sunlight every day, so we can grow food and not starve--" Twilight retorted, "And every night the princess who BRINGS us that sunlight gets to look up at the moon and feel very, very sad and upset." Far said innocently, "I don't understand everything about Nightmare Moon. But whatever you did, it wasn't the end of the world." "Maybe it wasn't." Twilight slowly shook her head. "Not for a thousand years, anyway. But after that, who can say?" Bubbles insisted, "Twilight! You can't fix everything wrong in the whole world!" "No," Twilight replied, "I can only fail to protect some of the most important things which fate entrusts to me. Luna, my brother, my sister-in-law..." Far said, "ENOUGH! How would Rainbow Dash feel if she saw you acting this way?" "Rainbow Dash is very loyal. Even if I were in the wrong, she'd have trouble telling me so." Far snorted. "Twilight, I wish you were at least half as loyal to yourself as you deserve. Everypony makes mistakes sometimes. That's part of life. The pony who's never made a mistake has never DONE anything." Twilight laughed softly. "NOW you're sounding like Rainbow, FF." Far insisted, "That's because if Rainbow would come here and tell you what I've just said, Rainbow would be right." Twilight looked up at the sky. "I wish Rainbow would do that. Where IS Rainbow, anyway?" Far snorted. "While you were maybe busy feeling sorry for yourself--" Bubbles interrupted, "Or maybe Twilight got here late because she was busy helping another pony in trouble, or saving another village, or even saving all of Equestria!" Far said, "I was asking around. I didn't find Rainbow Dash. Nopony seems to have seen her, or have any idea where she might be." Twilight looked worried. "THAT's strange. Rainbow isn't exactly SUBTLE." "But I talked to a lot of ponies who saw the sonic rainboom from different angles. They say it was right above a place near town." "Good going," Twilight said. "Where?" Far Flying sighed. "An old abandoned graveyard. A big one." Twilight snorted. "I suppose that's as good a meeting place as any other." She turned her head to check the conspirators' surroundings. When Twilight moved, some broken and cut shafts among Bubbles' feathers poked her. "Bubbles?" Twilight asked, "What happened to your wings?" "Don't worry," Bubbles said, "A few days ago I broke most of my feathers in a flying accident, but my wings are okay underneath. I don't like having to wait until my new feathers have grown in to go flying again, but I'll be all right." Twilight sighed. "I would feel a bit better about this little...adventure, if you weren't temporarily handicapped. Because I don't know what our worst case scenario is, and if we might suddenly wish we had a flyer. I would feel better if you could fly away from danger, and maybe even go get us help if we need it." Far Flying said, "So let's be extra careful, just in case. Then we should be okay." "Sorry. I guess I've just gotten into the habit of assuming that everything could go very bad very suddenly. I always remember the times when everything has." Far said, "I know you've walked into really dangerous situations many times, just because ponies needed your help. But this should be a walk in the park. Nothing to be scared of." Twilight snarked, "Say the ponies who are about to go look for their friend in an abandoned graveyard." "Hey," Far said, "Dead ponies are usually harmless. It's the live ponies who you sometimes have to be careful of." Tiny Bubbles giggled. "Mom, I know we're going on a VERY TINY little adventure with the notorious Twilight Sparkle, but I think you two are taking this too seriously. A graveyard is just a really fancy park!"