To say that James Miller was in a bad mood was a bit of an understatement, his mood was as far from good as one could possibly get. He had been roused from his sleep by a priority-1 FLASH message from the director at three in the morning on the day he was supposed to have off. That wasn't what had actually put him in the state of emotion he was currently in, he was quite used to having to interrupt what most would consider 'normal' sleep patterns for a multitude of reasons. No, it was the information the director divulged to him upon arriving at IDI headquarters that had put him in this mood. He still remembered the cold pit he had felt form in his stomach the second his brain had processed the implications of that information.
Now he was standing in Director Moore's office several hours later waiting for the President of the United States to arrive. The two occupants looked towards the entrance as there was a knock on the door. Director Moore paused for a second before speaking, "Enter."
In strode President Jack Hargreave followed by two unanticipated guests. James and the director did their best to hide their surprise at who had just entered the office. Standing next to the president were the two Equestrian princesses, Celestia and Luna.
"Jack, you didn't inform me th-" Director Moore began
"Arthur, you said that the intel you had would be of great impact to the Equestrians, they have as much a right to hear about it as I do." The president interrupted. Director Moore's eyes narrowed at this, but he held his tongue in check. "In the meantime, Princesses Celestia and Luna, this is Director Arthur Moore and Captain James Miller, the head and second-in-command of the IDI respectively." the president continued.
The director opened his mouth to speak but then stopped and looked directly at Celestia. "I can see you want to ask something Princess, it would be best to get it out of the way before we begin."
The Princess of the sun nodded. "Director it would mean a lot to my sister and me if our personal students could hear what you have to say. They are our closest subordinates and usually are trusted to act in our stead."
Director Moore turned the request over in his head several times. There had been a saying back when he had been director of operations at the CIA, that the chance of a secret being blown is square to the number of people in on it. However, if the Princess was telling the truth it didn't really matter whether or not they heard it here. "Very well your majesty, however I must impress upon you the necessity of secrecy with this information. Should it become public it could very well spark panic."
The princess nodded once more and then turned to the doorway she had just walked through, "You two can come in."
In walked two unicorns, one a deep midnight blue with a multicolored mane and tail, the second was none other than Twilight Sparkle.
James' eyes widened slightly at seeing her, but other than that he betrayed no other emotion at the sight of the two students. Twilight, on the other hand, was much less subtle about it. A surprised look covered her face before she had the sense to force it back to a neutral expression. If the princess had noticed Twilight's surprise she gave no indication. "Gentlemen, this is my personal student, Twilight Sparkle and my sister Luna's student, Midnight Shadow." She said indicating the two young ponies, both of whom were unnerved by the stares of the three humans in the room.
With the introductions finished the president turned back to Director Moore, "Now Arthur, let's hear what you have to say."
"Two nights ago at 0200 hours Captain Miller here led a raid on a HLF safe house located in Brooklyn. This raid was part of a larger operation whose objective was to ascertain the whereabouts of leaders within the HLF. The raid was conducted on the intel that a known courier for senior leaders of the HLF was currently staying there for some unknown reason. The raid went off without a hitch, the safe house was neutralized and the high value target, now known as a 'Mr. Anderson', was apprehended and is now in custody." Director Moore continued
"Have you interrogated him?" the president asked.
The director nodded to James, it was his show now. "Yes sir, but these men are nothing more than glorified messenger boys for the HLF, everything he knew either we were already aware of or was useless. However, what this man was in possession of was of much greater importance." James reached over to the briefcase sitting on the director's desk and opened it, showing the room its contents. Watching the different reactions in the room was indicative of how different the two species were, the president's expression hardened at the sight of the canister contained within while the ponies, with the exception of Midnight, just looked confused.
"A silver canister?" Luna asked in disbelief "That's what he was carrying that is so important?"
"Umm Princess? It's not just a canister." Midnight piped up from his place beside his mentor.
James smiled slightly, "You're a convert aren't you?" he asked the dark blue unicorn.
Midnight nodded nervously at him, "Y-yes sir, I was one of the first back when the bureaus first opened." All this secret government agency stuff wasn't his bag at all.
James arched an eyebrow at this, a human convert being personal student to one of the Equestrian princesses? That was sure interesting… "Anyways, Midnight is correct, this is no ordinary canister. What you see before you is in fact a nanite containment and transport device."
"Nanites?" This time it was Twilight who was confused.
"It's another term for nanomachines, microscopic, programmable machines that are typically utilized in the medical field, able to manipulate the body on a cellular level."James answered, "The ones that he was transporting however, were much more sinister in nature than normal nanomachines. They were genetically targeted attack nanites, programmed to attack cells with a very specific DNA profile, namely Equestrians."
"And what happens when they come in contact with their target?" Celestia asked, her expression as serious as anyone had ever seen.
"Upon entering a body with a compatible DNA profile the nanites begin to replicate and proceed to attack any and all cells with the same DNA profile, causing systemic necrosis and massive organ failure. Death occurs typically in two to three minutes."
"And what about ponies? I thought out bodies were resistant to your cybernetics and nanomachines." She continued.
"Normally you'd be correct ma'am; pony physiology does generally reject and break down any and all artificial implants, including nanomachines. However because these nanites have such simple programming they can replicate at a rate theoretically faster than your bodies can expunge them."
"Why was this never considered a threat or a weapon before? I never remember getting a briefing on these nanite weapons." The President asked.
"Because the facilities to manufacture nanomachines are incredibly expensive and very secure, in the US alone there are only two facilities capable of producing nanites like these, and all are under strict government control and security. Regardless they're detailed to produce ponification serum anyways. Our guess is that these nanites are Russian in origin, as the Europeans lack the proper facilities to produce these in a timely manner. Also sir, it is worth noting that in producing these the Russians have violated international law, attack nanites are explicitly banned by the second Geneva Convention."
"And what would the impact of these weapons be?"
Director Moore answered that question. "With an air burst detonation, the nanites could cover twenty square miles, infecting all Equestrians in the area. In essence Jack, you're looking at an area denial bio-weapon beyond your wildest dreams."
The President just looked shocked at the information he had just heard. James remembered the same expression adorning his face when he had heard it earlier. President Hargreave sat down on one of the seats Director Moore had in his office for visitors, "Jesus…."
"Is Equestria safe?" Celestia practically demanded of the young captain, her gaze almost enough to pull the answer from him.
James returned the glare with one of almost the same intensity; the princess was impressed that he didn't even flinch. "Yes, in all likelihood Equestria itself is safe, the inherent magic present there will prevent the nanites from functioning. But every city outside of its boundaries is a potential target."
"I see…" the princess said quietly as she looked away.
"So why haven't the HLF used these nanite things yet? I would have thought that if they got their hands on a weapon like this they would've used against us at the earliest opportunity." Luna asked.
"Well these nanites aren't fully programmed yet Princess, while they have a lot of their basic code already written, the specific locking protocol has yet to be implemented."
"So how much longer before these nanites are ready to be used?"
"Judging from the batch we retrieved, our estimates put it at a couple weeks at least and that's with an AI equivalent to ours, which they don't have. A more likely timeframe is a month."
The President nodded mutely at this news, a thoughtful expression adorning his face for a few seconds before he spoke once more. "Arthur, could you leave us for a few minutes? I need to speak with Captain Miller alone."
The Director nodded at the request, standing from his desk and walking out.
The President continued to look at the office's left wall, continuing to ponder the information he had just received. "James I'm sure you're well aware of why I'm speaking to you. You have been the true leader of the IDI these past few years…"
"Sir with all due respect-"James began.
The President finally turned away from the spot on the wall he had been boring a hole through with his eyes for the past few minutes and fixed the younger man with a cynical look. "James, I've seen the reports and it's fairly obvious to me that we would never have gotten as far as we have without you." He walked over to the polarized window behind the director's desk. "I came into this presidency knowing that it would be a difficult one, a failing economy and the brink of war. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to have an entirely new race appear just off our east coast, I most certainly never expected the red plague and for these equines to offer at the time the best option to survive, an offer many accepted." He paused for a few more seconds before continuing once more. "James, you all are the best we have, the last hope humanity has to prevent itself from committing another grave sin. A hundred years ago we witnessed what some of us are capable of when good men stay silent; we cannot let that happen again. Captain Miller, take care of it."
"Yes, sir."
The president then looked at something over James' shoulder and he turned to see the Princess of the sun seeming like she wanted to speak again. "You have something you wish to say Celestia?"
"Yes, while my sister and I have the utmost faith in your agents' abilities, this is a threat that is pointed solely at us, not you. And so we would request that one of our students act as an observer here for this next month so that we are kept well aware of all ongoing developments."
The President frowned slightly at this, normally he would have flatly refused but then again this was a situation of extreme danger to their race. "…Very well Celestia ONE of your students may be here as an observer, on the condition that Captain Miller keeps an eye on them."
The Princess smiled, "Thank you Jack." She then turned to the two younger unicorns in the room, who had been watching silently this whole time. "Midnight?"
The unicorn seemed to pale underneath his blue fur at the mention of his name. "Y-yes Princess?"
"While you are the logical choice to be the one we have here as our observer as you are a former human, you have only been my sister's student for the past few years while Twilight has been mine for almost her entire life. This is one situation where I feel like experience outweighs practicality, Twilight will be our observer here while you take over for her at the bureaus."
Midnight looked visibly relieved at the news, while he didn't relish taking up Twilight's work in addition to his own, he had had enough excitement for a lifetime already.
"Well that and you need to keep working on your magic, that room you tried to teleport into still needs to be repaired." The princess continued.
If it was possible for the unicorn to have paled even more he would have. A week ago he had finally graduated to trying teleportation magic, and with his initial try he had (unintentionally) destroyed one of the princess' favorite rooms when he tried to teleport. At the very least Celestia had said she'd never seen quite such an explosion from anypony else's teleportation spell.
With that Celestia turned to her personal student but before she could say anything Twilight spoke up, "Princess, why me? Certainly a member of the royal guard would be a better choice." Her voice almost shook with nervousness.
The princess smiled and walked over to the purple unicorn speaking in a reassuring voice, "Twilight you are one of my most trusted subjects and the one that I've been closest to for many years. I need a pony that I can trust explicitly and if need be to make decisions that will affect the world. You are the only one who I would entrust with that great responsibility." She turned her head to look over at James, "and besides, it seems to me that you already are familiar with Captain Miller."
The president looked over at him quizzically, "Is this true James?"
James mentally sighed, goddamnit…"Yes sir, she's one of my sister's friends, we met just last night."
Celestia beamed, "Perfect, In addition Twilight I think this will be an excellent opportunity for you to learn more about the human world. Captain Miller seems like a fine man and I'm sure he will take care of you while you're here."
Twilight's nervousness seemed to finally recede, "I understand how important this is, I won't let you down princess."
Celestia just kept smiling as the princess gave Twilight a neck-hug, "I know you won't." she turned back to Luna, "We should be on our way sister, we have a lot to do to prepare for this."
"Oh and Midnight?" Twilight piped up as the ponies turned to leave the room.
"Yes?"
"You can use my office over at the bureau if you like, but if you screw up my filing system again, I'll re-upholster my apartment with you." She said in a cheerful voice.
Midnight smiled nervously, she was joking… probably, "I'll be sure to keep that in mind Twilight, in the meantime, good luck."
"Thanks." Twilight responded as the other ponies in room departed.
The president turned to James once more as the princesses departed, "Captain, you have your orders, Godspeed."
"Thank you, sir." And with that James turned to leave, indicating to Twilight that she should follow.
As the pair left they passed Director Moore who was heading back into his office. The quizzical look he gave Twilight as she walked by him moved on to James, who just shrugged and jerked his head back towards the office.
A few seconds later they were riding the elevator to the main floor where the IDI was located. The ride was in complete silence until quite suddenly James reached out and jabbed the stop button on the console of the elevator, which complied immediately and slowed to a stop. He then turned to Twilight, leaned up against the wall of the elevator with his arms crossed over his chest and finally broke the silence, "Mary never mentioned anything about you being the personal student of the Princess." He said, his eyes studying her.
"She never said anything about you being some secret government agent either." Twilight countered.
"That's because she doesn't know." He said flatly
"Oh."
He sighed and uncrossed his arms, "Look, I know we only met last night but I have a favor to ask of you."
"Which is?"
"Not a word of this to my sister."
"Why?" Twilight didn't like lying to her friends, least of all Mary, whom she considered to be one of her best ones.
"To protect her from herself, you know how she is; she worries about me enough without the constant thought of me going on dangerous assignments running through her head. She's happy and I don't want to ruin that for her."
Twilight stood there thinking hard about what James just said before finally speaking once more, "Fine."
"Good." He said, for the first time since she had first seen him this day James visibly relaxed, he had been slightly worried Twilight would refuse his request and truth be told, he had no idea what he would've done had she done so. He then reached out and restarted the elevator's descent. "In that case, let me be the first to welcome you to the IDI." He said as they reached their floor.
"Just what is the IDI? I've heard of plenty of human government agencies but this is the first time I've ever heard of this one." Twilight asked as she continued to follow James down the hallway.
"The Internal Defense Initiative is a top secret, joint venture between the CIA, FBI, and NSA founded three years ago. Our aim is to exclusively combat the rise of major domestic terrorist groups within US borders following Equestrian contact, namely the HLF."
"What about the PER?"
James let out a short laugh, "The PER isn't a threat Miss Sparkle. The HLF kills humans and ponies equally; all those self righteous converts do is create more of your kind, not really worth our time. Besides they don't fall under our jurisdiction, that's your guys' job."
The two finally reached the door at the end of the hallway, a panel located the right side emitted a small blue light for a few seconds before text appeared on the screen.
BIO-SIGNATURE CONFIRMED: CAPTAIN JAMES MILLER…. –ACCESS GRANTED-
"What is this place?" Twilight asked as the doors slid open to reveal a technophile's dream, the latest cybernetics were scattered around the room in various states of repair and modification, hooked up to computers that would make most universities green with envy. In the middle of all this sat a young man, younger than James, with his back to them frantically working away at a terminal.
He turned around to face them as the doors slid shut behind the two, "Ahhh, so now I see why the Director's in such a foul mood right now." He walked over to them and extended a hand to Twilight, "Dr. Gerard Thomas, Head Technical Expert here at the IDI, I keep most of these guys working."
"Twilight Sparkle, pleasure to meet you." The purple unicorn responded taking the hand with her hoof.
"So the Director's in a bad mood huh?" James asked as Twilight shook the doctor's hand.
Dr. Thomas rolled his eyes, "If there was a way to bite someone's head off through the net, that man would be the one to discover it." He walked back over to the terminal. "All he said was that we'd have an outside observer for the next month or so, I never expected it to be an Equestrian. Now, Miss Sparkle if you could take a couple steps to the right, that'd be great, thanks."
Twilight complied with the doctor's request before asking, "Um, just what are you doing?"
"Recording your bio-signature for security purposes, every door in this facility is locked to anyone who is not in our database. This way you'll be able to move around here without needing someone to open the doors for you all the time." He answered as a scanner lowered itself from the ceiling and began to record Twilight's DNA and bio-signs. "So you got Mr. Tall, Dark, and Scary to show you around huh?"
"James isn't scary." Twilight said matter-of-factly.
Dr. Thomas laughed as he turned around to face her, "Yeah that's what they all say until they see him…" his voice just trailed off as the look James was giving him could cow a rabid Grizzly. "Right! Well the scan is now finished so you two can get going around to the rest of the facility. And I'll have a detailed report on the nanites ready in a few hours Captain!" He said quickly as he ushered Twilight out with James close behind.
"Um, James? Just what did he mean? "Twilight asked, slightly flustered by their abrupt exit.
James rolled his eyes, "The doctor has a bit of a flair for the dramatic, I'm just good at what I do Twilight, let's leave it at that."
Mary arranged her pencils into another shape on her desk for what seemed like the fiftieth time that day, it had been slow at the bureau this week and she was bored out of her mind. Usually Twilight was here to help alleviate the boredom but she was mysteriously absent today. James had disappeared as well this morning, not like that was ever unusual but still she wished there were more mornings where she actually saw him.
"Knock, Knock" came a familiar voice from the door.
Rarity had to clear her throat a few seconds later before Mary noticed her and turned away from her latest distraction to the white unicorn in the doorway. "Oh, hi there Rarity. Sorry, it's just so slow today, I've been losing track of what's going on."
"I know the feeling."
"Do you have any idea where Twilight is? It's not like her to just not show up like this."
"I'm afraid I don't know much more than you do dear. I sent a letter to Canterlot reporting her absence, but all I got in return was a response saying she'd been called away on urgent royal business."
"Oh really? That's odd…" Mary said as she started to lose herself in thought.
"Well anyways, there is something I wanted to talk with you about."
"Which is?"
"Well, just how did James take you and Velocity? I mean we all saw him when he first found out, but I'm still a little worried that maybe he was just putting up a façade for us."
Mary looked down at her desk as she thought about how to answer that question, "He actually took it really well, a lot better than I had ever expected. He said he was really happy for me that I had found somepony. But… I kinda wish he had gotten angry or at least annoyed with me, would've made me feel a lot better."
Rarity was just completely confused at this statement, "But whatever do you mean Dawn? He's happy for you, why wouldn't you want that?"
Mary looked up from her desk but continued to avoid her friend's eyes, "James feels like me not telling him about Velocity is because he's failed as an older brother and that it's his fault that I didn't feel comfortable telling him."
Rarity walked up and put a hoof over Mary's shoulder, "Why would he say such a thing? You've always talked about him like he's the greatest brother ever."
Mary stayed silent for a few seconds before finally answering, "If there's one thing wrong with James, it's that he expects too much of himself. When he thinks he's screwed up or failed he's harder on himself than anyone ever could be."
"Well did you tell him that it wasn't his fault?"
"Of course I did. But even though it seemed like James believed me I know deep down he still considers it his fault and his fault alone."
Rarity felt nothing but sympathy for her friend, being an older sibling herself she could relate to Dawn's situation. But while she and Sweetie Belle were close, they were nowhere near the level of James and Dawn. In truth Rarity envied them, and that made this all the more important to her. "You know, I may have an idea for how you can help." She said quietly.
Mary turned to look at her friend almost pleading with her eyes for Rarity to tell her any way she might help her older brother.
"Be open with him, tell him about how your life is going, talk to him like you would before all 'this'" she said waving a hoof in the air, "But above all I think it'd be a good idea if he met Velocity, I think they'd actually like each other quite a lot."
"R-really?"
"Of course dear, besides you've been together for three months, I think it's about time he finally met a member of your family." The white unicorn said as she smiled.
"Thanks Rarity." Mary said matching the smile as she hugged her friend.
"You're quite welcome Dawn, but there is one other thing."
"Which is?" Mary asked as she released Rarity from the embrace.
"A certain Mr. Frost needs help figuring out his quarters with his new body, and I figured you could use the distraction." Rarity said, continuing to smile.
Mary groaned as she rose from the cushion she had been sitting on, Newfoals…
Author's Note:I'd like to thank Midnight for letting me have er, Midnight make a cameo in this story.