//------------------------------// // Suspicion // Story: Finding Serenity // by M1ghtypen //------------------------------// Lyra finished her tour in the cargo hold. “That’s about it,” she said, noting that the grey pegasus had mysteriously rejoined the group since leaving the galley. Somepony would have to keep an eye on that one. “Whatever you need from the kitchen is yours, but we’re going to have to ask you to stay in the living quarters of the ship at all times. The engine room, bridge, infirmary, and pretty much everything else are all off limits.” “What about our things in the cargo hold?” the brown earth pony asked. “We’ll be more than happy to let you get whatever you need from here as long as one of the crew is with you. Are there any more questions?” The Shepherd cleared his throat. “When do we head out?” “It should be a while yet. Our pilot is out picking up a few things. Once she gets back we’ll have to get a few things taken care of. There are repairs to be made, things to load, so on. We’ll probably take off tonight. If any of you need anything, now would be a good time to get it.” Lyra stepped back and let the passengers have the cargo bay, keeping a close eye on the removable panel in the wall. Nopony even looked at it, let alone tried to mess with it. Graceful hooves clinked against the walkway above them as another pony entered the room. Her creamy beige coat was mostly hidden beneath her elegant blue dress. Her two-tone blue and pink mane was done up in a fashionable bun that sparkled with the jewels interspersed throughout. Several ponies, including Lyra, stared as she descended the walkway that led to her personal shuttle. “We have passengers,” the mare noted as she passed the Captain. “I assume that your business deal went well?” “Nice to see you too, Bon Bon.” Lyra leaned back against the safety rail, weight shifted entirely onto her hind legs. Her odd bipedal posture went completely unnoticed next to the Companion’s beauty. “For your information, I managed to get paid and keep the cargo.” Bon Bon’s horrified expression was tremendously satisfying. “I know I’m amazing. You don’t have to tell me.” “And I won’t!” Bon Bon hissed. “Do you mean that you’ve hidden stolen cargo on the ship in an area that your passengers are going to have frequent access to?” Lyra looked down at the ponies milling about below. “Don’t worry. They wouldn’t find our haul if they had a hundred years to look.” “What could possibly make you say that?” Bon Bon demanded. “How can you be so sure?” “Well, it’s… because.” Bon Bon spared the Captain one final glare before trotting down the stairs to greet her new shipmates. She wasn’t technically a member of the crew, but Sereneighty was still her home and she wanted to be a good hostess. Lyra introduced her to Derpy first. The grey pegasus seemed almost as taken with the Companion’s mane as she was with all the rest of her combined. “It’s so pretty!” she said breathlessly. “Look how it shines. How long does it take to do your mane every morning?” “What a charming mare!” Bon Bon laughed. “It doesn’t take that long. I can show you later, if you want.” Derpy seemed enchanted with the idea of spending time with such a regal pony. The brown earth pony introduced himself next with a bow and a few polite words. “A doctor?” Bon Bon asked after he was finished. “That’s very impressive this far from the Core. May I ask what you are a doctor of?” The doctor pony looked around shyly. “A few things,” he said evasively, and went back to examining a large steel case that he’d brought with his luggage. Finally, Lyra introduced the Shepherd. She didn’t want to admit it, even to herself, but she was looking forward to seeing how he reacted. “This here’s our very own ambassador,” she said, indicating Bon Bon with something almost like pride. “She comes in handy every now and then.” Shepherd Mac bowed his head respectfully. “Ah wasn’t aware we had an official on board,” he said. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.” Lyra giggled shamelessly, causing him to pause in the act of offering his hoof. “Somethin’ funny? Is it the way Ah talk?” “The Captain thinks she’s being funny,” Bon Bon explained. “I operate on a more… personal level than most ambassadors.” “She’s a whore,” Lyra supplied helpfully. Bon Bon clenched her teeth for a moment before letting out all of her anxiety in a very graceful sigh. “I’m a Companion,” she said. “The Captain finds it amusing to make fun of my profession.” Mac’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “Reckon Ah understand now. Ah’m sorry for mah rudeness, ma’am.” Lyra turned away, thoroughly disappointed. She didn’t notice the Shepherd’s sly wink or the Companion’s smile. “Look sharp!” Thunderlane shouted from above them. “Incoming wheeler!” Lyra motioned for everypony to clear the cargo bay. “Everypony relax! The good news is that our pilot is back. The bad news is that there might be a heaping mess of burning metal down here in a moment, so we should probably clear out.” Lyra’s trained ears picked up the utility vehicle’s motor soon after Thunderlane’s. She checked to make sure that nothing valuable was about to get crushed, then retreated up the stairs herself. The ATV careened into the cargo hold moments later, skidding across the metal floor and nearly crashing into the staircase. “Like a glove!” Vinyl shouted proudly as she hopped down from her seat. “Hey, we’ve got some passengers! We should throw a party!” Octavia greeted her wife with a kiss and a lecture on reckless behavior. Some things would never change. ***** Later that evening Shepherd Mac knocked on the door to Bon Bon’s shuttle. “Qing jin!” the Companion called. “It’s unlocked.” Mac walked inside and immediately walked back out. “Ah’m mighty sorry ma’am!” he called. “Ah can come back later.” “You don’t need to be embarrassed,” Bon Bon assured him. “You aren’t the first to see me bathing. Do you intend to lecture me, or were you just looking for some conversation?” "No lecture, ma'am. Ah'm not one for lecturin'." The sound of dripping water paused. "Is that so?" Bon Bon asked. "May I ask why? Most religious ponies would take offense to having a Companion on board." "It ain't so much about takin' offense," Mac explained. "Ah'm a Shepherd, so you probably already know what Ah think. Ah won't lie to ya, but there's no need to go botherin' anypony if Ah don't need to. Disagreements don't mean we can't be civil. ‘Course, Ah could still lecture ya if you want. Ah ain't used to lecturin' mares while they wash, though. Right now all that comes to mind is Bathsheba." "Was that the best pun you could come up with?" Shepherd Mac hung his head in shame. "Ah can't help it. It's a sickness." They both chuckled, and Bon Bon quickly tried to finish her washing. "If you don't intend to lecture me, then what do you want? Surely you aren't here to talk business. I think your order would have a few choice lectures of their own for you." “No ma'am. Ah need to ask a favor.” Mac carefully backed into the room so that they could talk without raising their voices. “You’re a Companion, so there’s gotta be a connection to the Cortex on this shuttle for your clients. Ah’d like to use it.” Splashing behind him signaled that Bon Bon was climbing out of her bath. “I do have a terminal, yes. It would be illegal to let somepony else use my account. I would have to know who you were contacting.” She noticed that Mac rotated to keep facing away from her as she walked to her closet. “You’re being a bit silly about this. Ponies don’t normally wear clothes.” Mac chose to answer her question and ignore the rest of what she’d said. “Ah have family to contact. It won’t take long. Ah just want them to know that Ah’m alright and Ah’ll be travelin’ for a while. Ah’d be willin’ to pay for the use of your connection.” Bon Bon walked in front of him, clad in a silk gown that somehow seemed more suggestive than if she were wearing nothing at all. “There will be no charge,” she said. “You and I are friends. We aren’t the best of friends yet, but even a new friendship is worth more than a few bits. Besides, you are contacting family. Family is important.” She unfolded part of her dresser to reveal the computer terminal hidden inside. Mac supposed that such modern conveniences tended to spoil the atmosphere if left in plain sight. After turning on her terminal and scanning her IdentCard, Bon Bon left Mac in peace. “Take as much time as you need.” The door closed, and he was finally alone. ***** Dinner on Sereneighty was often a family affair. Everypony gathered around the big wooden table in the galley to exchange stories, jokes, and general observations about the ‘Verse. Lyra enjoyed eating with her crew, and having new faces around the table made the experience even better. Shepherd Mac had prepared a fantastic meal with Bon Bon’s help. The crew watched with baited breath as he set the table and began passing around bowls of mashed potatoes, fresh bread, asparagus, and even real cucumbers. Lyra was fairly certain that sompony would faint from excitement before the meal had a chance to begin. “Y’all okay with me sayin’ grace?” the Shepherd asked. “Not if I have to hear it,” Lyra said. Her happy mood was now tarnished slightly. Mac stared at the table for a while, eyes unfocused as he prayed to a pair of goddesses that she had lost faith in long ago. The rest of the crew followed his example, leaving her feeling a bit left out. Even Thunderlane joined in, though he snuck a roll when nopony was looking. When the praying was finished the group dug in. “This all looks so good!” Derpy said as she spooned mashed potatoes onto her plate. One spoonful missed, but she didn’t notice. “Where did it all come from?” “Had a little garden back at the abbey,” Mac said. He continued passing food around, taking a modest portion for himself. “Wasn’t nothin’ like what we had back home. Mah family worked on an apple orchard for generations. Some of them are still there.” He smiled gratefully at Bon Bon. “That must have been an interesting life,” the third passenger noted. Lyra tried to remember his name, but drew a blank. Maybe he hadn’t given it. “I’m told that worlds on the Rim are far behind the Core planets in terms of technology. Did you harvest the apples by hoof?” Mac chuckled and flexed his muscles. Lyra heard every other mare in the room gasp. “Eeyup. What about you? Where’d you come from?” The brown pony shrugged. “I think I’ve already introduced myself. I’m Doctor Clockwork, just in case I haven’t. I grew up on New Equestria. I wanted to make the ‘Verse a better place, but eventually I decided that healthy ponies aren’t the ones that need a doctor. Several years later, here I am.” “I’ve never even met a real doctor,” Derpy admitted. “Where I come from, most ponies can’t afford to go to a fancy school for that kind of thing. Those that do never think to come back. You really gave up life on a Core world to come and help ponies at the edge of the ‘Verse?” “It isn’t all that unusual,” Clockwork said. “Lots of ponies have money for an education on the Core worlds.” Derpy hadn’t touched her food, and as such she risked losing it. Bon Bon had to slap Thunderlane’s hooves away when he reached for something on her plate. “But it is!” Derpy insisted. “You gave up a life of privilege just to help ponies that couldn’t afford it. That’s something special.” Clockwork smiled nervously and picked at his plate. Lyra watched him carefully, taking in his shaking hooves and twitchy eye. She noticed a small band around one of his ankles with a digital display on it. He checked it nervously every few minutes. “Do you have family?” Spud asked. “Any brothers or sisters? “A sister,” Clockwork said. He went back to his plate and tried to make it as obvious as possible that he was done talking. Spud seemed annoyed at the terse response, but quickly moved on. “What about Derpy?” He asked. Lyra detected suspicion in his voice and made a mental note to ask him about it later. “Let’s hear about her.” “My family owned a farm,” Derpy said. Her voice died the moment everypony looked at her. She shrank back into her seat and tried to stare at the table, but one eye stubbornly wandered along the ceiling. “Thought I should travel,” she murmured. It was barely more than a whisper, and only those sitting next to her could hear anything at all. Fortunately, Vinyl was one of those ponies. “That’s pretty much why I started flying!” she exclaimed. “How about that? We’re kindred spirits!” She threw her foreleg around Derpy’s shoulder. “You and me, we were both overcome with wanderlust!” “L-lust?” Derpy stuttered. She glanced briefly at Clockwork. “Yeah, wanderlust!” Vinyl continued. “We had to get out and see the ‘Verse for ourselves. On my home planet, things were so nasty and polluted that you couldn’t even see the stars at night. You never saw anything but smog, even when the sun was shining. Sometimes I think I became a pilot just to see what the big deal was.” Spud nudged Clockwork and tipped his horn in Derpy’s direction. “It looks like somepony was thinking about an entirely different kind of lust!” he laughed. “I’d take what you can get,” Thunderlane advised. They were talking quietly, but rest of the table had fallen silent. “Not much tail to chase around here anyway, right? They’re all either charging for it or prancin’ for the other team.” “Watch your mouth!” Lyra hissed. Poor Derpy was using her wings to hide herself, embarrassed almost to the point of tears. Spud noticed and tried to get Thunderlane’s attention, but the pegasus continued anyway. “Hey, you’re welcome to her. It ain’t every day that a mare gets herself all hot and bothered for a scrawny earth pony, even if she does look a little-” Lyra stood up, once again reverting to two hooves. The room went deathly quiet. “Leave this table,” she ordered. “Don’t let me see you at it again until you’ve learned some common Gorram courtesy. Spud, you’re going too.” The mechanic began to argue, but Lyra yanked his chair out from under him with her magic and gave him a hard push away from the table. “I said leave, you liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze! Get out of here before I knock out every one of those perfect teeth and take away the one redeeming feature you have left!” Spud sullenly grabbed his plate and stormed away. Thunderlane followed, but he at least had the decency to look embarrassed. Lyra sat down and went back to eating while the rest of the crew watched the shamed ponies leave. Derpy remained in her chair, though she probably wanted to leave more than anypony. She hid them well, but a few tears had trickled down her cheeks. “I’ll go start the preflight checklist,” Vinyl said, and politely excused herself from the table. ***** Less than ten minutes passed before Lyra and Octavia were called to the bridge. Vinyl was anxious about something, but for a long time they couldn’t make her calm down and explain the problem. She only settled down when Octavia forced her into the pilot’s chair and held her still. Vinyl pointed to a garbled waveform being transmitted from the ship’s antenna. “Somepony sent out a signal to the Empire’s forces. I think I stopped the signal before they could get too much information, but they definitely know where to find us.” “That’s our cue to leave,” Lyra said. “Octavia, go tell the passengers that we’re about to take off. Don’t tell them why, just let them know that we’re ready to go. Vinyl, how much do they know?” “I’m working on that, but it’s hard to say.” Vinyl removed her goggles to study the ship’s display screens. “They might just know a general location, or they could have personal files on all of us. I only noticed it was happening when the system’s shakedown procedures pulled apart the antenna’s coded signal. It’s a hidden message. It’s been transmitting for hours, but the bandwidth is crazy low. You can hardly send anything at all.” Lyra stared at the screen for a while, tracing the waveform with her eyes even though she didn’t have the faintest idea what it meant. “Warn Thunderlane and Spud. I want to be in the air as soon as possible.” “Should we tell Bonny?” “Nah, she doesn’t need to know. Just make it seem like everything’s running perfectly so we don’t worry our guests.” “You got it, boss.” Vinyl began warming up the engines and skimmed through a playlist she had created on the ship’s computer. “I’m thinking dubtrot. What about you?” “Doesn’t much matter,” Lyra said. “Just take us out of the world as soon as you can.” Sereneighty’s atmospheric propulsion engines flared to life and lifted the ship into the air. Lyra watched as the ground fell away beneath her ship and allowed herself to relax. She never felt comfortable on the ground, preferring instead to keep to her ship and roam the ‘Verse like a nomad from the Times-That-Were. The ground, no matter what planet it belonged to, was no longer her home. ***** Octavia had just reached the galley when she felt the ship's engines activate. The passengers didn't seem troubled by the noise, but she thought it best to reassure them anyway. "We will be lifting off much sooner than we expected," she announced. "You may feel some turbulence." The entire ship jolted and one of the engines made an unpleasant groaning noise. Octavia had to grab the table to keep from losing her balance. Vinyl's voice blasted out of the ship's intercom, accompanied by the throbbing bass beat that often tormented her wife. "Spud! Keep those Gorram couplings engaged, you idiot!" "I'm doing the best I can down here!" the mechanic yelled. "Fly straight! This isn't amateur hour!" "I'll show you amateur hour, you go tsao de son of a—" "Both of you, shut up!" Lyra thundered. "Stop yelling or you'll spook the passengers!" Octavia quickly shut off the intercom. Bon Bon cleared her throat awkwardly. "The crew is very, um, passionate. Lots of love on this ship." Lyra galloped down the stairs and glared at Octavia. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "I need you up here! Get a move on!" "I turned off the intercom," Octavia said as she followed her captain. "Your yelling was spooking the passengers." Lyra's ears laid back and she winced. "They heard that, huh?" Octavia nodded. "Sorry. At least they won't hear us talking now. We’ve got a real problem; somepony mucked up our engines before takeoff. Spud should have caught it, but whoever it was really knew what they were doing." Lyra keyed the intercom and addressed her crew. "Everypony listen up," she said grimly. "We've got a spy onboard. Pretty sure it isn't any of us. We aren't exactly the Solar Empire's most wanted fugitives, but we'd all wind up in a jail cell just the same if we got captured. It has to be one of the passengers." "I sure hope so," Vinyl sighed. "The question is, who? My vote is the doctor pony. He seems smart enough, and that big case he had was awfully suspicious." Spud's voice crackled through the intercom. "I caught Derpy sneaking around in the engine room. She had the place to herself for a bit while I checked the fuel lines and she somehow got the thermal couplings turned around. She might be smarter than she looks." "Bon Bon mentioned letting the Shepherd use her connection to the Cortex," Thunderlane said. "He told her he was contacting family. She was goin' on about how sweet it was, but he might have been the one to send out that secret message." Lyra collapsed into the copilot's chair and sighed irritably. "How bad are the engines?" "They'll just give up power," Spud said. "You can forget about going anywhere in a hurry. We won't freeze to death, but if we don't turn around or get this fixed we’re going to have a very long trip ahead of us. It’ll be at least three weeks before we make it to the next inhabited planet.” The crew was silent while each contemplated the thought of being trapped on a ship with a traitor for a whole month. "Want me to shoot somepony?" Thunderlane asked. "I could wing one and scare the others. They'd behave better." "We aren't shooting anypony just yet," Lyra said. "We might want to go through their luggage to see if any of them have a transmitter that could send out that signal. How long until the engines are fixed?" "I'm doing my best," Spud assured her. "Whoever did this was exceedingly intelligent, so this could take a while. I'll have a better idea of how long it'll be in a few minutes." Lyra groaned. "The Empire’s closing in on us," she said. "Hurry up and get us out of here; they’re only a few hours out." The intercom went silent, and Lyra turned to Octavia. "Get the passengers into the cargo hold," she ordered. "Keep an eye on Derpy; I'd put money on her being our spy. Vinyl, see if you can figure out what that coded message was saying." "Just did," Vinyl said. "I'd act all proud and stuff, but the news is sort of depressing. It just says 'found them'." "That's plenty helpful," Lyra grumbled. "Tell Thunderlane to meet me in the hold. We're going to sweep for anything that could hijack Sereneighty's antenna and send out that signal." She trotted off in the direction of the cargo hold, but stopped at her room to retrieve her pistol. Trouble on my own ship, she thought bitterly as she fastened the belt around her stomach. My own home isn't even safe anymore. A hollow ache in her heart reminded her of her home before Sereneighty. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised.