Mind Games and Mysteries
Pipsqueak made his steady way along the maintenance crawl space, worry plain to see on his mottled face. The brass framework of the Bloomberg was uncomfortably close all around the stallion, with wires and feed lines sharing the same confined space. The pony was forced to duck and shuffle along with his chest touching the plated floor panels as he sought out the mystery troubling the Bloomberg.
Grunting and squeezing his way under yet another low support beam, Pip cursed as his hard-hat rebounded off the metal roof encasing his tiny world, its resounding clang mixing with the ever present hum of the Bloomberg's engines. Applebloom had insisted he wear protection while going about his investigation, but Pip was finding it more of a hindrance than a help.
Pipsqueak rubbed his head and readjusted the strap to his helmet once again in a vain attempt to some how make it smaller; at least the hard-hat came with a built in lamp which saved Pip the trouble of carrying a torch in his teeth. This source of illumination swept a line of light back and forth as he finished his adjustments and prepared to move on once more.
Applebloom had put Pipsqueak in charge of discovering what was causing intermittent power-outs on the airship, but so far all he had to show for it was a sore head and scraped knees. The dedicated service pony had examined what felt like miles of cable and connections for hours now and there was still no sign of what might be causing the trouble.
Sighing to himself once more Pip began to pan his light across the walls in search of anything untoward. There was nothing vital that had gone down, just some lights in a few compartments, but the boss's orders were orders so Pipsqueak was doing his up-most to find the source of the problem.
He was taking a moment to carefully stretch out his hind legs, which were threatening to cramp up when he heard his first clue that something was wrong. It was hard to make out over the background sounds of the Bloomberg all around him but as Pip pricked up his ears he thought he caught the fain rhythmic sounds of tapping. It reminded him of hail stones bouncing off the roof back home, only it didn't have the persistent nature of the weather.
'tic-tap, tic-tap, tic-tap' echoed along the service space and drew his attention further along the confined tunnel of wires and exposed innards of the airship; the rhythmic sound was coming and closer. Pip swung his lamp back and forth, piercing the darkness ahead and the sounds of tapping suddenly ceased.
For a long moment he held his breath, but nothing further occurred. Pip was just about to relax when he caught sight of something staring at him from in the distance. He couldn't make out a clear shape, but Pip did see the brief flash of glowing green eyes before the 'tic-tap' started up again; only this time it was retreating.
He felt his heart hammering in his chest and a tremble begin to afflict him. Pip was here to fix a fault, not go 'creature' hunting. Fighting to keep his hoof steady Pipsqueak touched the communication button attached to his hat and was greeted by a brief crackle of static before Applebloom's voice responded.
"Yer Pip what's up, any sign of the fault?" The mare on the other end of the com line sounded just as frustrated as Pip had been only minutes before.
"Er, no boss sorry" Pipsqueak apologised and Applebloom snorted before he could go further, "But I found something else though."
The headphones went quiet and Pip pressed on, "You're not going to like this boss, but I just saw something moving around down here and it wasn't me."
"Summit? Yer didn't get a clear look at it?" Applebloom's worry was evident even through the hazy reception due to the proximity of the main power crystals, Pipsqueak was deep in the bowels of the ship at this point.
"Er no mam, I.." There was flash and crackle from up ahead and he was forced to blink as the darkness was briefly banished by the unexpected light.
"Pip? Pip! What happened?" Applebloom yelled as the dazzled stallion shook his head, trying to clear the after images dancing before his eyes.
"I'm okay boss, but I think I've found the fault," He shuffled forward once more and shone his head lamp; illuminated the damage.
To the Pipsqueak's dismay he saw a number of power lines had been severed, no he corrected himself, not severed but gnawed through. His ears spun madly as yet again he heard the 'tic-tap, tic-tap' sounds echoing down the crawl space. After another few tense moments, they died away and Pip let out a slow breath.
"Pip yer tell we what's goin on right now yer hear!" Applebloom's frantic voice crackled out of the speaker in the sweating pony's hat.
Pipsqueak gulped before explaining further, "Boss something has been chewing through the power cables, I think you better let the director know that we have a bigger problem than we first thought."
"So what you're telling me is that we have picked up an unwanted guest?" Twilight asked calmly as her chief engineer tapped an impatient hoof on the desk.
Twilight had with typical efficiency transferred; all the necessary files, documents and tools she felt would be needed for the trip ahead into her own personal office aboard the Bloomberg. It hadn't taken long for her to organise everything neatly into its place.
Twilight's office now also contained Steel Resolve who stood and digested Applebloom's report stoically. The engineer and Twilight both sat at the director's desk while Steel remained on his hooves, regarding the pair with a dour expression.
"Eeyup, I dunno how we did, we only stopped of fer a short while ter drop off Spike. That's beside the point, we got summit runnin around in my ship and it's roughin the place up." Applebloom mare looked from Twilight to Steel with indignation, "We've been lucky so far Big.D, nothin major has been damaged, but we need whatever this is off my ship pronto."
"You're assuming there is only one Miss Bloom, "Steel cautioned," All we have is Pipsqueak's account and so I suggest we touchdown at the first opportunity and do a thorough search of the Bloomberg to flush it or them out."
Twilight's ears pressed flat, "How long would that take Steel? We've got a deadline to keep to. A.B do you think it would be safe to finish our journey to Horseshoe bay? Once there we could do a proper search. As you said this 'whatever' hasn't hurt anyone, nor has it done any significant damage."
Steel looked to Applebloom who continued to tap one fore hoof on the desk whilst resting her head on the other, "Well I want ter go with Steel's idea n stop, but what's ter stop us pickin up more if we set down here?"
The royal guard shook his head, "Ladies, I seriously doubt we picked up our unwanted saboteur during our short touchdown. I honestly think they came with us from the start."
Applebloom stared at Steel in disbelief, "You're saying whatever this thing is, it came from Ponyville with us? Then why haven't we had trouble before now?"
Steel rubbed his square muzzle as he thought, "Well there are a few possibilities, but I am inclined to think that it has been biding its time until we were in the wilds. That speaks of an underlying plan of sabotage."
Applebloom snorted, "No need ter be so paranoid Steel, if that really was their plan then why draw attention to emselves by busting summit so noticeable, yet causing no significant damage?"
Twilight nodded at this, "Yes I agree with A.B, that doesn't sound like the act of planned sabotage, more like an animal that has gotten loose."
Both mares looked once more to the royal guard who continued to rub his chin, "Hmm that fits with the actions, but not the timing, possibly it's a distraction?"
Twilight let out an exasperated groan, "Too many 'maybes', we can't work with maybes."
Steel nodded in agreement, "Very true, in that case I propose a compromise. Whatever this thing was, it fled from your worker Miss Bloom. We can't guarantee it will repeat such an action and the longer we tarry here the more chance it has to do damage. Therefore I will have my troops guard the most vital sections of the ship while we make all speed to Baltimare."
Twilight nodded at that suggestion eagerly, "Yes captain, and we can draft in extra searchers from the town whilst we investigate the real reason we're here, on that subject any more news Steel?"
Steel looked ill at ease, "No princess, Dew has her contacts in Baltimare looking into it, but they haven't turned up anything more than we already know." His face became stern, "It seems some pony or ponies have been building weapons roughly based on mage/tech. As to who they are we still don't know," Twilight winced again at the idea of some pony twisting her ideas to such an end.
Applebloom jumped in again, "Well then, sounds like we got a plan. Steel n his lot will keep Bloomberg safe until we get ter Baltimare. I can have my boys fix up any other trouble this here 'hitch-hiker' does," Her face became angry, "When I get ma hooves on the one responsible they're gonna be sorry."
"Come on A.B, we don't even know if it was an intentional act of sabotage, it could still be some critter that was brought on board by mistake," Twilight tried to reassure her friend.
Applebloom grumbled to herself not convinced either way and Twilight was forced to agree, there were just too many unanswered questions. All they could do was press on carefully and see where this all took them.
The Bloomberg made its steady way through the skies, but despite making good progress the air on the bridge was tense. Every moment they were airborne was another moment when the strange passenger might strike again, already three more areas had suffered power failures but mercifully no vital systems had been damaged.
Twilight studied the readouts of the spreading damage carefully, the precautions taken so far seemed to be doing the trick. Their 'guest' didn't seem to be interested in direct confrontation and so there hadn't been any further sightings; but the crew knew it was there, moving through the innards of the ship, their ship, [i[her ship.
Twilight was angry as well as scared, she had worked so hard along with many others to make the Bloomberg and now something was gnawing at his insides. She poured over the schematics trying to spot some pattern, but there was nothing. The damage was random, it didn't seem to be tied to any system....no wait a moment. It was always a power line that was cut!
The princess double checked but she felt a growing certainty that she was right and she clicked on the intercom, "Captain Steel, I think I have some insight into our passenger."
The speaker was silent for a moment before the guard replied, "Please do tell princess," Steel's calm voice was laced with no small amount of static, being stationed close to the power room.
"I think whatever it is, it's after the power; it must be an 'arcanivore' captain." There was a brief pause, before Steel replied.
The patient reply finally came back, "And for those who aren't well versed in terms of magical theory princess?"
Twilight smiled, "It eats magic Steel, whatever it is, it feeds on arcane power. I think that's why it's chewing on the power lines, it's simply hungry and that's good news."
"How is that good news princess?" Steel replied in mounting confusion, "The whole ship is run on magic, by Celestia's Wings we have magic in us."
She shook her head, "I know captain, but it points more towards a simple animal getting on board rather than a dedicated act of sabotage."
"With all due respect Miss Twilight, anyone could have snuck such a thing on board." Steel commented, doubt heavy in his tone.
Twilight was about to explain further when the front windscreen was lit up from below, she turned her attention from the console before her and focused on the luminescence outside before smiling with relief, "Well captain I think it's going to be okay either way, we're approaching Baltimare now."
Twilight trotted forwards past her fellow crew members to see the glowing pony city spread out below them, its radiance obscured the stars for miles around and Twilight's attention was instantly drawn to the tall towers and busy streets below. The most breathtaking landmark was Horseshoe Harbour; Baltimare was the primary trade town on the eastern boarder of Equestria and Twilight saw a great number of sea vessels coming and going even at this late hour.
The princess' attention was drawn back to matters at hoof as a warning chime sounded out, "Princesse, we're losing magic to number four propeller." Blerio called out, but Twilight had already felt the ship begin to list slightly to port as the afflicted propeller failed to keep pace with its fellows.
"I'm on it!" Applebloom's tense voice sounded through the com system, since the problems had started the engineer practically lived in the power room, "Pushin the others ter make up the slack."
The airship's faltering course was corrected and Twilight released another tense breath as Blerio called out, "Course corrected Princesse, we should enter Baltimare airspace in about two minutes."
Twilight nodded in thanks even as she saw a number of winged shapes approaching from the city below, "We're being hailed your majesty, shall I put it through?"
She smiled at the communication's pony, "Yes please, I'll take it here." Twilight returned to her station and flipped the receiver to speaker.
"Bloomberg, this is sergeant 'Flash Point'. Let me be the first to welcome you to Baltimare," Twilight found her gaze drawn to a griffin hovering just in front of the main bridge accompanied by two pegasi. The chestnut and black griffon saluted the Bloomberg's crew and Twilight could see his beak moving in time with the sounding speakers. "We heard you were having some troubles and came to see if we could be of any assistance?"
"Thank you Flash Point, If you could direct us to a suitable landing spot that would be wonderful. We could do with some further help once we're down," Twilight's reply was full of relief, "Please have a guard waiting for us if you could, we have an uninvited guest on board."
Flash nodded in understanding and quickly signalled for his two wing ponies to escort the Bloomberg down. Twilight steadied herself as the angle of the bridge dipped and they followed their new escorts. She felt the tension melting away. Got here just in time it seems, Twilight thought to herself as she looked at the damaged propeller.
The wind rattled the branched overhead as Spike wound his way along the forest floor. The first hints of sunlight were beginning to chase away the night. He had spent his first few hours in the forest chasing shadows and being led in infuriatingly more complex circles by his bat pony quarry.
Night Dew was out there, Spike was sure of it and she was messing with him. Spike had long since given up trying to track the pony by magical residue, Night Dew had evidently foreseen such a trick and led Spike on a merry dance through the woods until he resolved to simply head onward. Yes this hunt was point of honour for Warden, but overall he needed to get to the migration and so tiring of Dew's games he began his steady way south east.
If Night Dew wanted to stall him and mess around then Spike wasn't going to play along. So far he saw no evidence that Night Dew was following him, in fact the drake would have been highly suspicious if he had. How had Night Dew known about Spike's magical hunting sense? 'He' had only learned them in the last few lessons with Warden. That question kept buzzing around in his head over and over even as he plodded through the early morning mists.
Spike was keenly reminded of the oncoming winter and shivered slightly. The more he thought about things, the more he felt he was being silly to have agreed to this challenge. I just wanted to impress Warden and finally catch Night Dew, now I'm trudging through a cold forest with a taunting bat pony watching my every move.
Spike paused as he attempted to out think his prey. She was faster, smaller and evidently knew more about him than he did of her. There must be something I can use? Spike looked around to see if there was anything of use, but sadly he only saw trees, bushes and rocks. Breathing fire to flush her out wasn't an option, Spike had no intention of burning down a whole forest just to win a game.
His size? Well Spike certainly had the weight advantage, but that didn't seem to be any help here. He couldn't even find the bat pony and his size made hiding in wait almost impossible. No he would have to try something else, but no matter how hard he racked his brain no acceptable solution came to him and so he trudged onward through the forest.
Warden had been certain that his dragon instincts would allow Spike to win this competition honestly and fairly, but so far every trick Warden had suggested seemed to have been foreseen by Night Dew. It almost seemed like she knew what he was going to do before he did it and once again Spike found himself musing how the bat pony had found this all out.
The dragon's trail took Spike down a gully and he noticed that the trees around him looked older than the previous ones he had passed over the course of the night. Must be coming to the heart of the forest now Spike noted in a distracted way. This meant he had travelled a surprising distance and to Spike's credit he didn't feel tired at all.
Maybe that was something, I could tire her out? If Dew's so intent on messing around I might get to the finish point before her and wait it out? It seemed better than being led in circles, plus once the forest was behind them and they were in the swamps there would be far less places for Dewy to hide. It wasn't much of a plan Spike had to admit, but it was all he had.
With fresh resolve Spike picked up his pace to a slow jog, he didn't have to avoid all the bushes and so forth either; where as Dew, fast as she was would need to take time to do so. Spike's hide was proof against such things and for once he was glad of his increased size as it allowed him to shoulder through the tough undergrowth. Feeling much better about things, Spike set his determined stare ahead of himself and barged his way forwards.
His steady pace ate up the distance and Spike finally felt he was making some useful progress. As he worked his way around the larger trees Spike began to notice something strange; there was a light in the distance. From the maps Spike had looked over before the Bloomberg had dropped him off he was certain that Baltimare should be way off to his left, but the yellow light filtering through the trees was dead ahead.
Confused Spike slowed his pace and approached more carefully, fearing it was some new trick by Night Dew to throw him off. He moved surprisingly quietly for a creature his size and was soon in a position to observe what was going. He saw a number of torches illuminating a large clearing.
Inside the clearing Spike saw numerous ponies armed with an assortment of tools all digging in the ground; it seemed that some sort of excavation was taking place. Spike made his way around the tree line as carefully as he could, occasionally checking around himself to make sure he hadn't been spotted.
There were ponies patrolling the area, all of which seemed to be armed with some sort of long staves, which to Spike's senses smelt of magic. Whoever these ponies were they didn't have anything to do with Spike and his game with Night Dew. He was about to give them a wide berth before he saw something that made his blood boil.
To his mounting anger Spike saw that the creatures digging weren't ponies, nor even workers. He saw a buffalo digging alongside a zebra and what looked like a couple of boars. All in all there were about twenty forced labourers digging and on closer inspection the dragon saw that they were all chained together.
Spike felt his fury rising as one of the pony guards whacked a stumbling griffin, his wings were bound and it looked like one of his claws was badly hurt. Spike let out a low growl and was about to pounce when he heard a 'click' behind him.
"Don't move! So much as twitch and I’ll blow a chunk out of you," The voice was strained and as Spike slowly turned his head about he caught site of another pony guard behind him.
"I said don't move!" A young unicorn stallion was trembling even as he held one of the strange staves that Spike had noticed before.
"Look' I don't know what you're doing here, but I don't like it," Spike growled and the grey pony before him quailed, the end of his 'tool' wavering as his hoof trembled.
"How did you find us? What are you doing here?" Fear in the pony's voice rose as Spike's spines stood on end.
Spike drew in a deep breath, whoever this pony was, he was with the others and he didn't intend to let them keep mistreating their charges. The unicorn's eyes went wide and he began to raise the staff to point directly at Spike's face, but before either of them could act a shadow dropped down from above onto the unsuspecting stallion.
Spike leaned back as in a flurry of movement the staff was knocked from the unicorn's magical grip and the pony found himself pinned to the ground. A dull blade was pressed to his throat and a dark hoof covered the wide-eyed pony's mouth. It was all so fast that Spike blinked and it was done.
"Now, you're going to be very quiet when I take my hoof away, if you so much as flash your horn I will cut your throat. If you understand what is expected then blink twice. I strongly recommend you do not nod." Spike knew that voice even through the dark green cloth covering the pony's muzzle.
"Dewy?" Was all the astonished dragon could say before the bat pony winked one of her turquoise eyes.
"Hi big guy, you didn't really think I would be that far behind yer?" Using her free hoof Night Dew lowered the cloth covering her face and grinned at Spike before turning back to regard the terrified pony beneath her.
"So?" She asked in dangerous voice. The unicorn's yellow eyes went wide with fear before he blinked twice in quick succession.
Night Dew slowly removed the hoof covering his face, but kept the knife pressed tightly against his neck. "Now, I want to know who you are and just what you're doing here."