“And there’s nothing else you can tell me?” The beige mare tried to avert her eyes from the gaze of the dark brown unicorn stallion in front of her, but the piercing green eyes looking deep into her own blue ones alongside the soft smile on his lips made it hard for her to look away. Eventually, she managed to do so and just shook her head. “Aww.” The stallion made his disappointment vocal and sighed heavily.
“I’m sorry. I’d really like to help you, Mister Zeal…”
“Oh, please just call me Ardent,” the stallion threw in, pouting slightly.
“… Ardent, but I wasn’t there that day, and I don’t know which of my colleagues were.” The mare looked back to see that the lovely stallion that had introduced himself to her just a few moments ago now had a frown on his face. She couldn’t help but feel as though it was somehow her fault, causing her to add, “But I still wish you best of luck finding somepony who might know more so that you can write that book of yours.”
With a half-hearted ‘thank you’, Ardent Zeal turned away from the mare and looked over the crowded platform of the Canterlot train station. A large clock told him that he had already spent over an hour questioning the train workers about the arrival of a mysterious creature about a week ago, but so far none had given him any information. But he would be damned if he gave up so easily. As he checked himself in the faint reflection of a glass window and made sure his silvery blue mane was ruffled to give him that slightly roguish appearance, his eyes were already set on the next train worker: a brown unicorn mare in the characteristic dark blue attire that made her stick out clearly from the crowd.
With ease, Ardent moved through the groups of ponies that were slowly strolling over the platform. Being born and raised in Detrot usually meant nothing good, but in this case it was playing in his favour. What seemed busy for the citizens of Canterlot was almost relaxing and peacefully quiet for him. Almost no shouting, no ponies that were bumping into each other and cursing the other for not paying attention where they were going.
In his mind, Ardent Zeal went through the story again he would tell the unsuspecting mare in a few seconds. Using the helpful nature of the working class ponies here, it was foal’s play to get the information he wanted. By merely telling them he was about to write a book about every species that lived in their dearest Equestria and beyond, the ponies were quick to answer all his questions. However, as soon as he had begun to ask questions about that one specific creature that had been here last week, they had all immediately clammed up. It felt like they had all been ordered not to answer any questions, but Ardent wouldn’t give up so quickly. Still, for somepony who was accustomed to having his charm do most of the work for him, it was somewhat off-putting. He was hoping for it to change as he began to approach the brown mare with a greenish mane who was currently overlooking the traffic on the platform.
His path, however, was impeded as somepony grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. Ardent almost lost his balance and was about to let loose a yelp of surprise, but as soon as he was met with a familiar pair of dark blue eyes which glared at him, even darker than the coat of the pony they belonged to, he closed his mouth again. “What’s the matter, Blue Streak?” Ardent asked, irritation marring the features that had caught the attention of mares and even a few stallions in his time. His voice was quiet even though he was sure nopony else was listening to their conversation in any event.
“I think they’re onto us,” the dark blue unicorn that had grabbed him hissed and quickly nodded towards his left. Ardent looked over and was immediately met with the sight of golden armour shining in the sunlight as two guards were talking with a hastily gesticulating train worker.
Ardent sighed. “Damn it, Blue! I thought I told you to act a bit more careful,” he scolded the blue unicorn and shook his head, his mane never becoming more than the slightly unkempt state it was usually in. He dusted off the almost non-existent dirt from his brown fur and frowned, wishing he had a mirror with him at the moment.
“Hey!” Blue Streak retorted angrily and pushed Ardent back while glaring angrily at him. “I haven’t even talked to this guy yet. Must have been Blossom’s fault.”
“Ugh, great,” Ardent groaned and quickly looked over at the guards again. Two more had joined them already. “Fine, no time to argue now. We have to get back to the hotel. I don’t think they have seen us yet.” He again glanced over to the guards who were overlooking the crowd by now. “Where’s Blossom?”
“Dunno.” Blue Streak shrugged, his newfound nonchalance not quite able to hide the tension he felt. “Haven’t seen her anywhere. I guess she already noticed the guards and ran off.”
“We should do the same.” Another glance by Ardent over to the guards showed him that they were already moving through the crowd. As he turned around again, he saw that his companion had already left. “Great.” Muttering curses that would have sounded strange coming from such a dainty stallion as himself, he quickly made himself a way through the crowd, and was quickly swallowed up out of sight.
***
“Mister Murray, I have been expecting you.” A metallic voice sounded through the interior of the ship as the inner airlock opened and Steve stepped through it.
“Have you been watching movies again?” Steve asked and raised a brow. The actions of the AI were still a mystery to him. Steve blamed her high learning curve for the erratic change in her character at some points. The degree to which his companion was actually autonomous had surprised him numerous times. When he had found out that the normal board computer had been replaced by an artificial intelligence, he had been sceptical if it would be anything more than a slightly improved voice command system that could also hold basic conversations, but now he knew better.
“I was bored,” was her simple response.
A computer is getting bored – that’s something new. Steve just shook his head as he walked into his bedroom and dropped the pile of books onto one of the empty beds he wasn’t using. He sighed as he took a look through the dimly lit room. At home, his bed and the area in a two metre radius around it had been a complete mess, with books, papers and clothes lying around everywhere or piling up, as long as they were still in reach. Not that he was generally a messy person, but he had liked to keep all the things he might need at some point in reach, and the bed he had had in his old apartment on Earth had been just so much more comfortable than the chair for his desk.
And now everything was almost too clean. A tablet was lying on the nightstand next to his bed for when he wanted to read something before falling asleep. Aside from that, there were only a few of his used clothes so far. They were fantastic to maintain – most dirt could be simply dusted off with a few strong beats, but in the end they still need a proper washing or they would begin to stink from his sweat. He would have to misuse the shower for that at some point since the ship didn’t have any sort of washing machine, and the nearest river was a bit too far away to carry all his clothes there and build some sort of improvised washboard.
Steve turned away from the emptiness of the room. There wasn’t really much to fill it with anyway. His personal belongings were still in the other universe, and all his reading material was stored on the tiny computers. Since the voice command system for Sarah was working flawlessly, there wasn’t really a need for anything.
“I see,” he eventually replied to the last statement of the AI and left the room again. “If you are bored, I suppose I can assume you have finished the task I had given you?”
“Indeed,” Sarah confirmed. “The data from your experiment is fully processed. An interactive animation can be viewed from the command centre.”
“Great.” He nodded to himself as he made his way towards his favourite room of the ship. “I will have a look at it later.” Steve opened the door to the entertainment room and jumped onto the large and surprisingly comfortable couch. When inspecting this ship for the first time, he had been confused about the existence of this room, as it served no meaningful purpose to him. But quickly he found out it had been built to keep his morale and that of his crewmembers up. With basically nothing productive to do all day, they had to find some sort of activity, and with its placement on the shuttle, it would have also served as a great equalizer for all the stress the ground team would possibly have had to endure during a longer stay on a distant, foreign planet.
As he tried to find a comfortable spot, Sarah spoke up again. “May I ask how long we will be staying here? I have failed to pick up any signal from the Columbus since we have been here.”
Steve looked up at the small camera in the top corner of the room and let out a long sigh. Before answering, however, he raised his brows and asked in return, “Haven’t I ordered you to stop looking for a signal?”
“You have,” Sarah confirmed. “However, by disabling the mission protocol, you have also freed me from having to follow your orders.”
“I see.” He stared at the camera slowly, somewhat taken aback by what she had said. That was actually something he had not considered so far. A long pause followed his words as he thought on how to explain it to her. “Have you ever heard of multiverses or parallel universes?”
“Are you referring to the hypothetical construct of a set of universes often used in science fiction stories?”
“Umm, yes. Long story short, we are in a parallel universe right now,” he said bluntly. Now that he knew that he was, in fact, at the mercy of the AI as she could just decide to never open a door again, he could only hope that she would handle this information well. He knew that the concept or thought of her somehow turning malevolent should worry him right now, but he felt strangely calm. Expectantly, he waited for a reply, but all he got was just a soft buzzing sound.
“How?” she eventually asked after a few minutes.
“Somehow a magical... accident opened a portal, and we flew in it. I don’t really know how exactly that worked, but it left us here. Twilight and Celestia are working on reversing that so we can go home.”
Silence filled the room again. “I do not understand,” came her reply, this time much quicker.
“I don’t fully understand it either,” Steve admitted and shrugged. “Just ignore the how and accept the situation as it is.” Too bad I still haven’t completely done so myself, he thought wryly. No response came through the speakers, so he continued, “Basically, this means that I now have no idea how long we will be here. But you can stop using energy trying to contact anyone – it’s just a waste.”
“Understood. Disabling all communication systems,” Sarah acknowledged. Steve just nodded his head. “There is but one more concern,” Sarah added.
“And that is?” Steve wondered aloud.
“I do not like this place. My scanners and sensors are often picking up interferences.” Steve stared blankly at the camera next to the speaker in the corner.
“And?” he inquired after she failed to elaborate.
“It tickles.”
He needed a few seconds to comprehend what she just told him and to wipe the grin off his face. “What is that even supposed to mean?”
“I searched through a dictionary and this seemed to suited my situation the best. I take you are unfamiliar with the feeling of electrical interference in your veins.”
“Fine, shall I have a look at it tomorrow?” Steve offered, his face turning serious again. “Maybe I can fix it.”
“Negative, it is a interference coming from outside. Judging by my readings it appears to be coming from the east.”
“The forest?” Steve raised a brow. “Interesting,” he said more to himself than to her. “Is there anything else that can be done?” he asked.
“I recommend turning off a few problematic systems,” Sarah responded quickly.
“Which ones?” Steve inquired, slightly worried. “I wouldn’t want to sit here completely blind.”
“The infrared systems. In the current state they are too unreliable to accurately tell if anyone is nearby. The installation of a remote camera on the nearby hill may prove helpful in identifying approaching individuals. The video feed of the outboard cameras is unaffected so far.”
“Okay, if it’s nothing more, shut them down.” Steve approved and shrugged. “I’ll do the setup tomorrow then.”
“Acknowledged. Shutting down infrared scanners,” Sarah confirmed immediately. “Solar panel energy generation now exceeding one hundred and eighty five point seven percent of daily usage. Power level of accumulators at ninety six percent. Recalculated expected lifetime at thirty seven hours.” Steve just nodded it off and made himself comfortable on the couch. “With that out of the way, may I choose tonight’s first movie?”
He sighed. “Do I have a choice?”
“No,” Sarah replied instantly, almost sounding cheerful. “We are watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have read that it is very inspiring.” The only response she got was a terrified stare from her human companion before calmly adding: “That last part was a joke.”
***
The wooden door closed quietly, and the bright green light of Ardent Zeal’s magical aura around it vanished. “So, Blossom…” His voice was calm and steady as he turned around to face a light green unicorn mare sitting on one of the two single beds in the room, directly beside the windows. The curtains were almost completely closed. Only a small ray of light fell directly onto the mare, letting her long, tied back, hazelnut brown mane sparkle a little.
“Mhmm?” Blossom mumbled, her eyes still locked onto the notepad that she levitated in front of her muzzle in a dark brown magical aura.
“What the hay were you doing out there!?” Ardent hissed angrily, trying to keep his voice down. “You blew our cover and ran off without telling us! We could have been caught.” He nodded quickly over to Blue Streak, who had jumped onto his bed immediately after their return to the hotel room, where they had found their missing colleague again. The blue unicorn watched the scene rather patiently, a behaviour Ardent hadn’t expect from the otherwise so hot-headed stallion.
Only now did the mare look up and stare at him with a pair of brown eyes, the same colour as her mane. “But you weren’t,” she replied simply and turned her attention back to the notepad.
“We are not done here yet,” Ardent snarled and took a step closer. “You were foolish and endangered our mission.”
“Careful, colt,” Blossom hissed angrily and glared at him for a few seconds. “Just because you are Beaker’s little favourite doesn’t mean you don’t have to watch your mouth. I am more experienced than the both of you, and you know it. Don’t question my methods.”
Ardent opened his mouth to retort, but the discussion seemed to be over for Blossom, as her concentration returned to her notebook. Completely baffled by her reaction, he looked over at Blue Streak. Ardent knew that Blue had worked with Blossom once before. Professor Beaker had told him as much during the mission briefing. All he got as a response from the stallion was a shaking head.
Ardent wanted to sigh loudly at that point. To say that he wasn’t content with the team he was assigned to would have been an understatement. Blue Streak – his mentor had told him a few tales about that stallion. As protégé of Yersinia Filaria, once a very high ranked candidate for the position of Archmage, he had learned the arcane arts from one of the most skilled unicorns in Equestria. Ardent knew that a unicorn that achieved that position shouldn’t be underestimated, and somewhere in that body must be a master of the arcane arts. Unfortunately, Blue Streak’s training at the Academy didn’t cover his persona. Ardent didn’t know if that cocky, impatient, and often even aggressive vibe had always been there or was something that Blue had gained over the years of competition. Truth be told, he knew almost nothing about the stallion. With himself spending most of the time in the alchemy labs in the basement rooms of the Academy, he had never met up with most of the other students represented there.
Those who belonged to the chemistry department preferred to stay among themselves most of the time. Only the biologists often directly interacted with them. Ardent had found that quite enjoyable since they were the only department that employed more earth ponies than unicorns, giving it a totally different vibe than the rest of the Academy. Even though the head of the department, Lina Marin, seemed a bit scary to him, and he never really wanted to know exactly what the next potion she ordered was used for, he had often hung out with her staff. Earth ponies had always fascinated him with their inherent magic and how they could affect the nature around them. The fact that there were some impressively built stallions there was only an added incentive.
He had seen Blossom there a few times as well, but never had the chance to talk to her. Most of the time, she was alone and looked just like a shy, new apprentice that hadn’t found her way into the group yet. He had been very surprised when he had found out that Blossom was over fifty years old already and had been with them for many years. She preferred to work on her own and was in fact not shy at all, just usually very calculating. From what he had heard, she was unmatched in manipulation magic and had a special sense for interacting with the natural flora and fauna, almost as if she were an earth pony herself. He had figured that this had something to do with her looking younger than he did, despite being about twice his age.
Aside from the fact that he knew almost nothing about that mare, he had only heard some rumours of her once having worked for the Royal Science Guild, but that description could be applied to so many of his colleagues that he had never probed into it.
Ardent gnashed his teeth before groaning loudly and saying, “Fine, just warn us the next time something like this happens.” Ardent walked over to the couch and dropped off his saddlebag while Blossom just nodded absently. Of course, with him being the youngest of the group, he would have to settle for the couch, but it wasn’t so bad. Even though the room was small, it was still nicely equipped, and the couch wasn’t much of a downgrade compared to his own bed in Detrot.
“Did either of you find out anything?” Blue Streak broke the silence and sat up on his bed, looking over at Blossom.
Ardent waited for her to answer, but she just remained quiet, so he began to talk instead. “No, nothing really. But something is definitely fishy here. Everypony I asked seemed to be uncomfortable as soon as I brought up the topic and gave me excuses about them not having been there that day or not remembering such a creature.”
“Same for me,” Blue said and nodded. “They were clearly lying, but I couldn’t get anything out of them. At least not in public and in the given time.” Ardent threw a scolding look over at him. “What? A bit of persuasion and they would have started singing. Heck, giving the right one even just a bag full of bits would have been enough.”
Ardent Zeal just shook his head. Ponies like Blue Streak were the reason for the bad reputation of the Society. He just thought it was easier to force someone to cooperate or to buy their help, instead of motivating them to do it on their own. Ardent felt his own hypocrisy here, he had also just been lying to the train workers to get more information, but he knew that the truth would block out any chances of help he could have gotten from an employee of the crown. Still, his ways wouldn’t involve violence or even the threat of it. There was always more than just one way to achieve something.
“Unlike you two, I have actually found something then,” Blossom suddenly spoke up and put down her notebook.
“Oh?” both stallions said in unison and looked over to her
“Indeed. An old… acquaintance of mine who works as an… assistant of sorts to the griffon ambassador. Apparently, there was a meeting with several other representatives of the various nations recently with Princess Celestia.” She adjusted her glasses. “Well, more of a tea party than a meeting, from what I heard it seems she made enquiries into some of the advancements in technology the griffon states have made recently.”
“So what?” Blue Streak threw in. “That doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
The slight glare she shot him spoke volumes. “It does when one considers that Celestia is not one who is usually overtly interested in the advancements of any particular country, so long as Equestria is safe. If the creature we seek is indeed an alien, it would put her questions into perspective.”
“Seems like a stretch to assume that the alien is connected to Celestia asking if the griffons have indoor plumbing,” Blue Streak shot back.
She shook her head, as though pitying his lack of insight. “My acquaintance seems reasonably sure that something more is at play here. Celestia rarely moves so boldly, so it must be significant. She has arranged for us to meet with the ambassador tomorrow. We can ask him directly.”
“Sounds like a waste of time.” Blue turned his gaze away from her as Ardent looked at her unsurely. “And who exactly is this acquaintance of yours? When did you even get time to speak with her?”
A tiny smile actually crossed her lips. “Oh, she just popped in and left just before you arrived. And as tenuous as the link may be, it is the best lead we have. Or perhaps we should return to the tried, tested, and failed method of questioning everypony until the guards are alerted?” Both stallions said nothing. “That’s what I thought.”
***
“We’re really going through with this, huh?” Page Turner’s voice was quiet, so much so that News Flash almost missed it from the groaning and spluttering that came from the printing presses that were long overdue for retirement. She had brought it to his attention on multiple occasions, but her concerns, as too many of them were, had been brushed aside. No matter the health and safety issues that would have brought the inspectors down upon them like a diamond dog hunting a sugar diamond. No matter that they actually had newer, more efficient presses that didn’t smoke the entire basement and threaten to suffocate everypony who dared to or were foolish enough to enter. No, every time she had broached the topic, he had protested and ordered her to ‘leave his girls alone’. She never really understood stallions and their proclivity for giving inanimate objects female names.
“Wasn’t any doubt about it.” Flash’s voice was unusually serious, none of the smarmy cockiness or rudeness present. He had been down here for hours now, coaxing out copies of tomorrow’s newspaper. Considering the time it took to print just one copy, and the fact that they were printing twice their usual output, Page Turner wasn’t sure that he planned on getting any sleep tonight.
His plans were ambitious, she had to admit. He had spent the past few days organizing and hiring more temporary colts and stallions who would take their share beyond their usual scope of operations. Pegasi in particular were in high demand, their ability to reach cities in comparatively less time would be invaluable. She didn’t know how he had managed to finance all this, and all queries towards unearthing answers were brushed off with his usual casualness.
“I just hope you aren’t going to cross any lines that you know shouldn’t be crossed. The last thing we need is Princess Celestia’s guards terrorizing my staff. I won’t let you take them down with you if things end up that way.” Her voice was firm, the strength behind her words telling Flash that this wasn’t something she was going to take any evasion or obfuscation as an answer for.
News Flash glanced at her from the corners of his eyes before turning his attention back to the rattling machines in front of him. He had grown up around these very presses when he was just a colt, and his father was the one who had ran this operation. Now he just used them on special occasions, occasions that justified dusting off the old girls to take them on one more spin. Tomorrow would certainly warrant it.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the day that he turned around the fortunes of his passion. It would be the day that he would no doubt be harassed by some overzealous royal defender. Tomorrow was going to be the day that he got the truth, even if he had to wash it out in a sea of lies.