//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Strange Gifts // by Defoloce //------------------------------// “I spoke with Professor Veracity upon my arrival. She informed me that a workgroup of post-graduate unicorns in her department have altered a gem-seeking spell to instead allow ferrous metals to be sensate through soil. “Her excitement was tempered with disappointment: by accounts, being geomancy, the spell is extremely difficult to sustain, and a unicorn who would cast it at all must, as evidenced through control and trial, have at least one earth-pony parent. The genealogical constraint has no doubt inflamed some latent prejudices in the department, and I suspect now that my involvement in this matter was received grudgingly at best. “I am nonetheless in bond to assist the conduction of energies between the earth of the site and the alicorn of my colleagues. Veracity seems to harry herself, even now; I hope it remains true and powerful discovery in the name of academia that she lusts after, and not the iron itself.” —Dulcimer Heartstrings Instructions flew fast and fluid from the mouth of Trick Shot, unicorn Captain of the Royal Guard, as he strode towards the throne room from the main entrance to the palace. Behind him trailed an entourage of non-commissioned officers and messengers, pegasi and earth ponies alike, who had followed him from the barracks to help deliver the orders of the day. Being in a unique billet, Captain Trick Shot was afforded the privilege of keeping his personal coat and mane color while on duty, along with the characteristic armor of his position, a brass cuirass and galea enameled in purple. It helped set him apart from the other officers he might be around, which made it all the easier for the changeling spy in his midst to keep tabs on him. “Six watchers on the southwest wall, monitoring air traffic to and from Ponyville, Corporal Spearhead,” he said to one pegasus, not once slowing as he spoke. His pace was brisk, but not hurried. Trick Shot then turned to an earth pony. “Sergeant Parapet, please ask the Sanctum guards to double up on points of possible breach such as windows and skylights. If they have to thin the watch on private doors, have them ensure they are to rooms which use no exterior walls.” “Yes sir,” said Parapet before galloping off. The utter uniformity of the guards’ white coats and blue manes, enforced by the illusory magic of the armor they wore, provided the perfect cover for the spy to appear all but interchangeable with the pony next to it. Being near the back of the formation, it did not much worry about getting discovered, either. “Be advised, all of you,” continued Trick Shot, “that we’re heightening operational security until further notice. Non-staff will absolutely not be allowed on the palace grounds—much less in the palace—until the Imperial Family has departed. One espionage incident was one too many. Nopony is to be left alone, either. These changelings are slick bastards. If you see a guardspony alone, or not at his or her post, confront them.” The spy already had a plan for that. It waited until nopony was looking its way, then slipped silently into a side corridor while the small group of soldiers walked on. After a quick look behind it, a dim shimmer of light encased it from head to hoof, transforming the burly guardspony stallion back into its default form, then immediately into the guise of a young earth-pony mare, complete with a black maid’s uniform. Now all it had to do was find a feather duster and start poking around the guest rooms under the pretense of tidying up. * * * Inspire frowned over the list of mages she had compiled as candidates for the Mirror Matrix spell. No fewer than six would be needed at any one time, and a fully-rested unicorn who had passed her mage’s exam and matrix-spell certification could be expected to keep her share of the matrix up for four hours before the risk of magic-fatigue became too great. Assuming eight hours’ rest, she would need eighteen mage-tier unicorns at a minimum, and that was also assuming there were no problems with fatigue, illness, or injury which would cause somepony to be unable to fulfill his or her duties. Those eighteen unicorns would also need to be fed and have a place to sleep, all in a convoy that would itself not be stopping for any reason for five straight days. She groaned and let her magic field dissipate, the quill it had been holding dropping neatly back into its inkwell. It looked possible on paper, but she had only ten mages who stood a chance of being able to get away from lecturing or research. The rest of the roster was full of those who either weren’t certified for matrix-type spells, those who were away on fieldwork, or those otherwise spoken for. Even if she did have the bare minimum, Inspire was far from confident that no practical issues would spring up to throw the whole operation out of whack. The archmage was about to start going through her roster for highly-certified practitioner-tier unicorns when a rapid knock at the door to her study startled her out of her concentration. She straightened herself up at her desk, trying to look as though she hadn’t just crawled out of a pit of gloom, and called out “It’s open!” The round wooden door glowed purple, and after it swung open, Inspire was pleased to see Princess Twilight Sparkle standing on the other side. The lavender alicorn was beaming. “Professor Inspire!” squealed Twilight, rearing up in celebration and running full-tilt into the room. “Your Highness, so good to se—oof!” Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, had wrapped her former instructor up in a bone-crushing hug, nearly lifting her off the floor in the process. “Oh, come on now, professor,” said Twilight while Inspire gasped for air, “What’s this ‘Your Highness’ stuff? I’ll always be just ‘Twilight’ to you, you know that!” She pulled away and saw what she had done. Her ears drooped and she began to blush. “Oh. Eh-heh. S-sorry about that!” “No… problem,” wheezed Inspire as she got her hooves back underneath her and her glasses straightened out, “but you know… I’m not really a professor anymore, Twilight, so you can just call me—” “Archmage! That’s right!” squealed Twilight, rearing up to clap her forehooves together. “Congratulations! Oh, I was so happy for you when I heard the news! Well, I can think of nopony who deserves it more. At this point you probably have more spells memorized than Starswirl himself did!” “Well, I was going to say you can just call me ‘Inspire’ now,” said the older unicorn with an awkward chuckle. “I guess we’ve all had some pretty big changes come through in the past couple of years, huh?” “You can say that again!” said Twilight, grinning fit to burst as she rolled her eyes. “Oh, it’s so great to be back here! Back in the palace, studying away on an honest-to-goodness cryptozoological find, with you and Cadance and Shiny and Princess Celestia and my brand new niece here with me! What a wonderful time this is!” Inspire licked her lips, her brow knitting. Twilight had always been energetic when it came to research, but she seemed a little too upbeat, given the overarching reason she was here. “Er, Twilight?” “Yes, profe—uh, Inspire?” The unicorn mare leaned forward slightly, a foreleg lifting from the floor. “Did… anypony actually tell you why we need your help in studying humans?” Twilight shrugged with her wings. “Not really,” she said, “I just got a letter from Princess Luna asking if I would be interested in helping learn about humans for an important project, and after making some… rather unpleasant noises, if Spike is to be believed, I replied with an emphatic ‘yes’ and made my way here immediately! I bet I almost beat the letter here!” The archmage let out a breath and nodded to herself. So it’d have to be her who breaks the news to the princess. “Twilight… we caught a changeling spy in the palace shortly before your niece was born.” Twilight’s good mood disappeared instantly. Her eyes widened and her ears folded back. “L… little Eirene?” Inspire nodded. “The Royal Guard confirmed it was monitoring your brother’s and sister-in-law’s movements. After they discovered the spy, there was no way anypony was going to let Princess Cadance leave the safety of Canterlot. What was supposed to be a short visit turned into a month-long stay for both of them, and, well, your niece was just about due. I’m sorry we couldn’t have told you, Twilight, but we had to be careful about what got out. Now we have our backs up against the wall trying to figure out how to get the Imperial Family back to the Crystal Empire before this month’s dark moon arrives.” “The train!” cried Twilight immediately. “Uh, air carriages…” Insight shook her head while her former student trailed off. “A train’s route isn’t exactly difficult to guess at, and an air carriage would be extremely indefensible. Colonel Cumulus has it in his head that the way we caught the spy is also the way we can get Princess Eirene back home unharmed.” Twilight cocked her head, looking confused, but realization came a moment later. “The human!” she said. “Something the human did revealed the spy!” “That’s as I understand it,” said Inspire, “but Cumulus is who you should really be talking to regarding that. I’m… not really involved in the human project so much, so it won’t exactly be like old times for you and me, unfortunately.” “Oh. I see.” A moment of silence passed, then: “Inspire, if you’re not on board to study humans, how are you involved with this problem?” “Cumulus and I don’t see eye-to-eye on what the solution should be,” said Inspire. “We can conceal the natural love radiating from Cadance, your brother, and Eirene behind a Mirror Matrix. That’s what I think, anyway. It’s an inhibitive spell, one that would keep them effectively invisible to the pheromone sensors that changelings use to seek out sources of love. Chrysalis has tasted it before, after all, and shared it with her hive, so her drones would know immediately when they’ve found the right one.” Twilight Sparkle winced. “Ugh, a Mirror Matrix for a group of ponies on the move? Why, you’d need about...” She looked up, putting a hoof to her chin in thought. Inspire held up a hoof. “A bare minimum of eighteen unicorns of no small talent in magic,” she said. “Believe me, I’ve been working on it.” “Well, I volunteer!” said Twilight. “I want to help.” “As do I,” said Inspire, “but we would still be short, even if Celestia and Luna could come along too, which of course they can’t. A lot of our best and brightest are too far away to get here in time to be useful. I’d have to find some of our more talented practitioner-level unicorns here around Canterlot and the university to even close the gap, at this point. “I hate to say it, but I think Cumulus might have the advantage here.” Her head sank. Twilight Sparkle turned to look at her with one suspicious eye. “Well… as long as whatever we wind up using works, right?” she offered. “I mean, that’s the important thing, after all. This isn’t… some kind of competition between you two, is it?” Inspire’s eyes went wide and she waved a hoof in front of her face. “Pfft! No! Of course not!” she said with a nervous chuckle, walking back to her desk. “I just… think that humans are too…” She cleared her throat. “Well. They need more vetting first. For such an unfamiliar species, this is a rather sensitive thing to have them involved in, don’t you agree?” “Well… yeah, but… that’s why I’m here!” replied Twilight, perking up a little again. “I’m going to see how un-unfamiliar we can get with each other in the time we have! Even if we can’t have them help us, we may at least have some new friends!” Inspire chuckled, sitting down and picking her quill up with the red glow of her magic again. “You really are the Princess of Friendship, aren’t you, Twilight Sparkle.” she said with a shake of her head. “Best get to checking in with the others. I know your brother and his family are probably eager to see you!” She heard a gasp and looked back to an empty doorway. Twilight Sparkle, the regal alicorn, was already busy galloping down the hallway, her cry of “Shineeeeeeeeeey” trailing off into the distance. * * * The balding Company man sitting across the desk from Nate wrote a number on a piece of paper and flicked it around to hold in front of him. “This your social?” he asked. It wasn’t. Nate said “No.” The man smiled and balled the piece of paper up, setting it to one side. “Just checking to make sure we have the right guy.” He slid a manila folder to the center of the desk and flipped it open with a finger, then bent his head down to read silently for a few moments. Nate was sitting up straight in his hard plastic chair. The room had no details to take in; it was starkly, clinically, squintingly, painfully white, the walls and floor blazing beneath powerful strips of LEDs retrofit into fluorescent housings up above. Even his chair was white, he noted. He eyed the manila folder and kept a corner of his mouth from curling up. Uncle Sam had mastered environmentally-conscious lighting, but was still having trouble with the paperless office, it seemed. “Nathan… Harris,” said the man at last, as though the name was news to him. He lifted his eyes slightly to look at Nate. “Is that you?” “It is, yes,” replied Nate. The middle-aged man turned the page over to look at the one beneath it. “Pathfinder, Silver Star recipient, put in work with us in Yemen, Indonesia… and other places, I imagine.” He looked up. “You have a solid service record here, Mr. Harris. I imagine the complete one must be downright impressive.” “That is the complete one,” said Nate. The man smiled back. “Sure it is,” he said. He closed the folder and folded his hands, leaning forward on his desk. “There’s just one thing we’re really concerned about, and that’s what you’ve been up to since getting out.” “Well, I haven’t been up to much at all,” said Nate. “Exactly,” said the man. “What happened? Alcohol? Drug abuse?” Nate pursed his lips, then shrugged. “I guess I’m just lazy,” he said. The two shared another small smile. “Well, the urinalysis should take care of that question anyway,” said the man. “That aside, we don’t need you at a hundred percent for our purposes.” “Your runner said there would be details,” said Nate. The man sucked on a tooth before answering. “The details are on the other side of the dotted line, Mr. Harris. You should have figured that out as soon as you walked into this room. I can at least confirm that he wasn’t bullshitting you over the pay.” Nate let out a breath. That meant he had to volunteer for duty before knowing what that duty was. The arrangement wasn’t unheard of with the CIA, but normally they didn’t hold outside talent to it. Hell, he hadn’t even left Portland yet. “From here,” added the man, “you either give me a signature, or we show you out so you can get back to your nap. What’s it gonna be?” * * * Shining Armor, Consort to Her Imperial Highness and new father, was on his knees. “Cadie, please let me use Shell of Surety,” the white unicorn stallion begged his wife from her bedside. “This whole changeling stuff could be a non-issue!” Princess Cadance, Goddess of Love and ruler of the Crystal Empire, looked at her husband with patient firmness. The pink-coated alicorn was recumbent on the covered bed in their opulent guest suite, and cradled in her forehooves was Eirene. The tiny powder-blue goddess of peace was asleep, swaddled in warm flannel, her mother’s heartbeat next to her ears. The two of them seemed to float in the sunlight streaming through the nearby window. “My aunties do not want Canterlot to panic upon seeing that huge bubble go up again,” she replied keeping her voice low, “and besides, we’re supposed to be resting and leaving it up to them, remember?” His ears drooped. Cadance reached out and stroked his jaw with her free hoof. “You’re not Captain of the Guard anymore, Shiney,” she whispered, smiling at him. “The torch has been passed.” “That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do anything, though, right?” he asked her. Before Cadance could answer, a familiar voice from behind them whispered out “Helloooo!” The two ponies looked towards the door to see Twilight Sparkle standing nearby, hunched down and rump wiggling like a cat’s, ready to pounce on her big brother. As soon as Shining Armor had turned completely around, Twilight tackled him, knocking him to the carpet. The siblings wrestled silently while Cadance looked on, smiling. Finally, the two got to their hooves and straightened out their manes. “Twiley!” said Shining Armor in a hushed voice. “When did you get in?” “Just a little while ago,” replied Twilight. She looked past her brother to the bundle resting against her sister-in-law. “She’s asleep, isn’t she?” Cadance nodded. “She’s already so peaceful!” she whispered. Twilight grinned. “Did your friends come too?” asked Shining as he and Twilight stepped farther away from Eirene to converse. “They’re on the train,” said Twilight. “You know when the princesses summon me, you can’t keep them away for long!” Shining’s eyes darted back to his wife and foal. “I’ve gotta admit, Twiley, I’m a bit nervous,” he said. “There’s some sort of… changeling revenge plot going down, and Cadance won’t let me help secure the palace!” “Think of it this way,” said Twilight, putting a hoof on his shoulder, “Shell of Surety is a barrier spell, right? It makes a big glowing bubble around something you want to protect. Inspire told me about the spy that was caught. If there are more, they’ll be waiting for a sign that you’re leaving, and what better sign than a gigantic bubble suddenly disappearing from around a palace? “Also, if Queen Chrysalis knows you’re here but is still just sending spies, then she must not have enough changelings to pull the same full-frontal assault she did last time. That means, while you’re in the palace, you’re safe.” Twilight Sparkle looked at the door. “And right now, everypony’s working on plans that’ll keep you safe out there, too.” * * * Imago looked down her muzzle at the changeling scout that had just landed before her. Canterlot was at the scout’s back, on the far mountain range, its spires flashing in the sun even from that distance. Ponyville sat in the valley between them and the city, teeming with love she could smell, but had no appetite for yet. “Speak,” she said. The scout danced out its message to her: spy-capture-pony-wary-newweapon-rumor. Her slitted green eyes flicked back up to narrow at the glittering city. After a few moments considering courses of action, she looked back at the scout. “How many spies are in the palace right now?” two-active-one-dungeon, danced the changeling. “It will have to do,” said Imago with a sneer. “Return to the hive and gather whatever forces mother is willing to allot me. Bring them straight to me; do not take them to the palace. Go!” It was perhaps her imagination, but to Imago it seemed that the drone hesitated before flying off. She considered the possibility that the drones didn’t see her as having legitimate authority over them. Well, things would be different once she was a full queen and had a hive of her own. She turned her gaze back to Canterlot. The report of a “newweapon-rumor” concerned her somewhat. It would explain the ponies’ boldness in not putting up the same barrier spell her mother had had to contend with, but apparently little was known about it even amongst those in the palace. With a spy captured, they were aware of each other, that much was certain. Now, however, she had lost the initiative and become the reacting force rather than the acting one. In the time it would take a spy to slip out without being caught, fly to her, and report, it would be a chase at best… with the forces of both Canterlot and the Crystal Empire closing in on them. Not to mention whatever the weapon turned out to be. If only that damn spy hadn’t been discovered! There were no better masters of disguise than changelings; even Chrysalis herself had fooled that one stallion for weeks, thinking she was his fiancée! How had they done it? How had they seen through? She sighed and sat on her haunches. It felt as though the window was closing, but perhaps the best thing she could do—even with her forces—was wait. They couldn’t stay in there forever, after all.