Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Brother Malachai
“We shouldn't decline help just because they did us harm in the past. Why cling on to these grudges. Also, as a saying goes ‘What goes around comes around.’ So why not trust them on this.”
The scouting party arrived back home a few days ago. After the long R&R at Rarity’s capital, the journey home was much easier. That and the location of the alien nests provided by Fluttershy made it all the more easily to avoid trouble.
Their first city has been going along just fine. In the time that they had been away, a proper headquarters has been set up in the city alongside with a proper clinic and depot. A few generators, farms and plantations were also set up around the budding city.
Applejack was impressed by how quickly the settlers were able to set things up while she was away. Certainly the close family spirit she often encouraged amongst the ponies under her charge helped in getting them to finish their tasks. There was no wonder as to why she was put in charge of the construction of the ships back at Equestria.
After the soldiers were debriefed, she headed towards the headquarters. Over there, she found Applebloom waiting at the front lobby for her. Her sister saw her and ran over to welcome her home.
“Howdy big sis! How’s the others doing,” Applebloom asked after they hugged.
“They’re doing just fine.” Applejack answered. “Fluttershy had apparently made a new friend with a giant worm for some reason. Rarity’s city is just going along fine.”
“Did ya managed to say hi to Sweetie Belle for me,” Applebloom asked.
“Sure did sugarcube,” Applejack said as she ruffled Applebloom’s mane. “She wanted me to pass this memory card to you. Something about yer ol’ crusader club.”
“Thanks big sis!” Applebloom said as she grabbed the card that was levitated from Applejack’s bags. They headed to the elevators to go up to their apartments. It had been a long trip and she wanted to rest for the night before having to tackle paperwork.
……
The next day came. After breakfast, the other Apples went off to their assigned jobs. AJ headed to the room marked as her office. Her secretary, had kindly shown her to her office and showed how the personal organizer and messaging system worked. Not that AJ was planning to use them. Well, maybe the message system thingy could be useful.
She sat down on the chair provided and got to work on clearing all the admin matters. Most of them were proposals for the various construction projects that were planned and only required a few minutes to look through.
A hour went by and the end of the section dedicated to all the incoming matters was in sight. Applejack had just finished reading the report for the lab and moved on to the next one. But when she opened the next one up, she was met with a wall of random letters.
[i[What the hay is this? she thought. Looking at the intercom on her table, she pressed the button for her secretary.
“Ah need some help with this thing. There’s a wall of letters here that make no sense.” She said through the intercom.
“I’ll be right there princess.” Her secretary replied. A minute later, she was right next to Applejack and also saw the exact same wall of random letters.
“I have no idea what’s going on.” She admitted. “This looks like some prank email or a corrupted one. I’ll get your best tech ponies on it.”
“Thank you Closed Ledger”.
……
Apart from the weird message, nothing else extraordinary occurred. AJ decided to call it a day and to go help out the workers. She headed back to her apartment to drop off her personal mobile communication device as she did not want it to be damaged by the hard work later.
When she opened the door, she felt her hooves kicking something on the floor. Looking down, she could see an envelope on the floor. Picking it up with her magic, she opened the letter and pulled the paper inside out. Opening the folded paper, she found another bunch of letters arranged in random patterns again. Only this time, there was a logo on the bottom of the paper.
“Erm, Princess Applejack? What the matter?” A voice behind her made the orange alicorn jump. Turning around, the source of the question was revealed to be Bon Bon.
“Well, that was mighty convenient.” AJ said. “Did you see whom had slipped this under the door?” she asked.
Bon Bon studied the paper. She noticed the logo at the bottom of the paper and exclaimed. “Is that the Cupler Cell?”
“The Culper wot-now?” AJ asked both curious and confused.
“It’s a spy organization back in Equestria. The ESS(Equestrian Secret Service) had limited information on them. We only know that they were mercenary spies for hire. So what’s a encrypted letter doing here? Or how did they even managed to get here.” Bon Bon pointed out.
“Ah don’t know. Earlier on, I found a messed up letter in my office messaging thing and now this?” AJ said. She looked at the earth pony and asked. “Do you think you can get to the bottom of this?”
“I can take a look at trying to decrypt the messages,” Bon Bon offered, “but it may take me a while. With your approval of course.”
“Go ahead. I’ll get the tech ponies to send you the message Ah’ received later. Ah want you to find out what it says.”
……
Three days later saw the princess outside of the former special agent’s quarters. After receiving the jumbled up message and letter, she had locked herself in her living area for the whole time.
She pressed the doorbell and waited. No response. She knocked on the door and to her surprise the door swung open a little. Applejack pushed the door open to reveal the darken room. She took a step in and looked around. Nothing.
The room was in a mess. Papers with different half-deciphered paragraphs littered the floor. A computer can be seen at the back of the room cycling through a long list of words. Overall, the room gave an abandoned feel.
Applejack strode into the room, watchful of the area. She approached the computer and looked at the program it was running. She had no idea what it did though.
A voice came from behind her, “Is that you Princess Applejack?”
She turned around and saw Bon Bon with a small knife held in her mouth. Bon Bon noticed the look the orange alicorn is giving her and said: “Always be alert. What I learnt back in the academy. About the message, I managed to crack the code about a few hours ago.”
The former special agent went over to the computer terminal and plucked out a memory stick hidden in her mane. Keying in some commands, the computer stopped running whatever it was processing. Bon Bon inserted the memory stick into a port and loaded up the decrypted message.
>To: Princess Applejack.
>>Subject: -/Redacted/-
>Sender Address: (#?/{&{}$] ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)g@) *Error! Address cannot be found.>Greetings leader of the Sweet Apple Cooperative. I’m Queen Imago of the Cupler Hive. We are in need of your assistance.
>One of our operatives is in a dangerous position and we are not able to extract them. We decided to contact you as we trust that you would keep this operation anonymous. If you choose to help, we would be extremely grateful. A letter would be sent to your quarters by our operative stationed in your colony. The deciphering key for it is attached to this message.>With regards.
Queen Imago.
“Decipher key?” Applejack asked. “I don’t remember seeing any key.”
“No. It’s not the physical kind of key. It’s a pair of instructions that would tell you how the letter is jumbled up so that you can arrange the letters back properly to read the message. Sort of like a key to a lock. With the lock being the way the letter is messed up. I can’t believe it. We’ve haven’t even been on this planet a whole year yet and somehow someone already set up an unchartable area to our rudimentary network,” Bon Bon explained.
“Ah I see.” Applejack said. Meanwhile, Bon Bon had scrolled down to reveal the second decrypted letter.
Hello Princess.
If you are reading this, it means that you shown interest in helping us and we thank you for that. This letter contains the details of the situation.
The operative is stationed within the Federation of Awesomeness. Recently, they had been monitoring the leader of the Equestrian Protectorate. We fear that they may notice one of our past operations which was to assist a certain member of the Protectorate acquire some weaponry. Hence, we like to withdraw all our operatives in both factions but we are not able to make contact with the ones in the Federation. What we would like your help is to establish communication with the operative and if needed, help extract them from the area.
As a sign of goodwill, we will reveal the operative that we stationed within your faction. Just say ‘Imago, Code Orange’ over your broadcast system and she will go to your office to speak with you.
“Well…” Applejack said: “ Ah appreciate when somepony would try and be honest with us. But should we help them out?”
“I don’t feel I can give you good advice on it. There are rumors is that it is created from the remains of Queen Chrysalis's hive after her daughter took over. Nopony has ever met the daughter.” Bon Bon said.
“Chrysalis’ hive,” Applejack asked. She then continued, “Now that I think of it, I still remember that mess from Cadance’s wedding...and other incidents. This might be bad news fer us.”
“Well, I’m sure you would need to worry about that. The Culper Cell is more of a mercenary spies organisation from what I heard back in Equestria.”
“So what do you think? Should we help them? I would like yer honest opinion on the matter, seeing how much you know about them.”
“I will admit I’m a bit...weary, with the proposal,” Bon Bon started, “As far as we know this could be a trap for their own political maneuvers or for someone else they’re contracted to. Nonetheless, you’ve seen the storm clouds coming over the horizon. The old bonds are fraying. If we are going to get through this mess, we’re going to need whatever advantages we can get. Princess, let me take the lead on this mission. I have a few seconds on standby in case anything...unfortunate should happen to me. If things go well and this isn’t some sort of trick or a trap, then I am sure they will demand a more face-to-face meeting between you and their leader at some point. But for now, let me take the risk on this.”
“Ah’d hate t’ lose ya if this goes South,” Applejack started, “But yer right.” She then took a deep sigh, “Very well, this is yer op. But know this, if this is a trick, that Imago feller is gonna regret rilin’ me up by messing’ wi’ one o’ mah best mares.”
BonBon blushed for a bit but then quickly cleared her throat and recomposed herself. She then replied, “Well, if you’ll excuse me Princess, I’ve got to prepare for the mission at hand.”
“Sure, get a move on,” The Princess of (ironically) Honesty replied, “Yer dismissed. An’...be careful.”
“I always am,” Sweetie Drops replied as she looked back briefly at the Orange Alicorn one final time before leaving.
<A few days later…>
The convoy headed straight for the depot as soon as they reached Rainbow’s capital. Pulling up to the gate, the guards at the gate halted the convoy.
“About time you got here. We have been expecting you to arrive since yesterday. What’s the hold up?” the guard asked.
“Some bad road conditions,” came the reply from a mare with three sweets for her cutie mark. She hooved over a stack of papers. “Here’s the usual permits and cargo lists.”
The guard scanned the papers for a moment before passing them back. “Everything checks out. We really needed the heavy machinery you guys are bringing in. Could have used them for groundwork instead of us soldiers,” He said before motioning for the gate to be unlocked.
“Hey. If we had a proper road, we could have gotten them here sooner. As is, this road is basically an over-glorified patch of mud shaped into a crooked and curvy line,” Bon Bon replied. The convoy drove into the compound.
……
As soon as they entered the depot. Bon Bon knocked on a crate. The lid popped open and a orange mare popped out.
“Alright. We’re here. Now where is that pal of yours?” She asked the disguised changeling as she climbed out.
“She was positioned as a weapons specialist in the 3rd Marine Corps.” the changeling Askari answered.
“And how do you plan to get to her? It would take a few days to get the proper clearance to go into their military base. And we need to be leaving by tomorrow. ” Bon Bon asked.
A grin appeared on the disguised changeling. “You up for a little secret infiltration tonight?”
<Later that night>
The base lay ahead. Both of them were currently on a rooftop of a nearby building.
“You take a look at the left side of the base. I’ll monitor the right side. We need to understand the guard routines.” Askari said.
“I know the basic ‘case the joint’ thing. I’ll manage just fine.” Sweetie Drops growled as she pulled out her night-vision binoculars. She however stopped when she noticed the changeling starring at her binoculars.
“Standard issue back in Equestria. Able to read a newspaper from 30 km away. Works in light levels of 0.00004 lux. Thermal imaging capability. Onboard camera with 70GB of storage and a spark battery life of 5 days continuous useage.” She said with a smirk.
The changeling simply just said nothing and took out a pair of shades. “Magnification for objects 40 km away. Night vision capability of 0.000025 lux. Thermal capability. 90GB storage with a battery life of a week. Looks casual too.” Askari said with an attempt at being nonchalant.
If there were any amount of jealousy, she did not let it show. They resumed their observation of the base.
“You see that air vent on the wall there?” Bon Bon asked.
“Yeah. I see it. Thinking of a way to get there.” Came the reply. A few minutes went by in silence. “ There’s a timeframe of about 30 seconds where we can cut through the fence without being seen by the patrolling guards.” The changeling said.
“That’s cutting it a little tight. Only so much a wire cutter could do in a short time.” Bon Bon muttered.
“What’s that about a wire cutter?” the changeling smirked. “ Don’t worry about it. I can get through the fence in 10s.” She took out a extendable metal rod. It had a odd two pronged part that was at a 90° angle to the stick.
“What’s that?”
“CO2 laser.” She pressed a button on the handle of the stick and a red beam of light shot out from one of the prongs to the other. “We should get going soon.”
They approached the fence. Careful to keep away from the perimeter lights. Approaching the fence, Askari took out the laser and positioned the fence wires between the two prongs. With one swift motion she cleanly cut a line in the fence. Pulling the halves apart, both pony and changeling quickly climbed through the hole. With a little telekinesis, Askari positioned the folds back properly to make it look like nothing happened to it.
Approaching the building, they saw the vent in question. When Askari realised that her partner would have trouble getting there, the changeling agent started rummaging through her gadgets but Bon Bon stopped her. “I got this.” She gestured to the old fashioned grappling hook hanging at her barrel.
While Bon Bon looked for a suitable ledge to throw her grappling hook. Askari flew up to the vent. She took out her screwdriver and got to work unscrewing the vent cover open. But just when she was about to remove the last screw, a crowbar was suddenly jammed between the vent gate and the wall. With one swift motion the crowbar dislodged the vent cover and it fell into the waiting hooves of a certain mare.
“What did you do that for?” Askari asked as soon as both of them made it into the vent.
“You were taking too long. I just sped things along.” Came the short and quick reply.
After they sealed the grate behind them, the Changeling dug up a datapad from one of her suit pockets and tapped on the screen a few times, “Here, here is the location of the her personal room that these vents go above from the data we managed to get. Since it’s the weekend, his friend should be out at the local canteen getting sloshed. This should give us sufficient time to have a quick talk with her, get the intel, and get out.”
“Yeah, unless her friend comes barging in on us mid-meeting,” Sweetie Drops continued.
“Don’t worry, we have contingencies set up for that,” the Changeling spy continued, “We are masters of emotional manipulation after all.”
After doing some more crawling, they finally got to the vent grate above the room of their contact. The contact, a seemingly normal grey stallion unicorn was listening to some tunes from a nearby radio when he heard a “psst” from above him in the grate.
The grey unicorn then said, “There must be parasprites in the vents.”
The Changeling above him then replied, “They don’t have cake for them up here.”
The unicorn then commented, “Glad to see they actually gave you the proper passphrase for the challenge. So are you here for the usual intel report?”
“No, we think the Protectorate is getting suspicious of your operations. We’re getting you out before they figure out you’re the spy,” continued Askari, “Hang on, let us get this open for you.”
He noticed Bon Bon dropping down from the vent. “And who is she? She’s not a changeling.”
“She’s with me” Askari said. “We had to come out of the dark to get help. But it was going to happen anyway if our Queen’s plan continues.”
“So what’s the plan of escaping? I can’t walk out the front gate. The guards would recognise me.”
“That’s why we plan to smuggle you out in the convoy. We planned to hide you amongst the crates of guns that will be headed to Sweet Apples Cooperative.” Bon Bon said.
“If they found out you aided a spy in escaping, they not going to be so eager to trade weaponry any more,” the ‘unicorn’ continued.
“Let Princess Apple worry about that,” Sweetie Drops continued, “Let’s get going, we’re wasting time here!”
The changeling pulled out a memory stick that was marked with a small red line. She passed it over to her fellow drone. “You know what to do with this brother.”
“Thanks sister. Give me a few hours to erase my data from the records though.” He said.
“We’re going to have to babysit you for SEVERAL HOURS?” BonBon growled in frustration.
“No, no. Can you just stay low for a while and meet me in the trade depot in about four hours,” he asked, “I’ll come to it in this form and I’ll shapeshift into a different form if you wish once you got me loaded up into the convoy.”
“Fine,” Bon Bon further grumbled in frustration, “Just hurry. The longer we stay here the harder it will be for us to escape!”
“I know, I know,” the unicorn snapped back as he saw the Changeling and the Earth Pony climb back up into the vents.
Bon Bon and the Changeling Agent she was assigned to stayed low for several hours. They changed back into their old disguises from when they drove into the colony and went about being “useful” in an attempt to blend in. Moving supplies, filling out forms using their fake identities, and the like. It was then that they were approached by what looked like yet another civilian forklift operator. He replied, “They’re working us to the bone.”
Askari replied back, “Well, you should see the Clinic then. It’s about time you showed up.”
It was about then that Bon Bon realized that this was yet another coded phrase used between Changelings to confirm their identities when in disguise. She took a deep sigh and resignedly stated, “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this. C’mon you two, let’s get going while we still can. And, I thought you were coming to see us in your previous form.”
“I had to change into something more...appropriate for the situation,” the “forklift operator” continued, “My roommate saw me walking over here and he was starting to sober up from his usual weekend festivities. I don’t know how much time we have until someone starts to add two and two together.”
While Askari was taking their “package” to be loaded up into one of their trucks, Bon Bon barked out to the other workers, “All right! Enough loafing around! We got other packages to deliver! Let’s get a move on! Union Break over!” Some of the “workers” grumbled and complained, just as they had rehearsed. The more realistic this operation appeared the better. If what the other Changeling said was true, they may not have much time. Indeed, why would a Marine on the weekend off go to a place as unfestive as a storage facility for trade goods? No, it was in their best interest to get a move on...immediately.
“We done yet?” she asked in irritation.
“Yeah almost. Just strapping something in.” A worker replied, strap in his mouth as he fastened the last crate down. After he signaled he was done. Everyone got into the convoy and they started to move out. The guards at the gate gave them no second look and let them through.
As soon as they were out of the city, Sweetie Drops gave a quick knock from her seat on the passenger side of the front of her five-ton truck and opened the metal panel that allowed her to check on the storage area.
“So, how are you too” Sweetie Drops asked to the Changelings in the back.
“Much better now that we’re out of there and can relax and change back into our ‘natural’ forms,” replied back Askari, now back in his ‘natural’ glossy back form and stretching his legs.
“Well, it looks like we may be working together a lot more now,” Sweetie Drops continued, “or at least we will if the negotiations go well. And for both our sakes, I hope it does. I don’t want us to be having some odd standoff just because things go south at the capital.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” replied Askari back, a twinge of concern in his voice. After all, the Changelings had a rather large escort of “workers” in the back with them. Sweetie Drops wasn’t dumb after all and Askari knew that even with his and his fellow drone’s abilities and training that they couldn’t take out a whole squad of former special ops troops by themselves. At least, not in these circumstances.
“Let us hope the negotiations go well indeed,” Askari concluded, “For both our sakes.”
While the operation was going on. Applejack has been trading messages with Imago.
Eventually, a meeting of two leaders in secret was decided to take place on the day the trio returned.
A heavily disguised AJ went down a dark alley, her wings hidden under a worn trench coat and her face covered by a very worn stetson. Of course, she didn’t come alone. On both street level and the rooftops were Royal Guards and the former members of the ESS in disguise, ready to go at a moment’s notice. AJ knew it’d be very foolish for this “Imago” entity to try something, but it was best to not take any chances.
After going down the alleyway, she gave the coded phrase she was told to give to indicate she was here. “Th’ delivery pony knocks twice,” she started.
“But the pizza pony knocks thrice,” completed another pony as she walked out of the shadows. While this Sea Green Earth Pony may have looked normal, The Princess of Honesty knew it was a front. And that in actuality, this pony was probably a Changeling.
“So, are ya Imago or one of ‘er proxies,” AJ inquired.
“Well, I could tell you, Princess,” the Earth Pony started, “But even then, how could you be sure? I am a shapeshifter after all.” The Sea Green Pony then looked around and replied, “I told you to come alone.”
Applejack shrugged and replied, “Ahm th’ leader of a new Kingdom. You really expect meh t’ go anywhar alone?”
“No. I suppose not,” the strange pony countered, “But then again, neither did I.”
It was then a band of what seemed to be normal ponies started to appear out of the shadows and rappelled down down the side of various buildings. AJ’s own band of disguised troops and spies then started to slowly move forward to intercept. AJ also heard the clicking of various weapons from both sides both on ground and rooftop level.
Applejack then held up a hoof and hissed, “Stand down, we don’t want to start a scene. I sense our ‘guests’ are merely trying to make a point.”
“You are correct,” the Earth Pony replied, “And, also a demonstration of our unique set of...skills.”
The Orange Alicorn in disguise then grumbled, “Well, if th’ saber-rattlin’ is over, can we git t’ startin’ negotiations?”
“Yes, let’s,” agreed the strange entity in front of her, “We are most certainly looking forward to doing business with you.…”