//------------------------------// // Ripple Effects // Story: The Parasprite Project // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor moans with annoyance as he hears a loud knock on the door to his officer's quarters, interrupting his attempts to sleep. The only light in the darkened room is slits of sunlight spilling around heavy shades, but the relative darkness is no guarantee of good sleeping, and Shining has been unsettled all day for a reason he can't quite put a hoof on. The knocking comes again, and Shining groans again as he realizes he's not going to get any more sleep right now. "One minute." Shining replies groggily, slowly getting onto his hooves and then using magenta-colored magic to pull up the shade, wincing as the sunlight spills freely into the room. Shining hears the knocking a third time, more insistent than before, as he tries to adjust to the changed brightness, and he shoves down an urge to start chewing out whoever is on the other side of the door, well aware of who could be knocking. He was vaguely aware that Princess Celestia had been scheduled to visit Ponyville earlier that day, but he'd left explicit orders that any report of that visit could wait until he was on duty and that his sleep was not to be disturbed over it, so he wasn't sure why this knocking was happening. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Shining exclaims as he slowly walks over to the door to his quarters and uses his unicorn magic to pull it open. He is only partly surprised by who is on the other side of the door: Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas escorting Princess Cadance. Alone, either of them wouldn't have concerned Shining, but both of them together might've been a cause. "Something wrong?" Shining asks as he tries to read the meaning of the concern shared between Cadance and Fidelitas. He flushed slightly, aware the grogginess in his voice and unkempt mane was not flattering in the least. "We just got out of a long meeting with Celestia. She wanted you to read this." Cadance replies wearily, levitating a sheet of paper with her light blue magic. Shining gives a worried look as he "takes" the sheet using his magic, then slowly begins to read the text written on it, which gave a summary of the catastrophe that had engulfed Ponyville earlier that day. The Guard stallion presumed that Celestia had gotten the information somehow after an aborted visitation attempt, although it worried him that Twilight had apparently not be able to stop that disaster from happening. "Half of Ponyville got eaten by a swarm of insects? I hope you two aren't pulling my leg with this." Shining dryly comments, looking back up at Fidelitas and Cadance. "I can assure you Shining we are not pulling any legs here, and it gets worse. Keep reading." Fidelitas replies, a touch of mortification in his voice. Shining looks back down in worry again, continuing to read on from where he left off. And it was not long before he found out one of his younger sister's spells misfiring had contributed to the problem instead of solving it. "Oh no, not of one those...!" Shining exclaims after reading of Twilight's misfire, gesturing to cover his face with one of his forehooves and coming to the conclusion that his night was already ruined. Hearing of his sister's spells misfiring was never fun, particularly when he had to help clean up the mess afterward, as had happened in the past and might happen again now. "Afraid so, Shining. I was hoping she would be more careful in Ponyville without us around, but it looks like that's not going to be the case." Cadance states, her tone sharing Fidelitas' mortification. "Great, Aten's going to leverage it against me... is Twily in trouble?" Shining sighs out to Fidelitas and Cadance. "That's the topic in the meeting we just came from." Fidelitas starts to explain. "I don't know how Celestia knows - she has ways of finding out this stuff we'll never understand - but she says that because Twilight made a good faith effort, her only punishment is Celestia forcing her to supervise the rebuilding effort. There'll still be a board of inquiry, of course, but no punishment." "So Twily'll have to come back to Canterlot?" Shining asks, allowing himself a brief glimmer of hope. "I asked Aunt Celly that myself. She only wants Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter bearer, and Zecora, that zebra in the Everfree Forest, to come to Canterlot for the board of inquiry. Nopony else, apparently." Cadance answers with a resigned tone. "Of course there's immediate relief being sent to Ponyville and Lieutenant Crispin, so some of your shift are going to have to pull doubles because of the shortages. Hopefully there should be a list of who needs to do doubles waiting for you when on your desk." Fidelitas adds. "Oh... alright... thank you." Shining slowly replies, his tone rather deflated. "Anything else I need to know?" "Keep eyes and ears open for Agent infiltrators. This is a place where they could do the most damage, and we can't vet everypony going in the emergency relief squad to Ponyville. We've lost too many good stallions to them already, we can hardly afford to lose any more." Fidelitas cautions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MEANWHILE, IN THE CAVERNS BELOW CANTERLOT... The ever-alert Agent Snake in the Grass abruptly jumps up from his work when he hears echoing hoofsteps coming from behind him. He hisses out for the approaching pony to stop in the nearest torchlight and identify themselves, turning around as he speaks to see what pony it is approaching. The intruder, who seems to be a pegasus stallion wearing the uniform of a Guard Upper Class, stops in the torchlight, sits on his haunches and crosses his forelegs over his chest in an "X" shape. "Ah, Agent X, nice to see you again. Glad you could make it back here." Snake replies to the gesture, a slight relief in his voice after recognizing the gesture. Agent X grunts out an acknowledgement - Snake knew X tried to avoid speaking whenever possible, as his imitations of voices were never quite perfect, having a hissing or buzzing undertone to the voice Snake had never heard coming from any other Equestrian, even the bat ponies. Snake didn't begrudge him this secrecy, because X was the best Agent in his ranks and they needed to trust each other. "You know why I summoned you here?" Snake asks, and X shakes his head in response. "It's very simple, this should be an easy mission for you since you don't have to change your disguise." Snake begins to explain. "There's two Agents in Ponyville that need emergency resupply, and the recent parasprite infestation provides an easy cover to get you there. Your current assumed identity has already been assigned to go to Ponyville - once there, you are to sneak away at earliest convenience to deliver the supplies and then smuggle some parasprites from the forest back to Canterlot. You understand, X?" X grunts out an affirmative response - he had done similar smuggling missions under different assumed identities before, so this wasn't anything new to him. And he didn't even need to change his cover identity, as he usually had to do in such cases, which made things easier all around. "Good. Besides the supplies, I want you to give this to the two Ponyville Agents." Snake states, pointing with a forehoof at a closed envelope on his rock shelf "desk". "The Agents have the codes P1 and P2, they should recognize you once you make the X sign. Understood?" Agent X grunts out in understanding, using the "feather fingers" of a wing to pick up the envelope and put it into the Guard-issue saddle bag he was wearing. The message was presumably confidential, meant for the two Ponyville Agents only to read. "Good. You're dismissed, X. I will be eagerly waiting your successful return to Canterlot." Snake states, and X replies by doing his crossed-forelegs gesture again before turning to leave. As X turns to leave, Snake smiles like a filly on Hearth's Warming morning - he would have so much fun with those parasprites once they were in Canterlot, and he already had a target for the parasprites to wreak chaos on...