Secret Search

by computerneek

Chapter 17: Inquisition

She trots up the passageway. She traversed them so much, so long ago, that she knows which way to go at every intersection, without needing the one-sidedness of the lights to tell her.

She’s abandoned that box. She’ll be coming back later- but three days is a very long time to wait without food. She also might have work to do; her magic still isn’t functioning, so that inhibitor field must still be running. She prays she doesn’t have to expose herself in order to find- or disable- it.

She rounds the next corner. She finds herself wishing the lights hadn’t turned-

She screeches to a halt. This passage is not empty.

She squeaks and dodges back around the corner.

“L-Lyra?” she hears. It sounds terrified- and more than a little confused. Drat, she’d probably seen them.

She sticks her head out, past the corner. “Fluttershy?”

The named mare flinches, crouching next to that closed door. “S-Sorry!”

She sighs- and the chunks of wall littering the floor catch her attention. “What… happened?”

“I…” She shakes her head slightly. “D-Don’t know.”

She withdraws her head from the hallway, breathing deeply. With her magic not working, her disguise is absent!

Some time passes silently, before Fluttershy breaks it again.

“P-P-P-Prin...cess?”

She slams a hoof into her face, letting out a groan as she does so. Of course she’d seem them.

And now, she probably thinks she’ll throw her in a dungeon for being under her basement. Honestly, if she hadn’t seen the warning her ship had given her- or is it record?- she might have been angry. As it is, she can’t help but wonder if Fluttershy just got caught in the crossfire somehow.

She drops her hoof back to the floor, trotting around the corner with what she hopes is a convincing smile.

“I’m not a Princess,” she states, trotting towards the shrinking pegasus. “And you’re not in trouble.” She settles herself down next to Fluttershy, draping a wing over her back. “I’m just…” She looks around the room. “There were… What, fifteen ponies, breaking into here?”

The pegasus shudders at the touch, but relaxes quickly, leaning into it. Her own wings rustle gently as she closes her eyes, breathing deeply.

Lyra looks down at her. “Uh, Fluttershy? You okay?”

Her eyes fly back open again. “Uh, no! I mean, yes! I mean, um…” She fixes her gaze on a random fallen fragment. “I’m okay.” She pauses for a few seconds. “Sorry, it’s just… It’s been a long time since anypony extended their wing for me.”

Her eyebrows raise. “Oh? Is it…?”

“A very friendly gesture? Oh yes. Last time… was my mom. I was ten.” She shudders. “Had I known then how long it’d be, I’d have never let go.” She scowls for a second, before shifting her gaze back to the alicorn next to her. “Right. Um…” She looks at the door. “I… I didn’t count, but I think…” Gulp. “I think at least some of them were being forced, by magic.” Shudder, as she looks at the floor. “They tried to do something to me. One said something about my Element making me immune.”

“So, they nabbed you in the street, found my basements, smashed my generators, dragged you down here, broke the lights, chased a scream, and-” she gasps for air- “got ambushed, so now they’re losing a war with the floor behind that door?”

Fluttershy considers for a second, and nods.

Lyra looks up at the door, then back at her wing. “Well, unless you want to question them, we’re gonna have to wait for my magic to come back.” She smiles. “I’d rather keep it secret.”

Fluttershy shudders. “I… Uh…” Her eyes widen, staring at Lyra.

“What?” Lyra glances at her back. “Something wro-- Oh…” Her eyes widen as she watches her fur turn dark blue, her mane fading to an even darker blue before it begins to wave in a nonexistent wind. Even her cutie mark seems to disappear- but when she looks closely, it’s still there, just… hidden. A rather generic cutie mark appears overtop of it. “Wo- Wow.” Even her voice had changed, deepening slightly and gaining the commanding undertones of, say, Princess Luna’s voice. She stretches her wing- the one not resting across Fluttershy’s back- to check it over. Same color change.

She turns to smile at Fluttershy. “Sometimes, I swear, these things can do anything.” Her head tilts. “I wonder…?”

---

“Princess! They must have a physical emitter device! We’re going to have to send ponies in to smash it manually.”

Princess Celestia- her projection, at least- scowls. “They will still be able to use magic.”

The Royal Guardspony refuses to let his dismay color his tone. “We’ll just have to outmaneuver them.”

Princess Luna, also present in projection only, mirrors her sister’s scowl. “The Royal Guard doesn’t have the skills to do that.”

Many kilometers away, in an office, a thestral behind a desk speaks to the Night Princess in front of it. “No, they don’t. I’ll have to get ahold of Agents Sweetie Drops and Hidden Light, see if they can do it.”

Princess Luna, in the flesh, raises an eyebrow. “Hidden Light?”

He nods. “We haven’t yet been able to verify the trustworthiness of any more Field Agents; Contact Agent Purple Acorn was promoted after she and Sweetie Drops successfully infiltrated RIA Headquarters in order to deliver the message.”

She nods slowly. “Didn’t you send Sweetie Drops to Huntington?”

He nods. “We haven’t heard back yet, but Hidden Light’s contact crystal remains.”

She blinks. “Hidden Light is a unicorn?”

He nods again. “She’s also my daughter.”

---

There are sixteen ponies in this room, she evaluates, attempting to occupy herself with the mundane. All of us have been attached to the floor. She smiles weakly to herself. At this point, even the last to awaken- being herself- has had close to half an hour to wake up, process what had happened, and adjust to being completely helpless.

For several of them, this process involved more than one activation of what they assume is the little metal things attached to the backs of their heads. Every time they start trying to command anypony else, every time they reach over to strip the metal thing off of a comrade’s head. Every time they act, in DJ PON-3’s humble opinion, they’re responding to somepony ‘crossing the line’, so to speak. She’s not sure where the line is, but she’s managed not to cross it even once herself.

My horn hurts to much to try any of that stuff. She watches- with mild amusement- as the gang leader tries once again to clober the mare next to him- namely, herself- into submission… Only to extend his streak, currently in the double digits, for monopolization of those odd ‘shocks’. Judging by his reaction, they simply do not get easier, at least for a unicorn. A perfect torture device, perhaps.

She jumps- or, more accurately, she twitches- as the door snaps open with an ominous boom. She rises to her hooves- once again thankful for the comfortable placement, somepony clearly isn’t a sadistic scumbag- and turns her attention towards the door. She fights to suppress a wince as the ringleader earns himself a third digit.

She finds herself rather impressed as two unfamiliar Alicorns walk into the room. Each time either of them sets a hoof on the decking, the entire room seems to shake with the force. She’d tried for that effect, once- but she hadn’t the raw power necessary to do that in an open field, without blowing ponies’ ears out with enormous bass settings.

She can’t help but facehoof- or, drop her head as if in a facehoof- when a good three quarters of the ponies in the room, possibly more, recover from their shock all at once… and start trying to make requests or demands. She does notice at least a couple of them are begging for forgiveness, or pointing blame.

The darker of the two Alicorns- dark blue, with an even darker, ethereal mane- speaks. She doesn’t even seem to be yelling- just, she suspects, speaking loudly.

“Silence!”

It takes her a couple seconds to reform coherent thoughts after that one word shattered them. It had been an unfamiliar voice- but there was absolutely no mistaking the command. It hadn’t needed volume, such as the Royal Canterlot Voice uses to create some of its impression of power.

It hadn’t needed to be any more than a whisper.

The entire room had reverberated with it. That single word had possessed as much power as, she estimates, three hours of Princess Luna’s waning overuse of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

Thus, the entire room had instantly fallen silent.

“We are not here,” the alicorn continues more peaceably, her voice still carrying that incredible power, “to listen to requests. Nor demands. Nor pleas.”

“But I want-!”

The ringleader had spoken out again- and been rewarded by a dangerous look from the alicorn… And a fresh shock of pain from the… Thing. He collapses to the ground.

“We are here,” she continues, as if uninterrupted, “For an explanation.” She scans up and down the ranks, paralyzing everypony.

“You will let-!”

“Silence!”

It was the ringleader again. He collapses to the floor as the alicorn steps dramatically over, taking position in front of him while he recovers from both the shock and the yell.

“You heard what I said,” she hisses. “No demands. Only explanations. Got it?”

Vinyl nods vigorously. That hiss could have broken any number of glasses- or windows- she knows of. Besides, nopony angers an Alicorn, Princess or not. They’re so powerful it’s stupid to try. The alicorn ignores her, focused on the stallion next to her.

The stallion finally recovers from that blow, rising up indignantly. She would facehoof, but her hooves are still attached to the floor. This idiot has no sense whatsoever.

“I will not-!” he begins.

He is not interrupted by a shout. Neither is he interrupted by a fresh shock.

Instead, the Alicorn’s forehoof snaps up like greased lightning, smashing across his face with a sound like a cannon.

“Did you not hear me?” she demands.

He spits out a tooth. “Y-You! I will have your head!”

She sighs, a sound of such force that it puts everypony on their knees, save only for the other alicorn.

More of a growl-sigh, Vinyl considers. It had rumbled forth from her throat, a deep, menacing noise. The kind that probably means somepony is dying soon.

The alicorn speaks again. The increased power- she’s not sure how that’s possible- stays in her voice, even though her tone changes. She can only describe the tone as ‘evil’.

“You know, there are a total of six doctors in Equestria capable of healing your horn right now.” She puts on a grin to match the tone. “Would you rather I reduce that to none by removing it completely?”

He rises back upright, snorting at her. “Right, like you could do-!”

Vinyl flinches away from the sudden motion- and the terrified yelp he let out. Wait, did she just see the alicorn flinch as well?

A giant metal spider, about the size of her head, is now standing on his head. One of its legs poses near his horn- and a thin thread of light shoots out of it, right across the base of the said horn. She’s pretty sure it doesn’t touch, but the fur- and mane- in the area flashes instantly aflame.

He goes down to the ground, slowly. “S-S-S-S-sorry!” he stutters. “I-I-I-I’m g-g-g-g-good!”

The alicorn lets out a huff of breath, turning her nose up at him as she turns away. Just as quickly as it had come, the spider disappears.

The Alicorns’ horns had not glowed at all during that display. Nor when all the flame in his mane and fur had suddenly gone out as the spider jumped away.

The dark Alicorn returns to her position next to her companion at the head of the room, gazing up and down the row.

Silence holds for several seconds.

“Anypony?” The alicorn’s eyebrows lower dangerously.

Vinyl flinches, glancing up the line. She makes an attempt to raise a hoof, foiled rather spectacularly by how it’s still attached to the floor, and settles for a more verbal queue. But she can’t think of any she could use, without appearing… Well, any number of things she doesn’t want to appear as.

“Um…” she manages. It’s really soft- so soft, in fact, she doesn’t think even an Alicorn’s sensitive hearing would catch it.

Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to bother these two. The darker one glances at her, then at something she can’t see right off, and finally turns to the other Alicorn with a raised eyebrow.

The second Alicorn, a sky blue color with a matching ethereal mane, glances at her companion, smiles, and starts walking over.

This is when she notices the difference between the two. The darker one has aptly demonstrated her willingness to use her power as a brute force weapon. Like she’s blundering with it- possibly never used it before.

The lighter one, however, looks kinder. Her hoofsteps seem to possess more power, somehow, but it’s far more tightly controlled- more of a tightly coiled spring than the crashing weight of her companion. Like she has more experience.

So, why might the darker one be taking the lead like that…?

Unless they have different styles, different strengths. Different skills. She once lead a squad of far more skilled agents for that very reason. Sure, it had been a music show they’d had to play in, but so? They’d still stolen first place, thanks to her lead.

She wonders what the skill difference might be here. The darker one is probably better with crowd control- and punishment, possibly…

Ahh. That must be it. The darker one is the hardcase, more capable when it comes to controlling a larger group; the lighter one must be the “softie”, far more adept at weaseling information out of an unwilling individual… Meaning, possibly, she can apply customized torture.

Good thing she plans on talking, not waiting to be tortured.

She walks up in front of her, each hoof placed with deliberate care. She pauses for a second, gazing into her eyes, before sitting down. “Yes?”

Vinyl blinks. She was right, on at least one thing. While her voice carries, she guesstimates, close to twice as much power as the other Alicorn’s, it doesn’t feel nearly as… Violent.

She opens her mouth, closes it, and opens it again, considering her words. “I… He used the-!”

“I did not!”

It’s the ringleader again. Honestly, had the glare the alicorn directs at him been directed at her, she would have melted apart. He gets the shock treatment.

She lets out a sigh. “The Imperius Curse. They-” She breaks off, eyes widening slightly, as she remembers. “They also tried it on Fluttershy- and she must have escaped. Did you see her? Is she okay…?”

The alicorn turns away, but she could swear that was a smile… And a blush?

When she speaks again, her voice still carries the same power- but it sounds much, much friendlier. “Yes,” she mutters, turning back towards her… and gazing at her hooves. “I… uh, saw her, yes. She was… okay.”

The stallion next to her snorts derisively. “She was an incompete-”

She didn’t know those spiders could move so fast. One landed on his back, his voice disappearing with an odd squeak as he collapses straight to the ground. Straight down into a twitching heap.

She does remember that part of being taken down. Aside from the terrible pain in her horn. That twitching thing had been extremely painful.

Before the alicorn finishes flinching away from his words, the spider places something over his head- some kind of band, though it’s far more complicated than a simple strap- and welds it to the floor. A second spider shows up to clamp his muzzle to the floor as well, then they both run away- and a third shows up to stick something on top of the first band, no welding involved. He also stops twitching, completely immobilized.

It’s set just far enough back that, if she stretches her head out, she can just barely see what’s on the side facing the Alicorns… some kind of display? She sees some unfamiliar symbols appearing on it- and notices some little lights flashing on the band it’s sitting on.

The alicorn looks at it for a couple seconds, then turns her head. “Uh, Alpha?”

Alpha? … Codenames. Probably ‘Alpha’ and ‘Beta’, unless she misses her guess… Interesting how that statement contained far less power in it than the rest of her speech. She looks up in time to see the darker Alicorn, still scanning the row from the door, look, raise an eyebrow, and turn to trot over.

Aaagh! Her walking had been powerful enough- but this trot? It’s like a herd of dragons is marching past, with synchronized footfalls!

The darker alicorn comes to a stop in front of the display, eyes flickering across it.

“Interesting,” she mutters. Another instance of reduced power, from what was demonstrated before.

She sticks her head out again, peering at the display. She thinks she spots an expression of mild amusement cross the darker Alicorn’s face as she does so. The symbols are still unfamiliar… yet the darker Alicorn gives the impression of understanding them. The lighter, not so much.

Very suddenly, the display seems to accelerate, filling itself with thousands upon thousands of symbols, blinking into place… Then, just as suddenly, they all become familiar.

Or, one could say, they all became Equestrian. The entire screen, translated, all at once. She feels a tingle at the back of her neck at the same moment- and quickly withdraws. Probably a warning signal of some sort… Yep, the tingle is gone, just as fast as it had come. She watches the two Alicorns reading the screen, eyes widening as they go.

The dark one gives a little nod, and suddenly, the spiders are back. In force.

Good thing she’s not arachnophobic.

The back of her neck tingles suspiciously when one touches it. She holds still, eyes flashing up the row… Interesting. Two other mares, she can see, are missing that metal thing on the backs of their heads. She wonders if that’s what the spider had-

She ‘stumbles’, nearly crumpling as she is forced- unexpectedly- to shift her weight. When she looks down, she finds that a spider has cut her left forehoof free of the floor- and is now holding it aloft, slicing off the metal band remaining on the hoof. It finishes, releases the hoof to land on the patched floor- a second spider had installed a circle of the same size while it severed the band- and it starts cutting her other foreleg free. She shifts her weight, allowing it to move her right forehoof without knocking her over.

Comments

[LostArchivist]

Drat. Lost a few days again.

Interesting. That curse sounds like one from Harry Potter, but I don't recall what it does. I assume mind control?

How did FS and Lyra get disguised? Their magic is currently out, so was it holograms or nanites?
(the room shaking is fairly obvious, though)

[computerneek]

9055496
While I didn't use the Harry Potter Imperius Curse verbatum, I used it as essentially the same thing: Control.

In the Harry Potter Series, the Imperius Curse- 'Imperio'- is one of the Unforgivables. Mad-Eye Moody- the fake one- trained Harry to resist it... By using it on him. It basically gave 'Moody' control of Harry's body, until he resisted it.
Here, my Imperius curse is Unicorn magic- no incantation. Also, resisting is impossible, once it settles in; a unicorn could direct their magic against it, while they still have control. However, if there happens to be an extreme amount of positive magical energy in a pony (say, Element of Harmony), it simply doesn't work. That's why they had to drag Fluttershy in.

[tsaukpaetra]

Finally got a neural interface connected!