Pandemic: Starting Over

by Halira

Chapter 80: Reinforcements

Morning came, and after checking with the security, I was both happy and frustrated that there had been no incidents last night, nor had anyone heard any barking during the evening. I was happy because everyone was still safe and present, but unhappy because, nothing was caught on camera to help lead to answers.

We all gathered together in the family room for breakfast, which my mother, Lauren, and Devon worked together to prepare. Most of us sat in silence, and what little conversation happened was brief and without mirth. It was a waiting game, and we had no idea how long or for what we were going to be waiting.

"I think it is best if we increase the minimum number of people that can go off in a group to three or more if possible," I said as I decided. "There were some of the victims who were taken in groups of two, like Silvia and Malcomb, but none of three or more. We might need to make adjustments to our sleeping arrangements to accommodate this, even with the cameras watching."

Everyone nodded without objection.

"I talked to Silvia last night in the dream realm. She's scared but not hurt," Jess said as she poked at her eggs with a fork.

"I did as well. I spoke with all the victims. The same general story all around," I replied. "Unfortunately, I didn't gain much information I didn't already have by doing that. I'm hoping to get a new lead soon. I requested Luna come here."

Starlight blinked. "What is Luna going to do? She's powerful, but she can't magically produce answers."

I smiled at her. "My time sleeping wasn't completely fruitless. The method that is getting the intruders in and out, the one causing the barking and that screwed-up thaumic energy, is something you and Twilight may never have seen, but I got a strong lead that Luna probably would recognize what it is and has seen it before. You can thank Yinyu for giving me that lead. Their rules wouldn't let them tell me directly, but she was bound and determined to find a loophole."

"She's desperate to protect her foals. Any mother would break any rule to keep her kids safe," Mom said somberly.

"Mama loves us," Líng said with a sad sniffle.

"Miss Blessing?" I looked to the door and saw one of the security officers. "You have visitors at the front door. You'll want to come. They're from the federal government; maybe here to ask some more questions."

I frowned. I had about enough of the FBI and police after last night. It seemed like they barely cared about what was happening and weren't putting in any real effort. It wasn't even mismanagement or incompetence I was seeing; it was apathy. I barely even saw any sign of sympathy out of any of the people they sent. Was it too much to ask to have them at least show a little compassion? I wasn't sure I could stomach any more of that today.

I got up to meet them. Hopefully, this was good news or at least any news.

As I walked out of the family room, I blinked as I saw who was waiting for me. It was Anthony Heller, along with some unicorn stallions. I instantly felt a little better. Heller could be relatively closed emotionally, but by all reports, he always did his job, and he did his job right. If he was now involved in this case, I knew he would take it seriously and do everything he could to help.

"Miss Blessing," Heller greeted as I came out. "I am assisting in this case as of this morning, and I want to give you a formal apology for the way it has been handled so far. There is going to be an inquiry into the neglect of several agents. The way they conducted this investigation was unacceptable and disgraceful. I can only promise that it will not be the way it will be conducted going forward."

"I appreciate that," I said with a nod. "It is a relief to hear you say that. To say I was unhappy with the way things have been going would be an understatement."

"Completely understandable. I would be quite angry if our situations were reversed. I am not happy as it stands," Heller replied. "That being said, I apologize if a lot of what I ask today is going to make you repeat things you have already told people within my department, but I am unsure how thorough they were in recording your answers, asking questions, or noting and looking into your concerns. The neglect was severe, and until the investigation into it is done, I can make no conjecture about why it happened; I can only do everything I can to start fresh and do it right."

"Well, I am glad you stepped in and put an end to it," I said with honest gratitude.

He smiled. "I wish I could take credit, but someone in your household alerted an agent in the main office that things were not right, and they blew the whistle on it. I can't say who, but you are known to be a very intelligent pony and might be able to put it together."

I blinked. Someone in the house had contacted the FBI directly and lodged a complaint, and found someone willing to be a whistleblower? Who had time to do that? We had all gone to bed not long after the questioning.

Then it came to me. My sister worked for the FBI and had previously been in contact with my parents in the dream realm. They must have gotten in touch with her.

I needed to thank my parents for thinking of doing that. I should have thought about doing it. I needed to take some time and reconnect with Andrea when this was all over.

Heller pulled out a recording device. "If we may, I'd like to get statements and question all of your family for details. I apologize again if I make you repeat yourselves, but I want to be thorough. There is one other item of business. I was told you reported seeing an unusual thaumic phenomenon, is that correct?"

I nodded. "That is correct."

"Would you be willing to show it to us after the questioning is over and teaching these agents the spell to uncover it?" Heller asked. "Yours is not the only crime scene we need to reevaluate, and them being able to check for that would be invaluable to our investigation. You may be the ultimate target, but there are many victims."

"I'll be more than happy to show them how," I answered. "The spell is a little intricate, but it doesn't require much power. It might take them a few tries, but they should be able to learn it and teach other unicorns in your department it as well."

I led them back into the family room and explained to everyone what was going on. There were some disgruntled sighs and mumbling about having to go through everything again this morning, but not much. We all wanted our friends and the others to be found, and we all wanted to stop having to live in fear. It just meant a lot of questions.

After about thirty minutes or more of questioning, Heller frowned at me.

"Miss Blessing, are you familiar with anything that could dampen a pony's magic in a confined space?" he asked. "Every single one of those being held has reported this. We have even confirmed that it even dampens earth pony strength, based on the fact Wallace is unable to escape. I assure you, demolishing walls and doors is something he is excellent at normally."

I shook my head. "No, I don't. I experimented with things like that in Riverview, but it was primarily targeted at preventing teleportation. It didn't even prevent the teleports; it simply deflected them from their intended target, much deeper into the planet's crust. This would have been as effective as preventing them altogether since it made trying to teleport into the facility under the Bastion a death sentence."

"Was this through use of a special material or alloy?" Heller asked. "I don't want to have to get into protected government secrets too much, but I'm trying to understand how they are doing this."

"It's alright; I can say," I answered. "It was through crystals that had been modified to hold a thaumic charge. Bob, Robert McDermott created the basic process of making such objects which me and my mages… obtained knowledge... of how he managed to do it. I had far more financial resources than Bob and used them to create the prototypes of our magical artifacts like the Equestrians have. The first large production of these were crystals that created a field around them to disrupt teleports, and I had them embedded throughout the Bastion walls. It cost a fortune to do, but it was the only way to keep teleporting unicorns out. The Pentagon has the full schematics of how they were made, and I understand that they had planned on installing them into key military installations."

"Could this be expanded to including all magic, in theory?" Heller asked.

I frowned. "In theory, yes. I wouldn't know how to do it. There needs to be a spell template that… " I paused as I realized the Shimmerists had one. "Fain."

"Christina Fain?" Heller asked. "I have read the reports on her abilities, but I don't recall her being able to do anything unless she was in direct contact, and I'm sure those ponies would know if Christina Fain put her hands on them."

I shook my head. "No, but she is a template. Passive things like that are still technically spells, even if they aren't actively aware they are casting. Spells can be learned and duplicated, modified. You just need to have mages good enough to figure it out."

Heller considered this. "How good? How many mages can you think of that could do this?"

“Off the top of my head, at least a dozen, myself included,” I replied. “It wouldn’t be a comprehensive list, just the ones I am familiar with throughout my career. I can think of two right away who have a criminal record, a grudge against me, something to be gained by capturing me, and who are willing to go any lengths for the sake of their research: Doctor Rossman and Doctor Lair, two members of a team that was contracted out west. Someone out there stumbled onto their unethical research and tipped me off about them before I fired them, and almost all of them fell off the map, but those two were the ones calling the shots. Rossman isn’t a unicorn, but he’s done enough research to know what he’s doing and enough to be very dangerous if he’s working with the right mages.”

Heller nodded. "We currently have large numbers of agents searching for Doctor Rossman and Doctor Lair already. They have recently shot up to near the top of the most wanted list. I will make sure that it is known that that case and this one could be connected."

I slumped in my seat. "They still need money to do all of this, huge amounts of it. It would take a lot of money to create crystals that could do what we are speculating, keep bailing Fain out of jail, and have a facility big enough and specially built to hold all those ponies. I know Fain has a particular law firm that gets paid to work her cases. Is there any way you could raid it and find out who pays the bills?"

He sighed. "I'll work on it, but raiding a law office has legal challenges and requires more concrete evidence of wrongdoing. I'm not saying that we won't be able to do it, but it will take time to build the case for the warrant. In the meantime, we only have one possible lead on who might be paying the bills, and that is an entirely different set of legal challenges."

"Érzi," I muttered, almost growling.

"It would be impossible, even in the best-case scenario, to tie things specifically to Qiánchéng De Érzi," Heller cautioned. "If it were so and we were lucky, we might be able to tie things to Chinese nationalists or agencies operating out of China. Qiánchéng De Érzi would never be directly involved and would be able to claim ignorant deniability."

"That doesn't mean that he isn't the one who directed them to do it and make it happen," I growled. "He is the only one with the motive and financial resources to pull this. Hell, it could even be personal for him after the foals got away to the US. I'm told he does not take losing well. He's a tyrant who doesn't care about human or pony life and doesn't have anything resembling morals."

"That's some of the reasons why he is on the radar," Heller agreed. "If we can find any concrete link to China, we'll be getting the CIA involved as well, and that will expand our resources; we just have to find one. We can't count on it being China or ruling out other possibilities, or take action just because we suspect something. We have to follow what the evidence directs, not speculation and suspicion."

I set my jaw. I knew he was right. I'd even argued the same things, but this was not coming right into my home.

"What's the story on the colt?" I asked. "He doesn't line up with the rest of the victims."

Heller pulled out a tablet and flipped through some screens. "Wallace, full name unknown, wanted for three counts of shoplifting, four accounts of evading arrest, and seven accounts of Destruction of Police Property. The three accounts of shoplifting would have been his full list of crimes, but the colt does not take well to police trying to arrest him. Possesses exceptionally high strength, even for an earth pony, and unusual geomancy abilities in regards to stone and rock. No known address, relatives, affiliations; believed to be homeless. I honestly do not know why he was targeted. He could have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time."

I snorted. "Not an easy colt to catch either, from the sounds of it, but I suppose he would be more vulnerable than the average pony to Fain's grip."

"Since those close to you may be targets, I would advise that Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, and Wild Growth be fully informed of the danger Fain poses to powerful ponies," Heller explained. "Those three would be the most vulnerable among ponies most closely associated with you. I know neither is used to being intimidated by a single human, but Fain is far from normal. I'll be having someone contact Wild Growth; you can inform Starlight Glimmer."

I raised a brow. "Trixie?"

Heller nodded. "She isn't a notable mage, or nearly as powerful as Starlight Glimmer, but her PREQUES rating is in the five range."

Huh, I guess she at least had the powerful part of her name down. It seemed Trixie's issue was applying herself when it came to magic. I had heard her complain about being bored by magic lessons before. Trixie just couldn't force herself to sit down and learn.

"Someone should notify Sapphire Sky too, I suppose," I added in. "She isn't a close friend, but she has had a habit of dropping in on me lately. I wouldn't want her to get hurt because of me, and that peacock wouldn't understand the threat one unarmed human could pose to her."

"I'll see if someone can get in touch with her as well—"

"Miss Blessing… you have another guest…" one of the security guards interrupted nervously from the family room door. "It's Luna. What do I do?"

He didn't get much further before the alicorn in question practically bowled him over, coming into the room. She spread her wings wide and was happily grinning for God knew what reason.

"Huzzah!" Luna shouted as she raised a leg triumphantly. "My student has said she is in urgent need of my counsel and wisdom, and I have come post-haste!"

Alright, having Luna as a teacher was going to be an interesting experience.

Comments

[Da Fennec]

I think Luna surprised everyone with how quickly she responded

[KeePony]

Especially since it's a personal student. Probably wanted one, when she heard that Twilight was Celestia's.

[Lawra]

10822854
I can imagine Luna immediately after getting a student stalking Sunset, spying on everything from just outside of view, waiting for the instant that her precious new student needs her aid so she can appear dramatically.