Planning the Mission
That mail room was still bothering him, even a day after he first encountered it. During his break, Gallus was outside the building of the mail department, glaring at its clean white exterior. If it wasn’t for the potential wrath from Captain Westland for giving up on speaking with the mail staff, he’d have gone straight to his next class.
But instead, yet again, he approached the front door, placed his claws firmly on the doorknob and tried to turn. Except for this time, there was a click, and the door had loosened enough to open, there was even the sound of a tiny bell ringing above him.
“Finally!” he ushered in an annoyed groan, as he rolled his eyes and made his way inside.
The mail department appeared smaller on the inside, a single room with glossy wooden flooring, a few posters, a table protruding from the wall and a single chair to wait on. Then again, the size of the room could easily be explained by the wall with a giant rectangular hole in the centre, with a locked door next to it.
The second room had its wall in the middle with shelves, each with an array of boxes made to sort the letters, some filled and some empty. From Gallus’ field of view, the only other things he could see were boxes, half-filled sacks, a greyish sapphire blue metal safe with a rotary dial, and two mail ponies at work.
Both were dressed in floral green V-neck shirts with dark collars and buttons. One was a light-pink unicorn mare with a blonde mane, who had letters floating around her. The other was a cream-yellow pegasus sporting a cap matching the colour of his shirt, who upon seeing Gallus on the other side of the, began to glow.
“Oh hey! You must be the griffon cadet!” the pegasus mail pony cheerily exclaimed. “Surprised to see you here!”
“Surprise to see you here too, this place was locked all day yesterday.”
“Yeah, we were closed all day,” the unicorn mail pony quipped curtly, rolling her eyes towards Gallus, “didn’t you see the sign?
“Sign?” Gallus remarked as he raised an eyebrow and looked back at the door he entered from, more confused by the reason than bothered by the unicorn’s tone. “There was no sign.”
The pegasus pony then sighed before crouching down and picking up a sign with his teeth, it read “Closed today due to unavailability of staff, sorry for the inconvenience,” in a clear black font. He then dropped the sign onto the counter before turning to the unicorn. “I told you we should have hung the sign on the outside,” he remarked, an indication that the sign may have fallen off the door.
He then turned back to Gallus, returning the smile to his face. “Sorry about Pretty Petals, she just gets grouchy sometimes, I’m Stamp,” finally introducing himself.
“You wouldn’t happen to know a dark feathered griffon who delivers the mail? Gabby or Gabriella? I’m guessing since you’re a griffon you two know each-” before he could finish, Petals loudly cleared her throat and gave Stamp a stink eye. “Uh, how can we help you?”
“I’m not getting my mail,” Gallus answered directly.
“Well then, we should address that!” Stamp’s pun received a groan from Pretty Petals and a sharp glare from Gallus, he bashfully cleared his throat before continuing. “What’s your name, company, and platoon?”
“Gallus, Larson Company, 1st Wing Platoon.”
Stamp was appreciating the direct answers from the griffon, he turned around to the wall of sorting boxes, and inspected a group of them on the middle shelf on the far-left side, he flicked through the letters to see if any. “Hmm… I don’t see any letters with your name on it,” he said, oddly keeping his cheery tone, before turning back to Gallus to reassure him. “It could be some arrival delay, sometimes letters take days longer than usual depending on who’s sending it.”
“My letters haven’t arrived since the start of term.”
Suddenly, Gallus’ direct answers weren’t so nice to the mail pegasus. His eyes shot wide, shifting between a stoic Gallus in front of him, and Pretty Petals giving a sharp stare to his side. Beads of sweat started dripping down the side of his head as he nervously grinned and rubbed the back of his head.
“Well… I guess it also depends on how frequently they’re being sent.”
“When I met one of my friends a few days ago, they said they sent a letter every week,” Gallus clapped back, which only caused Stamp’s agitation to grow as he could sense his unicorn colleague glaring a hole into the side of his head.
“Well, sometimes our sorting system gets messy,” he tried to rationalise shakily. “Could you come back in a few days so we can investigate it?”
Gallus narrowed his eyes, he felt tempted to press further, but he could also see a clock on his side of the room. Unfortunately, he needed to get to his next class promptly.
“Sure…” he said slowly, before making his way out of the mailroom, the little bell ringing once more as he exited through the door. The wheels in his head started to turn, Stamp started acting strange once Gallus called him out, and Pretty Petals was keeping her eyes on the pegasus pony.
The classroom had a large changeover for this lesson, all the chairs were removed, and six tables were evenly spaced out. Cadets stood around the tables, each one had a large map and several pony soldier figurines on them. The class were playing a game, but not any simple board game like Dragon Pit or a fantasy roleplaying one like Ogres & Oubliettes, this was War Gaming.
Rules sounded simple at first, the cadets at the table were split into two teams, with one side being the E.U.P. while the other being the vaguely named “Enemy”. Each side took turns moving the figurines across the map to take out squadrons while aiming to capture the opposing base.
What made it realistic, and therefore complicated, is that the players had to factor in the terrain, height, and land features such as water, as well as what types of soldiers were on each side for each move. The staff giving the lectures talked about how wargaming benefits planning operations, to thinking about what the enemy is doing ahead of time.
The lecturer introduced the game for how its use was pivotal for successful battles in defending Equestria from outside threats, and each table supposedly had a different map depicting a different battle that was planned out in advance with the aid of wargaming.
Gallus and his friends were around one such table of a map showing a section of eastern Equestria. For himself, Scythe, and Nicknames, their side had figurines of earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies. For Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling, their figurines looked like earth ponies, but on close inspection they had fangs carved out of their muzzles, and holes on each of their legs.
All took the game differently, Scythe would sit quietly with his forehooves pressed together, staring intently at the pieces, he wouldn’t touch them, but he’d whisper ideas to Gallus to carry out. Lightning Dust in contrast was quick to make moves with little thought. Nicknames paused to think but would move without consulting anyone on his team. Pound Sterling focused on the landscape and would whisper ideas to Lightning Dust or make moves on her own.
Meanwhile Gallus was just looking at the pieces, if Scythe wasn’t giving him ideas, he didn’t touch any of his soldiers. The wheels in his head were still turning after the encounter with the mailroom. As the game played on, and the older tutors walked past the tables, inspecting the current game, a plan started to form in Gallus’ mind.
When those tutors were no longer paying attention to his table, he felt it was finally time to get his friends involved.
“Psst… guys” he hissed to get their attention, “I need your help with something.”
Pound Sterling was the first to respond, “Can’t be, yur side is winnin’ a’ that moa.” Her eyes were locked on her pieces, blocked by the soldiers on Gallus’ side.
“It’s not to do with the game.”
“Can’t it wait until lunch, Bluebird?” asked Nicknames, carefully pushing one of the figurines closer to an isolated enemy figurine. “I’ve got a squadron planned perfectly for a sneak attack.”
Suddenly, a turquoise hoof pulled the lone enemy figurine away from him “…and I’ve just gathered some intelligence that says we should move our battalion this way instead.” Lightning Dust gave a smug grin towards the stallion who should have kept his battle strategy to himself.
Keeping his volume low and gritting his teeth, Gallus persevered, “It can’t, ‘cause I only want you lot to hear it.” Finally, all the ponies on the table looked at each other. After Lightning Dust gave a casual shrug, they all leaned in closer to Gallus, curious to what he wanted to talk about.
“I want to send a letter.”
Lightning Dust was the first to react, looking to Pound Sterling and Nicknames to be certain of what she heard, before turning back to Gallus. “To whom?” she followed in a whisper whilst tilting her head.
“Some friends of mine in Ponyville.”
The others were clueless, “So… just write one and put it in a letterbox.” Nicknames suggested flatly.
“Yeah, I can’t do that.”
“Wha’ do ya’ need?” Pound Sterling queried, assuming Gallus ran out of something. “Papa, quill, ink, envelopes, stamps, wax ta stick it togetha?” she listed.
“I can lend you some…”
Gallus shook his head in response to Pound Sterling and Scythe’s offers. “No, I already have all that stuff.”
“I don’t get why you can’t send letters then, and why are we all whispering?”
“I can’t just put a letter in a letterbox, because if it did it won’t ever go to Ponyville,” Gallus explained. “Every time I’ve done so before, somepony is taking them before they can be sent off. I haven’t heard from my Ponyville either because the same pony probably has also taken the mail addressed to me.”
As the griffon scanned the table, the mood shifted. Twisted lips, jaded stares, raised eyebrows, not an ounce of concern or intrigue in what he was saying. “Yeah, no offence, but that sounds crazy.” Lightning Dust put it bluntly. Gallus pinched his beak, annoyed at the fact he was being seen as a lunatic.
At least, as much of a lunatic for Nicknames to find amusing. “You’re saying that there are ponies who are stopping you from sending letters in and out of the Academy because you haven’t gotten a letter for like, a week?” he asked facetiously and sardonically.
“…since the start of term.”
Suddenly, Nicknames started to wince, almost as if it felt bad for someone to have no contact for the past few months. “Okay… you sure it’s not just you?” he suggested, but then panicked once Gallus’ head turned sharply in his direction to stare daggers at him. “I mean, you could have gotten the address wrong.”
“I’ve been writing letters to the same address since the last term, I’ve not gotten it wrong.”
“‘appen ur friends changed their address?” proposed Pound Sterling, hoping to add a rational and less accusatory explanation. Gallus turned to the mare, not to dart a glare but not an accepting look either.
“Without telling me?”
“Your friends might just be incredibly busy and aren’t able to write as much as you do?” Lightning Dust offered.
“I know full well my friends would write back if they got my letters!” hissed Gallus, now darting a glare at the lightning mare.
“And what’s your proof of that?”
The two stared each other down, Gallus wanted to shut down Lightning Dust so bad by pointing out what Yona told him the day he was in Canterlot. There was a slight issue, the ponies around him at that moment were also in Canterlot, and they didn’t know about the encounter. As far as what he told them, none of his Ponyville friends turned up.
As the tension between them started to thicken, he was on the verge of admitting he lied, even to prove a point.
“I believe him.”
Everyone on the table turned to the one pony who had hardly spoken for the entire discussion, finally ending the intense staredown between Gallus and Lightning Dust. Despite the sudden amount of attention being thrust his way, Scythe tried to talk about what he knew. “Gallus writes a letter once a week, sometimes when we should be sleeping… in the first term he always got a letter later in the week but…”
“Not anymore…” added Gallus, finishing Scythe’s sentence. “Why else would that pattern change without them telling me?”
Pound Sterling started to nod, “‘E ‘as a point. Ah wri’ ta mi folks in Trottin’h’m everee week, they allus wri’ back” she pointed out. In response, Gallus turned to the remaining sceptics, Nicknames and Lightning Dust, gesturing towards Sterling like it was his next exhibit in a court trial.
“Well, say if this is happening, do you have a suspect?” questioned Nicknames hypothetically to Gallus, before turning to the others. “No offence to the rest of you, but I’m guessing you wouldn’t be telling us if you hadn’t ruled us out.”
“Correct,” Gallus nodded before he addressed the others “you’re my friends, and even if you weren’t I know three of you wouldn’t risk suspension or expulsion to pull it off and the other…” Gallus then turned to look Nicknames straight in the eyes with a smirk. “…can’t pull off something this cruel even if they tried.”
“Gee, thanks.” Nicknames acknowledged cynically.
The griffon then turned his attention to the board, he noticed that Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling's soldiers were separated into three groups, while Scythe, Nicknames, and his side were separated into five. He smiled as he found a visual reference. “That leaves only the ponies that have direct access to the mail between the mailroom and our dorms: The mailroom staff, our captain, and our staff sergeant,” he pointed to each enemy group as he explained.
“Let me get this all straight, you want us to help you get a letter past all these ponies to these friends of yours based on a wild theory you have?” asked Lightning Dust, her forearms folded, still unconvinced that Gallus’ claims hold water.
“I’ll help…”
“Same.”
Crazy as it sounded, both Scythe and Pound Sterling were on-board with helping Gallus get to the bottom of his situation, which left all eyes on Nicknames and Lightning Dust. Yet the two kept their arms folded and resistant to play along.
“Sounds ridiculous if you ask me…”
“I agree…”
Gallus pinched his beak once again and let out a heavy sigh, “I get it, I don’t have proof,” he confessed, “but it’s happening somehow and like I trust that none of you is involved, you need to trust me on this.”
“I’ve been putting up with some bad ponies in this place purely for being a griffon, but this time they’re not just going after me. If there is anyone in Equestria that I don’t want to believe that I don’t care about them, it’s my friends in Ponyville that have been by my side up until now. All I want is to tell them that I still care about them, that I still want to be their friend, I still want to write letters to Silverstream to tell her how I…”
The moment he ushered Silverstream’s name without thinking, his eyes went wide, and his voice trailed off. This got the attention of Nicknames, as much as Gallus didn’t want it to be. “Wait, Silverstream? That’s your ladybird, right?” the pegasus stallion questioned, as Gallus quickly hid his rosy face in vain. Nicknames smirked. “Okay, I’m in!”
“You are?!” Lightning Dust remarked out loud, leaving an uncomfortable silence as she quickly realised her voice got the attention of the entire class and the staff. In a haphazard response, the whole group got their heads down and pretended to move pieces around the board, pretending for a moment that their conversation didn’t happen in the slightest.
Once the class had returned to being none the wiser, Nicknames continued in a whisper. “Yeah, I’m in, we need to help him ask out his lovebird…”
“That’s not what this is about-“ before Gallus could finish interjecting, Nicknames suddenly pushed his hoof right into Gallus’ beak to hold it shut.
“…and anypony who gets in the way of two lovebirds we will have to expose them as the evil villains they are… I mean we gotta help Gallus somehow. That’s what friends do, right?”
Gallus could finally move his beak once again as soon as Nicknames let go of it. Given how smug Nicknames was and Pound Sterling snickered at the sentiment, he wanted to be annoyed, however, the corner of his mouth curved up slightly, as he couldn’t have agreed with Nicknames more at that moment.
All eyes then pointed to Lightning Dust, the last one with doubts. As she stood there, her forehooves firmly crossed. The idea that ponies are somehow withholding Gallus’ mail still sounded ridiculous, and this was Equestria where some twelve-year-old nearly took away the world’s magic for power… okay maybe it didn’t sound too ridiculous, but it still felt farfetched.
She contemplated how it would go, if she was caught snooping around, it could mean being in just as much trouble as being the actual culprit. She already had been in trouble for pulling reckless stunts in the first term, and more than anypony didn’t want to risk Captain Westland’s wrath a second time.
But on the other hand, this wasn’t about her, it was Gallus. Even if the theory was nuts, it didn’t feel right for him to not receive any mail for months without an immediate explanation. The very least she could do was help find out the reason, especially a logical one.
“Fine, count me in,” she relented with a groan. “What’s your plan?”
Seeing all his friends on his side felt invigorating, he held his head high and gave an affirmed nod, before looking at the game board in front of them. Along with the three groups on the enemy side, he could see five groups on his side, it was almost as if the layout was perfect for him to visualise the mission he’d formed in his head.
“Right, so our two objectives are to find out who is taking my letters, and to get to Ponyville.” He began, pointing to the enemy pieces to represent his suspects and the enemy base at the far end of the board as Ponyville. “We need to find out how mail gets sent out, following a letter from a letterbox to the mail office, and out of the Academy. Once we know that, we can figure out what we can do to get my letter past any potential boundaries we can find.”
As Gallus continued to explain, all the ponies at the table had their eyes fixed on his claws as he pointed and moved the pieces. Amusingly, the lecturer inspecting the games remarked to himself how their game must have been getting intense, given how serious and focused they were, unaware of what was being discussed.
“Okay, sounds straightforward in theory,” Lightning Dust acknowledged, “and our suspects will be none the wiser to this, right?” She expected, given how confident Gallus was in this plan he constructed, that Gallus would respond with a confirmation. Instead, her suspicions grew as Gallus kept silent and his eyes on the board, avoiding eye contact with her. “You haven’t told anypony else about this mail problem, right?”
“…I told Captain Westland,” he reluctantly confessed in a hasty tone. The confidence around the table drained, as Pound Sterling and Scythe sunk to sitting positions.
Lightning Dust pressed a single hoof to her face, hearing Gallus just admit to telling one of his suspects about the mail problem. Considering pointing out his mistake, she decided to just sigh and brush it off. Captain Westland isn’t the kind of pony to hide a problem from, and as platoon commander helping her cadets with problems is part of her job, so telling her might have been a wise move, assuming she’s innocent that is.
“Anypony else?” she followed.
“The captain told me to sort it out with the mailroom, so just before I got here I made a complaint… to the mail ponies…” Gallus said, this time he was pinching his beak and delivered his admission in a low, gravelly tone.
Lightning Dust upgraded her single hoof pressed to her face with two, her elbows resting on the table. “Wow Bluebird, your plan is going well so far,” she remarked sarcastically.
There was only one pony left standing over the table focused on the plan. “Wait. What’s the issue?” asked Nicknames, looking around blissfully unaware of why motivation had dropped amongst the group.
“Intelligence. Captain Westland and the mail ponies know Gallus has suspicions, so they are gonna anticipate him finding out what’s happening.” Lightning Dust answered bluntly. “If any of them are the bad guys, then any move that’s out of the ordinary, they’ll look out for and stop us. That’s why when playing this game, you’re not supposed to say your plans out loud where your enemy can hear you.”
“You know, I’m pretty sure that you changing tactics because of what I said is cheating, Dusty!” Nicknames accused while darting a glare.
“It's not cheating, it's espionage." Lightning Dust clapped back smugly. "If you understood the rules of the game, Nicknames, you’d know that.”
“Well, if you were good at this game, you wouldn’t need to hear me.”
“As if you’re much better, your side’s only winning ‘cause you have Bluebird and Mumbles on your team…”
As the two bickered on either side of the table, staring daggers at each other, Gallus was pinching his beak in frustration. It didn’t occur to him that confronting the ponies that might be taking his mail from him and his friends could either help or hinder his need to fix his mail problem.
Lightning Dust was right, if Gallus tried to figure out what was going wrong, with or without a team, the E.U.P. Royal Guard Academy would find and stop him the moment something out of the ordinary. He needed to find out though, he’d let his friends go unheard for too long to wait any further, but how to do it without being stopped. Suddenly, he let go of his beak, as realization dawned on him.
“This plan can still work.”
Everyone stopped and turned to look at Gallus, “‘ow can it tho?” questioned Pound Sterling, curious as to why Gallus was confident once more.
Scythe too was curious, “We can’t do anything out of the ordinary…” he reminded Gallus.
“So, we do the ordinary,” Gallus answered, but he was still met with furrowed brows, so he explained further. “We’ll keep going to our classes, our activities, our clubs, but we take turns to follow that letter. We’ll also keep sending whatever letters we do send, as usual, one from you guys to observe and find out how normal letters get sent through, one from me so they won’t think I’m onto them. Once we know how the mail works, we’ll get the third letter sent through, that’s the one we can get past whoever is taking my letters.”
No longer could Gallus see furrowed brows, it made sense. The plan was no longer as straightforward as they initially thought, but it could work. There was just one thing Gallus needed to ask before they could proceed with the plan.
“So, who’ll send the first letter?”
“Not me, I don’t write much to my parents,” stated Nicknames, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Me neither…” Lightning Dust also stated, before turning to the other two ponies on the table. “Steppin’ Time? Mumbles?”
All eyes shifted to Pound Sterling and Scythe; both didn’t take the sudden rise. Pound Sterling tried looking away, in the hope the others on the table would stop looking at her, waiting for another option. Scythe was just sinking lower and lower, praying for another option. Gallus sighed, figuring it was too much to ask his friends to help to put the first move in. He started to think about a plan B, while there was still time in class to figure something out…
“Ah’ll do it” everyone turned to Pound Sterling, who had a confident smile on her face. “Ah’ll write a letter to mi folks, send it tomarrah.”
Gallus returned a nod and a smile to Pound Sterling, before turning to see the rest of the team. “Okay, let’s look at our schedules and work out a route” he declared, it was time to put the mission into action.
“Alright!” Nicknames quietly exclaimed and clapped his hooves together in jubilation, being careful not to get the attention of the rest of the class. “Let’s go Operation Loveletter!” Gallus suddenly felt an urge to make a response before doing any further work.
“We’re not calling it that…”
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Uh-huh. Sure. And wasn't it also originally a military saying that "loose lips sink ships?"
Okay, first of all, there is still a part of this that IS about that, Gallus. You haven't admitted it to yourself, but the rest of us can read the room.
Second, Nicknames's falling a bit for the cliche romance troupes here, but hey, if it'll get him onboard to help with this, then I think we can overlook this for now. The end goal is still the same either way, so let him believe what he wants so long as its still ultimately successful.
In Gallus's defense though, he didn't have definite cause to assume it definitely was deliberate sabotage and not just mailing error somewhere in the line that was the source of the problem, and so long as the latter had been an option, informing the officials in charge was a valid enough of a tactic to pursue, in case that was all it took to resolve it. It also helped him to rule out mailing error as the likely culprit and gravitate more towards deliberate sabotage as the more likely cause, so even if it resulted in less than airtight intelligence, there's arguably still tactical advantages to Gallus having done so, as it gave him a clearer picture of the threat he faced and what would need to be done to overcome it.
Besides, the problem's ultimately is a stumbling block, but something that can still be overcome in of itself. And it'll be nice to see it finally be overcome indeed.
It deepens
I get that Gallus wants to find out what's going on, but is there any reason he can't write a letter explaining what's happening, then give that to one of his squad mates to send out to one of their contacts with forwarding instructions? It's what I would do in his situation.
I know that won't solve the return problem, but it would get word to Ponyville the fastest.
not a bad chapter
but with the way you write this story, now i'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop
11210844
That had been my thought.
i'm still so happy that you have lightning dust in this amazing story. hope Gallus figures out whats going on soon
Hmmm, so something changed this term (maybe in the mail room itself) ...
Okay I guess that makes sense but still something is still not right about at somebody's trying to sabotage there friendship from Ponyville
Hmmm something is not right about that pony 🤨
Awww 😍 so you do like her
Hmm this is getting more suspicious than ever so gallus went to the mail office and it looks like it's open so he asked one of the mail ponies about his letters and everything but somehow they said something they have no idea about the situation even the female Pony was getting a little suspicious what's going on as well so gallus decided to drop it for now and it looks like he asked his friends to help him out with the mail situation at first they didn't understand why would they do that to his letters but somebody is trying to break his friends apart from him but of course pound and Scythe want to help him and surprisingly nickname and despite Lightning Dust also wants to help as well but they need to be careful because there's too many eyes around and you don't know who to trust but I am glad that his friends at the Royal Academy will help out and I wonder how they're going to do this I guess we'll find out next time
That was awesome!!!
11210933 The answer to that is equally simple. Explain in the letter that he believes his mail is being stopped, and give them the address of one of his squad mates for them to send their letters to instead, or better yet the address of one of his squadmates contacts, to send back so the letters don't appear to be coming from Ponyville.
hummm i wonder who this plan is going to smoke out?
and i have a feeling that Twilight needs look in to this.
Yep someone needs to tell Twilight the mail is being sabotaged. Bad Stamp!
11212928
I expect once Gallus discovers what's happening Twilight will get wind of it. After all sabotaging Gallus like this sabotages one of Twilight's administration points, improving relations between ponies and the other races. I am looking forward to see how he solves this issue.
very much so kid
Uh-huh. Sure. And wasn't it also originally a military saying that "loose lips sink ships?"
11210844
Plus, it's inevitable that Gallus would notice he's not getting any mail. The fact that he went to the captain & the mail room are logical first steps.
Of course, if the mail room is in on it, they'll be warned. Trying to trace the mail is the logical next step.