Operation Loveletter - Part 2
The day following Scythe’s bright idea, Gallus waited outside the Keating-Rogers company command office, while Scythe was inside the office with Major Babel. As far as the company block goes, its corridors aren’t that much different from the Larson company block that the two cadets reside in.
Yet, for Gallus, there was an odd nostalgic feeling to it. He chuckled to himself recalling how he dragged Scythe to this place and shoved him into the office, just to give him the courage to ask for these language lessons he eagerly takes regularly.
The corridor itself was virtually empty, nopony was around nor was there any sound, just the griffon loitering against the wall, arms folded and with one talon tapping against his arm. It was the study hour after all, so any staff member was most likely in their office doing paperwork while the cadets were in their dorms doing coursework or studying.
Gallus couldn’t even tell what was going on inside Major Babel’s office, the door was closed shut and the only sounds were the light muffled dialogue between the two ponies inside, although at some point after a long silence there was a muffled thud that was hard to make out.
It made the moment the office door opened, and Scythe stepped out of the office, exceptionally loud and jarring by comparison. Gallus had to hurriedly flatten and straighten his puffed-out feathers to recover from the shock his ears sustained.
The two made their way down the stairs and through more corridors, heading back to their dorms. They both remained poker-faced, even if no one was around, they didn’t want ponies to overhear them.
It was only on the stairwell up to their block that Gallus leaned his head towards Scythe to ask the one thing on his mind since waiting for him. “So, did you get it?” he whispered. Scythe smiled and reached around towards his side, hidden underneath his wing was what “it” was.
Hanging off his teeth, Scythe had his freshly written letter to Yona, except all Gallus could see was the back of it with a crimson stamp imprint of a box. On its left was the E.U.P. Guard logo, and on the right was text stating that the letter was pre-approved, followed by an ink inscribed signature of “Major Tower Babel”.
Relief set in, and Gallus simpered. “Nice, well now here’s my assignment to you.” He then retrieved a sheet of paper under his wing, and Scythe carefully nested his letter back under his wing before having a look at what Gallus wrote:
Hey Yona,
I know it might be strange reading a letter from me like this, but this was the only way I could write to you.
There is a reason why we haven’t seen letters from each other, and it’s not because of my friends at the Academy, it’s the Academy itself. I found out they can read our letters, and somepony is taking them to prevent us from talking to each other.
We’re getting to the bottom of it, all I can say right now is I’m sorry; to you, Sandbar, Ocellus, Smolder, and Silverstream, that I didn’t get onto this sooner. If you want to tell me something, write back to Scythe, you can trust him as much as I do.
Till next time,
Gallus
It was clear and direct, telling his friends why he couldn’t send them letters until now. Although Scythe was more distracted with how touched he was that Gallus trusted him. “How quick can you translate it?” Gallus queried. Scythe jumped and shook himself back to attention.
“I can get it done by tonight.”
“Good, we can send the whole thing in the morning, those mailponies won’t suspect a…” Gallus’ voice trailed off as he stopped just around the corner from the Larson company block, using his arm as a barrier to prevent Scythe from moving any further. He caught sight of a light pink unicorn wearing a floral green v-neck, just as she was entering the office of platoon commander Captain Westland, with a large binder following her in the air in a golden magical aura.
After that door was shut, the two were left perplexed and held in silence. Ponies have seen Stamp the mail pony go around the Academy to collect letters from the boxes around the main building but never had Pretty Petals been seen around the same building before.
“Why is she here?”
“I don’t know…” Scythe quietly responded, but before he could finish Gallus had dashed forward, causing the pegasus to panic. “Gallus, wait!”
With curiosity having taken over, Gallus went right up to Captain Westland’s office. Just like in Major Babel’s office, the closed-door made the conversation muffled, but when he pressed his ear right against the door, he could barely make out the conversation.
“Is all of this correct?” said Captain Westland on the other side of the door.
“All of it” confirmed Pretty Petals, “I knew something wasn’t right, especially after that griffon showed up.”
“First, my cadet is called Gallus” stated Westland in an assertive tone, Gallus could only imagine her scowling, at least somepony high-ranking sees himself as more than his species. The captain continued, serious but returned to a calm state. “Apart from that, thank you for your cooperation, this is worse than I thought. I’ll start putting a report together, in the meantime, carry on with your work and let me know if anything develops. We can’t let him think for a moment that we’re onto him before we get the higher-ups to confront him.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He then heard muffled hoofsteps, quickly getting clearer as Pretty Petals approached the door. Gallus flung himself back to the corner where Scythe was standing, getting out of view just in time for Pretty Petals to emerge from the office into a seemingly empty corridor. It was fortunate that the unicorn walked down a different set of stairs, or she would have caught a griffon and pegasus pony pinned against the wall trying to hide from her.
“What happened?” Scythe asked with concern, as all he saw was Gallus with terror overtaking his face.
“We might have a problem… “
On the following morning, Scythe stood in front of the letterbox outside of the mess hall, with a finished envelope in his hoof. He managed to finish translating Gallus’ page the night before as promised, his page had the stamp of approval, and all that was left was to put it in the envelope.
Except, his nerves were holding him back. The letterbox was the same one that Pound Sterling used during the first phase of Operation Loveletter, chosen for its close vicinity to the mess hall, and could be seen with a direct line of sight from their table at breakfast. Back then, the risk felt non-existent, but with Pretty Petals talking to Captain Westland the day before, this felt different.
Suddenly, he felt a claw rest on his shoulder, causing the Pegasus to jump in place. He quickly turned to see it was just Gallus. “Relax, it’ll be fine” he reassured Scythe, “they’re not after your letter. They’ll be after this.”
In his other bright amber claw was a white envelope, during the same night Scythe was working, Gallus wrote his letter. Gallus didn’t say exactly what he wrote in it, excuse is for her eyes only, although he did say what he wrote wouldn’t give anypony reading it any suspicion that he was onto anybody.
Essentially, its sole purpose was to distract Pretty Petals with a letter from Gallus to divert attention from Scythe’s. Gallus lightly pushed his into the letterbox, letting it fall in effortlessly. Scythe wished he had that amount of confidence, even with the assurances, there was still doubt in the Pegasus pony’s mind.
However, this was his plan, and Gallus still wanted to carry it out, despite the added caution. As such, Scythe breathed in, and hurriedly pushed his letter into the letterbox, before quickly turning away. As the letter hit the bottom of the box, he knew for certain that there was no turning back on this plan.
The two made their way into the mess hall and got breakfast, oatmeal that was simple and easy to eat, before heading to their usual table. The rest were there too, already eating their cereals and bowls of hay. That was except for Pound Sterling, who brought along her camera to take photos of the hall, having barely touched her cooked meal of potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, and leaves.
She was the first to catch sight of Gallus and Scythe, “Ay up, Bluebird, Mumbles, smile!” she eagerly greeted them and aimed her camera at them. Though, her ears drooped as the two walked past her lens and sat down, clearly not in the mood. “Yall allreet?”
“We’re fine.” Gallus sighed and kept his eyes fixed on the letterbox, while Scythe nodded while his eyes were fixed down towards his bowl of oatmeal.
Pound Sterling turned to Lightning Dust, giving her a puzzled look. The smaller, fiery-maned mare agreed that something was up with the two. “You sure don’t look like it.”
“We were up late, just planning stuff,” said Gallus, verbally batting away the suspicions.
Sitting on the other side of Scythe was Nicknames, in the middle of eating when he decided to butt in. “Was it Operation Loveletter stuff?” he queried; his voice garbled by the chewed hay stuffed in his cheeks.
Neither Gallus nor Scythe answered, but Gallus shifted his eyes towards Nicknames, and Scythe towards Gallus, before his eyes were focused back on the letterbox outside. “This again?” groaned Lightning Dust. “I thought it was clear you can’t get a letter through, at least not in a way that ‘solves the problem and not a symptom’” she emphasised her frustration of having her ideas shot down with a nasal voice and curling her hooves into air quotes.
Gallus pinched his beak and turned towards Lightning Dust, “Look, I’m sorry about that,” he apologised. “I was frustrated and took it out on you, but now we’re getting somewhere.” The mare tilted her head, as Gallus continued. “Scythe here told me he might have a way to get my letter sent through him, a way that Pretty Petals can’t detect. The only reason we’re uneasy is that we just don’t want to get caught, that’s all.”
Despite the succinct explanation, the rest glanced quizzically at each other. “Okay, but why do you think you’ll get caught?” asked Lightning Dust, her head remaining tilted. “You have the mail problem, but not Mumbles. The whole ‘do the ordinary’ part of this plan has worked so far, none of our superiors has asked us anything.”
“Yeah, it’s not like you overheard our platoon commander secretly talking about us,” Nicknames added, realising that his hypothetical was hitting a target as Scythe’s head lowered and Gallus scratched the back of his. “You did, didn’t you?”
“Westland’s been talking to Pretty Petals…”
It took a while for Nicknames to catch on to what Scythe mumbled, but once he realised, he went pale.
“So, she’s on to us?”
“No, she’s on to me… maybe” Gallus snapped back. “She’s writing a report and said something about not wanting someone to catch on to them, so it could be me or somepony else.”
Lightning Dust folded her forehooves and rolled her eyes. “Well, this plan is getting better and better,” she remarked sarcastically.
Darting a glare in Lightning Dust’s direction, Gallus continued. “Point is unless we find out some more specifics, this new plan is our best shot. I’ve even written an additional letter that is no different from my usual ones, so Pretty Petals might take the bait and let Scythe’s through.”
“And then what? If your letter does manage to get out, your friends still need to find a way to send a letter to you.” Lighting Dust pointed out. “If going all the way to Canterlot to send letters isn’t a good idea, I don’t see how this plan you and your roomie have is much better. If you don’t want to wait it out, your best bet is to catch them in the act.”
As Gallus listened further, he became frustrated. She was right, as good, and immediate as this plan was, it was no more elaborate than just going to Canterlot. He turned his focus back on the letterbox, he needed to think of a way to stop his letters from being taken in the first place.
Except it wasn’t so simple, there was the challenge of getting into the mailroom without the ponies knowing, catching them while they’re not watching, and then finding somepony he could trust to step in and stop them from doing what they’re doing. There had to be a way, but there was something he was missing.
The then-vacant letterbox was then met by a pegasus with a green v-neck shirt and satchel, Stamp the mailpony, doing his usual morning routine of collecting the letters inside. The mail pony, visibly exhausted, fiddled with the box before getting it opened. He then looked inside and started picking out the letters and moving them into his satchel, nothing out of the usual.
Then he looked at an envelope, looked left, then looked right, and then Stamp hid the envelope underneath his wing instead of placing it in the satchel with the others. This was strange, strange enough that realisation dawned on his face as a new question popped into his mind: What if when he first grew suspicious in that mailroom if he suspected the wrong pony?
What if the pony taking Gallus’ letters was the friendly, upbeat pegasus this whole time? The one is currently outside the mailroom? A new plan had begun to form in Gallus’ head as he narrowed his eyes, “Yeah, maybe this plan could strike two ponies with one stone…“ before his friends could understand what Gallus meant, he grabbed his bowl of oatmeal and downed the lot, much to the surprise of his platoon at the table.
As Stamp went down the hallway, he remained oblivious to the griffon and for Pegasus cadets behind him, just like last time. When he reached the next letterbox to empty, he looked down the hallway behind him, the group was not there. Just as they had done previously, they used the stairway to avoid being noticed.
Except for this time, there was a slight change to the plan. “Hey, Pound Sterling” Gallus whispered, “I need to borrow your camera.”
“Worra yer on wi?” asked Pound Sterling, carrying the camera under her arm.
“You lot go on ahead, cover me, I need to find out something.”
“Bluebird, you out of your mind?!” Nicknames said in an alarmed undertone, avoiding being overheard. “We’ve got morning drills; you can’t skip them unless you want the Staff Sarge to burn you alive!”
“Look, I’m onto something here. If Razorwing sees I’m missing, just stall him” Gallus implored, there wasn’t time to explain why he needed to go after Stamp. Granted, there wasn’t time for the others to deliberate unless they wanted to be in trouble with Razorwing themselves.
Lightning Dust shrugged, “Alright, your funeral” she quipped, before walking off down the hallway. This was followed by Pound Sterling, who cautiously passed the camera into Gallus’ talons, then Nicknames who looked upwards and whistled innocently, pretending he didn’t see anything. Last was Scythe, who just gave a silent nod of trust before following the rest of the crew.
The griffon then continued to follow behind the mail pony, approaching one letterbox, opening it up, collecting the letters and putting them in his satchel. It made it more suspicious, Gallus swore he saw Stamp put at least one envelope under his wing, so he continued to pursue. One letterbox after another, Stamp collected letters as if everything was ordinary, barring the griffon a distance behind him hiding behind the corners of walls.
At least until Stamp stopped, and looked behind him and side to side, before departing the corridor he was in through an open door. Peeking inside, Gallus could see it was a dark classroom, he furrowed his brow as to why Stamp didn’t bother to turn on a light switch, there wasn’t a window to give ambient light.
Instead, the only light present in the room was a desk lamp, giving a warm yellow glow around the Pegasus pony’s face, Gallus promptly took his camera out, using the partially closed door as cover.
He saw Stamp retrieve the single envelope from under his wing, so he took a photo. Seeing Stamp retrieve what looked like a large gold object from his satchel, he took another photo. When he saw Stamp place the object on the envelope, causing a cold icy blue glow to emerge, he snapped a photo.
After a moment, it stopped glowing, and Stamp picked up the envelope, as it opened without a single tear, as if the sealing wax was completely dissolved. Finally, Stamp carefully pulled out the paper folded and enclosed inside the envelope and began to read it, so Gallus took a photo.
“Hmm… this is the griffon’s letter alright,” Stamp muttered to himself, unaware that Gallus could overhear him prove what Gallus had suspected, it was the Pegasus who was taking his letters. “Best put it with the others to be safe…” The mail pony then carefully restored the letter to its folded state, reinserted it back into its envelope and returned it to the underside of his wing.
Meanwhile out in the corridor, Gallus felt his heart sink. Out of all the ponies he suspected, Stamp, the friendly and upbeat Pegasus, was the one preventing him from sending a single letter to his friends. He could have seen it from the ponies who acted like jerks to him or acted as if they were spying on him, but Stamp?
It started to frustrate him, infuriate him, somepony so sneaky by being somepony so nice, and a Pegasus no less! He ground his teeth and tightened his claws, unaware that he still had Pound Sterling’s camera clenched in his claws.
CLICK! brrrrrrRRRRRRR
The camera captured another photo. Unbeknownst to Gallus, the film had run out, and the spool rolled around longer and louder than it usually did. The blue griffon’s heart stopped, and he began to panic, "shutupshutupshutup!" he quietly pleaded to the camera. When he saw Stamp’s ears flick upwards in the corner of his eyes, he panicked and fled down the hallway, knowing he had been heard.
He managed to leap around the corner, narrowly avoiding being spotted by an alert Stamp popping his head out the door and darting his eyes from side to side. “Who goes there?” he called out in a grunt, a stark contrast from his pleasant demeanour knowing that someone was watching him, even if he wasn’t doing good things himself.
Managing to evade being detected, Gallus' heart was racing, and his mind was muddled. He needed to figure out what to do next. Maybe confront Stamp? How would that turn out, a cadet going after a staff pony, a griffon cadet no less? Maybe one of his friends back in the courtyard? Which one? What help or advice would they offer? Maybe one of his superiors? I mean, he had doubts about them before, but clearly, the scenario he’s in at that moment proved he can be wrong.
All his options circled his brain, and he had a short amount of time to choose one, and then moved. Then he decided.
“Westland”
Outside, it didn’t take long for Gallus’ absence to become apparent.
“Alright you lot, after this many months I’d expect all of you to be here on time and notice one of you missing.” Bellowed Staff Sergeant Razorwing towards the platoon outside in a straight and evenly spaced line in front of the main building. Demanding some answer for Gallus’ lack of presence, he first approached Nicknames. “Where’s Griffon?”
“Uh, who, sir?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Nick. I know you’re one of the ponies that hang around with him and gave him a cute little nickname, where has Griffon wandered off to?”
Nicknames shrugged, “Last I saw he was talking to Dusty, sir,” his clueless demeanour left little to work on, so Razorwing turned his attention to Lightning Dust.
“Don’t look at me!” she snapped defensively, resisting the urge to glare a hole into the Pegasus who called on her, as she remembered who she was meant to stall. “…sir… last time I saw him was in the mess hall. Didn’t he ask you something, Steppy?” she then asked the taller mare beside her, as did Razorwing.
“Uh… yeah, about mi’ cam’ra,” answered Pound Sterling with a slight glow for added effect, but Razorwing hard a fixed glare in her direction, “buh ah dunno where ‘e went afta.” Her follow-up was shaky but was broad and vague enough not to provide much help either.
After a moment of silence, Razorwing turned to the last pony who he was confident would know. “Alright Rosewood, why isn’t your friend here?” he asked Scythe, standing in front of and staring down the wide-eyed amber Pegasus.
“I…I…uh…” Scythe could barely make a sound, let alone start a sentence.
Razorwing groaned and sat back on his hind hooves, “You know, this platoon is not in good standing this morning already, so the next words you say are gonna matter if your buddies are gonna get it easy or not.” He figured the test would be enough to get Scythe to crack, whether it’d be to lie or screw around to get himself in trouble or tell the truth.
As Scythe’s eyes shifted towards his platoon and the windows behind him, eventually he opened.
“He took Sterling’s camera and said he was looking into something…”
“What’s more important for griffon than being here?”
“…his letters?”
It wasn’t an answer he expected, but Razorwing got the answer he was looking for. “Everypony stays here, if I find you’ve moved an inch, it’ll be double duty.” He then turned and flew his way into the building and through the corridor.
He figured that if Gallus was doing something with the mail, and wasn’t making his way to the mail department office, he was likely following the route mail ponies to take to collect them from the boxes. It wasn’t a route Razorwing was familiar with, but he followed the letterboxes from the mess hall, anticipating catching him.
By his luck, he saw a bright blue blur whizz past him, although based on where they were, this blur was going in the direction of Larson Company, and Captain Westland’s office. “GRIFFON, HALT!” he ordered at the top of his voice, and the blur stopped, revealing to Razorwing the rear view of a feline posterior with wings.
“Where in Twilight’s name do you think you’re going?”
Gallus performed an about-face to look at Razorwing directly, “Staff Sergeant, I need to report to Captain Westland, sir” he replied promptly with a stoic look on his face.
“Wrong answer, you need to be outside doing drills.” Razorwing shot back. “You can see Captain Westland later.”
“No, you don’t understand, sir. There’s a mail pony named Stamp who’s taking letters for himself, and he’ll get away with it if Westland doesn’t stop him.”
“Listen here Griffon, I’m not here to waste time listening to conspiracies, I’m ordering you to march down to the courtyard.” He raised his voice and stretched one of his forearms outwards towards the stairs leading down, and yet Gallus remained firmly where he stood.
That was when Gallus gritted his teeth again, “Just shut up and look!” he showed a stack of printed photos and held them in front of Razorwing’s face. The sergeant swiped them out of the griffon’s claws and gave them a proper look, and sure enough, they showed a mail pony taking a letter addressed to Ponyville and using some magic stone to read its contents.
“I get it, you’re a hardass, but I know you’re a good leader,” Gallus stated bluntly. “That’s why you came to find me instead of carrying on without me, isn’t it? Because you set an example to never skip on training, just like you don’t tolerate those who talk back or be cocky. Well, I want to set good examples, such as not tolerating those that get between me and my friends, and I know Captain Westland feels the same way. Please, don’t let that mail pony get away with this.”
Razorwing eyes were fixed on the photos, he didn’t show a single reaction to what Gallus said, even though his straightened ears would have heard the blunt remarks and plea for help. The Staff Sergeant then placed the photos underneath his wing.
“Well, if you want to set good examples, you can start by setting an example to your fellow cadets who are practising drill movements without you.” He then repeated his last order, with an added instruction. “Go to the courtyard, you’re doing shuttle flights while everypony else watches until I get back. Understood?”
Gallus lowered his head and grumbled, “Yes, Staff Sergeant” he uttered, before making the walk down the stairs and out of the courtyard. Razorwing considered following, but in the corner of his eye he noticed a pegasus pony with a green shirt and satchel wandering along the hallway, looking side to side in search of something, and Razorwing figured he might be able to help.
“You know, I did say the Staff Sarge would burn you alive.”
Nicknames were rather smug as his head followed Gallus flying back and forth on the courtyard, the short flaps in the air before landing and turning taking more energy than a long-distance flight would.
Doing it in front of the entire platoon was an odd punishment, but it did provide some mild entertainment for the cadets, given how they had spent several minutes standing in a line doing nothing but wait for Razorwing to come back. Fortunately for Gallus, some did take pity on him as his muscles started to wear, his heart rate increased whilst the air in his lungs decreased.
“Ah think you can stop ‘n breathe, jono.” Pound Sterling offered.
“Not… gonna… risk… it…” Gallus countered, gasping for air.
“ATTENTION!” The sharp call of Staff Sergeant Razorwing called for every cadet to stand upright and in line. That was except for Gallus, who finally stopped flying and collapsed on the ground to regain oxygen on the gravel surface.
He relaxed for only a few minutes before he could feel himself being pulled up to his paws and claws, followed by the sight of Razorwing with his hardstone glare. “Griffon, report to Captain Westland in her office immediately,” he ordered.
“Yes… Staff Sergeant.”
As Gallus stumbled his way back towards the main building, he could hear Razorwing barking orders to the rest of the platoon behind him. The journey to the Captain’s office was made longer by his lack of energy to fly, but by the time he gradually arrived at the door, he had enough to raise his arm to knock.
A muffled yet direct “Come in.” was uttered from the door, prompting Gallus to open it. Even with his aches and pains, he was able to march in and salute without much strain. Captain Westland was at her desk, her eyes fixed on a short stack of papers in front of her, writing line after line from the moment the griffon entered her office. “Officer Cadet Gallus, thank you for reporting promptly,” she acknowledged.
Then from a drawer underneath her desk, she picked up a stack of three photographs and placed them in the centre of the desk, revealing to Gallus that these were the photos he took and gave to Razorwing. “Tell me, when I said you should resolve your mail issue, did you think I meant snooping around?” she asked Gallus, looking at him with her deadpan mood, leaving him with a discomforting lack of certainty about her reaction to said evidence in front of her.
“No, ma’am?”
Immediately after he answered, Captain Westland slammed both of her hooves into the desk and stood upwards, “Then what were you thinking?” she followed in a raised and angered voice, causing everything from Gallus to the stacks of paper on the desk to be taken aback.
“I…” Gallus was left nervous; he could see the metaphorical clouds of thunder looming over them both as she stared him down like a hawk. “I wanted to prove to my friends I wasn’t ignoring them.”
After a tense moment, Captain Westland took a deep breath, and the dark clouds dissipated. “Well, you got your proof, and I’ve gotten a few more. Staff Sergeant Razorwing brought Stamp here a few moments ago, and with a bit of… persuasion, we managed to find these with his belongings.”
She then reached back into her drawer and placed more items onto the desk for Gallus to see, first was Gallus’ envelope with its clean unopened seal, and the stone Stamp was using. Recognition dawned on Gallus’ face now he could see the stone up close and in clear daylight, he remembered a unicorn who used a similar medallion with a red ribbon to teleport from place to place back at the School of Friendship. This medallion was one of these magical artefacts sometimes used by unicorns but this one did something else.
“Turns out our suspicions were right, he was reading and taking your letters before they could be inspected and sent off.”
There was a slight relief for Gallus, knowing he was right, even if he got the suspect wrong. He was quickly reminded of the conversation he overheard between the Captain and Pretty Petals the day before.
“So, then you knew it was Stamp, and you were pursuing him?”
“Of course, I might be your platoon commander, but I don’t spend all day sitting behind a desk.” Captain Westland wryly remarked. “Your mail issues were a surprise when you first reported them to me since Razorwing notices you regularly write and send letters to your friends in Ponyville,” she began to explain, “so I used my resources to investigate.”
By resources, she requested records from the distribution centre in Canterlot, where letters go from the Academy before being sent across Equestria. She patted her hoof on the stack of papers as if to show off the records she obtained. “What I found was that despite all the letters you put in the boxes, none were recorded as being sent. I went to Pretty Petals about this, and her inspection records matched these records, so it was down to whoever was collecting the letters from the boxes” she deduced.
“I was hoping to submit my findings to my commander Major Badge to approve a complaint to the Academy board. Thanks to your efforts, I don’t need to, I can go ahead and send a report to the Equestrian Postal Service and E.U.P. Internal Affairs” she said, moving the evidence out of the way, so the papers she was writing on was back in front of her. “In closing, thank you for your contribution to this case,” she followed in a calm and warming tone, before shifting to a deeper and ominous one, “but break any more protocols, and you’ll be doing more than shuttle flights out on the field.”
“Uh… you’re welcome, ma’am?” Gallus replied nervously.
Captain Westland smiled, “I’ll make sure to pass your letter to Pretty Petals, she’ll get it sent off in the afternoon.”
“Thank you. Leave to carry on, ma’am?”
“Before you do, one other thing. We also found this envelope in Stamp’s possession as well.” Westland took one more envelope from her drawer and put it in Gallus’ line of view. He recognised it immediately as Scythe’s letter, what with Yona’s name and addressed to Rarity’s Carousel Boutique. Like Gallus’ letter, it too had a cleanly opened envelope, leading to the thought that Stamp tried to read this letter as well. “The contents inside aren’t in Ponish as far as I could make out but judging by the name on the address it’s for one of your friends, right?” she queried curiously.
“Uh, yeah. Scythe wanted to write to Yona ‘cause she’s a yak, part of an assignment.”
“Figured as such, given it has Major Babel’s stamp of approval,” she remarked, pulling the letter out to show the clear red rubber stamp inside. “I’ll be sure this gets sent off too, unless you have any reason why I shouldn’t?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Very well, get out of my sight. Don’t want you missing any more exercises today.”
Gallus hurried out as soon as he could, with the verbal warning in mind. On the plus side, he was more confident that both Scythe and his letter would get out of the Academy this time.
A week had gone by, and Stamp was busy in the mailroom, although he was much more downcast and dishevelled than he usually was. In light of recent evidence of mail tampering and theft, Stamp was hereby suspended from his post, pending further investigation. He was ordered by the Academy board to gather his things and leave.
His head had remained hung low in shame, nopony within the Academy wanted to speak to him, and if they did, they weren’t happy with him. “You know, I may not like griffons, but I’m not gonna break laws over it,” chided Pretty Petals, her forearms folded as she glared narrowly at him.
Stamp stood still, he kept his head lowered to the floor, too ashamed to look at his colleague. “I have nothing against griffons though,” he countered in a gravelly voice, “I like griffons. I was following orders.”
Pretty Petals scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Right, and who ordered you to steal letters?” she questioned, but the two were interrupted by the sound of a bell and the opening of the front door.
“Stamp, there you are,” said the stern voice of the pony who just entered, Stamp suddenly felt anxious as he saw it was a tall white and highly decorated unicorn who was standing by the door. “I need a word with you before my guards escort you from the premises,” requested Commandant Authordox.
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
1,120 users online
1,983,641 hits today, 2,205,040 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Is she, though? Because it occurs to me that we have plenty of other ponies at play in all of this that could be under investigation too. I mean, maybe Westland is just making good on looking into the matter after you told her about it, Gallus, and she's just three steps ahead of you already towards finding the culprit.
How medieval-sounding of you, Stamp. What, do you think yourself some knight in shining armor?
Mm-hmm, thought so. You've got more upper-ranks in your court than you think, Bluebird.
Well, ask a stupid question, get a stupid commandant.
I mean, seriously, with that timing, who wouldn't put two with two at that point?
Poor Stamp though--Authordox will totally throw him under the bus so to avoid it himself.
well this is good and yet i have a feeling this is just the top of the shit pile.
Ah, the fun one can have with 'ill-eagle' orders ... mail tampering is (somewhat) close to counterfeiting IIRC ...
Ohh conspiracy much
“He took Sterling’s camera and said he was looking into something…”
“What’s more important for griffon than being here?”
“…his letters?”
What the heck Scythe
Well then at least that's one problem solved but something else is going on but anyway it looks like the operation love letter is still on the go gallus and Scythe just finished writing the letter to Yona hopefully she gets the letter and understanding the situation what is going on so they waited until they are certain that somebody is trying to steal his letters so far they suspected petals to be the one since she was also delivering the letters and so far things are not going too well so he asked pound sterling borrowed the camera so they can he can catch her in the act but instead it was a different Pony name stamp and apparently he was the one who stole the letters for what we don't know so he was about to make a report of it until razorwing caught him and basically no way out of this he has to say something how about this whole situation so with that gallus reported to the office the commander wasn't too happy but she also got the information that there was some tampering with the letter after their little talk the other day and she was doing her own investigation as well and a good thing he wasn't in trouble or else this would have been worse meanwhile stamp was immediately fired for stealing the letters and he was about to say something why he did it in till Authordox showed up and something tells me he wants the information what he got it from stamp about gallus I still don't understand what it is his end goal here I guess we'll find out next time
I am loving it! I look forward to seeing updates in my feed.
Me no up-dates:
Me with up-dates:
awesome. glad to see this story still updated. Razorwing turned out to be a chad in the end
11280723
Yeah, I was particularly slower than usual this time on account of a convention, a festival, and being sick with food poisoning. It happens.
11281043
It is completly alright, dont owe us to finish the story. Honestly it rarely happens on this site anyway hehe and everyone has their lifes. :) Still this is one of my favorite fictions right now. Always gonna check it out when an update comes out.
You really made some great characters with Captain Westwind, Pound Sterling while aswell doing good job with Gallus and other established ones. Its really solid read and honestly thank you for it. Myself i have had few stressful months by now and little bit of escape from it all really helps.