The Aftermath
His finger may have been conditioned to squeeze when he heard the word “Fire!”, but Glumm had spent the last few years undergoing an additional kind of conditioning. One which, while it wasn’t part of the normal training regimen of an agent of the CMAA, carried a lot more weight.
In his memory, Glumm once again heard the shocked and disbelieving voice of a filly shouting, “My special talent is making mud pies?!” The conditioned reflex of his trigger finger was neatly countered by the remembered shame of failing that young pony. Not to mention the hours and hours of paperwork that had been the result.
The old ingrained shame had caused his arm to jerk the cannon up and sideways at the same time his finger had tightened on the trigger, launching the Cutie Cannon ordinance over the distracted Scootaloo’s left shoulder. Unbeknownst to anyone there, the ordinance went on to strike a nearby fox lurking in some bushes. This fox became the first non-pony in history to have a cutie mark, a fact would cause much turmoil in the upcoming mating season, but that was a story for another time.
“I can’t believe you’d miss an easy shot like that!” Lumwinkle said, sounding more disbelieving than disappointed. The other gnome brought his cannon around only to be obscured by Glumm, who moved directly into his line of fire.
“Stand down,” the grizzled gnome snapped. Ignoring the other agent’s spluttering protests, he reached up and tapped his headset. “Control, confirm epiphany status on subject: Scootaloo. I believe your count may be wrong.”
”You didn’t take the shot?!” the Controller yelled into Glumm’s ear. ”You were ordered to fire! Epiphany levels... Great, now they’re at 87% and falling.” There was a pause, after which the Controller’s voice, obviously attempting to control a great deal of anger, said, ”Return to base immediately, Agent 13. No deviations, no delays. Return your gear and head immediately to your superior’s office.”
“Understood, Control,” Glumm said, gritting his teeth as self-doubt settled in. His instincts had overridden his training and all known protocol, and now he was going to pay for it.
And the worst part was that he wasn’t even sure if he’d been right.
~~*~~
A less experienced gnome might look at the Epiphany Room and see nothing but utter chaos. Controllers shouted at agents, agents shouted back at the controllers, and earnest young interns ran about higgledy-piggledy on whatever mysterious errands that they always seemed to be occupied with.
The truth was that for all the shouting and hectic activity, the gnomes involved were all working together like the springs and gears of a complicated and chaotic clock.
Figgwaggle, his hand still on the device, glowered in fury over the controller’s shoulder at the screen which showed a very definite falling in Scootaloo’s epiphany scores. Glumm had failed him.
Figg glanced up at the big screen and scowled. The Rainboom had spread out over several miles, bringing spikes of epiphany as it went, but those spikes had already hit their peak and were on their way down.
“Call Security,” Figgwaggle growled at the Controller before him. “Agent 13 is to be taken into custody the moment he enters the compound.”
“Yes, sir,” the Controller said. The salute he directed towards the Counselor was crisp, precise, and completely unnecessary, as the CMAA wasn’t actually a military organization. Figg returned the salute before he stalked out of the Control Room, seething, and made his way to Gnome Resources to file a complaint.
~~*~~
Sweat plastered Tidwiddle’s jacket to his back as he rushed back to his office, gasping and panting for breath. He'd been a senior gnome for a long time, and he was no longer used to rushing anywhere. The hallways of the CMAA compound were strangely empty, with all gnomes on duty at the various workstations. There would be no better time to transport a box of damning files from one location to another.
As he hurried, he allowed himself a small, fierce grin. Figg wasn’t as clever as he’d thought he was. The device he'd taken from Gnome Tech was called an Epiphany Tuner, used to test and calibrate Epiphometers as part of the regular maintenance. And, once he actually used the thing, he'd be just as culpable in this whole mess as Tiddwiddle, himself.
All of the vague “I’ll take you with me” threats that Tidd had thrown at Figg were completely unenforceable, a bluff. All the other Counselor would have had to do was to simply deny all knowledge, and any investigation would have cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Until now, that is. Until he actually used the device himself. Oh, and once he became an accomplice in hiding the evidence, as well.
Tiddwiddle giggled slightly to himself as he let himself into his office, unlocking the door with a huge, heavy key that was one of several dozen on a massively oversized keyring that typically weighed down his right pocket. He shoved his chair aside and reached under his desk, pulling out the box full of dirty secrets.
His secretary... strike that, his Administrative Assistant, as the Gnome Resources department was insisting they be called these days, had a wheeled cart by her desk for when she needed to bring files down to the archive. Tiddwiddle heaved the box onto it and hurried down the hallway, making his way as quickly as he could to Figgwaggle’s office.
~~*~~
Chief Tallywaddle solemnly regarded the gnome sitting on the other side of his desk. He was almost absolutely certain that he had his features under control, and that the smirking joy he felt in no way showed up on his face.
He was completely wrong, of course, but Tallywaddle wouldn’t have been greatly bothered to know that.
“Yes,” he continued, picking up the report in front of him. “A serious, serious breach of protocol.”
“Yes, sir,” Glummwriggle said stiffly.
“Serious, indeed. Very, very... serious.”
“Yes... sir.” Glumm said, even more stiffly. “You’ve mentioned.”
“Well, it won’t do!” Tallywaddle said, slapping the complaint down on the desk. This was followed by what was intended to be a dramatic surge to his feet as the Chief bolted up out of his chair, the effect of which was hampered by his plump waistline getting stuck in his chair’s armrests. A frantic few seconds of rump-shaking, swearing and pushing on the chair got it to fall back to the floor with a loud thunk, freeing the Chief's expansive posterior..
Tallywaddle’s eyes snapped up to see a not-at-all-amused-really Glummwriggle sitting in front of him with a face that was, perhaps, a little too straight, his gaze firmly attached to a point just over the Chief’s left shoulder. Tally grunted and smoothed down his jacket before confronting the other gnome once again.
“Do you have any idea what we must do now?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh?” Tallywaddle said, stiffening his back and crossing his arms. “Pray, do tell.”
“In a typical situation,” Glumm intoned stonily, “this case would be referred to the Cutie Mark Intervention department. CMI specialists would work behind the scenes to recreate the mindset and epiphany level that would bring young Scootaloo back to the proper state to receive her epiphany, and therefore her cutie mark.” His eyes snapped over to the Chief, who took a step back out of pure reflex. “Which would, apparently, make her a dentist in spite of the fact that she’s never shown any inclination towards dentistry, was doing nothing dentist-related at the time, and the fact that her file definitely indicates she’s not going to be a dentist. It was a false positive.”
“Pssh!” Tallywaddle replied, releasing a noise that sounded like steam escaping from an old and unstable boiler. “Pshaw! There has never, never been a false-positive in the entire history of the CMAA! On what do you base this ridiculous claim?”
“On the basis that I know those kids. My instincts tell me that the fire command was premature. Control was in error.”
“Indeed!” Tallywaddle said, his face now resembling that same ill-made boiler. His face was an alarming shade of read, and sweat poured profusely from his brow and down his face as he flopped heavily back into his chair. “Indeed? Instincts, is it? Well, I think all of this... this... nonsense is simply an attempt to cover up for your own incompetence!”
Unlike the senior gnome, Glumm’s chair didn’t get stuck on his backside as he surged to his feet while slamming his fists knuckles-down on the desk.
“I may be many things,” Glummwriggle growled, the coldness of his voice countering the heat of the Chief’s, who leaned warily back, “but I am not a liar, and I don’t make excuses for when I screw up. I didn’t screw up. Control was wrong.”
“So you say,” the Chief said, still leaning back.
“So I say,” Glumm replied.
“Well, then,” Chief Tallywaddle said, slumping back down into his creaking office chair. “I’m afraid you give me no choice.” He didn’t bother trying to stop the grin that spread across his face as he said, “Effective immediately, you are on unpaid suspension, pending review of this case and subsequent termination.”
He could hear the disgraced field agent’s teeth grinding together. He watched as Glumm’s eyes ranged across his desk and around the room, and the Chief had a sudden moment of panic as he realized that he had a distressingly large variety of blunt objects cluttering his office, very close at hand.
The word “bludgeoning” occurred to the Chief, followed shortly thereafter by the words “bruising” and “grievous bodily harm”. Those words, coupled with the look on Glumm's face, caused him to sweat even more profusely than before, the sweat running in an icy river down his back.
Then, to his immense relief, Glumm spun on his heel and stalked out the door without another word.
~~*~~
“This... this can’t be right,” Claribelle said. “You can’t be right!” she added, pointing an accusing finger at the folder lying open on her desk.
The folder just sat there, quietly refusing to acknowledge its wrongness or to change and suddenly start making sense. Clari leaned down and pulled the rumpled folder she'd found earlier out from underneath her desk and placed it beside the new, crisp, and utterly wrong one.
Everything was the same in the two folders. All of the research notes, the dates, the names of the gnomes on the committee who worked on this particular case... Clari’s eyes hesitated one specific name, a frown slowly creeping across her face as certain thoughts began vying for attention.
Apart from the damage and neglect to the one folder, all of the contents were completely identical. Except, that is, for the Counselor’s summary.
“Subject is from a wealthy family,” Claribelle read, slowly and out loud, “but shows signs of early maturity, grace and poise. It is expected that subject's epiphany will involve her special uniqueness and her rightful place in the top tier of pony society.”
The gnomette stared at the summary, thoughts whirling. She had a sick feeling that she knew what had happened and, by extension, what it was that was in the box that had so mysteriously disappeared. What she didn’t know was why.
“Oh, Diamond Tiara,” she whispered into the storeroom. “You poor thing. What did they do to you?” She felt a creeping horror as she added, "And how many more like you are there?"
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
649 users online
838,873 hits today, 2,561,572 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.®
hmmm
MUD PIES XDXD
Oh, so that is why Diamond Tiara is like that. She got screwed by the corrupt gnome. Princess Celestia's going to be mad when this inevitably comes to light. Many gnomes will be moonbound.
2256549 I eagerly await that development.
You're a good gnome, Glumm.
...mud pies xD
And lolol... the paper pusher is the one getting to the bottom of this!
This story is just great, really great.
Also, I want to know what happens to the fox
Plot thickness has been doubled! Keep it coming, this was a great chapter. I wonder who will be the first to put all the pieces together.
2256442 That's not funny! That filly's life was ruined! All because he was too enthusiastic, she now has to spend the rest of her life making mud-pies!
Your writing style reminds me of Eoin Colfer. It might be the gnomes...
Once again, I'm glad I found this story. You certainly don't fail to please.
This should be the colour 'red'.
Don't stop now, keep it up!!
Indeed!
Will this story ever see an update?
3454277
Hi there! Yes, I haven't abandoned this story, and it will see an update. I ran into some personal issues that limited my writing time, so I focused on my more popular stories for a little while. But I do still plan on updating and finishing this one. Thanks for your interest!
omg this story is amazing! I've never read a fic like this before! Really hope you finish it!
2268046
Come on, Holly! Where are the LEPrecons when you need them?
And then a year passed due to real life, a tragedy for sure.
It was a slow start, but you're built a good plot line finally!
Keep going! ;)
3832514 So much better than all the vampony shipping fics out there!
Then again... that's not hard to do... Hmmm.
Better than all the HiE shipping that... no, that's still way too low a bar.
Oh, I know! Better than all the lazy crossover... ARG!!
All these genres SUCK!! I can't get a good comparison! i must consult my 'Epic Fanfics of Awesome' list!
*studies* Ah, it's among the ranks of "Pirates for a Day/Eternity" and the really good "Eternal" (there were a couple sharing that title, but there was one where Celestia was a split personality sort of with the Sun, and she tried to be the Eternal Sun, and went nuts and Twilight had to go mind/spirit-diving and go through all these psychological mazes and it was just the right amount of angst, but still kept Twilight as the clever thinker she is, and didn't paint Celestia as a tyrant, but as a dutiful ruler who'd made a grave error out of concern for her people, and her fear, which were so perfectly sensible to the outside viewer and it was just magnificent and... ok, I guess that's enough fangasming). Basically, this is in my tier of the best of the best of the best.
And for those that know my brutal, scathing, merciless manner of criticism, for me to be metaphorically puking rainbows over this fic, it's something SPECIAL!
"But I don't want to be a bitch!"
"TOO BAD CANON OVERRIDES YOUR REQUEST"
"Fuck you!"
"THAT'S THE SPIRIT!"
....Good...good GRAVY, this is the first time someone's actually tried to explain what Diamond Tiara's cutie mark could possibly mean, and it actually makes some sort of sense! Dang, this is turning out to be a really fascinating bureaucracy drama. XD I never thought I'd say those words, but then again, most bureaucracy dramas don't involve gnomes, ponies, and cutie marks. One has to wonder why, really.
ITS A CONSPIRACY I TELLZ YE