The Equestrian Intelligence Agency

by General Soarin

Chapter 6: The Toll

Team Hawk
Equestrian Intelligence Agency
4 Hours after the launch of Operation Harmony
Everfree Safehouse, Everfree Forest, Equestria

The battle at Fluttershy's cottage had been short but brutal after the three elite fliers arrived. Fluttershys team had holed itself in and apparently enlisted the help of many of the timid Pegasus’ animal friends who in turn proved to be too distracting and focused for the kidnappers to follow through on their plans.

Rainbow Dash was slightly worried. Sure, they had made it in time and fighting off these goons had been fun and all, she just felt something was...off. She excused herself from Sky Hawk’s side and wandered off a little, always making sure to stay within a safety parameter. The cyan mare scowled a little. Had she really been slower? Or were her hoof to hoof fighting skills really that bad? As long as Dash could remember she had been the absolute best in physical exertion.

Doubts began to settle in her mind. Maybe she wasn’t in such a great form the last few days. She had pulled a few all-nighters working for the EIA and practicing a few stunts. While they were mostly for her cover Rainbow Dash was very determined to prove to herself she could do this sort of tricks. After all she had chosen her profile to look like this.

She muttered in a low voice to herself “Good going, Featherbrain. If you hadn’t worked on something as lame as your stunts again, you would have noticed something going on around your friends. Maybe you could have stopped them!” while hanging her head and fluttering around.

A few feet away Sky Hawk and Spitfire traded glances. “You know,” the mare began “maybe you should talk to her. She seems really down, probably because of the whole situation with her friends. I also noticed that she was struggling quite a bit more on our flight to Fluttershy's cottage. Are there any latent diseases showing their head? We need her at her best after what happened to Director Armor.” Sighing the stallion turned to her and answered “She is a professional. As much as it hurts me to say this, her feelings for her friends would never let her become so distracted, just like I would. Or you, for that matter. Would...would you talk to her? From what I understand Dash seemed to idolize you quite a bit when she was younger. It would help her into admitting her pain and that’s always the first step. I will talk to Fluttershy in the meantime and see if her condition has raised enough to talk to her too. Dash will need all the help she can get if something DOES happen to her friends.”

With a sigh Spitfire nodded and went off to talk to Rainbow Dash. Sky Hawk had a lower rank than her but he was the assigned boss for this task and that made his words orders to the professional stunt flyer.
The brown stallion trotted over to Fluttershy and started to talk “Hello Fluttershy. I am Sky Hawk and I wanted to ask you a few questions.” He asked with a calm and soothing voice and was glad that the pegasus before him pulled herself together. “Okay.” whispered the mare, with a voice so tiny that Sky Hawk had to focus really hard on listening to hear her.
“May you tell me what happened to you? Anything you remember would help us out, even the smallest detail.” the orange maned stallion continued. Fluttershy took a few minutes to collect herself and started her tale “It all began somewhat around yesterday. You see, I’m able to understand my animals around me really well and care for them a great deal. But sometime yesterday I had trouble understanding Perry. That’s um, my platypus friend who likes wearing hats. And after that, it gradually got harder and harder to listen to other animals. Just before the attack happened, I even had problems understanding Angel Bunny! I was so devastated. But when somepony seemed to jump at me from some bushes, Angel helped me nonetheless. The other animals, even Mr.Bear who is a bit grumpy at the moment joined and helped me. I was so scared every animal or pony to be hurt but then Vinyl Scratch suddenly was there and ushered me inside the cottage. She and some other ponies helped my animal friends and soon these other ponies left...what did they want? Why would they attack me? Did I do something wrong?”

Consoling the sobbing mare, Sky Hawk answered “You did nothing wrong there, Fluttershy. These ponies were hired by a bad pony and tried to ponynap you. We don’t exactly know what they want you for, but we will do all we can to find that out. Do you or your animal friends need any help in the meantime, were any of you hurt?”
Sky Hawk knew that not to be the truth, but nothing good would come from worrying Fluttershy unnecessarily. For her security to withstand any more attacks, she needed to stay put in her cottage. There was no way they could protect her from forced teleportation spells and the likes if she traveled around. Magic was tricky like that, sadly. After hearing Fluttershys answer, Sky Hawk called some ponies to help her with some of her animal friends and then trotted off to think about the whole story. There was a little bit about it that simply bugged him. Wait, didn’t Fluttershy say she had trouble understanding animals lately? The ponynappings started around the same time her problems started too. That could not be a coincidence!
But Rainbow Dash didn’t show any kind of...oh Celestia, how could he have overlooked it! Rainbow Dash had troubles flying lately! It just usually never showed because she was this good at it! Maybe her powers had dropped the same time as Fluttershys? But would the Elements of Harmony really cause such a thing? They only worked for the good, after all!
Now in full thinking mode, Hawk sat on his haunches and pondered the whole problem further. Maybe...and that was assuming Laurence wasn’t as crazy as everypony in the agency believed, maybe the elements were more than a powerful tool for the six of them. Maybe they shared some kind of connection through it. In a way it even made sense: After all, the elements had to make sure it’s bearers were protected or else they wouldn’t be used nearly as often. But if they protected the bearers in a way and they didn’t notice anything - and after extensive tests performed on Rainbow Dash they had noticed nothing different with her - maybe their special talents or powers simply increased more? Maybe Dash had been faster because of the elements. It would explain her Sonic Rainbooms...the first recorded appearance had Dash with the power of youth and the filly had been totally exhausted days afterwards. Yet the second time it happened, she rescued her friend Rarity AND three Wonderbolts at the same time and still did it. That meant...that meant the elements really DID strengthen the bearers and it just wasn’t noticeable in any way ponykind could imagine. Maybe the princesses knew but then again...there was little time in this case as it was. A formal request with the princess took at least five days, now that Twilight Sparkle had disappeared. So they had to solve that problem on their own, it seemed.
Sighing he watched Spitfire appear with a frown on her muzzle. Before she had a chance to tell him anything he answered “I guess I figured out what Agent Dash’s problems are.”
“You did?” came the surprised answer. After all, even the cyan mare herself had had no clue as to what had happened. “Yes,” sighed Sky Hawk, “It seems the case is even more urgent right now. The Bearers lose their strength if they don’t stay close together. Furthermore they all share a connection. I believe Laurence is using this connection for his Lau theory. Spitfire, we need to hurry. Who knows how long these two will last? Or the ponynapped bearers? I have a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling...”

Author's Note:

With this chapter, I come with sad news. Spitfire101 has officially dropped from the TEIA writing team. I appreciate the brilliant chapters that he wrote, and I will continue writing the story solo.
And now for end of chapter notes. First thing is that there is a small reference to a kids show in this chapter. Kudos for anyone who can figure out what I'm talking about. Second, this chapter was written by my editor. The reason being Spitfire101 was supposed to write the chapter, but he dropped before he could finish it. So my editor decided to take over, and ended up rewriting the whole chapter. I'm telling you this now: Don't expect my editor to write more chapters. That's officially my job. Anyway, enough with my blabbing for now. Until next time my friends, long live Equestria!