Chapter One: “Welcome To the ESP”
I slowly walked into Celestia's room where she was reading letters and replying to them, as was her usual. As I walked in she looked up at me. “Ah lieutenant Vegard, I've been meaning to speak with you.”
As I shut the door I turned to face her. Even sitting down on the floor, as she did while reading letters, she still looked me in the eye. I have never felt that nervous near her before. Despite the immense powers she holds, she never particularly felt intimidating. But now, now I was here to tell her that I think she made a biased decision and cheated me. I was about to confront our ruler, and not just question, but contradict one of her decisions. As I met eyes with her I could see she knew why I was here. She always knew these sorts of things. I swallowed while I tried to remember what she had just said to me as all of those thoughts had been going through my head. She waited patiently, she knew it would take me a second, she knew what I wanted to say, but she was going to let me choke it out. “Uh, hello Princess, I... I wanted to discuss something with you.”
“Of course, what can I do for you lieutenant?”
It was too late to change my mind. I wanted to at that moment, but for the life of me I couldn't think of an excuse that would justify having come in to speak with her. I didn't have a choice. “Well... it's about your recent pick for the new captain of the guard.” She kept looking at me without saying a word, I just wished she would cut me off to make easier. “I feel as if I was more qualified than Shining Armour for the position.” I waited to be told off, but as usual the Princess surprised me with not only her answer, but the tone she delivered it in.
“Yes Vegard, you are more qualified, however I need you elsewhere.”
I was stunned. She admitted I was right? “Elsewhere...?”
She stood up and stared down at me. I think she only stayed sitting not to intimidate me while I told her my position on things. “Yes, your talents are too important to waste on the guard.”
Was I about to be reassigned? What had I done? “Princess, with all due respect, the guard is my life, all I wish to do is protect you and the kingdom.”
“No need to be so formal, I've known you for quite some time now, and I've been following your progress. You are quite committed to your duty, and are good at what you do.” At that point I felt like she was leading up to dismissing me, but I let her continue. “So after some consideration, I have decided to promote you to the ESP.”
I just stared at her confused. “I'm afraid I don't know what that is.”
“As you shouldn't. The ESP is my personal task force. They do the work that I need done in secret. Do you remember three years ago, on your third ever case, a mysterious mare showed up with some official paperwork telling you to hand over the case to her?”
I remembered that day. There was a large increase of theft in Canterlot. Reports of stolen jewelry right off of the victims necks in broad daylight. No one could figure it out, until that mare showed up, with those official documents stating that we were to relinquish the case and all information we had to her. Since then it was as if it never happened, all the documents had been turned over to her, and we never heard about it again. How the Princess managed to remember that it was my third case was beyond me. “I remember.”
“She was a member of the ESP.”
“You want me to become part of this secret task force?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly does the ESP do?”
“Everything the guard can't do.”
What the guard can't do? What could the guard not do? I have been in it for years, and have everything from thwarting robberies to being the watchdog over an elementary school. “I'm sorry I don't get it, what is it that the guard can't do that you need them for?”
The Princess sat back down and telepathically pulled a small box from a nearby shelf toward her. She opened it to reveal the Elements of Harmony inside. I stared at them in awe. The most powerful artifacts ever sat before me. She looked at my stare of amazement and smiled. “What would the guard do if these fell into the wrong hands?”
I looked at her. I ran through all the battle plans and contingencies in my head for numerous situations involving a large scale powerful magical assault. I considered all of our options, every trick and maneuver in our arsenal, nothing seemed to even have a remote chance at success. “I... I don't know.”
She knew me well, she knew that I had every procedure memorized, and that I knew how to utilize every single one of them to their maximum potential. “Exactly.” She shut the box and but it back on the shelf she had pulled it from. “What if I told you the ESP had a plan for that?”
I starred at her, mind ablaze with the huge number of tactics I knew, desperately trying to formulate a strategy of my own for such an attack on the kingdom. She waited for me. After several seconds of staring off into space I refocused my eyes on her. “How?”
She smiled even broader than before. “Am I to assume that means you are interested in my offer to become an ESP agent?”
“Offer?”
“I wasn't going to force you, in fact, I will warn you now, The ESP is dangerous. They do things that you would never imagine could be done. You will be tried on a near daily basis, and your life will be put in danger, but you will be serving Equestria.”
I looked at her. Five minutes ago I would have never imagined being in this position. I expected to get fired, I hoped to get promoted to captain of the guard, but this, this was different. I liked the sound of it. “When do I start?”
The remainder of that day was filled with signing paper work dismissing my self from the guard, and telling everyone goodbye. The Princess had sworn me to secrecy, I was to simply make it look as if I was retiring early. Nearly everyone was wishing me fair well. I would miss them all dearly, but I would pay that price to serve Equestria. After everything was said and done, I headed home. The Princess said I should expect someone to arrive within the week.
As I walked in to my home I looked around at all the pictures of myself in guard uniform. All the achievements mounted on the wall that I was so proud of. Now I would be doing something more, but yet I would never receive another achievement again. That was OK I supposed, I mean I would be helping protect the kingdom more, I didn't need the recognition. I reached up and picked one of my medals I had one off the wall and looked at it.
I had had it bestowed on me after I had managed to stop a bank robbery attempt that had nearly succeeded. I had managed to spot a Pegasus flying away with the money that the Unicorn had stolen. Their plan was to have the Unicorn plead innocent on the account he didn't have the money, and when he was freed for lack of evidence, split the money. I quickly cast a spell to bind the Pegasus and brought her and their plan crashing to the ground.
While deep in thought about my past exploits I heard a voice behind me. “You sure do have a lot of those.”
I quickly turned around in a hunched stance, horn aglow, ready to defend myself from the intruder. She was laying on my couch staring at me with a slight smile on her face. I relaxed a bit, seeing how far away she was, and seeing she was a Pegasus. I let the spell go out, and stood up straight. “How long have you been there?”
“You shouldn't underestimate me just because I'm a Pegasus.”
I wasn't sure how to react to that. How did she know that I had relaxed because she was a Pegasus? “What do you mean?”
“Don't give me that, I know guard procedure, you're a Unicorn, which means you think that because I'm not you can easily overpower me. You think you have range advantage, well let me tell you, you don't, and you're going to need to break those guard habits real quick if you want to be ESP.”
I looked her up and down. She was a black Pegasus with a dark red mane. An interesting color scheme to say the least. I saw no cutie mark, I supposed she died herself that color. She didn't appear to be any threat at all. She had no weapon, and besides flight and agility, Pegasus had no upper hand on Unicorns, especially in doors. “You're from the ESP?”
“Yeah, I'm here to pick you up, Celestia said you'd probably accept.”
“Wait you mean you haven't talked with her about this since I've quit?”
“No, she's been planning you for weeks. She gave us orders that if you suddenly resigned to come and pick you up.”
I wasn't liking the sound of her story. How was I to know she was a member of the ESP. “OK where is your paper work?”
The black Pegasus laughed hysterically. After several seconds of laughter she looked at me and saw I wasn’t laughing. “Oh, your serious? Wow, we really are going to have to break you of some habits huh? OK listen Vegard, we don't do paper work. We don't need it, do you even know what ESP stands for?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“It means Equestrian Secret Police. Emphasis on the secret. We really don't leave a trace.”
“Then how am I supposed to trust you?”
“I said ESP, before today have you ever heard that term before?”
“No.”
“Then obviously I'm from the ESP.”
“That doesn't make any sense.”
She rolled her eyes. “What do you want me to do, make up some fake documents for you? We don't technically exist, so we don't do paper work, it would be meaningless.”
The more she talked the more I was believing her. But no paper work still felt wrong. So unofficial. “All right, I suppose I get it, so what now?”
“Well first we get that cutie mark off ya.” She reached into a small bag she had tucked under her wing and pulled out a small round rod. It looked to be nothing more than a small iron rod. As she walked over to me what she said registered.
“Wait what?”
Before I had time to react she passed the rod close to my cutie mark and it vanished. “All done.”
“How did you do that?”
“Cutie marks are a psychological thing, all this does is erase your memory of what you had, but not actually getting one, that way you won't get a new one because you know you got one, but you won't have one because you can't remember what it was.”
I listened to her explanation in disbelief. “That's ridiculous I...” I trailed off as I tried to remember the cutie mark I had just seconds before. “I can't remember.”
“Yeah, I told you you couldn't.”
“But how?”
She held up the little rod in my face. “I told you it was this.”
“But your no Unicorn, how did you manage to wipe my memory like that?”
“I told you not to underestimate me just cause I was a Pegasus. In our line of work, underestimating anypony is a seriously bad idea.”
I was still stuck on trying to remember my cutie mark. “Bring it back.”
“I can't, besides you don't need it. You get a new one like daily with us.”
“What?”
She hovered the metal rod near her flank and suddenly a scroll cutie mark appeared. “See, just like a real one.”
“If you can do that why can't you bring back mine?”
“Well if you just wanted one that looked exactly like yours I could, but those memories you had are gone, this thing can't bring those back, just plant new ones.” She said as she waived the rod over her scroll cutie mark to make it disappear.
“Why didn't you tell me that before you did it?”
“Because then you wouldn't have let me.”
I turned around to look at all my pictures on the wall. Hoping to find one of me with my cutie mark showing. All of the pictures I had were me in uniform or me as a kid, not one with a cutie mark. “How do I not have a picture of me with my cutie mark?”
“We went ahead and removed em.”
I turned to her with anger in my eyes. “Why?! Why would you do that?!”
She calmly blinked. “Look, I'll tell you what the agent who picked me up told me. Trust me, you'll thank us for it eventually. You don't want to remember your past when your with us. You'll be too busy living in the present and thinking about the future.”
I was still fuming on the inside. Everything was so sudden. This promotion. My cutie mark being gone. Being told I will never remember a big part of my life. “Why is it so important not to have a cutie mark, why is it so important not to remember my past?”
“Any ESP agent has to be unidentifiable. If you have to be seen, we want you to look nothing like your normal self. Changing your cutie mark constantly is the easiest way to do it.”
I looked at the blank teal patch of my coat where my cutie mark used to be. I sighed. I understood why such a secretive organization would do such a thing, but I was still a little unnerved by the fast pace at which this was going. “Please tell me that's all you'll be taking.”
She smiled a little. “Not even close.” She put the little rod back in the bag under her wing, and pulled out a small red sphere. It looked almost like a marble, but it's crimson red swirled slightly. “Ready to run?”
“What? Why?”
She smiled broadly. “Cause.” She threw the red sphere at the other side of my house. When it the wall on the other side there was a small fireball. Everything on that side of the house caught on fire.
“Why would you do that?!”
“No time, follow me.”
She ran outside. I looked back at my house, now burning before my eyes. What had I gotten myself into? I dropped the medal I had been clutching through our conversation. Somehow it felt like letting it go was the same as letting my old life go. In retrospect I suppose it was.
As I ran outside behind her, I saw her darting into a nearby alley, she was quick. I chased her for several minutes darting in and out of alleys. Finally I hit a dead end. I looked up, expecting her to have flown over the wall that was blocking my way. When I saw nothing I turned around to see her standing behind me with a disappointed look. “You are slow, what good are you? You didn't even give me a challenge. You're going to need some serious agility training.”
“I was the fastest Unicorn in the guard.”
“Not good enough. Anyways, this looks like a private enough spot.”
“Private enough for what?”
She reached into her bag again and pulled out a small brass key. I looked around for a door, but there was none. What was she going to do with a key here? She again reached in to her bag and pulled out a small piece of chalk. “Watch this, this is one of the coolest parts, pick a wall.”
I hesitantly pointed to a wall. She walked over to it and drew a small keyhole shape and filled it in with the chalk.
“That's vandalism!”
She rolled her eyes and put the chalk back into her bag. She held up the key to the drawn keyhole. The white chalk drawing slowly faded from white to black, and then she stuck in the key. She turned to look at me. “Are you ready?”
After everything that had happened to me within the past hour, I was sure I could handle anything. “What could you possibly do to make this day worse?”
She turned the key in the wall and the outline of a door opened up from the brick. She walked inside and motioned for me to follow. I walked in behind her and found myself in a room stacked to the brim with books and files. “What happened to no paper work.”
She chuckled. “Well I suppose there is some, but it's all mainly detailing how you nearly got killed on any given day.”
“Do I have to file one on how many times I nearly killed you today?”
She laughed again and walked over to a small panel that had a bunch of buttons on the far side of the room. She hit one of the many unlabeled buttons. “Hey Fox, the new arrival is here.”
After several seconds a voice came back from the console. “Give me a second, I'll be right there.”
I looked at the mysterious black Pegasus for a moment, thousands of questions flooding my mind, but one rose above the rest. “What is your name?”
“Me? Just call me Midnight, none of us go by our real names.”
“What, like code names?”
“You could say that, I usually just call em nicknames.”
“Do I need one?”
“Oh we've been discussing what to call you, we even got bets going on what you'll pick from what we've come up with.”
I felt like I was the only one who didn't know that I was going to be here today. “How many of you are there?”
“The people who actively manage this place? Me, Fox, and good old Clear.”
“Just three of you run an entire organization?”
“We don't make the decisions, Fox keeps stock of the dangerous stuff, Clear tells us what to do and where to go, and me and my partner go and get stuff done.”
“Your partner? You only mentioned three.”
Her smile faltered a little, but came back quickly. “Duh, that's you idiot.”
I thought about that for a moment. This chaotic, wild, seemingly irresponsible mare is going to be my partner. My SENIOR partner. What had I done?
Just then Fox walked in. He was a Unicorn with a light red coat and a white mane. He had no cutie mark just like midnight. He looked me up and down. “So... you're the new replacement huh?”
I didn't know what to say so I simply nodded. Fox turned to Midnight. “What's he any good for?”
She laughed. “To the point huh Fox. OK, this one is an ex-guard. Pretty much top of his class in everything, he had over ten years under his belt when we asked him to join.”
“Handpicked or, did Celestia give us this one.”
Midnight frowned a little. “Celestia.”
Fox looked me up and down again and sighed. “Well I suppose if she insists.”
I was thoroughly confused. Midnight just told him I was top of my class in everything. What more did he want? “Whats the matter with me?”
Fox looked me in the eyes quite calmly. “Nothing I suppose. Realistically speaking there isn't much more we could ask for, but replacements are so hard to train. No one comes to this job prepared, no one. It's always so annoying to have to go through the huge amount of details with someone new.”
“I'm a quick study, I learn quite quickly. Just point me to whatever manuals I need to read and I will have then done as soon as possible.”
Midnight laughed at me. “Told ya Fox, such a hard nose, I wanna calm em paper boy.”
Fox looked at me sideways. “No,no, I insist we call him Vice.”
“You and your letter thing, it doesn't have to start with a V just cause his real name does.”
“Easy for you to say, since you already went by a nickname before you came here.”
I stepped in. “Don't I get to choose.”
Fox looked at me. “Of course, but you must admit Vice sounds 'cool'”
Midnight stepped between us looking at me. “Yeah but wouldn't you rather not sound like a jerk? How about Bind? Seeing as you are kinda famous for catching that one thief by magically tying her up.”
“Shouldn't I be training rather than arguing over my nickname?”
Just then a brown coated Earth Pony with a brown mane to match walked in the same door Fox had came in. “Yes you should.” He said in an authoritative tone.
Midnight looked at him. “Ah come on, it's his first day, and he needs a name.”
“Then call him 'V' for now, I don't care.”
Midnight looked at Fox. “That's pretty cool, and I guess it starts with a V!”
Fox shook his head. “It's not exactly Vice, but I like it.”
“I thought I had a say in this.”
The brown coated pony looked at me angrily. “Then you thought wrong.”
I straightened up. “Yes sir!”
Midnight rolled her eyes. “Clear, don't mess with the new guy, he still thinks hes in the guard.”
Clear looked at her coldly. “Then fix that problem with some training, we don't have any time to waste, you never know when you'll need him out on a case.”
“OK, OK, I'll get him started, come on V, follow me.”
She walked towards the door that Clear and Fox had both came through. I walked behind her. When we entered the room I stopped dead in my tracks. The building we were in was enormous. The ceiling was miles high. There were shelves stretching for even longer in all directions. The room we came from seemed to be situated in the middle of this gigantic expanse. Midnight turned around after noticing I wasn't following. “Oh yeah, you kinda forget how big this place really is after a while. Kinda looses its shock value after the first five times or so.”
Still starring up at the huge ceiling, and then at the miles of shelves I asked. “How does all this fit in here, I've never seen a building this large in Canterlot.”
She laughed at me again. “Of course not, we're not in Canterlot.”
My eyes shot to her in confusion. “What?”
“We are not in Canterlot anymore.”
“Then where are we?”
“Nowhere.”
“No really, where are we?”
“No really, we are nowhere.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means that if you attempted to describe the physical location of this building, you couldn't, because it doesn't have one.”
“How is that possible?”
“How do you levitate objects into the air Mr. Unicorn?”
“With magic.”
“There you go, with magic.”
“What kind of magic is strong enough to make a building this big, and keep it... nowhere.”
“The kind you'll be dealing with everyday, now let's get going before Clear gets all yelly again.”
She began to walk around the building we had just exited, so I followed her. When I turned the corner she was already drawing another chalk keyhole on the wall.
“Where are we going now?”
“If I told you it would ruin the surprise.” She stuck the key in the chalk keyhole and once more the brick opened up to reveal another room. It was definitely not the one we had just came from. Inside was several levers and a door. She motioned for me to go inside. “After you.”
I walked inside and looked around. The room was very plain. It was a dull grey color with nothing but the small metallic door on the other side, the three levers on the wall, and the door that Midnight had opened. I turned around to see Midnight still standing outside the door. She smiled broadly. “Welcome to ESP, good luck!” She pulled the door shut that she had opened. I ran over to it to find that it was now nothing more than a wall. What had I gotten myself into?
Chapter Two: “Training To Be ESP”
I looked around the grey room again. Nothing really stood out except those three levers and the metallic door. I looked at the door closely to see how to open it. It appeared to be nothing more than the outline of a door, made of a different metal than the rest of the room. I tried to push on it to no avail. I looked around a bit more. The levers were looking like my only option. I walked to them and studied them closely. They were the same different metal that the would be door was made from, each one of the three had a red rubber tip at the end, and each was in the up position. Hesitantly I reached out and pulled the middle one down. Suddenly the light was gone and I couldn't see. I quickly pulled the lever back up and the light came back on.
I looked up to investigate the light source, of which I saw none. I looked down to see if I could use my shadow to pinpoint the light. I was surprised to see I had no shadow. I turned completely around to confirm this. In all directions I had no shadow.
Suddenly I heard a laugh come from nowhere and everywhere at once. It was Midnight. “I think you're the first one to figure that out, yeah there isn't really a light in there.”
I looked up for no particular reason. “What's going on, what am I supposed to be doing?”
“Getting out of course, this place is a maze, well sorta. It tests your non-standard reasoning skills.”
“You couldn't have told me that before shutting me in here?”
“That was to test you under pressure, I must say you acted pretty calm all things considered.”
Suddenly I could hear Fox's voice. “Stop flirting with him, you're making this take longer than it needs to.”
“Yeah, yeah, anyway get a move on, your performance is timed.”
I quickly turned back to the levers. I had always performed top of any tests, and this would not be an exception. I reached up and pulled down the lever on the right. I waited for a moment, but nothing seemed to happen. I opened my mouth to ask what this lever did, but I didn't hear my voice. I tried to yell, but nothing. I could feel my own voice escaping my mouth, but not hear it. I stomped my hooves, but nothing there either. I looked around, nothing about the room had changed. I pulled the lever back up. “What was that about.”
Fox answered. “That's what your here to figure out. We've all been through this, just take your time, it's more about figuring out the puzzle then it is about getting it done quickly.”
I turned back to the levers. The middle one made it to where I couldn't see, and the right one made it to where I couldn't hear, what would the left one do? I tentatively pulled it down, and before I was even done I knew the answer. I lost all the feeling in my body. I couldn't feel the lever on my hoof. I pulled back up the lever and all sensation returned to my body. I took a deep breath. The loss of feeling had shaken me.
Midnight's voice came. “Breath, that one shakes everyone up a bit.”
“What is the point of these? How do these levers correlate with getting out?”
“Didn't Fox already tell you that's your job not ours? We did this our first day too you know.”
Frustrated I turned back to the levers. I reached up and pulled both the left and right levers down at the same time. As with both individually I lost all hearing and feeling. I looked around at the room. I noticed the door looked almost transparent. I walked over to it and tried to push on it. My hoof slipped partially in, but then was pushed out. It was hard for me to tell how violently due to the lack of feeling. I walked back over to the levers and pulled them back up.
I looked back at the door. I had to get from these levers, to that door, with no sight, sound, or feeling? I looked at the distance. No more than ten feet, which for most tasks was trivial, but for this, it was an insane distance. I looked back at the levers and pulled the one on the left again. I turned around and looked at the door. It was all the way across the room, straight across from the levers. I carefully counted the number of steps as I walked towards the door. I couldn't feel the steps, I was relying entirely on my eyes to see where I was going, and my ears to hear each step as it connected. It was twenty-two short slow steps from the levers to the door.
I walked back to the levers and pulled down the right one again. I closed my eyes and turned around. I opened my eyes to see if I was facing the door, I wasn't. My heart sank. I was supposed to turn from the levers without being able to see or feel where I was going? I turned back to face the levers and closed my eyes again. I turned to face the door eyes held shut. I opened them to see myself at a slight angle. I repeated this process fifteen more times, until I was finally consistently looking at the door when I turned around. I turned back one more time to face the levers. I closed my eyes again and turned around. Without opening my eyes I slowly walked forward, counting the steps I took. It was a difficult tasks, counting something you couldn't see, feel, or hear. After twenty-two steps I opened my eyes to find my face half way into the door. I had went farther than I intended. I must have taken larger steps than I did on my first count.
I went back to the levers and looked at the middle one again. Overshooting the door wasn't a problem, I should have been ready. I reached up and pulled the middle lever down. I stood there for a second, unable to see, hear, or feel anything. It was terrifying. I slowly thought about the motions it would take to turn around. I moved my legs ever so slowly in the way I had developed in my fifteen attempts to get a good angle at the door. When I was done I stopped. How did I know I had done right? I could be on the floor twitching around like an idiot right about now. I slowly took what I hoped was a step. Then another, carefully planning out all the moves in my head for each step, and keeping track.
I slowly made my way, counting as I went. When I got to twenty-two I began to panic. Had I been taking too small of steps, had I been at the wrong angle for the door, or worse, was I wrong about being able to go through the door? What would happen then? Would Midnight or Fox come to save me? Could they? Could they see and hear in this room while I couldn't?
I continued to walk forward. I was up to twenty-seven steps now. I tried to stay calm. Panicking wouldn't do me any good. At step twenty-nine I felt my hoof hit the ground. Shocked I pulled it back quickly. Then I sat it back down. I slowly made my way forward. After a few more steps I could completely feel my own body again. I walked a bit quicker. I could hear my hoof beats again. After a few more seconds I heard Midnight's voice. “Whoa their partner, don't run into a wall.”
I looked around. “I can hear and feel, why can't I see?”
She laughed hard. “You moron, have you tried opening your eyes?”
I suddenly realized I had been shutting my eyes. I opened them again and blinked a few times getting used to the light. I was back in the room in the middle of the huge building. Midnight and Fox was sitting in front of me, apparently waiting for me to get my bearings. When I looked him in the eyes Fox began to speak. “That was mighty impressive V, your time was second best in the ESP's history.”
I felt my competitive nature surge. “Who had the best time, am I aloud to retake?”
Midnight chuckled and got a smug look. “That'd be me, and no, no do-overs.”
Fox nodded his head slightly. “Yes, since the point of the test was to gauge you're problem solving skills, doing it a second time would limit the results validity.”
I sighed a little and looked at Midnight. “How did you manage to go faster than me?”
She strutted slightly away from me, then flared her wings, looking back towards me. “These bad boys.”
Fox got a small smile. “Don't listen to a word she says, she was so bruised by the time she got out, her score really shouldn't count.”
Midnight got slightly flushed. “Hey, I still have the best time by like... wait what was his?”
Fox looked over at the clock. “V managed to exit at nine minutes thirty-three seconds.”
“Yeah I beat him by like four minutes!”
“All you did was pull all thee levers at once, then proceed to fly around the room until you got out.”
“It worked didn't it?”
“You were in recovery for a week.”
“That's not the point!”
Resisting laughing, I tried to get them back on subject. “OK, OK, so now what do I need to do?”
Just then Clear walked through the door. “I'm glad to see someone has a work ethic around here. Normally training would continue until your first assignment, but seeing as you have such a colorful history of tactics training, I'll let most of it slide.”
Both Midnight and Foxed stared at Clear in disbelief.
He looked back at them with a cold expression. “What?! Can't I be considerate and reasonable on occasion?!”
Midnight snickered. “Well it would be a first.”
After another second of glaring at her, Clear turned back to me. “Anyway, all that's left is the standard gear training for you, normally I would have your future partner here do that, but she has an assignment that needs some attending to.”
Midnight kicked the ground. “Oh come on, now? What is it?”
“I'll brief you in a moment. For now Fox, I expect that you can run V here through the standard field equipment.”
Fox gave me a slightly pained expression. “I suppose so, if no one else can be sparred.”
Clear nodded. “Go on to the training room then, I'll take over your normal duties for the moment.”
Fox turned and began walking out the door, I followed. Once again I found myself in the huge warehouse style building that was apparently nowhere. As a fellow Unicorn, I thought that perhaps I could get a more sane answer from Fox than I had gotten from Midnight. “Tell me Fox, how does this building exist like this?”
Fox turned and eyed me with what looked to be a look of suspicion. “This place merely exists in a sub-dimension of sorts. It's really not that complicated once you have seen the designs.”
“But who's magic keeps it here like this?”
“Oh, that's what your after.” He seemed relieved, he even laughed slightly. “No, no, you misunderstand, this place isn't held here by any conventional forms of magic. More accurately this place was built here in such a way that it would stay here.”
“What does that supposed to mean?”
Fox sighed a little. “It would take me months to adequately explain extra-planar geometry to someone who is just coming from the world of three dimensions, and to be quite blunt, that's not my job, can we get to the field equipment training?”
I nodded, and we proceeded to walk around to the back wall, the same place where Midnight had taken me to the last training. The door way and the chalk scrawl of the keyhole was completely gone. I looked for it closely to no avail. Fox noticing me scanning the wall laughed. “Don't bother, once the door is shut all traces it ever existed disappears.”
“How do these doors work?”
“I suppose there is no harm and starting that lesson here. Firstly this is what you will be carrying with you a lot. He reached for small bag slung across his neck that I hadn't noticed until just then.”
“Where did that come from?”
“Oh, it's been here since you met me, it's just that until it's pointed out in some way, normal people can't see it. These bags are quite useful. Not only are they almost undetectable, they can hold just about anything you need to put in them.”
He levitated the bag off his neck and put it in front of me. “Look in it.”
I slowly opened up the small light brown bag. Inside it looked as if it was completely empty. “There isn't anything inside it.”
Fox smiled slyly. “Or is there?” He reached in and pulled out one of the pieces of chalk I had already grown to recognize.
“How does that work, can I just not see what's in there either?”
Fox shook his head. “No, the bag works a little like the chalk in that regard. It gives you what you are thinking about, but only if it was put in it by you.” He handed me the chalk. “Put it in and close the bag.”
I did as I was told. I looked up at Fox. He looked a little irritated. “Well open it back up.”
I opened the bag once more and the chalk was nowhere to be seen. I looked back at Fox. Who sighed. “Just think hard about the chalk, reach in, and pull it out.”
I thought deeply on the chalk. I wasn't sure how hard I had to think, so I concentrated very hard on everything about it I could. The look, the feel, even the normal smell put off by chalk. I suppose most importantly I concentrated on it's ability to open up doors. After a few seconds I could feel the chalk on my hoof in the bag, and I pulled it out. “I did it!”
“Congrats, now onto the chalk. This thing works about the same, except on a slightly larger scale. When you draw a keyhole...” He said and began drawing one. “You need to think of where you are going, much like thinking of what you want from the bag. Once you are done with the drawing you should just be able to stick a key in the drawn lock.” He pulled out a small silver key and stuck it in the keyhole. As before the brick opened up like a doorway and on the other side was a huge white room. Much to my relief Fox went in first, and I followed.
The door shut behind us. I looked around. All around us was nothing but white, except for the plain red brick wall behind us, just big enough for one of the chalk's doors. “What is this place for?”
“This is where we go to do tests that could be potentially dangerous. There is nothing to hurt in here but this wall, which I would ask you not do, as it would be a pain to get out if you did that.”
“How could we?”
“I could draw on this floor, but there would be two problems with that. Number one, the floor is pure white, and it would be difficult to complete the drawing. Number two, we would end up falling from the ceiling of the office.”
“Couldn't we go somewhere that it would be nicer to fall?”
“Afraid not, that's something I forgot to mention huh. The chalk will only bring you into a place of extra-planar geometry. We can only go to places built like the office and these training rooms.”
“Then how do you leave back to Equestria?”
“That's for later, right now we have a whole different lesson to get to.”
I nodded my head. “Right, I'm ready.”
“First things first, all agents need to be as stealthy as possible. You should never be seen unnecessarily. That's why you have these.” He reached in his bag and pulled out a pair of generic sunglasses.
“What are those for?”
“Do you remember how you couldn't see the bag?”
“Yeah.”
“Same thing but for ponies.” He put on the glasses. At first I didn't get it, but then I blinked. He was gone. I spun around for a moment looking in all directions for him.
“So your still here I just can't see you?”
His voice came from no discernible location. “That's the idea. Although the bag and the glasses do have their weaknesses. First off look closely back at the wall.”
I stared hard at the wall. Suddenly I saw him standing there, with the glasses on. “I see you!”
“Yeah, if you are being looked for, you can be found. Another problem is the more that people are exposed to them, the less they work. There will be some ponies who can see you. Worst of all, is if someone that can see you decides to point you out for whatever reason. So keep in mind your not invisible, just a lot harder to see.” He gave me the glasses.
I put them on and looked around. They were not nearly as darkening as I had expected them to be. I looked back at Fox who was still staring straight at me. “Can you see me?”
“Yeah, I've been around them enough so that don't work on me at all. You'll get there eventually, wearing them really helps.”
I took off the glasses and handed them back to him. “What's next?”
He put the glasses back in his bag. “I suppose our next most commonly used tool is one you already have some familiarity with.” He pulled out a small rod, just like the one Midnight used to remove my cutie mark.
“You use those things a lot?” I said with an air of horror in my voice.
Fox smiled. “They are a considerable deal more useful than you would initially believe. Not only are they good at removing cutie marks as you have already seen, but they are good at giving them too.”
“I know that, Midnight already showed me that part.”
Fox smile faltered a bit. “She always does things out of order. Anyway did she tell you about the fact that it can do other types of memory wipes?”
I blinked nervously. “Uh, no.”
“Wrong, she did. I just made it so you wouldn't remember.”
“WHAT!?”
Fox laughed. “Don't overreact, I just did it to prove a point. Here, let me give it back.” He touched my forehead with the rod. I suddenly remembered that that was the second time he had asked me the same question. I also remembered that my answerer was different. I had said 'yeah she did, but she didn't demonstrate that,' then Fox said 'let me then.'
I jerked away. “That is wrong.”
Fox smirked. “It's often necessary. You didn't let me finish, I was going to give back the memory of her telling you.”
“I don't need it, I have this one. Wait a minute, Midnight said it can't give back memories, that I would never have my cutie mark back.”
“Partially correct. This can only implant memories of my choosing. Think back to the conversation you now remember us having, does anything about it seem odd?”
I thought deeply on the conversation I just remembered. I was looking at myself and hearing the conversation from Fox's perspective. “I'm hearing it from your end.”
“Yep, that's an example of a haphazard job. Always remember to focus on making the memories seem like they were from the person you are giving them to.”
“Why would we ever need to use that?”
“What do you think Midnight is doing right now?”
“What?”
“What do you think Midnight is doing right now?” He repeated in a very serious tone.
“She is off on an assignment, I have no idea what it entails.”
“Think harder. We maintain the most secret organization of all time. We make sure that our agents are totally hidden, but obviously they need to be seen sometimes, hence why we change our cutie marks. How do you think that we could keep an ex-guard like you from being recognized?”
I thought about what he was saying. It only took me a few seconds to understand what he meant. “I have no family, so... everyone on the guard? You are going to mind wipe everyone on the guard?”
“We use different methods when dealing with such large groups, but the principle is still the same. Yes, everyone will forget they ever knew you.”
I sat there for a long time thinking on that. All of my friends in the guard. Everyone that I basically would have called my family. When I accepted this position I knew I would be leaving most of them behind, but not like this.
Fox sat there for a long time waiting for me, until finally his patience ran out. “Don't think about it for long, all it will do is bring you pain.”
“How can I not think about it? I'm loosing everyone and everything I knew! How can you be so callous to that?”
Fox looked at me coldly. “Do you not think that I know how you feel? No forget that, you have it easy. You don't have family! Think of what the rest of us has had to sacrifice to join here.”
I looked at him. He looked almost ready to cry, but he managed to hold back the tears. After a few seconds I nodded. I understood what he meant. It was hard to think that I had it easy, just having lost everything, but I saw his point. I didn't have much compared to most people. It's always hard to loose everything, but it's even harder if that everything includes your family. “What's next?”
Fox put back the rod and brought out two small marble like objects. One was the same red swirling one that Midnight had used to burn down my house, the other had a similar swirling pattern but it was deep blue with wisps of white. “These are the last thing that you will generally be using, you know what the red one does, and put simply the blue one will knock everything out in a fairly large radius. Use them with caution, and sparingly, I hate making these.”
“Wait you make these things?”
“Yes, and don't get me started on how hard it is. Anyway, normally I would have to demonstrate these things, then have you do it, but honestly, you can throw things, you understand that these are dangerous lets just get out of here and back to the office.”
Without waiting for me to reply, Fox made his way back to the wall and quickly drew another keyhole in it. We walked through the door into the office again. Curiosity struck me. “Why is it you use the outside wall to enter other places, but can arrive inside them? Can't we simply draw a keyhole inside the office here to leave.”
Fox nodded. “Yes we could, you might call it tradition, or maybe even superstition, but the ESP has always done it that way, outside to go in, inside to go out.”
I nodded, I supposed that made as much since as anything else had that day. I looked around to find that we were alone in the office. “Where are Midnight and Clear?”
“Midnight is still off on her mission more than likely. Mass wipes usually have a lot of loose ends that need tying up. As for clear, you never know when he will show up.”
Suddenly Clear's voice came from behind us. “No you can't, so stay on your toes.”
I turned around quickly in surprise. Just fast enough to catch a glimpse of the door as it closed behind him, outline melting back into the stone. He looked at me. “You got through with training fast, what do you think of our standard equipment?”
I blinked. The thoughts that went through my mind went along the lines of words like 'insane' and 'cool' simultaneously. “They seem very well thought out for the job sir.”
“Don't call me sir, it makes me feel old.”
Fox smiled. “You are old.”
“Let's not discuss age here, he's not ready for that yet.”
I shook my head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Clear looked at me with a cool expression. “You'll learn everything you need to know in due time, until your ready however I recommend not asking questions that don't pertain to your current mission, are we clear?”
I stood at attention. “Yes sir!”
“What did I just tell you?”
I let my head sink slightly. “Sorry s... um, Clear.”
“That's better, now about...” Clear was interrupted by Midnight walking in another door behind him. I was begging to be less and less surprised by random doors by that point.
“Done and done!” She said as she made her way into the office.
I looked at her, trying to hold back a mournful expression. “You got them all? No one will remember me?”
She shot a look at Fox, who shrugged. “I didn't want you to find out like that, but yeah, its kinda protocol. It's like one of the few rules we really adhere to around here.”
Clear cut straight to business. “Were there any serious complications?”
“Nah, not really. Cept of course Celestia was a little angry we didn't warn her.”
Clear rolled his eyes. “Well sounds like a job well done, now to more pressing matters, we have several cases of missing persons on the outskirts of Vanhoover. Initial scans show some odd magic has been used in the areas near where the missing were last seen. The local police are stumped, I'm sending you two in as your first official case. I want you both disguised as a group of royal guards that are investigating. Maintain secrecy though, I don't want whoever is behind this catching wind of an outside investigation.”
I perked up. “Uh sir...” Clear gave me a glare. “I mean Clear, how are we going to pretend to be and investigative team, and maintain a low profile?”
Fox laughed and pulled some paper work from a nearby drawer. “Easy, here is some paper work saying that you two are an official team, that the local police are to hand the case to you, and to keep a tight lid on the details.”
A looked over the documents. They were signed by Celestia, I would have recognized the signature anywhere. “How did you get Celestia to approve of this so fast?”
Everyone other than me turned to look at each other in turn with a blank expression on their faces. Then one by one they all cracked a smile, Midnight burst out laughing. “No V, you don't really get it, we don't need her permission, we run our selves.”
Confused I pointed at the signature. “But that is her signature, I wouldn't mistake that.”
Fox frowned a little. “Just leave it at we have been doing this for a long time, and she has never interfered with our work before, nor will she in the foreseeable future.”
This didn't feel right. They had forged the signature of the princess. Not only that they had done it perfectly. Surely they wouldn't do that without at least her general permission. She knows the work they do requires fast action, so I'm sure she would approve. Still, something about it didn't feel right. Clear didn't give me much time to think. “OK, enough chat. Fox, take these two and get them some gear, I have a bad feeling about this one, and get them linked pronto.”
Fox motioned for us to follow him. We walked back out into the large warehouse style interior. Instead of turning the corner to go to the outside wall Fox continued forward. I jogged for a brief second to catch up with him. “Where are we going?”
“You could call it my office, I prefer to call it the the outfitting station.”
Midnight chuckled. “More like the weapons locker of the world.”
Fox got a mildly irritated look on his face. “Not everything I work with is a weapon, take the linking for example. It has no possible weapon application.”
“Oh yea? Then how about me and you link, we'll see how much of a weapon I can make it.”
Fox gave a light shudder. “Only two linked at a time, and you two are going out, so afraid that will have to wait.”
Midnight gave a small but very victorious smile. “Mhh hmm.”
As we turned a corner I saw a small set of doors in the floor, almost like a outside cellar entrance, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, nestled between two of the seemingly limitless number of shelves of crates.
Fox opened them up and began to descend the stairs they revealed. Midnight followed him first, then myself second. Once at the bottom of the stairs I found myself in a large room, similar to the office, except where the office had papers and drawers, Fox's office held a random assortment of seemingly useless objects.
Fox looked around for a moment. “Ah hah!” He said then proceeded to walk over to a table and pick up a small syringe. The syringe in question was filled with a mildly glowing light pink substance. Fox turned it over to read the label closely. “Yes this is a powerful batch. You could stay connected from Los Pegasus to Manehatten.”
I held out my foreleg expectantly. Fox gave me a confused look. Midnight smiled. “No such luck.” She reached out and took the syringe from Fox. She flipped her mane to one side, and mostly over her face exposing her neck. She took the syringe and stabbed it into her neck very close to the back of her skull. She pushed in the plunger and delivered about half of the pink liquid into her body. She shuttered a little then removed the syringe. “That never stops feeling weird, no matter how many time you do it.”
Fox took the syringe from her and walked towards me. “I can do it for you if you like, you will need to get it all in in a quick burst, which sometimes proves difficult for first timers.”
I looked at Midnight not knowing what to do. She simply shrugged and shook her head yes. I nodded to fox and lowered my head to one side exposing the base of my skull. He didn't hesitate and stuck the needle in as quickly as Midnight had herself.
At first I didn't know what the big deal was. It felt like a normal needle, albeit in a sensitive area, but then Fox began to push in the plunger. My head instantly began to feel like a massive pressure wave was on it. I almost yelled out, but couldn't seem to move. It felt as if he was pushing in the pink liquid as slowly as possible. It could have taken seconds, or it could have taken hours. The pressure gave way to a loud buzzing noise all around me, followed by a brief pop.
Then it was over, I looked around and they were both looking at me expectantly. I shook my head a little. “Is that it, is it done?”
Midnight nodded. “Yep neat huh?”
At first I was confused, then I saw it. Her mouth didn't move when she spoke. I jumped. 'What the.' I thought.
She smiled and turned her head a little. 'Yeah that was about my reaction the first time too. Take a moment to collect yourself, I don't want to put up with all your thoughts jumping at me.'
I took a deep breath and focused. 'Can we read each others minds now?' I asked, continuing the conversation in our minds.
She shook her head. 'Not exactly, we can just 'project' our thoughts at each other, it's kinda like talking in the since that you still have to put forth some effort to say something, although it's a whole lot easier to say something you didn't mean to say.'
Fox was getting impatient. “How long does it take to explain linking?”
She looked at him. In my mind I heard her say. 'Ugh, so annoying.' Out loud she said. “Sorry Fox, you know it takes a little getting used to, right V?” When she finished she looked at me and said in her mind. 'Just go with it.'
I looked at Fox and nodded. “Yeah, I'm not quite grasping how this works.”
Fox shook his head. “Never mind the how, just understand that it does. Also note that it will last about a week then wear off on its own.”
'A week?' I thought.
Midnight frowned. 'Don't sound so disappointed.'
I shook my head. 'No I meant...'
Fox cut me off. “Would you two stop it, let me just give you some equipment then you can chat it up all you want in Vanhoover.
Midnight frowned a little. “Yeah, yeah, get it over with. Hey are we getting the...”
Fox cut her off. “No, no, no, I told you before the spoon is to valuable to let go on any non-essential missions until it's been successfully replicated.”
'Ugh.' She thought, despite saying nothing.
Fox looked at her for a moment then turned back to his desk. He picked up a bag and all other standard supplies and levitated them over to me. “Here you start putting those into your bag, while I show Midnight what you guys will be getting.”
I began quickly stuffing all of the equipment into the small red bag he had given to me, only slowly down when I began packing the small marble like orbs into it.
I looked up to see Midnight walking back to me with a smile on her face. 'These are so cool! I haven't got to use one in forever!'
I cocked my head to the side slightly. “What are they exactly.”
She gave me an irritated look. 'It really defeats the purpose of being linked if you go ahead and talk out loud you know.'
'Oops sorry. Now what are you talking about.'
She held up a small pair of what appeared to be reading glasses. 'These bad boys. We only get to use them when we have no suspects or victims to interrogate.'
'What do they do?'
'Oh you'll see, come on, we have a warp to catch.'
'Wait what?'
She ignored me and began walking up the stairs. I followed close behind. I looked back at Fox who was writing something down on a piece of paper.
We slowly made our way to the office, but instead of going in, or to our right, she took a left and began walking down another aisle of shelves. After another minute or so we arrived at a building shaped similarly to the office. Inside it looked fairly barren. There was nothing but a large wooden door and a single file cabinet.
Midnight walked over to the file cabinet and began looking through the section marked 'V' on the bottom shelf. By this point my curiosity was burning. “So what are we doing here is this your office?”
She looked up at me and put a hoof to her mouth then to her forehead. 'Use the link, you need to learn how to talk with me like that, otherwise people can eaves drop on us.'
'Right sorry, so is this your office?'
'No, this is the transit room, this will take us to Vanhoover.'
'Why can't the chalk take us outside, why only places like the office or the training room?'
She continued hunting through the cabinet. 'It's not that they can't, it's just that we might get seen if we used the chalk. The door is a little smarter than the chalk, it waits to find the best time, and sends you to the best place to get the job done.'
'So what are you looking for?'
'Call them coordinates.'
After several more seconds Midnight pulled out a piece of paper form the drawer. She held it up and looked towards the door. In a near shout she said. “Vas hal de nara sune!”
At first nothing happened. Midnight placed the paper back in the file and waited. I was about to ask if it had worked when the door's handle changed color from a dark brass to a solid gold.
'Quickly.' She said and bolted for the door. She thrust open the door and ran through, I followed close behind. There was several seconds of blinding light then it faded to night. We were in the middle of a street in Vanhoover.
'Stupid door, you ask it to work quickly so it thinks it can drop you off four blocks away. Oh well welcome to Vanhoover V, and welcome to your first official mission.'