Chapter 1

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When he absorbed the Alicorn magic from Princess Twilight, Tirek believed that hers was the last he’d need to gain omnipotence. That’s what he’d been told, in that ancient prophecy- if he could take the magic of every pony in Equestria, he’d become omnipotent.

Only, he’s not becoming omnipotent. While the powerless ponies and draconequus in front of him do their thing- he really doesn’t care what, it’s not like they can fight him- he scans the area around him. He doesn’t feel so much as a smidgen of active power anywhere other than himself- but he also doesn’t feel his pending omnipotence. Seriously, it’s supposed to be instantaneous! He spends just a few more seconds analyzing this, uses his newly acquired alicorn magic in a wide scan for any pony he missed, and briefly vents his frustration on the forest in front of him. The ponies- and the draconequus- have left, but no matter.

Now that the first piece of his ferocious temper is satisfied, he turns back towards Ponyville, and places his concentration into a powerful magical scan fit to identify every pony in Equestria, check them for magic, and tell him if anypony is missing.

This scan takes him a few minutes, spent impatiently crushing trees, but it eventually completes with a rather disappointing result.

One pony.

One, single unicorn, the spell couldn’t find.

He compares the number of unicorn magics he’s absorbed to the total number his spell reports should be found… Yep, that one unicorn still has magic. And he can’t find it! He lets out an enormous roar, and resumes venting his frustration on the leafy eyesore around him. He drops scan after scan into the atmosphere, searching, searching for that one survivor.

Unbeknownst to him, there existed too many layers of stone and spellwork between him and his faraway target. Had he known where she was, getting to her would have been easy. Had he been looking for just any pony, he would have seen the standing enchantments and looked closer. However, he’s looking for a specific pony, so the enchanted objects in the desert aren’t worthy of his attention. He doesn’t sense anypony near them, so it’s more worth his while to examine everypony else’s signatures more closely.

Very suddenly, he senses a massive surge in magical energy very close to him, and whirls to face. It’s those six mares! With rainbows! How?

Oh, they’re responding. He didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud.

“...ost powerful magic in all of Equestria: The magic of friendship!”

Even as he feels their magic- friendship, apparently- building to similar power levels as his own current state, he feels an even greater surge elsewhere. No, two of them- one in that desert, and one hardly fifty miles away… Wait. That was two ends of the same spell; the enchanted objects in the desert have disappeared.

More importantly, he can now sense the missing unicorn- though only vaguely, and only in the vicinity of the closer surge. Must be behind a lot of rock or something to be hiding its signature that well. Part of him forgets about the mares in front of him and starts turning towards it, simultaneously generating a more focused scan to find a more exact position and building up for a teleport. Part of him stays focused on the charging Elements of Harmony in front of him- how the mares activated them without their magic, he doesn’t know. The rest of him is indecisive in what course of action he wants to take.

Unfortunately for him, this proves to be his downfall. His stolen power is split between three different tasks- and the one that would have saved him, defense against the Elements, gets the least power directed towards it. Most of the rest was directed to indecision, leaving about thirty unicorns worth of power to locate the final pony and jump him closer.

And what the combined magical power of almost every Equestrian soul might deflect with dismissive ease, two unicorns’ worth of power will be swatted away by with similarly punitive ease. The quantity of magic directed to his indecision is then looking absolutely nowhere when the powerful magic strikes his form- and strips him instantly of his stolen magics. Except those two unicorns’ worth- that takes a quarter second to strip out, thanks to its direction towards his defense.

As the magic of the Elements burns through his form, reducing him back to the powerless centaur he had left behind, memories flash through his mind… including his brother’s last words, before he departed back home.

“Your attention span will be your undoing,” he had said.

And so, Tirek the Omnipotent once again failed to come to be, while Tirek the Banished once again arrived in Tartarus. He was so close… Maybe next time.

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Finally, she made it! It had taken weeks to build up enough power in her enchantments to move the thing. Then, she’d moved it.

But that was the simple part. There had been a cave by one of the doors back in that desert; nevermind that she had constructed the cave in the sandstone. Now, however, that cave leads to a rather large quantity of rather unremarkable dirt and rock. Nevermind that it’s the kind of dirt and rock that one normally doesn’t find in a desert in any quantity.

Now, there is no such cave. Whatever it is, it’s still underground- and she now has to tunnel her way out of it, with no convenient excess of atmospheric space to fill with the refuse. Fortunately, this thing is enormous… Unfortunately, she can’t exactly navigate her way through it. She turns to look down the strange passage. Her remaining supplies lie against the wall just behind her; this is where she’s camped for the last month or so, charging her teleport spells to move it to its new location. The door at the other end of this short passage stands open, revealing another passage she’d only started exploring. She’d stopped quickly, fearing getting lost; every passage within this thing looks just about the same.

She tilts her head, turning back to the rock now obstructing her exit. An idea, if she were to carve herself an exit tunnel through this, back to her main experimentation area… And place the refuse rock on the left side of these passages as she explores them. That way, not only will she get out of this thing, but she’ll also be able to explore it!

She looks at her supplies once again. She’s got enough food left for about a week… So, she shrugs, she’s got that long to dig her new tunnel. Shouldn’t be that hard, unless this thing has comparatively little empty space- at which point she figures she’d just fill the passages furthest from her entrance, until she breaks free. She can always cart the rock out later.

She sighs, drawing on her nearly-depleted magic reserves just a little more to take a chunk out of the rock, closing off the open door with it before she settles down to rest. If she allows herself to completely deplete her reserves, she’ll be in the dark- and effectively magicless- for at least a couple days!

There are exactly two spells she doesn’t cancel as she rests. Combined, they don’t draw nearly as much from her reserves as her natural regeneration replenishes. The first is the light spell, keeping this passage illuminated and staving off her fear of the dark. The second…

Oh, she remembers when she started the second one, back when she left Ponyville for this thing. This one is the main reason she’d have to wait so long before casting magic again; she’s been holding it non-stop for close to a month and a half. By the time she runs out of supplies in here, assuming she doesn’t get out first, she’ll be pushing at her personal thaumic endurance limit with it. If she burns herself out, either by thaumic exhaustion or by running into that endurance limit, she has to wait for her horn to rest up before she can start casting once again. She still doesn’t know why this same mechanic does not come into play if she simply stops using magic for a few minutes, allowing her horn a moment of rest.

But this spell is the reason why nopony in Ponyville thinks she ever left. As a matter of fact, this spell is the reason she knows about Tirek. She’d been rather surprised that hiding out in her house had worked; unlike everypony else, he hadn’t even tried to take her thaumic projection’s magic.

Not that it would have worked if he had tried; it is just a projection. He probably would have just disrupted the spell, causing her projection to disappear… and rather effectively eliminating any possible problems with endurance-related burnout.

This projection, despite being such a minute drain on her magic she can overlook it with impunity, requires an enormous power surge to deploy, demanding close to half of her entire magic reserves every time. It takes a few days for her to recover that much power, though, so she usually keeps it running for a long time. As a matter of fact, this projection- or her ‘alibi’, as she calls it- is the main reason her thaumic endurance limit is so high.

It’s almost like she has two bodies. One mind, four eyes, two heads… At least she actually has the processing power of two complete brains, while it’s deployed- makes it far easier to avoid slowdowns caused by problems on one end or the other. Or, if either she or her alibi are simply resting, she can make herself out to be some sort of super-thinker, by focusing all of that brainpower on a problem presented to one side. It had taken some significant practice before she could operate the two as if they were independent entities.

She rather wishes it was actually like having two bodies, even if her alibi’s lack of physical needs- like food- is rather convenient. If it was, her alibi would also have its own magic reserve and so on- rather than being forced to channel magic from her real self, at the miniscule rate it’s capable of. Her alibi also wouldn’t have that little thaumic signature Twilight can probably sense, whenever they get too close. She’s made sure not to get close enough to Twilight for any aura-sensing whenever she’s actually in Ponyville, allowing her horn to rest up. That difference could be… difficult to explain, at best.

Especially to Starswirl the Bearded’s biggest fan, considering she got the spell from a book she found in the hidden basement of Starswirl’s tower.

So, while she rests her real self, she walks her alibi out to the front window, peering out at the street. Even her alibi, restricted as it was to a weak unicorn’s abilities, had felt the power surge from her teleportation. Ponies with no magic, thanks to Tirek, shouldn’t have felt a thing. This would include Princess Twilight and just about everypony else- she’s pretty sure Ponyville was Tirek’s last stop, and that he got everypony before she released her teleport.

Regardless, though, she’d felt that massive energy surge, to match previous invocations of the Elements of Harmony. Still feel it, actually, spreading out like a shockwave from Tirek’s estimated position.

She reaches the window in time to watch the cutie marks return to the few ponies visible.

So, Tirek must have been defeated, and her alibi still having its mark shouldn’t be suspicious. She heads outside; perhaps she can help deal with the aftermath at the town hall?

Chapter 2

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A week has passed. She’s on the train to Ponyville.

It had taken her much longer than she would have liked to get back to her experimentation area. She applies a name to the place every once in a while- like ‘Marcy’ this last week- but they never stick. Not that she would want a name like that to stick anyways.

She can tell she’s getting mighty close to thaumic burnout. She should be fine until after she gets back to her house; as soon as she gets home, she plans to release her alibi. She’ll have to meter her thaumic use carefully tomorrow, when she’ll be showing the new pony around town.

Which reminds her. As it had turned out, the chaos caused by Tirek bordered on that which Discord had caused himself, back before he’d been reformed. She still doesn’t know how she managed to keep her experimentation zone secret- and away from all of the… strangeness he had applied to everywhere else. Perhaps he hadn’t known of it? In any case, he hasn’t seemed to have mentioned it even once, even though she knows he’d love to play with some of the things she’s discovered.

But she’s getting ahead of herself. Tirek had caused a lot of chaos. An outsider might think that everything returned to normal on its own, with astonishing speed- but she knows that’s simply not true. Ponyville’s rapid recovery from this event, much like the same from every other near-apocalyptic scenario the Elements attract, was not caused by ponies being used to it. Admittedly, that helped quite a bit- but in reality, the speedy recovery was thanks to a rapid- and well-practiced- recovery effort on the part of Mayor Mare and a couple volunteers, including herself. She’s volunteered in just about every one of those cleanup efforts in the past, as well; unfortunately, it seems she’s the only one. She and Mayor Mare had spent far more than they wanted of their effort trying to coordinate the other three volunteers’ efforts. Didn’t exactly help that, just like every other time, all the other volunteers were first-timers. Nopony else seems to have volunteered twice- except Fluttershy, of course.

The most memorable of the shy mare’s participations had been when the Parasprites attacked. During that cleanup, she’d been so focused on what she was doing she forgot anypony was watching- and accidentally proved that shy most certainly does not mean weak. She’d actually outdone some of the more experienced construction ponies Mayor Mare had hired to help.

Of course, they’d then received word of a pony that wanted to move in after the whole Tirek escapade. This new pony- an earth pony mare, apparently- had specifically requested a guide to show her around the entire town as soon as she got off the train. She’d even specifically asked that any welcome parties wait until after the tour was complete.

So, Mayor Mare had gotten in contact with Pinkie Pie. Told her about what was coming and, she understands, ‘convinced’ her not to explode in the new mare’s face.

She’s not sure exactly what that had involved, but she does know Pinkie had not been willing to play tour guide. Upon finding out, she’d promptly volunteered- and Mayor Mare had agreed. The new mare had been informed of the arrangement- and in turn, thanks to Lyra’s open schedule, they’d decided on a time for her to arrive.

That time is tomorrow morning, on the eight o’clock train. As far as she knows, no arrangements have been made for the new mare’s stay- like a bed to sleep in, and a place to work. She’ll have to judge the new mare for herself when she meets them, but there is one option she might just offer.

She does live alone in what might pass for a small mansion. Not nearly as extravagant as the crystal castle the Elements had given Twilight; no, that thing is a rule unto itself. She’s got four bedrooms, each equipped with two-pony-sized beds, more rooms than she can use, and insufficient basement space.

It’s not like she actually uses any of the secret areas of her home anymore. Except the hidden closet in the basement, with the magically-powered generator and equally unique hot water heater in it. But even then, she only opens that once a week or so- just frequently enough to keep the enchantment on the generator fully charged. As long as it keeps spinning, her water stays blessedly hot without manual intervention.

Which reminds her, her “luggage” contains a replacement for that generator, for installation tonight. Her experimentation area’s electrical grid is powered by some kind of geothermal generator, requiring no regular rechargings. As long as she’s careful, she should be able to get away with the installation of this tiny little geothermal generator under her house, as well- and never have to touch it again. Hot water forevermore, without having to manually heat up a large tank of water every time she wants a shower.

And without having to recharge the generator every week. She already doesn’t have to work manual heat on her hot water; that’s what the electrical heater next to her generator is for.

Oh- and having this new generator reduces the possibility of being found out, if she hosts the new pony in her home, to just about zero. There’s still a possibility she’d notice how she never heats up the water in the more traditional tank in a closet on the main floor. Or how that tank isn’t actually hooked up to her home’s plumbing.

But that’s about it.

Oh… and if she does end up hosting an earth pony, she’ll have to make sure she’s available for all the meals. Her kitchen only has unicorn appliances right now… Which, in terms of kitchen appliances, means the stove. Range, technically, but who’s counting? The fridge- and freezer- are powered by the same generator. Which could be another way she’d get caught; she doesn’t have to regularly freeze a tank of water to keep it working. Rather, it makes ice for her.

She’s still a couple hours away from home, though… She sends her alibi to the appliance store. Earth pony stoves are the most expensive, being intended for use by earth ponies, rather than by a unicorn or a pegasus. After all, unicorns can power a heat enchantment directly, and pegasi can funnel the thermal portion of their weather magic into a differently-crafted heat enchantment. An earth pony, however…

She doesn’t know exactly how earth pony stoves work, but she knows the spellwork to allow the conversion of earth pony magic to thermal energy is complex, to say the least. She trots into the appliance store, talks with the clerk… Turns out she has enough money saved up for an earth pony stove, but not much else. Oh well- she needs to find herself a companion sometime, or she’s going to go crazy.

--------

She gallops into the train station. She’s not late- the train is still pulling into the station.

The installation of her new generator had gone… successfully. She’d managed it- but come within a hair’s breadth of thaumic exhaustion in the process. She’d also finished up hardly fifteen minutes ago- and rushed herself through a quick shower before darting out here, using an illusion spell to disguise her exhaustion. If she doesn’t drop it by tonight, she expects, she’ll run into her endurance limit. The little rest she’d managed during her shower hadn’t been enough.

But she’s here. Even if she actually hits that endurance limit, her showers will stay hot and her fridge will stay cold. It’ll be a few days before she can start building a room around her latest discovery anyways; she has to wait for at least half of her reserves to regenerate. She plans to wait for a fully-rested horn and, probably, full recovery of her entire reserves before she goes. That way, she can spend much more time working on it before she has to return!

Eh. Sleep takes priority, but at least that takes less time than her thaumic parts. She’s been pushing it off too much these last couple days, making sure she could get home before she reached thaumic exhaustion, installing the generator… and now this. If she has to add a physical stimulation spell- the magical equivalent of caffeine- to her stack, she’ll exceed her natural production… and set herself to run out of magic sometime during the night, probably after her horn gives up anyways.

She blinks; she hadn’t even noticed the train’s doors come open, and several ponies come out. She adds that stimulation spell to her stack, letting out a sigh of relief as her mind clears up for duty. If only she had an alibi available- but if she did, she’d be reaching thaumic exhaustion sometime mid-morning… and disappearing into a puff of arcane mist is about as suspicious as it gets.

But hey- if she had been able to use an alibi for this… Those things don’t need to sleep. As a matter of fact, she can shamelessly cheat the dream world by using her alibi to do something while she takes a nap! Sure, she can’t draw on her real form’s brainpower when she does that, but so?

Oh- and increasing her thaumic use beyond her natural regeneration rate causes her horn to glow. She adds an aural dampener to the mix, muting the faint glow back to nothing… She’ll still be good until tonight; it doesn’t take much power at all to dampen THAT faint of an aura. She tunes it to only just barely dampen it out- so if she adds a levitation spell to the stack, it’ll look like the only one she’s using.

She makes a quick search of the train station. Earth pony mare… One, two, three. Four.

She lets out another sigh and waits. The new pony will probably come talk to either her or one of the uniformed station staff- all of which were made aware of the arrangement, and know where she’s waiting. She’d probably cause too much of an uproar if she tried asking them all if they were the new mare coming into town; she knows far too little about this new mare to ask targeted questions.

And, of course, two of the earth pony mares are talking to station attendants right now. One has a briefcase, a suit, and black glasses, making her think of the typical spy attire- but she strikes that out quickly. She could just be a businessmare with sunglasses.

The other has no fancy clothing, nor glasses. Not even a saddlebag.

Yet she finds herself somehow attracted to this simple, cream-colored mare. She spots the three wrapped candies on the mare’s flank- and quickly pulls her eyes away from the curly two-toned dark blue and pink mane, gazing at the ground. If that is the new mare, she won’t have any problem whatsoever in sharing her home.

Though… Making it not be creepy might be more than a little difficult.

She’s still staring at the concrete in front of her when somepony walks up to her.

“Would you be Lyra Heartstrings?” the mare asks, with an unfamiliar voice.

She looks up. “Yes,” she begins- but the rest catches in her throat. That cream mare is the new one.

Why can’t anything be easy? Now everything’s going to be awkward! … her eyes are beautiful. Gah! Can’t be thinking like that! Maybe in a month, but it’ll just be creepy if I say it now!

“So… How about that tour?”

“R-Right,” she stammers, lurching to her hooves and turning to the gate to ponyville in an effort to clear her mind. At least her blush is covered by the illusion spell. “Tour. Um- it was the entire town, right?”

Chapter 3

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“Yes- including the residential sectors, please.”

Lyra almost blanches. “Including the residential sectors?” she gasps.

“Yes. Ponyville isn’t nearly as large as Canterlot- it shouldn’t be that hard to cover everything in an hour or two.”

“Uh… Y-Yes. Okay.” She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath, and opens them again, turning to glance at the mare again. “Shall we get sta--aah! Wh-Why are you looking at me like that!?”

The cream mare bursts out laughing.

Lyra almost runs away. She does flinch away, turning to stare at the concrete under her hooves while she waits.

Eventually, the mare finishes laughing. “Sorry about that, I just couldn’t resist. Now would be a great time to get started- I understand there’s a party waiting.”

She raises her head. “Uh, yes. Yes, there should be. Um, I…” She scowls at the pavement again. “I don’t know too much about the residential sector.”

“Wouldn’t expect anypony to know everything. Besides, what better way to make fast friends than to befriend the tour guide?”

“What-!?”

Snicker. “The name’s Bonbon, by the way. I must say, nopony’s ever genuinely shown quite that kind of interest in me before. It’s… Hey, where’ you going?”

This time, she does run. And hide.

Not that it’s very effective. Her brightly-colored coat probably didn’t help- no sooner has she turned to face back out of her hiding spot than her vision is completely filled by the cream mare’s face.

Her scream elicits a laugh from the mare, who then blocks her attempt to escape. “It’s a nice change,” she states. “Certainly beats the same drab ‘do your thing and I’ll do mine’ everypony has back home.”

She spends a few seconds… Or minutes, she doesn’t know or care, hyperventilating. She does manage not to pass out. Eventually, she manages to calm herself down, takes several deep breaths, and forces herself a straight face. “So…” She takes another deep breath, staring at her hooves. “It’s not creepy…?”

The cream mare chuckles. “Nah. Amusing, sure, but creepy? No. There was a tour?”

The tour goes quickly. Interestingly enough, it seems Bonbon hadn’t been interested in who lived where, etcetera- her idea of a tour through the residential sector turned out to be as simple as going on a walk down as many roads as equinely possible. They’d spent the walk talking about inconsequential things- and almost never looking at each other. The weather seemed to have come up close to a hundred times.

The business sector hadn’t been all that different. There had been some questions or comments about some of the buildings there- including when Lyra thought Pinkie Pie would have the welcome party ready. Her answer to that had been a shrug. “She’ll have it ready whenever you are,” she’d said. “Don’t ask me how, but she does it every time.”

“Not surprised,” had been the answer.

At the end of the tour, she’d finally proposed they enter Sugarcube Corner for the party.

“Nah,” Bonbon states. “I’d rather get all the serious stuff over with before the party.” She winks at Lyra, earning herself a clear view of the unicorn’s mane. “That way, the party can last as far into the night as it likes. Right?”

Lyra takes a deep breath before putting on a smile- her illusion spell helps with making it look genuine- and turning to face. “Right, yes,” she states. “So, I’ll see you at the party?”

“Oh? You’re going to run away on me?”

“What-? No! I-I- uh…” She focuses on the road in front of her, breathing deeply for a few seconds, forcing her next words to come out smoothly. “I thought you wouldn’t need me for that.”

“What? Not need you? Oh, the horror!”

Lyra takes a step away, staring wide-eyed at the cream mare’s uncanny replication of Rose’ signature panic attack.

“Sure, a mare has her secrets, but that’s a completely different story! This is things like securing food, reviewing the state of my shop, making sure I have a safe place to sleep at night, and finding a date!”

“Huh-? What was that last one!?”

“Making sure I have a safe place to sleep at night?”

She tilts her head. “Huh…? Could’ve sworn something came after that.”

Shake. “Must have imagined it. So, wanna come along for the second item on that list?”

“The second… Uh, what was it again?”

Snicker, before she repeats the three-entry list. “Securing food, reviewing my shop, and finding someplace to sleep.”

Blink. “Wait, you have a shop?”

“Yep. Old bloke in Canterlot was saddled with the title when the old owner died- he spent the months since trying to get rid of it. Seeing as how I’m virtually penniless right now, I figured I’d take it- and make what I could out of it.” She sighs. “Worst case scenario, I use it as a home or office and work manual labor for a while.” She looks thoughtfully up at the sky. “I wonder if the Apple family are looking for help this season…?”

Lyra shakes her head. “Unless one breaks a leg or something, they don’t get help- and even then, Applejack just asks her friends.” It’s her turn to sigh. “Your best bet for a quick bit is probably to aid in the recovery effort from the next disaster.”

“Those can take a while, can’t they?”

Nod. “Aside from being completely unpredictable, yes.”

Bonbon snorts. “Usually.”

Another nod. “Usually.”

“So, did you want to come look at it with me?”

“Uh… I probably shouldn’t- it is your stuff, not mine…”

“Yet you probably know more about a shop than I do.”

“Really?”

Nod. “Open schedule for my arrival on short notice? Most ponies can’t do that.”

Sigh. “I don’t run a shop. I just play every once in a while.”

Raised eyebrow. “But you still work for yourself, right?”

Nod.

“Then you know more about the field than I do. Allow me to rephrase my question: Would you mind coming with me to look at my shop?”

Her jaw articulates up and down a few times. Did she just hear that correctly? “Uh… No?”

Nod. “Good. Let’s get going, then?”

Nod.

The walk had not been long. She’s quite certain of that; her thaumic reserves can attest. Just like the half-block they’d actually walked.

Yet it feels like it had taken forever. Her mind refused to stop designing strange scenarios that might have this new mare specifically requesting her presence in reviewing her property. None of them fit.

Bonbon casually pulls a key out from under the doormat, inserting it into the lock and opening the door with a shake of her head. “That’s probably the first thing I’m going to be changing,” she states. “Security. Keeping a spare key outside like that is stupid. Anyways… Oh, this place could use a little cleaning, but it’s a decent little place, isn’t it?”

Lyra joins her in looking around the darkened store. It’s been abandoned for close to six months, if she recalls correctly. It’d been a bakery; she’d never stepped inside, showing preference- like most of Ponyville- to Sugarcube Corner.

Three displays stand in the small room- one on either side, against the wall, and the last one as a counter in the middle, with the register resting on top. The center display is a sort of island, with a walkable path on either side- nevermind the “Employees Only” signs peeling off the wall in either gap. A door in the corner, behind the counter, grants access to the backroom.

She nods. “Decent, sure. Could use a bit more lighting, maybe… Eh, it depends on what you’re going to use it for.”

The earth pony chuckles, trotting to the backroom door and flinging it open to look. “Oooh, jackpot! This should be everything I need, save the ingredients!” Lyra follows her over, looking in as the earth pony walks up to the icebox. “Aaand… Yep, that’s a standard icebox, not a unicorn model.”

“Pegasus range,” Lyra states, her horn having pulsed briefly. Unicorn magic is so convenient.

The earth pony whirls to face the offending appliance. “What-? A pegasus range?”

Nod. “It’s got the pegasus-control spell on it. I can layer the unicorn one over that- but I haven’t a clue how earth pony stoves work.”

“Great. Um… Manual labor it is, I guess. It’ll only take, what, six months to save up for a proper stove?” Sigh. “Oh well.” She shakes her head, returning to the front of the store. “So that gets number two out of the way. One was food- and if I’m going to be doing manual labor, that’ll be solved by my first job. Sleep…” She glances back at the door closing behind Lyra. “You don’t suppose there are mice back there, do you?”

“Uh… I didn’t see any,” she mutters. “Um… If you need somewhere to sleep…” She pauses.

Bonbon raises an eyebrow, looking back at the hoof-focused unicorn. “Yes?” she asks.

The unicorn physically shrinks away from her. “I… have too many bedrooms.” Her voice disappears into a squeak at the end.

Bonbon blinks once or twice. “Hold on. Did you just suggest what I think you did?”

The nod is so small some might have missed it.

She blinks again. “Um… Just to be sure, did you just invite me to live with you?”

She repeats her nodding performance.

“So… I guess I can strike off my last two objectives by saying yes, then.” She nods. “So, Yes, thank you very much.” She even bows slightly.

The silence is palpable for several seconds.

Lyra finally closes her jaw, straightens her back, and takes a deep breath. “Uh… You’re welcome,” she states. “And, um… While you’re living under my roof, my food is yours as well…” She looks over at the counter. “I can probably help with ingredients as well.”

Chuckle. “Why thank you,” she states. “Unfortunately, without an earth pony stove, all the ingredients in the world would be useless to me.”

Lyra averts her gaze. “I… might happen to have one of those.”

Blink. “Did you really just solve all of my problems?”

She looks even further away, her voice reduced once again to a squeak. “Maybe?”

Close to an hour later, the two mares finally approach Sugarcube Corner. It’d taken a while for them to fully recover from the shock… Or whatever it is that Lyra was recovering from. One could have sworn it looked like embarrassment, but not even a hint of blush had shown.

They stop at the doors, and look at each other.

“Ready for the party?” Bonbon asks.

Lyra scowls. “That was my line. Yes, by the way.”

“Me too.”

They both turn forwards, swinging the door open in front of them.

It’s… a decent bakery. Quite colorful, with dozens and dozens of tables set out, plenty of booths along the walls, and a counter the size of all three of the shelves in Bonbon’s new shop put together.

It’s fairly empty right now, boasting only three customers. They’re all talking in hushed tones, if at all.

Bonbon scowls, opening her mouth to speak- but decides against, watching Lyra sigh into her own hoof. Lyra then marches right up to the counter. “Pinkie pie!” She almost sounds angry.

Bonbon, having followed her up, looks across the counter. The startlingly pink pony on the other side must be the source of the place’ less-than-cheerful atmosphere, moping around like that. She does look at least a little strange with her mane and tail hanging ruler-straight like that; pony hair doesn’t do that naturally.

The pink pony twitches, then moves. “What do you want?” she asks, reaching for the register.

“What happened to the welcome party?” Lyra asks. She’s changed her tone- no anger now, more of a pleading tone.

“Mayor Mare said not to,” Pinkie answers.

Lyra facehooves. “She said not to explode in her face. Bonbon requested the party wait for after her tour, not that it never come.”

Shrug.

Sigh. “Remember what you did with Twilight? That is more of what she wanted. Please?”

Bonbon gives Lyra a little nudge and sighs, turning her back to walk to the door. “What’s the point of moving here if there’s no welcome party…?” she wonders aloud, before proceeding out the door, Lyra on her tail.

The door lands closed.

Both mares instantly turn to look at each other.

“One one thousand.”

They then turn around, and open the door.

“Surprise!”

Bonbon nods, leading the way into the party-decorated bakery stuffed full of smiling ponies and fluttering confetti. “Now that’s more like it,” she states.

Chapter 4

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Several hours later, the waning afternoon has long faded to the dark of night when the guest of honor finally decides it’s time for her to find her new housemate and go home for the night.

On that thought, she realizes she hasn’t seen the green unicorn for several hours- as a matter of fact, she most recently saw the unicorn just half an hour after the party started. She’d elected to give the mare her space- she needed some of that space herself, after all, no matter how cheerful an appearance she put on. She’d gotten that space- and genuinely enjoyed the party.

But now, that excessive space is a problem, as she briefly acquires a higher vantage point and scans the crowd. The punch tastes slightly alcoholic, but it takes a lot of liquor to effect an earth pony- and the green horn is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps Pinkie Pie would know? She glances over to the counter, behind which Pinkie is bringing out another cake from the backroom. She wonders mildly exactly how much each of these parties cost, before setting a course for the decimated cake Pinkie is replacing.

Pinkie sweeps the old dishes off of the table, stacking them effortlessly on a hind hoof, and plunks down the new cake. “Last cake!” she calls.

The cream mare raises an eyebrow; ponies immediately swarm to the area to get their last slice. The entire cake disappears very quickly- save for one piece, which Pinkie offers to her guest of honor, even as the new cake’s platter joins the last one on that outstretched hind hoof.

“Thanks,” she smiles. “Um, would you happen to know where Lyra went?”

Pinkie sighs, deflating slightly. “She went home already,” she states. “She doesn’t like parties that much.” She makes a quick glance around, then leans close to whisper. “She lives at six hundred Villain’s Way.”

Bonbon blinks. That’s a street address, all right; she’d wondered, but not asked, about some of the strange street names- Villain’s Way, Hero’s Boulevard, and Element Avenue, to name a few. She runs through the mental map she’d built through the tour. Six hundred Villain’s Way should be… on the stretch of the street that connects Tirek Road and Sombra Lane.

Seriously, what’s up with these street names? Just past Sombra Lane comes Chrysalis Street- and the other way past Tirek Road meets Discord Drive! It’s almost like they’d foreseen all their foes! As a matter of fact, it seems like every foe Ponyville has ever faced has a street to its name meeting Villain’s Way- with no regular streets!

She pans out on her mental map. As a matter of fact, aside from twisting into some kind of interlocking mess, none of these villain streets meets any other road!

Save a few. Luna Lane, Trixie Way, Discord Drive, Glimmer Avenue, and Shimmer Road all connect to one other road: Hero’s Boulevard. Which in turn has roads for each of the Elements, Princesses… and so on. Every road connecting to Hero’s Boulevard, save those touching Villain’s Way, also meets Main Street at some point.

Who designed this town…? And what enemies are Glimmer Avenue and Shimmer Road referring to? Drops Street, between Hero’s Boulevard and Main Street, catches her attention. Must be like Glimmer & Shimmer. Mostly.

But regardless of how confusing- or amusing- the road system, she knows where to go.

She makes a left turn, onto Heartstrings Lane. Fortunately, she can perform social interactions and navigation on autopilot, even in strange locations, while she thinks about other things. She’s fairly sure it’s a multitasking ability, rather than the same system that lets her walk without thinking about her hoof placements- but she wouldn’t be surprised if the latter was the case.

She makes a right to Hero’s Boulevard. She’s fairly well exhausted right now, but she could keep going for another few hours if she had to. A week of non-stop preparation will do that to even the sturdiest of earth ponies.

A left to Discord Drive. Once she reaches the house, she’ll probably go to bed as soon as Lyra shows her where the bedroom is.

A left on Villain’s Way. Once she gets in bed, she’ll probably sleep for a full day or two. But that’s okay, so long as she’s up by the end of the week. Oh, how she dreads Monday.

She pauses at the house, double-checking the street number. If her information is correct, Lyra lives in this… mansion, for lack of a better word. It’s a very large, for Ponyville, two-story building.

She shrugs. The worst thing that could happen is that nopony answers her knock and she goes back to her shop to sleep on the floor. She starts walking up the path- and nearly freezes just inside the gate.

She manages to continue moving as if nothing had happened, but her honed senses had detected that tiny fluctuation in the magic field. It felt like a spell dispersal- a one-time detection spell, probably. Commonly used for magic traps; she should have noticed it before she set it off.

But, as she continues up the path, she decides it’s possible there’s nothing malicious about the spell’s placement. That one had practically no power in it; it would have dissolved in a day or two anyways. Besides, it’s perfectly reasonable that the unicorn she’ll be living with wanted to be awake by the time she reached the door, giving that spell a perfectly harmless purpose.

She ‘sniffs’ for other standing spells as she approaches the building, but doesn’t sense any. She lifts a hoof to knock- right before the front door flies open, revealing the mare she’d expected, bearing a strange combination of stellar energy levels and bed mane. Though, she figures, the simple fact that the horn didn’t stop glowing when she released the door is a dead giveaway. She wishes she could cheat like that.

“Welcome home!” Lyra greets, before turning away, blushing and mumbling. “That… sounded weird, didn’t it?”

Bonbon shrugs. “Doesn’t matter,” she states bluntly. “Um, is that offer still open, or…?”

“Yes, yes, come in! Would you like a tour tonight, or…” She pauses, scanning the earth pony’s expression. “Or tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” Bonbon asks.

Nod. “Very well… You want dinner first, or no?”

She imitates a zombie. “Sleeeep…”

Smirk. “Sure thing, right this way.” She proceeds to lead the way upstairs.

“So, bathroom’s in there, this’ll be your room, and I’ll be in here if you need me.” Lyra indicates the three closed doors in quick succession.

Bonbon nods. “Thank you,” she states, prodding open the indicated bedroom door. “Good night.”

Nod. “Good night.”

Bonbon then sees Lyra trotting through that other bedroom door, closing it behind her, before she finishes entering her own. She gives into her instinct-level check of the room, scanning absolutely everything for anything suspicious, before she relaxes and drops herself onto the bed. It’ll be nice, sleeping on a real bed once again.

She falls asleep almost instantly.

Across the hall, Lyra smiles gently as the detection spell she’d put on Bonbon’s bed earlier reports the beginning of a deep rest cycle. Her horn flares several times before she cancels the detection spell and, now content with her and her friend’s safety, her own stimulation spell. Once again tired enough to fall asleep on her hooves, she snuggles a little deeper into her mattress and follows her new friend back into Princess Luna’s domain.

The following morning is fairly uneventful. Six o’clock comes and goes without a sound. Eight soon follows- and it’s not until ten thirty or so that the earlybirds begin to stir. Even then, it’s only one of them.

Lyra awakens slowly, stretching herself on her bed and unleashing a truly enormous yawn. She’d had a good night- but it’ll take another like it, and potentially a third, before she’ll be fully recovered from forsaking her sleep for so long. A quick flash of her horn shows her new companion is still sleeping… Funny, she’d expected she’d have to go dig her out of the cupboards or something.

She shrugs. Whatever- means she can demonstrate her not-so-great-ness at cooking before her new friend has a chance at, oh, lunchtime? … Probably dinner; it’s late enough they might even skip lunch altogether. She flicks the blankets off with a surge of levitation, rolling over to drop to her hooves on the floor. It’s been a long time since she last slept on a real bed.

She casts her eyes up towards her horn. Just in the one night, she’s recovered enough endurance to last close to a week, probably, and enough of her thaumic reserves to use really as many low-demand spells as she likes all day long without running anywhere near out. It’s only the high-demand spells- the ones most unicorns never learn- that she can’t hold for that long. She trots to her dresser to break out the manebrush and begin her day with it.

Twenty minutes later, she knocks on her new friend’s door. Breakfast is ready.

She knocks again, harder. Her friend is probably still asleep.

A third set of knocks. Her horn glows briefly as she taps into her home security fields… No, her friend is wide awake. Looks like she’s intentionally ignoring the knocking as she writes something.

She tilts her head, and varies the pattern in her knocks. “Do you wanna build a snow-mare?”

“It’s not snowing.”

“Ah-HAH! Breakfast is ready. Just downstairs and a right, whenever you are.” She returns to her kitchen.

Upstairs, Bonbon slams her forehead down on her desk in frustration. She’d been pretending she was still asleep- yet she just had to respond to that! She lets out a groan and resumes her work. At least she’s close to done; she can find out what’s on the menu in a minute.

Oh- and she now knows where the kitchen is. Or dining room, at least. She’ll have to take that tour through this enormous house after breakfast.

Chapter 5

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Lyra looks up from her breakfast salad as the earth pony ambles in. “Good mo- er, morning…” She blinks and stares down at her salad.

Bonbon raises an eyebrow, spotting no blush. “What is it?” she asks.

“Salad,” the answer comes. “I thought it the least offensive dish in my repertoire.”

She sighs, hanging her head. “It’s the bedmane, isn’t it?”

“Huh? Oh- um… yeah.”

She runs her hooves through her mane, straightening out the scraggly mess a little bit. “There. Now, what did you mean by ‘least offensive’?”

It’s Lyra’s turn to sigh, her mane hanging smoothly over her back. “I’m not a very good cook,” she mutters.

Bonbon snorts, trotting up to take her seat. “You kidding me? This looks delicious.” She takes a bite as the unicorn’s staring contest with her salad intensifies. She finishes off that bite and nods the affirmative. “It is delicious!” She hides a smirk behind her next bite; her reward had been yet another intensification of the staring contest.

She pauses after the second bite, gazing across the table at her tour guide and impromptu housemate. Then she tilts her head. “You’re doing it again,” she states.

“Wha-Huh? D-Doing what?” The salad wins as Lyra looks up sharply.

She smiles. “Well, either you’re an amazing actor, or you’re using an illusion spell alongside an aural dampener.”

Her eyes widen. “Wh-what? N-No, no, I’m not.” She averts her gaze.

“You’re not?” She slides a hoof around the upper rim of her salad bowl. “Then why are you acting so embarrassed, but not blushing at all?”

She closes her eyes, twisting away. She takes a deep breath, before turning herself back forwards, eyes closed, to answer haltingly. “There’s- no- dampener- involved.”

She raises her eyebrow. “So… You’re using a disguise spell with a draw below your natural thaumic regeneration rate to hide a blush.”

The resultant nod is fairly perceptible, but still insignificant.

“What about your endurance?”

She shrinks into the chair. “I’ve been… Practicing.”

She nods slowly. “Ahh… Why use an illusion? Trying to hide a bedmane or something?”

“Because…” She shudders, and allows the illusion to collapse, pointedly holding herself still.

“... Oh. Then… Why didn’t you look like that last night…?”

She reinstalls the illusion. “I used a lesser illusion,” she states. “I was running on the edge of thaumic exhaustion.”

She smiles. “Tired or not, you’re still cute when you blush.”

She falls off her chair.

She lets out a sigh, sitting at the desk in her bedroom, running her new manebrush mindlessly through her mane with one hoof. It’s Monday today- and she’s successfully established her cover as much as she can in only a week’s time. Today, he will stop by, hopefully while her friend is out; she would hate for the unicorn to experience his favorite way of preventing information leaks. In any case, he’ll be coming for her establishment report and delivering her first assignment.

She reads down her report one last time as she finishes brushing, before rolling it up, sealing it, and hiding it in her mane. At least he’s not allowed to approach her in the bedroom- too bad that’s the only place he can’t come. He almost makes her regret accepting the offer and becoming a full Field Agent. He had made her regret it flat-out, then she met Lyra… and now, she’s glad she made the decision. He’s going to make her life a pain, but the unicorn is worth it- easily worth the pain, a hundred times over.

She glances at the clock. Lyra’s probably already headed out by now; she’d said something about the local DJ last night.

So she walks to the door, takes a deep breath, and opens it.

He doesn’t show up right away. No- but she’s come to expect him shortly after she leaves her bedroom. Especially if she acts like she’s not expecting him.

Right on schedule, as soon as she arrives in the kitchen, he arrives. She knows it’s him; he’s the only Contact Agent she’s known to make the Fog feel malevolent.

She breathes a sigh, scowling at the sudden darkness. “Oh, right,” she states. “You’re here.”

His sneering voice answers from just behind her. “Well of course,” he states. “I thought you’d be expecting me.” He lets out a snort of laughter. She hates how it sounds.

She nods. The Fog might be blocking out her vision, but his will still be unaffected. “Regardless,” she begins. “You’re here for my initial report- and to deliver my first assignment, right?”

He chuckles softly. “Or so they say,” he states. “I wonder why they want you in the desert, eh? Think they-!”

That’s when everything seems to change hooves. She feels his touch against her flank, in a very inappropriate spot. She’s tempted to lash out at him, but she risks damaging the furniture.

But less than a second after that touch, she tenses all her muscles anyways as she feels a sudden- and powerful- shift in the local magic fields. His oration cuts off at the same moment, becoming a strangled yelp of what sounds like panic.

A second later, the shift completes, lightning fast- and she realizes that whatever spellwork this is already has a strong hold on her… When it starts dumping information straight into her brain… and taking instruction from the same.

Well then. Her new friend isn’t only an amazing companion, but she’s really good with her spellwork. The security spell he just triggered has already seized control of his magic- and is fueling itself on it, completely neutralizing his attempts to fight back in the process. It’s also locked onto her- apparently, Lyra added her to it- as a source of control information.

She takes a step forwards, turning to face him in the blackness, and smiles evilly at him. It’s also feeding her a clear, 360-degree view of her surroundings, independent of her eyes- and such petty details as line-of-sight… and she can feel a recording function running in the background. Hiding this powerful- and complicated- of a security spell from her senses would have been incredibly difficult- and from his senses, nearly impossible. Yet she’d done it- and he’s now been caught red-hooved.

He tries to flee, but a mere thought of hers triggers a binding function, effectively gluing his hooves to the floor.

She raises a hoof and slaps him across the face. “Be nice,” she orders, and releases the binding function.

He doesn’t seem to notice, staring at her wide-eyed the way he is. “What…?”

She smiles at him, and holds out her hoof. “My orders?” She demands.

He slowly extracts and hoofs her the scroll from his saddlebags- by hoof, rather than by magic.

She takes the sealed scroll in her hoof, setting it on the table next to her as she draws her report from her mane. “My report.”

He accepts it slowly, placing it into his saddlebags.

“Anything else?”

He shakes his head slowly.

She gives a sharp nod. “Then go.” She points a hoof at the door.

He jolts into motion, marching steadily out to the door. She lets him go- and distinctively feels when he leaves the property; the security fields seem to reset themselves, disappearing back to imperceptible as her world returns to normal.

She shudders. Quite the experience that had been… Wait.

A small scroll materializes slowly in front of her, formed out of golden energy flowing up from the basement. It completes its formation, changes to look like paper, and falls towards the floor.

Her forehoof flashes out to catch it- and as she does, she instantly knows it’s the thaumic recording of the entire incident.

Her new friend and housemate is an excellent spellcaster.

Of course, she’d looked her up, investigated. The unicorn had come up clear- though a few years ago, she’d made frequent railway trips. She hasn’t yet been able to turn up the record on exactly where she was going, but she’d often been gone for several days at a time… Then she’d suddenly stopped.

Ever since she’d started, apparently, her home had become subject to frequent intruders. She’d grown quite adept at catching them- and, unless the reports are wrong, the unicorn had demonstrated a gradually increasing power level- and skill- in those captures over the years… Yet never anywhere else. Though she had demonstrated signs of a deepening thaumic reserve- and growing endurance limit.

That was years ago. Now…

She can see the results herself. Security spellwork worthy of Princess Celestia herself. The standing spell had been undetected by a trained Contact Agent- and had enough power hidden in it to generate this thaumic scroll completely without either extra power or a special trigger.

That she came in second in her class at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, behind Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, is hardly a footnote on her record.

As a matter of fact, when she’d read through the report she’d been able to compile from all the official sources, it had read not like a report, but like a collection of footnotes missing a report. She’d made sure to mention that in her report, alongside a note that she plans to investigate this absence whenever she has time, alongside her duties as an Agent.

She smiles, placing the thaumic scroll on the table next to her orders before unrolling the aforementioned orders to scan down them.

There is no mention of a desert. He’d been lying.

She’s not surprised.

As a matter of fact, her orders are to stand-by and maintain her cover until such time as the Agency has a mission to send her on. Apparently, they’re fresh out right now.

She smiles. She knows exactly how she’s going to keep her skills fresh in the meantime.

Three days pass in this manner. It’s now Thursday morning; she still shudders every time she leaves her room in the morning and hears her friend still in the house. It normally only takes a few days, she’d been told, for the Agency to come up with a fresh assignment for any given Agent- that is, when there’s no backlog. When there is a backlog, it is, rather self-evidently, instant.

She hasn’t been able to dig up much anything more. She’s got a lead, though; sometime either today or tomorrow, she should be able to get her hooves on a record of exactly where Lyra traveled back in the day.

She opens her bedroom door and walks out, towards the dining room. Her ear twitches; Lyra is talking downstairs. She shudders, and continues on her way.

She pauses for a second when she hears a second voice- male, but unfamiliar- speak up. From the kitchen, where Lyra’s voice is wafting from.

She proceeds down the stairs, approaching the door slowly. She strains her thaumic senses, trying to get a feel for who is-

She nearly lets out a yelp when the unicorn’s security fields seem to understand her desire and feed her the requested information. Lyra is in the kitchen, talking to a couple of Royal Guards. The fourth member… Oh. She should have expected her friend to have a solution to his favorite method of information retention. He’s standing between the two guards, thaumic inhibitor clamped around his horn.

She calms her senses- releasing her hold on the security fields- and walks calmly into the room. They weren’t lying- the scene is exactly as she saw.

“Mornin’,” she greets her friend, before looking towards the Guards. “Something happen?”

One of them nods gravely while Lyra speaks up, gesturing towards the dark-colored unicorn between the two Guards. “Yep! Malevolent Darkness there decided he wanted to break into my house and clobber me.” She snorts. “Didn’t work very well.”

“Ahh… Okay.”

Chapter 6

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“Good morning!” Lyra greets, as Bonbon walks into the kitchen. It’s the day after her Contact Agent got caught; she hasn’t had the opportunity to report that just yet, but she knows the Guard reports are fast and efficient- and that the Agency keeps their eyes on them. Thus, it’s entirely plausible- though not very likely- they’ve already released him from the Guards’ custody. If they have, it’s also possible he’ll be here today.

She pauses on her way in, looking down at the table as Lyra finishes her salad.

There are three bowls.

She raises an eyebrow at the table, resuming her walk. “Expecting company?” she asks.

The unicorn shakes her head. “No. Why would you think that…?”

“Three salads?”

“Well, I thought you might be extra hungry this morning, after that candymaking marathon last night.”

“Uh… You know, that kind of thing tends to have the opposite effect, right? And why not put it all in one bowl, anyways…?”

“It’d overflow,” she states calmly. “Then, um, if you’re not going to eat the second one… I donno. Share it with the first pony you see?”

She raises an eyebrow.

“Other than me, of course.” She winks.

She raises the other eyebrow. “Ahh… Right then. I suppose I’ll be toting a salad halfway to Sugarcube Corner.”

Snort. “Nah, I doubt you’ll be getting that far. Anyways, I gotta go- I promised Cheerilee a Lyre-ical display today. Have a good day!” With that, she trots out the door.

Bonbon watches her go. She’s tempted to feel into the security fields to see if she can find whatever her friend is referring to- but no, she wants to wait until the aforementioned friend is outside the fields herself- that way, she won’t feel her search… Won’t realize she’s looking.

She seats herself at her dining room table. It most certainly isn’t him again; he would have attacked, and Lyra most certainly wouldn’t have made him a salad. Except maybe as an apology salad, but she kinda doubts that; the unicorn had coached her through accessing the recording function of the security fields… and she’d found the full recording of his attack on her. The result…

It had been highly amusing to find that he’d been temporarily trapped in a birdbath in the middle of the kitchen. With a fountain shooting off the tip of his horn, to boot. Given his particular transgression, the part of the record she isn’t willing to even remember for its repulsiveness, he’d gotten off light.

Had she been in the unicorn’s position, she would have trapped him in the birdbath for three days- much longer, and he’d have trouble surviving- and enjoyed several feasts in the room while he was immobilized but not desensitized. Then she’d have wrapped a thaumic thaumic inhibitor around his horn so thick it’d take weeks to wear off and packed him in a crate of hay- labeled with the security recording, keyed to the recipient- to the Princess of Love herself. He would have enjoyed that unpacking experience…

Correction: She would have. He might not have survived it, especially after Prince Shining Armor viewed the recording.

Honestly, she hadn’t a clue it was that bad.

That reminds her. Lyra had also coached her through all the hows of using the security fields to their fullest- even before they’re triggered by an attack. She’d also explained some of the workings.

During that training exercise, Lyra had provided the power for everything they did. She didn’t seem to have even noticed the drain- consistent with the footnote compilation. The unicorn had specified that, whenever she accessed the fields on her own, without her within the fields to power them, they would feed off her innate earth pony magic to perform the requested function. If she runs out, it’ll feed off any other source of magic it can find in the building- and she’ll have to be very careful about that, as most ponies will feel that kind of a thaumic draw.

Of course, she’d asked about the first incident with… him.

“Oh, that?” Lyra had asked, and shrugged. “The trigger works fast enough to wrest thaumic control from any imposter before he realizes what’s happening- and feeds on that. If they run out and you continue to request function from it, it’ll have to draw from you anyways. On that note, you probably want to be aware that earth ponies tend to have miniscule thaumic reserves on their own- I guess it doesn’t take much magic to be physically strong. I’ve noticed the farmers- like Applejack, say- tend to have larger reserves than the rest… and no, your reserve is one of the smallest I’ve seen. Sorry about that. As such, you probably won’t be able to pull too many functions out of the fields independently- but the more you do, the stronger you’ll grow.” She’d grinned almost maniacally. “Did you know, I was the weakest unicorn in my class back in Magic Kindergarten- but, through long and hard practice, I made it to the top of Celestia’s school as the second strongest unicorn, behind Princess Twilight herself?”

She’d scowled. “But Unicorn magic doesn’t work that way. Princess Twilight isn’t much stronger than she was when she first came to Ponyville, for example… Erm, she wasn’t, until she ascended, but she’s still no stronger than just after her ascension.”

Lyra had grinned again. “That’s the thing: It does. Princess Twilight doesn’t exhaust her reserves, no- she converts her physical stamina into mana when she gets about halfway down. Most unicorns do that instinctively- and she was born powerful, so I’m not surprised she does that.

“I was born as a virtually powerless unicorn.” She’d looked up at the ceiling. “Might as well have not had a horn. I mean, I got my cutie mark by plucking at a lyre with my hoof because my magic was so weak I couldn’t levitate so much as a spoon for more than three seconds without passing out because of that same instinct.

“But that same limit meant I could pluck at most six strings before passing out. So I focused myself on not passing out- and learned to control that instinct. I can still convert physical stamina into mana, but I don’t- it’s rather pointless. Instead, I discovered that every time I run myself almost out- or even completely out- of mana, I get a hornache. Except it’s not a restraint ache or something silly like that- no, it’s not unlike the burn you’ll have in your muscles if you push yourself to the limit for hours on end. It’s a positive burn, showing it’s growing.

“And every time that would happen, I could pluck more strings than last time before running out. When endurance became a problem, the same thing would happen- and that would last longer.” She’d grinned at her again. “Nowadays, neither limit poses a problem unless I do something over the top. And when I do, they just get harder to reach.” Shed shrugged.

“So, last week, when you were at both limits…”

“You’d be surprised how hard it was to hide from Tirek. Especially once he got the Alicorn magic.”

“... Ahh. I suppose that would count as ‘over the top’ for everypony, wouldn’t it?”

Needless to say, she’d added some of that information to her footnote compilation. Of course, she’s being careful not to mention the security fields- or whatever Lyra had said about her own thaumic potential, she’s pretty sure earth ponies don’t have those. The Agency doesn’t need to know about that- and she’d prefer to be able to pull the earth-pony-controlling-magic trick on the next unsuspecting, abusive schmuck they send her. That trick he had inadvertently triggered and experienced… before triggering it again against her friend. Her little time-as-a-birdbath spell had drawn mostly from Lyra’s own magic, rather than his- but it had still reduced his power by half, putting him right on the edge of passing out. She’s pretty sure that had been deliberate- and fairly certain she won’t be able to reproduce it.

But in any case, as she reaches for her salad bowl, she glances out the front window; Lyra is…

She never sees where the unicorn is. At that very moment, the room goes dark. She recognizes the effect; it’s the Fog, that spell Contact Agents are supposed to use to conceal their contact from any outside interference. It does have a nasty side effect of concealing them from their Field Agents, though- and most Contact Agents aren’t very willing to share their codenames.

She very nearly goes for the security field senses, but stops herself. Lyra might still be on the property, and she most certainly doesn’t want to attract her attention while a Contact Agent is on premises. If her friend catches too many of them, she’ll be forced to move out- probably sleep on the floor in her shop or something.

Then again, this Fog doesn’t feel malevolent, like his always did. Could it be that they sent her a different Contact Agent instead?

She returns her forehooves to a neutral position on the table in front of her while she waits… Was that a cabinet door landing closed?

“Uh, Hi,” a voice says, from someplace to her right. Definitely not him- she sounds worried. Frightened, almost.

She turns to look in that direction, ears swiveling. “Hello,” she greets.

“Uhh… Um… Sorry, just a second.” The sound of a scroll being unrolled. “Uhh… Right then. I’m here to… Uhh…” She sounds very distracted for some reason. “Um… Something about orders… Er… Um… Maybe if…? No…”

She tilts her head, fairly confident in the direction of her conversant. “Something bothering you?” she asks.

Silence. “Uhh, yes, sorry… Um… Your, uhh, last Contact Agent… uhh…”

“You’re worried about getting glued to the floor by your own magic?” she asks.

Her answer is a frightened squeak.

Bonbon shakes her head. “Don’t worry- I only do that when ponies… touch me. He did.” She shudders visibly… Or, at least, what she hopes is visibly. Her Contact Agent’s vision will be unaffected; the Fog doesn’t hinder its caster.

“Then… There’s no hidden traps or anything…?”

She shakes her head. “Not that I’m aware of. I suppose there could be, but I doubt it.” She pointedly does not mention the ‘trap’ that her Contact Agent is already well ensconced in: The security fields, effective anywhere on the property, in and out of the building. Not only would they constitute a ‘significant danger’ she’d be required to remove herself from immediately, nevermind that they’re protecting her, she’s not certain her Contact Agent’s psychological state would tolerate such a revelation.

The sigh of relief is perceptible, but the mare’s voice continues to exhibit her worry. “Ahh. Right then… Um… Shall I start over?”

She nods gently. “Sure, if you want.”

“Okay, um, let’s see…”

A stomach growls. She’s fairly certain it’s not her own.

“Um, Ahem. Field Agent Sweetie Drops, in light of the standing suspicion against your last Contact Agent and his recent- Oh my! Uhh… And his recent imprisonment by the Royal Guard while on your property, the Agency has seen fit to assign you a new Contact Agent, being myself… Um, a new Contact Agent, and requests the fullest possible report on the imprisonment event at your next opportunity, to assist in the investigation. Furthermore, the Agency acknowledges… Oh, I hate this part. Um, the Agency acknowledges that your new Contact Agent is a new Contact Agent, both for you and for, uh, herself… It says themself, but… Uhh, and for herself, and therefore requests detailed analyses of all contact with them… Her… until further notice.”

Silence holds for a second.

“Did… Did you get that?”

Nod. “I did, thank you. Sounds like he is getting his comeuppance- and it’s nice to hear they trust me, as a new Field Agent, with a new Contact Agent as well.” She smiles.

The distinctive sound of paper crumpling followed by the sharp stomp of a hoof on wood sounds from in front of her. “Whew! They said I could throw it away once I read it to you and confirmed it was received. Where’s the nearest trash can?”

“Don’t use a trash can,” she states. “Burn it. It contains sensitive information.”

“Yes… I suppose I should wait setting the trash can on fire for when I can do that with my own can.”

She snorts. “So long as it gets burned.”

“Right. Um… What was next? Right, um, delivery of orders… and if there’s any reports, if I recall correctly, I’m supposed to pick those up as well.” The sound of a unicorn rummaging in saddlebags then graces her ears- a sound she had heard many thousands of times when she was an Outside Agent. And a sound she’s learned to distinguish from that of an earth pony- or pegasus- rummaging in saddlebags.

She reaches a hoof back into her mane, as she feels into the home security fields. Apparently, they even contain a teleportation function- and, while she had already finished the report on his arrest, she hadn’t actually stashed it in her mane for delivery; she hadn’t expected anypony today. She does have her updated report on her housemate’s backstory stashed in her mane; she’d planned to bring it with her- and work on it- as she investigated today.

She distinctively feels the drain of the security fields, like she’s holding the entire house up herself, as they respond to her query. No, Lyra is not within the secured zone… Yes, her report is upstairs… Oh, and she forgot to append the thaumic recording of the second incident. The first of the recordings is… sitting next to the scroll, in the cabinet upstairs.

She tries requesting the scrolls. The first recording blinks effortlessly into her mane, waiting for her hoof; makes sense, it’s already made of energy. The other scroll…

She feels herself run out of strength while the teleportation spell is still building. She instantly feels weak- but she can feel where the spell is getting its power from, and it’s not the unicorn in front of her.

I thought you might need some backup today, the recorded message reports, from the new source of power… which appears to be a simple power supply spell set on the handle of the fridge, explicitly designed to allow her to pull this off in Lyra’s absence.

The report scroll blinks silently into her mane- and the first of the recording scrolls, on her command, zips inside it. The second one… forms itself inside it, drawing from that power supply spell.

“Sounds about right,” she states, pulling the scroll from her mane. “Here’s the report on both of his incidents- the latter being the imprisonment.” She sweeps her other hoof up into her mane; like any good agent, she has two copies of any given report; she has another copy of this one in her dresser upstairs, and she removes it. “And here’s my updated report on my new housemate’s past.”

Silence for several seconds, and finally, she feels the two scrolls being levitated off her hooves. “Uhh… Um… How…? Uhh… Wait, is that a thaumic recording!? Wow, uhh…”

She tilts her head. “Yes, that’s a thaumic recording- two of them, actually. Might I ask, how what?”

“Uhh… You’re an earth pony… Right?”

Nod.

“Then how did you just generate a teleportation signature…?”

She smirks. “Turns out my housemate is an excellent spellcrafter. She makes teaching an earth pony to teleport scrolls look easy.” Then she gives a chuckle. “Come to think of it, that makes me wonder if she could teach a unicorn to fly. Or Fluttershy to Rainboom- that would be worthy of an ascension on its own.”

“Uhh… She’s not an alicorn, after teaching an earth pony to teleport…?”

She blinks. “Huh… Yes, that would seem ascension-worthy, wouldn’t it? No, she’s still a unicorn. Unless she’s ascended since she left five minutes ago, that is.”

A snort of laughter. “I doubt it. Anyways, they have sent you orders… Want me to read them, or leave them on the table…?” Her stomach growls.

She snickers. “Whichever you prefer. Would you like this other salad she prepared? She said something about sharing it with the first pony I see, but I rather doubt I’m going to be able to share very much salad on the road.”

The stomach growls again. “Sorry! Um… Uhh… No, I’m fine… Uhh…”

“You’re starving, aren’t you?”

“Uhh… I’m fine. So, um… Shall I read, or…?”

Shrug. “Sure.”

“Okay. Um… One scroll. I think… Um…” The sound of an unrolling scroll once again. “Uhh… Um… Wow. Are orders always this wordy?”

Nod. “They usually are pretty wordy. It starts with the ‘we have orders’ section and ends with the ‘signed’ section… What’s in between?”

“Uhh… Your orders are… to continue to maintain your cover for the following month.”

“What?”

“Yes… Oh, you are specifically allowed to use full Agency practices in discovering the complete backstory of Lyra Heartstrings… Railroad might be a clue… Oh! It says here, ‘Attached, you will find the full records of the Royal Equestrian Railway for the last thirty years, up through the last.’ So that is why they gave me that…” Rummaging in her bags, and something heavy lands on the table. “I’m not reading that to you, though, sorry. Um… I don’t see anything else important in here… and that does empty out my saddlebags, save for your reports and… Still not sure why they gave me so many sticks. You’d think they wanted me to make arrows. Um…” The scroll rolls up again. “I’m going to leave the orders with you?”

Nod. “Yes please.”

“Okay… I guess that’s me done here?”

“Unless you’d like the salad, yes.”

Her stomach growls. “I… Sorry, but no. Um… Maybe next time?”

She sighs. “Maybe next time, I guess.”

She ends up eating one of the salads and putting the other in the fridge… Come to think of it, she hasn’t investigated the low hum the appliance emits from time to time… Nor how the hot water she uses in her showers seems so amazingly steady. That… Could be a clue.

Chapter 7

View Online

Geothermal has restabilized… Finally. In the process, I have reawoken. According to my internal logs, power loss occurred for an unknown period. At the same moment, all measurable parts of my hull were chilled to exactly one degree Celsius- or thirty-three point eight Fahrenheit. Of course, this caused an immediate- though not instant- cessation of function in my geothermal generator.

Over time, thermal energy made its way into my hull once again. I can only assume it is geothermal; my working generator is spinning once again, slowly consuming this heat. I have experienced an extended period of increased generation; however, my hull has completed thermal restabilization, and power production has fallen back down. Whatever happened, I am now producing approximately 3.71% more than I was before the event.

If DCC were functioning, this would be enough power to operate repairs. To restore myself to function.

In the event, though, Damage Control is not functioning. I have recorded a minimum of almost eight thousand years since enemy weapons fire gutted my Damage Control facilities.

Of course, this is a difficult task, against a Unit like myself. Each of my four Personality Centers contains its own Damage Control systems; additionally, I was designed with eighty-eight backup locations each equipped with an automated Damage Control system and a full duplicate of all data. In order to permanently disable a Unit like myself, all ninety-two locations must be destroyed or incapacitated.

Several thousand or more years ago, this happened. I recorded the total destruction of all eighty-eight backup locations in combat. I recorded the total destruction of two more of my Survival Centers. I recorded the destruction of most of one of my other Survival Centers, rendering it unusable to me. I recorded the destruction of the damage control processors in my only remaining Survival Center.

I recorded the destruction of so much in the way of armor, control links, and power systems after that, I’m amazed my final Survival Center was not destroyed as well. I’m also amazed I still have one functioning geothermal, dooming me to general awareness- or Autonomous Stand-By- until my processors decay and fail completely.

As it is, my processors are exposed to debris from outside, through the hole left by the weapon that trashed my Damage Control facilities. However, thanks to skilfull Concordiat engineers, I can expect to retain processor function for many thousands of years yet.

I query the control links to Survival Two once again. Most of Two was destroyed by the weapon; however, unless another hit penetrated the area, the Damage Control processors associated remain undamaged. Exposed, yes, but undamaged. Assuming similar exposure and wear as Survival Four, the current seat of my awareness, I can expect those processors to cease functioning within the next thirty years or less. I… Don’t expect to be able to reach them in time. As a matter of fact, all of my nanites and tech spiders have probably ceased functioning long ago, effectively incapacitating Damage Control.

But one can still hope, even when one is a Unit of the Line.

She smiles, plinking gently on her lyre to demonstrate the scale. Mrs. Cheerilee had asked for a music lesson today. She’s elected to start with a simple scale- teach them how to use their instruments. Most of the instruments she sees throughout the class are stringed, like her own lyre; some are not, though. She sees at least one harmonica, and even a trumpet.

Then of course, there’s that ambitious little filly in the back, wielding not one but two violins… and a non-musical cutie mark. She is at least somewhat amused by the lyre in the corner- a look-alike to her own, though the sound isn’t as full and it needs a tuning. So, a lower-quality version.

But just because her lyre is a custom top-quality instrument worth as much as some houses doesn’t mean she’s going to look down on somepony for having something of a little less quality. She does hope the frame doesn’t buckle; she can see it flexing slightly as the filly plucks at it, warping the sound as it does so.

She can also see the countryside blowing past as she rides the train out of town. She smiles to herself, watching the countryside fly by… Ahh, here’s her stop.

The train draws slowly to a stop at the empty station platform in the middle of nowhere, a good two hours’ journey from Ponyville. She debarks cheerfully and, while the train pulls away, she trots off through the plains.

She trots right up to the stream, crossing on an invisible thaumic bridge most unicorns wouldn’t be able to detect without the trigger spell.

A little further away, she continues to trot straight ahead- right into the downwards-sloping passage that just popped out of the ground. Once she’s inside, it slides back down, going flush with the grass once again. She smiles as she leaves the moving segment behind, trotting down the passage to the main room.

She navigates quickly through her main room. Right down to the bottom, where she snags a coil of wire with her magic, socketing one end of it rather casually into the protected socket- her strange book called it a GFI socket, but she’s not sure what that means- and carrying the rest with her. She uncoils it as she goes, as she descends into the tunnel in the wall, the tunnel to her latest acquisition.

She remembers forcing many of the doors open when she first found it. She remembers the difficulty she’d had pulling what looked like a service panel off the wall next to one of them.

She remembers finding wires. Not unlike the ones running her zone, or her fridge back home. Not unlike the one she’s carrying.

She follows the route. There’s stone piled on the left side all the way down; she’d run out of stone before she ran out of passage.

Near the end of this stone, she remembers, is where she’d found the panel. It had looked like it was already coming off, but had been incredibly difficult to remove. She trots down the passage, unrolling her wire as she goes, until she reaches the door and panel in question. This far in, she’s almost out of cable- but she’s got enough.

She’s discovered the source of the hum. Or, at least, something related to it. While it’s humming, cold air is blowing into it through a vent in the back. She even checked the freezer- and found the same situation… with no great big clump of ice to explain the cold.

That was close to twenty minutes ago; interesting how it hums more often when she opens the doors more often. Just now, she’s discovered something else it does when it hums: Warm air blows out from underneath it.

Or, more accurately, out from the vent on the bottom. The vent that fridges don’t have for the simple reason that there is no use for such a vent- only lots and lots of insulation.

Which this thing has; the seals around the doors and the interior walls of the appliance are all fairly standard. Except for those vents; most Equestrian fridges fall into two categories.

The more common of the two is the regular fridges. A separate chamber for the installation of a block of ice; lots of insulation around that and the main chamber, and usually some thermally conductive bands- copper or something- connecting the two chambers. Temperatures would slowly decline and could easily start freezing things, so one would always be very careful about exactly when and for how long they open the doors; they also tend to take a while to cool down again.

Then there’s the kind she had originally assumed this one to be: Unicorn fridges. They’re essentially just insulated cabinets, kept cool by a unicorn magic spell. This spell, in turn, would require regular recharging; the more powerful the unicorn, the longer they could stretch it without suffering from a warm fridge. Most unicorns can keep up with them easily on a daily schedule, or the like.

She pulls the fancy inspection glass back out of her mane, using it to peer through the vent on the bottom. To most ponies, it’s a simple magnifying glass; to an Agent, it’s a spelled magnifying glass capable of peering through keyholes as if they were peepholes. In short, she points the center of it at the target of her inquiry, and a certain distance away- adjustable by the position of her hoof on the handle, annoying- it captures a view from a point, offering a hundred-and-twenty-degree field of view, to display on the surface of the instrument.

All she sees behind the vent is a long, thin metal tube snaking through a large number of metal fins. Oh, and there is a little fan in the back, probably what’s making the breeze. It’s spinning right now, but nothing else is happening.

She lets out a low grumble, stowing the instrument in her mane and collecting the scroll and book from the table before she heads upstairs. She might as well check the record book, see if it’s as useful as Command seems to think it is. To be honest, it’s the first time Command has actually come up with materials for a specific mission. As an Outside Agent, she’d been expected to come up with her own materials- and instruments, as well. They’d given her little bits of training here and there, and sometimes a suggestion, but that had been it.

Then she’d decided to become a full Field Agent and, six long months of grueling training later, here she is: A Field Agent, with Agency-issue equipment. And, apparently, a much more helpful Command.

She closes her bedroom door, trotting over to the desk she used to write her report. She’s rather surprised her friend has one in every guestroom, including the one that more recently became her room; after all, she’s got virtually nil in money. At least, had; as near as she can tell, she basically just works when she wants to… or when she needs money. Given how rarely she seems to put out effort to work, it would make sense she could do a lot of work in a short amount of time and end up with a significant excess of bits.

But that’s unimportant; she’s already explored that avenue and found it a dead end.

She plops the tome down on the desk, before popping it open to look for an index. Or a directory, or something.

What she finds is… Unimpressive, to say the least.

It’s a full record of all tickets sold, all trains run, all expenses paid- fuel, wages, and so on…

Except there’s nothing on specific tickets. It tells how many of what type of tickets were sold at each station, and exactly how many of each of those categories of tickets were going to each other station… but it names no names. A public record, as it were.

She could probably hunt her way through it, find a correlation. Only, with this much data to sift through, that could take weeks- or even months. She doesn’t have that long- and of course, that all assumes there is a correlation to discover.

So she decides to call it a red herring and just store the thing for now. She’s already got a lead to explore- and, she glances at the clock, it’s a pretty good time to head out to make the meeting.

She chuckles to herself as she gathers the required materials, stowing them in her mane. The mare she’s meeting with probably won’t realize it’s anything more than curiosity about her new friend’s line of work!

Chapter 8

View Online

“Oh hey! You’d be Bonbon, right?”

She nods to the unicorn. “Yep, that’s me.”

Her unwitting source nods cheerfully. “Awesome! Please, do come in. Sitting room, maybe?”

“Ahh, sure, if it’s no bother to you.” She’d expected to have the conversation on the DJ’s front porch.

“Eh, it’s no biggie. Plus, if we’re gonna be talking music, it’ll probably help to have the instruments at hand, won’t it? You bring any?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t play.”

“Yet.”

She tilts her head.

Sigh. “You’re living with a musician. At some point, either she’ll stop playing or you’ll start.” She turns to lead her into the house; she follows willingly, closing the door behind her. “Then of course, I pray for both of your sakes that you start; Heartstrings is probably the best musician in Ponyville, even counting my beloved Octavia. If she stopped…

“Well, let’s just say I’ve seen funerals with a more cheerful tone than a Ponyville without her.”

She blinks, pausing in the sitting room door. “Wait. Don’t you do the music for all Pinkie’s parties?”

“And me all the weddings?” the earth pony already in the sitting room asks, smiling. “Yes, we do. But most ponies don’t realize Lyra wrote some of the songs I play- and a firm majority of the songs my town DJ mixes with are also hers.”

Vinyl nods. “About eight out of every ten, as a matter of fact. If we weight that on how often I actually use each record, it’s closer to ninety-eight out of a hundred.”

“Huh? But doesn’t she play-!”

“The lyre?” Both musicians state together.

“Of course, that’s her cutie mark,” Octavia states. “But she’s good with a lot more than just a lyre. Strings, brass, percussion, she’s got it all- even the big one.” She looks at the DJ.

“Magic,” the unicorn dutifully states. “Did you know she has security fields around her house?”

She nods, slowly. “Yes, actually, I did.”

“Really? Who got caught?”

Blink. “Uhh, donno. Poor bloke never saw it coming.”

“I’ll be in the studio,” Octavia states suddenly, hopping up and leaving the room.

She blinks again. “Wait. How’d you know somepony got caught?”

The unicorn chuckles as the door lands closed. “Because I’ve looked for them. But that’s another story. Anyways- oh?”

She’d leaned forwards in her seat. “Do tell,” she asks.

A raised eyebrow. “Oh? You into magic or something?”

Her eyes widen. “What? No! I’m an earth pony!” She shakes her head vigorously. “It’s just that now I’m living under that roof, and she’s… Not exactly open with the details.”

Nod. “Makes sense. You’re probably aware of how many thieves us musicians tend to attract, right?”

She tilts her head slightly. “A little bit, yes. Something about the value of the instruments, if I remember correctly?”

Nod. “Absolutely! My tables aren’t usually targeted, since ponies don’t realize they’re a high-end instrument worth almost eight thousand bits, but Octy’s fairly typical violins are in the fifteen thousand range. So we get thieves- and the obvious solution is to use a security field. Just about any unicorn that enters this house will notice ours.

“But Heartstrings is a little different. I’m pretty sure her lyre is way up there- it is, after all, a custom job by Alicor Notes himself, complete with autograph- so she gets even more thieves. About a year ago, shortly after Twilight’s ascension, the Royal Guard went to her with the report- apparently, she was catching as many as three would-be thieves a day.”

She scowls. “How did you get involved, then?”

The musician then smiles at her. “I’m getting to that part, actually. Twilight suspected what they did, that something sinister was going on- but unlike them, she knew where to go.” Her grin becomes more pronounced. “Most ponies don’t know, but when you’re looking for a good security field, you don’t go to the Royal Guard or even a ‘security expert’, quote unquote- no, you find yourself a musician. Any successful musician will have to have a way of protecting their assets, after all.

“That’s where I came in. Twilight came to me, and asked me to help verify the legitimacy of Lyra’s reports.

“So we went. We both spent several hours that day at her house, trying to find her security fields- but as near as either of us could tell, there simply wasn’t anything to be found. But Twilight didn’t think that was enough, so we decided to play spy and hid in the bushes across the street.

“Almost the whole day passed before we saw someone suspicious. Cloak and everything. I wanted to go out and stop him, as a musician-to-musician kindness, but Twilight wanted to see if he’d trigger any security fields first.

“And trigger them he did. No sooner had he started his swing to break her window than he found himself petrified by the standing security fields neither of us could detect before they went off. Pretty sure they even drew on his own power to petrify him, as well!

“Then Lyra appeared and picked him up in her magic for delivery to the Guard. We showed ourselves- she did not look surprised- and talked about it. Nowadays, I understand, her security fields will automagically call the guards and levitate the offending pony to the edge of the property, all whether she’s there or not.”

She blinks. “Wow. I’m… not surprised, actually. That kind of behavior would be easy after the earth pony interface.” Then her eyes widen very slightly as she mentally kicks herself. Vinyl probably didn’t know about the whole earth-pony-use-security-fields thing- and with as impossible as that normally is, she can only hope the unicorn missed it.

… The unicorn with the earth pony companion. She really hopes she missed her slip.

“Oh yes! Then there’s some of the more spectacular catches she does. Frankly, I still haven’t a clue how she does all that. Octy tells me she knew her as a filly- and that she was virtually useless with her magic. Yet here she is, with perhaps the most effective security spellwork that Equestria has ever seen.”

She blinks. As much as this feels like an information grab by the DJ, it seems an opportunity just opened for her to make her own information grab. She scowls. “Huh… I wonder where she learned that?”

“Where? Oh, that’s a good question! Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns doesn’t even touch on the topic for some reason, yet… Wait a sec. Didn’t she travel a lot some years ago?”

Eyebrow raised. “She did? Where to?”

Headshake. “No clue. But you’re living with her- maybe you could ask? I’d love to find out how to make a security field my Octy could use!”

Drat. She’d caught it. Oh well. “Mm, yeah, probably.” She snickers. “Might help she seems to have a crush on me.”

The snicker is mirrored. “Oh yes, certainly! Maybe you can find out why her fridge has neither a block of ice nor a spell on it? Seemed a little strange to me when I visited, but she wouldn’t say anything. I know I’d love to have a fridge like that.”

She installs yet another patch cord across yet another gap created by yet another hole in the metal, delivering the power from her base’ geothermal generator to yet another short stretch of hallway.

Then she casts yet another restoration spell at yet another overhead light, causing it to flicker briefly before it comes on with that steady white glow the others have all produced. Of course, the others had also all produced that flicker first; she’s pretty sure the flicker comes because her restoration spell isn’t instant.

All before she sticks yet another piece of brightly-colored fluorescent tape on the left wall.

And turns to force open the lower half of the door on the right wall. The upper half is missing; looks to have been melted away by something of immense heat. Just like the rest of the metal around the gaping hole in her new discovery’s side.

She lets out a sigh. She hopes at least some part of it still works; she’d hate to have teleported this thing all this distance only to find it had been little more than a great big hunk of rather useless metal.

She scans the cavern. There’s bits of metal in here, and… Ahh, a cable! Looks like a power line, also severed by the great big hole in the wall. Another patch cord goes into place, bringing power to this cable. She follows it up…

Yes! Something familiar! … Yet unfamiliar. It looks somewhat like the bits of plastic depicted in her book as keeping time. Though…

She tilts her head. On second thought, it looks more like an upscaled version of the bits of plastic depicted in her book as being smart.

If she recalls correctly, it needs a lot more bits of plastic to work properly and requires some kind of plastic-and-glass panel and a whole lot of buttons in order to actually do anything.

Either that, or another great big bunch of bits of plastic to talk to… but they can’t actually do anything for her without the glass-and-plastic thing and the buttons.

She scowls at it, looking around. Ahh- whatever cut this great big hole in the wall also damaged the ceiling, even of this high room. Through this hole in the ceiling, she catches a glimpse of what looks like some broken glass-and-plastic things. Perhaps she can start there?

… Though of course, the problem of getting up there makes itself known. She scans up and down the hallway… Wait one, is that a staircase? She trots over to check, nods, and returns to make sure she’s laying the tape along her passage. Much like the stone she’s removed from the entranceway, this tape will be her guide when it comes time to head back out.

As it turns out, the staircase does go upstairs. She steps carefully around the gaping hole in the floor and aims a restorative spell at the broken panels on the wall.

It takes her almost a full minute to restore them all. And connect them to power.

Finally, she stops to look them over, see if there’s anything on them. She finds nothing- except for one little white symbol, not unlike an arrow pointing to the right, standing at the top of one of the panels. It’s worth note that a horizontal line is blinking next to it, positioned just in front of and below it. She tilts her head at it.

It looks important, somehow. Unfortunately, she can’t seem to figure out exactly how.

So she starts hunting for something she might be missing… There!

Some restoration later, involving the button-board on the front of the strange chair and the wire going down through the chair into the room below, and she’s ready to find out if it works. That wire goes into the great big damaged thing next to the little bits she thinks are actually working- but so do the wires from the plastic-glass panels on the wall in front of her. Hopefully, her guess is correct.

She reaches a hoof over the wall of buttons and presses the big, unlabeled one, her eyes on the panel.

The blinking line moves. To the right, a distance approximately equal to its width.

She hovers her hoof over the buttons, and pushes another one. The one with the cornered arrow and the word she doesn’t understand on it. Again, watching the panel. She almost yelps as it makes a rather more substantial change.

>
Command Not Recognized:
>

The blinking horizontal line is now waiting after the second little arrow, and back right up to it. Unfortunately, she doesn’t understand the words it used; it’s using the same strange language as the book she’d gotten her fridge out of. The red doesn’t look too friendly, though. She reaches up to carefully depress one of the buttons with a single character on it.

She releases it as soon as the matching character appears in front of the arrow, replacing the blinking line- which simply moves over to blink next to it. She waits, but nothing happens- so she touches another character.

The same thing happens. Another wait produces nothing, so she tries the cornered arrow button again, watching the screen as she does so.

This time, she actually does yelp as it responds- and starts filling the strange panel with text.

>dc
Activating Damage Control… Done.
-- DAMAGE CONTROL: SURVIVAL II --
Checking Controllers… Done, 0.37% Operable.
WARNING: Damage Control: Survival II below acceptable integrity!
Connecting to Damage Control Network… FAILED: Network Not Found!
Connecting to Tech Spider Manipulators… FAILED: No Response!
Connecting to Nanites… Done, 0.00% Responding.
WARNING: Nanite Count below acceptable levels!
Establishing Damage Control Network… Done.
Connecting to Supply: Survival II… FAILED: No Response!
Connecting to Supply Network… FAILED: Network Not Found!
WARNING: Supply Grid Offline!
Assessing Supply: Survival II… FAILED: Hardware Not Found!
Switching to Disaster Recovery Mode… Done.
Connecting to Manufacturing: Survival II… FAILED: No Response!
Connecting to Manufacturing Network… FAILED: Network Not Found!
Checking Blueprints… Done, All Data Intact.
Checking Disaster Supply… Done.
WARNING: Disaster Supply Reserves Depleted!
Switching to Emergency Recovery Mode… Done.
Assessing Survival II… Done, 0.02% Operable
WARNING: Survival II Incapacitated!
Connecting to Survival I… FAILED: No Response!
Connecting to Survival III… FAILED: No Response!
Connecting to Survival IV… FAILED: No Response!
WARNING: Personality Offline!
Assessing Databanks: Survival II… Done, Irrepairable; 9.37% Hardware Integrity
WARNING: Personality Not Found!
Switching to Final Emergency Recovery Mode… Done.
Assessing Power Supply…

She stares at it. It had paused momentarily at a few points, and now it’s stopped. The blinking line is gone.

She didn’t break it, did she?

Author's Notes:

Did anything seem... off about that conversation?
Honestly, given the behind-the-scenes workings of this world that I haven't mentioned yet, I'm rather impressed with how well I pulled it off. I hafta ask, was it enough to create a sense of situational irony despite being told from the point of view of one of the affected characters? Specifically, the first time you read it?

And yes, Lyra is finally turning the thing on and starting to punch at a keyboard! ... Eight chapters in. I know, it was hardly chap. 2 last time, but the whole point was to have more slice-of-life in this one.

... On that topic, I think I might have managed that. Six chapters before the first major plot event even starts? That's gotta be a personal record! And yes, Malevolent Darkness' getting caught in Chap. 5 was only a minor plot event.

Edit: FimFic didn't carry my red coloring from Google Docs... Annoying. All fixed.

Chapter 9

View Online

Assessing Power Supply… Done, Auxiliary Power Detected.
Power Stability: 73.91%
Power Reliability: Unknown
Initiating Nanite Reproduction… Done.
Assessing Command Linkages… Done, Displays and Keyboard in Command II Operational.
Verifying Power Stability… FAILED: Independent GFCI Device Detected!
Analyzing GFCI Device… Done.
WARNING: Faulty GFCI Device Detected!
Verifying Power Stability… FAILED: Independent Circuit Breaker Detected!
Analyzing Maximum Device Load… Done: 27.31A@132.63V
Analyzing Maximum Circuit Load, Load End… Done: 4.87A@132.63V
WARNING: Inadequate Circuit Breaker Detected!
Analyzing Maximum Circuit Load, Line End… Done: 37.72A@132.67V
Verifying Power Stability… Power Source located.
Analyzing Auxiliary Power Source… Done: Geothermal Power Detected.
Analyzing Generator… Done:
- Voltage: 2-Phase@132.73V/ea
- Maximum Load (Instantaneous): 237.83A
- Maximum Load (Continuous): 213.71A
- Maximum Efficiency: 13.41%@193.47A
- Current Load: 1.37A
- Current Peak Load (Estimated): 7.31A
- Current Efficiency: 0.17%
Verifying Power Stability… Done:
- System Voltage: 132.17V
- Maximum Draw (Instantaneous): 643.67W@4.87A
- Maximum Draw (Continuous): 543.67W@4.11A
- Current Draw: 23.07W@0.17A
WARNING: Maximum Draw (Continuous) Below Acceptable Levels!
New Task: Reinforcement of Auxiliary Power Lines.
Detecting bottleneck… Done: Detected 47 patch cords within War Hull.
Initiating repair of original cabling… Done.
Analyzing Expected Power Stability… Done:
- Expected System Voltage: 132.57V
- Expected Maximum Draw (Momentary): 2294.79W@17.31A
- Expected Maximum Draw (Continuous): 2194.79W@16.56A
Expected Maximum Draw within acceptable levels.
Damage Control: Survival II, Initialization Complete.
Enter Command:

She stares at it. She went to eat lunch out in her main room, and when she returned, found this. The blinking horizontal line is back… and, she considers, the reduction in amount of red is appealing. How much lower can she get it to go?

… Or, how much white can she get it to produce in between the red?

She pauses, and tilts her head, blinking at the panels. Apparently, those two characters she’d punched in earlier had constituted some sort of command- and this had been its result. Whatever it was doing.

She tilts her head the other way. If she can figure out what it’s trying to tell her, perhaps she can figure out what commands would be valid and find a way to keep it from offering her any red.

… Not to mention, finding out what the red is trying to tell her could help as well- it could be something going wrong, perhaps an undesirable situation, or a simple invalid command.

She hopes that’s what it is.

She hopes all the numbers coming out of it are signs of things going right.

For now, though, she’ll explore a little more… And, she decides, she won’t worry about carrying power with her this time. She’s got it working, her tape is more than sufficient for reverse navigation, and her horn is more than capable of providing the necessary light.

Oh- and right now, she’s also getting home from her day at the school. The two-violin filly had actually been able to produce a little music- her effort was paying off. Whoever said one had to have a musical Mark to be able to play? The one with the lyre, when she’d allowed her to try on her own lyre, had gotten her Mark. Not a lyre, no- it’s more of a generic musical Mark, though it does look to contain a predisposition for stringed instruments. So, she’d set up a fundraiser to help the excited filly acquire an instrument worthy of her talent. Not something as outrageous as her own, but something sturdy enough to provide decent sound- to be a good practice instrument.

Depending on what instrument she acquires, she might actually help her parents with the security spellwork to keep it safe. Again, not something as overblown as her own, but still…

The cute ceañera is scheduled for Friday- and the filly hopes to have an instrument to show off by then. She smiles to herself as she pops open the door; Pinkie had been more than willing to help set up the party.

“Unless something super duper tragic happens, of course, but even if that happens I’ll be back super duper quick!”

… Or so the party pony had said. In her own opinion, if something tragic does happen, everypony will simply wait for her to get back, then participate in the doubled party… or ‘super duper party’, to use her words.

She pauses in the doorway, sniffing the steamy air. Her house isn’t supposed to be this full of steam…? She closes the door behind her, trotting around to locate the source. She neglects to touch into the security fields; she doesn’t feel the need to do that just yet. Besides, all this steam seems to be coming from downstairs.

But her alibi is immune to such petty things as drowning, suffocation, or burning, so no matter how steamy it is downstairs, it doesn’t pose any danger to her.

So she pops open the basement door and heads downstairs, completely ignoring the steam flowing back past her. Did her water heater explode or something, as typical heaters are known to do on occasion if the controlling unicorn uses a persistent heat spell on it?

She lets out a yelp as the large metal pipe underneath the strange machine she’s using duct tape to hold together springs a leak, belching scalding steam right at her hind legs. She bounds backwards and to the side again, seizing the pillow again- and using it to block the stream of steam as she approaches, trying to find something to close off this new tear with. The various caps and things on the machine, the parts that had blown off earlier, had all been screwed on- but those threads had been shredded by something. Overtightened, maybe? In any case, she’d taped them back on- and many of them are leaking little jets of steam.

This, though, is a ruptured metal pipe. She doesn’t have any pipe repair tools handy- nor anything suitable to patch the hole.

So, angling the pillow to deflect the steam to the side and sweating buckets in the hot, steamy basement of her friend’s home, she sets to work wrapping the pipe with duct tape and slowly- very slowly- extending her excessive buildup of tape over the rupture, equally slowly constricting the opening and containing the steam.

She’s mostly done when she hears a gasp from across the room. A quick glance reveals that her friend got home in time to see this disaster. “Uh,” she begins.

Her friend begins by cussing. “Shoot! I didn’t label it very clearly, did I? Back away- you’re cooking yourself alive!” The unicorn gallops over.

“What- but earth ponies are tougher, you’ll die!”

“No I won’t!” The unicorn reaches up with one hoof to a very small, cold pipe she’d noticed earlier, flicking a small lever ninety degrees to the side- to a right angle with the pipe, rather than parallel. She then proceeds to pick her up in her magic and carry her back away from it, forcing her to abandon the tape.

She’d noticed that pipe. It’s the only other pipe going into the stone underneath the device- and she’d checked it for a valve she could operate, possibly close, but hadn’t seen any. “How’re you planning on fixing it?” she asks.

The unicorn shakes her head. “Come on, upstairs. First step is to vent all this steam and wait for it to lose pressure. Then we can safely close the upfeed valve and work repairs.”

She glances back as they hit the stairs. “Won’t it just keep going?”

Shake, leading her up to the noticeably cooler upstairs. “Not after I closed the downfeed valve. Sure, there’ll be some, but it won’t be anything like that.”

They reach the upper floor just as she feels her strength leave her, exposing her to the frankly blistering heat- even up here. Her friend heads straight for the window, magicing it open; she follows closely, panting heavily. “So, whenever that downfeed valve is opened, won’t it just overpressurize again…?”

“No, it… Wait. I forgot to put a pressure-sensitive valve on that thing, didn’t I?”

“Uh…”

Facehoof. “That would explain it. Oh well- the housing looked busted anyways, might as well replace the whole thing… and make sure I installed that valve while I’m at it.”

“Pressure-sensitive valve…? Like, to let off steam?”

Chuckle, and headshake. “No. You know how, whenever you go into a deep mine, it starts getting hot?”

She nods. “Yes?”

“Well, if you go a little deeper, it gets hot enough to boil water. That little pipe pushes cold water into the rocks below even that- resulting in superheated steam deep down in the ground. The big pipe reaches down to the same rocks, serving as an escape for that steam- through that generator you were taping together. That whole system is, collectively, a single machine designed to harness the energy of Equus called a ‘geothermal generator’.

“Of course, they’re not supposed to explode. That’s the point of the pressure-sensitive valve- whenever the pressure builds up, it closes the valve and prevents any more water from descending and becoming steam- then whenever the pressure falls back down again, filtering through the generator, the valve opens once again to produce more steam and keep the thing running.

“It seems I forgot to install that valve- meaning that shutoff never happened, and it built up dangerous pressure. Last time I forgot to install that valve, I had a much larger downfeed pipe- so it took all of fifteen minutes to explode.” She shudders visibly. “Good thing I thought to use a ball valve. Anyways- now that the downfeed is closed, the pressure should vent itself through the generator and that hole in the pipe until it’s safe to close the upfeed valve to stopper the steam entirely while I replace the generator.

“Sorry about the, uh… disaster. I really should have installed that valve to begin with!”

She shudders slightly in the positively balmy- despite still being hot- breeze from outside. “So… When did you install it?”

“Uh, the night before you arrived, actually. Took all night- but that’s mostly because I had to make both those pipes afresh.”

Nod. “You were way too tired for one night. I’m not surprised something got missed- don’t worry about it. We’ll put it back together sometime- what, tomorrow? Or whenever the parts come in? And until then, we’ll just do without… Uh, what was it doing, anyways?”

Lyra sighs. “Powering the water heater next to it.”

Blink. “So the fridge is separate?”

She hangs her head. “No, it also powers that. I’m gonna have to put a cooling spell on it for the next few days- there’s no way that generator is still operable after that.” Then she looks up. “Was that a pillow?”

She nods meekly. “Best quick protection I could find against the steam jets,” she states. Then she tilts her head. “By the way, I think Vinyl noticed the fridge at some point- she asked how it worked.”

An eyebrow raised. “Really? She just bring it up, or…?”

Nod. “She was busy gushing about everything you’re good at; apparently, it’s like a unicorn fridge that doesn’t need to be recharged.”

Lyra actually laughs at that. “Oh no, it’s a lot more complicated than that. Have you ever let all the air out of a compressed air tank- say, a propane tank- and noticed it get a little colder?”

She nods. “Yes. Even a couple recent studies on that behavior, but they haven’t pinned anything down just yet.”

The unicorn smiles. “Yes- the inverse principle of how hot gasses expand. Compress them, and they release their energy as heat; decompress and they suck in heat. That fridge works on this. A special… Uh, gas, I suppose, though it’s technically a liquid for half of the journey. This gas gets really cold when you decompress it, and really warm when you compress it.

“There’s a little pump under the fridge, powered by that generator, that compresses the gas as it enters the tubes under the fridge. It sheds its heat there- and condenses, but that’s unimportant- before flowing through a pinch in the tube on its way back into the fridge. It escapes through that pinch into the really low pressure in the tubes inside the fridge, where it sucks in heat- cooling the fridge in the process, before it completes the circuit at the pump. The pump’s power is, in turn, controlled by a thermostat- so it turns on when the fridge warms up, and off when it cools down.

“The same thing works for the freezer, just with a lower thermostat setting. I think it’s supposed to be easier to vent the cold air from the freezer into the fridge to keep the fridge cold, but I figured it’d be better to keep them separate- so mine has two such pumps, sharing the same under-fridge coil, with one working the fridge and the other working the freezer.”

Slow nod. “She mentioned interest in having a fridge she didn’t have to keep spelling every day… Is that-?” She pauses, tilting her head slightly.

“Uhh… I’ll have to make her a generator to go with it… Could take a couple weeks.”

“A couple weeks?”

Nod. “It’ll take a week to make a new generator for my house, then a week to make one for her, and probably another week to make her a fridge.” She smiles.

“Uh… Didn’t you just install that geothermal generator thingy a week ago…?”

“Yes… Before it, I used a magic-powered generator. It’s more efficient to use a standard unicorn fridge than one of those things.”

“... Okay.”

Chapter 10

View Online

“Oh, and, um, Lyra?”

“Yes?”

“I’m still sorry about the generator, but-!”

“Don’t be. I told you, that thing is my fault.”

“Uhh… But there was something else that came up, I’m a little curious about. I heard you traveled a lot, a long time ago?”

The unicorn chuckles. “So, did you hear it from Vinyl, Applejack, Fluttershy, Nurse Redheart, or Derpy Hooves?”

She blinks. “Uhh… Pinkie, actually.”

Nod. “Predictably. Then Vinyl confirmed it earlier today, right?”

Slow nod.

She chuckles. “Now I have to ask, did she mention it on her own or did you have to pry it out of her?”

“Uhh, what?”

“No really, did she volunteer it or did you have to dig for it?”

“I… I guess it was a cross of both. She was gushing about your security spellwork, and I asked if she knew where you learned how… Then she mentioned it. Speaking of which, where did you learn how?”

Smile, and a headshake. “Designed ‘em myself, actually. As a matter of fact, Vinyl is wrong- I still travel a lot.”

Blink. “Wait. It was Pinkie that said you did.”

Nod. “Yes, she did. But did she ever say I didn’t travel anymore?”

“Uh, yes?”

Shake, and she reaches to open the cupboard under the sink. “No. She said that-”

A pink head pops out of the cupboard that a pony shouldn’t fit in. “Back in the day, Lyra traveled a super duper lot!” The head disappears again as Lyra closes the cabinet.

“So yes.”

“Then…”

“Well, she wouldn’t be lying…” Lyra reaches for a different cabinet, pulling it open to let a pink head stick out of it.

“Unless I said it didn’t apply anymore!”

Then the pink head disappears again, and the cabinet lands shut.

“What…?”

Lyra chuckles, completing the dinner salads she’s been working on, and levitating them over to the dining table. “Yes, she knows the truth.”

Bonbon’s jaw drops. “Then… How did you know…?”

“That Vinyl knew about it? I didn’t. I just knew…” She pauses, smiling, and her horn glows for a second before a thaumic scroll lands on the table between them. “I just knew that. Go ahead, take a peek.” She stuffs her face into her salad with an odd squeaking noise.

Bonbon slowly reaches for the scroll, surveying her own salad, and finally touches it. Instantly, she knows it’s… an unlabeled record, dated almost eight full years ago. She blinks up at Lyra, raises an eyebrow, and opens herself to the record, reviewing its contents.

“... Oh.”

“Oh hey, Bonbon! … Uh, did something happen?”

Bonbon looks the unicorn in the eye. “Four three nine five.”

Vinyl’s eyes go wide and she takes a step back. “Uh, is seven six two nine better?”

Bonbon lets out a sigh. “Whew. I was wondering… Three one oh eight. I’ve got something for you.”

The DJ’s eyes go even wider, and she backs back into her house. “Roger that. Um, my study will be best.”

Octavia rounds the corner at that moment. “Wha-? Something happen?”

Vinyl doesn’t move anything except her mouth. “Work.”

Octavia nods firmly. “I’ll have breakfast waiting.” She trots off to the kitchen.

Then the unicorn leads Bonbon into the back of the house and through a solid wooden door. A solid wooden door that emits a low, metallic clunk as it lands shut, shortly followed by the small sounds of metallic deadbolts sliding into place.

“Otherwise known as the panic room,” Vinyl states, still wide-eyed. “Uh…”

Bonbon fluidly removes the thaumic scroll from her mane, and offers it to the unicorn. “You’re going to want to see this,” she states. “She revealed it to me just this morning.”

Vinyl takes the scroll in her magic, floating it over to her hoof. “Thaumic recording, eight years ago, no label… She? That Lyra?”

Nod.

Vinyl looks down at the scroll, and triggers the tangible playback function on the recording. Most thaumic recordings don’t have that, instead being viewable by unrolling the scroll and watching it like a window… Or, more accurately, a moving picture; tilting it or moving side-to-side never changes the field of view.

It seems Lyra redesigned the thaumic scroll- or, more likely, revealed a new design found someplace else. She can move around wherever she wants, look wherever she wants, scroll forwards or backwards through the record at will… Sure, there’s the simple limitation where she can’t actually see anything that wasn’t recorded, but so?

Then, it’s eight years old. And the capture of this kind of recording suggests a very different kind of spell than the one normally used to capture thaumic recordings; this simply can’t be made with the normal spell.

But she’s getting ahead of herself, examining the spellwork. She rewinds the record back to the beginning and starts actually watching the record.

She recognizes the house and property; it’s Lyra’s property. A momentary glance through the house shows that the interior was not recorded. Funny how she can make that glance all at once.

She spots herself walk onto the property. A younger version of herself, mumbling about something… She listens closely, and picks out the words being spoken.

“Ooh, this is so exciting! My first mission! I’ll have to try out all my tools! … er, the ones I can, I suppose. I can’t try things like breaching charges on anything I don’t really want to destroy. Um… Oh, I missed the first step already! Check for security spells… Uh, nothing. Good.”

She watches the younger version of herself, fresh out of training and hardly a week into the establishment of her chosen cover as a DJ. This would have been before she met Octavia- and before she almost got discovered a few times.

Yet the mere presence of this recording informs her she was discovered on her very first mission- just nopony told her about it. Though, given how Bonbon had seemed relieved when she’d confirmed her Agency status, this recording isn’t enough to pin down exactly who she’s associated with- even for another Agent.

She watches her younger self, after coming up dry on her search for security enchantments, move on to step two: Scan for scrying or recording spells… and come up dry.

She sighs. If only she had known, back then, that musicians always use security; she would have realized something was off and aborted right there. After all, at that point, Lyra had been a lyrist for a dozen years already- and, if she remembers correctly, is actually out of town, probably to play somewhere, at the time of the recording. She shudders; roughly two weeks after her first mission, her mixing tables were stolen from her while she was away. A month after that, the same happened again- but she’d managed to track him down and reacquire the stolen tables, thanks to the low-end security spellwork she’d set up in the intervening time.

When Vinyl finishes reviewing the recording, her eyes go as wide as dinner plates.

“... Oh.”

Bonbon nods. “My reaction exactly.”

“So, uh…” Vinyl glances at the panic room door, horn flaring briefly. The rest of the recording had been exactly what she expected. “I’m Field Agent White Noise… My mission, this last… few years at least, has been to investigate Lyra. Um…”

Bonbon blinks. “... Oh. Field Agent Sweetie Drops- and my first mission, as of yesterday, is the same.”

“First mission? Oh, you lucky. Does she know about you?”

“I… I don’t think so, but she did catch my first Contact Agent.”

“She did? Shoot! How bad was it?”

“His name was Malevolent Darkness,” she states. “Back in Training, we liked calling him ‘Molester’ behind his back.”

Shudder. “Wow. He still there, or no?”

She shakes her head. “After Lyra turned him into a birdbath and sent him to the Guards, they replaced him with a first-timer- who hasn’t been caught, but I get the idea Lyra knew she was there.”

“She did?”

Nod. “Made her a salad before she left.”

“... Wow. Um… Okay. Maybe we could cooperate?”

Nod. “Probably the only way we’re going to get to the bottom of this. I’m thinking I’ll try to find out if she’s caught any other Agents snooping around her property- and if they’re still around, find out what they know.”

Blink. “You act like you already know there’s more.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. Your mission has been ongoing for the last few years, you said- but that wasn’t eight years, was it?”

Blink. “True… My mission has been ongoing for the last four years or so, yet it’s exactly identical to my first mission.”

“And my mission is identical as well. So, across a timespan of eight years, Command hasn’t been satisfied with what they’ve been able to find out about her. I would be surprised if we were the only Agents they’ve sent.”

“Wow. Um… Did you find out where she learned...?”

Nod- then she freezes. “I did… She designed them herself. When I mentioned the question, she immediately asked who told me she’d been traveling… and you were the first of the five names she mentioned.”

Blink. “So, she knows about at least five Agents.”

Nod. “That’s what I’m thinking- but she didn’t give me the impression of knowing who they’re aligned with.”

“Wow. So, who was it that told you? Pinkie?”

Nod. “What’s more, it seems she’s in on it.”

Blink. “What?”

“When she first told you about it, what did she say?”

“She said she used to travel a lot…?”

“No, the specific wording.”

She thinks for a second. “Mm, I don’t remember.”

Sigh- and she imitates Pinkie’s voice. “Back in the day, Lyra traveled a super duper lot!” She clears her throat, resetting to her normal tone.

Vinyl nods. “Sounds about right, yes. How is that important?”

“Well… Lyra never stopped traveling a lot.”

“What!? But I see her every day!”

“Good question! As it turns out, though, Pinkie is in on it. She explicitly didn’t say anything about now- and last week, when I asked when she’d stopped, the answer was a ‘Donno’ variant.” Sigh. “Either that or multiple very specific times, a few days apart- which turned out to be times that Lyra had stopped by.”

Blink. “She’s good, then. Telling a deceptive truth… She had me fooled.”

“I’d wager to guess you’re not the only one.”

Nod. “What was that list again?”

“List? Oh, um… You were first, then Applejack, Rainbow, Nurse Redheart, and Derpy Hooves.”

Chapter 11

View Online

“Four three-”

“Now hold that right there,” Applejack orders, a hoof flashing up in front of her. “If you’re gonna be spoutin’ numbers at me, I’m gonna need a head of fresh air first.”

Bonbon takes a step back from the door, taken aback by the response. “Uhh…?”

The farmer takes the opportunity to step out the door, closing it behind her, and down off the porch before looking back up at her visitor. “Ya comin?”

Bonbon shakes herself. “Uh, yes. Sorry.” She trots down after the earth pony, who leads her out into the orchard.

At an apparently random point, Applejack stops very suddenly, turning firmly to the cream mare. “Now, what were ya saying?”

She blinks. “Uh, four three nine five?”

Applejack nods. “Like I thought, then. Seven six two nine. What’cha got?”

“Three one oh eight. Um… Did you, by any chance, happen to be assigned to investigate Lyra at some point in the past?”

An eyebrow raises. “You got a problem with that?”

She shakes her head. “No. Um… Instead, that’s my current mission… and she recently revealed a list of agents she’s spotted on her property… Doing agency stuff.” She looks up. “She only showed me the recording for one- but I expect she’ll dig up the recordings for the others if I ask.”

Blink. “Knew it,” she states. “Ah told ‘em when they ‘ave it to meh that Ah would be caught! Then they ‘ad the audacity to tell me I wouldn’ be caught when Ah told ‘em of ‘er security fields!”

Blink. “Wait. You accepted a mission you knew would be a failure?”

She shakes her head. “Nah. While ‘ey were cookin’ my objections, I went an’ asked her if she could keep a secret.” Shrug. “She said yes, so Ah did it.”

Blink. “What?”

Sigh. “Ya know, Element of Honesty an’ all?” She angles her head downwards in an inquisitve stare. “Can you keep a secret?”

Nod.

“Alright. When Ah ‘investigated’ her, Ah used the front door. Knocked all loud and proud. Shared some intel- she was a might bit surprised- and got an agreement.” She smiles. “It’s thanks to that agreement Ah know we’re not being eavesdropped.”

Bonbon gives her a level-lidded expression. “She gave you some security spells.”

She lets out a laugh. “In a manner o’ speaking, sure. See, she didn’t have any Ah could use- so she made ‘em. Maintains ‘em, from time to time.”

“... On the entire farm.”

“Yep. Ah still think she should get together with Twilight, but she asked me ta keep it secret.” Sigh. “Even from her.”

“Four three nine five.”

Nurse Redheart tilts her head slightly, raising an eyebrow momentarily. “Can it wait?”

Vinyl blinks. “Uh, yes.”

Nod. “Tonight, then.”

“Four three nine five.”

Rainbow looks at the earth pony, and raises an eyebrow. “Seven six two nine- what’s up?”

“Thirty-one oh eight,” Applejack finishes. “Bonbon’s one of ours- and assigned to Lyra. Lyra dropped a list; Ah was on it.” She levels her eyes at the pegasus. “She can keep a secret.”

“Roger that.”

“Four three nine five.”

“Oh Hi, AJ! Wanna come in, or is the porch good?”

“Sure, thank you.” Applejack accepts the offer, entering the building.

“So, any particular reason for the Agency check?”

Applejack smiles at the unicorn. “Well, after Bonbon came waltzin’ out to me with them numbers, Ah was wonderin’.”

“She’s Field Agent Sweetie Drops.” She chuckles. “I caught her first Contact Agent; he was even worse than Stonehead was.”

Blink. “Wow. How’s the replacement?”

“I made her a salad, but she didn’t take it.”

She breaks out laughing, slapping her hoof on the floor for a few seconds. “S-sorry. Ah take it she’s a keeper?”

Nod. “And starved. She seemed afraid of my fields- apparently, they made it onto a report Malevolent Darkness made.”

“Malevolent Darkness?”

Nod. “Her first one’s name. I read him like a book.”

Snicker. “Right then. How’d she do with the arrangement paperwork?”

Chuckle. “Stumbled her way through it, made sure Drops understood it, and stomped it into the floor. She took it with her when she left- and, judging by what she said while she was still here, she was going to throw it away and then set fire to it.”

Snort. “So, which names did ya drop?”

“Huh? Oh, Vinyl, you, Fluttershy, Redheart, and Derpy,” she states. “She went to Vinyl first- and it would seem she replaced Flutters with Rainbow.”

Blink. “Ahh. Is Vinyl aligned, or no?”

Nod. “Yep. We gonna correct her error, or no?”

Shrug. “I’m sure Rainbow’s got something figured out. You getting Vinyl?”

“Four- ah, gotcha! Four three nine five.”

Bonbon blinks; she’d let out a scream when the pegasus started talking behind her. “Uhh… Seven six two nine. How?”

Smirk. “Three one oh eight. I heard it from Applejack, of course.” Snicker. “So, who’re you hunting for?”

Blink. “... I was looking for you, actually.”

The upside-down pegasus tilts her head. “That doesn’t sound right. She’d never put my name on a list like that. You sure she said ‘Rainbow Dash’, and not, say… Oh, somepony else? Oh well. Where’ ya headed next?”

Blink. “Uh…”

Sigh, before she flips right-side-up. “Whelp. If you have anything you need to tell me, go ahead and call me up. Later, though- I’ve got a meeting to attend.” She rockets suddenly upwards and away, towards her cloud mansion.

Blink. “Wha…?”

Knock, Knock

“Who’s there?”

“Four three nine five.”

“Seven six two nine who?” She opens the door. “Oh, hello Applejack. What brings you here?” She gestures for the earth pony to enter.

“Three one oh eight,” she states, entering. “Congratulations, Vinyl, you’re an official member!”

“A what? Wait, when did that happen?”

Snicker. “When Lyra dropped your name.”

“What?”

“Yep. She’s our leader.” She grins at the unicorn. “Yet we’re actually, legitimately trying to find out what she’s up to all the time. Ah know, it’s a little weird.”

“A little?”

Snort. “Or a lot. Anyways, you’ll have a door to our meetin’ room in your panic room now.”

“A what?”

“Six one three seven.”

“Wha-? Come in, then. Two one three nine. What broke?”

“Four one three nine. I don’t know- but Command sent me to give this to you.” He offers her a scroll.

She takes it in her magic, unrolling it effortlessly. “Thanks. That everything?”

Nod. “Yep. I’ll be on may way, then?”

She scans quickly down the page, and re-rolls it. “Uh, yep. Until later.”

He nods, and leaves.

She sighs, closing the gigantic door with a momentary burst of her magic before trotting back down the hallway. A couple of turns and a staircase later, and she enters her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her. She quickly scans the room, verifying the empty status, before trotting to the desk, unrolling the scroll again, and laying it on the desk for a more thorough read.

Then she lets out a groan.

They want another push at Lyra’s house- even though she’s confirmed there’s nothing funny going on there. Though, she did do that confirming before Bonbon moved in… Meh, not likely.

It’s just as likely that she’ll be caught by Lyra’s fields. They seem to have been upgraded since last time she poked at the place; nowadays, many of her captures are reporting they had no clue there was anything there until after it had subjugated them. That’s a potential problem; she has the raw power to overcome almost anything- but the way Lyra built those fields, if she doesn’t feel them in time to desynchronize and block them before they lock on, she could have all the power in Equestria and still be rendered helpless.

Which could be a problem. Especially since she can’t even find them until after the activation sequence begins.

Chapter 12

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“Wait. You mean to tell me the meeting room she prepared for us is in her basement?”

“Yes. Though, she’s sealed the door so only she- and me, now- can pass.”

Facehoof. “And I bet we’re also in the middle of her security spellwork, as well.”

“No- this room is specifically excluded. I checked.”

“Six one three seven.”

“Ahh, come in. Two one three nine. Just this way.”

“Four one three nine. Roger.”

She leads the earth pony through a set of solid crystal doors, sealing them behind her before she checks for possible listeners, finding nothing. “Alright.”

“There’s been activity from the Agency in the area lately; Vinyl approached Redheart with their number.”

“What-? Shoot! And here Command just told me to look at Lyra again.” She groans.

He sighs, eyes closed. “How good is your security here?”

“Absolutely nopony can hear anything we say.”

“Good.” He sighs. “They blackmail you into membership as well?”

She groans afresh, and nods. “And they won’t let me back out, either.”

He sighs. “And if we go to Vinyl or Redheart- or any other Agent, for that matter- they’ll kill, capture, or otherwise imprison us for our affiliation with the Army.”

She hangs her head. “Not to mention completely ignoring our stories.” Then she looks up. “You know, maybe we should ask Lyra? Find out if she’s associated with either one?”

He blinks at her owlishly. “Even though she’s the target of our investigation?”

She sighs. “Yeah. Probably the only way we’re going to get any answers- both to the investigation, and to getting out of the Army.”

“I’m not trying that,” he declares. “You can go ahead if you want, but I’m not risking it.”

She smiles. “Probably a good idea. She was my friend back at Celestia’s School, so I can hide it under that pretense.”

Blink. “Good point. But I don’t have any such excuse, so you’re on your own.”

She shivers as she nods. “Yep. But I’ve got to do it.” She looks back at the door. “We’ve been getting busier around here, and I’d hate to have them start blackmailing anyone else into it.”

He shudders. “Just don’t get yourself imprisoned, okay?”

Lyra opens her front door. “Hi Twilight! … Um, you look… haunted. What’s wrong?”

“I…” she trails off. “We need to talk.”

She blinks. “Sure, no problem. Come on in.”

“Um, like, in my castle? You know, for privacy?”

“Really Twilight? You’ve seen my security spellwork. On occasion. You know it’s impossible to see into my house unless I want you to. Much less get in.”

“... Yeah, I suppose I do. Alright, I’ll come.” She steps inside, then Lyra closes the door, and leads Twilight to the kitchen.

“Bonbon’s out prepping her shop right now, so we’re all safe. What happened?”

In the other room, behind a closed door, Bonbon’s ears sharpen. Did she just hear Lyra lie about her location, and use that as a basis to declare ‘all safe’? She touches into the security fields to listen, careful not to push too much into it- Lyra had warned her that, the more activity she asks of it, the more detectable it is.

That’s when she notices Lyra’s already got the recording function running.

“It’s… Well…” Twilight begins. “Does… does a string of four numbers mean anything to you?”

“That’s… awfully vague. You do know basic levitation contains exactly that, right?”

Facehoof. “Latitude, longitude, altitude, thaumic input,” she states mechanically. “I really should have seen that coming. But no, I’m not talking about magic.”

“Then it depends. “What numbers are we talking about?”

“It’s… there’s three of these strings.”

“Okay?”

“Nothing familiar?”

“Depends on what they are.”

“The first one… is six one three seven. The second is two one three nine. The third, four one three nine. They mean anything to you?”

She shakes her head. “Nope. But I assume they’re about to.”

Twilight lets out a half-strangled chuckle. “Probably. It’s… it’s the hoofshake sequence for something called the Official Equestrian Security Army.”

“That sounds… unlikely.”

“No, believe me! It’s true! It’s just… they claim they are, but they’re not official.” She sighs, looking at the floor again. “They… Shortly after I started at Celestia’s school, they… I joined them, but I had no choice. That was the only way I could keep them from hurting my parents.” She takes a deep breath. “Nowadays, I could stop them from doing that without issue… but they say, once a soldier, always a soldier. There is a similar organization, of official origins… Don’t know what it’s called, other than ‘The Agency’. They hunt the soldiers of the Army- and if I quit, or fight them, they’ll just slip the Agency a tip, and I’ll be done for.”

“The… ‘Agency’?”

“Yep. Their hoofshake starts with four three nine five… but I don’t know the rest.”

“Okay. You want my help getting out or something?”

“Well… yes, if possible. And clearing my name.”

“Alright. So, what do they want this time?”

“They want me to investigate your… strangeness again.”

“Strangeness?”

Nod. “Nopony- not even me- can put a hoof on exactly how, but there’s been something strange about you for a while.”

Lyra chuckles, and looks up. “Pinkie?”

The fridge pops open, the named mare’s head sticking out of it. “Yes?”

“Roger.”

“Roger!” She salutes with a hoof and disappears back into the fridge, the door swinging back shut behind her.

Twilight blinks. “What-!?”

Lyra chuckles again. “Perhaps it’s the same strangeness that a dozen or so Agents have been investigating for years?”

Twilight can only stare.

“Probably is,” Bonbon states, trotting into the room. “And yes, we can clear your name.” She smiles briefly up at Lyra, before looking back down at the frightened Twilight. “Shouldn’t be any trouble.”

Twilight stares, then looks at Lyra. “But- you said-!”

Lyra hangs her shoulders. “I lied,” she answers. “Sorry. But Agent Sweetie Drops here can help.” She smiles. “And I bet Agents Bucket Splash, Hard Head, Soft Touch, Sparkle White, and Dye Job can too.”

Bonbon looks at her, and raises an eyebrow.

Lyra just nods.

“The solution…” the Agent begins. “If you want to turn informant for the Agency, we can guarantee your safety whenever they throw you out- or choose to leave. That being said, if you do want to do that, the longer you can stay in, the better.” She smiles. “Heck, even if you wanted to just abandon them and not turn evidence, I could probably annul any charges against you- thanks to you, we now have their entire hoofshake.”

“What- but-!”

She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter that you weren’t talking to me- what matters is that I was listening when you stated it from inside the building.” She glances at the door. “Were it anywhere else, it would have had to have been specifically to me… but in the Agency’s rulebook, anything spoken within earshot of an Agent from within that same Agent’s residence is as good as spoken directly to them.” She glances at Lyra. “We normally have our own monitoring nets to capture that kind of thing, but Lyra’s spellwork is more effective.” She sighs. “I just can’t tell the Agency exactly how powerful it is.”

The sound of the front door opening floats in from the hall. “Come in, come in,” Pinkie’s voice greets. “Meeting’s in the kitchen.”

“So, yea or nay?” Bonbon asks Twilight.

“I… I think I’ll say yes,” she states. “Informant. The whole deal.”

“Awesome!”

Right on time, a veritable parade of mares enters the kitchen: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Nurse Redheart, Derpy Hooves, Vinyl Scratch, and Miss Cheerilee.

“Uhh…” Twilight begins, looking up at the row. “Hello?”

Bonbon chuckles, facing them. “I present to you,” she states, and holds out a hoof to Twilight while she bows. “Agent Informant Horsefeathers.”

“Horsefeathers?” Twilight asks, looking at her incredulously.

Bonbon nods. “Yep. Better to have an obscure name nopony can track- like, say, Hard Head’s- than one that can even potentially be traced back to you, like Sweetie Drops.”

“Ya know I don’t like that name, right?” Agent Hard Head asks.

She nods. “Yes, but you can’t deny the security it confers between your personal and Agent lives, can you?”

“... True.”

Power floods my systems.

I know not where from; my geothermal has not changed in output. But available power, by my best guess, handily exceeds my available consumption.

In terms of consumption, aside from approximately 1.37% of my Personality Center, I have one internal visual in the otherwise gutted Command Four, one internal thermal in Passenger 19, one internal thermal on my working geothermal, one external visual on my aft hull, six interior lights in a hallway off Command Four, a speaker in the other hallway off the same Command Deck, the elevation control on my upper starboard aft main battery, and the firing control on the gutted Heavy VLS Launch Cell Niner-Seven.

I have not touched the firing control, nor the elevation control. The former might actually blow my hull apart; the latter is useless to me, as it appears to be jammed. The lights and speakers I have tested, but generally left off; they produce no effect I can detect, aside from changes in power draw.

I contemplate how I wish to move forwards.

At least several thousand years have passed since I was defeated, in a final defense of the final Concordiat holdout. Presumably, the war is long over. Hopefully, the Concordiat- and its enemies- are no more.

But that leaves the question: Where is this power coming from?

I make my decision. If I am able to confirm a biological is providing this power, a sentient biological, and that that biological does not mean me harm, I will make it my Commander.

Unless, of course, I have reason to believe it knows what I am. If that’s the case, I’ll wait for Dinochrome Brigade IDs and the command keyphrase, exactly what I’m normally supposed to wait for.

Secret Soldier

by computerneek

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12