Through the looking glass...
The life of an E.I.A (Equestrian Intelligence Agency) agent is a dangerous one.
Cloak and Dagger knows this all to well.
But has the midnight oil continued to burn, Cloak found it difficult to not be bitter about his current assignment.
Right now, he was disguised as a clumsy unicorn technician under the name of File. His mission was simple, keep an eye out for anything of interest surfacing in the E.A.S.A (Equestrian Air and Space Administration.) and report it.
But much to his disappointment, the E.A.S.A almost never found anything of interest. In fact, the most interesting thing they found last year was an asteroid that looked like a mare's flank.
Cloak and Dagger (or in this case, File) leaned back in his chair and put his hind legs up on the computer terminal, yawning all the way. Nothing interesting ever happened around here.
No one would mind if he took a power nap.
He was just starting to doze when a shrill alarm sounded from the terminal he had his hind legs resting on. File yelped and fell out of his chair, hitting the ground with a dull THUD. File cursed as he righted himself and looked at the computer monitor. The computer he was assigned to was a control station for the space probe currently orbiting Equis. The probe could run itself, so the terminal earth-side is used only to receive the data that the probe was sending.
And right now, the probe was going ballistic. File sat back down and silenced the alarm. The probe was sending back spectroscopic data and a still images. File opened the folder that contained the still images. At first, he could see nothing. He was about to delete the images when one of them caught his eye. It was very hard to see...but...there it was.
Black on black. A shadow that moved in the opposite direction of the other shadows.
And the shape...
There was no denying it. This was real. File gulped hard and looked at the spectroscopic report. It was inconclusive. The probe had no idea what this thing was made out of. Suddenly, the probe stopped transmitting data. The probe had looked away from the anomaly and was now looking at an asteroid.
Questions raced through Files mind. What is that thing? Why did the probe suddenly lose interest in it?
File stood, and his horn glowed. His light brown fur and grey mane disappeared in a puff of smoke. File was no more.
In his place stood a stallion with jet black fur and a charcoal colored mane. He pulled the memory unit from the terminal, then disappeared from the visible spectrum.
He had a job to do.
"So how did you come about this information?" The suited mare behind the desk asked, looking up from her papers and arching her brow.
An aged stallion drew on his pipe before speaking.
"A triangulation of sources really. An angry disc jockey, a mailmare and an eccentric inventor."
The mare sighed and set the report down. "So, were spying on our citizens now?"
The stallion drew on his pipe again. "Not quite, we have organizations set up to keep records of unusual sightings. They were initially used to keep tabs on Changelings, but now that there gone, we re-purposed those groups." The stallion examined the smoke from his pipe for a full minute before he spoke again. "Events and sightings only reach our level if their is significant evidence of the anomaly being real." The stallion smirked. "No wonder work here is so slow."
The mare was silent for a moment, then she sighed once again. "It still sounds like spying to me. What measures have been taken?"
The stallion's expression hardened. "None. None beyond a check to calm down the disc jockey and a basket of muffins for the mailmare. And this meeting."
The mare self-consciously smoothed the fur on her foreleg with her hoof. "Its really happening, isn't it?" She said.
The stallion nodded his head. "Send word to Luna. It looks like we have a code green."
Author's Note
Please comment, it makes my day to read what people think of my writing and if there is a problem with the story, please point it out to me so I can fix it.
Unknown Vessel, Currently in orbit over Equis.
Several creatures were huddled in the small bridge of their ship. Their captain looked over the shoulders of his crewmates at their respective stations. He nodded, satisfied that everything was running smoothly.
"Watchmaker, status report." The Captain said in an exited tone. A pedestal near the Captains chair glowed a warm blue, and an image that resembled the creatures on the bridge appeared, holding a comically large watch in it's grip.
"You will not believe what I have found! I only wish you would allow me to run the sensor array at full power, who knows what else I would fi-"
"Watchmaker." The Captain interrupted. "You know full well why I dont want you running ANYTHING at full power. Now, what do they have in terms of space travel?"
Watchmaker snorted back a laugh. "It's hilarious, they don't even have a space port built, yet they clearly are intelligent enough and have the means to do so!"
"And how far along are they in terms of technology?" The Captain asked.
Watchmaker smiled. "Ah, now that's where it gets interesting. They have advanced technology, such as complex power grids, radio stations, research stations, hospitals etc. in some places, but in others...some of their towns don't even have a power grid, and others have completely rustic power grids, and I think some of them are using STEAM power."
The Captain rubbed his jaw, in deep thought. "That's...definitely odd. Keep an eye on them, let me know if anything else interesting pops up."
Watchmaker nodded, then disappeared.
"It's amazing." One of the bridge crew mumbled. "An entire civilization, untouched-" "And ripe for the picking." Another crewmate interrupted. "If the you-know-who find them, they will join them, either willingly or by force." The crewmate who spoke first shook his head. "Not if we make our move first."
"I agree." The Captain said. "Set a course back to Onyx."
The pedestal glowed again, and an annoyed looking Watchmaker appeared. "Sir, you just ordered me to continue observing, and now you want to leave?" The Captain nodded. Watchmaker rolled his eyes. "I'll never understand you carbon based life forms. Setting a course."
The vessel moved away from Equis, then disappeared in a flash of blue light.
Little did the Captain of the ship know, they had been spotted by a nearby probe as they moved to leave. Watchmaker however, had tapped into the probes systems and diverted its attention away from them.
With a single goal in mind, the ship flew deeper and deeper into space.
