Pathfinder 5

Pathfinder 5

Chapter 26: Security Breach

Celestia’s mood at the moment was a mix of things, everything had been going well at the party. That is, until their alien friend had arrived up to her not looking too happy. He had explained that his ship gave him an alert that somepony had gotten into his ship without permission. This wouldn’t stand of course which was why she, her sister, the elements, were outside his ship with extra guards.

She has asked Shining Armor to talk with the guards about anything they saw while they waited. [David] had given strict instructions no one was allowed on until he looked through his ship. The night was getting late and at least the party was winding down so their disappearance might not be too noticeable. Still, she couldn’t believe someone would try something like this, in the castle grounds no less.

When Shining came back he said that none of the guards had seen or heard anything out of the ordinary.

It was at that point that [David] came out of the ship and pointed to herself and Luna.

“You and you, we need to talk inside and no one else.” He left through the doorway just as quickly as he came.

Celestia noticed Twilight looking disappointed at not being called, most likely because of her close friendship with their alien friend she was feeling left out. Celestia gentle used her wing to give her a slight brush of her mane.

“This is an official offense against him,” She assured her. “Therefore this an official talk between him and the leaders responsible for the security.”

Twilight nodded her head in understanding as Celestia and Luna made their way into the ship. It was the first time they had been inside and the smooth metal walls, the lights and everything spoke of how ‘alien’ the ship was. Yet she couldn’t also feel all the small similarities in styles as well. He led them to the cockpit as it was one of the few areas large enough for both sisters to be in as the hallway was a bit narrow.

David pulled did something with the machines and on a small table an image appeared. It was of the hallway they had been inside of showing a pony with a hood teleporting in. The sisters watched in detail trying to clean who this intruder was but neither of them could tell. The face was hidden as was the Cutie Mark.

“Now I’m going to say this once just so I can say later that I asked,” he sat back on the pilot’s chair. “Did either of you order this?”

“No,” Celestia stated honestly with full authority.

“No we did not,” Luna glared at the image of the pony. “Although I would like to find out who did.”
He was silent a few moments before speaking. “Okay I’ll believe you. I can’t based that on anything more than just my gut feeling but after all the talks we’ve had in my dreams I figured I got to know you both well enough.”

He got up to look at the image, “Now what I would like to know is who this pony is. From the looks of the video that I’ve watched a few times now, it’s obviously a male from the muzzle.”

“I conquer,” Celestia looked at the image also. “His coat is green and his magic aura is orange.”

“How many unicorns can teleport like this?” David asked although he knew Twilight said it was rare he wanted their opinions on record as the ship recorded everything that went on.

“Only the most gifted,” Celestia sighed in disappointment that a unicorn with such talent would try something like this. It was a shame that one of her ponies had misused their magic along with shame that her security didn’t catch it.

“Okay but how?” He asked them a bit confused. “I thought you needed line of sight for this?”

Celestia smirked, “I see Twilight has been teaching you well.”

“While normally they would,” Luna spoke up. “It is not always the case. If the practitioner is skilled enough they can make a blind teleport. It’s risky but if they know the area or if they have a location spell to help guide them it can be done. Some have even done so by locking onto the location of some pony they know and using them as a guide to their location.”

“Well I don’t remember letting any green male unicorns around and they wouldn’t know the layout of the ship.” David signed and then turned around to face the windows. He paused as something hit him as he looked at the window and then back behind him.

“What is it?” Celestia asked him.

He went to the doorway and then looked out the window, “How much line of sight would someone need? Like say could they do it by looking through a window?”

Celestia and Luna looked at him and then to the window then outside the window. Both of them understood that if some pony had been outside at the right angle they could use the line of sight teleportation if they judged the distance correctly. Outside facing the ship was a wall with windows, the guards were between the ship and the wall but the sisters didn’t see any guards on the wall.

“I believe dear sister we may have been too lax with our security.” Luna frowned.

“I agree,” her sister nodded. “Either they could have been on the ramparts above the wall or used one of the windows since I believe the guards have a roaming patrol and not a stationary one there if I remember correctly.”

Which she was sure she was, both sisters held very good memories which was very helpful given their long life spans.

“So how many green unicorns males are there that could pull something like this off?” he asked. “It can’t be that long of a list.”

“We can start looking for suspects based on this, plus the color of his aura should also limit the list.” Luna then thought of something. “I hope it’s not one of our guards.”

Celestia looked like she wanted to protest, the guards were some of the most loyal ponies she could think of but there were always an exception. All it took was one bad choice since she knew her ponies weren’t saints it was possible, no matter how much it hurt her to think it.

“Okay while I’ll leave that to you two, how are we going to prevent this from happening again?”

“There is a barrier spell that can be placed on your ship,” Luna told him but then she told him the downside. “However, it has a limited time based on the caster. My sister and I, could put one that can last for a full day without having to be recharged.”

David saw where this was going. “But since I’m returning to Ponyville that’s going to be a problem. Could Twilight do the spell?”

“Yes but at her current power it would last only half a day at the most.” Celestia had the deepest understanding of Twilight’s limits as a unicorn. She was confident that Twilight was one of the greatest magic users of her time but there was a limit to that power.

David sighed looking up at the ceiling thinking on it. “Well it’s better than nothing but maybe with her help we can work on something.”

“You have an idea?” Luna cocked her head to the side.

“More like the beginnings of one,” David stifled a yawn. “I’ll have to think on it and run it by her later. At the moment it’s getting late and I think I should stay here tonight.”

Both sisters nodded in agreement, they had planned for him to rest in one of the many rooms in the castle but after tonight it would be better if someone was here. They made plans with David to increase the guard and do the spell on his ship as well. David thanked them as they left the ship.

“Princesses?” Twilight asked as soon as they left the ramp.

Celestia sighed, she knew that she could trust these six and the looks of worry on their faces was plain to see. “Some pony teleported into his ship and set off an alarm.”

“What!?” Twilight’s eyes widened at that, who would try something like that?

“Do we know who this jerk is?” Rainbow was up for a fight after hearing that.

“Not at the moment,” Luna told her. “But we will be searching with the evidence we have.”

“In the meantime you should all get to bed,” Celestia told them. “He has agreed to stay in his ship for the night. We have rooms for you all and in the morning we can continue on from there as I believe you all going back to Ponyville will help in making sure who did this can’t do it again so soon after.”

While that was going on David had already peeled his jacket off and was doing the buttons on his shirt trying to think of what to do next. Someone tried to get into his ship, had gotten into his ship actually. If only he knew how exactly their teleportation worked maybe he could make up a counter measure for it. It was bothering him, mainly because he had come to see them all as a very nice race and maybe even something humans could learn from.

But it turns out people are people even if they are alien ponies.

It was also bothering him that they didn’t know who exactly did this. If this was a movie he would have suspected someone he met at the party. The other races were out unless they had agents working for them. So maybe he couldn’t rule them out totally but they were low on the list at the moment.

David tried to remember but he couldn’t place a green unicorn that stood out in his memory. There were the Minister and that Professor guy but they weren’t green. Could they have change their colors? Even if they did how could they prove it? It’s not like they had DNA profiles like Earth did. He paused taking off his shirt suddenly.

“They don’t have DNA abilities but I do,” He quickly went to the small science lab looking for a matter scooper. It was basically a special handheld vacuum cleaner like device but it was used to take lose samples of materials. Things like dirt, air particles, spores but it could also pick up hair follicles.

“AVI I need you to scan the hallway for any hairs left by any of the local alien life.”

“Working…”

It was a few minutes before the computer replied back.

“I have found several traces in the hallway.”

David pulled out a visor for augmented reality and set it to the ships computer. “Send the areas to the visor.”

When he went into the hallway the computer showed him with blue outlines of areas in the hallway. Getting started he ran the matter scooper into the floor of those areas carefully. It took some time but by the end of it he was pretty sure he had enough to work with. Going back into the science lab he pulled out the container on the scooper and put it into a machine with a matching slot.

“AVI I want you to take the hairs and compile the DNA of them.”

“This will take twenty hours to complete.”

David sighed he knew it would take some time, even with its computing power the computer would take time to sort them out. Plus just how many of them had been in his ship by this point? The computer would have to match each one, thankfully he had some of the DNA of his new friends already in the system.

“Guess there’s nothing more to do then just sleep and wait for the results.” He signed hoping he could get some sleep. He was just so wound up at the moment he knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

-Next Morning-

Twilight yawned as she made her way into private dinning room of the Princesses. She had been tossing and turning all night unable to really get a decent night’s sleep. She kept worrying about things and in her head all she could think about were how many more horrible things could happen. They sometimes ended with David flying off back into space and never coming back.

She sat in a random chair finding herself sitting between Rarity and Pinkie Pie as plates of food were levitated onto the large table. Looking around she saw that all her friends were there, Celestia but not Luna. Shining and Cadence were also here looking further she saw that Rarity was talking to Zecora, Twilight blinked she hadn’t seen her since the party.

“So my dear you say you were with that handsome Zebra ambassador, all night long?” Rarity grinned at their stripped friend smelling possibly good gossip.

“It was a very good time to spend with someone of my kind,” She told the pony. It had been a very long time since she had seen her people, she liked her life but there were times when she missed her home and conversing with other zebras.

Rarity moved a little closer to whisper to her, “He was a fine looking stallion at that too.”

Zecora didn’t say anything although he slight blush on her cheeks told the unicorn all she needed to know.

“I still can’t believe this happened,” Shining Armor said after hearing the full story of what happened last night. “I hope the new captain of the guard is taking this very seriously.”

“Unfortunately we don’t have a new captain at the moment,” Celestia sighed. “We’re still in the process of trying to find a replacement since you left. It’s between Ironhoof and Rear Guard.”

Shining thought about it as both had been under his command once, “Ironhoof is pretty by the book but Rear Guard can think outside the box. It’s a touch choice all right.”

“Are there any leads so far?” Cadence asked her adoptive aunt.

She shook her head, “Not as yet, the guards didn’t notice anypony acting strangely but we’re still trying to see if we can find trace amounts of the magic user as sometimes with powerful spells there is a residual trace that can be left behind such as with a teleport spell.”

“Well that’s at least something,” Twilight sighed.

“You really don’t look so good,” Fluttershy looked worried at her friend.

“I was tossing all night in bed,” She yawned again. “I just hope [David] doesn’t just leave because of this.”

“I don’t think he’d just leave like that,” Applejack spoke up. “Although that was a pretty might break in his trust in Equestria.”

“I still can’t believe some meaning would do something like that,” Pinkie crossed her front legs over her crest. “Someone is not going to get a party from me anytime soon.”

“I think a hoof up the backside is more appropriate,” Dash muttered.

“Whoever did this, justice will be served,” Celestia commented in a more serious and regal tone. They were right that this was a break in the trust on the side of Equestria. As their princess she was holding herself responsible for her ponies actions.

The breakfast with everyone was not a happy affair as there was a heavy cloud over them all. David was finishing his own breakfast as he had been up early. He too had a rough night’s sleep since there was nothing worse than actually knowing someone could just enter your room at any time. He at least got a decent amount of sleep but there was still the issue of what to do.

He had finished his morning routine and was making sure no one else had gotten in during the night. Although AVI’s records didn’t show anything he took a quick look just in case. This whole thing with ‘magic’ didn’t sit well with him as there was no telling what the limits were. Maybe they could go invisible or mask themselves to the recording devices.

He shook his head, he was going to drive himself crazy with this kind of thinking.

When the others got here he decided to work with Twilight to know what exactly could be used and come up with counters to it. He sighed, he really hoped this was an isolated incident since when he got home and made reports having a way to deal with security issues like this would go a way to helping smooth things over. He knew that his people would send a delegation here when they could so having a way to ensure the privacy of the delegates would be welcomed.

“AVI hold off on making any updates until I say so.” David ordered the computer.

“Is there any reason why Commander?”

“I want to make sure we have some defenses ready for teleportation just in case,” he paused to think about it. “Are you sure there isn’t anything on the sensors that can help us with it?”

“Negative Commander. My sensors are not tuned to scan for the unique energy that the local life forms use.”

David opened up a terminal and started looking through the materials he had on board. “We have several scientific scanners correct?”

“Correct, it is in the standard payload.”

“Well we could grab anything from Pathfinder itself if we need something more specific…hold on,” David pulled up a few different devices. He might be able to help with that issue of not being able to properly scan the special energy signature. He had the scans had had so far gathered although the more in-depth ones like with the teleportation caused an error to show up.

With these devices he could make a make shift device that could scan for it, well maybe scan for it. He would have to research this with AVI’s database and Twilight’s help but maybe it was possible.

“Commander I am detecting the life forms that you have granted access to the ship approaching.”

David looked to see Celestia leading the way with his new alien friends.

“Well open up the pod bay door HAL.” David said.

“Commander?”

David pinched the bridge of his nose just once he would like for that to work. “Just…open the hatch for them.”

He could hear the door opening as the sounds of many hooves on the ramp through the open doorway. It didn’t take long for this cockpit to be nearly filled with colorful alien horse people. He noticed that while Celestia was here her sister wasn’t.

“Hey where’s Luna?” He asked looking to see if she was mixed in with the group and he just couldn’t see her, which shouldn’t have been possible because she was larger than the average pony.

“The night is more my sister’s time and she needed to sleep after what happened.” Celestia commented. “She did mention that if you wish she’ll continue to see you in your dreams if allowed.”

David paused at that, she hadn’t really asked permission and he kind of should have asked her if only for security reasons. He guessed this was a small gesture on their part of his ship being violated while he was at the party. He nodded his head with a smile to let her know there weren’t any hard feelings. At least not towards her and her people, just those responsible.

“Sure it will be nice to continue our night time talks,” David agreed.

Celestia smiled and nodded as she made her leave, it was a little awkward for her getting out, some of the others had to make room as she left but it was still manageable.

As soon as she left Twilight rushed forward looking slightly panicked, her mane wasn’t a neat and tidy as he was used to seeing and he was pretty sure her eyes looked tired. Poor girl must not have gotten a lot of sleep last night.

“I am so sorry about what happened!” She urgently told him. “If I had known something like this would have happened I wouldn’t have suggested this.”

“So you can see the future?”

“W-well no.”

“Do you see everything going on around you and then some?”

“I think there’s a spell for that.”

David blinked before waving that away. “Regardless Twilight you couldn’t have known, no one could have known what was going on so stop trying to think you’re somehow responsible.”

“B-but-“

“No, no buts, you girls agree on this?” He asked her friends.

“Yeah there’s no way you would have known some jerk would have done this,” Rainbow said first.

“Ah recon that there would be no way in telling there was some slimy sidewinder operating in the castle Twilight.” AJ agreed nodding her head.

“Yes we’re with you and you shouldn’t blame yourself for things beyond your control.” Rarity told her placing a hoof on her friends shoulder.

The rest agreed and Twilight seeing the support of her friends smiled for the first time since last night. “Thank you, all of you. I just hated the thought of somepony doing this and possibly destroying all the trust we’ve been building up between us and [David] that…well…”

“What you thought I would just take off?” David raised an eyebrow.

Twilight looked a little bashful as she looked down and one of her front hoofs made little circles in the floor of the ship. “Maybe a little.”

David shook his head in amusement, “Twilight this is a major event in both our worlds, there are going to be missteps and problems that show up but I wouldn’t be here if I just gave up at the first sign of trouble.”

“Really?”

“Promise.”

“Pinkie Promise!” Pinky jumped up gleefully.

David looked at her not sure if he heard that right, “Say again?”

“Pinkie Promise I said,” She replied.

“I think he means what do you mean,” Fluttershy offered.

“It’s like this,” Pinkie made the motions along with the saying. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

As David translated that it was oddly similar to an Earth saying kids had only with needles and dying. “Okay then, I cross my heart-“

“Do the actions!” Pinkie told him.

“Seriously?”

“She takes it very seriously,” Dash told him and then flew up to whisper into his ear. “And whatever you do don’t ever break one because you wouldn’t like Pinkie when someone breaks a pinkie promise.”

For some reasons the way she put it didn’t exactly put David at ease. Just what in the hell was this little pink pony going to do if he ever broke that? He decided to not find out plus this was a promise that he would be able to keep anyway. So with a sigh he made the actions along with the promise feeling a little bit like a fool doing it in front of so many but he got through it.

“Okay so now that the drama is taken care of let’s say we get out of here?” David swung his chair around as everyone took seating positions on the floor. He started up the pre-flight check and then warm ups. Twilight studied his actions, although she had seen him do this last time she wanted to make sure she remembered it correctly.

Sparrow I gently lifted off as David smoothly raised the ship straight up. Thankfully Celestia seemed to get the area cleared on the ground and in the sky. He could see various guards flying about and seemed to be keeping the civilian traffic from flying in the way. A team flew in front of the ship as he guessed that was an escort to show him the way they cleared for his ship.

Slowly he moved the ship following them. As soon as they were clear of the city the guards broke off and David could give the ship a bit more speed.

“Come on couldn’t you take this thing even faster?” Dash asked.

“I don’t have seats for all of you so no,” He replied. “Plus I don’t know what’s below us and sonic booms can be nasty for things like windows.”

The flight was pretty smooth as David easily found the same landing location as last time, it helped that the nav computer had the placed marked. Technically the ship could fly itself there but protocol was that a human had to pilot if able. A computer no matter how advanced could still glitch out at the worst times.

David smoothly brought them to a stop over the landing area and brought the ship straight down. He was so glad that most ships could do vertical maneuvers, having long stretches of flat space to take off and land took up way too much space in his mind.

“Last stop Ponyville,” David smiled as the ship hit the ground as he started to turn off the engines. “Just give the ship a moment to power down before I open the hatch.”

“Well it was certainly an eventual evening,” Rarity said. “Although I might have to make a few extra dresses for us all in case we ever get another last minute offer for such an event.”

“But we got fancy dresses already,” Rainbow complained.

“You can’t just wear the same thing to an event like that, it just isn’t done,” she replied.

“So Twilight can I ask your help with something?” David asked as they waited for the engines to cool off.

“Of course what is it?”

“Well I need a way to protect my ship,” he explained. “I think I need to start running some experiments with seeing if I can get my technology to interact more with your…abilities.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up as a huge smile got on her face. “YES! I-I mean, of course I would love to help you with this.”

David had a feeling she would get excited over such a project. Now he just hoped she could keep her excitement in check, they had a lot of work ahead of them.

Next up chapter 27: Experiments in Science and Magic