RDI Canterlot: Code Blue

The sentry stifled a yawn. Guard duty was always a bore, even with all the activity that had happened last night. His eyes gazed over the newspaper in his hooves. He scoffed at a recruiting poster plastered on the front page of the Equestria Daily. “Join the army, they said. You can fight for fame and glory, they said. It’d be fun, they said. Hmph. Been here for 4 months and I haven’t seen any bit of combat,” the green earth pony muttered to himself.

“And if you’re smart, you’ll keep it that way.”

The pony jolted up. Four ponies stood in front of him: a creme earth pony, a coal black pegasus, a dark blue unicorn, and a grey unicorn. All were dressed in suits and sunglasses except for the grey unicorn, who was wearing a black windbreaker. “Hey! This is a restricted area, you can’t be here,” shouted the sentry as he reached for his rifle.

The creme earth pony pulled out a gold badge. “I wouldn’t go for that rifle, Corporal, unless you want to answer to Celestia herself. We’re FDI.”

The sentry blinked. The grey unicorn gave an impatient sigh before speaking in a monotone voice. “Federal Division of Investigations? Maybe you’ve heard of us. We’re here to investigate what happened on the USS Kenneighdy.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure, come on in,” replied the sentry as he opened the gates. He reached for his radio. “Hey Cap, FDI’s here.”

“Bout time. Send ‘em to Dock 4.” The sentry nodded and turned to the four agents.

“Let me get visitor’s auth for you guys. Who should I write these out to?”

“Agents Bon Bon, Wire Tap, Cover Story, and Dr. Graves.” The sentry scribbled the names onto a piece of paper and handed them out.

“The crew’s waiting for you at Dock 4, we held them overnight.”

Agent Bon Bon nodded, and the group passed through. “Oh, we have one more agent coming in later.”

The sentry nodded, his tan helmet bobbing up and down. “Yes ma’am, I’ll keep an eye out for him.”

“Where is Cowpony, anyways?” asked Wire Tap, the pegasus.

“Celestia knows at this point,” replied Cover Story, the blue unicorn.

“Don’t worry about him, he’ll get here eventually. Come on now, we’ve got a case to solve.”

--

“Damn!” The four ponies were in awe as they arrived in Dock 4. The USS Kenneighdy sat in the dock, safely moored and docked. Glinting in the sunlight, the Kenneighdy was an impressive sight. The massive guns were aimed forward, and could have blown a massive hole in the base if it wanted. On the main deck, a tangled mess of metal and wood lay, the only thing that stood out from the warship’s impressive frame.

“Good afternoon, Ma’am.” The base commander had trotted over to them.

“Afternoon, commander. Any idea what happened?” The commander shrugged.

“No, Ma’am. That’s a question better suited for the captain.” The commander pointed to a unicorn in a white naval uniform, pacing the deck. He looked up as the agents descended the stairs towards the ship.

“Captain? I’m Special Agent Bon Bon, Federal Division of Investigations, and these are Agents Wire Tap and Cover Story, and our ME Doc Graves.” The captain gave them a tired smile.

“Captain Easterly, Amareican Navy.” Cover Story pulled out a notebook and pen in his magic.

“Can you tell us what happened?”

Captain Easterly nodded, and the group walked towards the wreck. “Yes. At about 23:16 an object was detected heading towards us at a high speed. We tried but failed to communicate with it, and it plowed into the deck.”

Cover Story scribbled in his notebook. “Any casualties?”

Captain Easterly shook his head. “Some injuries, but we have corpsponies with them. Nothing serious. After the crash, I made contact with Equestria and steered the ship here, under escort.”

Wire Tap spoke up. “Captain Easterly, you and your crew are Amareicans, correct?”

Easterly nodded. “We were escorting a dignitary over here. He’s pretty shaken up about it, but he’s alright.”

Wire Tap raised an eyebrow as they passed one of the cannons. “Seems to be a pretty heavy escort for a dignitary.”

Easterly gave a sly smile. “Well, don’t you know there’s a war going on, Agent?”

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. Amareicans were more paranoid then everything. “What happened next, Captain?”

“When my crew approached the… thing, they saw a pony inside. A corpspony declared him dead a few minutes after. Agent… do you have any idea what that thing is?”

The group had arrived at the foot of the wreckage. The other sailors clustered in groups, keeping their distance while whispering amongst themselves. “I could venture a guess.”

Dr. Graves pulled on a pair of gloves. “Glass shattered,” he noted as he climbed the wreckage. A pony was slumped over inside the cockpit, lifeless and unmoving.

“Yes. We couldn’t figure out how to get him out, so we just broke the glass.” Dr. Graves nodded and shone a light into the wreck.

“Hmm. Body’s moved, most likely by the corpsponies. Shouldn’t affect our investigation too much.”

“Captain, if we could speak with your comms and radar officers?” Easterly nodded and turned to the crew.

“Search Light, Call Sign! Front and center! The rest of you, back to your quarters!” he barked.

“Sir, yes, Sir!” shotued the crew as they moved into the interior of the ship. A white earth pony and orange pegasus trotted over.”

“Wire, finish up with the captain. Cove, take the pony, I got the pegasus. Cowpony will help me when he gets here.” The other two agents nodded and trotted off.

“Petty Officer Search Light, Ma’am,” the pegasus said as he saluted.

“You are the Kenneighdy’s radar officer, correct?” asked Bon Bon as she pulled out a notebook and pen.

“Well… I detected an object flying towards us at an incredibly high velocity. I called the Captain, and he said that we were in open waters, but he never heard of a pegasus flying this far from land. I thought that it was going too fast to be a pegasus, but Captain said that they should have a radio. Call Sign tried to raise them, but said there was no response. Captain ordered gunners to take aim, but the thing was moving so fast our gun’s couldn’t lock on. Then it crashed right into the deck.”

Bon Bon nodded, scribbling thoughtfully. “Thank you, Petty Officer.” The pegasus hesitated.

“Ma’am… is that machine one of those ‘planes’ that we’ve been hearing about?” Bon Bon’s pencil froze. “They say that one of those can outfly any pegasus, ma’am.” Bon Bon chuckled.

“You’re dismissed, Petty Officer. Go back to your quarters.” The pegasus saluted.

“Yes ma’am. Oh, and also… do you have any, er…. Recommendations of things to do in Canterlot?”

Meanwhile, a yellow earth pony had trotted down the stairs. A soldier trotted after him. “Sir! Who let you in here?!”

The pony, wearing a brown vest over a white dress shirt and a brown cowpony hat, rolled his eyes. He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a gold badge. “Special Agent Apple, FDI. Yer sentry let me in.” The soldier raised an eyebrow, his eyes running over the pony. There was no way this stallion was a federal agent. Before the soldier could speak, Wire Tap had flown over.

“Braeburn! Bout time you got here.” Wire Tap glanced at the soldier. “Is there a problem, private?” The soldier slowly backed away.

“No, sir. Sorry, sir.” Wire Tap shrugged.

“Glad you’re here, Cowpony. We’ve got a case on our hands.”

“Morning, Doc!” Dr. Graves looked up from his work.

“Ah, hello Braeburn.” Braeburn trotted to his side.

“What’ve we got?” he asked as the other agents approached the wreck.

“Well, it seems our young aviator here was killed from blunt force trauma, most likely from his head hitting the dashboard.” Graves gestured to a blood stain inside the cockpit.

“That helmet didn’t help now, did it?” Questioned Braeburn.

“It would seem not, judging by the dent. Then again, I believe that the helmet, much like this machine, is purely experimental. Our pilot was most likely testing the plane when he encountered a fatal accident.” Braeburn nodded, narrowing his eyes.

“So we thinkin’ accident?” Dr. Graves shrugged.

“Ah, now that is hard to say. I’m afraid I do not know much about these… airplanes. I can not say with certainty if anything has been tampered with.” Braeburn nodded as he gazed into the cockpit.

“That cut there is pretty clean. Looks like someone did that by hoof,” Braeburn observed. His eyes followed the wire to the plane’s radio. “Hey Bon, look at this. Seems like somepony cut the radio wire. Radio officer say they couldn’t raise it?”

Bon Bon nodded. “Yep, we thinking sabotage?”

Braeburn nodded thoughtfully. “Could be. We know who this plane belongs to yet?”

“It’s ours, agent. And I will have to ask you to step away.” A new voice caused the agent’s heads to turn. A group of pegasi dressed in navy blue uniforms landed on the deck. “That’s Wonderbolt property, and we’re here to take it back.”

Braeburn smirked, and the other agents exchanged glances. “Wonderbolts, eh?”

The lead pegasus, an orange coated mare with a fiery mane, nodded. “Affirmative. I’m Captain Spitfire.”

“Special Agent Braeburn.”

The white coated pegasus to the left of Spitfire scoffed. “You? A special agent?”

“Wanna see my badge?”

“We don’t have time for this, Lieutenant. Agent Braeburn, please step away.”

Braeburn chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t worry, Captain. You can have your plane back.”

Two of the pegasi attempted to walk past, but Braeburn held up his hoof. “When we’re done with our investigation, of course.”

Underneath her sunglasses, Spitfire narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think you understand, Agent.” She spat out the last word. “I am ordering you to withdraw.”

“All due respect, captain, I’m not a Wonderbolt. I don’t answer to you. No, I answer to the SAIC, my director, the princesses, and my granny. Get one of ‘em to say it and I’d gladly stand down.” The Wonderbolts exchanged glances.

“Agent-”

Braeburn cut her off. “Tell me, Captain. Do the Wonderbolts have a dedicated investigations team, able to work around the clock on this case? Do they have a morgue, or even an autopsy room?”

Spitfire opened her maw and then shut it again. “Now before you start, Captain, just know that I could spot a liar a mile away,” Braeburn smirked, gazing down at the pegasi through his sunglasses.

“Fine. What say a joint investigation, then?” A smirk formed on the captain’s lips. “If not, I could call my boss and you could call yours, and they could duke it out up top while that body gets colder and colder.¨

“Joint investigation? Captain, I wasn’t aware the Wonderbolts had an investigation team,” Braeburn said, narrowing his eyes.

“We don’t. Soarin?” A white coated pegasus with a blue mane perked up.

“Yeah, Spits?”

“You’ll accompany the federal agents in their investigation. Anything you need, agent, just ask the Lieutenant. And agent, make sure that you report everything to him. And I mean everything.”

Cover Story and Wire Tap exchanged glances. Braeburn’s face was unreadable underneath his sunglasses. Spitfire’s expression was equally unguessable, the only tell being a smirk on her maw. “Well, sounds good captain,” Braeburn said, extending a hoof. The two shook, and Spitfire turned to the other pegasi.

“Alright, let’s leave them to it.” As the other Wonderbolts took flight, Spitfire whispered something into Soarin’s ear before flying after them. As she left, Soarin was left on the deck, with four agents gazing at him through their tinted sunglasses.

The fact that he had four strangers staring at him didn’t seem to deter him. Instead, Soarin flashed a broad smile. “Well, don’t let me keep you, gentlecolts.” Wire Tap cleared his throat and spoke to Braeburn.

“Captain’s asking if we could release his men. They’ve already sworn to keep their silence about what they’ve saw, and they’ve been out at sea for months now.” Braeburn nodded.

“Fine, tell the Captain his men are free to go once we get the plane out of here.” Braeburn pulled out his radio, while trotting over to the bow of the ship.

“Who you callin?” Asked Soarin, following him.

“Damage control team. We need to get this back to base for further examination.” Bon Bon called from the wreckage.

“Hey Lt! We got some questions for you!” In a flash, Soarin was in front of her. Braeburn chuckled, shaking his head.

“You know anything about these things, Lt?” asked Bon Bon.

“Sure! What’s up?”

Cover pointed to the suspicious wire. “That normal on a plane?” Soarin leaned in for a better look.

“I’d hope not, that’s the radio wire.” Bon Bon nodded to Wire Tap.

“With a cut radio wire, it’d be impossible to get help.” The situation was looking less like an accident every minute.

Braeburn returned to the group. “Okay, the Damage Control ponies are on their way. Doc, you good to move the body?”

Dr. Graves nodded, stepping down from the corpse. “I’m afraid there’s not much we can do for the poor lad here. I’ll know more when we get him to autopsy.”

Braeburn nodded. “Alright then fellas. Let’s head back to base.”

Soarin cleared his throat. “Uh… where is your base, anyways?”

Braeburn smikred. “Why, exactly where’d you expect it, Lt.”