BridgeWorld

[994AB Day 259]
"Is something the matter, Mister Thomas?" Alfalfa inquired when she greeted Thomas Mane at the front door and saw his expression.

"You might say that," he said. "Can you tell me where Mareta and Buck are?"

"They're both with Lucius, working with him on the latest of his mad-scientist experiments," Alfalfa replied, getting Thomas Mane to smile at that. He had noted that his pegasus butler and the kitsune technician had developed a rather complex relationship. There were lots of verbal jousting between them, and Alfalfa certainly had encounters with kitsune in her past which she was not yet willing to speak about them, and yet there was a clear respectful admiration she showed for Lucius.

"Good," Thomas said. "Let's go join them."

"Good afternoon, Lucius," Thomas greeted when they arrived in the caverns below the mansion. "How are things at the office?"

"There's been another failure with the chainmail enchantments, but as usual no useful extra features this time," he reported while continuing to monitor how Buck and Mareta were doing with their pegasus-modified chainmail armored suits. "The teams that Princess Celestia provided are looking into the enchantment spells to try and figure out what's going wrong with them. I'm hope they can find something we've overlooked."

"You're hoping they find a mistake!? Something both you and the Mane unicorns couldn't find?" Thomas asked, astonished.

"A mistake on our part, we can fix," Lucius said, shrugging. "If this is something else—I'm not sure what we can do. Or even if we should."

"I see your point," Thomas agreed. "I also see you've added the prosthetic unicorn horn to our outfits without removing the pegasus wings."

"I figured it to be a time saver," Lucius explained. "The horn has only been added to the helm for testing, while we can simply shut off the mana channels to the prosthetic wings to prevent interference." Thomas nodded at that explanation.

"How's it coming?" he asked.

"A little tricky," Lucius replied. "They've figured out how to do some remote levitations and some light spells, but except for the light spells, there're no visible auras about the horn or on their target props. Buck is definitely faster than Mareta or you on learning these tricks."

"Hmm," Thomas hummed. "Would the lack of an aura be a real problem?"

"I'm not sure," Lucius admitted. "There's never been a definitive explanation as to why unicorns exhibit auras when doing their magic while other creatures who use magic, such as pegasi, you earth ponies, and us kitsune, don't."

They watched as Buck entertained himself with firing off stun bolts at some targets at the other end of the testing area. Many of his shots went wide of their mark and only a few actually hit anywhere near the silhouettes.

"Well done, Buck!" Thomas exclaimed.

"Not really, Dad," he responded. "I missed nearly every target!"

"But you got that spell to work at all, Buck!" Mareta told him. "You've been a unicorn for how long now? A couple hours?"

"Indeed, Master Buck!" Alfalfa spoke up. "I'm sure you'll do much better with some practice. Do you think unicorns who have applied to the Guard and have been unicorns their whole lives can hit their targets the first time on the firing range? I'd say you were only just a little below average."

"Take a break for now and come over here," Thomas told them. "I've got some news to tell you."

When Buck and Mareta joined the other three, Thomas gave them a disturbing report.

"So, when I went to the Court to make a statement regarding Jack Black, the unicorn who had tried to rob us, I found out he had been released on bail last night," he told them. "But when I tried to find out who posted his bail, I couldn't. Further, it was posted in cash."

"For robbery and attempted murder!?" Buck exclaimed. "That's—that's like a huge bail, isn't it!?"

"At least a 10,000 bit bond," Mareta said.

"10,000 is what would be for just the attempted murder charge," Thomas told them. "Throw in the robbery, that's another 5,000 bits."

"And the robber had that kind of money just lying around?" Alfalfa asked.

"That's the thing," Thomas said. "Jack Black doesn't have any known job."

"Is it possible that had accumulated that many bits with all his robberies?" Mareta asked.

"If he did, he would have to be a one-pony crime spree the likes the city's never seen to get that much from pawning off the occasional pearl necklace and such," Alfalfa pointed out.

"He's clearly getting support from somepony," Thomas concluded. "And from somepony who doesn't want him to be traced back to. I just wish we were further along with our training to go out and see if we can try find out who's helping him. Fortunately, we do know where he's supposed to live."

"Unfortunately, however, there's no way I could ever let you or your family go out right now, Mister Thomas," Alfalfa spoke up. "I can call on some old friends of mine to come in and help, though."

"Guard?" Thomas asked.

"Former Guard," Alfalfa corrected. "Retired Guards, like me."

"I can't ask you to go out and risk yourself," Thomas protested.

"Who said anything about me going out there?" Alfalfa shot back. "I said former Guards who were like me: retired from the Guard. But I would like to ask if it's possible to borrow some equipment from Mane Industries. Some of the night-vision and hearing enhancements we're working on?"

"Too risky to involve equipment paid for by the Crown," Thomas said, shaking his head.

"A 'field test'?" Lucius suggested.

"What was that?" Thomas asked.

"Why not sign some of it out, and call it a 'field test', and return it in a few days?" he asked. "They'll all have to be tested in a real environment eventually. Why not get an early start on such thing, so that we can see how they'll perform and might need adjustments to refine them?"

"And if it just so happens that our testers see or overhear something—?" Alfalfa added, shrugging her wings.

"Which, of course, would get recorded on the crystals we will just so happened to be using for evaluating our tests," Lucius pointed out. "After all, we can't be responsible for what somepony may happen to be seen doing or speaking about when we just happen to be in the neighborhood."

"Such—uh—retired Guards—won't they have to be on our payroll?" Thomas asked.

"I know at least a couple of such who already are," Lucius and Alfalfa simultaneously said. They blinked and then looked at each other.

"Red Sovine and Match Box?" Lucius asked. "They already are Mane Industries employees, Red was hired as a courier, Match is a security guard, both of them years ago."

"I was thinking of Fred Hummer and High Flyer, both who are hired as security," Alfalfa replied. "Hmm, but Red might do. Match Box… Match Box? Isn't he an earth pony?"

"He is," Lucius confirmed, nodding.

"Then not him," Alfalfa said. "We'll want pegasi. In case things go south, they'll have the entire sky as an escape route."

"Outfit night-vision, hearing enhancements, communications gear, and recording crystals for three pegasi, then?" Lucius suggested, looking to Thomas. "The more test cases, the better data collection. Wouldn't you agree, Tom?"

"They'll have to coordinate their movements with each other," Thomas said, "but they'll also have to be careful not to do or say anything that might be incriminating to either them or us."

"They'll know what to do," Alfalfa said. "Regulation 46A: 'if communications are being monitored, no uncoded transmissions on an open frequency'. Even if it's just us monitoring our own communications," she added with a grin.

Thomas Mane considered the situation and risks. He then nodded….