Cyberpony Y2K

Indigo wasn't Derpy, who could seemingly magically make herself look like whoever and whatever she wanted, but her disguise was pretty damn good regardless.

Her jacket had been folded inside out, leaving the inner fabric visible, a deep blue to replace the rich purple. The bottom of the jacket had been folded up and pinned, leaving it only coming down to her waist. Her mane had changed style completely, a deliberately steretypical one that she'd found. Her earrings had stayed, but were joined by the makeup that she hadn't really used before now.

The jeans had been replaced by a short skirt, and she'd replaced her tank top with a blue one, with a Cutie Mark that wasn't hers on it. Nothing could be done about her hands or reflex chip, but neither would look too out of place.

Though, as she stared at nearby wooden buildings, she added a 'maybe' onto the end of that statement.

Fleetfoot kept a long distance behind her, pretending to struggle with several luggage bags as Indigo skipped a haughty, rich-pony trot off the train station.

Where to go, was the question. The obvious choice was to swing by Octavia's house, but she didn't want to alert the Changeling that an actual Inquisitor was in town. If her battle with Chrysalis had taught her anything, it was to be careful.

She'd made sure to share everything she knew with Minuette before stepping into town. Lyra had legitimately left the Canton within the past few days, just before the attack on Fleur, by, perhaps, complete coincidence. Lyra's current whereabouts were unknown, but her actually being in Ponyville was a very slim chance.

But she still wasn't clear on what, exactly, had happened here. Fleur had eluded the Changeling, somehow, but if it had been killed....well, Octavia should have mentioned it.

There was...a place she could go to for clues, when she thought about it, but it was risky.

Indigo trotted across the town, to the edge where a small house sat. Short and squat, the thing looked like someone had started to paint and decorate it but given up halfway through. A single lawn gnome sat by the walkway, but had been crowded by weeds that the owner hadn't cut. The gnomes face was designed like one of the comedy/tragedy masks that were a cliche amongst anime edgelords, and not at all inconspicuous.

Sour Sweet's house did not look like she was undercover. Then again, she was only a couple months senior to Indigo herself. This had been Derpy's idea of training, to infiltrate this small town and report intel back to Canterlot.

If she was still alive at this point, she was getting a firm tongue lashing.

Indigo tried the door. It was locked, of course. So she pulled out Trixie's adjusting skeleton keys.

Sour hadn't been back at the Canton in a while, so she couldn't know about them. And thus, she had no countermeasures in place for them.

Indigo pushed open the door, slipping inside. Nopony else would have seen anything besides somepony fiddling with her keys.

Sour kept a lot of fuzzy furniture at her house. Except that every second chair was hard wood with no padding.

"Take point by the door," Sour said. "Stay hidden until she comes in. Don't shoot unless she does."

"Got it," Fleetfoot said, standing besides the door.

Indigo slipped through the living room. Hiding her activity logs in there would have been terrible, so she immediately headed for Sour's bedroom. It was a bit obvious, so Indigo didn't think the logs were actually hidden in there, but it was worth a check.

Sour Sweet's bedroom had a game-station and a mini-fridge inside it. Indigo peeked inside. It was full of several take out boxes, which Indigo checked individually. They had scant left-overs from Sour Sweet's meals.

Sticking a fried apple slice in her mouth, Indigo moved to looking underneath the bed.

The black-light revealed fingerprints, and she pulled open a hidden compartment with ease. "Gotcha," she muttered.

Inside was a small box with a lock. Indigo grinned to herself, pulling out her skeleton key again, and quickly broke it open.

The only thing inside was a game for the station. Is this how she hid it? Indigo thought. She put it into the machine, watching it boot up. Clever.

Instead of seeing Sour Sweet's video logs about her mission, she got a look at a bright pink screen covered in ribbons and hearts, with "DOKI DOKI HEARTS ACADEMY" boldly printed across the screen, right next to a blushing anime unicorn.

Indigo pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, this is not your log, then," she muttered, reaching up to take the game out.

She paused, eyes wandering over to the save file. "Playtime...four hundred and fifty-seven hours? What the hell is wrong with you?"

She stopped, listening to the door open.

Indigo stepped out of the bedroom, looking over to Sour Sweet.

Sour Sweet froze, but had a gun out in less than a second, trained directly on Indigo. "Who the fuck are you?"she demanded.

Fleetfoot put a pistol to the back of her head.

"Indigo Zap," Indigo introduced, pulling out her badge. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced."

"Oh, really?" Sour Sweet said, sweet as her name suggested. Also like her name suggested, she added in a nasty tone, "Because the gun to the back of my head is a helluva way to do that."

"Sweet? We have it on record that you lied in your reports. You hid Octavia from us," Indigo said. "So, yeah. Derpy was going to swing by when she got back from Vanhoover, but...y'know, I was in town anyway..."

"With Lyra?"

"Uh, no." Indigo chuckled. "By the way, we ran into something that shapeshifted into us recently, so how about you prove you're the real Sour Sweet real quick?"

"Uh, what?" Sour blinked. She lowered her gun—smart move—and seemed to think for a moment. "Well, uh...how?"

"That...would be the question, wouldn't it?" Indigo sighed. "We've never met. Looking back, I know these things can't imitate us perfectly." She began to pace, back and forth. Sour Sweet kept still, mindful of the gun on her.

"Okay. Derpy told you Princess Midnight's passcode, and these Changeling...things wouldn't be able to get that. So, what was Princess Midnight's passcode?"

"What? Derpy doesn't know that!" Sour exclaimed.

"Correct," Indigo said. "Fleet, you can lower the gun now."

"Yes, Ma'am," Fleetfoot said, complying. Sour immediately stepped away, moving to watch both Fleetfoot and Indigo at once.

"The Changelings did actually find out Princess Midnight's passcode," Indigo explained. "And one seems to have impersonated Lyra to attack a noblemare."

"That...that's what that was?" Sour burst out. "I thought I was just out of the loop!"

"No. Lyra...might be dead." Indigo considered that possibility. "Unlikely, but possible. What do you know about what Lyra's been doing?"

"Nothing. I kept my distance, as I am undercover, but I managed to figure out that she attacked Fleur."

"And you were the one who told Octavia?"

"N...not me," Sour said, averting her eyes. "She's...she's not--"

Indigo stepped over, grabbing Sour by the collar, and pinned her against the wall. Sour had her gun back out in an instant, up to Indigo's head, but Indigo gave her a firm glare. "We do not pick and choose who we investigate. We do not ignore ponies who we think deserve to get away with it. We track down suspicious activities, we investigate them, and if we don't like what we find, we stop them."

"Octavia was Goldbricker's groundskeeper!" Sour burst out.

"What?" Indigo released her, and Sour rubbed at her throat. "Explain."

"She was Goldbricker's groundskeeper when Lyra murdered him," Sour said. "She fucking hates Inquisitors. I...I heard you guys were looking for her, and I...I panicked! She's a good pony, she just...saw what happens when Inquisitors mess up, and...doesn't like them. At all. Runs with a bunch of those 'zero gov' ponies who forget that someone has to move the freakin' sun." She ran a hand through her mane. "I...I get it. I fucked up. Hard. But Octavia's not done anything worth sending Inquisitors after."

"Dude, we're trying to recruit her," Indigo muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Eh...? Recruit?"

"Yeah. We want to hire her. This would have been very useful information a week ago. Ugh. Just...what happened after that?"

"No clue. I know Fleur got away somehow, and Lyra's...been limping about town. She swapped her disguise, but there's only so much she can do about the instrument case."

"You think she was injured?"

"It's pretty obvious," Sour said.

"Ah, good. If Chrysalis was anything to go by, these things don't go down easy."

"If I go out hunting this thing, I'll blow my cover," Sour said.

Indigo raised an eyebrow.

"Some of these ponies...do need an eye kept on them," Sour said.

"Fine. I can't really trust that you're not a Changeling at this point, anyway. Derpy's going to chew you out as soon as she's back from Vanhoover, which should be any day now. Where's Lyra, by the way?"

"Constantly moving. I know she stole some supplies from Ponyville General Care. She might be heading back for more."

"Ouch. Bit of a blood loss, eh?" Indigo paused, then thought back to Chrysalis. To the green blood splattering the walls.

"Hey, give me your hand."

"Huh?"

Indigo pulled out a knife. "I need to test something."

"Found her," Sky said, moving her scope to train it on Indigo. "Shit...she's over by Sour's place. What's she doing over there?"

"Think she knows Sour's with Discord?" Rarity asked.

"We'd have heard shooting," Sky said. "I think she's just walking down the road near her. Let's not panic just yet."

"But why send Indigo?" Rarity muttered. "Derpy's on a mission, but Minuette...Minuette's still in Canterlot. Not even on any other jobs at the moment. This doesn't seem like something they'd send the department rookie to handle."

"Who even knows?" Sky said. "Maybe Midnight's just that crazy." She tapped the side of her gun, as she looked directly at Indigo's face. A few stains showed where she hadn't fully gotten rid of her makeup—probably how she got through Ponyville without Sky being able to find her.

Indigo turned slightly, looking more directly into Sky's scope. Which was ridiculous, as Sky was very well hidden. Even if she caught the flash of the scope, she'd never have seen--

Indigo held up her middle finger, then made a shooing gesture, directly at her.

Sky cursed, moving and ducking behind the stack of boxes. "She saw me," she whispered. "How?"

"Eye upgrade?" Rarity suggested. "Or maybe just a lucky guess. Or maybe her little slave spotted you. She has that thing for a reason."

"Something about this whole situation doesn't sit right with me," Sky muttered. "I hate unknowns. Did Lyra go rogue, or is she acting on orders?"

"Well, if they come looking for us..." Rarity's gun clicked, and she turned her attention to where her mask sat, on a large stack of crates, filled with bullets. "Then we're ready for them."

"That snooping bitch come back?"

"No, ma'am," Fleetfoot said. "At least, as far as I can see."

"Good," Indigo said. It wouldn't have been Lyra, but it very well might have been a Changeling. She couldn't say much about them, but she expected, if nothing else, good skills of surveillance. She'd caught the shine of the weapon, but that seemed a little...obvious? It wasn't the best skills Indigo had ever seen, that was for sure.

Indigo made one last look over her shoulder, then hurried the last few feet over to the building. It was a small little house, with its owners out on holiday. A few light scratches on the door knob showed that the Changeling had picked the lock—old school, and not using Trixie's new contraption.

Indigo rapped her knuckles on the door. "Lyra? You in there?"

"Uh...yeah? Come in."

Indigo pushed open the door, frowning as she stepped into the room.

Lyra sat, on the sofa, with her gun out. Seeing Indigo come in, she lowered her pistol, head back on the arm of her chair. Her coat, and shirt, were nearby chair, and she was covered in blood and bandages.

"Yikes. What happened to you?" Indigo asked. "Fleet, guard the door."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Since when do we get our own personal androids?" Lyra asked, opening one eye to look at Fleetfoot. "Wait, that's a Wonderbolt. Nice. How many more did you bring?"

"Uh...not many. Again, what happened to ya? That's...uh...bad, looking." Indigo reached over, picking up Lyra's coat. It seemed...like it was, in fact, Lyra's coat.

Oh, you old goat, Indigo thought wistfully. Please be alive somewhere.

"The Diamond Duster happened," Lyra groaned. "The bullets weren't diamond, by the way." She guestured to a small dish in front of her, with some smooth, white bullets in it. Indigo picked it up, examining them.

"Not see-through like real diamonds. Heavier, too, and...unbroken. Diamond bullets break a lot, magic or no. If it hit your coat dead-on, they should have broken or chipped. These..."

"From the Crystal Province," Lyra said. "Sawed-off shotgun, firing those things. Cracked two of my ribs, and one arm. And that was when she sniped me from thirty yards. Whoever built that thing, I'm gonna disassemble."

"Gotcha," Indigo muttered. She wasn't sure how different 'crystal' was from diamond, but she knew her coat wouldn't stop diamond bullets. Even from a shotgun.

"Diamond Duster's body job is, uh...bad. For us. I shoot her a few times, but her armor is incredibly thick."

"Do you think she was a real pony under the mask?" Indigo asked.

"Hm, maybe?" Lyra adjusted herself on the sofa, sitting up with a groan. "Maybe she's an earth pony. That would explain how she walks about in armor that heavy."

"What were you doing out here, anyway?" Indigo asked. "Just on a mission?"

Lyra hesitated. "Sorry. It's for a Princess. I can't say anything."

"Is it, now?"

Lyra frowned, as Indigo sat opposite to her, slipping a gun out of her jacket.

"Zap. What's going on?"

"Which Princess?"

"What? I just said--"

"Tell me which Princess gave you orders, so I can verify," Indigo said. "Simple as that."

"Princess Cadenza," Lyra said slowly. "There aren't any Changelings involved here, far as I can tell."

"Fleet, make a call to Minuette. Direct line."

"Alright, gotcha." Her goggles briefly displayed a loading symbol, and then Minuette's voice crackled. "At the Canton, privacy secured. What's up?"

"I need you to verify something for me. Check if Lyra went and received orders from Princess Cadenza before she left. I need to know if she's acting on orders."

"Princess...Cadenza? She...she met with her just before the attack on Fleur's house. About Gillda, remember?"

"Double check," Indigo said. "I need confirmation."

Minuette chuckled at the order. "You're the boss."

The line disconnected, and Indigo sat in...mostly silence. If it was a Changeling, she was still tapping her hoof. Was there a rhythm? Yes...Indigo could almost hear it...

"Ave Marea," Indigo said, meeting Lyra's eyes.

Lyra abruptly stopped. "Y-yeah. That's the first time you've actually named the song, hmm?'

"That's the real you, isn't it," Indigo said slowly.

"Yeah. It's me." Lyra smiled, but it faded when Indigo glared into her eyes.

"You have about ten seconds to explain why you tried to kill Fleur de Liss. Twice."