Block and a Hard Place

[multaekappae]

Sharp Wit glared at the Kelpie for a moment before drawing in a deep breath. "Look, my problems aren't the issue right now. You need to learn that spell as quickly as possible, I fear we have very little time before our presence here becomes disastrous."

Riptide started at the pegasus for several longs seconds before replying, "I may not be able to learn the spell at all. You don't seem to realize that from my perspective I've only had a horn for about a day... and I'm still getting the hang of ocean magic, which should be natural to me."

"Not familiar with temporal magic you say?" Sharp's eyes widened ludicrously. "Why, in that case, a unicorn who doesn't know how to use time magic either should be the perfect tutor, you'll have so much in common!" The dark gray stallion turned to address the Torchwhoof Agents. "Agent Noise, it is desperately important to the future of Canterlot and perhaps the entire nation of Equestria that you help her Majesty here learn this spell."

White noise opened her mouth to –

"Ah, ah, ahh, failure is not an option." the Inspector chastised.

The white pony looked at Black Ops, who quickly gestured that the Inspector effectively had the highest rank in the room. White Noise scrunched her muzzle for a moment, then sighed and turned to face Riptide. "R-right, so, what level of familiarity do you have with Clover/Swirl Channeling techniques?"

The Kelpie stared blankly at the unicorn.

White Nosie tried again, "Dweomercraft?" No response, "Relative Symbolism?" Nothing, "... cantrips?" The Kelpie blinked, then continued staring. The agent sighed and lowered her head. "I guess we can try a crash course from the ground up..."

---

Golden Scale wiped his forehead and leaned against a windowsill, "I'm getting kinda old to be planning attrition campaigns..." he glanced out the window to get another measure of their enemies and stopped, staring at five well-dressed ponies accompanying the chitinous invaders. "Buck me over a barrel..." he muttered.

Jack chuckled, "Slow down, we just met.", but one look told him the unicorn was honestly disturbed. Looking out the window, the blue pegasus made out the ponies... or changelings in disguise when none of their allies were, which seemed unlikely. "Friends of yours?"

That elicited a bark of bitter laughter, "Something like that. You're looking at the head of Canterlot's largest crime organization." the old pony shook his head. "Somehow, I'm not surprised to see Money Grubber switching sides like the first rat off the ship."

"Any idea what he's here for?" Captain Harnes frowned.

"No, but I'll tell you one thing, our job just got a whole lot harder."