Hey everypony! There's a great picture Twilight made for this chapter, check it out here: art/Psi-Corps-Pinkie-399240266. Thanks and enjoy!
Chapter 11 – The Psi Corps
Back on Babylon 5, all of the six were sitting around doing various things in Twilight's quarters. Excepting Twilight, she was running the bookstore in the Zokolo. The rest of them were hanging around. Rarity was giving herself a hooficure, after the 'terrible ordeal', as she put it, she'd gone through the other day. Fluttershy was sitting next to Rarity, not so much watching her put on the hoof lacquer as staring off into space in that general direction. Pinkie was sitting next to Rainbow Dash, each with a book or two, or maybe fifteen, to read. Applejack was asleep on her bed with her hat over her face.
Pinkie's book, in particular, was the most interesting part of the entire room at that moment. She was reading about… the Psi Corps. "Hey, Dashie?" she asked, and Dash looked up from her book to meet Pinkie's gaze before saying, "Yea, Pinkie?" "I've been wondering something, and you're the fastest pony I know. Can you go get Twilight for me? I need to ask her something. Besides, you know the station better than any of us." "Sure thing, Pinkie," said Dash, saluting Pinkie before zipping out the door.
In five minutes or so, Rainbow came zipping back in with a confused and exasperated Twilight. She deposited the alicorn on her bed before saying quickly, "Pinkie wants to talk to you." "O… Okay…" breathed Twilight, slowly getting up off the bed and sitting next to Pinkie, "What… is… What is it, Pinkie?"
"Well," Pinkie started, looking up from her book to face Twilight, "I've been looking at this book, and it says that any human telepaths can sign on to the Psi Corps to become registered commercial telepaths. I don't have any income… and I was wondering if they'd make an exception for me. You know, let me join the Psi Corps even though I'm not… exactly… human. Do you think so, Twilight?" "Um…" started Twilight, not sure what to say, "I don't know. If you'd like to give it a try, though, we can always go to Earth and ask…" "That's great!" exclaimed Pinkie, "When do we leave?" "Now, if you'd like, but I'd like to come along also, just to make sure you're safe. The rest of you, I need you here. It'll be much easier for me to keep track of ONE pony than to keep track of FIVE. I'll need you to run the bookstore for me again, Rarity. Sorry to burden you." "Oh, it's quite all right, dear. Just… let me finish my hooficure first."
"All right… we're here," announced Twilight once they'd landed on Earth. They were on a large landing platform in the middle of a city. "Now, if my directions are correct…" started Twilight, before Pinkie cut her off, "There it is!" She pointed her hoof to a large building with a gray trident-like symbol within a brown diamond on the top. Not bothering to ask how she'd found it or knew what it looked like, Twilight led Pinkie over to the building.
"Hello, my name is Ambassador Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I have come because my attaché, Pinkie Pie, would like to register to be a commercial telepath in the Psi Corps," announced Twilight to the officer once they were allowed inside. "This way, please," he said, ushering them to an office down a hallway, "It will only be a moment."
They were waiting in the office for only a few minutes when another officer walked in, he wore the same shape as atop the building on his shirt and was dressed in all black, including his gloves and shoes. The only thing about him that wasn't black was his face and hair. "How may I help you?" he asked. "Hello. My name is Ambassador Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I have come because…" she started before he cut her off. "Yes, because your attaché wishes to join the Psi Corps. An unusual question, but not a complicated one. Of course you can join, Miss Pie. Simply fill out these forms and take the evaluation test and you are free to become a Psi Corps authorized commercial telepath."
"Thank you," said Pinkie, sitting still with perfect manners before grabbing the pen telekinetically to sign it as the man watched, agape. With a smile on her face, she signed all twenty papers before releasing her telekinetic grip on the pen and letting it fall onto the stack of papers. "Finished," she calmly stated as if nothing had happened. "Uh… Thank you. We will get these processed right away and begin your test as soon as possible, unless you'd like to postpone it," he said rapidly, as if he wanted to leave for some dire reason. Taking her five-second silence as a no, he rushed out of the room with the papers in his hands.
"He seemed a little uneasy… any idea why?" asked Pinkie to Twilight, still remaining calm and well-mannered. "Well, it could be because you're a telekinetic, but that's highly unlikely since they say that they Psi Corps have a few telekinetics themselves. I don't know, Pinkie," said Twilight. They couldn't get any further in their conversation before another man stepped into the room. This time, his hair was the same silky black as his suit, and he bore the same badge. Opening his small briefcase, he pulled out a small device. Placing it on Pinkie's head, it flashed furiously before fizzing and breaking. The man, obviously surprised but doing a better job of hiding it than the last one, simply said in a gruff voice, "Interesting." He proceeded to place a penny on the table. "Can you move this penny without touching it?" he asked. "Of course!" said Pinkie with a smile. Not concentrating the slightest, she made the penny dance around in the air, nobody was touching it. It twirled around in place and floated back down onto the desk. "See?" asked Pinkie after she'd placed it back down on the desk, "Wasn't that such fun?"
Closing his briefcase after placing the broken scanner and the penny inside, he asked her, "Can you move this briefcase in the same way?" With a sarcastic tone in her voice and a face that said, 'are you kidding me?', Pinkie said, "Look. I moved a 600 ton spaceship INTO space with my mind. Tell me, where on the scale does that put me? If I remember my book correctly, I think that puts me someplace in the thousands. I am simply asking to become a commercial telepath, telekinetic, anything. Surely you can find a place for a P 2000 somewhere."
All this time she was reclining in her chair with her eyes relaxingly closed, moving the briefcase all over the room with no trouble at all. The man, who was impressed beyond words, was obviously speechless. When he finally DID manage to get a coherent sentence out, he said, "Actually… if what you told me is true… you'd be much more than a P 2000. You'd be someplace around P 3500." With the same sarcasm as before, Pinkie said, "Humor me; I must have missed the extra P 1500… rounding errors." "As for your career," the man continued, "you have now officially been certified. We have your uniform ready." He pulled out a folded stack of clothing with a badge just like the one he had on it. "Thank you," said Pinkie, smiling again before starting to slip on the black leather gloves that fit her hooves perfectly, then sliding on the light and dark ochre top and fastening the badge to the collar line. "There," she said to Twilight, "I'm officially a commercial telekinetic. You can stop giving me an allowance now that I can work for myself. Now. Let's get back to Babylon 5, I'm sure the others are waiting for us to return."
