//------------------------------// // 1 - Bucked // Story: I used to be a spy... // by hen3ry //------------------------------// Sweetie Drops stood a silent vigil atop the entrance to a box canyon in an arid region of Western Equestria, while a small squad of Royal Guards flew around some sort of grizzly bear/bumblebee hybrid flying around in the canyon below. My name is Sweetie Drops, and I'm a secret agent. Really, the job of a monster hunting secret agent isn't always to drop a four ton boulder on a freakin' bugbear. But it's makes a very satisfying splat when it does work. She gives a mighty kick to the boulder, sending it sailing down below. It seems to be on a direct course to hit the Bugbear square in the noggin, when suddenly, one of the guardsponies slams into the beast, and out of the way of a quickly falling stone... And a real problem when it doesn't. Well, damn, Silver Shield, that's gotta hurt. As the guardsponies move to try and lift the boulder off their fellow trooper, the Bugbear stares upward, eyes narrowed at where the boulder came from. Sweetie Drops makes a run for it, with the Bugbear hot on her trail. Ponies tend to think that monsters are mindless beasts. I so wish that was true, it'd make life a whole lot easier. The truth is, while they're not the brightest minds around, they're usually smart enough to be single minded jerks about anyone who tries to squish em. Go figure. Usually the best way to go is to get em so mad that they'll get themselves stuck in some obstacle. At a full gallop, Sweetie Drops darts between a pair of trees, which the Bugbear simply smashes out of his way a moment later. She then slides under a low rocky undercropping, which the Bugbear flies over. If they're absurdly strong and can fly, however, that's not going to get you very far. Sometimes, the only thing you can do is run like hell until you can think of something better. Sweetie Drops continues to run, with the bugbear hot on her tail. With her mouth, she grabs something from a pocket, and swings it out somewhere. In a pinch, a cave can be a decent bugout spot. As long as whatever's chasing you is smaller than the entrance to the cave. Because if it can get in, you've just trapped yourself. The problem is, even if it can't get in, if it decides to stay, you're still trapped. If there's no caves nearby, you can make one by dropping an explosive into a gopher hole, then jumping in. And hoping the beast doesn't know how to dig. An explosion erupts to the side of where Sweetie Drops threw what we now know is a grenade. She turns directly towards the dust cloud, and vanishes within. The Bugbear stares in confusion for a moment as the dust settles. We get a very very brief glimpse of Sweetie Drops' tail in the ground, then nothing but a crater with several holes into the ground. The Bugbear roars in anger, then heads off slowly. The only real problem with gopher holes, is that they're populated by, well, gophers. And if you just tossed a grenade into their home, they're very angry gophers. Which you can't run away from. *** "... and they bite like hell when they're mad, Sir," Sweetie Drops said, glancing up from a hospital bed. Above her, a stern-faced unicorn stallion in a business suit glanced down. "I'm going to be honest here, Drops. You really bucked up badly this time. Because of your showboating, we've lost tracking on a very dangerous creature, and you injured a Royal Guardspony in the process. If you're lucky, it'll be desk work for a while. And if not..." "Oh, come on! I'm the best agent the company has, and the Director knows it. My rock drop was on target, it was that dumbflank rookie who messed it up. And even if I take the blame for it, that'd be my first mission fail. Ever." "You also have a bad habit of causing collateral damage, Drops. That's the worst thing here - this mission you only hurt one pony, that's actually your best score." Sweetie Drops huffed, blowing mane out of her face. "What about Manehattan three months ago?" "Oh, you're right I suppose. I mean, the bridge was empty when you blew it up. So technically no one was hurt." Sweetie Drops grumbed under her breath. "I used the smallest amount of force necessary to achieve the mission." "And that's your problem, Drops. You decide the mission is all-important, and any force is justified. If ponies are hurt, well, so be it." A scroll poofed into existence next to the unicorn, and he levitated it. His ears flopped down as he read. "Desk duty then?" Sweetie Drops asked, hopefully. "No. We've got a burn notice on you. You're blacklisted. I'm sorry, kid, you're out." "I'll be back, Sir. Do what you need to do." The unicorn levitated a syringe, and injected Sweetie Drops in the neck. "Good bye, kid, we won't be meeting again." *** When you're burned, you've got nothing. No cash, and no job history. Officially, you no longer exist. All your fake identities are destroyed. Those connections you use to slip effortlessly into the seam of some underworld group or attach yourself to some Guard unit to get done what needs to be done, gone in a puff of smoke. They can take away your name, your gadgets, and even your connections, but they can't take away the skills that got you there in the first place. Well, they could, I suppose, but unless you're worth banishing to Tartarus, they'd rather see you live a quiet retirement somewhere. So they send you off to some backwater town, and the rule is, you don't leave that town without permission. Or else. Retirement? Well, buck that, I was born to be a Special Agent, and as Celestia as my witness, I would be one again. No one's ever come back from a burn notice? That's only because I've never been burned before.