Cloak and Dagger

by Lordxana0

A Major Problem

Author's Note:

Story takes place after 'Boast Busters'. Remember to leave a comment.

“So you are tellin me that two colts manage to wake up a hibernating Ursa Minor, outrun it, and manage to survive a rampage with enough time for Ms. Sparkle to put the creature back in its bed?” Dagger shook his head for a moment. “That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“What are you talking about you maroon?” Cloak looked at his partner with a frown as the two walked through the dense forest of the Everfree. For most ponies walking the wilds of the forest would be dangerous beyond belief. But the two of them were far from normal.

“Well first off an Ursa Minor is the size of a house right?” Dagger waited for confirmation, continuing after getting a nod from his partner. “And these colts are tiny, so you are sayin that two runts outran a ticked off house sized bear?”

Cloak had to give him that point at the very least, either the colts were lucky or the Ursa Minor was stupid, even for a young creature. “Why are you so worked up over this?”

“It makes no sense, that’s all I am saying.” the Unicorn paused in front of the small mountain that stood before them. They had arrived at their destination.

“Are you saying that you would be happier at this moment if the story had ended with two colts getting mauled to death by an Ursa Minor?” Cloak reached under his overcoat and pulled out a small round object with a number of small lights zipping around inside of it.

Dagger paused for a moment and thought about that. “Know what? Think I am just going to keep quiet and be glad that nothing worse happened.”

“He can be taught.” Cloak said with a voice filled with sarcasm before tossing the orb deep into the cave and took a deep breath. What happened next was going to be far from pleasant.

The orb bounced against the cold stone of the cavern and rolled ever deeper in, the minor light coming off of it making it clear that the cave was very deep. But eventually the sound of the orb went silent, and a dull breathing sound could be heard coming from the cave.

“Equipment on,” Cloak declared, reaching under his overcoat once more and pulled out a pair of headphones and a pair of sunglasses. Dagger did the same, and both put them on. If anypony had come across them standing in front of a cave wearing sunglasses and headphones no doubt they would look mad.

But the reason for both became clear as the creature at the back of the cave started coming forth. At first the creature was covered by the darkness that consumed the depths of the cave, but as it came closer a light brilliant enough to be the rays of the sun shone out and lit away the darkness of the forest. With a few more massive steps the figure of the beast became clear. It had the appearance of a bear, but much larger, large enough that if it stood on both of its hind legs it would be the double the height of the castle in Canterlot. Its fur, or what appeared to be fur, was adorned with thousands of twinkling stars, though none of the twinkling orbs matched positions with the celestial bodies that made home in the night sky. The beasts eyes were perhaps the oddest part of it, both orbs burned with a fire that would remind one of looking into the sun, while the iris appeared to be the moon, with the pupil taking on the appearance of a swirling void of darkness.
“Pony of horn and magic, you would dare confront me after what your clan has done to my child?” the massive beast roared out. This was an
Ursa Major, one of the most dangerous beasts in the entire world. Magic was absorbed into its body, its fur was strong enough to bounce steel weapons off of it, and it could continue without air.

“Yes yes you are very scary and we are intimidated by you, could you turn down the light show so we can take off this ridiculous things?” Cloak asked, making a motion toward the sunglasses that were the only things standing between the furious light in the Ursa Major’s eyes and his own fragile orbs.

Dagger snickered a bit. “I don’t know boss, we do so many night missions these days that the sun is pretty good for my tan.”

“You dare ignor…” before the Ursa could finish that thought Cloak raised a hoof up and turned to his partner.

“Pardon me, your what?” Cloak asked with a certain amount of confusion in his voice.

“You know boss, my tan,” he moved back some of his fur to show the skin under it, which was just a paler version of his fur. “The Sun tans the skin.”

“Nopony can see your skin because of your fun, so why would it matter if you were getting a tan or not?” Cloak’s face went through a few changes, from confused to angry, from angry to indignant, before settling on a look most people would simply call absolute disappointment.

“Who says it’s for looks?” Dagger shook his head and smiled. “Having a tan prevents all kinds of nasty stuff boss.”

“Pardon me, but could you two get back to the point?” the Ursa Major asked, not used to having creatures that stood before her without the proper amount of trembling and fear. This was new and uncharted territory for her. The light from her eyes dimmed, more out of confusion then answering their previous request.

Both ponies looked back to her and blinked, as if they had forgotten she was there at all. “Sorry ma’am, lost track of things, just one moment.”
Cloak raised his hoof and wacked Dagger in the back of the head.

“Yow!” Dagger rubbed the spot that Cloak had struck. “What was dat for boss?”

“For distracting me from making negotiations with the lady with your stupidity.” Cloak said while fixing his overcoat, which had been knocked a bit unbalanced by his strike.

Dagger blinked for a moment and jumped back, pointing a hoof directly at his partner. “Bu-bu-but boss you were the one who got distracted in the first place!” he turned toward the Ursa Major. “Back me up here!”

“Well to be fair to your partner here you did…” the Ursa Major blinked when it realized what it was doing and roared out. “Do not try and
distract me from the subject of my child being awoken!”

“Eh, who was distracting you?” Cloak looked around, as if the culprit would be somewhere around them.

“Want us ta trample ‘em for yah?” Dagger asked, lighting up his horn with energy as if he was ready to cast a spell at whoever had bothered the Ursa.

“You, I, did,” the Ursa Major was starting to feel the beginnings of a headache coming on. In her long life she had never once met two beings
who could bring about this much pain in her just by existing. Even Discord at his worst had never annoyed her like these two had. “What is even going on?” she moaned out as one of her claws came to rest and massage her forehead.

“Well we were discussing how it would be top for you not to destroy Ponyville due to a couple of colt’s making a mistake.” Cloak held the gaze of the massive Ursa.

That seemed to be enough to get the monster back on topic. “For what was done I would have the lives of everypony involved, be they young or old whoever dared to harm my child will be destroyed.”

Cloak let out a deep sigh and shook his head. “Now you see this is why we came before Celestia did, if she were here she would offer her own life as the ruler in order to satisfy your bloodlust, which I am guessing you would accept?”

The Ursa Major gave a nod of its massive head. “Indeed, she would have the right to take on their punishment as the ruler.”

“But we can’t just allow our Princess to be killed like that, you must know that if she died the gates to a much greater darkness would be unleashed, I ask again in the name of sanity, let this be.” Cloak’s voice was pleading at this point, a show of desperation.

“I will have my due by most ancient rites.” the Ursa Major growled.

Cloak sighed deeply. “Dagger, do it.”

Dagger’s horn lit up and launched a flare high into the sky, exploding above the tops of the forest. “It’s done boss.” the stallion’s voice lacked its usual playfulness, instead it sounded somber.

“And what is this, some new trick to distract me?” the Ursa asked, her tone angry but curious.

“Not at all,” Cloak said with a small shake of his head. “It’s the signal for our forces to enter your child’s cave and kill him.” his voice sounded weary.

The Ursa Major’s eyes became bright as the sun once more, and she grabbed both Cloak and Dagger in her massive paws. “You would dare threaten my child once more?!”

“Yes.” replied Cloak.

“We already did, pretty silly to be asking if we would do something we already did.” replied Dagger.

“You will call off your assassins or I will soak this planet in the blood of everypony, young or old.” the Ursa’s voice was deep and dangerous, but even its tone couldn’t hide the fear for its cub.

“No doubt, a creature like you couldn’t be stopped by anypony in the entire world.” Cloak stated without interest.

“After yah kid dies you would most likely destroy every town in your way until there was nothing but barren ground and corpses.” added Dagger.

“But you would be doing it in a world without your son.” both said at the same time, staring into the burning orbs of the Ursa’s eyes.

For a moment none of the three moved. The mighty Ursa Major was frozen in a stalemate, desperately searching for some hint of a lie on either ponies face. “Your kind is a peaceful race, where in your Harmony is it allowed for you to murder children?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“Harmony is an ideal, and an ideal without strength to back it is the same as a nice dream.” Dagger answered.

“Nice to have, but impossible to keep.” Cloak added.

The Ursa kept the glare for a bit, before lowering her head in defeat, her eyes losing their shine. “Call off your assassins, and I will consider your debt paid for.”

“Do you swear by most ancient rites?” Cloak asked warily.

“I swear by most ancient rites to uphold the bargain I have made, and should I break it the Oathkeepers may drag me and all of mine to Tartarus.” the Ursa Major declared, placing both ponies on the ground.
Without a word Dagger launched up another flare to join the first, calling off the assassins from their work.

“Were done here, let’s go.” Cloak turned his back toward the Ursa Major’s cave and began to walk away with his partner.

“I am amazed, I had no idea that such darkness could exist in the world of light that Equestria supposedly upholds.” the Ursa Major mocked after them.

“Yeah we are monsters, demons, assassins, pretty much any bad name you call us fits the bill, but you know what?” Cloak turned and gave the
Ursa Major a chilling smile. “I just saved the life of a Princess, or if you look at it another way at least four other ponies, two of them just colts, so ask me if I give buck about it?”

With those words spoken the Ursa Major returned to her cave. She could fill her child was still alive and resting, and for now that was all that mattered.

Cloak and Dagger walked away silently. Despite knowing that what they did was right they couldn’t help but feel the weight of the gamble they had just taken. The moto of the Blackguard was ‘We will not go alone’. It was taken from a popular bit of poetry, and its meaning was clear.
Even if the world fell they would take a pound of flesh for it.

“So I don’t know about you boss, but my tan is great.” Dagger suddenly said as they walked through the dark forest.

“Shut up you moron.” Cloak said with his usual grunt.

The two of them suddenly laughed at the shift of mood and continued their path out of the forest, they would need to discuss things with their superiors, and leave no evidence of their involvement. If Celestia found out they had been willing to kill a child there would be no end to the Hades they would pay.