The Spy who Ran

by Fluttershy Auditore

The Fury of Time

Mandarin groaned and turned over as light seeped through the blinds. She sighed, and tried to forget the nightmare she had been having. It was the same one as normal, a black, shadowy colt attacking Manehatten, about to attack her family, but spotting her and telling them to run. The dream always ended there, replaced by another vision, but the colt was always the same. Tall, dark, a Unicorn, its horn sharpened into a scythe-like weapon. And it always had the same mark next to its eye, a long, thin metal bar... A loud thud from downstairs jarred her awake, and she quickly leapt out of the bed and galloped down the stairs to find a dazed Flaming Sapphire, surrounded by bits of breakfast and a tea-tray.
“Sweet Celestia, did I wake you? I’m so sorry Mandarin,” the stallion began, slowly standing and using his magic to pick up the mess, giving her a small smile “I was just going to bring you some breakfast.”
“Whoa, hold on. Look at me.” She pulled his head up, looking under his eyes, inspecting him with critique gaze. There were large dark circles underneath the left one, the strange metal bar covered most of the lower lid on the right. The orange mare gently slid a hoof over it, tracing its path through his flesh. She had seen that before, way back in her past, back when she was just a filly…
“Y’know, you could just ask me about it if you’re interested,” chuckled Flaming Sapphire, causing his squatter to jump out of her reverie. “It was a dare by my mates; I got it pierced in because I was young and dumb.” He moved his hoof up to the bar and rubbed it slowly; frowning a little “I don’t even know why I did it. It looks really idiotic.”
“It looks familiar, Saph,” snapped Mandarin, the anger in her voice like that of a whip “I recognise it.” The venomous anger that was in the mare’s voice surprised Flaming Sapphire, making him take a step back, his once warm smile lost “This is from somewhere else. My past. It was on the eye of a black colt with a scythed horn that attacked Manehatten once. A member of the Army of Discord.” It was that short, simple sentence that sent the memories flooding into Flaming Sapphire’s head, sending him into a chaotic reverie.

“FOR CHAOS!” A resounding roar lashed across the Everfree Castle. The Draconequus stood upon a balcony, the following speech was too important for his usual trickery.
“Fighters for Chaos! I am proud to announce that we need hide no longer!” Cheers drowned out Discord momentarily as the excitement spread like wildfire across the huge crowd of chaotic warriors. “Tonight, we welcome a new General into our ranks! My Little Ponies, I present to you…” Here, he stepped aside and allowed another figure to step up to the balcony. “… Myself!” Sure enough, the newcomer appeared to be Discord, smiling and waving at the crowd. The room was dead silent after that announcement. A pin dropped. Everypony heard it.

The figure laughed and twisted suddenly. It shrank and changed until, finally, a black unicorn colt, his horn sharpened and curved into a scythe-like blade, stood in front of the masses. “Greetings! I am Icy Emerald, a new General and Infiltrator for the Army of Discord. FOR CHAOS!” And with these roared words, he thrust his front left hoof into the air. The Army went wild, shouting and cheering for their new General. He waited for quiet before continuing. “As you have seen, I am able to transform, not unlike the Changelings. However, I am able to go much deeper than that! I can absorb memories, entire personalities, and create a perfect double of them, able to impersonate them better than they can themselves! I… I think that makes sense,” he joked, and a ripple of laughter spread through the crowd.
“Nevertheless, as our leader has said, we need hide no longer!” He twisted his head to the side, revealing a long, thin metal bar, stretching from underneath his right eye, up to the top corner by the eyebrow. “This is a device that Discord has gifted to me. It is wired into my Central Nervous System, it allows me to ‘lock onto’ a pony, if you will, and keep track of them. Unfortunately for me, I need to see my target continuously to absorb their mind. From there, I can transform into their body and impersonate them from will, as the device stores their data in its memory banks,” a small screen shot out of the bar, covering Icy Emerald’s eye with a black lens, almost like sunglasses. The screen lit up with a display that only Icy Emerald could see, as he locked onto a target in the crowds, much to their delight as they tried to shake him off, the device turning Icy Emerald’s neck for him…

And the scene changed. He was on a train, now a leafy green Pegasus mare. The train was headed to Manehatten, where he would meet the rest of the army and start causing chaos in the name of Discord. A grey Earth colt trotted over and sat next to him, looking out of the window so his muzzle was near the disguised general’s ear.
“Dark nights are unpleasant,” The stranger said, his right hoof touching his right eyebrow.
“Yes, for strangers to travel,” replied the disguised Unicorn, raising her left hoof to touch her left eyebrow.
“It is an honour to meet you General Icy Emerald. I am Captain Falling Tears, here to assist you in taking Manehatten in the name of Discord and Chaos.”
“Not so loud you fool!” Emerald back-hoofed the captain across the face. “Do you want others to know of us?”
“I apologise, my General. I merely assumed…”

And everything went black.

Author's Note:

Thanks to AxtontheMechanist for editing this. Thanks bud, couldn't do without ya.

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Fluttershy Auditore

Comments

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