Coffee Shop

by TheOnly

Chapter 6

"Go!"

"What? Go where?!"

Click didn't have time for idle banter. Looking at the door behind him, he knew that it was only a couple of seconds before the weak wood cracked and all hell broke loose. Did they know? How did they find out? Dropping the briefcase, he impulsively stamped a hoof on the ground in an effort to stabilize himself and then took off at a gallop. Minuette had no time to react, she received the front end of his head and the two of them launched through the window of the building with a loud crash. As he fell a jolt of despair and disappointment shot through his body as he realized that he had to leave behind the briefcase and his saddlebags. His eyes snapped shut as he braced for impact.

Minuette flailed her hooves, unable to think straight as the floor disappeared from beneath her. She looked at Click for a split second as they crashed through the glass, shards spraying everywhere as the door on the other side of the room splintered and snapped under the immense force, hoping that Click had some sort of plan. There was no plan. Both ponies immediately tumbled towards the ground in a cloud of shattered glass. Click's eyes stayed shut as they started to gain speed. When they shot open he found himself dizzily spinning, unable to focus on anything. His mind was a jumble, the ground was so far away.

Struggling to regain control of his body, Click forced his wings open against the pounding wind. It felt as if a strong gale had punched his wings as he left Minuette free falling while he decelerated abruptly. Adjusting his posture, direction, and velocity, Click came to almost a complete stop before shutting his wings closed and streamlining his body. The wind once again whipped through his mane and battered his face, but this time he was prepared. He remained sleek and compact, avoiding any spinning, with his eyes locked on to his target.

Accelerating at dangerous speeds, Click came closer and closer to Minuette, who continued to flail her hooves and make the surface area of her body larger. As the stories of the building left until the ground was reached dwindled down to the smaller digits, Click put in a couple of flaps for good measure, pushing himself even faster. He could see a small cone starting to form around him of condensed water, but the last thing he wanted was a sonic boom that would shatter all the windows in the building. There was still a chance they didn't know, that they could still salvage the situation, but shattering windows would ruin everything.

Adjusting his wings and form, he reluctantly kept his speed in check, approaching Minuette with each passing second. Doing quick mental calculations and a visual test, he figured that he would be able to reach her before they hit the ground with room to spare for a quick pull out, deceleration, and landing.

Click's heart dropped as he heard a pane of glass shatter. Had he accidentally broken the barrier?

He quickly checked behind him, looking to find any indicators of broken windows or the remnants of a sonic boom. There was nothing. The cone was still formed around him, the floors of the untouched building continued to zip by. He turned his head back around.

"What the hell."

Click's mind raced, unable to cope with the constantly changing surroundings. Minuette was no longer below him, all he saw was a straight view down to the ground. He frantically checked every direction, launching his wings out to full span to slow back down. The cone dissipated as he decelerated.

"Damnit!" he yelled. Shifting the momentum of his freefall into a slow turn upwards, he flapped his wings and changed his direction, bursting forward horizontally. His mane flattened against his neck as the wind lashed at his face. As he turned away from the building he noticed one of the windows a little farther below had been shattered.

"They just won't give up," he muttered, his words instantly carried off by the wind. Minuette, hanging on for dear life in the hooves of that pegasus, screamed as loud as she could, desperately clinging clinging to the pegasus' body with her front hooves and flailing her hind hooves in the empty air. Surging forward with powerful thrusts of his wings, Click easily made up ground on the weighed down pony. Not to insinuate that she was heavy or anything but... well.. forget it.

Click quickly caught up to the pegasus who was clearly struggling to deal with the burden of a flailing unicorn and his own weight. He pondered how to get Minuette from him. With careful maneuvering Click approached the pegasus from behind and swiftly flew beneath him, preventing him from simply dropping Minuette. The pegasus made sharp zig zags in attempts to throw Click off but holding onto Minuette hampered his dexterity. Realizing that Click was slowly ascending to steal Minuette from his hooves, the pegasus tossed her to the side, far enough for her to miss Click's back, and quickly looped back around towards the building.

Although he wanted to continue the chase and capture the pegasus, Click had no choice but to dive bomb for Minuette. This time, however, he was prepared for a nose dive. He looped around and added a small spin, wings spread out, before turning to face directly downwards and flapping for initial momentum. With his flapping, he easily caught up to Minuette in her free fall before she could even reach maximum speed. He carefully slid his hooves in between her hooves and body while maintaining speed to avoid any unnecessary pain. Using his wings as a makeshift parachute, he pulled with all his strength to keep Minuette with him. Still high up in the air, Click slowly carried the speechless and terrified unicorn back down to solid ground, which she promptly kissed and praised for being ground.

Click, not interested in how much Minuette "loved and would never leave the ground again," took a quick survey of his surroundings. The building was a long distance away now, and Clack and the Doctor were still stuck inside, unaware of the situation they had to deal with.

"The corporate world is a dirty and disgusting place," said Click. Minuette did not hear him, her mind too occupied with savoring the feeling of not being carried through the air or free-falling.

"Come on, we have to get back to the office," said Click, pointing towards the large building that just minutes ago they had crashed out of.

"Back? We have to go back? But what about Ditzy and Octavia, shouldn't we warn them first?"

"They'll be fine, right now we have to go and get Turner and Clack, they have no idea what's going on right now. Ditzy and Octavia should be fine for the next few minutes, we can warn them later and get out of here."

"How long until... it... happens?"

"No way to tell for sure, but we definitely have at least an hour. We can still execute the operation if we hurry."

"Alright, but what about the files? Where's the briefcase?"

"We still need to intercept them, and the briefcase is still in the room we jumped out of. Don't worry, we'll find a way, but for now we have should get going." Click turned to begin the trek back to the building.

"Uh, Click..."

"What? What is it?" asked Click, quickly turning to face her.

"You're bleeding, in a lot of places."

Click looked down at his body and clothes. It was true, the glass had not been merciful. His body was cut up and the clothes were stained with blood.

"What about you? You should be cut up worse than I am, you hit the glass first," said Click.

"Don't remind me," snapped Minuette,"And I kinda cast a protection spell in the panic between getting headbutted by you and getting pushed into the window, so I came out without a scratch."

"And you didn't protect me?"

"It slipped my mind at the time."

Click groaned. "I can't go in there looking like this! It'll draw way too much attention."

"You could just wear my dress. It won't cover your wings but from the look of it your wings aren't even scratched. We can use your clothes to cover up the wounds."

"Right, one problem, I'm a stallion, I can't walk in there wearing a dress and not pick up attention."

"Then you won't be a stallion."

Click hesitantly took a step backwards as he contemplated the options. Minuette giggled as she took off he dress.

"What are you suggesting?"

"Come here, I'll make you look pretty." Minuette's horn glowed as she removed her false eyelashes.

"Oh no, this is not happening."

"Oh yes, this is so happening." With another flicker of magic, Click's mane was pulled apart and being restyled while he reluctantly attempted to fit himself into the small dress.

"I don't think this is going to fit," he said. "We should try something else."

"It's going to fit, do you want to pull this operation off or not? Now stop blinking so I can get these eyelashes on you. Oh, you make an adorable mare." Minuette took Click's mane and braided it, her focus already shifting to his disheveled tail.

"I hate you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The doors swung open to the all-to-familiar smell and look of the lobby. Click gagged with disgust at the paintings and color scheme once again, even though he had seen it multiple times before. No matter how many times he saw it he would always be abhorred at the choice of color. But there was no time to complain about the color of the building. Minuette checked to make sure nopony suspicious was waiting inside the lobby or protecting it, and signaled Click to follow her in.

"It's itchy," whispered Click, hiding his head from the bystanders that waited in the lobby as he trod behind Minuette.

"Get over yourself," whispered Minuette, keeping her head faced forward and her mouth from moving as much as possible. They quickly navigated to the stairwell, the dreaded spiraling staircase that had cause many cramps and even more complaints.

The two ponies ascended almost silently, Click frequently stopping to adjust the dress and fix his mane now that it had a specific style to keep. As they climbed to the steps, another nonthreatening pony was coming in the opposite direction.

As she approached, Minuette silently gestured to Click to avoid speaking lest he wish to blow his cover. Putting on her best fake smile, Minuette gave the mare a nod as she passed by, the universal signal for acknowledgement with lack of sincerity.

"Oh my, that's a very pretty dress," said the mare, stopping mid-trot to take a look at Click's dress. Click stopped moving immediately, frozen by fear. He dared not talk. With a simple smile and a tilt of the head, he tried to think of ways to silently express gratitude.

"Oh but your mane," she said,"It's so short."

"Short manes are in this season," said Minuette.

The mare laughed. "Let this lovely lady speak for herself. Why'd you cut your mane so short, and did you dye it that hideous color?"

Hideous color? Click seethed with the fury of a thousand suns, his mane was the perfect compliment to his coat. The dress must have been distorting her perception of color. Minuette was essentially shunned from the conversation. His eyes flickering between Minuette and the mare, Click desperately sought a way out, but the stairwell was too tight a space to make any sort of excuse for escape and the last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself by pushing over this mare. Mustering up his best impression of Octavia, Click cleared his throat and prepared to throw away all his dignity. But just to make sure he achieved maximum dignity-losing status, he threw in a girlish giggle before he spoke for good measure.

"I think the short mane looks great on me, and the color just doesn't go well with this dress, I don't know what I was thinking."

"You should consider growing out your mane, I think it would look good."

"Oh, believe me, I've considered it, and I prefer the short mane."

"Hm, well to each their own I guess. Have a nice day." A wave and a smile later and the mare was out of sight.

When they were sure she was out of earshot, Minuette could barely keep in her giggling.

"What, what is it?" asked Click.

"Oh nothing, it's just that you make a very convincing girl," she said between muffled giggles. As she finished her sentence, she broke out into tearful laughter.

"I'll get you back someday." Click left Minuette lying on the steps, laughing so hard that should could barely breathe. Mumbling obscenities and insults under his breath, Click observed the passing doorways that lined the stairwell, meticulously counting and waiting to make sure that he didn't miss the floor that they had to be on.

"Here we are, floor twenty-three," declared Click. He looked behind him, Minuette still far behind as she recovered from her laughing fit.

As she approached Click and saw him in the dress once more she remitted and started to giggle again.

"You know, when we finish this you should consider going into modeling. I have plenty of other dresses you can wear to express you feminine side."

Click stared at the dress he was wearing and then back at her.

"I hate you so, so much."

"I know," she said, bouncing ahead through the door. Click rolled his eyes and followed her. It was too late to do anything about the dress at this point.

"Alright, let's get serious now," whispered Click, carefully eyeing every corner of the hallway, half-expecting somepony to pounce out of nowhere and attack them. It wouldn't be the first time.

Luckily, no such thing happened. The hallway was eerily quiet. Had they found out?

"Where do you think Clack and Doctor Turner are?" asked Minuette.

"If they followed the plan than they should be on their way to rendevous with Ditzy and Octavia pretty soon, which means they should be almost finished with preparing the extraction."

"And that means they are..."

"Down this hallway second room to the left, it should be an office. Hopefully everything is still going alright."

Without another word, the ponies made their way through the long hallway, their guard up the entire way. When they reached the crossroad at the end, Click stuck his head out just enough to look down the hall to make sure the area was clear.

It was, Ditzy and Octavia had done their job well. Minuette and Click turned the corner and quickly trotted down the hall, attempting to make their hoofsteps as light and soundless as possible.

When they reached the designated door, the stood on each side of it, staring at each other. Click mouthed directions to Minuette who nodded. They were to smash the door open on the count of three.

Click slowly mouthed "one", and then "two". He left a short paused in between two and three, his own nerves getting to him. But when he said it, both ponies turned inwards and rammed into the door. All that happened, however, was a loud creak and hurt sides.

Minuette, while rubbing her side to comfort it from the impact, used her magic to turn the doorknob and swing open the door. The element of surprise already gone, they rushed into the room without hesitation, yelling and screaming.

But it was empty. Flushed with anxiety Click made a quick mental list of all the places the other two could be.

There was no time to finish, however. From within a nearby closet a group of business ponies burst out, instantly galloping towards Minuette and Click. An instinctive shock flew from both of their brains into their legs and they were already out in the hallway. Click, tripping up from the dress, hapharzadly tugged and ripped the elegant dress off of his body, leaving it tattered on the floor next to the doorway. He thought he could hear Minuette whimper at the site. As he galloped down the hall, Click noticed two ponies trotting along. His heart stopped for a moment, was he trapped? Who where they? Click squinted to get a better look, and something visceral within his mind instantly recognized their backs.

Clack and Doctor Turner. Click tried to yell something at them but no coherent words came out. They didn't need words, however. The galloping and yelling was enough to cue them that something was wrong, and the angry business ponies clinched it. Glad to be reunited with his two friends, Click gave Clack a wry smile, a smile that was completely out of place but completely necessary. They were unsure of where they were going, but at this point anywhere else would be effective.

Mustering up the strength to force his vocal chords to function, Click turned towards Clack for a brief second.

"The files, tell me they have the files!"

Clack galloped for a couple more meters before stolidly responding.

"I don't know."

As they came to the end of the hallway, four sets of hooves pounding behind them in pursuit, they found windows waiting for them and another fork in the hallway. Click yelled for them to make a left turn, no pony left behind.

The turn rushed closer and closer, the window unveiling the scene down below at the front doors of the building.

"Now!" yelled Click. The ponies all shifted direction at once, turning to the right in order to throw off their pursuers. Click, digging his back hooves into the carpet struggled to make the turn while maintaining speed, utilizing wing power to propel him along.

Then he stopped. He smashed his front hooves into the ground, skidding him to a halt.

"No."

He stared out the window, his friends galloping away, their heads turning and their mouths yelling at him to keep going, but it was too late anyway.

Outside on the ground, Click watched as Ditzy and Octavia were being cuffed and led away by a group of police ponies. It was all over.

He didn't even feel the four ponies tackle him from behind and slam him to the ground. It was all over within a second, everything started to blur as sounds and sights were distorted. Memories were displaced. The police had captured Octavia and Ditzy and they were here. They knew.

The mission had failed.

Consciousness vanished, and Click laid on the floor, knowing that it was all over.

Author's Note:

You are reading the story in the correct order, it's out of order on purpose.

I will revert back to my normal self soon, no worries. Just trying out new things.

Comments

[Mane 6]

What in the world...
Liked and faved will read later.

[Jaypelt]

I swear i started laughing so hard at the marebucks thing.