//------------------------------// // The Useless Week // Story: The Secret Agent // by SecretAgentPlotTwist //------------------------------// Sundays. As far as missions go, they are normally one of the most productive days. A day when your target will most likely be relaxing or, in a large number of cases, will head out for some exercise. Drops could happily remember all the successful Sunday missions where she ‘just happened’ to bump into her target while they were jogging. This is the kind of thing she should be doing right now, as she was fairly certain both Sunset and Rainbow do go for said jogs. But instead, despite the overwhelming number of reasons not to be, she was in Derpy’s room. To be fair, Derpy had said that she should come over some time. Though sneaking in through the window while she was in the shower probably wasn’t what she had in mind. Neither was Drops carefully looking through all her things what she wanted her to do while there. But, alas, she was already too far in to give up now. Well, she wasn’t, but she figured if she kept saying that in her head she’d eventually believe it. That train of thought wasn’t helped along by the fact she could leave then and still probably meet Sunset while she was out. She—again, rather foolishly—suppressed those thoughts of the mission and concentrated on looking for what she had come for. It wasn't as easy to find as she’d have liked, but after a good while of searching, clinging to the windowsill when Derpy came back into her room, and another round of searching while she was eating breakfast—a muffin—she had found it, lying deep within a pile of old primary school books. The object, of course, was a picture of Derpy’s tenth birthday party. It showed a little Derpy with the biggest smile Drops had ever seen on her, surrounded by equally happy kids all around her. Drops grinned, seeing not only so many people at her party, but a smaller group of familiar looking kids standing very close to her, some of them even hugging her. It was these kids, who Drops felt safe in assuming were Derpy’s old best friends, who were now going to be her new targets. This was going to be an incredibly pointless week. Still, if she could get this all done quickly, it should be alright. And it would seem as though luck had finally decided to help out, as a little bit of scouting later, her first target was given to her on a silver plate—thanks to an old friend, that is. Knock-knock “Do I really have to do this?” Her ‘old friend’ asked. “Yes. Now shut up until I give you your cue.” “Yes ma’am.” The front door was opened by the curly blue haired boy from school and, more importantly, from the picture. He was greeted by Drops’ smile and the worried expression of the boy whose face Drops had previously acquainted with his football. “Hello,” Drops said before he could react, “I know you probably didn’t want to see this one again today. But he’s done a lot of thinking, and there’s something he wants to tell you.” Drops tapped him on the back, causing the already wobbly boy to jump. “I-I’m sorry I used such homophobic language towards you while you were out in the park. It was uncalled for and wrong. I can assure you that it was based on my own issues stemming from a disconnect I have with my own emotions and the fact I can too easily dehumanize people for being different, both problems I will work on. I promise it won’t happen again.” He looked at Drops, who gave him a nod, and he let out a long sigh of relief. “Alright, now get lost,” Drops snapped. He didn’t need to be told twice. As soon as the words left Drops’ mouth, he turned and started running down the street. “Try to keep out of trouble, and Derpy’s apology letter better be written by Thursday,” she called after him before turning back to Curly Winds. “I hope that kid gets his act together. He’s got a surprising amount of potential. Learnt that speech very quickly.” Curly winds, for his part, didn’t quite know how to respond to such an unusual act. “Erm... thanks,” was the best he could think of. “You’re Derpy’s friend aren’t you.” “That’s what I’m known for: hitting a teacher and being Derpy’s friend.” “Yeah, well I’m glad Derpy’s friends with someone who can stand up for her. She was always too forgiving of those assholes.” Drops raised an eyebrow. “Did you use to stand up for her in the past?” He gave an awkward chuckle. “I’d have liked to, but in all honesty I was probably worse than her.” His expression turned a little sad. “But that was all a long time ago now.” Drops smiled. “Well, if you still think you should start sticking up for her, I have an idea.” The next target was found through a strike of gold. Drops had formerly made notes on places to avoid at certain times. This list, after her display in PE, had all the locations and times of sports club practice times—a rather simple thing as it was all written down on the school billboard. While this info had originally been an over precaution, it proved extremely useful in locating the blond haired stand-in sports captain of the girls' football team: Cloud Kicker. It was during their Sunday practice at a park that Drops had ‘just happened’ to be walking through, one of Cloud Kickers team mates accidentally kicked too hard and too wide, causing the ball to fly off the pitch and ‘coincidentally’ land a couple of meters from Drops. It was an impressive trick to many, working out who was positioned to mess up and the angles of the mistake—back in training they practiced watching baseball games and having to catch a ball while casually walking to the toilet. Drops was alright, but every time she did it, her mind went back to the time she was practicing throwing knives at a bullseye and she accidentally threw it too wide. Her mentor, the aforementioned Fast Glider, was seemingly walking past and caught it in mid-air, without so much turning his head to see it, and threw it back, hitting the bullseye head on. She still had lots to learn. What she didn’t need to learn much more about, on the other hand, was how to handle a football. Upon the ball landing close to her, and the sports team calling after her to kick it back, she walked over to it and picked it up casually. Turning to see all of them, she noticed that some of them, including Cloud Kicker, were beginning to recognize her. Drops held the ball up by her shoulder, and with an almost cocky smirk, she dropped it behind her. Before any of them could react, she kicked up behind her, knocking the ball back into the air and in front of her. From there, she had enough time move into a firm stance and, when the ball was in position, kick forward with enough force to send the ball flying over their heads and straight into the goal. For the next couple of seconds, what was once a loud and energetic group of late teens playing sports now stood silently, staring at the ball and then back to Drops, who had casually continued walking down the path. As the path neared the group, who were all still stunned, she gave them all a little wave as she said, “good day to you ladies,” before promptly carrying on in her path. There was another moment of stunned silence, with a couple of people glancing over at their stand-in captain. Cloud Kicker, after looking back to the ball, which was just rolling quietly out of the goal, started to run after her. “Excuse me, wait.” A smirk appeared on Drops’ face before she replaced it with an innocent smile to display to Cloud Kicker. “You’re Bon-Bon, right?” “Yes, and you’re Cloud Kicker. We’re in the same sports class I believe.” “Yeah, that’s me.” She thought for a moment. “That kick was amazing.” Drops shrugged. “I’ve got strong legs. That was honestly just a lucky goal for me.” “That didn’t look like luck. Your technique was spot on.” She glanced back to her team, who had continued practicing. “Listen, we’ve got a match coming up and we’re down our best player. We could really use an ace up our sleeves like you.” Drops gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry, I’ve been told by many sources that I don’t work very well in groups.” This was actually true. “Anyway, I don’t really have the time at the moment. I’m sorting some stuff out for Derpy.” Cloud Kicker’s confident demeanor shrunk, looking off awkwardly. ”Oh, okay. I know you’re Derpy’s friend and, er… is she alright?” “Yeah, she’s doing good. I’m just working on a surprise for her.” She raised an eyebrow. “Were you friends with her?” Cloud kicker blushed slightly. “Yeah, I guess we were something like that.” She did an awkward cough. “But that’s not really the situation anymore. Things are more… sour.” Drops grinned. “You know, I think I may have come across some sweeteners.” Next on the list, Micro Chips, someone from Drops’ maths class, was fairly easy. Once she found out he left his bag in his locker during lunch and break time, it didn’t take much imagination to come up with a plan. “Oh damn and blast,” he muttered, picking up all his notebooks from the ground. Drops turned round the corner to see him and immediately got down on her knees as well. “Let me help you there.” “Ah, thanks, sorry.” He started picking up books a lot faster now that he had help. “I don’t really know what happened. I just swung my bag round like always and my books just went everywhere. Must have accidentally left my zip undone.” “Don’t worry about it,” Drops said, passing him the final notepad, “it happens to everyone.” “Yes, I guess, thank you.” He held his bag close to him. “Erm, you’re Derpy’s friend aren’t you. We’re in the same maths class. Not sure if you’ve noticed me as I’m nearer the front.” “No, I’ve noticed you, but speaking of Derpy—” Lunch time, a free hour for everyone to do anything they liked. Some people were very liberal with what they did, taking every day as it came. These people were annoying to recon. Others, Sweetie Drop’s favorite kind of people, did the exact same thing every lunchtime, to such an accuracy she would notice it without even having to follow them. Octavia Melody, a charcoal haired girl who was always dragging around a huge cello with her was one of the latter. Drops had noticed her before, partly from her seemingly being far more refined than most other people at the school, but mainly because of the aforementioned cello. Noticed her so much, in fact, that she knew she spent every lunch time in her favorite music room practicing her music. Drops could see why it was her favorite; it was spacious, nice acoustics, a lot of natural light, easy to hide a camera in, it had it all. It just happened to be that Monday lunch time that the girl was struggling with her music. It was Beethoven's sixth symphony, and no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t get this one bar right. Visibly frustrated, she repeated the former bar again. Moving into the pesky bar, she faltered at the same bit. She let out an angry groan at her ineptitude, but instead of bitterly trying again, she paused. An inquisitive frown appeared on her face, as she swore she heard the bar being completed. Going silent, she confirmed that she could faintly hear the symphony being carried on. She stood up slowly, following the noise to the door and out of the classroom. When Drops saw this, she turned off her phone’s display and continued with a smile. Octavia followed the noise to the music room opposite her. Opening the door, she was greeted with the sight of Sweetie Drops playing a violin with her eyes closed. She was elegantly moving her arms, giving off a calm atmosphere, as the sound of Beethoven's sixth symphony could be heard beautifully throughout the room even with its sub-par acoustics. With one final seamless movement, Drops finished playing, letting out a little breath before opening her eyes. When she did, and her eyes met Octavia, she did a little jump at the sight of her. “Oh, I didn’t see you there,” she said naturally. “Sorry, was I being too loud?” Octavia shook her head slowly. Her mouth was ajar slightly, giving Drops a look of awe, something that was getting awkwardly commonplace. “T-that was Beethoven's sixth symphony, you were playing it perfectly.” Drops waved off the compliment, giving her a bashful smile. “You’re too kind—my old teacher would certainly have disagreed. I just heard someone playing a good song and decided to join in.” “Yes, that was me.” She peered around the room. “You don’t have any music sheets. Do… do you know the sixth symphony off by heart?” Drops gave her a modest smile. “Not really. I had to google it on my phone as a reminder, and even then I only know some of it. I’m a bit rusty as well, haven’t played a violin in ages. This isn’t even mine.” She showed her the school logo on the violin. “It was the only instrument I play that they had.” Octavia, for her part, was becoming more visibly shocked by the second. “You play other instruments?” “Only guitar, trumpet, and piano. A piano they actually do have, but I couldn’t just push it all the way here.” Drops snapped her fingers. “Oh, I’m also practicing theremin.” “Oh…” Octavia fell silent, but Drops just continued to smile. “Erm, pardon my intrusion, but you’re Derpy’s friend, aren’t you?” Drops’ smile widened slightly. “Yes, and you’d be surprised how many people know me as that.” “Ah, well, good…” The girl began nervously rubbing her arm. “Is she doing well?” “She’s doing well. She has a naturally bubbly personality.” Octavia let out a sad little chuckle. “Did you used to be friends with her?” Drops asked. Another chuckle. “Emphasis on ‘used’. We haven’t talked in a very long time. I said some… well, frankly mean things to her. I don't think she wants to see me again.” Drops stepped forward with a comforting smile. “Now, I don’t know about that. Infact I’d say she’d be happy to—” The other targets weren’t nearly as easy. Luckily there was only two left, so Drops had the time to gather the information she needed on them. Sure, this meant having to not walk back with Derpy so she could follow two of them home, Raspberry Fluff and Blueberry Pie—no relation to Pinkie Pie—who were walking home together. It was during this walk home, Drops heard through the bug she had planted about a certain bar that Raspberry was going to that night. The details were very vague, but from what Drops gathered, there was only one bar in town that fitted that description. The lights were bright, the music loud, and as Raspberry strutted into her favorite club to the familiar theme of Saturday Night Fever, wearing her signature green jacket, she was ready to show off her moves. But, as she made it over to the dance floor, she noticed that there was a big crowd around it. She frowned, as it was the first time she was seemingly outside one of these crowds. Making her way towards it, her frown grew. Not to seem obnoxious, but she couldn’t think of anyone else who could get such a big crowd while dancing to 70’s music. Only a couple of meters away she was stopped by the sudden presence of tallish grey haired boy standing in her way. “Hey, Raspberry. Have you seen the new girl?” he said with a smile. “Huh, new girl? Is that what this crowd is ‘bout, Silver?” she asked, frown still plastered on her face. “Yeah, she just showed up and is like, crazy good,” Silver said, leading Raspberry round the crowd and into a position to view. Once they reached the gap in the crowd, Raspberry could clearly see the girl in question as she continued to perform to the audience she had gathered. The black flare trousers and purple shirt, all sparkling with some kind of glitter, were the first things she saw. Next was the girl’s big heart shaped glasses, something she was wearing inside this dimly lit disco. The third thing she noticed was the fact she knew the girl. That’s Bon-bon, she thought. The infamous girl who made all the sports girls question what they were doing with their lives. She groaned. ‘Had she now come to make me question what I’m doing with my life?’ “She’s pretty good,” Silver said with a grin. “We might now have someone to get the party going if you’re not here. It might be nice having someone to fall back on.” “Fall back on,” she repeated quietly. Giving Drops a closer look, she realised that while she was doing some nice moves, all good enough to gather a crowd, she was no pro. Her moves were all fairly simple, and while she seemed to have a knack for it, it had some rough edges. Raspberry let out a little sigh of relief, knowing that she was not gonna be replaced. She continued to look at Drops inquisitively. She was impressed by her, even if she wasn’t doing anything too exceptional. Drops’ moves were mostly fluid and worked with the beat, though she seemed more like an aerobics champion than a dancer at times. But she could feel her passion and could tell Drops was enjoying herself. She’s got potential, she thought to herself. If I were to give her some pointers she could really start to improve her technique. Maybe I could train her. Show her some of my more impressive moves. I could be like her sensei or— Without warning, Drops fell into a perfect splits, then rolled onto her arms and lifted her lower body into the air, all while keeping her splits perfect. She then pointed her legs up before pushing herself forward and up onto her feet to the loud applause of everyone watching her. “I don’t like her,” she said with a scowl. “Ooh, scared of a little competition are we?” “Shut up, let’s go get a drink.” “But we’re 17?” “I mean a drink of cola.” Raspberry stormed over to the bar and took a seat, being promptly followed by Silver who sat next to her. “Come on Raspberry.” Silver let on a sly grin. “There’s no need to have a panic at the—” “You make that joke and I leave right now,” Rasberry said with a scowl. “... Disco.” Raspberry gave him a blank expression and faced forward. “One Cola please,” she asked the barman. “I’ll have one cola please.” Both Raspberry and silver jumped at the sudden presence standing next to them. “Bon-bon,” Raspberry verbally gasped. Drops sat down in her seat. “Hey there stranger. Should I be worried that you know my name?” she said, feeling very suave after her dance performance. “You know her?” Silver asked with a confused face. Raspberry directed her full attention towards Drops. “Sorry, I’m Raspberry. We go to the same school.” “Ah, well then it’s nice to meet you formally,” she said with a smile. Raspberry stared at her for a couple seconds, before realising that was in fact quite rude. “Sorry, I just had no idea you were into seventies dancing.” Drops shrugged. “I’m not really. I just quite enjoy it and fancied it today. I’m more of a gymnast than a dancer.” “Oh, that explains it.” “Explains the rough edges?” she asked with a chuckle. Raspberry panicked. “No, sorry, I was just.” She stopped herself and let out a little sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m being rude. Please forgive my missteps.” “You’re never this apologetic with me,” Silver muttered. Drops smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not taking any of it to heart.” Raspberry nodded, but stayed silent. “So, I heard you’ve made friends with Derpy,” she said eventually. “Gave some bullies what they were asking for too.” “You heard right.” “Good.” Raspberry clenched her fist. “That girl’s aways needed someone who can stand up for her. She was far too nice at times, could never admit when a bit of head smacking was the answer.” Drops raised her eyebrow at the girl. “Were you that friend she needed?” “You’re damn right. Gave a few of those bullies what they had coming.” Her voice was getting fired up. “I tell you this one time at the park, when we were eight, three of these older kids came up and started picking on her. Beat the hell out of all three of them I did. “Kicked the boy in the privates—‘cause I knew that was their weakness— pulled the first girl’s hair till she cried and got into a slapping fest with the second girl, ‘cause that’s the eight year old version of a fist fight. Sure, they won in the end, and ma mum wasn’t happy, but it was still a moral victory.” The girl’s immense enthusiasm for the story suddenly faltered. She started looking down at her hands. “Things didn’t really stay that way,” she said slowly. “We drifted apart and… I’ve said some pretty horrible things to her. It made her really upset. So I’m really glad she has someone to stand-up against stupid bullies like me. Raspberry scrunched up her face, trying to hold back tears. “Hey, don’t cry,” Silver said, wrapping his arms to bring her into a hug. “Shut up you frickin’ dufus,” she muttered, but hugged back tightly. Drops stared at the sight for a moment. “You know, if you feel that bad about it, I have something that could help you make amends.” “Today we have a special treat for you all.” There was a collective moan from everyone in the karate class, including one from Blueberry. This was expected, Drops had been told beforehand that when the instructor said this, it was normally followed by something weird or tedious. “Settle down. You’ll enjoy this one. I Promise.” He motioned towards Drops, who was standing by the wall of the gymnasium and signaled her to come over to him. “Now, this is Bon-Bon. She just moved here and happens to not only be a karate black belt, medalist, and trained teacher despite being crazy young, she also wiped the floor with all the other teachers when we practiced sparring earlier.” Drops turned to face all the karate students now looking at her, noticing that Blueberry looked as though she definitely recognized her. She gave them all a bow, which they returned, and looked back to the main instructor. “She will be taking you through some moves that I will also be practicing in an attempt to save something from my five-nil sparring with her. Speaking of which, she’ll be sparring with all of you later so invest in extra padding.” He left the front of the room and joined the black belts on his left. Drops nodded at him before returning to the class. “Okay, I’ll start you out with something easy. This first one is a simple move designed to take out an unskilled opponent.” The lesson went on as any normal karate lesson would, only Drops always had part of her mind on not accidentally teaching them a judo or ninjutsu technique, but she was fairly certain she wouldn’t accidently teach them a gatka. She also kept part of her mind on her target, noting that she was picking everything up fairly well for a purple belt. She obviously had a lot of natural skill and enthusiasm, so she must have started Karate fairly recently to not have started making her way up the black, or even brown, belts. That all being said, Drops noticed that the look she was giving her wasn’t just the normal ‘oh, I recognize her from school’, but more as though she was trying to figure out what she was doing here. Whatever reason why, she’d soon find out, as it was time for sparring. The main instructor came back in charge, organising everyone into pairs, making jokes the whole while that Drops’d quickly get through everyone. Drops had originally waved off the compliments, but when she realised it was organised so she’d have to get through all the blacks and browns to even get to Blueberry, she ended up having to prove him right. Five minutes in, seven black belts down, he made a joke about how setting up each fight took more time than the fight themselves. Ten minutes in, all black belts down, he made a joke about them only having so many students. Fifteen minutes in, all the brown belts down, he had ran out of jokes. Now, finally against Blueberry with plenty of time to spare, she could relax. “Don’t worry, seeing how you’re a purple belt, I’ll go easy on you,” Drops said to her with a smile. She smirked. “Much obliged, but I think I’m gonna need a little more than that if I am to stand a chance.” Drops raised an eyebrow at the girl. “Fair enough. How’s this?” Drops put her hands behind her back and relaxed her stance. “Free hit.” Blueberry didn’t waste any time, taking full advantage of her opportunity, she rushed forwards to throw a punch at Drops’ chest. Just as Drops had expected. Drops jumped back slightly, moving out of the girl’s reach, readying her stance again to dash forward after she had definitely missed. With her right foot, she quickly moved it in between the girl’s legs and, with a firm sweep, she knocked her off balance. The girl stumbled, but Drops had purposefully done it light enough that she could quickly regain her composure. She readied herself into a lower stance and put her arms back up to block a second attack that Drops decided not to go for. “Your stance needs work,” Drops said. There was a flash of annoyance on the girl’s face. She tried for another punch at Drops’ side, but it was sloppy and Drops blocked it with ease, and then moved her hand to the top of the girl’s chest. A little nudge caused her to rock backwards, making her realise that a simple shove would knock her to the floor. “Your lower stance is even worse.” Drops stepped back, giving Blueberry a chance to get up properly. Drops did a little twizzle and put her arms behind her back again. “Another free hit?” The girl chuckled. “Are you toying with me?” “Maybe a little.” Despite her previous failed attempt, the girl smirked. She moved her arms and readied her stance, but made no aggressive movement. “How about you come for me,” she said, “I’m better at blocking, anyway.” Drops looked the girl up and down, unsure of what to make of her actions. Drops knew she had seen what happened to everyone before her when they went on the defensive: a quicker defeat. She, nevertheless, readied her stance, slowly moving closer to her. “I know who you are by the way,” Blueberry said with a grin. Drops lowered her stance slightly. “Do you now?” Her grin widened. “Yes, and I know your secret.” “My secret?” The girl rushed forward, using her left hand to knock Drops’ arms out of their defensive position and quickly moved her other arm to strike at her chest. Despite her arms no longer being in a position to block the strike, they were still close enough to the girl’s left arm that she was able to grab it, twist, and spin the girl around so that she completely missed her strike and was pulled off balance for good measure. The girl hit the ground with a thud. “Ouch, you couldn’t let me land just one hit, huh?” Drops smirked. “I would have loved to, but I didn’t want to hurt your teacher’s pride.” Drops held out her arm towards the girl who, with a smile, used it to pull herself up. “Thanks,” she said, “and thanks for not knocking me around too much.” “No problem.” Drops glanced at the clock on the wall, confirming it was the end of the lesson. “Alright, I think it’s time we stop,” She said to the instructor, followed by a sigh of relief from all the lower belts. The instructor nodded. “Alright, you heard the young but scary lady, get your stuff and leave before she comes after you.” Drops chuckled at the… compliment. She took it as a compliment anyway. Back in training she wasn’t exactly the top of her combat class. She had originally fit in very well in second set, faced against people closer to her skill level, she could normally put up the better fight. But once her teachers decided to move her up due to her “relentlessness”, and she found herself up against the most gifted and talented the agency had to offer, things became considerably worse for her. The first few weeks she couldn’t land a punch on anyone, quickly making her the out of place one in the class. She still didn’t understand why Fast Glider kept her in the class after what was three years of her walking back to the dorms with more bruises than anyone else combined. Though, as traumatic as it was, she still fondly remembered the first time she won a fight. It was up against one of the crazy acrobatic fighters that the higher-ups love. The kind that could jump at your chest and you’d find her legs wrapped around your neck, slamming you down to the floor before you could even blink. This specific girl didn’t like Drops much, as one take down was usually enough to give her a win, dealing with the fact that Drops almost always managed to pick herself up for another beating, extending the time of fighting. This with the fact she considered fighting Drops a waste of time anyway, she just found her an annoyance. She normally ended up just putting Drops in a choke hold until the teacher gave her the win. It was during one of these chokeholds, Drops on the floor, desperately trying to unwrap the girl’s legs from her neck, that she had an idea. Drops tensed her chest, moved her arms up so she was grabbing onto the girl’s torso, steadied her legs, and with the last of her strength pulled herself and the girl on top of her up and into standing position and then straight down in front of her, slamming both of them down to the floor. Drops instinctively managed to jump back up into a wobbly stance, with her left hand covering her now bloodied noise. Her vision was now blurry and she didn’t think she could stay conscious for much longer, but the fact remained: she was still standing, and her opponent certainly wasn’t. Despite spending the rest of the day at the medical office, it was still one of her proudest moments. “Hey, Bon-bon.” Drops snapped herself out of that memory and back to her current situation, turning back towards Blueberry. “You’re the infamous new girl, aren’t you. Raspberry told me she met you at her disco last night.” She folded her arms. “What exactly are you up to?” Drops raised an eyebrow at her. “Is it so hard to believe someone can do martial arts and dance?” “I also know you’ve been going round the school talking to a bunch of Derpy’s old friends.” Drops smirked. “And you think this is all slightly suspicious because you were also Derpy’s friend.” Blueberry gritted her teeth, her confidence wavering slightly. “Yes… I was a very good friend of hers, way back then. Listen, I don’t know what you’re planning, or how you found out I went here, but if it involves Derpy, I want in.” Drops smiled, placing her hand on the girl’s shoulder to calm her down. “It’s okay, had I known you and Raspberry were friends, I would have told her to include you yesterday. And while I can assure you that us meeting like this is a coincidence, I think it’s only fair to tell you what’s going on.” Raspberry let out a sigh of relief. “So,” Drops began, “What’s your opinion on surprise parties?”