//------------------------------// // Chapter 19 : A Fight With a Twist // Story: Friends With a Spy // by cakestealer //------------------------------// They ran out the door and kept running down the hallway. Derpy, followed by Vinyl and Octavia bolted up a spiral staircase. They kept running past doors and Derpy stopped them and held her hoof to her mouth. She slowly opened a door and sure enough there was a masked stallion there with a sniper rifle hidden from the view of the soon to be onlookers downstairs. She darted in but he turned around and threw a fist at her revealing a brass horseshoe. Derpy ducked just in time and slid behind him. Octavia ran in and tried to throw a punch at his head but he ducked down and pushed her over. Vinyl followed close behind and got a good blow on his stomach. The stallion reeled over and Derpy tripped him making him fall to the ground. She pulled off his mask and Octavia gasped. “Brick!” “You know this guy, Octavia?” Vinyl asked. “Yes, he’s in my orchestra and performed with us tonight.” “Oh yeah he does look familiar now that you mention it.” Derpy spoke up and asked, “Why were you trying to assassinate Princess Luna?” “Why would I tell you?” Vinyl said, “Because if you don’t then you’re going to be bruised, very badly bruised.” “Fine, fine I’ll tell just don’t kill me. I was hired by some company.” “The name?” Vinyl asked ready to stomp on his head. “Don’t step on me! You’re crazy. The company that hired me was called Project R.G.R. That’s all I know I promise.” “You sure?” “Yeah, that’s all I know. Some masked guy who said he was from project R.G.R. approached me with a lot of money and said when and where to get it done. Can I go now?” “Not quite.” Derpy said before pulling out a hairband and removing a blowgun from her mane and shooting him. “What was that? Do you always have a blowgun hidden in your mane?” Octavia asked. “No, usually I have it in my mailbag but today I put my hair like this for the Gala and decided to put it there just in case.” “Wow you come prepared.” Vinyl said. “Thanks Vinyl. But now we have to figure out how to get this guy to the gardens.” “We can’t do that! There’s guards everywhere downstairs.” Octavia reasoned. “If there’s a will there’s a way.” Derpy replied. Octavia and Derpy carried Brick while Vinyl held the sniper rifle. They walked down the spiral staircase and then went out a door to the left. Derpy slowly peeked around the corner to her right and saw two guards. She signaled Vinyl and Octavia to follow her left. They slowly crept closer and closer to the garden avoiding all the guards. Once they reached the garden they luckily saw no guards were back there. Instead they found Cherry Charm and another agent. “Hi Cherry, we got the guy before he took out Princess Luna.” Derpy said. “Good job, if it wasn’t for you… well that would be bad. Did you get a name?” Cherry asked. “His name’s Brick Strings. He’s in my orchestra.” Octavia told them. “Is he really? That’s surprising. Anyway we’ll take him and the gun from here. It was really lucky you guys were there.” With that they left Brick and the sniper rifle with Cherry and the other agent. They reentered the Gala to the guards surprise, as the guards didn’t remember them leaving. Back in the ballroom everything seemed the same as when they left. Octavia asked, “Why is it surprising that I knew Brick? Cherry said that like it was really weird.” “Well, most of the time our agents don’t know the people they are pitted against.” Derpy replied. “Why not?” “It’s just not common. Most agencies that we’re against try and hide their employees identities.” The rest of the Gala was all just talking and having fun. At the end of the Gala Celestia and Luna gave a speech and then just as everypony was walking down the stairs to the castle fireworks went off. Vinyl, Octavia, and Derpy sat down and watched the fireworks as other ponies just walked by. Finally, at the very end of the show multiple fireworks went off at once, spelling out, “See you next year!”