".. Of course that would make you one ugly son of a-"
A sharp crack rattled the concrete room. Penalt hunched over in pain as the two-by-four landed squarely onto his back as it planted splinters into his gray fur. The pair of upright ponies holding his front legs to his sides chuckled slightly as Penalt's muzzle scrunched at the smell of his own blood soaking itself into his auburn mane. The grizzled pony behind him grabbed another board of plywood from a crudely made pile in the corner. He ran his hoof over it as if to pet an erstwhile companion. He patted it on Penalt's lowered head as he made his way to the front of the kneeling prisoner.
"Look here, pal." The armored stallion lifted the gray pony's muzzle, the dried blood on his chin catching a sliver of light from the swinging light bulb above him." We've been doin' this for hours now. Just cough up the intel you found and we'll set you free." His golden chest piece refracted light into Penalt's charcoal eyes.
He coughed once; a modicum of misty blood escaped from his muzzle and settle onto the cement floor. "Come a little closer. "Penalt wheezed. "It's getting harder to breathe."
The royal guard raised an eyebrow but succumbed to the prisoners request.
"I-I hid the stolen papers somewhere safe." The gray stallion coughed once more. "They're... Th-they're in.."
The ivory guard leaned closer towards the kneeling hostage. "Yes? You hid them where?" The white pony's ear was just inches away from Penalt's shivering muzzle.
The captured spy whispered in the smallest of voices. "They're rammed deep in your flankhole."
The enraged royal guard brought the heavy plank of wood smashing into the kneeling spy's chortling head. The two-by-four shattered into two. An intact piece somersaulted into the air and landed in front of Penalt's bleeding skull with a rattling clang.
"I'll kill you! I swear to Celestia you're not coming out of this room alive! You hear me!?" Fumes escaped the ivory stallion's flaring nostrils.
The pair of royal guards holding the spy down laughed slightly. "Take it easy, Frank." the guard holding the imprisoned stallion's right foreleg said, " Don't let get too personal. It's just his job to resist."
"George, just keep your mouth shut okay!?" Frank retorted, "It's been a long and stressful work week because of that new chief and I just want to get home so I can sleep.”
"Hey, me too dude. I had to fly over to Cloudsdale to pick up the Princess's favorite brand of cloud cake. I have no clue why she wants that specific brand. It tastes all the same to me."
"Really, George? Really!? You're complaining because you had to pick up cake!? Sometimes I doubt whether or not you cheated your way through the royal guard academy."
"You know what, frank? I've been sick and tired of you pushing me around! Sure, you're a higher rank than me, but that doesn't give you the right to be such a hotshot!"
"Oh, so you're all 'goody-two-hooves' now are 'ya George? Well you aint' such a white horse yourself!"
"I am a white horse, 'ya numbskull! We're all white horses!"
"Whatever Frank. And this rank is very stressful, I'll have you know. I have to put up with organizing this here sector all by myself. It may look easy, but it's hard callin' the shots up here."
"Oh it is, is it? It must be so hard to figure out which donut shop to go to: 'Donut Joe's' or 'Starbolt's Glazy Emporium'."
"That's the last straw George! I've had enough of your bucking co--wait a minute, where'd he get that piece of wood?"
Penalt grunted as he jerked his head to the left in order to hurdle the broken plywood held in his bloodied mouth towards the bewildered guard. The splintered end of the makeshift projectile dug itself into the shocked stallion's neck, successfully knocking him to the floor as he flailed his legs in vain. His left foreleg now free, the veteran spy brought it flying into Frank's lower jaw. Unfortunately for the grizzled captain, the golden helmets issued to the royal guards sported no lower armor; the resulting force of the impact travelled mercilessly through his rattling skull into his headpiece, launching it towards the shallow ceiling above. The captain staggered back, stunned, as the unscathed pony to Penalt's right attempted to unsheathe his wing blades.
Thinking fast, the prisoner brought his grasped arm towards his chest as he shifted his weight to the left. His left cheek now on the icy floor, Penalt bucked the now unbalanced guard's leg. A loud cracking noise accompanied by a withered yelp panged across the concrete walls as the royal guard plummeted head-first towards the floor. Quickly standing up, the gray stallion grabbed the guard's hoof that still held Penalt's own in a deathly grasp. Penalt swiftly side-stepped and brought a heavy hind leg down onto the royal guard's quivering foreleg. The joint of the young stallion's leg smashed itself on the cement floor along with the captain's helmet, which now rolled towards Penalt's leg.
Frank finally recuperated from the explosive haymaker. Much to his dismay, his stabilized senses were welcomed by the choking gurgles of his comrade lying face-up in a pool of his own blood. The captain took notice of an upright shadow in the center of the room, it's back facing towards him. Before he could pull out his wingblades, the figure swiftly lunged towards the bleeding guard's gushing body. Penalt quickly removed the piece of wood lodged inside the stallion's throat with one movement and hurled it towards the unprepared captain with a flick of his hoof. This time, the wooden projectile dug itself deep into the captain's muzzle. His dying screams afterward were muffled.
Penalt spared no time as he opened the only exit outside of the interrogation room. He was greeted by a royal guard's wingblade closing distance on the spy's gray throat. The escapee ducked just in time; the blade sliced a few loose hairs off of his bleeding head. Penalt rammed against the royal guard, knocking the wind out of him. Out of precious breath, the ivory stallion could barely put up a fight as the prisoner grabbed the wingblade from the guard's extended wing and dug it into the wheezing guard. There was a snapping sound as the guard's body fell limp, the wingblade still lodged deep in his broken spine.
Looking around the room, Penalt quickly found his leather satchel on top of a nearby wooden table. The contents of the tattered bag were scattered across the entirety of the table's surface. The spy swiftly collected the neat, official documents and slightly crumpled palimpsests and stored them expertly into the satchel. He slung the bag over his shoulder as he made his way through the labyrinthine corridors of Canterlot's underground interrogation chambers.
---
Penalt was hopelessly lost. He was unconscious when he was brought into the chamber, forcing the escapee to assemble an exit route with what little information he had. Luckily for him, his team was close by.
"Penalt? Penalt can you hear me?" a feminine voice ricocheted across the inside of the stallion's skull. "where are you?"
"I hear you loud and clear, Matrix."Penalt addressed his comrade with his mind's voice. "I'm making my way out of the chambers. Can you show me the way out?"
"You were captured? No wonder your leyline went cold after you broke into Celestia's study." Haze Matrix said, her tone casual.
"Apparently Celestia has a projection spell lacing possibly more than one object in that room," the spy informed his colleague as he snuck passed a patrol of royal guards. "We need to get Cypher on that when we reach headquarters. Anyways, find me a route out of this place."
"Copy. Relaying exit route now." the mare said. A mild surge of energy filled Penalt's eyes. A splash of mint-green color washed over his vision before arranging itself into a thin line. The line quickly extended itself and banked down a corridor nearby.
"Line is intact. En route." The stallion began to follow the pulsing stream of light through the narrow corridors.
"Penalt, you best get your flank out of there." Matrix's urgent voice stabbed at his mind's eardrums. "I can feel them attempting to tap into your leyline. I'll keep them at bay for as long as I can."
The sound of his metal horseshoes panged against the damp, cold walls of the underground complex. He raced across the sharp corners with a rhythmic gallop. He could see an orange bloom of flickering light up ahead.
"Penalt! I'm sensing a patrol just around the corner in front of you!" the mare are hastily informed her comrade. "They heard your hoofsteps. make a break for it now!"
Unfortunately, it was too late. Four guards rounded the corner twenty feet away and began to charge towards the exfiltrating spy, their wingblades glinting off of the luminance behind them.
There was no place to hide. Nowhere to go but straight ahead. He dug a hoof into his satchel's concealed pocket and removed a device from within. He hastily clicked a button at the top of the circular item, triggering a triad of needles to appear from the opposite face. He jammed the object into his right hoof's side, cringing as he did so. A pulsing sensation travelled up his foreleg as the device began to unfold itself.
The guards were closing in fast. Penalt could hear their panting breaths as they bolted towards him. The object formed a modicum-sized tube which hugged itself tightly onto his hoof . Now fully equipped, the gray stallion pointed the object towards the assailing patrol of guards.
Penalt muttered under his breath. "Cypher, don't fail me now." The stallion contracted his hoof muscle, triggering the device to fire deadly bolts of pure energy towards the singular wall of flesh. The flurry of projectiles pelted the closest guard head-on; the smell of singed fur from his bleeding carcass enveloped the corridor. The second guard attempted to stop in his tracks, but he too was hit with a wave of pulsing needles. The remaining two stragglers used their downed comrade as an equine shield as they attempted to gallop away. Penalt galloped after them, stopping his volley in order to sprint on all-fours.
The combined weight of the carcass and their armor made the spy's job of catching up easy. Penalt kicked the bleeding corpse forward, successfully throwing off the guard's balance. The guard's skull was immediately sandwiched between the moist floor and a muscular hoof, sending minute cracks on a sojourn across the ivory bone.
Losing no momentum, the gray stallion quickly dispatched the final fleeing guard with a clean shot to the stem of the spine; the artificial aperture made in the golden helmet gave a clear view to the seared anatomy of the deceased guard's mouth.
"Penalt! I felt a surge in your heart rate. Are you all right?" Matrix's voice was much more casual than the gray stallion expected.
Penalt leaped over the limp bodies towards the lit torch. "Yes I'm alright, thank you," he said. The spy finally reached the plume of flame at the end of the hall. A staircase ascended towards a sunflower cone of light. Sighing, Penalt continued his escape. "I used Cypher's new invention. It's pretty handy, but it hurts like hell to apply it," he informed his comrade, panting between words.
"I thought so," Matrix replied. "Your energy levels went down for a sec there. I got worried."
Penalt smiled. "There's no need to worry about this old stallion. I've seen more action than you, kid." Nearing the blooming light, the aged spy felt no intense heat. Instead, the artificial light coming from the ceiling lamp just ahead hinted at a heavy wooden door behind it. With determined effort, Penalt opened the door, revealing a courtyard of ivory.
The open terrace was transformed into a makeshift charnel for royal militia. Glazed, blank eyes complimented the fetid smell of iron and shot. Imbedded deep into their singed fur were translucent pikes. The seemingly hollow tubes bore a faint ruby sheen which reflected from the coagulated blood within their lifeless hosts. There was not a single drop of red on the tiled floor, save for one thin stream carving its way through the coarse fur towards the granite from its milky spring.
"Penalt they're inside the leyline. Ge--" The voice emerged from his skull then receded back to its source.
A patrol of burly guards approached the veteran spy from the faunal archway encompassing the killing field. These men significantly outweighed their standard kin in muscle mass. It took Penalt a second glance to see their threadbare wings behind the abnormally fit guards' protuberant necks.
Penalt slid towards the nearest carcass as he readied the pulsating device in his right hoof. The masses of muscle moved with sudden speed towards him, completely ignoring their dead colleagues as their corpses were flung aside like snow. Potshots of pure energy did virtually nothing to their tensed chests. Gentle lines of smoke ascended from a guardsman's scorched fur as Penalt's own stood on end. Almost upon him now, a super-stallion lunged through the relentless stream of concentrated energy, successfully landing a crippling blow to the spy's outstretched hoof.
A sharp snap reached Penalt's ears, assuring him that his reluctant assumption was correct. The tiny eyes of the muscular guard burned with vehement determination down at his wincing prey under him as it held its broken foreleg close to its heavily beating chest.
Suddenly, the royal behemoth fell limp after lifting his weighty hoof into the twilight air. Gravity brought the guard down squarely onto penalt's shattered leg, causing him to yelp as another cluster of cracks, crackles, and heavy pops panged against his eardrums. Fighting through the sharp pain taking over his crumbled foreleg, the veteran spy barely spotted the milky projectile which burrowed its way deep into the deceased guard's veiny neck.
The other two guards dropped to the floor before a pegasus flew by at blistering speed. He touched down beside Penalt's contorting face. The stark helmet masking the pegasus' countenance flickered before he assisted the gray stallion in lifting the heavy carcass.
Through wheezing breaths, Penalt spoke. "Why didn't you come in earlier, Cypher?" A heavy cough. "I know you saw me as soon as I walked out of that hellhole over there." he grumbled, jerking his head towards the ajar wooden door.
"Haven't you heard of dramatic entrances, old-timer?" Cypher quipped as he attempted to shove the carcass to the side.
"Haven't you heard of saving your teammates before thinking about what looks good on the play-by-play?"
The hotshot pegasus scoffed. "You're welcome, Boots." With a huff of breath, Cypher gave the body a heavy enough shove that it rolled cleanly off.
"And don't ever call me Boo-- hnck." The sudden change in pressure agitated the crippled foreleg; Penalt watched as the limb shifted about like gelatin. "Oh boy, oh boy."
Cypher cringed at the sight. "Hold on, lemme fix that for ya'." The pegasus removed a cylindrical cap from a compartment in his suit. Penalt laid his head back down and closed his eyes as a triad of stump needles appeared at the base of Cypher's invention.
"It better be a conventional cast 'yer procuring there, boy." Penalt grumbled as his eyes sifted under his eyelids. "I don't want an--hrrk!"
Cypher jammed the device at the base of the broken limb. The transformation took place almost instantly as plates of ebony metal encased the mangled foreleg within seconds.
"What is it with you and stabbing devices, Cypher?!" The gray spy exploded.
"It's science stuff, you wouldn't understand." the hotshot winked at Penalt as he helped him up. Upon reaching his feet, a voice came through the recesses of his thinking mind.
"Guys move your flanks out there now! The entire region's military force is converging on the Canterlot castle!" Matrix assaulted her colleagues' thoughts.
"How long do we have until they're here?" Penalt inquired.
"A-proxy six minutes." the unicorn replied sternly.
"horsefeathers." Cypher swore under his breath. "Where are you channeling the evac point?"
"sending route now." Matrix replied.
A familiar surge of energy filled both of the stallions' visions. They sprinted their way through the garden, following the mint-green trail like a Celtic faerie. They quickly arrived at the Northeastern wall of the castle. The purple sky was littered with ivory pegasi, their golden armor hazily catching the lunar light.
"Matrix, your light's going straight through a wall!" Penalt informed the mare with mild annoyance.
"You have to jump over the wall," Matrix called back. "the evac point will be directly under you."
"I can't fly, remembe--" The veteran spy was reduced to a gray blur as Cypher grabbed his waist and took a speedy vertical climb over the wall. Guards sporting spears and wingblades fell towards the pair like bullets. The hotshot weaved through the living waterfall, barreling and firing spectral darts at the assailing force. A pegasus was able to pass through the volley of translucent projectiles and bulleted towards the escapees, his spear raised forward with menacing precision. With a grunt, Cypher lurched himself to the right, allowing the ensiform tip to fly passed him; the blade grazed Penalt's ear as he ducked in the nick of time. With his free hoof, the gray stallion lifted it towards the guard's speeding face. Once again, gravity did the rest.
The flow of descending guards was unbearable now. From high altitudes, Celestia's personal army fell with their endless barking of orders to halt. Barely dodging a pair of armed guards, Cypher's face lit with excitement. He calculated that they were about twenty feet away from the stone wall's top...
"Penalt! Do you trust me?" Cypher yelled against the wind barreling through him.
The pony in question's eyes widened. "Don't you da--" Ten feet away from the wall's end, the suited pegasus hurled his colleague well over the bulwark as he shouted obscenities at everyone within earshot. Cypher pounded on a series of buttons on his wrist while barely escaping a wingblade-induced death.
Slowly losing speed, Penalt witnessed a familiar device emerge from the metal cast. The energy launcher filled the tossed spy with a pulsating sensation which travelled along his foreleg. With the grace of a flying pig, Penalt shot struggled volleys of energy all around him with some success. Now distracted by the flying pony regurgitating pure bolts of energy from his leg every-which-way, the descending force did not see the suited stallion eject Hell from his own arsenal. Several thin missiles launched themselves from Cypher's armored back towards the surprised army. The hotshot sped straight towards the now-falling Penalt as once-live balls of fire pelted the royal grounds. Cypher once again grasped onto the veteran spy's stubborn waist and immediately barrel-rolled towards the ground. Cypher could see Matrix casually leaning onto the base of outer wall, a bored expression washed over her eyes.
"Matrix I'm in po--" Cypher's signal was cut-off by a very enraged colleague.
"Cypher I hope you fly into an electrical storm and have your filly-sack fried!" Penalt's nostrils flared and his eyes burned brighter than the falling bodies around him.
Cypher rattled his head and spoke in a more jovial tone. "I'm in position now. Be a dear please and open the evac point."
Matrix stood at attention and swapped her leisurely stance with a more grounded one. "Roger. Opening evac point now."
The faint glow of her mint-green horn was minutely reflected off the eyes of the speeding royal guards just above the descending pair. Matrix's leylines were now blatantly visible as they formed the frame of the portal. Cypher let go of Penalt and allowed him to free-fall as he turned onto his back and sent a volley of milky bolts towards the assailing guards.
"Guys, you're coming in too hot." A mare's voice strained itself within the falling pars' minds. "I don't think I can make the portal in time."
"I want my body to beintact at my funeral, Matrix!" Penalt raised his voice. "just concentrate. Cut off your leyline from us if you have to!"
"I don't want to be a pancake either! Oh wait, I can fly." Cypher laughed as he delivered a haymaker to a guard that flew in too close.
With a grunt, the portal came into being; lines of energy emerged from the artificial maw linked to their headquarters. "I'll see you on the other side!" the mare said as he jumped into the ethereal aperture. With a final effort, Penalt rolled onto his side and extended a bent hoof towards the royal guards. A look of confusion contorted a royal guard's face.
"You don't know it, but I'm flicking you off!" The veteran spy spat at the royal army with hot venom as he was consumed by the portal. Cypher scoffed as he followed suit. Before the first guard could enter the magical hole in the earth, the hole disappeared. It took one week to rid the northeastern wing of its smell of blood.