Chapter 1:
“Just a few more adjustments…and…there!”
The whirring lights of the strange, small, cylindrical device were rewarded with the click of the lock opening. The device’s owner pocketed the odd contraption, which he called a ‘sonic screwdriver,’ in his saddlebags and proceeded to leaf through the numerous files the golden lock had previously hidden from him. There were several, all stamped with the official CLASSIFIED seal of the Royal Secret Police, Celestia’s personal brigade of justice in the shadows…or so she believed.
Doctor Whooves, as he called himself, knew otherwise.
Speaking of which…
“Halt! In the name of Celestia, you are under arrest!” shouted a burly voice as its owner, a golden armored officer of said Secret Police, kicked in through the doors of the Canterlot Royal Archives, charging in with a brigade of other Secret Police officers behind him. Most were unicorns, brandishing floating metal spears, all pointed at the Doctor.
"Right on time," said the light brown stallion, smiling to himself.
The Secret Police rushed towards Doctor Whooves, whose smile only elongated into a sinister grin. At the last moment, right as the lead unicorn was about to impale the Doctor on his spear, the Doctor’s hourglass cutie mark glowed and the earth pony launched himself into the air, achieving more lift than even a pegasus shot out of a cannon could hope for.
“That’s impossible,” the head Secret Police officer breathed in terrified awe as the brown earth pony shot skyward.
“You don’t know the half of it!” shouted Doctor Whooves down to him.
Smashing through the roof of the enormous library housing Equestria’s largest accumulation of knowledge, including that which the government sought to hide from the public, the Doctor arced over the street below and landed expertly on the building next door. Carrying forward with the momentum of his jump, the Doctor raced along the rooftop at a gallop. Looking over his shoulder, the Doctor allowed himself a laugh.
“That’ll sure be something to explain to the Princess.”
“Indeed it would be…if the Princess were really in charge,” said a voice in a complete monotone, causing Doctor Whooves to screech to a stop as he faced forward again abruptly to come face-to-face with a tall dark stallion in an even darker suit, wearing, what else, dark sunglasses…at night. No wonder the Doctor hadn’t noticed him immediately, he blended in seamlessly with the shadows… and he hadn’t been there to notice until just a split moment ago. Three other stallions, all identical to the first, stepped out of the shadows to join their leader. “But you and I know differently, don’t we, Doctor Whooves?”
The Doctor didn’t wait to respond. He turned, and did the thing he was best at—
The Doctor ran.
“You know what to do,” said the dark suited pony to his compatriots. “Exterminate.”
"How could they have found me so quickly?!" The Doctor thought desperately to himself. "No matter, the Exit’s nearby—wait a minute, the Exit’s in the direction I’m running away from!"
And it was. Just a block over, a small blue telephone box waited patiently for the Doctor’s return, which, if the Agents had their way, would never happen.
"Got to double-back and get to the Exit before they figure out where it is and destroy it!"
“Hello,” said a whoosh of air that revealed itself to be one of the dark suited ponies.
“Goodbye,” said another, speeding up behind Doctor Whooves and spinning around to deliver a swift buck to his prey. The Doctor knew from experience that should that buck hit him, the game was as good as over—he’d seen Agents kick through brick walls before.
The Doctor leapt into the air again, causing the Agent to kick his own compatriot and send him flying backwards through the air. Landing on the back of the Agent who had delivered the kick, Doctor Whooves delivered a swift blow to the back of the Agent’s head to send him flying into the first.
Two down, two to go.
The Doctor raced along the rooftop, looking for any sign of the dark suited stallions, who could literally jump out of any stray shadow. Any shadow…Come to think of it—
“Blast!” Doctor Whooves shouted as he whipped out his sonic screwdriver and shined its light into his own moon-cast shadow, causing the half-emerged Agent behind him to disappear as the shadow ceased to exist.
Only one left…Almost there…
“Doctor Whooves.”
The Doctor tried to skirt to the side and avoid the Agent as it rose steadily out of the shadowy rooftop in front of him, but the suited stallion merely shot out a hoof and sent the Doctor flying over the side of the building, blood from the point of contact on the earth pony’s face stinging his eyes. Doctor Whooves barely had time to brace himself before smashing into the deserted nighttime street below, an impact that would’ve killed most ponies.
"This is bad…this is bad, bad, bad…" the Doctor thought.
The Exit was less than half a block away, and yet an Agent landed beside him, directly in front of where he needed to go. The others had probably had time to recover by now as well, bringing back his list of adversaries to four. At least they couldn’t call up any more than that without risking their own safety. The concentrated magic of too many Agents in one area made things…unstable.
Which was exactly how Doctor Whooves’ organs were likely to feel in about five seconds—the Agent had already raised his hoof to strike.
“Not so fast,” called a new voice from behind the Agent, who turned just in time to dodge an incoming razor-blade disc. As he was distracted, the Doctor reared up with his own hind legs and bucked the agent into the air before running as fast as he could towards the new voice, revealed to be a white unicorn mare with an electric blue mane and tail, two more razor-records floating telekinetically beside her, braced for more action.
“Thanks DJ, I owe you one!” Doctor Whooves said as he raced into the waiting blue box behind DJ P0N3, who hastily backed into the Exit as well.
“We thought you might need back-up when your heart rate accelerated, so I got sent in,” DJ responded. “Looks like it’s a good thing I did!”
The inside of the Exit was bigger than the outside, and was filled with all kinds of gadgets and doodads that the team might need to accomplish a mission. Right now, however, the Doctor and DJ were more interested in the phone ringing on the main control panel.
The Doctor scooped it up, and yelled “Operator, get us out of here!”
The familiar whirring sound of Doctor Whoove’s gadgetry announced the blue box’s erasure from this lie that so many poor ponies were fooled into thinking was reality. As it faded, the two ponies inside the Exit breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they were safe…for the moment.
“Did you complete the mission?” DJ P0N3 inquired once the Doctor had caught his breath.
“I did,” Doctor Whooves smiled. “We now know the name and location of the pony most likely to be ‘the one:’ Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville.”
. . .