//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: 500 Kilometres // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 4 When it came to the matters of state, there were none more important. As the King’s duly appointed representative in South Island, Albert Isaac, the first kangaroo ever to be appointed as the Governor General of South Island had no equal, while not officially Head of State himself, a title that belonged to King George of Welara, as his representative. Albert Isaac had supreme executive authority in the Commonwealth of South Island, and was the highest level of authority that anyone could go to, unless the King of Welara should step off a ship and onto the continent. Or, at least, in theory, in practice, the powers that Albert Isaac had were not ones that he would ordinarily use without consulting Robert Pace, the Prime Minister, and the rest of parliament. Really, the powers that Albert Isaac had were for emergencies. Tonight was going to be a long night, Welara was knees deep in the Said Canal Crisis, and the Misr were putting up a bigger fight that the wallish or cheval had thought possible. There were rumours that black market weapons dealers in the nederlands were passing munitions off to them by laundering them through the Capran Empire. Before Albert Isaac knew it, South Island was going to be getting itself involved. He took out the key to his office door, and was about to put it in the lock when he noticed that the door was already unlocked. Damn himself, he must have left it unlocked the last time he was here. Instead he pushed open the door and hopped into his office. There was someone in his office, leaning back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling, this someone was a pony. This pony was a unicorn. She turned to look at him, giving him a wide grin. ‘Hi there!’ ‘W... who are you!? How did you get in here!?’ Albert Isaac cried out in surprise. The unicorn mare’s grin got wider, and she casually pulled the goggles that she was wearing off her eyes and down around her neck, revealing a bright pair of ruby red eyes. ‘Oh relax would ya? Name’s Vinyl Scratch and you should really invest in a sturdier lock, but here’s the thing, You’re Excellency, while I’m sure the who and how are great questions to ask in your mind, I’ve got a better one for you. “What do I want?”’ Albert Isaac studied the unicorn for a moment, she didn’t stop grinning at him, and he sighed, and lowered his head. At least, he figured that whatever she was going to say was at least going to be interesting, if nothing else. ‘Fine, what do you want?’ Vinyl Scratch leaned forward. Resting her foreknees on the desk and resting her head on her hooves, she smiled at him. ‘I need a ship, a fast ship, a ship fast enough to say... run the blockade of the Said Canal?’ Albert Isaac frowned at the unicorn before him. The frown quickly turned into a scowl. ‘So, what? You think that you can just barge into my office in the middle of the night, and demand me to give you a ship?’ ‘Well, it worked for Princess Luna, didn’t it?’ Vinyl Scratch said, tapping her hooves together and giving him a grin. Albert Isaac was taken aback by that statement. ‘How... how do you know about that?!’ ‘Simple, Princess Luna happens to be one of my friends, and being my friend, is a good step into being her friend, and the Governor General of South Island being friends with one of the Princesses of Equestria... well, there aren’t many of those outside of Equestria’. ‘I see... I take it you have a ship in mind?’ Albert Isaac asked. ‘I do!’ Vinyl Scratch said. ‘HMSIS Dash’. Albert Isaac raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Dash, that sounded familiar. Then he remembered, those ponies from Equestria that had gone to Trotterdam had taken the HMSIS Dash. ‘You... you’re that mare that caused all that property damage? Aren’t you?’ he asked. Vinyl Scratch sighed. ‘How many times do I need to explain this? I put the fires out, and I paid for all the damages. Everypony just needs to let it go...’ Albert Isaac smirked. ‘All right, all right, you plan on running the Said Canal? Well I wish you good luck. The Dash’s is at Port Beagle, and I’ll let them know that you’re coming’. Vinyl Scratch nodded in thanks. ‘One more thing’, she added. ‘Yes?’ Albert Isaac asked. Vinyl Scratch grinned. ‘There’s a certain kangaroo I need on board...’ ... Twilight Sparkle practically kicked open the door to Heinrich’s workshop as she gathered all of her things together in her saddlebags, throwing them onto her flanks and then pulling her cloak back over herself. ‘Heinrich? What nations have not become parts of the Police Internationale?’ The Schäferhund thought to himself for a moment. He knew that there weren’t many. ‘Bundesrepublik Schäferhund’s membership is still pending, other than that; it’s going to be the Capran Empire... or the Peking Republic’. Twilight frowned. From what little she knew about them, neither seemed entirely pleasing. The Capran Empire was an empire in decline of a race of horned goats, the Caprans, and a number of other races. Civil strife was common in the Empire in this day and age. The Peking Republic on the other hoof was worse probably worse off. Inhabited by the Māo Xióng, bear like creatures that’s country had been fractured and mostly under the control of independent warlords. The ruling party of the Peking Republic, the Kuomintang, were in the process of fighting to regain control from the warlords. Though they had refused to buy weapons from them, and as such, Twilight and Heinrich had payed them little mind. ‘Well, it looks like we have no other options’, Twilight said. ‘To Bundesrepublik Schäferhund we go’. ‘Once we get there I have a friend who can smuggle us out of the country and into the Capran Empire, once there. The Police Internationale cannot come after us’, Heinrich said simply. Twilight gave Heinrich a small smile before putting her foreleg around his neck for a hug. ‘I knew there was a reason why I kept you around, now come on, grab as much ammunition as you can carry without drawing attention to yourself’. ‘You want me to bring the entire contents of my workshop?’ Heinrich asked. Twilight smirked. He was schäferhund all right. ‘A little less than that, if you’d please’. Heinrich nodded, and set out to gathering up as much equipment as was necessary. They only had a few hours to get as far away from here as they possibly could, and this Inspector, Pierre La Roche, would not be far behind them. … Pierre La Roche had always found it easier to keep eyes on his marks from the sky, he was cheval, after all, and the luxury of wings was one that was well afforded to him. Twilight Sparkle and Heinrich Büchsenmacher had acted exactly as predicted so far, they had fled back to their residence, and now they were rushing out the door and heading east. It was obvious where they were going, Bundesrepublik Schäferhund, and more particularly, to its capital, Königsberg. Pierre gently floated down to the roof a nearby building and opened up his new pack of fags. Taking one out of the packaging and lighting up. Sparkle and Büchsenmacher probably thought they were being clever. Flee the Nederlands to Budesrepublik Schäferhund, whose membership in La Police Internationale was still being finalised, where they would then be smuggled out of the country and on their way to either the Capran Empire or the Peking Republic where he was legally not allowed to follow them. Criminals thought they were smart with this plan, clearly, however, they were not because they all came up with the exact same one, and he had caught all of them on their way out, before they could get to where they could get into the Bundesrepublik, scoring their run in the proverbial game of cricket. Pierre La Roche, however, was counting on the fact that Twilight Sparkle would be a poor batsman, and he was quite the bowler. Yes. Indeed, it wouldn’t be long before he’d dismissed both of them, and they’d be dragged off to the Cheval Fourth Republic’s prison island of Sainte-Hélène and lopped in with the rest of those degenerates. Pierre took a long drag on his cigarette and looked out into the streets; he could still see Twilight Sparkle and Heinrich Büchsenmacher trotting away at a good pace. He figured that, like any good cricketer, he needed to be a good sport about it. After all, he knew he could catch them with no trouble at all, and that wasn’t any fun. No, he’d give them a few hours head start. Pierre La Roche smiled, they’d think themselves to be scoring their run, only to look back and discover how dead wrong they really were.