Chapter 5
64 POV
The time to act was now, and I was heading higher up the mountain towards the very city had had just escaped from less than 10 hours ago. The Sun had set and the Moon had risen, showering the land in a white shimmering light.
I never had seen a sunset before, and I had to admit, not everything Celestia did was bad. When I sat outside of the cave watching the various shades of red and orange dance across the sky, I felt for the first time in my entire life, that I was as free as a bird. All I could do was stare at the show, nearly tearing up at the mesmerizing display.
Of course all good things must end, and the Sun set while the Moon rose. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Moon wasn’t beautiful either. The white shimmering lights which shone across the forest felt as if it was a safe, secure blanket covering the land in its light. Why no one loved the Late Princess Luna’s Night I can’t figure out.
The night was also beneficial to me, giving me cover as I shrouded myself in its darkness. I would need to be as least visible as possible to pull off this infiltration job. Vi had explained to me that The Academy was lightly guarded at night, to protect various children’s magical projects, and Student Profiles.
I sat on a tree branch at the very top of a tree which was grown on the very edge of Canterlot, right beside the train station. The Academy was fairly visible from the entire city, and looked like a miniature observatory with a few buildings beside it. The largest building in the design was the Auditorium, which many young colts and fillies took their Entrance Exams, or received lectures of magic theorems and law.
“Vi, let’s go over the simulation one more time.” I thought. Apparently Vi can communicate telepathically with me or something like that, and all I have to do is think something to say to her, and she can hear it.
“Ok, close your eyes” Vi said.
I did, and the same warm sensation of sleepiness washed over me. I opened them and found myself in the white room as Vi inside of the Peacemaker.
“Hi there.” She said with a grin. “You ready?”
“Made ready.” I said with a smirk.
She shook her head at my bad joke, then dematerialized before my eyes. Instead, there was a Royal Guard standing there,
back turned, and walking down a newly formed hallway of The Academy. Vi could make simulation of any building within Canterlot, based on the amount of information the boys down at the Underground Labs were pumping into her, and remake any situation she had encountered in the past.
I crouched low, watching as the Guard moved. I slowly walked up to him, brandishing a One-Handed Hammer with the Peacemaker. I slowly sneaked up behind him, being as stealthy as possible, but as I was about to swing the hammer, he turned, and a loud buzzing sound rang in my ears.
“No, no, no…” I heard Vi scold, “Don’t rear up with the weapon, it will only cause more time to be wasted during the swing.”
“But if I don’t rear up with the Peacemaker I can’t get an effective swing in!” I argued. “What am I supposed to do? Not use a weapon?”
“Actually, that’s a good idea!”
“What? I can take on a Royal Guard without a weapon! I probably can’t knock one out with one.”
“Then stealth will be your friend won’t it? I have a tactic which is perfect for someone of you skill set. Have you ever heard of a technique called a choke-out?”
------------------------- At Princess Celestia’s Academy For Gifted Unicorns-------------------------
3rd Person POV
64 was running through a back alley right behind the Academy in question. The front entrance would obviously be locked and the back entrances would probably be guarded or also locked. So the only option left would be to make his own entrance. On a second floor balcony, there was a closed window, and 64 planned to cut through it.
As 64 was finding a way to climb towards the balcony, Vi was trying to detect the amount of Royal Guards within the Main Auditorium, where Principal Redhoof’s office was. Vi thought there was a bit more activity than usual, but chalked that up to the recent events of 64’s escape.
“Hey Vi,” 64 thought, “Found a way up.”
64 saw a few vertical water pipes which went up right beside the target balcony. He grabbed onto one, and with a strong pull, he lifted himself off of the ground, using both hands for support while Peacemaker was in his mouth.
As he climbed, Vi was able to finally get an accurate reading.
“64, I detected about 25 Royal Guards within the entirety of the Academy, and 10 of those guards are within the Auditorium building.” Vi said, sounding a bit nervous.
“That many? I thought you said that there was an average maximum of 5 a night?” 64 said in shock.
“Apparently someone’s actions must have caused an increase in security.”
“Oh……..”
64 finished his climb up the pipes and hopped onto the Balcony. This was a dorm room most likely so he would need to use extreme caution when going in through here. The Balcony had a glass door covered by a curtain on the other end, so there was no way in knowing what was on the other side.
“Vi, I’m gonna need another lesson in lock-picking right now.” 64 stated.
“Right away.” Vi said, pulling up instructions in his vision like a HUD.
64 followed the instructions, a bit more complicated than the door to get out of the dungeon, but after a minute, the door was unlocked.
As 64 peeked inside of the dorm, he saw an empty bed, and a chest with some belongings on top of it. After a quick examination, the dorm was completely empty, and looked as if it hadn’t been slept in the past few days.
“Vi, I need you to pull up directions to Redhoof’s office, I’m gonna create another diversion.” 64 said before getting the bed sheets off of the bed, and using a small stone her had with him, lit a small fire on the balcony he just came through.
“Ok Vi, I’m gonna need a safe place to hide for about 30 seconds after I start the diversion, so broom closet, supply room anything.”
“Here’s one right here.” Vi pointed out, around an empty corner.
“Perfect”, 64 said as he kicked down the door to the hallway, and pulled the fire alarm. He ran towards the broom closet, and hid himself expertly while hearing the many hoofsteps go by as guards rushed to the area of suspicion.
“Is he here? Where is that bastard?”
“What else could have started this fire?! It’s burning up quick!
“The fucker is here? I’m getting my revenge! That fucker owes me an eye!”
64 stifled a small laugh as he heard that last comment, and continued to listen to the commotion.
Once enough Royal Guards had ran by, 64 made his way towards the Auditorium room, where Vi’s Locator was taking him. As he was making his way silently through the halls, he heard very soft hoofsteps. He peeked around the corner the sound was coming from, and saw a Royal Guard with his back turned. The circumstances were exactly the same as the simulation, and now was the time for 64 to put his new skill to the test.
Grabbing Peacemaker, 64 held it in both hands, horizontally as if grabbing a railing. He quietly sneaked forward, until within perfect distance of the Guard for his new ability. As quick as lightning, 64 reached over the Guards neck, using Peacemaker to hold the Guard in a choke. The guard silently flailed a bit, trying to grab whatever it was that was choking him from behind, before starting to slow down, and fell limp. 64 immediately went to feel for a pulse, which was still there.
“Man, that was really something Vi.” 64 panted as he continued through the halls.
“At least now you have the skill to incapacitate guards without killing them” Vi said, sort of sounding angry at 64 in that last part.
“Why do you say it like that? There’s no reason to kill them if I don’t need to.”
“I just don’t think we should allow Celestia’s Followers to continue breathing if this has been her plan from the start.”
“Most of her followers probably have no idea what she is planning so killing them is totally unnecessary. It sounds as if you have a personal vendetta against Celestia.”
“And you don’t? The only reason we are here is to take down Celestia! You are being a total hypocrite right now!”
“The difference is I could care less if she was dead or alive. I only want to save Twilight and stop her plan.”
Vi stayed quiet after that statement, but kept her Locator on, allowing 64 to successfully make it to the Auditorium room.
Behind the large desk which belonged to Principal Redhoof, there was a door marked, “Principal’s Office.”
64 simply followed the same lock-picking instructions as the Balcony door, and entered. The room was dark, so 64 turned on a dim table lamp, allowing him enough light to see. There was another table inside, but this one had many drawers and locks on it.
“Ok, here we are, now I just need to check all of these drawers, starting with the locked ones.” 64 thought out loud. 64 didn’t need to follow the lock-picking instructions with these locks, and simply used a thin dagger to break open all of the locks.
“C’mon, I need a file named Student Profiles… Finals Quiz, nope… Future Projects, nope… Weekly Agendas, nope… Student Profiles! Yes!”
64 opened the small manila folder, and proceeded to search.
“T…T…T…. Trixie Lulamoon? No. Twinkleshine? No. Twilight Sparkle…… Here we go.”
I grabbed Twilight’s profile page, and started to read. She was a Purple colored filly, with a darker shade of purple mane with pink stripe going through it. The profile read,
“Student #152072: Twilight Sparkle showed the most volatile magic seen since the age of Starswirl the Bearded. Due to the unpredictability of Twilight’s magic, she will not be accepted into the Academy. Although this has happened, Princess Celestia herself showed up, and offered Twilight Sparkle to be her personal Student and Protégé. The offer was accepted, and Twilight Sparkle currently resides with Princess Celestia within her Palace.”
“Well… Shit.” 64 said, as sadness filled his face, and he put his back against a wall and slid down, sitting on the floor.
“Twilight’s in Celestia’s capture. We’re too late Vi…”
“64,” Vi whispered, “I can understand why you didn’t want Twilight to be put through anything, but it is out of our hands now. All we can do is prepare for The Longest Night Of The Thousandth Year, when Celestia will attack.”
64 wiped a few tears that were started to form behind his eyelids, and nodded.
“O-ok. We need to get out of here”
64 stood up to walk out, but as he looked up, he saw a Unicorn Guard, mouth agape, staring at him in fear. The Unicorn was scared, not speaking a word, and looked like he was about to faint.
“ROOKIE! YOU SURVEY THE AUDITORIUM YET? WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?” Another guard yelled, while storming over. He pushed the “rookie” aside, and saw me inside of the office.
“WANTED FUGITIVE HERE! ALL UNITS GATHER!” the older Guard yelled, charging a stunning spell.
64 lunged forward, grabbing the guard by the neck as he tried to direct his horn towards any direction besides himself. The guard yelled as he fired the bolt, shooting it towards the ceiling. The ceiling exploded, sending parts of wall and debris everywhere. All of a sudden, another explosion went off, startling all three parties within the room.
Flames started to engulf the room, burning too fast to be stopped with normal magic.
“LOCK ALL EXITS, ENGULF HIM!” The older Guard yelled, running out of the room and shutting the door behind him.
64 ran to barge down the door, but it felt as if someone had put the desk on the outside against the door and was holding it down.
“DAMMIT! YOU LEFT SOMEONE IN HERE YOU COWARD!” 64 yelled to the other side of the door.
“ACCEPTABLE LOSSES FOR KILLING MY BROTHER!” The guard yelled back.
A pang of extreme guilt shot through 64.
‘He…. Had a family?’ 64 thought, stopping in his tracks trying to break the door down.
“S-Sir! You gotta let me outta here!” The Rookie yelled out, “I got a family too! You can’t just leave me here!”
“Sorry son, nothing I c-c-can do!” The Guard yelled from the other side with a cough. The flames were also starting to engulf the other side of the office too.
The smoke was starting to become unbearable, as 64 and the Rookies eyes started to burn.
“W-Would your brother want you to do this? Kill an innocent pony in cold blood? Let him out at least! Keep me in here!” 64 yelled out, before starting to cough roughly.
“I know you’ll just try to escape! I always know!”
After that sentence, a wall of the office fell over, crashing on top of the Rookie Guard. On the other side of the door, rapid hoofsteps were heard running away, as the door itself fell down as it too was engulfed.
“ *cough cough* P-please, you can’t… leave…me…” The Rookie said before falling unconscious.
“Oh shit…” 64 mumbled, as he looked between the now open exit, and the young Guard trapped underneath a wall of cement.
“Vi, I need you to do that thing where I know where to hit!” 64 thought as he made a Sledgehammer.
“64! You need to escape now!” Vi yelled back, obviously mad.
“THERE WON’T BE ANYMORE BLOOD ON MY HANDS! TELL ME NOW! *cough cough*”
“You will regret this later…” Vi whispered as a red light circled around a specific area of the obstruction.
“Thank you.” 64 said, as he brought the Sledgehammer down, breaking the wall in various places throughout its surface.
64 then pulled out the wall piece by piece, some pieces being burning hot while flame continued to burn around the two.
64 was finally able to get the last piece out as he pulled the unconscious guard out of the rubble. He then turned and ran out of the burning office, as he realized that the office wasn’t the only thing burning down.
The entire Auditorium was engulfed, and so were a few hallways that led 64 into the room in the first place. A ringing filled the air as 64 realized that the fire alarm was on the entire time, alerting Fire Ponies to the area.
64 looked out a window, and saw a direct, desert path towards his shelter and hiking path. He took two steps back, before charging forward and leaping through the glass window, still holding the young guard in his arms. After getting back up, 64 ran down the path, with the Guard cradled in his arms, and Peacemaker in his hand.
Vi’s eerie words still rang through his head, “You will regret this later…”
---------------------At 64’s Cave---------------------
64 POV
As of right now, I was getting my ear yelled off as Vi continued to lecture me on saving one the “monsters” that supported Celestia.
“Vi, you have to understand,” I said as I looked at the unconscious young Stallion that laid on the other side of the cave, patched up with some bandages he had in First-Aid kit, “this is just a boy, maybe a year or two older than me right now. He’s young, stupid, and patriotic. Of course he is going to sign up for The Royal Guard, he probably has no idea what Celestia is planning! I doubt most of her Guards do, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let another Pony die today. I already let Twilight down…”
Vi sighed, “I can understand your feeling of need to save this pony, but you have taken a great risk. Who know what he will do if he decides to run off and give away your location? Or that you were snooping around a now destroyed Private School owned by the Royal Family? It’s too dangerous to let him stay.”
I ignored her, and was surprised to see my company was now starting to wake up. I heard the shuffling of armor as a helmet came off, giving me a clearer view of his face.
A bright white coat, and a mane of two shades of blue and light blue were revealed as he looked at me, his features being lit up by the small campfire in the middle of the cave. He looked dazed and disoriented for a few seconds, before shaking his head a few times and looking at me and realizing who I was. I gave a light wave, but he simply stared at me, and then a face of shock painted over his face.
“You’re that thing!” He yelled as he jumped onto his hoofs, before he yelled in pain as the broken right foreleg he had protested at the pressure.
“Hey, hey, hey, take it easy. You broke your foreleg in that fire back there. You might need to stay off it” I told him, before he started to look at the bandage and splint he had on his leg.
“You…You did this?” He asked.
I nodded in response. “Yep, brought you back here, and saw that thing looked pretty bad. I just took a few branches off a tree for the splint, and then used the bandage to hold everything together.”
“T-thanks I guess…”
“You got a name? Or should I just keep calling you ‘Rookie’?”
“Shining,” he said, “Shining Armor.”
“Nice to meet you Shining, I’m Project 64.”
“Hey there…”
There was a semi awkward pause as he simply stared at me, trying to figure out the situation he was in.
“So…” Shining said, “Why did you save me?”
I chuckled, “Would you rather I didn’t?”
“No, no, not at all, but… I was told an incredibly dangerous creature escaped a dungeon today, and when I saw you…”
“You feared the worst?” I finished for him.
“Well... kind of.”
“Well don’t worry about it,” I said with a smile, “I wasn’t going to be responsible for a death I could have prevented today.”
He nodded, and looked outside the cave.
“I think you should wait until morning before going out to do any moving. Just enjoy a sleep tonight, I know I will.” I said, before lying down and feigning sleep.
I felt him wave a hoof in front of my face, trying to test if I really was asleep. I mumbled some gibberish before rolling over on my back away from him.
Shining then also laid down on his stomach and hooves, and after about 5 minutes, he fell asleep.
“Now would be a wise time to leave.” Vi said, a hint of anger in her voice.
“My thoughts exactly.” I replied, before writing something with my finger in the dirt of the cave floor. I then took a sky flare I also found with him outside, before firing it into the air, and running down the hiking path, into the forest. To prepare for the years to come…
Shining Armor POV
I woke up with a mild headache, and saw that 64 was no longer in the cave. I looked outside, and saw that Celestia was barely raising the sun. I was glad that I could finally enlist into the Royal Guard, but it was only my luck to run into a Fugitive of Equestria and break a foreleg on my first day.
Speaking of my foreleg, I saw that the swelling had gone down, but the bruising had worsened. As I looked at my leg, I saw something strange on the floor, like writing.
“Wait a few minutes, they’re coming.”
Coming? Who’s coming?
My question was answered, as I heard the unmistakable sound of marching coming outside of the Cave. I quickly swiped out the message, as I hobbled outside, and saw a small group of other Royal Guards coming down the path I was on.
I stood tall and saluted with my broken hoof when I saw the leader of the search party was none other than Captain Ironhoof, 35 year captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard.
“At ease soldier” he barked. “My reports say you were killed in the fire at Princess Celestia’s Academy for Gifted Unicorns, the one started by a fugitive. How are you alive?”
“Sir,” I started, “I was able to follow the Criminal as he was escaping, but as we came down this path, I tripped and fell, breaking my foreleg. He was able to get away, but I pulled myself to this cave, where I was able to give myself medical attention.”
“I see, well go ahead and hopped on this stretcher, you’ve had an exciting first day, Corporal Armor.”
“Corporal sir?”
"Might only be your second day but you that was an amazing act of valor. You've earned it son.”
“T-Thank you sir.” I said as I was hoisted onto the stretcher, and was taken back up the mountain.
As I was carried away, I looked back at the cave, with only one thing on my mind.
‘Thank you, Project 64.’