It was a remarkably slow night. Cheerilee didn’t mind in the slightest. While she wasn’t doing anything productive about HOOF, another evening of quiet rest was looking good.
Golden was off on her date with Treasury Bill. If he really was who she thought, then perhaps they would gain valuable information to set up another attack on HOOF. Until then, Cheerilee sat on her couch and watched TV.
The news had been focusing more and more coverage on Smiley. There was now more speculation and attention surrounding the mysterious figure than there was for HOOF, a situation Cheerilee did not mind one bit. If they didn’t get the attention they needed to spread their message, HOOF was much less effective.
Cheerilee sat in her apartment watching a segment from early evening edition of Equestria News Express. It was a report on the latest HOOF member to land in the hospital. The news anchor stated that he was the sole survivor of an attack by Smiley, but not before she’d forced him to cut himself with a knife.
Not being a narcissist, Cheerilee got up and was about to turn off the television when a “Breaking News” banner flashed across the bottom of the screen and the picture changed to another pony. “Ladies and gentlecolts, we’ve just received news of a new video put out by HOOF. This was posted online moments ago.”
A low quality video was displayed on the screen. A group of blindfolded ponies were slumped on the floor, masked HOOF members covering them with weapons.
A voiceover began. “This is an official communication from the Hegemony of Organized Friends. Down with the diarchy and down with tyranny! This video is directed at Smiley. You say that you are virtuous even as you slay our fellows. The time has come to see how pure you really are.
“We have twenty hostages. We will kill one for every hour that you do not show up and surrender to us. Do not keep us waiting.
“Down with tyranny!”
Cheerilee was already calling Princess Luna before the video ended. The sun was still up, but this was a situation in which the Night Princess wouldn’t mind being awoken early.
Luna was already awake, however, apparently being briefed on the video by one of her advisors. It wasn’t often that Cheerilee got to see part of the bigger structure of Luna’s organization, but she understood that it required ponies of all roles for it to function. And her part to play was at the end of the chain, the final link.
After being briefed on the situation Luna turned to Cheerilee, her grim look carrying through the mirror. “We’ve managed to locate their transmit location, although it wasn’t too difficult. They’ve obviously set up a trap for you, but unfortunately we can’t afford to ignore this bait. We can’t put together a Guard force quickly enough to respond before hostages die. You’ll be going in blind and without any idea of the situation.”
Cheerilee nodded seriously. “I understand, Princess. I’ll do my best.”
“I’ll send you the location. We’ll contact Golden and get her on the scene as quickly as possible, as well as any other help that we can muster.” Luna’s face changed, her commanding attitude slipping just a bit to show concern. “Good luck, Cheerilee.”
Signing off, Cheerilee grabbed for her long leather coat but paused. If HOOF had set this up, then they would be expecting her. She hesitated, and then grabbed for a light jacket just long enough to cover her cutie mark. It was barely enough to cover the sword strapped to her back.
Armed and ready, Cheerilee glanced at the address that popped up on her secure phone and headed out. She trotted quickly but attempted to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
The walk took a few dozen minutes, but Cheerilee was trying to time her arrival carefully. She knew that not all HOOF members were cold enough to murder a captive, and that would increase tension and nervousness in them the closer it got to the first hourly killing. She was going to try to use that to her advantage.
Cheerilee arrived on the correct block and kept walking, staring straight ahead as if in a hurry to be somewhere else. This district was full of closed office buildings that were being replaced by more modern structures. The old buildings were generally made of sturdy brick and most had their windows boarded. It seemed like they were being used for storage, if anything.
There was a buzzing noise like the engine of a small generator coming from the target building. It blanked out any sound of speech, breathing, or heartbeats Cheerilee might have picked up.
She walked the length of the building’s wall, passing the front door. Turning the corner, Cheerilee headed down the other side of the building. Coming close to the last window, she tensed imperceptibly, and then launched herself straight through the boards that blocked the opening.
There was a metal grate behind the wood, but it gave way as Cheerilee’s body crashed through it. She hit the floor and came up with a roll, drawing her sword and slicing through a pony stationed in the room. There was a weapon in his grip and Cheerilee grabbed it as he hit the floor.
Raising the gun, Cheerilee charged into the next room. There was a large pile of scrap metal on the floor and her back hooves danced over it as she aimed and fired, hitting a pony and a zebra that were stationed next to the door.
With an instant to assess the situation before continuing, Cheerilee gave the room a once-over, still wondering about the scrap metal. She looked up.
Fixed to the ceiling was a large disk of metal, larger in diameter than Cheerilee was tall. There was a hum in the air and suddenly she, her sword, the gun she’d picked up, and all the pieces of scrap were yanked towards the ceiling with an irresistible force.
Cheerilee hit hard, and braced as the chunks of metal slammed into her. She realized instantly what must have happened. It was an electromagnet. HOOF had apparently learned well about how to counter her internal armor. The scrap must have been there to hold her down, for extra insurance.
Naturally, Cheerilee struggled to get free. There was no way she could lift her body away from the magnetic attraction, but her limbs and head - not being armored liker her torso - were not affected. However, she could only struggle slightly against the pieces of scrap covering her. Some of them were sharp and she could feel multiple injuries spread all over her body.
“Get her down! Where’s the kevlar net? Quick, wrap her up!”
Members of HOOF scurried around the room, clearly having planned their trap in advance. After learning of Cheerilee’s implanted armor, they had managed to adapt to a new way of countering her. It was really quite impressive, although in her suspended position, Cheerilee wasn’t about to acknowledge that.
She growled in frustration, putting forth extra vocal effort to make herself heard. Several of the more nervous terrorists actually froze, but shouts from their seniors spurred them to keep working. The beast wasn’t going anywhere.
They got the electromagnet down from the ceiling and reinforced the magnetism with a strong net. A unicorn gingerly placed a hood over Cheerilee’s face with his magic, although she put up a fight. Had anypony decided to put on the hood by hoof and gotten close enough to do so, she would have gladly removed said hoof.
With her vision obscured, Cheerilee had to rely on her other senses to maintain awareness of the situation. While she couldn’t get free at the moment, Cheerilee was willing to jump at any opportunity that presented itself.
They took her outside and loaded her, magnet and all, into a truck. The generator that provided the electricity to run the electromagnetism was also loaded into the truck.
Cheerilee hoped that Luna had been able to get other assets to the area, if nothing else to observe the vehicle leaving. She now regretted not getting a tracking device implanted along with the armor. But then, who would have expected that she would need it?
Despite her long service, Cheerilee had rarely encountered a problem she couldn’t overcome. She had never been in quite such a predicament as this, and it was not easy to stay calm. Not only was she Princess Luna’s own servant, but Smiley was not supposed to be vulnerable to anything. You wouldn’t be afraid of something that you could capture.
Cheerilee gritted her teeth and put the overarching mission aside for the moment, focusing on how to get free. She forced herself to concentrate, knowing that small details could make all the difference. The truck began to move and Cheerilee got an idea of the direction it took. Based on the times it stopped at corners and the overall speed, she speculated that it might have traveled sixteen or twenty blocks before coming to rest at another building.
The back door of the truck opened and Cheerilee was hauled out. The generator was still running and she remained quite stuck to the big magnet. The were the sounds of hooves of various sizes and types moving around. Some large piece of cloth rippled through the air. Cheerilee wondered if somepony was hanging a flag.
“Here, set up the camera. Are we almost ready?”
Camera? Cheerilee grimaced. That probably meant they were probably going to shoot a propaganda video featuring a special guest - her.
Cheerilee still felt movement, even as the sound of the generator got further away. Perhaps they were stretching out the power cord, trying to separate the noise of the engine from the camera’s microphone. Cheerilee wondered how far the cord might stretch.
She and the magnet were brought to a halt, probably in the center of a large room based on the echoes. Before anypony got too comfortable, Cheerilee lunged against everything that held her down, throwing her weight away from the sound of the generator.
The magnet tipped, falling over as everypony in the room shouted and scrambled away. Cheerilee landed heavily, the weight of all her restraints shoving her into the hard floor. It hurt, but the worst part of her little stunt was that she didn’t fall far enough to unplug the power cord.
There was silence for a moment until the terrorists started to return. If her face wasn’t mashed into the concrete, Cheerilee would have smirked at calling them that. Despite being held down, her little campaign had thrown enough lasting fear into them that they were still hesitant to approach.
Cheerilee was stood up again and the hood was removed. She saw a few HOOF flags around the room, along with several masked ponies standing between her and a camera.
None of them appeared to be Treasury Bill, and Cheerilee decided that wasn’t good news. If he wasn’t here, then he was probably with Golden, which might indicate that she wasn’t coming either.
The red light on the front of the camera came on. One of the terrorists started to speak.
“Citizens of Equestria, today we have struck a great blow for justice. We have captured the pony known as Smiley. She is a mass murderer. She has impudently terrorized this city with nopony to stop her. And above all, she works for the Princesses! They are the ones behind this!”
Cheerilee knew that Luna didn’t keep written records. Hard proof of her association simply did not exist. However, if HOOF screamed about it loudly enough, somepony might actually believe them.
She kept her head down and out of sight of the camera, knowing her roughened mane would help disguise her appearance. The metal scrap still clinging everywhere didn’t hurt, either.
The speaker for HOOF continued. “Now that we have Smiley in our grasp, we will make sure that she can never harm anypony again. We are doing what the police could not. Fellow citizens, we are going to put this monster to death for her crimes.”
With her vitals safely encased in a few layers of steel, Cheerilee felt secure in the knowledge that killing her wouldn’t be easy. As vampires were so rare, there hadn’t been many studies done on other ways to kill them. Odds were that HOOF had no other clue than “stake to the heart.”
But then, while the camera still rolled, one of the unicorns picked up a chainsaw. He started it, revving the engine.
The members of HOOF crowded around, eager to see Smiley taken care of once and for all.
After I’d cleaned up from my dinner with the princess, I took a quick nap to rest my mind. By quick nap, I of course mean that I slept for hours and hours. I needed it.
At least I felt fresh and ready for work the next morning. I was up front that day, so the time rushed by in a blur of names, faces, and jewelry sales like it is wont to do. That evening I debated how best to prepare myself for my date with Treasury Bill the next day, but I couldn’t decide on a solid course of action. Should I expect things to get crazy? Or was it going to be just another frustrating exercise in fruitless searching?
I never did decide on what to do. I ended up just going out for a fly, which did a lot more for my nerves than I thought it would. While I was out the thought struck me that perhaps I was overthinking this, and that I should just go into it like I would anything else.
That was a good idea, in retrospect. I went to bed that evening after doing some reading on the internet, both informative and relaxing. I hadn’t realized how stressed I was getting about this. I knew when I had come up with the plan that it would allow me a chance to get deep into the woodworks of HOOF; what made me nervous was that I’d never done something so undercover before, especially not on my own.
The day of our date came, and things flew by. I couldn’t take my mind off of it, even though I didn’t really feel anxious. It was just one of those exciting things, you know? They just loom over you in the not-so-distant future like an iceberg in front of a ship. Except they don’t always end as badly as that kind of situation would.
I got home from work and set about getting ready to go out. It was fun to just kind of play around with makeup and stuff, and I might have enjoyed it a little more than I should have. It’s the little things that make a difference. Besides just accessorizing and all that girly stuff, though, I also did a few more practical things, one of them involving my stomach some industrial acid that I’d gotten from Cheerilee. It was far easier than tacking a bag in my throat.
One last look in the mirror left me satisfied with my appearance, so I twirled my scarf about my neck and set off for the restaurant. Despite what I’d told Bill, I’d never actually been there myself, only passed it occasionally to and from other places. It had been the first place to come to my mind when asked, and only because I’d heard such glowing reviews of it from a neighbor of mine recently.
I alighted on the rooftop of the restaurant, which was much more than just a plain roof. It had been designed to maximize the space available, since the building itself had very limited space to work with. As such, it served as something of an outdoor patio, with an array of fancy dining tables and chairs set up at various points on the rooftop. Not only that, but it made the place extra pegasus-friendly, as we fliers didn’t have to stop down at the ground floor if we had a table reserved on the roof.
Which Bill did, of course. Such a gentlecolt. I was a little flattered, actually; he’d put some thought into this. If he weren’t a terrorist, I would have felt bad about leading him on like this. But I guess that would have to an issue for another time, as Bill waved at me from our table in the corner spot.
I touched down next to him gently, to avoid disturbing the other customers eating nearby. He smiled and stood up from his seat to greet me.
"Golden, you're right on time. Here, have a seat," he said as he pulled out my chair for me with his magic. While I was settling in, I saw Bill pull out his phone and turn it off. He glanced over at me, and I got the distinct feeling that he wanted me to do the same.
I frowned inwardly; if I turned off my phone, Luna and Cheerilee wouldn't be able to contact me in case of emergency. On the other hoof, leaving my phone on would be antagonistic towards Bill. I considered both options for a quick moment, and ultimately decided that it would be better to make a good first impression with Bill. And really, what were the odds that Cheerilee wouldn't be able to handle any emergencies on her own?
That in mind, I pulled out my own smartphone and powered it off. I caught the barest hint of a grin on Bill's face, and I wondered if I may have made the wrong decision. Or, perhaps I was just being paranoid and Bill simply appreciated that I put our date before everything else.
The waitress that came to our table was a pegasus that looked to be in her early twenties, probably fresh out of college and looking for decent employment. I had to give her some credit, though, she did a good job of being bright and cheery.
"What can I get for you two today?" she asked.
Bill looked over at me questioningly, silently asking if I would like to order first.
"I think I'll have the house special.” I said.
“That sounds good,” said Bill, “I’ll have it as well.”
“Alright, it will be ready in just a moment.” The waitress smiled and walked off.
I decided to take a quick glance around the restaurant before we got too far into a conversation. There was a smattering of ponies eating up here on the roof with us, most of them pegasi like me. Not much else stuck out, so I turned my attention back to my date.
“So, Golden, what’s new?” asked Bill.
“Not a whole lot, actually,” I said, being close to truthful. “Work at the store has been mostly the same. We did get this one giant emerald shipped in that’s quite gorgeous, but nothing to make the headlines. We’ve been working on polishing it today and yesterday, and it’s looking really good.”
“How much do those usually sell for? I’d imagine it’s a good amount.”
“Stones at this level of quality can fetch hundreds of bits, thousands even, if you polish it right and find a good buyer.”
Bill whistled in appreciation. “That is a lot, especially nowadays.”
I chuckled a bit. “Yeah, gemstones used to be reasonably priced, but with the inflation spikes they’ve gotten a little pricier.”
At that, I noticed Bill get a curious look on his face. “I know it’s a little rude, but now that I think about it, I don’t think I ever did find out how old you are, Golden.”
I feigned indignance with a smirk on my face. “Well, I never! Asking a lady her age. You should be ashamed of yourself, sir.”
“Yes, yes, pardon me, madam, it was terribly impolite and I shall never do it again.” I heard the sarcastic, if good-natured, tone in his voice and sighed inwardly with relief. That was a bullet dodged.
“Good.” I sniffed, laughing a little. “Though if you really must know, I’m twenty-two.” I caught a brief flash of surprise in his expression, as though he didn’t think I could really be that old. If only he knew how old I really was.
Our conversation paused at that moment, the waitress having returned with our food. It looked like the special today was a golden-brown calzone, cooked to near perfection and stuffed full of delicious flowers and vegetables. On the side was a lovely-looking tossed salad.
I nodded appreciatively to the waitress, then settled a bit deeper into my chair to get more comfortable. Bill and I both took a few bites of of our calzones, him probably to satisfy his hunger and me to keep up appearances.
As I chewed, I began to plan out a few pathways for how I might steer the conversation. Covert interrogation is about getting things out of ponies without them suspecting. I had to form a plan to steer the conversation towards topics I wanted to discuss, and then figure out how to naturally spiral back out so Bill wouldn’t realize what I was focusing on, all the while persuading him to keep talking. It’s like chess and gossip rolled into one.
With a start, I realized that he’d been keeping the conversation on me so far. I was supposed to get information out of him, not the other way around! I began to wonder if he was simply curious about the mare he was on a date with, or if he suspected my true nature after all. I’d have to be a bit more careful when talking to him.
“Something wrong, Golden? Does your calzone taste alright?” asked Bill, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Yes, it’s quite good, actually. I was just thinking a bit, and I’m a little confused,” I said. This was a great opportunity to get into topics that favored my intelligence-gathering. “When we had dinner the other night with the princess, you were such a nice family together, and it’s really different from the stereotypes we see in the news. I guess it’s just a little odd seeing something so… normal, I guess.”
Bill laughed a bit at that, and I appropriately furrowed my brow in befuddlement. “I’m a little surprised,” he said, “You looked so deep in thought that I figured it would be something serious, like maybe I had a bit of sauce on my nose or something.” I giggled a bit, and Bill got an indignant and entirely un-serious look on his face. “What? Having a smudge of sauce on my nose would be a crime! A shame! I’d rather die, I think.”
He took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. “On a more serious note, though, I do wonder about that sometimes. I grew up with two loving parents and not a care in the world, something that’s unfortunately not common enough these days. My dad does what he thinks is best for the Equestrian populace, but sometimes it’s not enough. There are still those who are hungry, homeless, and oppressed. When everything that my father did fell short, my mother and I would pick up the slack. So in that regard, I guess you could say that we are a little bit different from the norm.”
Another bite, more chewing. “How about you, Golden? What are your parents like?”
“My parents are a lot alike, and we had a pretty good relationship while I was growing up. Ever since I was little, I always wanted to be just like my mom. Now that I work in jewelry, I’m getting a bit closer to being like her, but I still have a ways to go.” This was mostly untrue; I just had a cover story that I used for my identity. In actuality, I didn’t remember much about my real parents- I was still in high school when I was turned and the decade after that was mostly lost, along with my grip on reality. I usually avoided thinking about those years, and especially dredging up the vague memories I still possessed about my parents. If they knew what had become of me…
“What about you, Bill?” I asked. “Have you ever considered going into government like your dad?”
“When I was little, I thought about how cool it would be to work in the Equestrian government. As I grew up, I saw more of it, and the more I saw the less I liked it.” He smiled in self-abasement. “It took me a while to realize that if I wanted to be like my dad, I couldn’t do it in the government. Too cumbersome for me.”
I cocked my eyebrows in curiosity. “Oh? Is it the red tape?”
“You might say that. Everything is tied down by paperwork and pettiness. It’s frustrating, when I could accomplish the same amount of good on my own in half the time.”
“What kind of stuff would that be?”
“Mostly just the little things, you know? Keeping community buildings and infrastructure maintained, making sure the streets are safe for the citizens, that kind of business.”
“What, are you a superhero in disguise or something?” I said, a smile tugging upward at my lips.
“No, nothing so dramatic,” said Bill, laughing with me on that one. He grinned and waved a hoof. “I’m only a ninja.”
Both of us paused for a moment to take a few more bites of our dinner.
“So, Mr. Ninja, what do you think of the whole HOOF vs. Smiley thing? I’ve seen a bunch about it in the news, but I never really had the chance to look into it. Your dad is a Senator, so you and he probably know a lot about that, right? What’s the real deal here?”
That certainly got a response from Bill. I sensed his heart rate spike a bit, and his posture shifted to a slightly more assertive stance.
“Well, first let me say that any rumors of Smiley working for the government are unfounded. There’s no evidence there.” I got the distinct feeling that he didn’t really believe that to be true. “Second, I think HOOF does have some legitimate points. They go about change all wrong, though. It seems like they always want things to be now, now, now! And they’re willing to do terrible things to achieve their ends. Smiley isn’t any better, either, just killing HOOF members in reaction to what they do to civilians. In the end, it’s lose-lose for both of them, I think.”
I nodded as if what he’d said was sage wisdom that was new to me. Internally, I was excited- our suspicions were so close to being confirmed, at long last.
“What's the deal with Smiley? I mean, killing terrorists sounds like a good idea, but why? Does anypony know?”
“Some ponies suspect that the government sanctioned her as some kind of agent in order to crush HOOF. Like I said, though, there isn’t any real proof on that either way, so I’m inclined to rule it out.” If I’d had any doubt before that Bill did indeed believe Smiley worked for the Princesses, it was gone now. It was clear from the undercurrent of bitterness in his voice.
“More likely,” Bill continued his voice growing harder, “is that Smiley just doesn’t like the things that HOOF does. Her response is extreme, though, enough that I wonder if she’s trying to use HOOF’s own terror tactics against them.”
I made as though to ask another question, but he held up a hoof. His mouth opened, but he struggled to form his thoughts into words. He eventually went with a defeated shake of his head. “Sorry, this topic is a little frustrating for me. Pardon me for a moment, but I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.”
He got up and turned away. I kept myself from smiling. This was exactly what I’d needed to arrive at reasonable suspicion. I took another huge bite from my dwindling calzone and pulled out my phone for a quick check while he was gone. Once powered up, it immediately began flooding with notifications and message alerts. I frowned; not many ponies had this number.
That sinking feeling in my stomach only got worse as I saw that every text, notification, and call came from Luna. Anxiously, I began scanning through the messages, and my heart stopped for a brief second. There was a hostage crisis? Of course it would happen while I was busy, and while I just happened to have my phone off. At least Cheerilee was on the case. She should be able to handle it well enough until I could stop in and help clean up.
As I got near the end of the notifications, however, my anxiety began to ramp up as Princess Luna’s tone appeared to change from commanding to worried. Something had happened to Cheerilee. The last message was a link to a video. It was HOOF propaganda.
The video was hasty filmwork from inside some sort of industrial building. HOOF banners hung from the back walls masked terrorists were present. My eyes were fixed, however, on the splayed figure in the center. I could tell at a glance that it was Cheerilee. What could have happened?
The quiet audio from the phone clued me in. Now that we have Smiley in our grasp, we will make sure that she can never harm anypony again. We are doing what the police could not. Fellow citizens, we are going to put this monster to death for her crimes.
A unicorn picked up a chainsaw and started the engine. He advanced on Cheerilee and sank the roaring blade into her neck. I stuffed a hoof into my mouth to keep from crying out as blood, bone, and gore went everywhere.