//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: A Meeting 
// Story: Operation Daybreak 
// by ValdimarGreen 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 1: A Meeting





Octavia felt the rhythmic thump in her seat every few seconds as the train rushed along the rails. She sat with her back to the window watching the door into her private compartment. It shouldn't be long now, her contact were supposed to approach her ten minutes after departure from Manehattan. She consulted her inner clock, twelve seconds to go. Three..two..one.. A rapid set of knocks sounded from the door. Octavia smiled and suppressed a small shiver, there was something about punctuality that just gave her goosebumps.

"Enter", she called out.

The door slid to the side with a gentle thump, and the most handsome stallion she had ever seen walked in. His white coat and blond locks seemed to shine in the hazy afternoon light, Prince Blueblood monologued in his head as he walked in, admiring himself in the compartments window.

Octavia waited while Blueblood continued to admire himself. After a few moments she cleared her throat, Blueblood adjusted the rose in his front pocket as he smiled at his reflection. Octavia closed her eyes and slowly counted to 30 in her head. "My lord could you please stop doing that?" Blueblood was however too occupied by the magnificent stallion before him to hear anything. Letting her long spy-training and ever ounce of her sharply honed instincts guide her, she slowly reached out a hoof and pulled the string that closed the drapes over the window.

Blueblood gave out a pained groan as he turned to Octavia and harrumphed, "I dear say, that was unnecessarily cruel of you, have you no heart?"

Octavia rolled her eyes. "However much I would like to exchange pleasantries with your lordship, our time here is limited. So I would be ever so grateful if we could move on to business."

Now it was Bluebloods turn to roll his eyes... earth-ponies. "Very well if we must," he said as he seated himself across from her in the now dim compartment. He produced a pink envelope from inside his tuxedo and levitated it across too her. "Inside you will find a picture of the target and a short list of requirements on how it should be done."

Octavias felt her eyebrows rise at mention of a "target". Assassination? She hadn't done that in years. With just a tad of nervous hesitation she opened the envelope and slid the photo halfway out. Octavia felt her face stretch as her eyebrows and jaw raced off in different directions. She stared at it for a moment, then back at Blueblood. "Are you insane?" she hissed under her breath.

Bluebood shifted nervously in his seat, and liked his lips. "I agree that this venture might be a tad audacious in some of its aspects."

Octavia just gaped at him. A tad? A TAD?! This job would impact pony society not unlike how the moon would impact them if it came crashing down. Octavia mentally shook herself. Calm down, think. "What did you mean with some of its aspects?" she asked.

Blueblood had produced a silken hoofkerchief and was dabbing at his neck with it. "Well... I did include some minor requirements on how the target should be eliminated...remember?"

Octavia blinked, after seeing the photo she had completely forgotten about the list of requirements that were also in the envelope. She pulled it out and looked at it. She blinked and looked again, maybe this time they would make sense, they didn't. She tilted her head back, closing her eyes and waited a few seconds and then looked back down at the paper. This time surely, the words would have rearranged themselves into something that would make sense. But no, the words remained obstinately in their original positions. She looked at Blueblood, who now was rubbing his neck fervently with the hoofkerchief and pointedly not looking at her. 
"Minor is not the word I would have used," Octavia said. 

Blueblood taped his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps you are right, requirements like that should be considered adult." He chuckled nervously at his own horrendous attempt at a joke. Octavia felt one of her eyelids twitch. Not hearing the grey earth-pony laughing with him, Blueblood stopped and shifted awkwardly. Ponies are supposed to laugh with you when you told a joke...didn't she know that? He really wished she hadn't closed the drapes, he could really use a friendly handsome face right about now.

"Anyway," Octavia said. "Lets get back on track."

"But we are already on a train!" Blueblood shot out, in a desperate attempt to salvage his pride.

Octavia ignored him. "How did you get your peers in the council to agree to all this?"

Blueblood looked even more flustered now, if that was even possible. "Ehhh hehe... they don't know," he said a bit sheepishly. "This is somewhat off a private venture of mine." At that moment the train entered a tunnel plunging the compartment in complete darkness. 

A lesser pony might have taken that as a bad omen, Octavia however were just glad the chance to compose herself. Just how many more rugs could there possibly be for Blueblood to pull out from underneath her? When light returned to the compartment she was calmly examining her hoof. "Without the councils support, do you even have the ability to compensate me for all this?" she asked.

With the hoofkerchief back in its pocket, Blueblood gave her his most charming smile. "Do not concern yourself with such mundane things, I assure you that I am more than capable of rewarding you for your services." Blueblood paused for a moment then leaned forward. "Does that mean that you will do it?"

At the question she felt her blood rushing through her veins. Octavia looked back at the photo, a photo of Twilight Sparkle the newly crowned alicorn princess, wielder of the elements of harmony and personal ward to Celestia herself. With her heart pounding, she glanced at the list of requirements again, then looked over at Blueblood with a smile.

"I will."