Chapter 7: The Night Mail
Location: 22:30 Canterlot to Fillydelphia.
Stormcloud felt himself launch forward as his head slipped on the window, the feeling caused to him to wake with a start. The gentle rocking of the train had lulled him to sleep and Stormcloud was surprised that Coltson hadn’t woken him, they were far away from any city or small town, at least that’s what Stormcloud thought as nothing but darkness swept past him.
“It’s nearly time to start” Coltson said from the other side of their compartment.
Stormcloud rubbed the sleep from his eyes and gave a hearty yawn. Even with his military service Stormcloud still struggled to wake his head felt woollen and he needed a pick-me-up.
“We move out in five minutes,” Coltson said as he levitated the special glasses onto his face. “Stick your head out of the window if you still feel tired.” Coltson suggested.
Stormcloud rose groggily and stretched his legs out, he slid the door open and walked to the vestibule area. The corridor rocked gently and the dim lights were soft on the eyes much to Stormcloud’s pleasure. As soon as he was at the window, he slid it down and reared up to stick his head out. The wind whipped his muzzle, he enjoyed the feeling but at the same time his system was shocked due to the sudden temperature change. He felt the train round a corner and then he could hear the distinctive change in sound as the train began to slog up an incline. He withdrew his head knowing full well that smut would likely get in his eyes, he also felt fully awake and should really get back to Coltson.
There was a buzzing in his ear before several voices all started speaking.
“This is Agent Stripes, I’m located at the very rear of the train, I’ve identified two known members of The Order.” A deep male voice said.
“This is Agents Hazzard and Sabre, we have three members in our carriage, one of which is a high ranking member. Sending his photo now.”
Stormcloud entered the compartment as Coltson replied.
“Agent Hazzard, thats Quick Retort. High level enforcer, S.C.A.L.E archives have him as committing several acts of murder, prefers to use his hooves rather than firearms, do not engage alone.”
“Understood, Agent Coltson.” Hazzard replied quickly.
“...is is Agen... Sabre... comm unit... suffering from in..feren..! Plea.. advise!” The female voice of the pegasus exclaimed.
“You are to remain with Agent Hazzard, Agent Sabre.” Coltson replied.
There was a pause before a different voice replied.
“I’ll keep an eye on her Agent Coltson.” Hazzard replied.
Coltson removed his hoof from his earpiece and looked to Stormcloud.
“You remember the plan?” he asked.
“Yes, Agent Stripes will move up from the rear of the train and meet up with Agents Hazzard and Sabre who are in the carriage behind us, they'll then make their way up here and from there we'll move up and clear the next carriage, followed by the guards carriage and then retrieve our asset,” Stormcloud recited.
“Good work, but I want you to go down a carriage to the buffet car, there are two Order mercs in that car. You were trained with a sleeping spell yes?”
“Yes. Week Two of training,”
“Then go!” Coltson said.
The sleep spell which Stormcloud had learned could only be used on consumable goods. Stormcloud knew what he had to do and part of him thought this was another training exercise like last time, but something didn't feel right. Their situation felt too real and there were other more experienced agents with him. Stormcloud slowly made his way to the next carriage and it then occurred to him that he didn't know what the two ponies would look like. He thought about turning around but the sound of a door sliding open behind him made him press forward.
The buffet car was similar in design to the other carriages, from the door between the two carriages, there was a door straight in front of him; this he presumed led to behind the counter. The corridor was narrow like all the others except on one side was a counter where ponies could order food and drink, beyond that it what appeared to be the last third of the carriage were some tables and chairs. There were two customers sitting at a table, both of whom happened to be zebra's. Both of them were sitting opposite each other playing cards, from the hoof that Stormcloud could see the zebra with his back to him was likely to win.
“Wanna join?” The zebra who was facing him asked.
Stormcloud looked behind him to see if they were talking to the other pony. The pegasus who had followed Stormcloud was waiting patiently behind him, not for Stormcloud to move out of his way, but for somepony to come and serve him at the buffet car. In that moment Stormcloud took a chance.
“Sure, I'll join.” He replied.
The zebras finished their hand and shuffled their cards, it was quite a sight to watch as the hooves dropped a select amount of cards into the other. The zebra slammed the deck down on the table, taking Stormcloud by surprise. There was a long pause and Stormcloud saw that each zebra had two drinks between them.
“Cut.” One of the zebras said.
Stormcloud used his magic to lift almost half the deck of cards and place it down beside it. The zebra picked up what was the lower half of the deck and began to deal five cards each, he placed one card in the centre. The zebra who had had his back to him started to scrawl on a piece of paper with a pencil between his teeth.
“Name?” The other zebra asked.
The question knocked Stormcloud for six. He hadn't expected to be asked his name and giving his real one seemed like a stupid idea, but equally he hadn't thought of a fake one.
“Er... Brass Pitch?” Stormcloud said, and then realising how it sounded after it came out.
“You sound like you don't know your real name.” The zebra with the pencil said.
“Damn, damn, damn” he thought as beads of sweat began to form.
The two zebras broke out into laughter and the zebra who dealt slapped Stormclouds' back several times. The force of the slaps made his teeth clack together.
“Next you'll be saying you can't play cribbage!” The zebra beside him joked.
Thankfully Stormcloud could.
The pegasus at the bar gave up trying to get somepony’s attention and joined the group at the table, he didn't request to join in and the zebras didn't seem to mind an audience. The first hand went quickly and Stormcloud pegged two points and scored a reasonable seven, the two others didn't peg anything but held very high scoring hands of twelve. There were some loud noises nearby and the pegasus got up to investigate, the two zebras didn't seem to care. The pegasus made it as far as the door and then backed up as two ponies entered. Stormcloud seemed unaware of the two ponies until some heavy hoofsteps entered the buffet car.
“Ah Quick Retort, care for a... oh” the zebra began.
The pause caught Stormclouds' attention. The pony before him was huge, he recalled Twilight Sparkle mentioning such a pony to which Stormcloud had then seen compete in the Equestria Games, this pony was bigger than Bulk Biceps of the Ponyville Relay team. The pony was a unicorn but the size of the muscles made the horn seem relatively small. Quick Retort stared blankly at the zebras and the pegasus. Stormcloud then realised that they're drinks weren't being watched. Under his breath he muttered the incantation and focused on the two purple liquids, for a brief second they turned blue and then returned to their ordinary purple.
With his incantation successful Stormcloud began to formulate an excuse to return to his compartment but then something made him stop in his train of thought. Beside the massive unicorn was a small earth pony, one of which he knew, one of which he had met recently. Agent Stripes was standing beside the massive unicorn a black eye adorning his face and several bruised along his body.
“There are two S.C.A.L.E agents further down the train, a few of the others have taken hostages. Get down there while I tell Arrow Head.” he said in a deep voice.
The pony then stared at Stormcloud.
“And tie him up while you're at it!” He ordered and walked off, taking Agent Stripes with him.
There was an awkward pause, Stormcloud prepared himself for action.
“Sorry 'bout this mate, but yanno'. Just business.” One of the zebra said and picked up his drink.
Stormcloud felt a sigh of relief, as soon as he swallowed that, there would only be one pony to deal with.
“Wait!” A cry came.
Stormcloud swore in his head.
The pegasus who Stormcloud had briefly forgotten about stepped forward.
“He drugged your drinks!” He said.
“Oh did you now?” The zebra with the pencil said.
“My guess is, he's an Agent of S.C.A.L.E too.” The pegasus said.
“Well that changes everything.” The zebra stated.
Stormcloud teleported quickly but in that instant he forgot one of the most basic rules of teleporting. Never teleport while moving quickly. As Stormcloud reappeared he hadn't moved much of a distance, infact he had only teleported several feet. He felt his body launch backward and he slammed his spine on a table, he sunk to the floor in pain and quickly tried to summon another spell. In that moment he felt something cold and metallic press against his throat.
“Uh uh uh,” came the taunt, “Unless you want to become an earth pony, I'd power that horn down” the pegasus pressed the knife to emphasise his point.
“So you thought you could drug us? Well I hope you like to sleep.” The voice of one of the zebras said.
A shadow passed over him and he could feel a glass press against his lips, the glass was tipped and the liquid began to fill his mouth. He held the liquid in his mouth but a pair of hooves clamped his muzzle shot and soon it was difficult to breathe. He could quickly feel his body's' reactions slow and eventually he gave in and swallowed the liquid. He felt himself drift off into sleep in a matter of seconds. The last thing he remembered were the hooves leaving his muzzle.
***
Arrow Head walked around his prize. It had been easy to take the asset from the S.C.A.L.E safehouse, he still recounted how easy it had been. He couldn’t believe that a S.C.A.L.E Agent had stupidly fell for the fake delivery act, he recalled the moment when he heard the door click open and then Boom!, the shotgun shell had ripped through that pony like a hot knife through butter. It had only taken six of them to enter the house and steal their asset, and now here they were, undisturbed and racing across the country Arrow Head would have his private time with this pony.
“Okay gents, it’s time” he said to two unicorns who were also present in the empty carriage.
Luckily, Arrow Head had booked three whole coaches so he could attend to his ‘private’ matters, he’d ordered three of his underlings to seize control of the two Royal Mail coaches that led the rake, now nopony would interrupt him. The two unicorns levitated a metal bath tub into the centre of the coach, this was followed by a chair which they placed in the centre of the tub. At that moment a pegasus entered the room.
“The mail ponies are secured two carriages down sir” she said.
“I ordered you to put them next door where I can deal with them later” Arrow replied with a hint of anger.
“My orders are with Quick Retort!” came the sharp reply.
It was bad enough that the powers that be had decided he needed a partner, but Quick Retort? He was a power hungry pony, always had to have everything in control and the way he planned it. Arrow Head had half a mind to shoot him and be done with it, but right now, he had his prize to focus on.
“Fine! Now get outta my sight!” Arrow finally replied.
The pegasus left out of the door he came through, hopefully Quick Retort and his four underlings would keep out from under his hooves now, Arrow had business to attend to. He nodded to the two unicorns who then lifted his ‘prize’ onto the chair, one unicorn then removed the black cloth from his prizes’ head while the other used his magic to tie ropes around his ‘prizes’’ hooves. The two unicorns then left the carriage and made their way to the head of the train.
Arrow Head moved so he looked straight at the bound unicorn, the unicorn was of a deep purple coat and held three lightning bolts as a cutie mark.
“Do you know who I am? Star Bolt.” The use of the pony’s name caught his attention.
“...No” he eventually replied.
“Hmm, perhaps I’ve not made as big an impact as I thought, or maybe S.C.A.L.E just don’t see me as a threat yet.” He raised a hoof to his chin in thought.
“So that’s what this is all about? So you can make a name for yourself, gain a reputation?” the unicorn known as Star Bolt said weakly.
Arrow simply laughed.
“Oh Star Bolt, Star Bolt. I don’t need a reputation, I already have one.” His voice took a sinister turn towards the end.
“Then what do you want?” the unicorn half shouted.
“What I want? I want to take down S.C.A.L.E and everything they stand for, I want to see four tyrant Princesses riddled with bullet holes, I want to make Equestria a better place for everypony.”
“Then why keep me?”
“Oh ho ho, you don’t think I know your little secret, what makes you special.”
“I’m not special.”
“Oh don’t treat me like a foal, I did my research. I know all about your mishap, your research into electricity generation, ring any bells?”
“I don’t know what your talking about.” Star Bolt said through gritted teeth.
“You don’t? Well perhaps a science lesson will change that. You know electricity and metal conduct don’t you?”
“Ye-”
“No don’t reply, teacher is talking.” Arrows’ head twitched quickly, “Well you see electrical currents are present in the pony body, every action we take, every thought we have, we owe it to electricity. But you! You thought differently, your body harnessed that electricity and created an extension of it, quite remarkable really. I know unicorns have natural magic, but this is something else, so lie to me again and I’ll make you wish you never thought about delving into science.”
“I don’t-”
At that moment Arrow Head picked up a bucket of water that had been stored in the carriage. He threw it at Star Bolt. And then, then the most amazing thing happened, in an instant Star Bolt was enveloped in an electrical current. He screamed out in pain as electricity ran through his body and caused him to jerk rapidly, in that same instant sweat dripped through his fur and matted his coat, Star Bolt clenched his teeth and held back the pain he was in.
“Now Star Bolt do you understand that I know all about you, but the one thing I don’t know is that project you’re working on. So here’s the deal, you’re going to tell me all about it.”
“And. If. I. Don’t?” he replied between breathes, his heart thundering louder than the pistons of the steam engine.
“Well. I have all night and if I don’t break you… There are ponies worse than me.”
***
“Now class, today we’re going to learn about teleporting.” Miss Inkwell said as she wrote on the blackboard.
Cirrus Stormcloud leaned forward in his chair to listen intently to his primary school teacher. A few ponies nearby snickered and not for the first time since he started school, he wish Twilight Sparkle was still here. She wouldn't have snickered, she too would've been leaning in to hear what the teacher had to say, but she wasn't here. Stormcloud had left Canterlot just before the Summer Sun Celebration to move to Fillydelphia and his father had him enrolled in the highest level school he could afford. Stormcloud thought about, staring at his newly acquired cutie mark; a gusting cloud.
“Alright children,” the teacher continued. “What is the first rule of teleportation?”
“Don’t talk-”
“Miss Lulamoon if you finish that sentence you can take yourself to the Principal's’ office.”
An azure unicorn lowered her hoof and a few ponies snickered at her, while the teacher looked away a spitball landed in her mane.
“Mr Stormcloud?”
Cirrus froze.
“Um… er… To not teleport while moving at a high speed.”
“Good, does anypony know why?... No?”
The teacher erased the board and began to draw fresh image. She started by drawing a straight line and a stick pony at one end. She then drew a horizontal dashed line and placed a ‘Y’ above it. She then drew an arrow leading from the pony to line Y. At the other end of the large line she named it Y1. She then marked the arrow with an X.
“So a pony can travel at speed X and teleport at point Y, this means that at point Y1, the pony is still travelling at speed X.”
The teacher then drew a wheeled platform below the pony on the board, she then marked this with an arrow and named it X1.
“Now if a pony is on a platform then that pony is travelling at speed X1 so X will equal zero. This means when the pony teleports at point Y the pony is still travelling is speed X1. Once that pony is at point Y1 he will decelerate. But. If that pony is travelling as well, then the two speeds cancel each other out at point Y1. This was one of Starswirl the Bearded’s first magical theories, he discovered that short range teleporting was complex and only highly skilled unicorns could do it, he also learned that external factors; those that are outside of the unicorns control can’t be teleported.”
All the ponies in the room stared blankly at the teacher, everypony; even Stormcloud, had difficulty following what his teacher said. Luckily the bell rang and everypony wanted to leave the room.
“Now remember kids, don’t teleport while in a moving object and always let the mass times acceleration be with you!” She shouted as the ponies filed out of the room.
***
Stormcloud woke on the floor of the rocking train carriage, he tried to move around but he could feel his hooves were tied up. A pony then walked over to him and propped Stormcloud onto his haunches, all four of his legs were tied together in front of him. Stormcloud recognised the pony that moved him from the pictures he’d seen earlier that day; Arrow Head. The pony was standing on three of his legs, the fourth was holding an unusual metallic device which also had wood fused into it. In an instant, Stormcloud recognised the device as a double-barrelled shotgun the barrels of which had been sawn off. It was odd to see a firearm, Equestria had gone so long without needing them but since Tireks’ Uprising ponies wanted to defend themselves. Guns served that purpose, they were made in vast quantities and became easy to get ahold of that Celestia herself couldn’t control it. Eventually after much opposition guns became legal but getting ahold of one was expensive and required a lot of licences, even with his time in the Royal Guard, Stormcloud had only ever seen two of these things.
Arrow Head was wearing a strange attire, he wore no clothes of the normal sort, instead there was some form of belt wrapped around his midsection. The belt was odd because it had several small canisters hanging around it, the exception was the section that ran along his back which held none, on the right shoulder Stormcloud could see the wound and below this a holster which contained a small pistol. Arrow Head looked straight at Stormcloud, he had retrieved the special glasses Coltson and Hazzard had taken with them for the mission. Due to the closeness of Arrow Head, Stormcloud could see the electronics working on the lenses, he couldn’t make out the information it was displaying but he knew it wouldn’t be good.
“Agent Cirrus Stormcloud, Level five agent, only one mission though. Bit disappointing, I thought S.C.A.L.E would’ve sent their better agents for me, especially with what I stole” he said.
“Arrow Head, the others are waking.” A voice said from Stormclouds’ left.
The pony trotted off to the other agents who were sitting against the wall. They were all in a different carriage, Stormcloud guessed they’d been moved further up to the ones that The Order had booked. The carriage itself was a guards’ coach and it was very open, at one end were the seating compartments, next to this was the corridor that led to the door that was midway along the length of the coach. On the other side of this was the small guards’ compartment where a guard would record the times of the train, beside this was where Stormcloud sat, they were in a small caged area which small parcels would’ve been placed. These parcels were placed on the shelves in front of him and all seemed to be destined for the same place and sent by the same pony, all the boxes were big and grey and seemed to be made from some sort of hard plastic.
Stormcloud watched as Arrow Head walked up to the large pony known as Quick Retort.
“You missed an agent, a pegasus named Sabre. Take care of her.” Arrow ordered.
He then walked over to one of the metal boxes and opened it. Stormcloud watched in awe as a large gun was lifted from it and given to Quick Retort.
“S.C.A.L.E already knows we’re here. Make sure theres’ no survivors. Speedy go with him, I need somepony in the air if that agent gets out.”
The pegasus that had exposed Stormcloud stepped up and took another gun from the box. The two ponies left the carriage and Arrow Head turned to two unicorns.
“You know how the vacuum brake works on these things?”
The two nodded.
“Follow them and detach their portion of the train, I’m sick of dealing with them.”
The two unicorns followed the other two.
“Why are you doing this?” Stormcloud heard himself say.
Arrow Head turned and rounded on Stormcloud.
“This pony here wants to know why.” He laughed and the two zebras from earlier joined in although they were out of sight.
“Well Cirrus, mind if I call you Cirrus? Well nevermind that now.” Arrow lifted the shotgun and rested it over his shoulder. “Several years ago I was part of the Royal Guard, I was stationed all over; Manehatten, Appleloosa even went to where the Crystal Empire now is but that’s not important. Anyway when the Changelings attacked Canterlot I was on patrol several miles away, so I volunteered to go back and help Canterlot. Afterall I did have family there, but my C.O. thought differently, we were to apparently stay on the sidelines while the Changelings chipped away at the orb. So one night I grabbed this here boomstick and galloped over to Canterlot. I got there an hour before the shield fell. After that, it all went to shit.”
Arrow Head walked around while he recounted his story, he stopped to smile at Agent Hazzard.
“Nice to see you again Duke, how is the sister? Still recovering from the last time we met?”
Hazzard spat at Arrow Head who simply wiped it from his face and continued walking as if nothing had happened.
“So basically I was arrested as soon as I set hoof in Canterlot, they kept me locked up and when I was released I found out my family died. ‘Compassionate Release’ they called it. That was the first time I realised the Almighty Celestia couldn’t save everypony, from that moment I took care of myself. Then when Tirek turned up: Oh! I had a great time during that. You see The Order had a network that hardly anypony knows about, well except S.C.A.L.E so we changed things around after that. The Order decided that S.C.A.L.E had to go too.”
“What are you going to do with us Arrow Head!” Coltson called from far away.
At that moment there was a loud whistling of air and the train jolted for a moment. Arrow Head regained his balance and laughed at Coltson.
“Well your asset had interesting information, and I’m guessing a kill order will now be placed on me and thanks to these new device of yours, I know S.C.A.L.E are waiting at Ponyville for us. Luckily though we were already planning to steal the train so now we’ll just keep you as hostages, maybe trade you for a few of our own.”
The two unicorns returned from the end of the carriage.
“Why kill those ponies if your fight is with S.C.A.L.E?” Stormcloud asked.
While Arrow had been monologuing Stormcloud had tried to loosen his bounds, he’d nearly managed to free himself but he needed more time. Only Agent Stripes who was beside him had seen this, he’d passed a message to Hazzard and Coltson when Arrow wasn’t paying attention. The boomstick sat idly on his shoulder and Stormcloud slowly started to form a plan on how to take down the five bodies there.
“Well its simple. I just don’t care.”
In that instant Arrow brought down the shotgun from his shoulder and then-
*BLAM!*.
The sound resonated all around the small carriage. Stormcloud watched as Arrow Head lifted the shotgun back onto his shoulder. It was then that Stormcloud felt something warm and wet in his left side of his face. He then felt something slump against him and he turned to face it. The lifeless corpse of Agent Stripes had fallen against him, there was a massive hole in his head. Stormcloud fought hard not throw up.
“Take them to the compartments. And somepony clean up this mess!”
Stormcloud felt himself being lifted in somepony else's’ magic. The ropes that bound his legs slowly slipped off. The boots were off.
***
Agent Sabre felt the train jolt hard and then the loud grinding sound that followed. She fell forward and had to brace as her body hit the floor. After a few moments she could tell that the train had stopped, she looked to the several ponies who had boarded the train, all of whom were scared after the shootout that had ensued not long ago. Luckily she had hid with the civilians when The Order agents had passed through Hazzard was very strict with that order. When he surrendered willingly she fought hard not to act, her emotions were conflicting so she bit the bullet and remained with the other ponies.
Some of the other ponies in the train started to panic, she could hear conversations in fits and starts but the general consensus was that ponies wanted to escape and run as fast as they could. Agent Sabre wanted to sneak up to the front of the train but there was a light buzzing in her ear. The voice was quiet so she stuck two hooves to her ears.
“Code Black. Code Black.”
The voice came as a whisper but the words may have well of been shouted. Code Black was a mission compromised, this could mean a range of things but most importantly it meant that she wasn’t safe.
“Agent Coltson, I’m at the very rear of the train I’ve got ponies here panicking.”
“Code Black. Code Black.”
Sabre facehooved as she remembered her comm link was damaged. She would have to move fast, she knew she was compromised and time was against her, it wouldn’t be long before The Order agents would find her. She looked to the other passengers who had been forced into the rear-most carriage, somepony had managed to open a door and ponies were filing out. They most likely didn’t have any idea where they were going, it was pitch black outside, the only light was being emitted from the carriages themselves. Sabre dismissed the thought of helping the ponies no matter how much she wanted to, the mission came first.
She slinked her well toned body against the walls and pressed forward into the next carriage. The next carriage was a stark contrast with the previous one; it was riddled with bullet holes and magic scorch marks. Luckily there had been a few ponies here when The Order opened fire, this had been where Quick Retort had taken Agent Stripes. Sabre opened her wings and hovered through the carriage, the flight was short but the destruction could be seen along the carriages’ entire length. She was about to enter the third carriage when she heard two voices, quickly she dropped to the ground and crawled under one of the few intact chairs.
“I can’t believe he ditched us.” A soft male voice said.
“I can” replied a relatively deeper voice, “you really thought Arrow wanted us around?”
“I thought he’d obey orders. This was supposed to be a simple delivery mission, we’re only here to keep an eye on things.”
“And now he wants us to execute civilians. That’s not what I signed up for when I joined The Order.”
The door slid open and a pegasus half-entered the carriage.
“Then why are you following his orders? You and I are more respected than he is, why not just head back and tell the leader what happened.” This caused the pegasus to stop and turn.
“Because we have an Agent of S.C.A.L.E onboard and we can’t have S.C.A.L.E interfering now, not when we’ve nearly accomplished our goal.”
“Do you honestly think that S.C.A.L.E agent is still here? Do you think he or she would stay here or do you think they would've fled and called for reinforcements?”
“... They will have gone for reinforcements.”
“So lets not mercilessly kill innocent ponies, lets get out of here and regroup at base. Our goal is the Princesses and S.C.A.L.E not some holiday-goers on a train.”
There was a pause as the pegasus thought the proposal over, this was followed by the sound of something heavy and metallic dropping.
“Let’s get outta here before S.C.A.L.E show up with bigger guns.”
The door slid shut and Sabre remained hidden for five minutes, from there she got up and left the carriage. In a quick gallop, she took off and flapped her wings hard as she followed the railway line to Ponyville and the rest of the train.
***
It happened so fast that Stormcloud could barely remember the events, he recalled the rope slipping from his hooves and summoning a teleportation spell. He felt the gut-wrenching feelings as he teleported in a moving object, he was tossed aside from the difference in forces and tumbled to the groups The Order barely had any time to react. Agent Hazzard was tougher than Stormcloud so a Hazzard bucked the unicorn levitating Coltson. Coltson dropped and galloped forward, diving into the first compartment as Arrow Head levelled his shotgun and fired the remaining barrel. Stormcloud ducked as the spray flew overhead and shattered the wooden wall.
The two zebras began opening two more boxes on the shelves, without thinking Stormcloud stood up and smacked his hoof against the nearest box. Due to the transfer of forces, the boxes all moved forward and the end-most box flew off the shelf and made contact with one of the zebras, knocking him aside. The other however had picked up a small gun and fired a few shots, most of which made contact with the strongboxes which plinged chimed as they were struck.
To his side, Agent Hazzard grappled one of the unicorns and pirouetted around him to then lift up his rear hooves and strike the other. As the other unicorn reeled backwards Hazzard threw a knife at the zebra with the gun, the gun was tossed aside as the zebra was thrown against the wall. When Stormcloud dared to peek out he could see the knife had gone straight through the forehoof and buried itself into the wall. The other zebra which Stormcloud had knocked to the ground had galloped over to him. The zebra stomped where Stormcloud had been, however Stormcloud had seen this and rolled onto all fours, the zebra then reared. He made two jabs, the first of which connected and Stormclouds’ senses were thrown off kilter, the second he’d managed to dodge; somehow.
The zebra then rounded a hook which Stormcloud ducked to avoided and jabbed in return, he struck twice, once in the groin, the other in the stomach. The zebra then uppercutted and Stormcloud was dazed, he fell backwards and the zebra raised his forehoof back. In an instant he was cut down as a unicorn was thrown at him. Agent Coltson had returned from his cover and used his magic to thrown that pony. The other unicorn fired to magic shots and Coltson which missed. Arrow head un-holstered his sidearm and fired three shots. All three were purposely wide and were made with the intention to cause the three ponies to duck as Arrow entered the carriage.
“Quick follow him!” Coltson ordered.
The door then exploded into splintered as another shotgun blast came through, Arrow must’ve thought they’d been directly behind the door as he’d fired both barrels. The pony quickly reloaded but not before Coltson through one of the sleep grenades in. The gas hissed out and Coltson ordered the other two to head to the compartments. They ran into the second one as the gas filled the carriages as the first one had a huge hole in it.
***
Using the moonlight that glinted off the rails Agent Sabre zoomed along the dark night, flying at this hour was always difficult and most pegasi didn't bother at this hour. Luckily Agent Sabre had passed the rigorous trials that all pegasi agents had to go through so navigating was easy, she listened hard for disturbances in air pressure around her and adjusted her flight path. She kept low to the ground so she could make use of the reflected light and the air rebounding off the railway sleepers to keep her on course.
As she looked ahead into the dark horizon she should could see a flash of light further ahead, this caused her to slow to a hover and eventually land. From her current distance the light flashed in fits and starts but seemed to remain in the same position. Sabre slipped down off the ballast and onto the shallow embankments that lined the railway, she crept forward whenever the flash wasn’t present. After a few tense moments the occurrence in question began to take on a more solid and distinguishable form.
Since the technology advancements all over Equestria, it was found that conveying mail by train and airship was much faster than pegasi delivery. This meant that trains such as the one Sabre had been on traversed the country with mail for every town or settlement the railway passed through, instead of stopping the train at each town, carriages were designed to drop large bags into nets. Ahead of Agent Sabre was such a device, in the flashes of light she could make out the large vertical pole that held out mail for sorting, on the other side of the two railway lines was the net for catching mail. This was a frame built at ground level with a large rope net contained within. Amongst this net was a pony.
Agent Sabre closed the distance between her and the apparatus, the pony was evidently tangled in the net and every once in a while the pony would try moving and light would flash, at this distance it looked like the tangled pony was emitting this light but Sabre dismissed this thought. As she was about walk over the line and help the pony she felt a heavy blow against her side. As soon as she felt the blow she opened her wings to take flight but felt a warm sensation envelope her, she was brought to the ground. She tried to escape the magical grasp but the castor was strung to keep her contained.
Agent Sabre turned in the field of grip to face her captor.
“Director Sparkle!” She exclaimed in a mixture of panic and safety.
***
The gas cloud dissipated quickly and Agent Hazzard took point as the trio walked over to the carriage door, Stormcloud couldn’t hear any noise from the next carriage which worried him, the gas could’ve knocked out everypony or they could be faking it. Agent Coltson ordered the other two to not take the weapons in the strongboxes and it was only in that moment of calm that Stormcloud realised how many boxes there were in that small area. Agent Hazzard entered the next carriage closely followed by Coltson and Stormcloud. There were a few bodies lying on the floor, all of which looked unharmed except for some minor bruising.
“Must’ve hit themselves when they passed out.” Coltson remarked as he studied the nearest pony.
“No sign of Arrow Head.” Agent Hazzard pointed out.
“All the more reason to be on guard.” Stormcloud thought.
This carriage was an ordinary passenger carriage; it had tables and chairs on both sides, the only exception was the small number of ponies and one zebra, and the number of strongboxes.
“Agent Hazzard check the toilets.” Coltson ordered, “Stormcloud flank him.”
They walked up to the far end to where two small rooms protruded from the walls, one of which had the door open and was empty. Hazzard pressed ahead past the other door and turned his head.
“Ready?” He asked as he lifted his rear legs to buck.
“Er… yes?”
Stormcloud didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
“Grab him maybe?” He didn’t have much time to think as the door was bucked open.
Thankfully it was empty.
The two agents looked to Coltson for orders but both of them knew it was to move upwards and clear the next carriage. Hazzard opened the door to meet Arrow Head on his hind legs the pistol aimed for him.
“GET DOWN!”
Stormcloud dove to his right as he was still in the vestibule, he felt the ground rush up to greet him his shoulder took the brunt of the force. There were three shots altogether all of which missed their intended targets, Stormcloud looked for Coltson but couldn’t find him. Stormcloud quickly rose and checked for Coltson. He didn’t want to find another body, nopony else could die today. He pushed the thoughts of his fallen comrade to the back of his mind like he had done so many times before.
“I’ll mourn them later.”
There was a scuffling noise from the carriage and Stormcloud turned to see Coltson and Arrow Head locked in hoof-to-hoof combat, Arrow Heads’ gun lay on the floor some distance away. At that moment Hazzard blocked his view and jumped at Arrow Head, knocking him to the floor and freeing him from Coltson or was it Coltson from Arrow Head? It had been hard to tell.
Hazzard had somehow managed to get behind the Arrow Head and was holding him in a chokehold on the floor. Arrow plunged his forehoof back striking Hazzard in the ribs, Coltson used his magic to pick up the gun and held it to Arrows’ head.
“Hazzard release him.”
Hazzard obeyed and the two slumped on the floor, Arrow rolling off Hazzard to be met with the barrel of the gun.
“Well I must’ve pissed you off if you’re going to kill me?” Arrow laughed.
“The order is for your capture, not your death.”
“Thats a bit lenient considering I killed a lot of your agents to get that Asset. Which by the way did S.C.A.L.E tell you what it is?”
“I know what my orders are.” Coltson replied cooly.
“Heh, you know Stormcloud you can’t trust S.C.A.L.E, they don’t tell you all the facts. I bet you know nothing about the Maelstrom project, quite interesting given what happened. Or even better why don’t you ask your Director about the Element of Kind-”
Arrow Head fell to the floor as the butt of the gun struck him across his head.
“It was boring conversation anyway.” Coltson replied.
***
Location: Ponyville Station
An hour later.
S.C.A.L.E agents were waiting for them when what remained of the train pulled into the station, the two footplate crew were rushed from the engine with some story about a gas leak at the station. Director Fury and Rainbow Dash met the three surviving agents when the train arrived, the station had been locked down by S.C.A.L.E before their arrival, although it wasn’t necessary at this early in the morning.
Stormcloud sat on one of the few station benches with a foil blanket around him, somepony had hoofed him a coffee and he drank the hot liquid only becoming aware of how cold he now was. He sat alone with his thoughts as two agents unload the relay box he’d watched Agents Hazzard and Sabre loading earlier that night. Agent Hazzard slumped down beside him with a Trojan device.
“So we lost two Agents for this.” He slammed the device down on the hard platform. “A fucking Trojan, all that bloodshed for what is basically a key. You know what the worst part is?”
Stormcloud thought about replying but he knew Hazzard was going to tell him anyway.
“Its not even a high level Agent, S.C.A.L.E were never going to compromised for this. Do you think Arrow Head was right?”
“About?” Stormcloud took another sip of his coffee.
“About S.C.A.L.E not telling us everything. I can’t believe we went through all that for a lousy Trojan!”
Hazzard was quiet for a few moments for which Stormcloud was grateful.
“Would S.C.A.L.E really lie to us? No! They couldn’t have known about the clearance of the Trojan-.”
Stormcloud was brought out of his thoughts by Hazzard poking him. He then looked up to where Hazzard was pointing. A gurney rolled out of the carriage, a black body bag on top of it.The two of them walked over to it and looked over the bag, Fury, Coltson and Dash soon joined them and saluted in silence. The gurney was then rolled out of the station as Dash raised a hoof to her ear.
“Agent Sabre has been found.” She said
“Well I suppose that’s some good news.”
“Agents Hazzard I want you to conduct a final sweep before debriefing and let Agent Stormcloud help you, he could use the experience.” Director Fury ordered.
“Yes Sir.”
***
“So what does the debrief consist of?” Stormcloud asked as they entered the leading coach. They hadn’t entered this before knocking out Arrow Head but afterwards the three of them had moved forward and dropped Sleep grenades through the doors. This carriage had consisted of tied up Royal Mail workers who had since been removed.
“Mainly paperwork, you just tell write down what happened and then Fury or Sparkle read over it, it must be a bore to read because all four of us will have to do one.”
Hazzard continued down the mail carriage, these carriages were odd in their design, one side appeared to be tiny pigeon holes each with address for residents of Equestria, this took up one complete side of the carriage leaving only a small space to walk down, that space also contained the TPO apparatus which was a huge moving net that was attached to the wall.
They finally moved into the carriage where they’d taken down Arrow Head, Stormcloud wasn’t sure what had happened in here but there was a wooden chair sitting in a metal bath tub which was filled with water.
“What do you suppose this was?” Stormcloud asked Hazzard who was looking at a pony with a bloody face.
“Nothing good. When somepony interrogates Arrow Head, S.C.A.L.E. will find out.”
***
An hour later they finished their search of the train, they’d found nothing new but some S.C.A.L.E agents would remain here and sort out the minor details. The mission was now no longer Stormclouds’ concern and when the dropship arrived to take him back to Ascension he felt like sleeping for a thousand years. As his weary head began to surrender itself to sleep he thought to agent Stripes and how quickly his life had been taken, like snubbing a candle. Stormcloud decided he’d try and make friends, he had his bunkmate; Hazzard, his mentor; Coltson but one pony stuck out, one who needed friendship; Thunderer.