//------------------------------// // Danger In The Most Unexpected Places // Story: The Cool Brazilian Wind // by Lazy_ //------------------------------// The wind howled past the opening the door had made in the side of the tavern, and outside the night-time air rushed in, pushed by the bullying motions and currents in the atmosphere. Against the dark colours created by the black skies and the light shine of the moon, a figure stopped to catch his breath. His breath condensed in the chilling breeze, coming in regular but gently slowing intervals. As he walked forward into the bar room, all of the ponies who were normally staying there for a few hours stopped to take a glance at the arrival. The door slammed behind him and he came to a stop in the glow of the candles before surveying the room. He was a very broad stallion, an earth pony whose eyes were a pale amber. His mane was almost non-existent, which would make him look bald if there was not a coat of dark grey underneath. The tail was quite thin and ragged, comprised of gradating colours, going from a deep black at the base to maroon at the tip. He was wearing a long black coat that looked to be made to represent the colours of his tail as the trails turned red at their ends. Combined with his large stature and rough facial features, this all made his appearance seem very intimidating. However the most intriguing part of his body was the presence of a bar code that hid under his fur. One by one, everypony in the room stopped their gaze as his eyes met theirs, suddenly acting like nopony had just arrived at all. After his eyes had swept the room and every occupant had returned to their original conversation, the stallion smiled to himself and continued on his journey forwards. He passed several tables all being dotted with mugs and tankards, filled with various liquids and liquors raging from simple orange juice to a strong apple cider. Reaching the bar at the far end of the room he pulled out a stool and sat his body down. He then leaned his weight forward onto the bar-table and rested it all on his fore-legs, making a gentle but dis-concerning creak as he did so. He looked over to his right to see the bartender, a tall and lean mare, finish serving a customer a drink. She turned her head in his direction and gave him a warming smile. Her fur was a silver like grey, reflecting the light cast on it from the large candles dotted about the room. Her blue eyes locked onto his and she began making her way over to him, swaying her hips as she went. Her mane and tale were strange purple tinted red colour and they hung quite low across her body; mane coming to her shoulders and tail stopping just at the ankles. It was curious to most that she too wore a thick grey and red coat that covered most of her body. Asking anypony would prompt them to say that she was hiding something under it's warm exterior, and they wouldn't be far off. When she arrived at his spot at the bar she crossed her fore-legs and rested them on the table, replicating the stallion's current posture. "So..." Her exotic accent sounded unlike anything most had heard in their area. Just the sound of her voice turned heads wherever she went. "... What's it to be today?" She angled her head and gave the stallion a seductive wink. He passed the gesture as a friendly motion and chuckled to himself. "The usual." He said in a short and quick sentence that would make anyone think he was in a relationship with the mare. Speaking of which, her gaze never faltered as she raised a hoof and beckoned him to the other side of the bar-table. A few stallions un-knowingly interpreted the reaction wrongly, and gave the stallion jealous looks behind his back. "Right this way, mister." She said as she winked and pulled back her fore-legs to a stand. As she turned to make her way behind closed doors, the large stallion got off' his stool, walked around the bar-table and through a small gate in the side. He then proceeded to follow the mare into the back room as he passed through a translucent sheet that hung from the top of the door frame. On the other side, shelves lined the walls and a small amount of steam rose into the air as the cooks did their work processing orders and making meals for the few who ordered them. The cooks wore clean white coats and most were the unicorn variety, as they could technically handle all of the ingredients without touching them using magic. The shelves were filled with ingredients, ranging from vegetable to a few areas of packages meat just in case any carnivorous visitors such as a griffon or diamond dog were to pop by for a quick bite. However these were rarely used and often replaced as they went off quite quickly if they were not used. In the center of the room, stoves and sinks were arranged in a central block that the cooks worked around. And as the stallion followed the mare around the cooks, they barely payed them any attention at all. However there was another small blue mare with a pink mane and tail sitting in the corner talking to some of the staff who noticed them approaching and stood up to greet them. The coat clad mare stopped in front of the small mare and flicked her head toward the main room in a quick motion. "'Daisy, you're up." She stated simply to her and she nodded before hastily heading over to replace the silver furred mare on bar duty. The staff along with the two newcomers watched her go before they left the staff to their conversation by continuing on their way. They went through another door, shutting it behind them and into a bare room. The only thing that existed in this room was shelves, lining every wall and every surface, leaving space for only a single wardrobe at the far end. The shelves were filled with glass bottles of wine and other alcoholic beverages that had taken them almost two months in total to acquire. They were all different colours and as the stallion followed his companion over to the wardrobe, he spotted a few of his personal favorites. About halfway through was a red wine, a delicately brewed drink that would knock out a normal pony in one pint. Good thing he wasn't just any normal pony. "-Now that's a good drink.-" He thought to himself as he passed the pink shaded bottle and stopped behind the mare. They had reached the wardrobe which had abruptly stopped their passage. The mare lowered her head to the top of her coat and grabbed something with her teeth, before raising her head to reveal a large key-ring held between her jaws. She used a hoof to move a small piece of wood that matched the colour of the wood that made up the wardrobe, rotating it on a swivel until it locked in an upward position. Then she pushed the corresponding key into the revealed key-hole and twisted. A locking mechanism worked with a heavy clunk before the mare pulling the doors open to reveal a staircase hidden behind it. She let the keys hang loose and gave the stallion a gentle smile. "After you." She gestured to the stairs and the stallion gladly obliged, walking past the false furniture and onto the stairs. As he went lower and lower into the basement, he heard the sounds of doors closing behind him and then the heavy clunk of the lock again as the doors were shut to hide their presence. He got to the bottom and stopped to be presented with a room that had a large expensive mahogany table resting in the middle. The room's roof was lined with a thin layer of smoke being emitted from the cigar being smoked by the occupant at the far side of the table, and around the side of the table sat the only other occupant of the room. The cigar smoking stallion was even larger than the black clad newcomer. His eyes looked to be amber but shined an intimidating red that made him look like a demon in a pony's skin. His fur was a light tan colour and his mane and tail were black, the hairs of his mane styled back in a neat and smart fashion. Glasses adorned his face as he looked on with a humour filled but still somewhat serious expression. The second pony however, was hard to distinguish as such. He was thin and did not have much fur, as his body was nearly entirely lined with what appeared to be some sort of dark grey metal exoskeleton that was red at the left shoulder and hoof. It also hosted several metallic circles placed in groups near gory red lines that ran down in strategic positions throughout his body. His face was half covered by a red mask that hid his eyes and most other facial features that could exist underneath, but what was shown had a relaxed expression on it. His mane and tail were snow white and absorbed barely any light as they looked almost un-natural for a pony with so many strange modifications. The fur that was visible on his lower face was a bright crimson like his shoulder, and it certainly gave him a unique look. Underneath though, the stallion was the only unicorn in the group. The new-coming stallion was silent as the mare finished following him down the stairs and stood beside him, nudging him and getting his attention. "Ah, You've left me waiting for a while, Sundowner." The large stallion at the far end of the table stated after he took the cigar from his mouth. "I was beginning to get worried you had gotten lost." His joke lifted a small amount of laughter from Sundowner. "Well at least I have some good news to bring from my travels. So you won't be too disappointed, Armstrong." Armstrong laughed cheerfully in relief at the mention of good news. Sundowner began walking toward the table and as he got there, he pulled out a chair and sat down. The silver furred mare repeated his actions, except on the other side of the table, and as she did so her coat fell away, revealing a pair of slim wings underneath. her body was well toned despite it's slim nature, and her joints as well as her collar and upper chest were armoured with metal implants and synthetic materials. "Finally, I was wondering how long I'd have to stay in this hell-hole of a place before my brain burst. All the bad news was beginning to make me angry, and I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to." Armstrong stated. "Go on, say it." "Sam's here. In Equestria." Armstrong's expression changed from slightly relieved and mildly agitated to one of satisfaction. "The wait is over, then. We can finally go find that son of a bitch and get the whole team together." He ended the sentence with a small chuckle. "But I need to give him a talk about lending his sword to AI's who happen to be on the opposing side of the war. Speaking of Sam, where is he?" "Last I knew, he was in hospital at the capital. Apparently they're quite intrigued by his ar- fore-leg." Sundowner replied. "Aww, shit. That's not exactly the best news, is it Sundowner? Right, we're just going to have to be especially careful about the first stage." Armstrong sounded disappointed. "We didn't have any problem drawing attention to ourselves back in Africa, as well as Mexico." The mare suggested. Sundowner gestured to her and shrugged. "Mistral has a point." He simply put. "Yes, but back on Earth there wasn't any beings capable of moving entire stars. Or a moon for that matter. Here we must adopt a more subtle approach." The closet unicorn spoke out, breaking his silence. "Revealing ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time could be very dangerous." "Monsoon also has a point." Sundowner repeated the same gesture to Monsoon as he did to Mistral. "Exactly." Armstrong confirmed. The more he talked, the more bored he sounded. It was obvious he wanted nothing more than to get the show on the road. "However if we have to show up early I wouldn't care. As long as the job gets done." "So yeah," Sundowner continued. "we repeat the same plan as we did back on Earth and hope it works out this time? I'm not too sure that will work after experiencing everything first hand." "This time there isn't a certain Raiden disrupting our operations. We kidnap the target at the procession and use her as a pony shield so that we can get the attention of the diarchy." Mistral started. "They've never been on good terms with the griffons, and after their recent arguments with her it's likely Equestria will think the thugs we hired were instructed by the Griffon Kingdom. Thus, we start a whole fiasco all over again." "Mmhm. And once the fighting begins we can use that as our cue to negotiate our way into Equestrian high society as ponies with ideals and technology which could lead to their victory. There are some groups of ponies who still harbour a hatred for the griffons, they will only strengthen our political standing." Monsoon continued on, leaving space for Armstrong to finish the explanation. "And that's where I come in." He said, puffing on his cigar. "I use my experience in politics to rally the ponies behind our ideals, and with a few... accidents concerning the current royalty, we take power of Equestria through our influence." "Okay." Sundowner finally understood the point of the plan after the explanation. "But what do we do with the Sun and Moon? We don't have the power to keep the day/night cycle rolling here." This caused Armstrong to give out an amused laugh. "Read your Equestrian history lately, Sundowner?" Sundowner shook his head slowly. "The unicorns can move the sun and moon in a joint effort. I'm sure we can muster up a few powerful unicorns to help our soon to be subjects switch between the day and the night. Right Monsoon?" Armsrong finished his statement with a joke to the unicorn sitting close to him. The metal pony just grinned and sighed. "I'm not too sure I like the idea of moving celestial bodies, Armstrong. Seems like a lot of hard work, even for my body." Everypony in the room let out a short burst of laughter before they all came back to serious expressions. "So I guess we're ready then?" Armstrong looked around his followers, The Winds of Destruction, as they nodded in agreement. He cocked a smile and stood up, his muscular body pushing back his chair and creating quite the imposing figure. "Time to commence the first stage of the operation!"