//------------------------------//
// According to plan 
// Story: Quicksilver 
// by PredictableOffender 
//------------------------------//

	“Sweetie Belle just focus on it and try to remember the four C’s” you say as you loom over the elementary school girl as she looks at a diamond with a magnifying glass.

“Carat, Color, Clarity, Cut.” Sweetie Belle falls back into her chair and sighs. “I just don’t know which one is better!” she yells.

“It’s alright you helped narrow down the selection, you could go help your friends move the fabric out of the truck.” Sweetie smiles and run out of the room.

“Thanks Silver!” you smile as you quickly arrange the small array of diamonds on the table from most to least valuable.

“Your talent with appraising jewels never ceases to amaze me.” Rarity appears out of nowhere and grabs you in her arms, you try to get back to work but she grabs you tighter. “Where do you think you are going?” She places a hand on your  cheek and engages you in a passionate kiss. Just when you decide to take things further you feel hear the door open, when you break apart to look you all you see is an empty hallway.

“Guess we forgot about the kids running around.” Rarity giggles.

“I think we should go before the kids break something.” Rarity grabs your hand as you both head outside.

You and Rarity have been dating for months, and things just gradually got more serious. You love spending time with her, you hope you aren't taking things too quickly because you are seriously thinking of proposing to her. You may be rushing things but this is really the first you felt at home, life in Ponyville is safe and predictable. Although there was a bit of an itching for something more exciting, your old life was born out of desperation and you are not leaving Rarity for something so self indulgent.

Rarity leads you outside where surprisingly Sweetie Belle and her friends have been able to move the rolls of fabric out the back of your truck into the front of the boutique undamaged. You had bought the truck after you got a job in the Ponyville police department, mostly with fake work experience from your fake past. That fake experience made you a SWAT officer, it couldn't have been a more bizarre situation. Either way, you spend most of your days training for missions that rarely come, you have done a single drug raid in the time of your employment. Strangely what you learned as a jewelry thief come incredibly useful as a SWAT officer.

You are greeted by that ever so familiar sound of The Cutie Mark Crusaders breaking something, and immediately trying to pin it on each other followed by Spike trying to calm them down. You chuckle to yourself, as the bickering continues in the background you feel Rarity tugging of your sleeve.

“I like this. It feels so... so... Domestic.” she pulls you closer to her and leans into you.

“Yeah, I love you to Rares.” she doesn't verbally respond. Rarity just holds you even tighter. Maybe that marriage proposal might not be a bad idea after all, she is practically burying her face in your shirt right now.

“Spike! That hurt!” Applebloom screeches from somewhere behind the boutique.

“I’m sorry! What are you doing AHH!” Spike yells from the same direction.

“I’ll deal with them. You have to start getting ready for work don’t you.” Rarity plants a quick kiss on your lips.

“Yeah I guess I do.”

~~~

You are riding in the back of the SWAT van, you had undergone training and you are now very comfortable maintaining and firing rifles now. Your sergeant had been replaced by a Royal Guard because today you are doing a “Special Mission” Assigned by the Princess herself. The royal guard looks nothing like a normal royal guard. She looks like a vampire, her eyes are like those of a cat and she has a pair of fangs, her hair is a dark jet black that looks like it sucks light out of the air.

Your Squad mates, Solace, Bravery and Respite are all sitting down in their assigned seats in abject fear of your new leader. You hadn’t been told who you are trying to arrest or if you are even going to arrest anyone. Your new leader hasn’t said anything more than that you are on a special mission and you have to listen to her. 

“Alright boys get ready!” Your new leader speaks up with a thunderous voice. “We have info that one of the Buffalo Brothers is hiding out in this motel.” everyone looks at her strangely. “Don’t worry about the plan you guys normally do, with me here you don’t need it.” you wonder of you are going to be raiding you brother, if it was you, you would be in jail already. 

This is a strange situation but you are not going to go easy on your brother, now its either you or him. If your brother escapes you are going to have to talk to him, or formulate your own little plan. Either way you needed to get yourself ready.

The Van screeches to a halt and the Guard gives the order to go out in full force. The doors fly open and you all draw your weapons and charge into the sunlight beyond.

“This is in Princess Luna’s name! Boys take room 111. I’ll stay back here” you don’t notice any other police cruisers on scene.

You find yourself leading the charge towards the room marked 111. The two story motel has a mostly empty parking lot, people left and right run away in a panic, the noise and chaos increases as you pass the other rooms as you make your way towards the room. 

You all form up on the door, Solace signals you to kick down the door. You position yourself in front of the door and drive the heel of your boot into the flimsy door, you easily smash it beyond operation. You take the lead and charge into the motel room.

You are greeted by the sight of some man in a Gryphon Kingdom Military uniform pointing some glowing rifle thing at you. Your Vision suddenly goes dark and you feel something hit you in the back of the head. You don’t even feel yourself hitting the ground.

~~~

“Luna execution is a barbaric way of going about things.” a calm and authoritative female voice wakes you.

“The code of justice that you wrote yourself demands that he pay the ultimate price for his crimes. ” A much more aggressive but still authoritative voice rings into your ears.

The argument between the two women continues as you begin to come back to consciousness. You found yourself on a cold, damp medieval dungeon like cell. There is a bowl with a pile of bread in it placed on the ground near the cage door. Your cell has a barred window that opens to a pitch black sky above, beyond that there is a pair of shackles attached to the wall. There is nothing else in the cell.

The two voices fade into away and you are soon left in silence

You take the opportunity to search the cell for any weakness or way to escape. You take the loaf of stale bread and begin to eat it as you search the area. The bowl you were given is made out of plastic so that won’t help much for digging. The bars are solid, the door is strong and all the bricks are firmly in place. You are trapped here.

But that doesn’t mean this is the end. You can probably find a way out of here.

One question is still on your mind. How the hell do you get in here in the first place? This may be linked to your last heist, the one that put all the heat on you in the first place.

~~~

You are dressed as a mercenary, sitting on a train, in the middle dessart and sitting among a group of jarheads and fat cats. Your employers had ensured you are the only one on the train with a gasmask, they also gave you the location of a crate of tear gas canisters. You knew exactly what to do you just had to wait for the signal, you go through the plan one more time in your head. 

Each of the mercenaries have a uniform that has Princess Luna’s seal embroidered on it. The plan here is to steal Princess Luna’s personal treasury. After her return Canterlot had a ton of difficulty trying to reintegrate her into the government. This gold is supposed to replace Luna’s old holdings but you are going to change that.

“I fucking hate bullshit jobs like this.” a large mercenary says, he gathers some darts from a nearby dart board. “We sit here next to more loot then we can ever live to see and we get paid a shitty cut.” he hands a couple of darts to you.

“I miss playing with some Gryphon Kingdom dictator.” You toss the first dart and and hit the Outer Bullseye. “You get to pocket whatever you can get your hands on.”

“Yeah I like getting paid enough to justify getting up in the morning.” he tosses his dart but the train hits a bump and he misses. “Fuck!” You look around the rest of the passenger car, there are about nine guards and three passengers. You opponent takes another toss and hits the bullseye. “Yeah!”

“Alright fuck this!” another merc screams.

“Guess its my turn.” another background voice pipes up.

This is gonna be a long ride. As the rounds of darts go on the other passengers get drunker and rowdier, a desire to tear gas them very quickly grows in you. Unfortunately several hours pass until you notice the first steps of the plan being put into action.

“Vaillant isn't answering his radio! Someone go check on him!” You quickly raise your hand and make your way to the car’s back door. You quickly check your cellphone, no signal, things are going just as planned. The others are approaching with the cell phone and radio jammers active.

The train car has this weird observatory type thing to look out for threats, but the only way to get to it is to climb up the side of the train. You open the door and quickly make your way up the ladder. The observatory is just a shitty open air room with a branch and a few crates on top, standing in the middle of it is a concerned looking guard. You put on your gas mask.

“Look!” He points to what you know is five motorcycle headlights racing up beside the train. “The Radio isn’t working go tell the others!” You respond in the civilized way, you ram your fist into his face. He mustn't have been expecting it because he goes down in one hit. You hear the racket of gunfire flare up as your partners begin to open fire into the side of the train car. 

You are behind schedule you you quickly find the crowbar hidden for the crates and open the ones containing the tear gas. You grab as many canisters as you can, you lie down beside the ladder and toss all of the canisters you have into the train car, the are confused and scrambling are didn't notice you. You get back up grab more canisters when you notice one a sixth crew member pacing along side the engine, he stands up on his bike and tries to jump onto the engine. He grabs one of the side rails and quickly slides off, when he hits the ground you see one of his legs get amputated under the train. 

Fuck! 

You have to stop the train since all the others are engaged in a gunfight and probably haven’t noticed. You give the mercs a few more tear gas cans before you depart for the engine. This is gonna suck since the passenger car was in the back of the train. You vault through the window of the observatory and begin running towards the engine. You jump across onto the first car and immediately slip, a desperate motion ensures you fall safely on the train car. You have no time to lose, the more time your crew is in a firefight the higher chance of the cops finding out or one of them dying.

One, two, three, four, five, as you try to jump onto the sixth one you start feeling bullets whizzing past you. When you look back you see the observatory guy shooting back at you, a few more shots are fired and you feel one hit you. It goes cleanly though your bicep, now isn’t the time to feel pain so you turn and keep running. His shooting stops but you don’t look back you have to stop the train.

The adrenalin carries you to the front of the train, you can feel the burning heat of the exhaust trying to blow you off the train. You drop down to the side of the engine and pull out your handgun, fire a shot into the glass and open the door into the driver’s compartment. You don’t register the drivers words as you force him to the ground and tie him up with the zip ties in you pocket. The deadman’s switch should stop the train from here.


~~~

Long story short you got shot a while back while stealing gold from a now angry princess. That was quite a long time ago now, maybe over a year. But after that some heavy trucks came up and took the gold away and you made it home. You may have done many other little things that soon add up to the Princess being angry at you. As much as you deserve it Execution or prison are not on your list of life-choices.

You take another sweep of the cell, then another, then another. No matter how many times check each brick or crack you still find no way out. You decide its best that you sit down and try to make something out about your situation. Or you should wait for a opportunity to escape.