Bang bang bang.
Oh, my clopping head…
Bang bang bang.
“Hang on, I’m comin’.” I sit up groggily, nurturing a massive headache. I didn’t go to bed drunk, but it sure feels like it. I slip out of bed as C pops his head out of the upper bunk that was installed. That’s another thing: for a bug that says he ‘does not require sleep’, he sure snores like a manticore!
The banging persists, so I shove open the door to see a guard levitating a piece of paper.
“Soldier Star, please report to the briefing room at 0700 hours for your first assignment.” He reads another part, does a double-take, then speaks again, “And you are ordered to bring the changeling with you.”
“Okay, will do.” The guard salutes, then trots away.
Chryssid seems a bit more awake now. “What did that bzatting idiot want?” Goddesses, the one endearing thing about bunking with a changeling; their swearing. All I can tell is, whatever he’s cussing, it has absolutely no Equish equivalent.
“Well, C, we’re going on our first mission.”
“Good.” He rolls over, pauses, and then sits up. “’We’?”
“Yup. I guess they don’t trust you on your own yet.” He launches into a string of changeling curses as I smirk. Today is going to be a good day.
----------
I knock on the door to the briefing room at exactly 0659. A tall muscular Earth stallion answers; I salute.
“Soldier Shining Star reporting for duty! … Oh, and my companion, Chryssid.” The stallion doesn’t even flinch as C comes into view. Instead, he smiles warmly.
“Well, hello, Shining, I’m Tread. Welcome to Epsilon Unit.” He opens the door wide and ushers us in.
Four other ponies are lounging around on sofas. Two dirt brown Earth ponies, one unicorn mare, and a Pegasus lazily swinging around a bat. There are mixed reactions when we enter the room; first, curiosity about me, then fear, anger, and outrage over Chryssid. The Pegasus looks ready to charge over and shove his bat up C’s tailhole, but the unicorn grabs his tail in her magic. Tread comes to our defense.
“Calm down, everypony. Shining Star here’s promised to keep the changeling on his leash.” C, still in a bad mood from being woken early, interjects, but I stop him. We don’t need our team hating us for any reason. Then, the introductions, courtesy of Tread.
“As I already told you, I’m Tread, the team’s heavy-hitter. Over there’s the twins Dig and Dug. You need a hole anywhere, they’ll make it.” That earned a snicker from the Pegasus. “The flyer’s Scout. He was originally part of a group of nine, but the others moved on.”
“Bonk,” says Scout. I’m not sure what it means, but it’s probably all I’ll get out of him.
“And this little lady is Heart Pulse, our combat medic. Just call her Pulse.”
“Really? What kind of combat magic?”
Pulse pushes up a small pair of glasses on her muzzle, which is pointed in the air like a snob. “Anything projectile. Heat, water, light, you name it, I can cast it.” Then she looks at me. “What do you bring to this little party? You know, besides a pet bug?”
I summon up a half dozen balls of light, and float them in a circle above my head. Pulse yawns. “So you can make light. Goodie.”
Well, now I have to make an example. “Hey, Pulse. Do me a favor and stand perfectly still, okay?” I plunge the room into blackness, and orbit the orbs faster and faster. As they spin, I begin colliding and elongating the orbs, until I am left with something akin to a six-pointed star. I give it some mass, and send it hurtling away. I hear a yelp and a thunk. I bring the light in the room back up, and see Pulse, still standing in the exact same spot, major worry in her eyes. My light star is embedded in the wall behind her, barely inches above her head. I dispel it, and several shreds of Pulse’s mane fall to the floor. I smirk, “Any other questions?” All of them shake their heads.
Tread stumbles over to the wall, and examines it. Sure enough, there’s a half-inch wide incision in the stone, about six inches deep, if I made the spines correctly. He looks to me, then smiles. “Holy shit man. Don’t let me catch you in a bad mood!”
“Am I interrupting something?” We turn, and see the Colonel standing in the doorway. Like the General, she gave up her born name when she took up her title; a strange trend with the higher-ups in the military side of the Warriors. We all quickly salute.
“At ease. I take it you are Shining star, correct?” I swallow, and nod. She nods back. “Good. I’m sure you’ll do great things with this unit. Now, to your mission.”
She walks forward, depositing folders on the single table. “Seeing as this is Star’s first mission, you are tasked with a simple asset retrieval.” We take the folders as the Colonel’s horn lights up and projects the image of a building above the table. “This warehouse is where our Intel places the asset, codename ‘Bomb Squad’. It’s on the outskirts of Manehattan, and security should be light. As always, discretion is up to the Unit Leader. Tread, if you may.” The stallion in question steps up.
“Alright, everypony. Standard infil/exfil. Dig and Dug will put us as close to the objective as they can, and the rest of us will continue on hoof. Scout, you’re our spotter. Get on the roof and call out anything, and I mean anything, you see. And please, use the radio this time.” This gets a snicker from the twins. “Pulse, you and I will take up positions at the front door after eliminating any hostiles. Shining, you and Chryssid are to enter the building, locate Bomb Squad, and leave as quickly as possible. We will give you ten minutes, then we’re pulling out. Any questions?”
I raise my hoof. “Uh, yeah. What does Bomb Squad look like? Is it a weapon, pony, what?”
The Colonel answers, “The protector of Bomb Squad is a mare. She will answer to the code phrase ‘Purple Pumpkin Lollipop’. She will then hoof over Bomb Squad, and leave through her own means.” She catches my look. “No, we do not know why she chose that particular phrase, but we are not one to question, and unfortunately we do not know what Bomb Squad is. If you are unable to retrieve it, destroy it by any means necessary. You will depart at 1700 hours tonight. Use this time to learn about your team, Star. This meeting is adjourned.” She walks out.
Tread smiles. “You heard the mare. Let’s mingle, shall we?”
---------
“I do not think any of them like me,” C grumbles. It is 1645, and we’re relaxing in the ready room, waiting on the rest of Epsilon.
“What do you mean, C? I think Tread has taken a liking to you.”
“That is not what I mean, Shining. They seem friendly, but refuse to open up. I know as much about them as we did this morning.”
“I feel your pain, man. I think Pulse is attracted to me, but she’s having a really bad time trying to show it.”
Chryssid shoots me a look. “You are insufferable sometimes, you know that?”
“Yeah, I love you too, man.”
The rest of the team arrives, Tread lugging bags of gear. He dumps the bags onto one of the tables, and begins to sift through it. He comes up with two sets of hoof coverings, which he passes to the twins. He puts on a custom-made battle saddle with twin snipers. He passes several parts of a medical kit to Pulse, and a strange-looking pistol to me. I hold it in my magic, turning it around. It looks like a magic pistol, but with an elongated barrel. Pulse notices my confusion, and clarifies, “It’s a silenced pistol. It’ll fire magic bolts like a normal magic projectile weapon, but with much reduced noise. Battleborn recently came up with it.”
“Thank you Battle!”
As if sensing my other question, she states, “The coverings for the twins augment their Earth pony magic, actually allowing them to move the earth around them.”
“Wow.”
She smiles. “Yeah, wow. It takes a lot of skill, and they end up going through the gear like madponies, but nopony else can do what they do.”
Tread kicks his saddle into gear. “Alright, everypony. We all clear on the mission?”
“YES SIR!” We shout.
“We all gonna make it home in one piece, hear?”
“YES SIR!”
“Epsilon Unit, move out!” He leads us out of the base, to the underground entrance. Instead of going up to the fresh air, however, he leads us further down into the tunnels. He stops at a nondescript wall.
“Okay, Dig, Dug, you’re up. Destination is three clicks straight ahead. Get to work.”
Dig places himself ahead of us, and Dug behind. Dig places a hoof on the wall, causing the coverings to glow, then spins and kicks the wall down (literally down, like a sheet), revealing brown earth behind it. He turns, and punches the dirt sideways. Dig makes us a tunnel from nothing, and once we are all in, I turn and see Dug strike the earth with his front hooves, and raise the stone wall back into place. Tread motions to me, and I create a ball of light to light the way.
We continue like that for the length of the transit, Dig making the path, and Dug removing it. We have to make detours around what I assume are sublevels of the buildings above, but the twins have a strange connection with the very ground around us, always keeping us on the right path.
Eventually, I notice we’re moving upwards. Dig stops, and motions to Tread, who nods and turns to us. “Okay, ponies. We’re right behind the closest building to the objective. The plan stays the same: Scout’s the lookout, Pulse and I are vanguard, and you two,” hoofing at me and C, “are retrieval. Let’s go.”
Dig blasts the earth away, and fading sunlight fills the tunnel. In an instant, Scout is gone, flying up the side of the building to the roof while the rest of us, minus Dug, scramble out.
“Yo. Two guards at the door, two more on the roof, and another pair patrolling around.” The radio crackles.
“Roger that, Scout.” We’ve reached the edge of the building, and are looking at the warehouse across the insanely wide street. “I can take the guys on the roof. Pulse, eliminate the patrol. Shining, you figure out the two at the door.”
“I may be able to assist with that.” Chryssid speaks up. We turn to him. “Allow us to go with Pulse when she removes the patrol. I will disguise myself as one of them, and draw the two at the door off, where Pulse and Shining can take them out.”
Tread looks dumbfounded, then breaks into a wide smile. “See, I knew there was a reason you two were with us! Let’s do this. I’ll wait for your signal, then off the roofies.”
The three of us take off on a wide loop around to the back of the warehouse. Pulse stops us at the adjacent building, and slips off her saddlebags. “Chryssid, is it? I’ll need your help. Just chase after me.” She takes off towards the warehouse. He looks to me, I shrug, and he pursues. I sneak to the edge, and observe.
“Somepony help me! There’s a changeling after me! He’s trying to rape me!!” Pulse tears towards the patrolling guards, who bolt to attention when they see her coming, and when they see C hot on her tail. Pulse ducks down behind one of the guards. The other pulls his gun and aims it at C.
“Watcher, radio the others. We might need backup.” At this point, C is within a few hoofs of the one guard.
“Yes, it occurs to me you may need assistance.” C points behind the guard, and he turns to see Pulse snapping the neck of the other. He doesn’t have time to react as C slugs him in the side of the head, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. C immediately moves to the guard, stripping him of his uniform. Then, his changeling magic kicks in, enveloping him in green fire. When the light fades, standing there is the downed guard’s body double. Except…
“Uh, C? The guy’s a Pegasus,” I remark, pointing to the wings. C nods, and the fire flares up again, giving him wings. He then dons the guard uniform.
We follow him through the alley between the buildings, and stop at the mouth. I send up a small ball of light, just bright enough to get Tread’s attention, then we hide behind a dumpster. C walks out at a slightly panicked pace, and I see two muzzle flashes across the street. Again, no sound. C approaches the door guards.
“Guys! Watcher’s down! He needs help!” Shocked into action, the others don’t even question ‘the guard’ as he leads them to the alley, keeping up a constant babble. As they pass the dumpster, Pulse and I jump out. We down our respective targets quickly, although the adrenaline rush is somewhat hampered by the bile rising in my throat. You can act brave, strutting your stuff about how you’re going to be the next big badass, but when you actually take another pony’s life? It’s a hell of a thing.
The four of us regroup at the doors, C having shed his disguise. Tread and Pulse put on the newest deceased guard uniforms; more to go unnoticed by any passers-by than anything else. I push open the door, C and I step through, and everything goes white.
----------
Bang bang bang.
Oh, my clopping head…
Bang bang bang.
“Hang on, I’m comin’.” I sit up groggily, nurturing a massive headache. How much did I have to drink last night? I stumble over to the door and open it. Tread stands on the other side, a big shit-eating grin on his face.
“Sorry to wake you, Shining, but the Colonel wants to debrief you now. She wanted to do it once we got back, but you went out partying instead. See you at the briefing room in ten.” He trots off.
“What did that bzatting idiot want?” Chryssid asks. He sounds as wasted as I feel.
“The Colonel wants to debrief me. You can go back to sleep.”
“Okay.” Then, he sits up. “Shining, do you remember anything about last night?”
“Nah, can’t say I do, but apparently we got wasted. Don’t worry about it, man. It happens.”
I trot off towards the briefing room. This is gonna be a good day.