POV: Narrator
It was nighttime. A wonderful and starry night. A beautiful night. A night to remember. A night Luna put a lot of effort to. A night t-
Oh, excuse my ramblings. I probably should get to the point now, ain’t that right? To put it short, it was simply a breathtaking night.
Of course it all depended on your point of view. If you were in a dark and stinky alley of Maretropolis you might have viewed the night differently. But our story doesn’t begin in a dark and stinky alley, no, it begins in a clean and well lighted alley. Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?
Just kidding. Truth be told it all started on the most cliché spot for criminal activities: the docks, by the warehouses. In this special night a certain Unicorn was waiting for something special to happen.
A Unicorn? Some might ask. Others might even already have ideas which brave and intrepid Unicorn would be standing in the barely lit docks in front of the warehouse 13 at this late hour. Oh, and that’s probably not the best number if you wish for good luck on a mission, but oh well…
Anyway if you already started guessing on which Unicorn was standing at the docks, then I have to disappoint you, because this particular Unicorn is not a mare. It is a stallion, and by far no brave hero at that. He has a green coat and a mane of a darker shade. His eyes had a nice golden color to it. He wore a black tophat, along with a black eyepatch and a black suit. A fake mustache adorned his face and he looked around himself nervously, even though some might have used the word suspiciously for it. But let’s be honest, if you see a dark figure with an eyepatch and a mustache late at night looking around, you wouldn’t think that he was a righteous citizen.
Kind of discriminating for all of us mustache wearers, but meh, people will come around to the awesomeness of mustaches one day!
But let us not stray from the main event here and get back to our suspiciously awesome male Unicorn tophat wearer.
„Oh, this is bad. This is going south. I just know it!” he told to himself, slowly panicking, as his business partner was running late. He already started pacing from left to right and from right to left, hoping it might help calm his nerves a bit.
It didn’t help.
His head suddenly snapped in the other direction and he started to talk in a brasher voice. “Don’t cry here you whim! Everything is going to be fine. Just hold on to the plan!” he chastised himself.
The head snapped back into the other direction, as did his voice, as it turned back to its natural soft tone. “Oh, you mean the plan, where I fake an arms trade with one of the most dangerous villains known to Maretropolis, the Mane-iac? Sure! NOTHING can go wrong!” he snapped back sarcastically.
At this his counterpart facehooved. Well, mentally at least. “You have a tracking device with you, so that the Power Ponies always know exactly where you are!” However, this didn’t help ease his worries.
“But I have seen so many movies, there it just goes wrong! I’m just a supporting actor! One of those actors that dies just to show how serious the situation is! I’m disposable!” he whined. “I still wanted to do so much in my life!” he continued, but was then cut off from further panicking by a tomboyish voice coming from a small device in his ear.
“Geeze, G. Pull your shit together!” admonished the voice of Zapp.
Radiance meanwhile seemed to be scandalized by the way she formulated her soothing. “Darling. There is no need for such a brute language!” heard the now dubbed G through the small speaker in his ear.
“He is talking to himself! Somepony has to snap him out of it!” came Zapps fast reply.
And G came to realize that he was catched completely off guard in his arguing. The thought that nopony was nearby seemed to have loosened his tongue a little too much for his convenience. He normally discussed things like this in his mind and didn’t speak them out loud, out of fear to get looked at funny. Reason enough to be thoroughly embarrassed by it. Embarrassed enough that his blood came bumping up to his face and forced him to blush a deep shade of red through his green fur.
“No need to blush, Steamie! You are going to be a-ok!” Fili-Second chimed in, just as happy and chipper as always.
The now dubbed Steamie furrowed his brow for a short moment in confusion, wondering just how she knew of his blush. He quickly filed it away under: “Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.” He worked for them for quite a while now, and came to that conclusion about Pinkie a long time ago. And yeah, he worked for them for almost two years now, but that were simple equipment questions, since he was an engineer. He never himself was on the front. Not to mention that he was a vital part of the plan they had schemed to bring the Mane-iac to justice!
“Not to mention with the neat costume Rarity and I pulled together for you!” continued the hyperactive pink pony.
Steamie just looked unsure from side to side, making sure that he was alone still, before answering. “Were the eyepatch and the mustache really necessary?” he asked completely precarious about this whole idea.
“Of course they are! The bad guys in the movies always wear them! The same goes for the mustache too!”
Radiance grimaced at that. “It truly looks dreadful, so it might just be the thing you need. But look on the bright side, dear, your suit looks absolutely stunning!”
Steamie sighed to himself and was just glad that he talked Fili-Second out of painting him a scar in the middle of his face. He was glad that he had Radiance for a backup back then. He wasn’t the most assertive of guys. At least his normal persona, and not the brash one, but since he reigns his brash side in, he is pretty much a doormat, much to Zapp’s exasperation.
In the meantime said Zapp sighed exaggeratedly, seemingly annoyed where the conversation was going. “Just listen, G. Think about your payment. You won’t get any better material for your project anywhere, under guaranty!” The last line was said with a lot of confidence behind it. You probably could also call it bragging, but that was to be expected from her, since she didn’t really hide her face with her costume and enjoyed the attention she was getting through being a hero. Pinkie on the other hand didn’t hide her face for different reasons. She loved to make all beings smile, and it was easier to achieve that if you could just ran from a crying filly to a balloon stand and back in approximately one point four seconds without answering any questions afterwards.
Steamie breathed deep in and out, relaxing his increasing pulse. He now had a determined look on his face. “She is right! I’m going to pull this through for my payment!”
"I personally would have preferred bits," muttered his brash side, but it was quickly scolded for its boldness.
"Shush you. We are talking about top material goods here! Their aerodynamic and magic conducting abilities will bring our research and development to a status which we might need one to three whole years to achieve to!”
His other side deadpanned. “We are talking about f-“ but was cut off, before he could come any further.
“He really makes it sound like something important. Though I have to agree that there really is some grace to it,” Radiance slipped in.
Behind the chairs of their operation room, they could hear an annoyed groan. “Can we just concentrate on the mission, please?” Masked Matter-Horn lamented, as she entered the room with a cup of coffee in her purple aura.
“Took you long enough!” complained Zapp, as she turned to look their respective leader in her face.
Steamie already adjusted the volume of the voices to a lower level. He needed to focus on this situation he was in. He can’t get deterred through a discussion. He did it just in time too, because he then saw some sinister figures rounding the corner of warehouse 13.
He steeled his nerves, as he took one last calming breath. “Alright. I can do this!”
Masked Matterhorn just entered the base of operation. In front of the console with the screen were seated Saddle Rager, Radiance, Mistress Mare-velous, and Hum Drum. Filli-Second and Zapp were meanwhile out and about in the town. They were the Quick Response Force for this mission, and were also there at the other side of town to not draw the Mane-iac’s suspicion towards Steamie. It would seem strange, if the Power Ponies would lay low after all.
If you are wondering how they could even have a conversation with Steamie or the over members of their team, then the answer is relatively simple: technology. They had the same speakers like Steamie too and they were all linked, so that they could react immediately. And since Filli-Second and Zapp were the fastest out of the Power Ponies it was their job to act if anything goes wrong.
The others meanwhile were sitting comfortably at the screen, watching through the camera of their two comrades what they were up too, which was essentially fighting crime, while Pinkie ate a cupcake or two while taking down a mugger or two. Steamie of course didn’t have a camera on him, because of the danger of it being spotted. Steamie was working on a camera which could be used as a contact lens, but he still had a way to go with this technology.
Masked Matterhorn didn’t really care about that right now though. She was fully concentrating on the mission and as a result had to groan at her friends antics. “Can we just concentrate on the mission, please?”
“Took you long enough!” complained Zapp through the speakers.
“I had to make an equipment check, Zapp. Everything has to work, if we want to succeed. I mean just imagine, what if the newly mutant oppression net doesn’t work! This could lead to a lot of complications!”
Zapp blew her a raspberry. “Whatever! And we are concentrating! So no need to be that way, Twi.”
“Don’t call me by my name while in disguise, Zapp! We need to hide our identities!”
“You are in our base. I doubt you have to hide it there. And besides, I’m on an empty roof right now.”
“Um, girls?” came the quiet voice of Saddle Rager, but it was completely ignored.
“But if it becomes a habit, when it could slip you in public, and I can’t take the risk. Not to mention you could still be overheard on the roof! There is a reason for this secrecy! Think about what might happen to Mistress Marvelous family, if her identity was revealed!”
“Girls?” Saddle Rager tried yet again, but with the same result.
“You really need to get laid, Twi,” said Zapp in an annoyed tone, but she couldn’t help the grin that was forming on her face as the Unicorn suddenly stuttered, a huge blush adorning her lavender cheeks.
It took Masked Matterhorn a moment to compose herself, she took a calming breath and was about to response as…
“GIRLS!”
All eyes stared at her. She let out an ‘eep’ sound before hiding behind her mane. Her response was quite quiet, but it still managed to grab everyone’s attention.
“Um, it already started.”