My Little Anti-Hero

by T_Rex

Chapter 1: Meet the (Dysfunctional) Family.

“I can see the charred remains of my house from here!”

The yellow earth pony guard stood at her post, smoking a cigarette, sniper rifle strung around her neck. She looked down and sighed, pushing her green mane out of her eyes, the lack of activity making her question the orders she had received.
Why would they send me to guard an inactive piece of junk? she thought, leisurely looking down at the ground. Sure, it’s shiny and looks pretty, but who would even be able to climb the 30 foot tower to get to it? Even we had to be airlifted up here! And it has to weigh, like, 300 pounds!
Quick Scope paused and looked down, noticing a blue blur moving about two hundred feet to the right of the tower. A car sped towards the tower, its windshield tinted, the driver showing no intention of stopping. She dropped her cigarette and turned to the 2 guards standing slightly behind her, who by now were also monitoring the car. “Is this idiot really going to ram the tower?!” She exclaimed to her compatriots, gesturing with a hoof.
“Damn, Scope, I think they are.” Her friend and fellow guard, Check Point, said. “Too bad that’s solid concrete. I vote that Metal gets to scrape them off of the side.”
Full Metal, the third guard on the tower, let out a small smile that quickly turned to a look of concern as the car, now only 75 feet away, showed no signs of decelerating. “Yeah, well, either way, this isn’t going to end well.” The look of concern on the grey unicorn’s face turned into a look of worry, and Metal started fidgeting. “What the hell are they trying to do?”
“Act as a distraction?” A voice behind the 3 guard ponies politely suggested.
Metal reacted first, assault rifle magically swinging towards the intruder. With slight confusion as the infiltrator didn’t move, he pulled the trigger. Full Metal’s eyed widened as the gun emitted a soft *click*. He raised the assault rifle vertically and inspected the empty magazine well.
“Well, fuck.” Metal said, seconds before being bucked hard enough to fly backwards 10 feet away from the edge of the tower and begin plummeting to the ground. Point and Scope spun around and began unloading their sniper rifles into the infiltrator.
The trespasser appeared to be an earth pony contained inside a suit of power armor. As the earth pony just sat there, Scope stepped back and pulled out a pistol as Point took to the air, loading armor piercing rounds into his rifle. The power-armored intruder paused before looking at the handgun for a second and swatting it out of Scope’s mouth, pushing her to the floor. He looked up at Check Point trying futilely to pierce his armor before jumping ten feet into the air and knocking the pegasus unconscious. The intruder pushed Point away from him at the crest of the jump and watched as he fell towards the ground.
He turned to Quick Scope, the only survivor of the squad. She was lying there, staring shocked as the pony that had just killed her friends walked calmly up to her.
The super-pony looked at Scope as if she was a disobedient foal. With what sounded like a laugh, he leapt from the tower and back down to the ground, and rushed off towards the building opposite the street.
Scope looked on in disbelief. This... thing had just scaled a 30 foot tower and killed her friends before galloping off faster than equinely possible.
Then she noticed the small metal sphere lying a few feet away from her.

The resulting explosion rained debris onto the street below and blew pieces off of the tower. A few seconds later, a hoof appeared over the edge of the tower and a large pony in power armor pulled itself up. He stepped onto one of the undamaged metal pressure plates set into the ground and waited patiently.
After a few seconds, the strange device residing on the tower sprang to life with a hum. A lance of blue light pierced the sky above the city and continued off over the ocean.
The armored pony leapt off the roof and landed on the ground 30 feet below.
"Good job, Agent!" A voice crackled in his ear. "That's the first unit in this chain. Head to the next beacon on your tracker, then complete this set to ready a beacon.” The Agent barely acknowledged this order, already leaping onto the next overhang and reaching a nearby rooftop. With a quick nod to the nearby Royal Guard who had acted as his distraction, he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, never breaking stride. He began alertly scanning the nearby rooftops and the ground for any more hostile forces.
A few red dots on his radar seized the Agent’s attention. He slid to a halt and lay down behind a short concrete railing on the edge of the roof, already pulling his sniper rifle from his shoulder and began searching for the source of the disturbance.
In the doorway of a short green building, a squad of four soldiers was combing the area for any suspicious activity.
“Take note, Agent.” A hushed voice spoke into his ear. “Those are soldiers of the Lunar Republic. More accurately, that is a lethal hit squad comprised of mercenaries working for the Lunar Republic. All of the enemies you have fought so far belong to that same group, who aim to take down the Solar Empire.” The Director’s voice was seething with barely controlled rage. “They are nothing more than terrorists and criminals. They exist only to kill our soldiers and capture our technology. After we complete the project, we can teach them the consequences of their actions.”
The Agent slowly raised his rifle off of his back and allowed his armor’s auto aim spell to levitate and aim the rifle. With pinpoint precision the cross-hair placed itself over the first pony’s head. The Agent waited patiently for the aiming spell to steady, and observed him carefully, making sure the soldier wouldn’t move. With no hesitation he pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet bounced off of the pony’s head.
Fuck. Reinforced helmets. No armor piercing rounds left, either. The Agent pulled the trigger twice more, sending one bullet pinging into a nearby wall and the other near the dent made by the first shot. The bullet pierced through the damaged metal and tore through skull and brain, destroying his cranium, sending blood and grey matter onto his comrades. As his body fell, the remaining members of the hit squad turned and began scanning the rooftops for the rifle's barrel or some other indicator to their enemy’s position.
The Agent aimed for the next in the group, who was now rushing towards a nearby piece of rubble to use as cover. Another bullet lunged off of the wall, and the enemy soldier turned towards the roof he was on.
And suddenly, a piece of rubble floated up next to the enemy unicorn. What a strange thing to do... The Agent thought.
“Agent, get down!” The Director’s voice resonated inside the helmet. What at first had appeared to be rubble turned out to be a much more serious threat. The rocket launcher let out 3 missiles, all headed towards his location on the rooftop.
Now, rocket launchers have a few major flaws. One is: unless the target is static, the projectiles will most likely miss at long range unless guided or remotely controlled. Any moving targets can easily evade and retaliate quickly.
The Agent leapt from the roof, his armor’s shields dropping considerably as the projectiles detonated upon impact with the roof. Screw the objective! The Agent though, letting his anger override his orders.
The Agent sprang up, grabbed onto the edge of the railing on the roof and launched himself over the building. He tapped into his suit’s aiming spell and levitation talisman and tossed a grenade towards the remnants of the hit squad, landing it behind their cover. The Agent leapt, landing behind the hit squad as the flash-bang detonated, blinding and deafening the remaining hostiles. A quick sniper shot to the uncovered muzzle took out one of the enemies, and another three shots to the helmet took out another. The remaining adversary, the unicorn colt with the rocket launcher, levitated the heavy weapon with obvious difficulty. He swung it around, his face showing strain from the mixture of the flash-bang he was only just beginning to recover from and the weight of the gun. The 10 pound rocket launcher, the two rockets in the launcher adding about 10 more pounds to that, and the rockets actually being carried by the unicorn adding about 40 more pounds made it easy for the Agent to dodge out of the way and fire off a few shots at the hooves of the lone hostile. This wasn’t a fight anymore; it was a game of cat and mouse. After three or four minutes, the Agent decided that was enough toying around. He dove towards the remnant of the hit squad and placed the rifle against the scared unicorn’s temple.
“I...I surrender?” The stallion said uncertainly, a look of pure fear on his face.
They stood like that for a few seconds. The unicorn stared into the Agent’s eyes, concealed behind the visor of his helmet, as the Agent stared into the enemy’s wide eyes. The unicorn started to relax slightly, believing that nothing could be as cruel as to shoot an enemy that had already surrendered.
The crack of a gunshot broke the silence in the epilogue of the battle.

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“That was a truly unacceptable performance, Agent!” The Director yelled into the radio integrated into the Agent’s helmet. “I said we could teach them a lesson AFTER the mission! You wasted ammunition, and more importantly, valuable time on a petty quest for revenge!” The Director paused for a moment, safely seated inside the Solar Empire’s tower base, contemplating his options. “Alright. Because of your negligence, the citizens get to live in fear of a terrorist group AND mutants for another day.” The Director audibly sighed. “Get your flank to the next unit. You might be able to atone for your folly if you at least complete the set of units and detonate the beacon before midnight. That should kill off most freaks in the immediate vicinity and minimize civilian casualties.” The Director paused. “WELL? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Get your genetically enhanced flank out there and detonate that beacon!”
The Agent slowly rose to his hooves and leapt onto the next building, thinking. Alright, maybe he had gone a little bit too far that time, but that was no reason to throw in the towel now. As the Agent's body almost automatically guided him towards the next unit, his mind guided him into the past...

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"Welcome to the city of Canterlot, Agent. You are the only current agent clone to make it through diagnostics successfully. Come on into the briefing room, and we'll tell you all that you'll need to know," The unfamiliar voice of the Director called out over the Agent's radio. The Agent hesitantly made his way into the small circular room with a projector in the middle, pointed at a wall. The lights dimmed and a slide-show began to play. The first slide was an image of Canterlot in all its glory.
"This, Agent, is how the city looked ten years ago." Another slide replaced the first. This one was an image of the current city, littered with rubble and burning buildings. "This is the direction the city is currently heading in. Already we have reports of broken or burning buildings and houses, the result of attacks by a terrorist organization and mutated ponies. You'll learn about the organization later; now, we talk about the mutants. These mutated ponies, known as the Freaks, are unable to think or feel emotion. They are sentient in only an extremely simplistic way."
The slide changed. A picture of one of the "Freaks" was displayed, standing over a dead citizen. It looked, well, basically like a zombie - deformed, coatless, mindless. "These are the Freaks, created by a virus to which there is no cure. We've attempted to contain them, but that's easier said than done.
"Our scientists are years away from a cure. We don't even have months before all of Canterlot is overwhelmed. We have but one advantage over the freaks.
"The Freaks cannot tolerate sunlight. At sunrise, they retreat into underground lairs. We have technology that can basically deliver pure sunlight into the lairs, eradicating the Freaks permanently.
“Problem is, we've lost the units needed to absorb the sunlight. Since Celestia disappeared shortly after the Empire was originally formed, we have no way to simply force them to remain underground until appropriate measures can be taken.
“But we are the Empire. We need no help. The combined forces of Agents and Guards will prevail. The terrorist group that I was telling you about before has somehow managed to capture instruments vital to the project, codenamed “Project Solar Flare” So get out there, take them back, and crush all those who oppose our peace tactics!”

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With a start, the Agent emerged from the memory and looked around. He was standing on the border of the street and a humongous park holding the next unit. The park contained a building (that most likely was a souvenir shop) on which the unit was perched. Three guards littered the immediate area, assault carbines and shotguns slung over their shoulders in the case of unicorns or in some kind of saddle in pegasi and earth pony soldiers.
There were maybe 15 guards in all, all armed to the teeth, some on the rooftops with heavy weapons. The word that somepony had scaled a 30 foot tall tower and took out 3 armed guards had spread like wildfire, sparking terror and resolve in every Republic soldier, veteran and recruit alike. They were on high alert, shooting to kill anything that wasn't an ally or a civilian.
A head on assault won’t work... The Agent thought, attempting to formulate a strategy. By sniping, I could take out 4 or 5 before they caught on... Rockets would show them exactly where I was...
Suddenly, a plan fell into place in the Agent's mind. They were shooting anything that looked like an agent!
“Director!” The Agent exclaimed into his two-way helmet radio. “How quickly can a plainclothes Guard squad with satchel charges get to my position?”

Ten minutes later, 2 out of uniform Guards arrived at the Agent’s location. The hostiles would recognize an agent, but would they realize that those “civilians” were planting C4 at strategic locations?
The Agent silently watched on, his black armor concealed by the dense foliage of the bushes and tall grasses at the edge of a small copse. He fiddled with the invisibility talisman delivered to him by his collaborators in the sabotage. Short bursts of invisibility would be helpful, if he could actually install it into his armor.
I’ll get the eggheads in the labs back at the tower to install it, He thought as he turned the talisman over. It was about half of the size of a grenade, rectangular, and didn’t appear to fit into any of the equipment slots his armor contained.
A green light on his HUD brought the Agent’s attention back to the current situation. The light meant that the charges were set to detonate and the detonation codes were locked into his helmet. The two undercover Guards had returned to their car and were watching the grove, waiting to see the light show.
With an unnoticeable smirk behind his visor, the Agent jumped from his hiding spot in the woods and into the hostiles lines of sight. He hit the ground with a noticeable thud, and turned towards the guards. Satisfied that he had their attention, he turned tail and began to run from the clearing.
All of the hostile ground forces rushed forwards at once, all attempting to reach the Agent and claim the kill for themselves. In their frenzy, none of them noticed the small plastic explosives hidden in the bushes and on the trees surrounding the narrow path that led straight to the Agent. He turned and faced them, stray bullets ricocheting off of his armor. "Boom," The Agent calmly said, as fire and shrapnel engulfed most of the enemy forces. The remaining hostiles in the back were quickly taken out by heavy fire from the Guards, still in their car.
Now all that remained were the snipers and rocket launcher troops on the roof. The Agent turned to run towards cover, not noticing the rocket speeding towards him. With a bright explosion, the rocket launched the Agent backwards, shield flaring before failing. The Agent landed near a large fountain, armor punctured in multiple places, his shields refusing to recharge. The Agent struggled to get up, disoriented and his ears still ringing from the impact. As he regained his bearings and dove towards a fountain, two flashes from the snipers on the roof sent one bullet thudding into the ground and another directly into his side.
The Agent hit the ground hard, rolling over to inspect the damage. The bullet had hit directly in front of and slightly above his cutie mark, probably not hitting anything vital, but burning like hell. He grunted and got to his hooves, making sure the fountain covered him completely. As he turned back around, he noticed the Guards’ car doors were ajar.
Now, sneaking across a battlefield in armor is a bad idea. Sneaking around a battlefield not wearing armor was an even worse idea. The two Peacekeepers, a unicorn and a pegasus, slowly made their way to the souvenir shop. The unicorn levitated an assault carbine alongside him, while the pegasus held a pistol in his teeth, the gun elongated by a removable suppressor.
The guards on the roof took another shot at the Agent’s cover, causing him to reluctantly duck. If I can keep their attention, this could actually work... The Agent leapt to his hooves, the hostiles already tracking him with rockets and armor piercing rounds. He ran towards the forest, grabbing a marksman rifle from a fallen enemy. With the cover the trees provided, he put two bullets into the first rocket guard, leaving the one with a rocket and two with sniper rifles remaining.
The Peacekeepers were at the side of the building, the pegasus slowly lifting his unicorn comrade up to the roof. The hostiles were all focused on the Agent, but if they turned around...
The Agent realized what was about to happen with seconds left. One of the guards was facing the side of the roof that the Peacekeepers were slowly ascending, and the other two were scanning the trees, rocket launcher and sniper rifle ready.
The only way to get his attention is with something big... The Agent reluctantly realized. He stepped away from the treeline and shot several rounds into the air.
The rocket launcher soldier turned, the launcher itself locked into some kind of saddle resting on his back. He turned to the agent and stared at him, eyes filled with hate. With a look of pure contempt, 2 rockets zipped from the saddle and tore for the Agent, exhaust trailing behind them.
All of the guards turned and looked towards the Agent. Well, fuck, The Agent thought, seconds before the rockets impacted.