Chapter 11
It was turning into a heck of a day. Cheerilee had been caught in an explosion for the second time in a week, fought on top a moving carriage, and helped capture one of the most popular entertainers in Equestria. It was barely noon.
Cheerilee sat outside a building on the outskirts of Trottingham. Her sunglasses had been lost somewhere in the chaos of the last few hours, so she made sure to keep to the shadows. The nearly-overhead sun didn’t make that easy.
The building was a safehouse used by the Royal Guard for special circumstances, for instance the covert interrogation of a pop star. The walls were well insulated, and Cheerilee’s sensitive ears could only pick out snatches of conversation from inside.
A member of the Royal Guard sat with her. He was dressed down to keep from drawing suspicion. His name was Rapier, and he talked incessantly.
“That was Sapphire Shores, wasn’t it?” It sounded like he knew, but was trying to get Cheerilee into a conversation.
“Yes,” she said. Cheerilee was too polite to simply ignore him, but felt that she didn’t need to contribute any more than the minimum to the dialog.
“I wonder what she’s doing here? Captain Shining Armor is the only one cleared for it. He’s in there talking to her now.”
Cheerilee shrugged.
Rapier pressed on. “Hey, speaking of clearance, yours is probably pretty high, right?”
“It is,” Cheerilee told him.
“I mean, I know more stuff than the regular army.” The guard sat back, amazement in his voice. “But that just takes the cake. I’ve heard stories that there are things out there that are above even the Royal Guard’s clearance. ‘Dark’ operations, as they say.”
“That’s me,” said Cheerilee, not looking at him.
“So, how does a pony get into the business?” Rapier sounded interested, perhaps he thought she could give him tips on how to get a new, more interesting job.
“First, your life is taken away. You aren’t your own pony anymore. After that, you begin to lose your morals. It’s hard to tell right from wrong. Then, apathy sets in. You don’t care what you do, or who you hurt.” Cheerilee’s voice was at a monotone. She looked off into the distance, as if plucking the words from the horizon.
The guard shifted uncomfortably. He was just about to ask another question when the door opened and another stallion stepped out.
The newcomer looked at Cheerilee. “Ma’am? I’ve been instructed to take over for you. The Captain says you can go get some lunch or something.”
Cheerilee sprang up. “Thanks.” She hurried away.
Everything she’d said to the guard was true. She could feel her sense morality slipping away, and wasn’t sure she cared. What was the point if the process was inevitable?
That guard had no idea what her job was really like. She had probably spilled more blood in the past week than he ever would in his life. ‘Dark’ operations indeed. Dark as night.
Cheerilee visited the local eyecare shop and spent a few bits on new sunglasses. After that, she wandered around town for a while. She was aware that any prying eyes would quickly pick her out of the crowd, but for the moment, she didn’t care.
Four ponies. That’s how many she had personally ensured the death of. So far. While murder verses self defense was debatable, that was still four more deaths that Cheerilee thought herself capable of.
It’s not me, she decided. I wouldn’t do that. But I’m somepony—no, something—else now.
With that realization, Cheerilee had a fleeting thought about finding a carriage or train to throw herself under. Instead, she looked around and saw a group of young schoolfoals playing and enjoying the weekend. She stopped in her tracks, staring.
Cheerilee had known for a long time that children were her calling. Her cutie mark represented the happiness she could bring to them as her teaching helped their young minds bloom. Regardless of what else happened in her life, she couldn’t give that up.
The foals would never know about her second job. They didn’t realize what she did for Equestria. They didn’t have to. As long as she was making a difference in the nation, and by extension the lives of her students, Cheerilee decided that was good enough for her. She may have become a monster, but that didn’t have to be all she was.
As morbidly strange as it sounded, “killing bad ponies for the sake of the children” was the most comforting thought she’d had all week.
A few minutes later, Cheerilee stopped in front of a hat shop. She pretended to examine the wares through the large window. In the reflection of the glass, however, she was examining three ponies who she’d noticed following her. They were not difficult to pick out from the crowd. All three wore cloaks that looked a little bit warm for the weather. It was almost as if they wanted her to notice them.
Well, she might as well see what they wanted. Cheerilee moved away from the shop and ducked down an alley. Behind the building, she scrambled up a loose pile of crates and found her way onto the roof. Crouching low, she saw the three ponies enter the alley.
They were unicorns. Two stallions and a mare. They all looked similar enough that Cheerilee was willing to bet they were related. They seemed a little surprised that she wasn’t in the alley any longer.
Cheerilee heard a faint sound, like a flutter. Acting on instinct more than anything else, she threw herself sideways, a wooden stake stabbing shallowly into her side. It would have gone straight through her heart had she remained still.
A pegasus with an ugly look on his face shouted in frustration that his sneak attack had missed. He pulled another stake from a loop on the vest he wore and tried again. Cheerilee tossed herself off the roof to avoid the strike.
She hit the ground hard and struggled to get up, finding that the three unicorns had all drawn knives from beneath their cloaks. The blades were all identical, finely made and deadly-looking. Cheerilee suddenly realized why they had been so obvious in following her. She’d been set up.
The pegasus came down off the roof, aiming his weapon for another attack. He flew faster than an earth pony could run, pushing his stake forward.
Cheerilee threw up her front leg, the pointed wood driving straight through it, although stopping before reaching her heart. She screamed in pain, but that didn’t stop her from twisting her leg away, stake and all. Now weaponless, the pegasus flared his wings in an attempt to retreat, but Cheerilee wrapped her other front leg around his neck, drawing him in.
She slapped at his back with the stake buried in her leg, inflicting small wounds. The stallion desperately beat on her ribcage with his hooves, trying to escape. The pony’s wing joint presented itself, so Cheerilee dug her teeth in. Something crunched in her mouth, and the pegasus cried out in agony.
Cheerilee let him go and the pony dropped onto his back, his mutilated wing flopping helplessly. She pulled the stake from her leg, wincing in pain. Then, she gave the weapon back to him, driving it into his chest where it remained sticking up like a fence post.
Limping slightly on her injured leg, Cheerilee turned to face the other three ponies. Their knives hovered menacingly. Using her teeth, the bloodstained mare pulled the other stake from her side. She dropped it in front of her.
“Well?” asked Cheerilee. “Which one of you wants to die first?”
Several intense seconds passed. For the second time that day, a siren cut through the air. The three ponies quickly sheathed their knives and turned tail to run. As close to the mouth of the alley as they were, there was no way Cheerilee could catch them before they made it to the street. She seized the stake from the ground and hurled it as hard as she could. To her surprise, it stuck in one of the stallions and he tumbled to the ground. The other two disappeared around the corner.
The teacher went over to the stricken pony as quickly as her damaged leg would allow. The stake had lodged in the stallion's upper back. He was gasping for breath. Cheerilee put one hoof on his neck and grasped his head. A quick twist efficiently broke the pony's neck and stopped his struggles. She dragged him backwards towards the other end of the alley.
Cheerilee paused for a moment, turning her head to look at the wound in her side. As she watched, the bone and muscle began to knit itself back together. She caught a fleeting look at her guts and wished she hadn’t.
There was a dumpster nearby, and she heaved the two dead ponies into it. Shining Armor would have to call another cleanup crew. Cheerilee almost felt bad for making such messes. The keyword was almost.
For the children, she reminded herself.
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Oh, THERE it is!
Aaaaaand you`re featured again
I received two notices that The Night Shift had updated.
The first time I was all like
The second time I was so totally
Like, for serious! I wonder how it is I've stopped caring how many ponies Cheerilee has killed too? Hum, yeh. Apathy, yup. Always gets you in time.
I've gotta say, from reading some of your earlier stuff like Battleships are magic, you've really improved during your writing career.
680914
It's really amazing what a little practice can do. I'm almost embarassed to read some of my old stuff.
For the children!
I'm going to get the story updates for this from the featured bar from now on - no point bothering with that 'favourites' nonsense.
680884 and 681127
That's because the feature system for the last 2 spots has reverted to the OLD system. Personally I like it, but according to Knighty a new system is in the works... I'll believe it when I see it.
I wish I had your talents.
681180
Basically, this story gets featured every time I add a new chapter. *shrug* I usually don't mind, but now a story has to make it into the top 3 to get featured "for real." Bruce Lee in Equestria made it to #5, which under the other system would have been a feature, but under this system it wasn't.
Eh, got to take the good with the bad, I guess.
The discussion we had about this in the chat ended up with the idea to just... ADD MORE slots. just 2 or 3 more. (3 old 5 new sounds good doesn't it?)
Cherilee is getting the hang of this badass secret agent vampony business, but though she's a natural you can tell she still needs some more experience. Sure the sirens were going off but I'm sure Cherilee had the capability to secretly interrogate the unicorn she incapacitated. In situations like these any possible intel is worth the risk. Then again maybe Cherilee's recent experiences are having an effect on her mind so she can't think as strategically in her current state.
681180
Yeah, I get how it works - I'm just poking fun at TNaB for being a jammy sod.
Bad move there.
The smart thing would have been to take that pony alive to interrogate him then.
Then she could have found out who he was working with and what organization too.
682101
I think they only let you have one feature per 24 hours. I'm just about to upload a new chapter, so we'll test that.
Edit: The latest update failed to be featured. I'll test it again soon with a nice big chapter.
reminds me of a scene from a movie called "dead alive" Where a priest is killing zombies, and he says "i kick ass in the name of the lord"
Songs have verses, head-to-head debates go versus, and rap battles have versus verses.
That was a pretty badass chapter. As soon as Rapier started asking questions, I felt terrible because I already knew Cheerilee was going to mess his worldview up, somehow. Also, when she snapped that one unicorn's neck, I was just like, "That doesn't seem like Cheerilee at all. Aside from probably not knowing how, she hasn't morally degraded far enough for something like that." Then she said, "For the children." Then it hit me how far she was willing to go with that bit of justification.
That and she'd probably read a book on advanced necksnapping techniques. I hope your happy, I'm losing sleep reading this story.
Moral conflict. You're doing it right.
A quick twist efficiently broke the pony's neck and stopped his struggles.
...No attempt to capture an apparently incapacitated pony for interrogation?
682443 and 682015
You're both right I think. It's probably because she was really hungry after all that. I hope it doesn't come back to bite her in the flank though.
I also wonder if those were the good kind of vapony hunters and just didn't know that she isn't a villain.