The pony's sniper

by Raizuo

A sort of beginning

Page 1

I woke up to the annoying sound of my alarm clock going off, and in a daze I hit the button to make it shut up. I thought briefly about going back to sleep, but I remembered that I had to be up when Celestia's sun is rising to be ready to respond to anything throughout the day.

I only just recently came back from a previous mission to take out a target, and I came back to my "home" when Luna's moon was on it's decent. I ended up dreaming about the mission itself so I had little chance to get decent sleep. I was up now, and there is no way in hell I'd be able to go back to sleep again.

I rolled out of the bed and landed on my hooves and stretched. Moving the curtains out of the way to let Celestia's sun in. However much to my dismay Celestia had her sun be rather bright, and I had to shield my eyes for a moment before they readjusted to the light. I turned around to start to head to the kitchen when I saw my reliable rifle with scope with wooden framing and stock sitting on the floor. I sighed as I picked it up and slinging it back around my back. The rifle itself is a favorite of mine, reliable scope with magnification of 100m × 8 to 100m × 40 and a smooth fast bolt action lever pull. Some ponies may question my choice of weapon, but it's a weapon made for long combat.

The other sort of weapon I remembered to pick up was my closer ranged weapon, a pistol. It was a simple metal color and had none of those fancy golden details that some ponies happen to love putting on them, but it's saved my hide more times in the past than should be healthy for any normal pony. Then again, I was not really a normal pony anyways after taking up my current job.

After making sure my equipment was secured in place I started making my way to the kitchen before I paused to look at a mirror I had on the closet. I saw my own reflection of a dusty brown fur and my dark brown eyes. I noted the bags below my eyes for only a moment before I moved on into the kitchen where I pressed a button on the coffee maker to make a brew so beloved of those who work late night shifts and went to sit on an old two-seater couch and picked up a newspaper that I brought in the night before.

Most of the headlines on it were just meaningless chatter and idle speculations or gossip. I had to chuckle slightly about some of the headlines, especially the ones talking about the newest princess. She was a favored target of many newspapers to have multiple gossiping about her, and I doubt she would ever have it stop anytime soon.

The sound of beeping drew me away from the newspaper so I left it where it was upon one of my old coffee tables and headed back to the kitchen, grabbing a cup out of the cupboard as I went past it. I poured myself a cup and took a long drink. The bitter drink was quite helpful in waking the rest of the way up, and I started to head back to the couch when I was interrupted by knocking on the door. I let out a sigh and headed over to the door and opened it.

Standing in front of the door was one of the favorite messengers for Princess Celestia: a pony who's so similar to most of her guards that it's hard to tell them apart.

"I see you're awake, good," he stated.

"Unless you're here for small talk, give me the message," I responded simply. He pulled out a package and gave it to me, I gave him a nod in return and shut the door. I didn't need to see him leave since most likely he has other important things to do, like stand stoically in front of the throne room of Celestia and glare daggers at any who try to approach.

Inside, I set the package on the table and started opening it while taking a sip of my coffee. The paper around it fell away easily enough, and it revealed a familiar brown box. I knew what this meant, another mission is ready for me. I opened the box up and pulled out a paper written in it's clean cursive writing, obviously from the sun princess herself.

"Dear Sharp Scope,
I am pleased about the success of your mission, however you must ready yourself for another mission.
Rumors have been spreading about the safety of Twilight Sparkle, and I wish you to investigate them, for a week I need you to watch my student to ensure her safety, She and her friends must also not know of your mission unless in the most extreme circumstance.
I wish you the best of luck.

Celestia."

I sighed to myself, a mission to guard the newest princess? She must really be concerned about something, or perhaps a threat of reprisal from my previous mission has been brought to her attention. I knew Celestia and Luna could take care of themselves, and Cadance is a ruler of another country entirely. That only left the student of Celestia in the town of Ponyvile. The mission sounded simple enough, but no doubt that Celestia wants me to make friends with the townsfolk. I didn't need friends much, and the less ponies who knew about my work the better. But denying the mission given is treason to the crown, and would get me hunted down by my fellow angels, and would possibly endanger the new princess. I had my doubts about things, but I decided that the mission is most likely needed.

I turned to look at the old fashioned clock on the wall. 8:30, and the train would leave for Ponyvile from the station at 8:50, so I had to leave now if I wanted to catch the train. I chugged the rest of my coffee and set it in the sink before putting the box and paper into the fire. I needed to make sure I left no trace of the message in case anyone decides to search through my house. I then opened the door and walked out into what some may call a beautiful day.

I'd call it more of a day of blood, if there were actual threats. Especially theirs when they find out that one of the guardian angels has come into the town.